PRELocation: New York and Providence, R.I. Partners: From left: Daniel Kidd, Aaron Davis, Zachary Colbert, and Leah Meisterlin Motive: "PRE is the think-tank that comes before the practice. Facing a stale job market, we decided to create our own work as part of a longer term strategy to be very well placed and lean when the market comes back around." —Zachary Colbert
XChange ArchitectsLocation: Brookline, Mass., and San Francisco Staff: Jonace Bascon (not pictured) and Derrick Choi, principal architects; Lynn Hsu, senior consulting architect Motive: "When I left school in 2000, I really wanted to focus on being an infrastructure and transportation expert. Having that base of contacts made it a lot easier for me to consider going off on my own." —Derrick Choi
Hyperform Design Co-opLocation: Arvada, Colo. Directors: Eric Anderson, Tim Geisler, and Carrie Momeni, pictured (from left), with Ripley the dog and fellow co-op members Daniel Gonzalez, Dorothy Ma, Tim Nuanes, and Sonja Holmes. Motive: "Everybody's so stressed out with the economy. All of our members want to be involved in something like this, and they want to have opportunities to make a living. We're doing our very best to satisfy both of those needs." —Tim Geisler
