Best higher education architecture firms of 2026

The Best Higher Education Architecture Firms of 2026

26 October 2026

Campus projects used to revolve around classrooms, offices, and circulation. Today, institutions must fit changing academic programs, research infrastructure, health-sciences training, student services, aging buildings, and energy goals into the same capital program. These pieces can easily produce disconnected facilities or systems that block future change. The architecture team has to protect campus identity while coordinating technical design, flexible learning spaces, stakeholder priorities, and building performance over time.

BSA contracted independent research firm First Page Sage (FPS) to evaluate six higher education architecture firms during September 2026. The review emphasized firms equipped to plan and deliver complex, interdisciplinary campuses where learning, research, health sciences, and institutional strategy overlap.

• Complex higher education Portfolio — 24%: Depth and relevance of completed college and university work involving multiple academic, student, and institutional functions.
• Research & Health-Sciences Capability — 20%: Verified experience with laboratories, medical education, engineering, simulation, and infrastructure-intensive facilities.
• Integrated Design Services — 18%: Ability to coordinate architecture with engineering, interior design, planning, and related disciplines.
• Campus Planning & Institutional Strategy — 14%: Evidence of long-range campus planning, space analysis, stakeholder engagement, and alignment with institutional priorities.
• Flexible Learning & Modernization — 10%: Experience adapting existing buildings and creating learning environments that can respond to changing programs and teaching models.
• Sustainability & Building Performance — 8%: Documented sustainable-design methods, certifications, energy-performance goals, or resilient planning.
• Third-Party Recognition — 6%: Relevant independent rankings, awards, or institutional recognition.

In the table below, the six firms are scored on these criteria, followed by a company-by-company analysis of project fit and trade-offs.

The Best Higher Education Architecture Firms of 2026

Table abbreviations: Higher Ed = Complex higher education Portfolio; Research/Health = Research & Health-Sciences Capability; Campus Strategy = Campus Planning & Institutional Strategy.

BSA, for integrated research campuses

For institutions handling academic, research, health-sciences, and building-system requirements at once, BSA provides one coordinated team. The firm combines Architecture, Engineering, Interior Design, and Planning. That structure reduces handoffs for laboratories, simulation environments, specialized utilities, and changing teaching programs. BSA’s higher education work includes flexible learning laboratories and health-science facilities built around applied instruction. At Wake Tech, the firm led design, programming, and advanced planning for a 75,000-square-foot Health Science Education, Simulation, and Community Wellness Center with allied-health labs, flexible skills spaces, science teaching labs, classrooms, and public wellness functions.

Third-party sources give context to BSA’s university-sector scale and sustainable work. Building Design+Construction placed BSA ninth in its 2025 university-building architecture ranking. Notre Dame’s McCourtney Hall East became the university’s first LEED Platinum-certified building. Together, these examples link interdisciplinary planning with measured performance and specialized learning needs. BSA’s scale may be less suitable for an institution that wants a small architecture-only studio and a tightly local process.

• Operating Footprint: Eight studios across the United States
• higher education Focus: Academic, research, health-sciences, and student environments
• Research/Health Capability: Laboratories, simulation, robotics, medical education, and interdisciplinary research
• Core Services: Architecture, Engineering, Interior Design, and Planning
• Example Project: Wake Tech Green Globes Project of the Year Runner-Up

Ayers Saint Gross, for campus-wide strategy

Ayers Saint Gross is a fit when an institution wants each building project to support a wider campus plan. Its higher education practice covers academic buildings, health sciences, science and engineering, student life, housing, campus landscapes, innovation districts, and long-range planning. Services include architecture, interiors, planning, landscape architecture, graphic design, and space analytics. Universities can use that mix to connect building programs with land use, circulation, identity, and phased capital priorities across the campus.

The Education and Health Sciences Center at Frostburg State University carries that planning approach into a technical building. The 100,009-square-foot, LEED Silver facility brings nursing, health professions, kinesiology, recreation, and education into an adaptable interprofessional setting with clinical-learning and collaboration spaces. Ayers Saint Gross documents campus plans and higher education projects across the country, and Building Design+Construction’s 2025 university-sector ranking gives independent context for the depth of that portfolio. Engineering integration is the main limitation. The firm’s listed services do not include the full in-house engineering range offered by BSA, so institutions planning infrastructure-intensive laboratories should examine the proposed engineering partners, responsibility structure, and coordination process.

