Ware Malcomb

Ware Malcomb is an Irvine, California, design firm founded in 1972 by Bill Ware and Bill Malcomb. It started in commercial and corporate real estate and still does much of its work there, but the practice now covers architecture, interiors, civil, structural and MEP engineering, land surveying, building measurement and branding. Project types include industrial and cold storage, advanced manufacturing, data centers, office, healthcare, science and technology, retail and multifamily. Offices run across the U.S., Canada and Latin America. Ware Malcomb is the architect on Aermec North America’s 189,680-square-foot manufacturing plant and U.S. headquarters in DeKalb, Illinois, a Venture One build-to-suit that Meridian Design Build is constructing. Completion is expected in the third quarter of 2027.

Bill Ware and Bill Malcomb founded the firm in 1972. It is now led by CEO Ken Wink and President Jay Todisco, and offices run across the Americas after a growth period in which thirteen new offices opened across the United States, Mexico and Canada.

What separates Ware Malcomb from a pure architecture practice is the engineering. Civil, structural and MEP engineering are all in-house service lines, sitting alongside architecture and interiors. Land surveying and building measurement are offered as standalone services too, which is a distinct capability for owners dealing with an existing building where the drawings no longer match what is standing.

Three groups handle work that does not fit the standard project team. National Accounts covers clients rolling out the same programme across many sites. The Advanced Projects Group handles the technically demanding end. Asset and Landlord Services works the owner’s side of a lease rather than the tenant’s. Sustainability and workplace strategy round out the list.

Project types are where the firm’s industrial weight shows: advanced manufacturing, data center and mission critical, industrial, and industrial cold and food each get their own category, alongside auto, education and community, healthcare, multifamily, office, hospitality and restaurant, retail, science and technology, and workplace.

Projects featured on the firm’s own site give a sense of range: Vuori Headquarters in San Diego, Aritzia in Vaughan, Ontario, Turf Design Headquarters in Gilberts, Illinois, Andreu World in Washington DC, IWC Schaffhausen in Canoga Park, 4 Campus in Parsippany, New Jersey, and 1237 W. Division in Chicago.

The firm also publishes: a book, Layered Leadership, and a blog, WM Canvas.