Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM)

Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) is a globally renowned architecture, urban design, engineering, and interior design firm, founded in 1936 and headquartered in New York City with studios in Chicago, San Francisco, London, Dubai, Hong Kong, and other major cities. The firm is celebrated for landmark buildings including the Burj Khalifa in Dubai and the One World Trade Center in New York, and has a dedicated airports and transportation practice that has delivered some of the world's most significant airport terminals. SOM's airports practice believes that the best airports elevate logistics to poetry — balancing passenger flow efficiency with authentic sense of place and architectural permanence. The firm has a particular expertise in designing airport terminals on complex sites that require phased construction to maintain ongoing airport operations, a challenge common at major hub airports. SOM's airport portfolio includes O'Hare International Airport Concourse D in Chicago, San Francisco International Airport International Terminal, Toronto Pearson International Airport Terminal 1, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport Terminal 2 in Mumbai, Seattle-Tacoma International Arrivals Facility, Dublin Airport Pier D and Connector, Kansas City International Airport, and JFK International Arrivals Building Terminal 4 in New York. In 2026, SOM won an international competition for the Gia Binh Airport Terminal in Vietnam. The firm also recently completed the David Geffen Galleries at LACMA in collaboration with Atelier Peter Zumthor. SOM's integrated approach combines architecture, structural engineering, MEP engineering, and sustainability consulting within unified project teams, enabling coherent and efficient airport design delivery from masterplan through detailed construction.