All About KAL Architects
Creating Award Winning Functional & Aesthetically Pleasing Environments Since 1991
Since KAL’s inception in 1991, our primary goal has been to provide quality-based services to a wide variety of public and private sector clients located throughout the United States. We consistently achieve this goal through a series of on-call full-service A/E prime and JV prime contracts and single-task assignments for multiple government agencies and private industries. KAL has successfully completed task orders, ranging in construction value from less than $10,000 to upwards of $220,000,000.
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Our Story
The KAL Architects story begins with the story of our founder, Rita Kalwani. By the age of 6, Rita had already developed a love of math and art. Her father suggested that, with her talents, she would make a great architect. Rita embraced this idea, making it her life's quest. At 16, and before beginning her university studies in architecture, Rita set another goal for herself - to launch her own professional architectural design practice. After receiving her degree from the University of Delhi, in her native India, Rita immigrated to the US, became a naturalized citizen, and began working for established architectural firms.
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In 1991, Rita founded KAL Architects as a full-service architectural & engineering firm based out of a bedroom in her Irvine, California home. Today, KAL is a thriving woman-owned A/E firm with more than 30 full-time employees, nearly half of which are female, with professional design offices in Irvine and Sacramento, and a project portfolio than spans the Nation.
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Rita's personal honors include receiving the 2014 Goldman Sach's Corporate Excellence (10,000) Award as well as US Congressional Recognition as the 2005 US Small Business Administration's California 8(a) Graduate of the Year. Under her leadership, KAL Architects is a graduate of the SBA's 8(a) program and continues to be a certified Small, Minority Owned, Woman-Owned business (SB/MBE/WOSB), meeting the NCAIS Code 541310 size standard requirement of $12,500,000 for architectural services as well as NAICS Code 541330 size standard requirement of $25,500,000 for engineering services. KAL has served as a federal prime contractor under IDIQ/Indefinite Delivery Contract-type contracts for more than 28 years, with more than 29 awarded contracts and over 450 contract task orders, most of which have received either Exceptional or Very Good assessment on ACASS, CPARS, and Client Past Performance evaluations.
KAL Architects proudly serves clients in both the public and private sector. The level of quality services that we provide is measured not only by the awards we have received, both as a firm and as individual professionals, but also by the trust and confidence demonstrated by our client base in repeatedly selecting KAL for their continuing architectural support.
KAL Architects proudly serves clients in both the public and private sector. The level of quality services that we provide is measured not only by the awards we have received, both as a firm and as individual professionals, but also by the trust and confidence demonstrated by our client base in repeatedly selecting KAL for their continuing architectural support.
KAL Architects is a certified member of the Women's Business Enterprise Council, the Small Business Administration, the Southern California Minority Business Development Council, the US Green Building Council as well as a member of the American Institute of Architects and the Society of American Military Engineers.