ARCHITECTURE, DESIGN AND BUILD
875 N. MICHIGAN AVENUE SUITE 3100 CHICAGO IL 60611 P 312.337.9879
Olsen|Vranas Design and Build is an award-winning architecture and design firm led by co-principals Keith Olsen and Cynthia Vranas. Full-service and multi-faceted, O|V stewards a project from design inception to construction completion, managing its every phase and detail. With a host of Architects, Designers, Construction Managers, Craftsmen, and Artists the firm consistently achieves enduring, award-winning environments that are at once responsive to client and setting, cost-effective, uplifting, and beautiful.
Keith Olsen
Principal, founder
While acting as a draftsman to Gene Summers at C.F. Murphy and Project Architect at Hammond Beeby, Keith Olsen learned much about durability and beauty through design. His career continued as a Principal of the award-winning firm beginning in 1978 as Krueck & Olsen Architects and was a Studio Professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Keith Olsen continues to direct the work of the firm Olsen|Vranas Design and Build from the design through construction. Olsen's innate curiosity for construction led the firm to organize Olsen|Vranas Build - much at their Clients' request.
Cynthia Vranas Olsen
Principal
Cynthia Vranas Olsen has an education in architecture, interior design, furniture design, and architectural history and theory. Along with experience from her former employer, Murphy / Jahn, Ms. Vranas Olsen imbues her interest in architectural preservation into the office. Sharing design and project management skills with Olsen, Cynthia also taught at Harrington Institute of Interior Design, where she served as the Associate Dean of Education. She has been awarded a PhD from the College of Architecture, the Illinois Institute of Technology for her research and writing about the arts and their influence on architecture, using a 19th century French case study.
AWARDS
Olsen | Vranas's excellence in the practice of architecture and design has been acknowledged by receipt of local and national honor awards, including the following:
Association of Licensed Architects, Silver Medal | 2016
American Society of Interior Designers, Design Excellence Awards 1st Place | 2014
City of Chicago Office of the Mayor, Chicago Landmark Award for Preservation Excellence - New Construction | 2011
U.S Green Building Council, LEED for Homes, GOLD | 2011
"Young Architects Forum", Group Project Competition, 1st Place, Buenos Aires, Argentina | 1992
American Institute of Architects, National Honor Award | 1986
American Institute of Architects, Chicago, Chapter Interior Architecture, Certificate of Merit | 1985
American Institute of Architects, Distinguished Building Award | 1984
American Institute of Architects, Chicago, Chapter Interior Architecture Honor Award | 1984
American Institute of Steel Construction Award | 1981
American Institute of Architects, Chicago, Chapter Honor Award | 1980
