Rand Elliott Architects starts by listening. Then the search is on.
We take a practical approach to find the spirit of a space and let it speak. The point is to create a human connection, find a timeless solution, exceed expectations.
Each of our projects opens a story rooted in an exploration of Place — its geography, history and potential. It directs our response to many things, starting with sun and wind conditions.
The story builds on Place with a command of the project’s Purpose. We’re informed and inspired by our clients, who become collaborators.
Along the way, Poetics emerge from the depths of our inquiry.
Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center
Kirkpatrick Oil Hennessey, OK
The timelessness of our work compounds its value. The projects look fresh and win appreciation from clients, the media and the profession, even decades after completion.
As Oklahoma natives, we’ve always been here to advance our client’s cause and bring quality to the built environment. Originality — especially when it taps into the spirit of the place — speaks to people on a deeper level.
Renowned architecture critic David Dillon titled his 2001 book on our work, Listening to the Land, describing how we tap into Place to elicit a poetic response.
“Architecture is frozen music,” wrote Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Our aspiration is making that music.
As a talented young designer, Rand could easily have gone off to New York or Los Angeles to make his mark. He chose to stay in Oklahoma and come to terms with its harsh climate. Out of these encounters has come a national practice notable for the range and poetic pragmatism of its work.
The son of Oklahoma wheat farmers, Rand Elliott was born in Clinton, near Route 66. He traces the inspiration he draws from the land and its ever-changing skies to rides on his father’s lap aboard Allis, the tractor.
Rand knew he wanted to be an architect by the age of eight. He’s a graduate of Oklahoma State’s College of Architecture – a rigorous, five-year program that started with 200+ students and saw only 13 graduates.
In 1976, he and his friend, James Pickel, founded Elliott + Associates. Rand’s graphic design skills won a client base that helped sustain the startup that became Rand Elliott Architects.
Rand Elliott Architects has made a lifelong study of what makes architecture interesting and timeless — what feels good to users and the public. What evokes a “wow.”
We’ve learned how to empower our clients by deeply listening, every step of the way. And by managing budgets with a steady stream of design ideas that solve problems and save money.
We live by what the Roman architect Vitruvius defined as “firmness, commodity and delight.”
It’s the timeless test for creating lasting value for our clients and their communities. Exceptional architecture attracts investors, employees, the media and admirers in general — from locals to editors halfway around the world. Our assignment is to lift the human spirit, and that’s universal.
A distinguished jury summed up this project’s appeal: “The illusion and abstraction of London fog carries the day.” It was a simple idea for an office that could be easily reconfigured. Sliding glass walls — both translucent and transparent — provided optical and acoustical privacy. And it was highly cost-efficient. This project won Rand Elliott Architects its fifth National AIA Honor Award for Architecture.
In 2010 – after 25 years of wear – Rand Elliott Architects reintroduced OKC’s downtown tunnel system as “The Underground”. Paint, neon lighting and imagination recast it as an art gallery. The vibrant colors are part of a color-coded navigation system that makes it accessible to even first-time “tunnelers.” Enthusiasm hasn’t waned: In March 2025, Island magazine published its rave review.
The client had a rudimentary budget to build a structure for storage of snow removal equipment: functional, durable, economical. Its unexpected beauty was an exercise in proportion and scale and an uplifting allusion to flight. Bollards, reflective corrugated metal panels, translucent fiberglass wall panels and huge garage doors are cast in a crisp industrial palette.
It won raves. Resounding appreciation. And against all odds, an AIA National Honor Award, the highest accolade offered by the venerable Institute.
“Anyone with a big budget could build something impressive, but the ability to make a tiny budget win such accolades is rare.” — AIA Awards Jurist
For an office technologies center in an industrial park, Rand Elliott Architects brought drama to “copies.” At the entry, two tilt-up concrete panels stand as “pages” (in the standard 8.5 x 11” page ratio), etched with the Preamble to the Constitution at the entry. More concrete panel “pages” combine with others in translucent blue polycarbonate to define the exterior. Inside, zeros and ones echo computer code, projected on walls, ceilings and floors, to define a memorable visitor experience.
Working from Oklahoma City — not a coastal capital — has afforded Rand Elliott Architects perspective. Distance from trend cycles has inspired work that’s original, timeless and quietly radical.
Editors often turn to us for fresh ideas, knowing our design voice resists imitation. From a crazy-deep materials archive to daily inspiration drawn from sources far outside the mainstream, we shape architecture that feels unexpected — yet inevitable.
We’re proud our work resonates, proving that relevance and excellence aren’t tied to zip code. Our team of tenacious talent thrives in a studio model rooted in curiosity, rigor and the pursuit of originality.
This NYC panorama, celebrating 40 Years of Interior Design, finds Rand at the podium next to the magazine’s dynamic editor, Cindy Allen.
Rand Elliott and Rand Elliott Architects
Any client meeting about a new project is thrilling because it’s a beginning. We start to hear your needs and your vision. We listen. It’s the early, surface understanding, that launches a deep dive. We’re here to serve your purpose, fulfill the potential.
We describe our work as creating an “architectural portrait” of our clients, a reflection of your needs, vision, likes and dislikes. After it’s done, the resulting media attention is a bonus that rewards our clients and their many stakeholders, including their city, town or community.