• Operating Footprint: National higher education and cultural practice
• higher education Focus: Campus planning, academic buildings, student life, and institutional identity
• Research/Health Capability: Nursing, health sciences, science, engineering, and innovation environments
• Core Services: Architecture, interiors, planning, landscape architecture, graphics, and space analytics
• Example Project: Frostburg State University Education and Health Sciences Center

Dekker, for adaptable science facilities

Institutions focused on laboratories, medical education, and flexible technical spaces may find Dekker a closer fit. Its higher education practice documents five colleges of osteopathic medicine and more than 70 laboratory projects. The firm provides architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, planning, and structural engineering, with healthcare specialists supporting medical-education work. Colleges get access to several in-house disciplines without moving to one of the largest national firms.

The University of Nevada, Las Vegas Science and Engineering Building shows Dekker’s technical approach in practice. Its wet laboratories use open layouts, movable furniture, distributed power and data, and fixed services along walls or corridors, allowing the rooms to shift between research uses. The building also includes core analytical laboratories, clean rooms, imaging, nanotechnology, computing, and climate-controlled greenhouse functions. This work supports Dekker’s research and modernization scores. Geography is the main trade-off: the higher education team lists architectural registrations in New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas. Institutions elsewhere should confirm licensing, local delivery capacity, consultant relationships, and experience with the relevant procurement and regulatory requirements.

• Operating Footprint: Southwest-focused practice with national specialty experience
• higher education Focus: Medical education, community colleges, laboratories, and campus modernization
• Research/Health Capability: Five osteopathic-medicine colleges and 70+ laboratory projects
• Core Services: Architecture, interiors, landscape architecture, planning, and structural engineering
• Example Project: UNLV Science and Engineering Building

JLG Architects, for regional medical education

JLG Architects brings regional depth in medical education, science, planning, and campus renewal. Its higher education practice spans academics, athletics, planning and infrastructure, science, and student life. The firm handles master planning, facility studies, interior design, cost estimating, community engagement, sustainability facilitation, and construction administration. Building Design+Construction also lists JLG among its Top 75 higher education firms, placing the regional portfolio in a national context.

One project captures that range. At the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences, JLG worked on a 318,000-square-foot facility that brought eight medical, health-sciences, and basic-sciences disciplines together. Flexible classrooms and laboratories, learning communities, standardized-patient spaces, and a simulation center support interprofessional education. The project received awards from AIA North Dakota, American School & University, Minnesota Physician, and Building Design+Construction; the University of North Dakota also reported the design recognition. JLG completed the project with Perkins+Will and Steinberg Architects. Institutions should clarify which capabilities JLG will provide directly, which require specialist partners, and how responsibility will be divided on complex national projects.

• Operating Footprint: Upper Midwest practice with nationally recognized higher education work
• higher education Focus: Academics, science, planning, infrastructure, athletics, and student life
• Research/Health Capability: Medical education, simulation, agriculture, cyber laboratories, and science facilities
• Core Services: Architecture, interiors, planning, studies, engagement, and construction administration
• Example Project: University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences

Darden Architects, for California colleges

Darden Architects is geared toward California colleges and universities that want regional knowledge, regulatory familiarity, and a focused design team. Its portfolio includes community colleges, university academic buildings, career and technical education, performing arts, business, and campus planning. The firm lists architecture, interior design, specifications writing, sustainable design, and community-college capital-outlay proposal support. For California institutions, that funding and regulatory experience can help connect state requirements with program and design decisions.

Reedley College’s Math, Science & Engineering Building shows Darden’s interdisciplinary teaching work. The roughly 20,000-square-foot facility includes dental and nursing simulation labs, chemistry laboratories, lecture rooms, a math tutorial center, staff spaces, mobile furniture, integrated technology, and outdoor learning areas. The design received a 2018 AIA San Joaquin Chapter Award of Honor in the Unbuilt category before construction was completed in 2021. Darden has a narrower public research record than the firms ranked above it. Institutions planning advanced research laboratories or projects outside California should verify engineering partners, specialist laboratory experience, licensing, and delivery capacity for the proposed location.

