SmithGroup, one of the nation’s leading architecture, engineering and planning firms, will now operate at SmithGroupJJR.
The name change reflects the creation of a single brand, bringing together SmithGroup and JJR, LLC. Formerly a SmithGroup subsidiary, JJR is an award-winning specialist in landscape architecture, planning, urban design, civil engineering, and environmental science.
“We have always been one company in culture and ownership,” said SmithGroupJJR President & CEO Carl Roehling, FAIA, LEED AP. “By merging our two brands, it’s now loud and clear that we’re together – increasingly multi-disciplined and fully integrated.”
SmithGroup and JJR have been together for more than 40 years. SmithGroup merged with JJR (then known as Johnson, Johnson & Roy) in 1970 to add landscape architecture and planning services. Since then, JJR has been a subsidiary of SmithGroup while continuing to operate as its own brand, retaining the JJR name.
“The new SmithGroupJJR name will help our clients realize the full extent of our services and capabilities,” Roehling explained. “We are one of a few multi-disciplinary design firms that offer this range of integrated services.”
Owners are increasingly opting to use multi-disciplinary firms to solve their project challenges. Having a myriad of design and planning services--from master planning to architecture to multiple engineering disciplines to landscape architecture--provided by a single, integrated firm allows owners to benefit from the creativity and heightened quality that such collaboration brings.
JJR’s expertise now becomes one of SmithGroupJJR’s practices, which focus on the firm’s significant client markets. The firm’s four primary practices--Health, Learning, Workplace and Science & Technology--will now be joined by a fifth, called the Campus, Community & Waterfront practice.
Fred Klancnik, PE, F.ASCE, who has served as president and CEO of JJR since 1999, becomes the leader of the new practice. He believes the name change is good news for clients.
“The specialized services that we are well known for nationally and internationally, such as campus and waterfront development, will now become more readily available to SmithGroupJJR clients throughout all offices,” Klancnik stated. BD+C
Related Stories
| Aug 10, 2022
U.S. needs more than four million new apartments by 2035
Roughly 4.3 million new apartments will be necessary by 2035 to meet rising demand, according to research from the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC) and National Apartment Association.
| Aug 10, 2022
Gresham Smith Founder, Batey M. Gresham Jr., passes at Age 88
It is with deep sadness that Gresham Smith announces the passing of Batey M. Gresham Jr., AIA—one of the firm’s founders.
| Aug 9, 2022
Work-from-home trend could result in $500 billion of lost value in office real estate
Researchers find major changes in lease revenues, office occupancy, lease renewal rates.
| Aug 9, 2022
5 Lean principles of design-build
Simply put, lean is the practice of creating more value with fewer resources.
| Aug 9, 2022
Designing healthy learning environments
Studies confirm healthy environments can improve learning outcomes and student success.
Legislation | Aug 8, 2022
Inflation Reduction Act includes over $5 billion for low carbon procurement
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, recently passed by the U.S. Senate, sets aside over $5 billion for low carbon procurement in the built environment.
| Aug 8, 2022
Mass timber and net zero design for higher education and lab buildings
When sourced from sustainably managed forests, the use of wood as a replacement for concrete and steel on larger scale construction projects has myriad economic and environmental benefits that have been thoroughly outlined in everything from academic journals to the pages of Newsweek.
AEC Tech | Aug 8, 2022
The technology balancing act
As our world reopens from COVID isolation, we are entering back into undefined territory – a form of hybrid existence.
Legislation | Aug 5, 2022
D.C. City Council moves to require net-zero construction by 2026
The Washington, D.C. City Council unanimously passed legislation that would require all new buildings and substantial renovations in D.C. to be net-zero construction by 2026.
Cultural Facilities | Aug 5, 2022
A time and a place: Telling American stories through architecture
As the United States enters the year 2026, it will commence celebrating a cycle of Sestercentennials, or 250th anniversaries, of historic and cultural events across the land.
