SOM, an initialism of its original name Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, is a Chicago-based architectural, urban planning, and engineering firm.

62, the first net-zero-energy school in New York City;[8] and the design of the Moon Village, a concept for the first permanent lunar settlement, developed with the European Space Agency and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

This system has been adapted and is still used today for some of the world's most recent tallest buildings, including the 828-meter-tall Burj Khalifa, designed by SOM and completed in 2010.

In the 1960s and 1970s, SOM was an early leader in computer-aided design, developing in-house digital tools that preceded the CAD systems used widely today.

This work quickly proved valuable in the generation of structural analysis tools that were embraced by Fazlur Khan and his engineering team, aiding the design of projects such as the John Hancock Center.

Through the 1970s and 1980s, members of the relatively small, dedicated group pushed to integrate the computer's enhanced data-storing and analytical abilities into various phases of the design process.

Joan Miró, Alexander Calder, Isamu Noguchi, Harry Bertoia, Richard Lippold, Jean Dubuffet and Chryssa are among the artists whose work has been a part of SOM projects.

[14] In 1961, the firm completed One Chase Manhattan Plaza, which is now 28 Liberty Street, the first International Style building to rise in New York City's Financial District.

(source: Nathaniel Owings, "The American Aesthetic," Harper & Row, 1969) This ethos has shaped the firm's journey into sustainable practices.

In 2007, the firm completed a large-scale sustainable architecture project for the U.S. Census Bureau, the first federal office building to receive LEED certification.

SOM has been recognized for its research and experimentation with new energy-saving and carbon-reducing technologies, including a timber tower[21] and a modified concrete slab design.

The current partners and consulting partners are: Mustafa Abadan, William Baker, Thomas Behr, Keith Boswell, Carrie Byles, Larry Chien, Leo Chow, Brant Coletta, Chris Cooper, Paul Danna, Michael Duncan, Scott Duncan, Laura Ettelman, Xuan Fu, T.J. Gottesdiener, Gary Haney, Craig Hartman, Kent Jackson, Colin Koop, Kenneth Lewis, Eric Long, Mark Sarkisian, Adam Semel, Jonathan Stein, and Douglas Voigt.

Gordon Bunshaft, who thrived as a design leader at SOM for more than 40 years, received the profession's highest honor, the Pritzker Architecture Prize, in 1988. Notable architects who are associated with SOM include: T. J. Gottesdiener, Edward Charles Bassett,[23] Natalie de Blois,[24][25] Gordon Bunshaft,[26][27] David Childs,[28][29] Robert Diamant,[30] Philip Enquist, Myron Goldsmith,[31][32] Bruce Graham,[33][34] Gary Haney, Craig W. Hartman,[35] Gertrude Kerbis,[36] Fazlur Rahman Khan.

[37] Lucien Lagrange,[38] Walter Netsch,[39][40] Larry Oltmanns,[41] Eszter Pécsi,[42] Brigitte Peterhans,[43][44] Norma Merrick Sklarek, Adrian Smith,[45] and Marilyn Jordan Taylor[46] Architect Sally Harkness, a founding partner at The Architects Collaborative in 1947, was interviewed at the firm during World War II along with her husband Chip Harkness, but only her husband received a job offer.

[50] The year 2020 marked a change in which three female partners, Carrie Byles, Xuan Fu, and Laura Ettelman were named to the executive committee of the 1250-person firm.

Past winners include Marion Weiss (1982), Werner Sobek (1983), Himanshu Parikh (1985), Santiago Calatrava (1988), and Joshua Ramus (1995).

In 1962, President John F. Kennedy appointed Nathaniel Owings as chair of the Pennsylvania Avenue redesign council, and the resulting 1966 Washington Mall Master Plan laid the framework for a dynamic, inviting, and pedestrian-friendly place.

In Baltimore in the 1960s, SOM played a pivotal role in preventing the destruction of the city's historic districts and Inner Harbor to make way for the planned construction of an elevated highway.

Intended to accommodate a flourishing financial sector and revitalize London's former Docklands, the plan included more than 20 building sites and a host of public spaces and amenities.

In central London, the opportunity to build above rail lines near Liverpool Street Station spurred the construction of Broadgate, a new business district.

The project revitalized a formerly blighted downtown site and marked the completion of Chicago planner Daniel Burnham's 100-year vision for the area.