If you count a firm with 25 years+ as a young firm, we accept! And along the same lines as Ballista's mission, we also work to bridge the gap between our seasoned professionals and students/young professionals.
Our firm currently sponsors an annual lecture at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, BC, and Alan Hart (principal) sits on the Department of Architecture Professional Advisory Council at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Although we value "bridging the gap" between young and seasoned professionals, our favorite sentence from the profile is that "VIA has created architecture...that also increases the quality of the surrounding community."
As we celebrated our 25th anniversary last year, we gave staff the opportunity to come up with slogans that they felt represented VIA. Among entries like "City Building Life" and "Designing Space, Defining Place," one of the top voted entries was "Building Communities VIA Architecture." Photos from the magazine feature Burien Transit Center, Kiwanis Seniors' Housing, and the Roundhouse Community Centre, just a few of the projects that we feel contribute to building communities.