We are RIOS

RIOS, a fully licensed California Corporation, was founded in 1985 as a multi-disciplinary design firm. We are an office of professionals who work together to create singular, integrated and comprehensive solutions for a variety of design challenges. Combined, our talents comprise a wide range of professional skills including architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, graphic, interior, exhibit and product design. Project type experience includes municipal, corporate, retail, institutional and residential commissions. We are dedicated to applying a strong interdisciplinary collaborative approach to the design process, whether on projects within our office or in consultation with other design firms. A broad mixture of clients and projects has given us solid experience in dealing with various and complex design issues.

We are committed to exploring new design opportunities which are specific to the spirit and mission of each project. This goal is achieved on a variety of scales and through various disciplines to create design solutions that fulfill and even exceed our client’s expectations.

We have been fortunate to be one of a very few firms which are widely recognized for skill and design excellence across the broad spectrum of design disciplines. In 2009, we were selected as one of two Finalists in the category of Landscape Design by the Smithsonian’s Cooper Hewitt National Design Awards program. In 2007 the firm was awarded the ‘Firm of the Year Award’ by the California Council of the American Institute of Architects for our consistent body of unique design work and our redefinition of the boundaries of design practice.

Additional honors have included national and local AIA and ASLA awards, as well as recognition for graphics, interiors and furniture design. Our work has also been featured in numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, Architecture, Architectural Record, Interior Design, Landscape Architecture and Metropolis.

We treat the design intent and execution for every project as a solution unique to each client and to their programmatic requirements. Our clients often actively participate in the creative process.

In 2001 we started notNeutral as the firm’s product design, manufacturing and retail distribution company. notNeutral was conceived as a series of lifestyle products which have grown out of the firm’s body of work. Currently, notNeutral wholesales to over four hundred retail stores including many museum stores across the country and abroad. notNeutral has been widely recognized in the press for its thoughtful, optimistic and unique solutions to houseware and furniture products. Read Less