Celebrating 24 Years
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
I’d like to take a few minutes to celebrate a significant milestone today - the 24th anniversary of our firm, Ervin Lovett Miller.
Russ Ervin, Tim Miller, and I opened the firm’s doors August 20th, 2001. It was a humble start, in the studio above Tim’s garage in the San Marco neighborhood in Jacksonville, Florida. At that time, we didn’t have a client and had no idea the world would significantly change three weeks later, on September 11th. Dubious circumstances, for sure.
In those days we had a big idea that we could use design to help make the world a better place, and this philosophy is still foundational to the firm today. Our belief was, and is, that the best way to practice was to merge the disciplines of planning, architecture, and landscape architecture together, effectively as a single integrated discipline. This approach has helped numerous clients and communities over the past couple of decades as we’ve created environments designed to add value to people’s lives and reflect the unique character of the places where they’re located. Along the way, we’ve built amazing relationships and friendship that extend far beyond our work together.
Now, 24 years later, ELM has grown to a diverse team of nearly thirty talented individuals - architects, landscape architects, and staff. Russ and I have created a very intentional workplace culture of creativity, design excellence, technical proficiency, and collaboration - and the studio remains a dynamic, collegial, fun, and inspirational environment. This has translated to the quality of our work, where ELM has been recognized as experts and valued partners to numerous longstanding clients across several industry niches, project types, and geographies - focused on community planning, private clubs, specialty commercial, and recreation-oriented design. This milestone is a testament to the vision of our clients and the strong communities we’ve had the privilege to help shape, as well as to our incredible team.
Looking ahead, we’re ever more excited for the future and are inspired daily by the collaborations with talented clients and staff. We’re grateful for the relationships with our team, clients, consultants, friends, and others who have been a big part of a successful 24 years. We look forward to building relationships with new clients, continuing work together with longtime clients and friends, and the opportunity to work on interesting projects in great places. The pursuit of fresh ideas is energizing, and I’m confident that ELM will continue to grow and evolve around the vision of making the world a better place and adding value to people’s lives through design. Cheers!
With Gratitude,
Steve Lovett
Founding Partner - ELM | Ervin Lovett Miller
