Humphreys & Partners Architects

Humphreys & Partners Architects was founded in 1991 by Mark Humphreys and Greg Faulkner and is headquartered in the Dallas area, at an office in Plano, Texas. It’s a multifamily specialist that calls itself North America’s leading firm in the type, and its work runs from garden apartments to high-rises, plus mixed-use, student housing, senior living, affordable and hospitality projects. Besides its U.S. offices in cities such as Houston, Orlando and Scottsdale, the firm has studios in Chennai, India, and Montevideo, Uruguay. It’s the architect on Chapter House UF, a 684-bed, 219-unit student housing community that 908 Group and Batson-Cook Development Co. broke ground on in October 2026 at 920 S.W. Depot Ave. in Gainesville, Fla., with completion set for summer 2028.

Efficiency is the product here, and the firm quantifies it. E-Urban, trademarked in 2007, reaches up to 86 percent rentable or sellable efficiency against roughly 68 percent for a conventional double-loaded corridor building. Nearly 100 E-Urban projects had been built by the time that figure was published. E-Senior, from 2009, averages 34 units per acre at about 85 percent efficiency. The earlier concepts were The Big House in 1998 and Home Rise in 2002.

For a developer, those numbers are the pitch: more sellable area from the same footprint.

The practice began operating on May 6, 1991, founded by Mark Humphreys and Greg Faulkner. Humphreys, who served as chief executive, died in 2022 at the age of 67. Headcount roughly doubled between 2012 and 2016, from the 150th hire to about 300 employees.

Geographic growth followed demand rather than ambition. The first regional office opened in Orlando in 1998. New Orleans followed in 2006, after Hurricane Katrina. The first international office opened in Montevideo, Uruguay in 2011. Offices now run from Plano and Houston through Orlando and St. Petersburg, New Orleans, Irvine, Scottsdale, Chennai and Montevideo, with licensure in 44 states and the District of Columbia.

Specialist disciplines were built out as separate entities under the firm: HPA Design Group for interiors in 1998, HPLA for landscape architecture in 2009, HP Civil in 2010 and HP Urban in 2013. Structural engineering sits within the core service list alongside programming, master planning, schematic design, design development, construction documents, bid and permit assistance, and construction administration.

Rankings have moved around but trend upward. BD+C placed the firm first on its Top 95 Multifamily Architecture Firms in 2017. Architectural Record ranked it 39th on the Top 300 Architecture Firms in 2018, up from 57th. ENR listed it 206th on the Top 500 Design Firms in 2021 and 305th in 2022, and the Zweig Hot Firm List had it at 40th in 2021 and 81st in 2020. The 2024 Best in American Living Awards brought two golds: Residences at SweetBay for multifamily at three stories for rent, and Bixby on College for student housing development.

Sustainability is handled through a formal in-house Green Review on every project, with design coordinated toward LEED or National Green Building Standard certification. The firm puts the cost of sustainable elements at roughly 7 to 10 percent of project cost — a franker number than most publish.

Multifamily remains the core: high-rise, mid-rise, student housing, senior living, build-for-rent, tax-credit and HUD 221(d)(4) affordable, moderate and luxury, plus mixed-use and hospitality and resort work. The firm has also published speculative work, including an Uber Air Skyport concept for Uber Elevate.