In a move that brings full-service planning expertise to its already well-established architecture practice, Lord, Aeck & Sargent (LAS) has merged with Urban Collage (UC), one of the largest urban and campus planning and design firms in the Southeast. Combining these firms’ talents was made official today. UC plans to retain its name for the foreseeable future.
The merger adds a fifth geographic office for LAS, since UC, in addition to its Atlanta headquarters office, operates a Lexington, Kentucky, office. Beyond its Atlanta office, LAS operates from offices in Ann Arbor, Michigan; Austin, Texas; and Chapel Hill, North Carolina. “We welcome the opportunity to enhance our design and planning services for our clients, such as the University of Cincinnati and the University of Louisville, from a closer location,” said Joe Greco, LAS president.
“Urban Collage’s urban design and campus planning expertise will be infused across all of LAS’ practice areas, which include multifamily housing and mixed-use, higher education, science and technology, and historic preservation ” Greco said. “And Urban Collage’s capabilities also will benefit many of our clients, including private developers, corporations and institutions of higher learning as well as federal, state, county and municipal governments. This is a great combination of talent that will benefit our entire firm and will be an invaluable resource for our clients.”
Greco added that the two firms have been collaborating on projects for more than a decade, and their cultural compatibility has been tested. “The merger is a natural extension of what we’ve been doing with UC for quite some time; we know and trust one another,” he said.
Added LAS chairman Tony Aeck, “The merger is representative of our growth strategy. Although LAS’ growth is primarily organic, it has also come over the last decade from mergers similar to this one.
“Many clients desire to focus on their core missions and are seeking out design firms with broader capabilities to help them plan strategically and then design their buildings,” Aeck noted.
UC principals Bob Begle and Stan Harvey, who are co-founders of the firm, retain their titles of principal after merging with LAS. UC’s Atlanta office, headed by Begle, will keep its downtown location just minutes from LAS’ midtown office. Harvey heads the Lexington office.
“We’ve long admired the design reputation and culture of LAS,” Harvey said. “Urban Collage does only master planning. So being part of the full-service, merged firm is an opportunity for us to see our projects through from conception to completion.”
Added UC’s Begle, “The mergers in our industry are usually ones in which one very large firm buys a smaller one that does the same kind of work in order to gain more operational efficiencies. Our merger with LAS is not that at all. Because our firms do related yet different things, the merged whole will be significantly greater than the sum of its parts. It’s about adding value, design and planning synergies and creating a truly one-stop operation from which our clients will benefit.”
UC’s original roots grew from managing the City of Atlanta’s Olympics Public Improvements Program, for which the firm handled the master planning for Atlanta’s 1996 Centennial Olympic Games. UC also collaborated with another firm on the original redevelopment plan for The Atlanta BeltLine, a wide-ranging urban redevelopment and mobility project that is providing a network of public parks, multi-use trails and transit by re-using 22 miles of historic railroad corridors circling downtown and connecting 45 neighborhoods directly to each other. Urban Collage is currently part of the Planning and Design Team for the Multi Modal Passenger Terminal (MMPT) in downtown Atlanta. With a long history of working with downtown interests, adjacent intown neighborhoods, and state-wide municipalities, Urban Collage is managing the public outreach efforts for this complex urban initiative.
In Kentucky, UC is currently serving as master planner for downtown Lexington’s Rupp Arena, Arts & Entertainment District, billed as “the future of downtown Lexington.” Some additional Kentucky projects include: a plan for a new 65-acre campus for Bluegrass Community and Technical College in Lexington; a plan for the Red Mile mixed-use development near Lexington’s Red Mile horse racing track; a Lexington Distillery District plan that calls for revitalization of many of the District’s interesting and historic buildings as well as residential, commercial and mixed-use infill development; a master plan for Gateway Community and Tech College’s new Urban Campus in downtown Covington; a plan for continued improvement of the Westport Road Corridor in eastern Louisville; and design guidelines for the South Fourth Street Corridor, one of Louisville’s most intact historic places. The guidelines lay out a framework for current and future retail improvements and encourage retailers to maintain historic continuity while allowing creative solutions for storefronts and other architectural features to occur.
