Senior partner Mitch Smith (left) and senior principal Russ Hazzard get into the spirit.

MulvannyG2 Architecture

Creativity is key at this award-stacked Bellevue firm, which has designed everything from the Mercer Street QFC in Seattle's lower Queen Anne neighborhood and its own Eastside office (it won the "Coolest Office Space" category as well) to an exclusive destination resort in Abu Dhabi that includes a five-star hotel, 250 vacation ownership suites and 1,000 beachfront villas connected by waterways.

Creative juices are kept flowing by in-house design competitions and "Design Wednesdays," in which teams share inspiring details of projects they're working on with their coworkers. Sometimes those juices spill into pure silliness, as in the Friday morning "Survivor" game in which employees pour their energy into hula hooping, karaoke and dance contests. And even when given lemons, such as a recent round of layoffs, architects honored their dearly departed by holding a design competition literally in their names, using their old business cards to construct jaw-dropping sculptures, resulting in twisting spires, a race car and a colorful vase with flowers all abloom.

Other top finalists*

• 16 Copenhagen
• Catalysis
• Cobalt
• Creature
• Elephants & ants
• Frause
• ImagiCorps
• Plexipixel
• White Window Studios

*Listed in alphabetical order