Perkins Eastman and BLT Architects (BLTa) have recently announced their merger, effective February 1, 2022.
Perkins Eastman, which now has 1,100+ employees in 24 studios worldwide, has worked on projects on five continents in 60 countries. Its award-winning portfolio reflects expertise in healthcare, senior living, large-scale mixed use, higher education, K-12, hospitality, and workplace design as well as planning, urban design, and strategic consulting. BLTa, now known as “BLTa—A Perkins Eastman Studio,” has built an exceptionally strong integrated architecture and interior design firm of 41 professionals with deep roots in Philadelphia. With a studio in Pittsburgh for the last 27 years, Perkins Eastman has built a strong presence throughout Pennsylvania, especially in Western Pennsylvania. The addition of the BLTa studio strengthens the firm’s presence in the eastern part of the state as well. In merging with BLTa, Perkins Eastman enhances its expertise in mixed-use, multi-family residential, hospitality, workplace, higher education, historic renovations, adaptive reuse conversions, resorts and gaming, and transit-based projects.
“We are very pleased that BLTa has joined us and we now have a strong partner in Philadelphia. We have had the opportunity to get to know BLTa over the last several years and believe they bring significant skills and experience to our national practice. Moreover, we have always had important clients in Philadelphia, eastern Pennsylvania, and the adjacent states, and with BLTa we can now better serve those that want a combination of our national expertise combined with experienced local delivery and service,” says Brad Perkins, FAIA, chairman and co-founder of Perkins Eastman.
“We are thrilled to be merging with Perkins Eastman,” says Michael L. Prifti, FAIA, managing principal of BLTa, who joined the firm in 1982, back when it was known as Bower Lewis Thrower/Architects. “This union will give us the opportunity to serve our national clients in jurisdictions where we don’t currently practice. Perkins Eastman has new markets we’ve never touched. And with more feet on the ground, we can more easily and geographically serve our clients,” he says. Prifti also notes this merger will give BLTa’s architects and designers opportunities to diversify their projects and continue to grow as professionals.
Recent award-winning properties within the BLTa portfolio include: The Stephen Girard Building, where the firm revealed and preserved elegant design elements, integrating a 236-key Canopy by Hilton hotel within East Market, the one-million sf, ongoing transformation of a three square block area; The Bourse, a 380,000 sf adaptive reuse renovation of the first commodities exchange hall in the United States; and One City, an adaptive reuse project that converted an 1899 Renaissance Revival office building into a market-rate apartment building. Each of these properties won a Grand Jury 2021 Preservation Achievement Award given by the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia. The Stephen Girard Building and One City also won AIA Philadelphia Awards in the Historic Preservation/Adaptive Reuse Built category, and The Bourse won AIA Pennsylvania’s top prize – a Silver Medal. Hospitality Design magazine named Live! Casino and Hotel Philadelphia among the Best Hotel Openings of 2020. Live! Casino Pittsburgh, another BLTa design, also opened in 2020.
Shawn Basler, co-CEO and executive director of Perkins Eastman, notes that combining Perkins Eastman’s 40 years of global experience with BLTa’s 60 years of local expertise and relationships creates a powerful combination. “They’ll be able to draw on our well-established market credibility and resources, as well as geographic reach, while we’ll be able to tap into their deep knowledge of the Philadelphia metropolitan region along with their considerable expertise.”
Related Stories
| Apr 5, 2011
Top 10 Buildings: Women in Architecture
Making selections of top buildings this week led to a surprising discovery about the representation of women in architecture, writes Tom Mallory, COO and co-founder, OpenBuildings.com. He discovered that finding female-created architecture, when excluding husband/wife teams, is extremely difficult and often the only work he came across was akin to interior design.
| Apr 5, 2011
What do Chengdu, Lagos, and Chicago have in common?
They’re all “world middleweight cities” that are likely to become regional megacities (10 million people) by 2025—along with Dongguan, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Tianjin, and Wuhan (China); Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of the Congo); Jakarta (Indonesia); Lahore (Pakistan); and Chennai (India), according to a new report from McKinsey Global Institute: “Urban World: Mapping the economic power of cities”.
| Mar 30, 2011
China's low-carbon future city
In 2005, the Chinese government announced its target to reduce energy consumption per GDP unit by 20% by the year 2010. After a multi-billion investment, that target has been reached. The Chinese Climate Protection Program’s goal to increase energy efficiency, develop renewable energies, and promote energy savings while reducing pollutant emissions and strengthening environmental protection is reflected in the “Future City” by SBA Design.
| Mar 30, 2011
Is the AEC industry at risk of losing its next generation leaders without better mentoring?
After two or three horrifying years for the AEC industry, we are finally seeing the makings of a turnaround. However, data developed by Kermit Baker as part of the AIA Work-on-the-Boards survey program indicates that between 17% and 22% of design firms are eliminating positions for interns and staff with less than six years of experience. This data suggests the industry is at risk of losing a large segment of its next generation of leaders if something isn't done to improve mentoring across the profession.
| Mar 29, 2011
City's design, transit system can ease gas costs
Some cities in the U.S. are better positioned to deal with rising gas prices than others because of their design and transit systems, according to CEOs for Cities, a Chicago-based nonprofit that works to build stronger cities. The key factor: whether residents have to drive everywhere, or have other options.
| Mar 29, 2011
Chicago’s Willis Tower to become a vertical solar farm
Chicago’s iconic Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) is set to become a massive solar electric plant with the installation of a pilot solar electric glass project.
| Mar 29, 2011
Read up on Amazon.com's new green HQ
Phase IV of Amazon’s new headquarters in Seattle is nearly complete. The company has built 10 of the 11 buildings planned for its new campus in the South Lake Union neighborhood, and is on-track for a 2013 grand opening.
| Mar 29, 2011
Portuguese architect Eduardo Souto de Moura wins Pritzker Architecture Prize
Portugese architect Eduardo Souto de Moura, whose precisely-honed buildings reflect the influence of the late Chicago modernist Mies van der Rohe, is the 2011 winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the field's highest honor.
| Mar 25, 2011
Qatar World Cup may feature carbon-fiber ‘clouds’
Engineers at Qatar University’s Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering are busy developing what they believe could act as artificial “clouds,” man-made saucer-type structures suspended over a given soccer stadium, working to shield tens of thousands of spectators from suffocating summer temperatures that regularly top 115 degrees Fahrenheit.
