A Spokane-based architecture firm that designed several prominent projects in the Tri-Cities is closing.

MMEC Architecture & Interiors, which established an office in Kennewick about 14 years ago, announced in an Aug. 6 email to clients that it will wind down its operations by the end of September.

The firm’s portfolio includes many prominent Tri-Cities buildings, including Sageview High School and Oregon Potato Company’s new headquarters in Pasco; Benton County’s administration building in Kennewick; and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s Stable Isotope Science and Engineering Laboratory in Richland.

“For almost 30 years, our firm has thrived on a foundation of project excellence, creative challenges and meaningful collaborations,” said Jennifer Cox, MMEC’s principal business manager, in the email. “Looking back at our shared achievements, we are filled with immense pride.”

Cox told the Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business that MMEC’s closure resulted from a perfect storm of converging issues. Broader challenges within the architecture and engineering industry were compounded by clients recently failing to make timely payments for work as well as prospective projects being defunded.

Specifically, she said MMEC was competing for a design-build PNNL project shelved by the U.S. Department of Energy and another from Ben Franklin Transit that was indefinitely postponed. She declined to name the specific projects.

“For our particular situation, everything that could go wrong did go wrong,” she said.

With several of the firm’s principal architects also approaching retirement, MMEC decided the best course of action was to dissolve, Cox said.

The company was ranked as the largest architectural firm in the Tri-Cities with a staff of 12 in the Journal’s 2025 Book of Lists, with six licensed architects led by principal Boyd Lusarreta. For this year’s list, the company reported having three employees in the Tri-Cities, with one licensed architect, dropping it to No. 6 in the rankings.

MMEC, founded in 1999, has focused primarily on educational projects, along with some commercial, industrial and housing projects and tenant improvements. 

Other high-profile projects the firm worked on in the Tri-Cities include Kennewick High School, many Kennewick elementary schools, two Pasco middle schools and non-school projects, including improvements at 1100 Jadwin Ave. in Richland, work on Bookwalter Winery, the Benton County Elections Center, banks and more.