In the late 1970s, Adolfo Cotilla Jr. was working in a regional office in Boca Raton for an architecture firm based in Troy, Michigan. He was promoted to vice president within a year and a half, he said, only to later find himself out of a job when the firm shuttered the office.

Cotilla went to work for two other firms but soon realized he'd rather be on his own. In 1985, he started ACAI Associates, based out of his house in Sunrise. "There was no payroll," Cotilla said. "It was just me looking for work."

More than three decades later, ACAI has grown substantially, serving clients in the health care, education and transportation industries. Now based in Fort Lauderdale, the architecture and consulting firm has 33 employees, and it generated m...

ACAI’s interior work on the Nova Southeastern University - Dental Simulation Lab is recognized by American School and University magazine and awarded 2016 Outstanding Design for Healthcare Facilities / Teaching Hospitals.

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ACAI Associates has been named as the nation’s 16th largest architectural firm in Building Design+Construction (BD+C) magazine’s Giants 300 Architecture list in the Airport Terminal Sector. 

Every year, BD+C magazine releases rankings of the largest architecture, engineering, and construction firms in the United States. The collection of lists, known as the ‘Giants 300 Report’, takes into consideration building-type revenue, BIM revenue, green building work, scope of work and much more. The Giants 300 Report was published in their July 2016 issue.

ACAI Associates is a leading South Florida-based full-service architecture firm. In 2015, ACAI Associates began programming, planning and design phases on two airport terminal projects totaling...