What started in 1971 as a small stand in downtown Seattle has evolved into a global enterprise. Today, Starbucks, a publicly traded company, has more than 17,000 stores in 58 countries, from Malaysia to Norway, and earned $11.7 billion in revenue during its last fiscal year. Its cultural contribution is most profound in the United States, where it popularized the Italian coffeehouse tradition yet gave it an American twist, offering gussied-up espresso drinks to stay or to go. A Starbucks pit stop is now a daily ritual for many. The retailer's shops often share a uniform look. Still, Starbucks has

When Colby Barr and Ryan O'Donovan opened Verve four and a half years ago on a shoestring budget, they did all the interior work themselves, from pouring the concrete counters to driving to Sausalito, California, to buying stoneware tile. Slinging espressos for the surfers and other locals in the Pleasure Point area of Santa Cruz, California, proved successful, and soon they took over the space next door and began roasting their own coffee. By 2010 they had outgrown both spaces and, to keep up with growing demand, Barr and O'Donovan decided to expand their roasting capacity. Working with Daniel Gomez

Kia Motors may be South Korea's oldest car company'it was established in 1944 as a manufacturer of bicycle parts'but traditional thinking is not what makes it an industry leader. The company's Research and Development Headquarters in Irvine, California, designed by the Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), proves Kia's commitment to design and the U.S. market, where sales have increased by 77 percent since 2008, when the project was completed. 'Both our company's vision and design philosophy are the context for what Kia wanted to project to our team members and to the public,' explains John Yoon, Kia

After the collapse of several major financial institutions set off the global recession in 2008, 'bank' became a dirty word. But the 121-year-old Kansas City'based Missouri Bank and Trust (MO Bank) has long operated counter to today's perception of 'banking,' emphasizing its relationship with its customers, who are largely small business owners. In 2008, MO Bank set out to update its offices, which 'really didn't represent the character of the bank anymore,' says Jay Tomlinson, founding principal of Kansas City'based Helix Architecture + Design. But the bank's public image wasn't MO Bank president Grant Burcham's sole concern: 'Redesigning became really

An original 1909 marketing brochure, found during the renovation of 200 Fifth Avenue, touts the white terra-cotta cladding on a wall surrounding the courtyard as a reflective surface that would bring daylight into the heart of the workspaces within. Along with STUDIOS Architecture's bold design, that 100-year-old brochure helped convince New York's Landmarks Preservation Commission that replacing the terra-cotta wall with a glass curtain wall would respect the original architects' intentions. The change was allowed, and STUDIOS transformed the aging 14-floor edifice into a LEED Gold Certified, Class-A office building. 'They used the latest technology from their day, and we're

In January, Facebook users spent more than 10.5 billion minutes a day accessing the site just by computer, according to the company's IPO. That takes a lot of energy. Most data centers'large hubs of servers that handle bank transactions, cloud-based email services, and friend requests'devote around one-third of their energy consumption to building operations. Having leased space in such facilities, Facebook wanted its first data center to maximize energy efficiency. Working with Sheehan Partners and AlfaTech Consulting, the company rethought every piece of equipment, from circuit boards to air handling. Thanks to an evaporative cooling system, a custom power-distribution system,

For GE, staying at the forefront of renewable energy research is such a priority that the company has invested $6 billion in that effort. The nation's top-selling wind-turbine company, GE has plans to build the largest 400-megawatt thin-film solar-panel factory in the country by 2013. The company's LEED Silver renewable energy headquarters building in Schenectady, New York, stands as a significant commitment to the growing success of its renewable energy division. It is also an investment in the community, its workforce, and the 628-acre, 120-year-old campus'a mix of manufacturing and administration buildings that hadn't seen a significant architectural project since

When the Los Angeles developer Bryn Stroyke of Stroyke Properties acquired a prime corner location in downtown Manhattan Beach, he planned to replace the site's existing restaurant with a mixed-use office building'but not a standard box with street-level retail. Instead, he and his investors wanted to build a boutique office complex to attract individual proprietors whose small size excluded them from the community's competitive market. The opportunity for an interior designer or a solo real estate broker, for instance, to acquire centrally located office space was unprecedented, says Grant Kirkpatrick of KAA Design, 'especially in Manhattan Beach, where downtown development