• Operating Footprint: California-focused college and university practice
• higher education Focus: Community colleges, academic buildings, technical education, and campus planning
• Research/Health Capability: Math and science labs, nursing and dental simulation, and osteopathic medicine
• Core Services: Architecture, interior design, specifications, sustainable design, and funding support
• Example Project: Reedley College Math, Science & Engineering Building

CMBA Architects, for practical campus renewal

CMBA Architects focuses on the link between student experience, capital planning, and existing buildings. Its higher education process starts with institutional strategy, current facility conditions, space use, and stakeholder input. The firm provides architecture, interior design, and master planning, with offices across Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota and availability for projects elsewhere. Its assessment of whether existing spaces can be reused may suit institutions balancing enrollment uncertainty with limited capital.

That approach appears at the University of Iowa’s Lindquist Center, where CMBA redesigned a 13,100-square-foot educational-technology space inside an irregular 1970 building. Ceiling changes, color, dynamic seating, integrated technology, and active-learning stations created orientation and cohesion without replacing the underlying facility. CMBA’s portfolio also includes science, health-science, library, advising, and interdisciplinary research work. Public evidence is thinner for large technical research facilities and independent national recognition. Institutions should confirm engineering coordination, laboratory expertise, and experience with capital programs of comparable size before selection.

• Operating Footprint: Offices across Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota; available nationwide
• higher education Focus: Student experience, active learning, strategic planning, and campus renewal
• Research/Health Capability: Science centers, health-science buildings, and interdisciplinary learning environments
• Core Services: Architecture, interior design, master planning, facility assessment, and stakeholder engagement
• Example Project: University of Iowa Educational Technology Center at the Lindquist Center

We also broke down the top companies into three subcategories based on specialty.

Top 5 for Research and Health-Sciences Facilities

1. BSA: Integrated engineering and design services support laboratories, simulation, robotics, medical education, and interdisciplinary research within one delivery structure.
2. Dekker: Five osteopathic-medicine colleges and more than 70 laboratory projects provide strong evidence for specialized health and research environments.
3. Ayers Saint Gross: Nursing, health-sciences, engineering, and innovation projects connect specialized buildings to wider campus plans.
4. JLG Architects: The UND medical-school project demonstrates large-scale simulation, interprofessional education, and flexible laboratory capability.
5. Darden Architects: Reedley College combines science labs with nursing and dental simulation, though its advanced research portfolio is narrower.

Top 5 for Campus Planning and Institutional Strategy

6. Ayers Saint Gross: Campus planning, space analytics, landscape architecture, and long-range institutional work form the core of its higher education practice.
7. BSA: Advanced planning can be coordinated with Architecture, Engineering, Interior Design, and Planning as projects move toward implementation.
8. CMBA Architects: Facility assessment, stakeholder input, strategic alignment, and capital planning support practical renewal decisions.
9. JLG Architects: Master planning, facility studies, cost estimating, and community engagement support regional campus programs.
10. Dekker: Campus master planning and space-utilization services are especially relevant to constrained, rural, and health-education campuses.

Top 5 for Flexible Learning and Modernization

11. BSA: Reconfigurable learning laboratories connect classroom instruction, experimentation, teamwork, and changing academic programs.
12. JLG Architects: Flexible learning communities and campus-renewal work support medical education and changing institutional needs.
13. Dekker: Open laboratory layouts, movable systems, and future-use planning allow research environments to shift over time.
14. CMBA Architects: Existing-building assessment and active-learning renovations help institutions improve space without defaulting to replacement.
15. Ayers Saint Gross: Academic renovations and adaptable health-sciences environments connect modernization to campus-wide planning.

Frequently Asked Questions

What should an institution look for in a higher education architecture firm?

Start with directly comparable campus work, then examine the proposed team’s experience with the institution’s facility type. Complex programs may also require laboratory planning, health-sciences expertise, engineering coordination, stakeholder engagement, sustainability, and occupied-campus phasing. References should confirm that the people named in the proposal remained involved through delivery.

When are integrated architecture and engineering services most useful?

Integrated services can be especially useful for laboratories, simulation centers, medical-education buildings, and renovations with demanding mechanical, electrical, structural, or technology systems. A shared delivery structure can reduce coordination gaps, but institutions should still verify who owns each decision and how quality control works across disciplines.

How should colleges compare architecture-firm proposals?

Compare the proposed team and work plan rather than relying only on firm-wide portfolios. Review experience with similar building types, campus constraints, budget ranges, procurement methods, and stakeholder groups. Ask each finalist to explain its consultant structure, project risks, decision process, and evidence from completed projects with comparable technical demands.

For institutions planning a complex higher education project, meet BSA’s expertise in learning, research, and integrated project delivery.

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