Perkins Eastman and Kliment Halsband Architects are pleased to announce their merger, which will combine the formidable talents, experience, and skills of both legacy firms. With Perkins Eastman celebrating its 40th anniversary and Kliment Halsband celebrating its 50th, this merger promises to create powerful synergies.
Perkins Eastman, the seventh largest architecture and design firm in the world with more than 1,100 employees, has worked on projects on five continents in 60 countries. Its portfolio reflects expertise in multiple practice areas with strengths in healthcare, senior living, large-scale mixed-use, K-12, higher education, hospitality, and workplace design as well as planning, urban design, and strategic consulting. Kliment Halsband Architects is known for designing award-winning new buildings, renovations, and adaptive reuse projects for educational, cultural, and civic institutions. The firm’s reputation for a sensitive, tailored approach for mission-focused clients is long established.
The merger provides a framework for combining Perkins Eastman’s expansive scale, deep reserve of design, and diverse portfolio with Kliment Halsband Architects’ renowned engagement in institutional design, its reputation for pragmatic innovation, and its leadership position within the industry. Both firms have highly collaborative working styles, prioritize client service, and are committed to educating and inspiring the next generation of professionals.
“Both firms believe in the power of design to improve people’s lives, and we’re looking forward to providing that benefit to a wider range of institutions,” says Mary-Jean Eastman, FAIA, co-founder and vice chair of Perkins Eastman.
Frances Halsband, FAIA, a founding partner of Kliment Halsband, adds, “We see things the same way, but we work in different ways to bring something new to the table. When we work together, we accomplish more than when we work individually.” Kliment Halsband will be known as “Kliment Halsband Architects—A Perkins Eastman Studio,” joining Perkins Eastman’s leaders in the K-12 and Colleges and Universities practices. The firms’ New York studios are co-located at 115 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY.
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 1,100+ professionals networked across 24 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. For more information, visit www.perkinseastman.com.
ABOUT KLIMENT HALSBAND ARCHITECTS—A PERKINS EASTMAN STUDIO
Kliment Halsband Architects, founded by Robert M. Kliment and Frances Halsband in New York City in 1972, is a diverse group of architects committed to the idea that good architecture imparts dignity to organizational mission and individual endeavor. The firm transforms buildings and sites with a measured approach that engages the past and welcomes the future. KHA advocates for sustainability and accessibility for all, but values most a project’s enduring usefulness: beauty, intelligibility to the people who use it, and the ability to adapt to change. The firm has received the AIA Firm Award, the AIA New York City Medal of Honor, and more than 150 awards for design excellence. For more information, visit www.kliment-halsband.com.
Related Stories
| Feb 15, 2011
Iconic TWA terminal may reopen as a boutique hotel
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey hopes to squeeze a hotel with about 150 rooms in the space between the old TWA terminal and the new JetBlue building. The old TWA terminal would serve as an entry to the hotel and hotel lobby, which would also contain restaurants and shops.
| Feb 15, 2011
New Orleans' rebuilt public housing architecture gets mixed reviews
The architecture of New Orleans’ new public housing is awash with optimism about how urban-design will improve residents' lives—but the changes are based on the idealism of an earlier era that’s being erased and revised.
| Feb 15, 2011
LAUSD commissions innovative prefab prototypes for future building
The LA Unified School District, under the leadership of a new facilities director, reversed course regarding prototypes for its new schools and engaged architects to create compelling kit-of-parts schemes that are largely prefabricated.
| Feb 15, 2011
New 2030 Challenge to include carbon footprint of building materials and products
Architecture 2030 has just broadened the scope of its 2030 Challenge, issuing an additional challenge regarding the climate impact of building products. The 2030 Challenge for Products aims to reduce the embodied carbon (meaning the carbon emissions equivalent) of building products 50% by 2030.
| Feb 15, 2011
New Urbanist Andrés Duany: We need a LEED Brown rating
Andrés Duany advocates a "LEED Brown" rating that would give contractors credit for using traditional but low cost measures that are not easy to quantify or certify. He described these steps as "the original green," and "what we did when we didn't have money." Ostensibly, LEED Brown would be in addition to the current Silver, Gold and Platinum ratings.
| Feb 15, 2011
AIA on President Obama's proposed $1 billion investment in energy conservation
The President’s budget increases the value of investment in energy conservation in commercial buildings by roughly $1 billion, reports AIA 2011 President Clark Manus, FAIA. The significant increase from the current tax deduction of $1.80 per sq. ft. now on the books is an increase for which the AIA has been advocating in order to encourage energy conservation.
| Feb 14, 2011
Sustainable Roofing: A Whole-Building Approach
According to sustainability experts, the first step toward designing an energy-efficient roofing system is to see roof materials and systems as an integral component of the enclosure and the building as a whole. Earn 1.0 AIA/CES learning units by studying this article and successfully completing the online exam.
| Feb 11, 2011
Four Products That Stand Up to Hurricanes
What do a panelized wall system, a newly developed roof hatch, spray polyurethane foam, and a custom-made curtain wall have in common? They’ve been extensively researched and tested for their ability to take abuse from the likes of Hurricane Katrina.