Southfield, Mich.-based architectural firm Harley Ellis Devereaux (HED) is joining forces with Deems Lewis McKinley (DLM), a 57-year-old architecture and engineering services firm headquartered in San Franicisco.
The merger, whose terms were not disclosed, is expected to strengthen HED’s presence in the K-12 and Community Education markets, where DLM has established itself as a recognized leader. (Its tagline is “Improving Education through Design,” and 95% of its clients are educational institutions.)
Among its featured projects in that sector is the Bay Farm Elementary School in the Alameda (Calif.) Unified School District, whose eight-acre campus is surrounded on three sides by single-family residences, and adjoined by a five-acre city park. DLM also designed the new 44,000-sf Susan B. Anthony School in Daly City, Calif., which resembles a modern version of a red brick schoolhouse.
This merger expands HED’s presence in California’s Bay Area and Sacramento, DLM’s two primary markets. Prior to this agreement, HED had been managing its accounts and projects in Northern California mostly out of its office in Los Angeles, according to a company spokesperson. Next month, DLM’s staff in San Francisco will relocate to HED’s San Francisco office, which is currently being enlarged. DLM’s employees working out of its Sacramento office will stay there.
“We are looking forward to merging the talents of our two teams and are excited to be part of a very talented studio with deep resources,” says Wallace B. (Wally) Gordon, AIA, LEED AP, President and Chief Executive Officer of DLM, who is staying stay on with HED along with DLM’s principals and senior associates. The one person working in DLM’s office in San Diego—where the firm was founded—will now work from HED’s 20-person office in that city.
Prior to this agreement, HED had 380 employees working from offices in Chicago, Detroit, L.A., San Diego, and San Francisco.
Related Stories
| Jan 27, 2011
Perkins Eastman's report on senior housing signals a changing market
Top international design and architecture firm Perkins Eastman is pleased to announce that the Perkins Eastman Research Collaborative recently completed the “Design for Aging Review 10 Insights and Innovations: The State of Senior Housing” study for the American Institute of Architects (AIA). The results of the comprehensive study reflect the changing demands and emerging concepts that are re-shaping today’s senior living industry.
| Jan 25, 2011
Bloomberg launches NYC Urban Tech Innovation Center
To promote the development and commercialization of green building technologies in New York City, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has launched the NYC Urban Technology Innovation Center. This initiative will connect academic institutions conducting underlying research, companies creating the associated products, and building owners who will use those technologies.
| Jan 25, 2011
Top 10 rules of green project finance
Since the bottom fell out of the economy, finding investors and financial institutions willing to fund building projects—sustainable or otherwise—has been close to impossible. Real estate finance prognosticators, however, indicate that 2011 will be a year to buy back into the real estate market.
| Jan 25, 2011
Chicago invented the skyscraper; can it pioneer sustainable-energy strategies as well?
Chicago’s skyline has always been a source of pride. And while few new buildings are currently going up, building owners have developed a plan to capitalize on the latest advances: Smart-grid technologies that will convert the city’s iconic skyline into what backers call a “virtual green generator” by retrofitting high-rise buildings and the existing electrical grid to a new hyper-connected intelligent-communications backbone.
| Jan 25, 2011
AIA reports: Hotels, retail to lead U.S. construction recovery
U.S. nonresidential construction activity will decline this year but recover in 2012, led by hotel and retail sectors, according to a twice-yearly forecast by the American Institute of Architects. Overall nonresidential construction spending is expected to fall by 2% this year before rising by 5% in 2012, adjusted for inflation. The projected decline marks a deteriorating outlook compared to the prior survey in July 2010, when a 2011 recovery was expected.
| Jan 25, 2011
Jester Jones Schifer Architects, Ltd. Joins GPD Group
GPD Group is excited to announce that Jester Jones Schifer Architects, a Marion-based architectural firm, has joined our firm, now enabling GPD Group to provide architectural services to the Central-Ohio market.
| Jan 21, 2011
Combination credit union and USO center earns LEED Silver
After the Army announced plans to expand Fort Bliss, in Texas, by up to 30,000 troops, FirstLight Federal Credit Union contracted NewGround (as CM) to build a new 16,000-sf facility, allocating 6,000 sf for a USO center with an Internet café, gaming stations, and theater.
| Jan 21, 2011
Manufacturing plant transformed into LEED Platinum Clif Bar headquarters
Clif Bar & Co.’s new 115,000-sf headquarters in Emeryville, Calif., is one of the first buildings in the state to meet the 2008 California Building Energy Efficiency Standards. The structure has the largest smart solar array in North America, which will provide nearly all of its electrical energy needs.
| Jan 21, 2011
Primate research facility at Duke improves life for lemurs
Dozens of lemurs have new homes in two new facilities at the Duke Lemur Center in Raleigh, N.C. The Releasable Building connects to a 69-acre fenced forest for free-ranging lemurs, while the Semi-Releasable Building is for lemurs with limited-range privileges.