New York, N.Y. (March 16, 2021) Perkins Eastman and Pfeiffer Partners Architects have announced their pending merger.
Perkins Eastman, a global architecture and design firm with more than 1,000 employees, has worked on projects on five continents in 60 countries. Its portfolio reflects expertise in multiple practice areas: healthcare, senior living, large scale mixed-use, higher education, K-12, hospitality, and workplace design as well as planning, urban design, and strategic consulting.
Pfeiffer Principals will lead key practice areas in the arts, libraries, and renovation/preservation, complementing Perkins Eastman's work in higher education, science & technology, healthcare, senior living, large scale mixed-use, K-12, hospitality, and workplace design.
Pfeiffer, a successor firm of Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates based in Los Angeles and New York City, is known for its depth of experience in the arts, libraries, historic preservation, renovations, adaptive reuse, and interior design.
The merger provides a platform for collaboration across disciplines and offices, combining the opportunity to draw on the market credibility, resources, and geographic reach that Perkins Eastman provides with the design expertise in programming, planning, architecture, and interior design that Pfeiffer offers. The two firms share a strong commitment to client service, mentoring, research, and design innovation.
'AN IMPORTANT MILESTONE IN OUR LONG-TERM PLANS'
“This merger is an important milestone in our long-term plans to build a firm that can offer the breadth of design and thought leadership our clients are seeking,” says Bradford Perkins, FAIA, Chairman of Perkins Eastman. “Pfeiffer brings internationally recognized experience and skills in key areas—all of which complement Perkins Eastman’s established capabilities.”
“Joining forces with Perkins Eastman will allow Pfeiffer to continue to focus on our core areas while expanding our geographic and typological reach,” says William Murray, FAIA, a Founding Principal of Pfeiffer. “For some time, our principals have discussed how best to grow our practice on both coasts as well as internationally, while retaining our identity and commitment to design excellence.
"When Brad approached us about a potential merger, the idea very much aligned with our long-term goals," said Murray. "Perkins Eastman, like Pfeiffer, offers a broad range of architectural solutions; not choosing to practice a particular architectural style but instead creating dynamic new environments that respond to the physical, cultural, and social context in which they’re located. The firm is also committed to a process of collaboration, client service, and professional growth of its staff. They are the perfect fit for us."
Pfeiffer, now known as Pfeiffer—A Perkins Eastman Studio, will lead key practice areas in the combined firm, including in the arts, libraries, and renovation/preservation/
ABOUT PERKINS EASTMAN
Perkins Eastman is a global design firm founded on the belief that design can have a direct and positive impact on people’s lives. The firm’s award-winning practice draws on its 1,000 professionals networked across 19 studios worldwide. By keeping the user’s needs foremost in the design process, the firm enhances the human experience across the spectrum of the built environment.
Since November 2019, the firm has completed three state-of-the-art healthcare facilities, Stanford Hospital in Palo Alto, CA, The David H. Koch Center for Cancer Care at Memorial Sloan Kettering Center in New York, NY, and MarinHealth Medical Center in Greenbrae, CA. Perkins Eastman’s Chicago studio was recently named the first project in Illinois, 1 of only 6 in the U.S., and 1 of only 35 worldwide to become WELL certified at the Platinum level under WELL v2 pilot. For more information: www.perkinseastman.com.
MORE ABOUT PFEIFFER
Pfeiffer is a U.S. design firm whose projects for cultural and educational clients marry smart planning with unusually effective client and team engagement for imaginative architectural solutions. Pfeiffer’s professionals—architects, planners, and interior designers, have been drawn together by a shared philosophy regarding the built environment. The firm is about Architecture, Planning, and Interior Design realized in a cross-disciplinary process to design human experience in places that bring people together.
Strong in library projects, Pfeiffer designed one of the nation’s first net-zero 24/7 academic libraries, Colorado College’s Tutt Library—an innovative renovation and expansion recognized with several awards, among them the 2019 AIA/LA Library Building Award. The firm has recently completed the University of Colorado at Boulder’s Warner IMIG Music Building Addition and the Myrtle Woldson Performing Arts Center at Gonzaga University.
Related Stories
| 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.
| Mar 23, 2011
AIA adds 13 new contract documents to Documents-on-Demand service
Web-based solution adds 13 popular Architect’s Scope of Services Documents to AIA Documents-on-Demand, providing easy access to documents anytime, anywhere.
| Mar 23, 2011
After 60 years of student lobbying, new activity center opens at University of Texas
The new Student Activity Center at the University of Texas campus, Austin, is the result of almost 60 years of students lobbying for another dedicated social and cultural center on campus. The 149,000-sf facility is designed to serve as the "campus living room," and should earn a LEED Gold certification, a first for the campus.
| Mar 23, 2011
Architecture Billings Index shows nominal increase
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) reported the February Architecture Billings Index score was 50.6, up slightly from a reading of 50.0 the previous month. This score reflects a modest increase in demand for design services (any score above 50 indicates an increase in billings). The new projects inquiry index was 56.4, compared to a mark of 56.5 in December.
| Mar 22, 2011
The American National Standards Institute accredits Stantec for greenhouse gas verification
Stantec Consulting Ltd.’s Atmospheric Environment Group has been awarded accreditation by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) for verification of assertions related to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The Scope of Accreditation is for verification of emissions and removals at the organizational level for Group 1 – General.
