The places that feel inevitable do not arrive as objects dropped into the world. They take root.
They make room for the life already there and give it something more. That kind of belonging does not happen by applying a template or imposing a style. It has to be found in the place itself, and in the people it is for.
That is where SkB Architects begins: with curiosity and no answer in hand. Before a line is drawn, we spend time with what is already present: who the place serves and who it overlooks, the routines it has settled into, and the potential hiding in plain sight. Then come the possibilities that only appear once we ask, “What if?”
We search alongside our clients, working through what could be to find what should be. The thinking carries into the technical decisions, the details no one will photograph, and everything it takes to get it built. That is the work: making the idea real without losing what made it right in the first place.
A space is never neutral. It shapes what people feel welcome to do, and whether they experience a building as an object to pass through or a place that belongs in their lives. We make those consequences the measure of every decision, because human experience is not just an effect of architecture. It is its reason.
Since 1999, SkB Architects has held to one steady belief: a place should do more than look the part.
PRACTICE AREAS
A way of thinking, not a look
Workplace · Interior Architecture · Residential · Hospitality · Cultural & Civic · Urban Repositioning · Retail · Mixed-Use · Adaptive Reuse · Masterplanning ·
Where our work lives
7 countries
5 continents
22 U.S. States
We work across project types because one kind of project has something to teach another. Depth in each area gives us expertise. Range gives us more ways to see the problem—and more experience to draw from when finding the answer.
Range does not mean starting from scratch. SkB Architects brings deep experience to every project, whether a global workplace, private home, hotel, or complex urban development. What changes is the question in front of us and the expertise we bring to it.
Houses have taught us about privacy and ritual. Hotels and restaurants, what makes someone want to arrive, stay, and return. Workplaces, how organizations grow and change. Civic and urban projects, how a building contributes to the life around it.
That knowledge travels without becoming a formula. Neither does our process. We sketch, model, make, test, and revise because experience makes exploration more purposeful. Ideas move between hand and computer, drawing and model, material and full-scale mockup. Making is part of how we resolve the design.
The process is iterative by design. Each pass lets us test what the last one revealed before an idea becomes architecture. The time spent exploring an idea is not separate from the work. It is the work.
Partners
When you engage SkB Architects, you engage us — directly, from the first conversation to the last detail.
The people asking the difficult questions at the beginning stay close enough to the work to see the answers through. Our partners remain directly involved as priorities shift, constraints emerge, and decisions become more consequential. That continuity matters. It keeps the thinking behind a project connected to the people responsible for making it real.
Kyle Gaffney
Founding Partner
Founding partner and lead designer Kyle Gaffney is known for his steadfast commitment to creating buildings and spaces that uphold the human experience above all else. Driven by a belief that architecture can positively influence the way people live and work, Kyle strives to create designs informed by a unique sense of place. For him, design should go above and beyond the necessities, yielding experiences that improve quality of life.
With over 25 years of experience on projects across scales and typologies, Kyle has honed his approach to crafting human-centered designs where the architecture fades into the background so that life can unfold. Seeing clients, contractors, interior designers, and architects as equal parts of a whole, Kyle believes the best designs emerge from a highly collaborative and engaged process.
With a degree from RISD and nearly a decade of experience working as a builder, Kyle understands how projects come together from all perspectives, bringing a uniquely balanced approach to his projects at SkB.
Shannon Gaffney
Founding Partner
Shannon Gaffney is a founding principal, co-managing partner, and co-creative director of SkB Architects.
A leading voice in workplace design, Shannon has helped redefine how people interact with office space, pushing beyond convention to create environments that are engaging, flexible, and built for connection. She was the original author of the Microsoft Design Language for Place, a global standard for Microsoft's workspaces, and has led design efforts internationally across Germany, Great Britain, India, Japan, Costa Rica, and South America.
Shannon’s work has earned national recognition from the AIA and other design institutions, with standout projects for clients including Microsoft, Amazon, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and KEXP 90.3 FM. A frequent speaker on design and culture, she’s delivered keynote talks such as the AIA Dallas Women in Architecture Empowering Conference and was honored by IIDA for her lasting contributions to the interior design profession.
Steve Olson
Partner
With over 25 years of experience overseeing complex, high-profile projects — ranging from a community gathering space for KEXP, a beloved Seattle radio station, to workplaces for Microsoft, EQ Office, and the Gates Foundation, Partner Steve Olson applies his broad expertise in strategy, programming, and design development across different typologies.
Whether working with clients or staff, Steve’s goal is to actively cultivate an open dialogue, amplify the humanizing qualities of design and invite contributors to engage in projects at every step. Providing the tools and knowledge needed to make informed decisions, Steve’s process leads to soulful, approachable designs that reflect a client’s unique identity. A long-time bass guitar player, Steve’s measure of successful design is much like the songs he comes back to year after year. For him, outstanding buildings are those that combine complexity with approachability, leading to spaces that are anything but one-note.
The Studio
The partners are supported by a highly selective, committed & interdisciplinary team.
SkB Architects brings architects, interior designers, urbanists, and project leaders together around the same questions from the beginning. Ideas are developed with the people responsible for carrying them forward, so decisions do not lose their intent as a project moves from concept to detail.
That continuity creates room for rigor. Priorities can be tested as conditions change, technical questions can inform design early, and the people closest to the work can act with real responsibility. Partners remain engaged, but strong ideas are expected to come from across the studio.
The standard is simple: stay curious long enough to understand what is actually at stake, then stay with the project closely enough to make the answer real.
Recognition
The work has travelled further than we could have planned.
SkB Architects and its people have been recognized by architecture and design organizations, publications, and juries across the globe.
The New York Times
ArchDaily
Architectural Digest
Domino
dwell
Design / Milk
The Seattle Times
Architizer
ELLE
Interior Design Magazine
GRAY Magazine
LUXE
archello
DIGS
DesignBoom
AIA
The New York Times ArchDaily Architectural Digest Domino dwell Design / Milk The Seattle Times Architizer ELLE Interior Design Magazine GRAY Magazine LUXE archello DIGS DesignBoom AIA
Influence
Some questions are worth pursuing beyond a single project.
SkB Architects' work and thinking have taken the studio into exhibitions, classrooms, juries, lectures, and conversations about architecture beyond our own practice. From the Venice Architecture Biennale to advisory roles with universities, these are opportunities to test ideas with people who see the world differently and bring new questions back to the studio.
Practice teaches us things. Teaching, exhibiting, and exchanging ideas do too. Each gives us another way to stay inquisitive about what architecture can make possible.