SMWM (Simon Martin-Vegue Winkelstein Moris), was one of the largest women-owned, pioneering design firm when it began in San Francisco in 1985, eventually adding a second office in New York in 2001. In 2008, the company merged with the firm Perkins + Will, operating under its moniker.

In 1985, architects Cathy Simon, Peter Winkelstein, Lamberto Moris, interior designer Phyllis Martin-Vegue, and Diane Filippi split from the San Francisco architecture firm Marquis Associates to form SMWM. The founding partners had worked together at Marquis Associates for over a decade and brought together a large portfolio of completed and in-process projects, both architecture and interior design. The partners’ vision was to create a truly integrated and interdisciplinary practice with a focus on collaborative, contextual design with a social purpose.

SMWM’s design legacy is apparent throughout the Bay Area and beyond. The firm’s award-winning portfolio consists of educational projects including work for the University of California Berkeley, Davis, and Santa Cruz campuses; the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, four buildings at Bard College, and many Bay Area independent K-12 schools; public projects include Pier 1, and the San Francisco Main Library, as well as public libraries in Newport Beach and Cupertino, California; master plans for Stanford, Harvard, Brown, Bard, and NYU; and urban planning projects for the Mission Bay and Hunters Point districts in San Francisco, and Boston’s Central Artery. Two SMWM projects, Treasure Island and Panama Pacifico, were selected among only 16 multifaceted initiatives across the world by the Clinton Foundation as part of the Clinton Climate Change Initiative Program. The firm’s commitment to creating vibrant and enduring places that bring long-term value to clients and communities respects the past, engages with the present, and anticipates the future. In a city that is often resistant to change, SMWM became a trusted firm with regenerative designs that include the complete renovation and transformation of the landmark San Francisco Ferry Building, a temporary pavilion for the San Francisco Ballet, and laying the groundwork for a new Transbay Terminal.

Cathy Simon, FAIA, was the President, Director of Design, and one of the five founding partners of SMWM. She is known for her new buildings, adaptive reuse and urban design projects, including the conversion of the San Francisco Ferry Building, the San Francisco Main Library, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Simon was born in Los Angeles, grew up in Greenwich Village New York, and attended Wellesley College, graduating in 1965 with a Bachelor of Arts in Art History. She received her Masters of Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 1969. Simon began her career working for Cambridge Seven Architects from 1968-1973, then moved to the Bay Area and worked for Mackinlay Winnaker McNeil Architects from 1973 until 1974. Simon was a designer for Marquis Associates from 1974-1975, Associate from 1975-1978, and Principal from 1978-1985. At Marquis Associates, she designed projects such as the Primate House at the San Francisco Zoo, the Stern Hall addition at UC Berkeley, and the historic restoration of the Chambord Apartments in San Francisco. She was a lecturer at the UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design (CED) from 1973 until 1985. In 1996, Simon was the first woman to be named CED's Howard Friedman Distinguished Professor of Architecture in Practice. Simon received numerous awards for her design work, including becoming a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 1986, the Firm Award from the AIA California Council in 1999, and multiple state and national awards for her work on the Ferry Building. In 2015 she was the William A. Bernoudy Architect in Residence at the American Academy in Rome. In 2008, when SMWM joined Perkins + Will, Simon became a senior design principal and worked as such until her retirement in 2018. She maintains a small practice as Cathy Simon FAIA Architecture and Urbanism.

Karen Alschuler, FAICP, joined SMWM in 1992 to build an urban design and planning practice for the firm. Her projects addressed urgent issues for urban places, waterfronts, and transportation centers unique to their settings and welcoming to diverse populations and include a Master Plan for Boston’s Central Artery Corridor, and designs for the Southeast Federal Center and the Transbay Terminal Improvement Plan in San Francisco. Alschuler was born in Illinois and graduated from Pembroke College (part of Brown University) in 1967. She received her Masters of City Planning in 1969 from UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design and began working for the County of Santa Cruz as a senior planner from 1969-1974. Alschuler moved to Boston to work for Skidmore Owings and Merrill as a planner and associate from 1974-1981, Associate Partner 1981-1987, and Planning Partner from 1987-1991. She worked for SOM as a Director, in both their Boston and New York offices, until 1992 when she joined SMWM and moved to San Francisco. As Director of Planning for SMWM, Alschuler oversaw all planning and urban design projects. She directed a wide variety of planning efforts, including: urban mixed-use developments; suburban master plans; design guidelines; economic development strategies; open space plans; transportation planning for highways, transit, airports and water shuttles; waterfront plans; campus plans; and numerous large scale environmental impact assessment and permitting programs. Alschuler invented the “planning game”—a well-known and respected tool for bringing community members and developers together to collaborate on the design process. San Francisco Bay Area projects included: Treasure Island, Mission Bay, the Presidio, Transbay Terminal and the Concord base reuse plan. Nationally, projects include: campus plans for Brown University, Harvard University, and NYU; master plans for the Southeast Federal Center in Washington DC, Boston Central Artery, and the Museums of New Mexico. Alschuler was very involved in professional organizations, including: Commercial Real Estate Women, Urban Land Institute, and was elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners in 2004. When SMWM joined Perkins + Will in 2008, Alschuler became a Partner and a Global Discipline Leader for Urban Design at the firm. She is semi-retired and still works part-time on special projects for Perkins + Will.