About Lord, Aeck & Sargent
Lord, Aeck & Sargent is an award-winning architectural and planning firm serving clients in academic, historic preservation, scientific, arts and cultural, and multi-family housing and mixed-use markets. The firm’s core values are responsive design, technological expertise and exceptional service. The firm is listed as 28th in Architect, the Magazine of the American Institute of Architects’ annual “Architect 50” ranking of U.S. architecture firms. The ranking is based on business, sustainability and design excellence/pro bono. In 2007, Lord, Aeck & Sargent was one of the first architecture firms to adopt The 2030 Challenge, an initiative whose ultimate goal is the design of carbon-neutral buildings, or buildings that use no fossil-fuel greenhouse gas-emitting energy to operate, by the year 2030. Lord, Aeck & Sargent has offices in Ann Arbor, Michigan; Atlanta, Georgia; Austin, Texas; Chapel Hill, North Carolina and Lexington, Kentucky. For more information, visit the firm at www.lordaecksargent.com.
About Urban Collage
Urban Collage focuses on the design of walkable, livable urban communities. UC approaches the built environment of each community as a “collage” of its unique people, politics and place. UC believes in the principles of good urbanism – diversity, connectivity and sustainability. UC, with offices in Atlanta, Georgia and Lexington, Kentucky, has completed work in 14 states and is recognized nationally for its work. For more information, visit www.urbancollage.com.
Related Stories
| Jul 28, 2014
LEO A DALY hires Peter Yakowicz to oversee VA projects
New hire will work with healthcare and federal market sectors on programs specifically for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
| Jul 28, 2014
Peterson Associates joins forces with KSQ Architects
Move creates Charlotte, N.C., office with expertise in higher education, K-12, multifamily, and healthcare.
| Jul 28, 2014
Post Tower Wins CTBUH 10-Year Award
The 10 Year Award recognizes proven value and performance in a tall building, across one or more of a wide range of criteria, over a period of 10 years since its completion.
| Jul 27, 2014
Maturing ‘plug and play’ sector could take market share from AEC Giants [2014 Giants 300 Report]
The growth of modular and containerized data center solutions may eventually hinder the growth of traditional data center construction services.
| Jul 27, 2014
Top Data Center Construction Firms [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Holder, Turner, and DPR head Building Design+Construction's 2014 ranking of the largest data center contractors and construction management firms in the U.S.
| Jul 27, 2014
Top Data Center Engineering Firms [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Fluor, Jacobs, and Syska Hennessy top Building Design+Construction's 2014 ranking of the largest data center engineering and engineering/architecture firms in the U.S.
| Jul 27, 2014
Top Data Center Architecture Firms [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Gensler, Corgan, and HDR head Building Design+Construction's 2014 ranking of the largest data center architecture and architecture/engineering firms in the U.S.
| Jul 25, 2014
Grocery stores choosing Green Globes for building sustainability certification
The Green Building Initiative (GBI) has announced a wave of Green Globes certifications for new grocery stores, including New Seasons Markets, Whole Foods, Price Chopper, Aldi’s, Harris Teeter, Wegmans, and Publix.
| Jul 24, 2014
SLATERPAULL Architects to merge with Hord Coplan Macht
The merger will create a full-service practice with offices in Baltimore, MD, Denver, CO and Alexandria, VA that offers integrated architecture, landscape architecture, interior design, planning and historic preservation services.
| Jul 24, 2014
MIT researchers explore how to make wood composite-like blocks of bamboo
The concept behind the research is to slice the stalk of bamboo grass into smaller pieces to bond together and form sturdy blocks, much like conventional wood composites.
