CHAMPAIGN – An architectural firm will show off its new quarters in downtown Champaign this afternoon, roughly four months after it moved in.

BLDD Architects will host an open house from 4 to 7:30 p.m. today at its new location, 17 Taylor St. That building for many years housed the offices of the Urban League of Champaign County and later served as the home of Verde Gallery and Jennifer North.

Branch manager Mark Ritz said BLDD Architects, which formerly had its local office at 2104 W. Springfield Ave., C, moved to downtown Champaign about May 1.

"It's an exciting place for our business to be," Ritz said. "We have a young staff and wanted a place that really appealed to younger people. Plus, we love all the amenities that downtown has to offer, with the dining and social opportunities."

The new space provides 3,300 square feet for the office's 13 employees, he said.

"We added a couple staff (members), so this gave us a little more room," Ritz said. "We talked about different locations for the office, and we kept coming back to downtown."

Several architectural and engineering firms have moved their offices to downtown Champaign in recent years. RATIO Architects renovated a building at 10 Chester St., C, for its offices in 2005. In the past year, Architectural Expressions opened an office in the former train station at 116 N. Chestnut St. Later this year, the Clark Dietz engineering firm plans to move to the first floor of Church Street Square, the former Robeson's department store.

BLDD Architects, based in Decatur, also has offices in Bloomington and Chicago as well as Champaign. BLDD came to Champaign in 1987 when it bought the former Robert P. Simon & Associates office on Round Barn Road. It remained at that location until 2001, when it moved to the Springfield Avenue site, Ritz said.

BLDD Architects' current local projects include:

– The addition to and remodeling of Garden Hills School in Champaign.

– A new applied technology center at Parkland College, as well as an addition to the Tony Noel Center there.

– The first phase of the Ikenberry Commons residence hall complex at the University of Illinois.

BLDD Architects was established 80 years ago, and today it has more than 75 employees. It was recently named "one of the best architecture/engineering/construction firms to work for" by Building Design & Construction magazine.