Forbes Recognizes Excellence in
Place-Based Residential Architecture
Forbes’ annual America’s Top 200 Residential Architects list looks nationally at residential architecture, encompassing a range of regions, traditions, and approaches to design.
For the 2026 list, firms were considered through an invitation-only evaluation of their body of work. Forbes editors and an advisory board of experts in American residential architecture reviewed the work according to the publication’s Architecture System of Evaluation, a framework that considers the ideas and practices that shape a firm’s work over time.
Among those considerations are siting and local context, architectural form and detailing, materials and craft, spatial configuration, natural light, indoor-outdoor relationships, environmental responsibility, and the ability of a home to adapt to changing needs. Together, the criteria reflect a view of residential architecture in which beauty, utility, longevity, and responsiveness to place are closely connected.
These principles have long been central to the work of Fergus Garber Architects. Based in Palo Alto, California, FGA has spent more than three decades designing custom residences, renovations, and historic homes throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. Each project begins with the particular qualities of its site and the lives of the people who will inhabit it, with an emphasis on natural light, landscape, enduring materials, and craftsmanship.
Read more about the award and methodology at Forbes.
