M+ Architects

Originally from Gladbrook, Iowa, McKinney decided to become an architect while giving back to his country serving in a recon platoon in South Vietnam.

"One of the guys in the platoon had a degree in landscape architecture. We just got to talking. I knew my goal was to go back to school. I was not settled in what I wanted to do. I had taken some drafting classes in high school," McKinney said.

"I thought architecture was the way to go. I wrote my wife to work on getting me accepted to school. I left Vietnam in February of 1971, hot, steamy, wet, and I exited the Army. I came home to my wife and 2-year-old son, Kris.

"My wife had me enrolled and accepted. I started my education at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I spent five quarters there, spring, summer, fall, winter, spring, and then I attended three years at Iowa State University."

McKinney graduated from Iowa State University in 1975 with a major in architecture and has been licensed since the early 1980s.

After college, he got a job in a Sioux City architectural firm and has been active in the community ever since. He started his own firm, M+ Architects, Inc. in 1991.

McKinney has a passion for historic buildings. Some of his works includes the Carnegie Library at the corner of 6th & Jackson, Plymouth Block (Terminal Building) on East Fourth, and Central High School (Castle on the Hill).

In addition to local projects in Sioux City, McKinney has completed historic projects in Waterloo, Dubuque, Clinton and Des Moines, and beyond.

Some of the local projects McKinney is most proud of include Heelan Hall at Briar Cliff University, YMCA in South Sioux City and the Anderson Dance Pavilion.

His current projects include the new Dakota City Fire Station and the Bomgaars Ag Expo in the former Stockyards.  

McKinney is proud that M+ Architects is a certified or verified service disabled veteran owned business employing five people, and he has been the only local architect elevated to FAIA (Fellow of the American Institute of Architects) in Sioux City since 2011. The last FAIA was William Steele in 1918.

He is also proud of the extensive volunteer work he has performed in his career over the years to give back to his profession.

McKinney was the state chapter president for one year of the American Institute of Architects in Iowa in 1989 and was the AIA National Director Central States for three years from 1997 to 1999. 

From 2001 to 2010, he served as a board member on the governor appointed Iowa Board of Architectural Examiners, the regulatory division for licensing architects. 

In 2014, McKinney was installed as president of the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB).

The 95-year-old organization, based in Washington, D.C., oversees the development and application of standards for licensure and credentialing of architects in the U.S., the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

McKinney, owner of M+ Architects in Sioux City, has been active with NCARB for 15 years,  serving on several committees. He currently chairs a Task Force on Ethics.

In October, he will take on a new volunteer position as a member of the National Architecture Accreditation Board, which accredits schools of architecture that teach young people to become architects.

McKinney said he volunteers as much as he does because he has a desire to give back to the profession of architecture and to his community. 

He said the most challenging part of his career has been balancing work and travel. 

All of it is worth it to McKinney, who works tirelessly to improve the architecture profession for the next generation and make sure students are qualified through education, examination and experience to take on the task that awaits them of protecting the health, safety and welfare of people who use the buildings they design.