Ontario, Canada April 28, 2011 – Ottawa and Hamilton (Dundas)-based Vermeulen Hind Architects, one of Canada’s leading healthcare architectural firms, has merged with Perkins+Will. Vermeulen Hind joins Toronto-based Shore Tilbe Perkins+Will, celebrated for its focus on civic and recreation architecture, and Vancouver-based Busby Perkins+Will, widely regarded as one of North America’s leading green practices, to create Perkins+Will Canada. The combination marks the official launch of Perkins+Will Canada, a merge that will establish the firm as among the pre-eminent interdisciplinary design practices in Canada.
“The Vermeulen Hind merger supports our strategy to grow by targeted acquisition, as it represents a pooling of expertise that will bring significant benefits to our global business by establishing a strong healthcare practice in Canada,” said Phil Harrison, Perkins+Will CEO. “The establishment of Perkins+Will Canada provides us with a platform to harness our expertise into a national Canadian practice and combine it with the depth and global reach of the Perkins+Will brand.”
Founded in 1992, Vermeulen Hind has deep experience in designing specialized healthcare facilities, including cancer centers. The firm’s portfolio ranges from smaller, adaptive re-use and restoration projects to larger, multi-phase institutional transformations. Vermeulen Hind, along with Perkins+Will’s current Toronto office, will comprise the Ontario practice of Perkins+Will Canada.
“Each Perkins+Will Canada office shares a common philosophy of design excellence, and combining the knowledge, expertise and resources of our legacy firms will result in one of the strongest and most innovative architecture practices in North America,” said Fred Vermeulen Healthcare Market Sector Leader, Ontario. “By collaborating with our colleagues across Perkins+Will, we will be able to strengthen our offering and better meet the growing needs of our diverse client base.”
About Perkins+Will
Established in 1935, Perkins+Will is an integrated design firm serving clients from offices in Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Dubai, Dundas, Houston, London, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Orlando, Ottawa, Philadelphia, Research Triangle Park, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Shanghai, Toronto, Vancouver, and Washington, D.C. The firm practices architecture, interiors, branded environments, planning + strategies, Preservation + Adaptive Reuse, and urban design for clients in the aviation + transit, corporate + commercial + civic, healthcare, higher education, K-12 education, science + technology and Sports + Recreation markets. Perkins+Will routinely ranks among the world’s top design firms and has received hundreds of awards, including the prestigious American Institute of Architects’ “Firm of the Year Award.” Social responsibility has been a driving philosophy at Perkins+Will since the firm’s beginnings in 1935. The firm has committed to the 1% Solution through Public Architecture, promising to donate time pro bono to non-profit organizations in need of design services. With more LEED Accredited Professionals than any design firm in North America, Perkins+Will is recognized as one of the preeminent sustainable design firm in the country. Perkins+Will was the first multi-office company to commit to the 2030 Challenge, in which the firm has pledged that all of their projects be designed to carbon neutrality by the year 2030.
About Vermeulen Hind Architects
Founded in 1992, the firm specializes in cancer center, healthcare and research facility design. The firm provides a full complement of comprehensive services – architecture, interior, urban and landscape design, and master and space planning – across two Ontario offices; one in Dundas and one in Ottawa.
Vermeulen Hind is bound by a common thread – to provide comfortable, healthy and stimulating experiences that celebrate life, promote wellness, contribute positively to community and heighten cultural awareness, all with a high degree of professionalism and social responsibility.
Related Stories
| Mar 11, 2011
Guests can check out hotel’s urban loft design, music selection
MODO, Advaya Hospitality’s affordable new lifestyle hotel brand, will have an urban Bauhaus loft design and target design-, music-, and tech-savvy guest who will have access to thousands of tracks in vinyl, CD, and MP3 formats through a partnership with Downtown Music. Guest can create their own playlists, and each guest room will feature iPod docks and large flat-screen TVs.
| Mar 11, 2011
Construction of helicopter hangars in South Carolina gets off the ground
Construction is under way on a $26 million aviation support facility for South Carolina National Guard helicopters. Hendrick Construction, the project’s Charlotte, N.C.-based GC, is building the 111,000-sf Donaldson Hangar facility on the 30-acre South Carolina Technology & Aviation Center, Greenville.
| Mar 11, 2011
Texas A&M mixed-use community will focus on green living
HOK, Realty Appreciation, and Texas A&M University are working on the Urban Living Laboratory, a 1.2-million-sf mixed-use project owned by the university. The five-phase, live-work-play project will include offices, retail, multifamily apartments, and two hotels.
| Mar 11, 2011
Chicago office building will serve tenants and historic church
The Alter Group is partnering with White Oak Realty Partners to develop a 490,000-sf high-performance office building in Chicago’s West Loop. The tower will be located on land owned by Old St. Patrick’s Church (a neighborhood landmark that survived the Chicago Fire of 1871) that’s currently being used as a parking lot.
| Mar 11, 2011
Community sports center in Nashville features NCAA-grade training facility
A multisport community facility in Nashville featuring a training facility that will meet NCAA Division I standards is being constructed by St. Louis-based Clayco and Chicago-based Pinnacle.
| Mar 11, 2011
Slam dunk for the University of Nebraska’s basketball arena
The University of Nebraska men’s and women’s basketball programs will have a new home beginning in 2013. Designed by the DLR Group, the $344 million West Haymarket Civic Arena in Lincoln, Neb., will have 16,000 seats, suites, club amenities, loge, dedicated locker rooms, training rooms, and support space for game operations.
| Mar 10, 2011
Steel Joists Clean Up a Car Wash’s Carbon Footprint
Open-web bowstring trusses and steel joists give a Utah car wash architectural interest, reduce its construction costs, and help green a building type with a reputation for being wasteful.
| Mar 10, 2011
How AEC Professionals Are Using Social Media
You like LinkedIn. You’re not too sure about blogs. For many AEC professionals, it’s still wait-and-see when it comes to social media.
| Mar 9, 2011
Hoping to win over a community, Facebook scraps its fortress architecture
Facebook is moving from its tony Palo Alto, Calif., locale to blue-collar Belle Haven, and the social network want to woo residents with community-oriented design.
| Mar 9, 2011
Winners of the 2011 eVolo Skyscraper Competition
Winners of the eVolo 2011 Skyscraper Competition include a high-rise recycling center in New Delhi, India, a dome-like horizontal skyscraper in France that harvests solar energy and collects rainwater, and the Hoover Dam reimagined as an inhabitable skyscraper.
