The pair are both graduates of the Department of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania and began working together in the mid-1970s while employees of Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates. Each won a Rome Prize from the American Academy—Kieran in 1981 and Timberlake in 1983. They set up their own practice the following year, taking teaching jobs to support the firm and their families. “We were able to afford some sessions with the management consultant Weld Coxe,”says Kieran. “He taught us the value of making long-range plans that would allow us to build our firm, both strategically and financially. We spent more time doing small projects, but we also gave ourselves time to learn the craft of building. And it is a real painful craft to learn.”

It was not until 1996, when the firm won the $25 million commission to renovate Berkeley College at Yale University, that the partners felt they finally turned the corner financially. “People whose doors we had been knocking on for years were suddenly calling us,” Kieran says. Then in 1998, the firm held strategic planning sessions that examined what it had achieved. “We knew there were internal impediments to what we could achieve, which we could address. But there were external ones, too,” says Timberlake. “We felt we could address the external ones by formalizing the research culture in our office.” Kieran adds, “We had become known as architects who could put together some beautifully detailed buildings. But quality and productivity problems were threatening the art of what we were doing and the rest of the construction industry. We felt we could address that using research. And we oriented our financial plan, marketing, and public relations to support that agenda.”