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 11, 2011
Iowa surgery center addresses both inpatient and outpatient care
The 12,000-person community of Carroll, Iowa, has a new $28 million surgery center to provide both inpatient and outpatient care. Minneapolis-based healthcare design firm Horty Elving headed up the four-story, 120,000-sf project for St. Anthony’s Regional Hospital. The center’s layout is based on a circular process flow, and includes four 800-sf operating rooms with poured rubber floors to reduce leg fatigue for surgeons and support staff, two substerile rooms between each pair of operating rooms, and two endoscopy rooms adjacent to the outpatient prep and recovery rooms. Recovery rooms are clustered in groups of four. The large family lounge (left) has expansive windows with views of the countryside, and television monitors that display coded information on patient status so loved ones can follow a patient’s progress.
| Feb 11, 2011
Grocery store anchors shopping center in Miami arts/entertainment district
18Biscayne is a 57,200-sf urban retail center being developed in downtown Miami by commercial real estate firm Stiles. Construction on the three-story center is being fast-tracked for completion in early 2012. The project is anchored by a 49,200-sf Publix market with bakery, pharmacy, and café with outdoor seating. An additional 8,000 sf of retail space will front Biscayne Boulevard. The complex is in close proximity to the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, the downtown Miami entertainment district, and the Omni neighborhood, one of the city’s fast-growing residential areas.
| Feb 11, 2011
Chicago architecture firm planning one of China’s tallest towers
Chicago-based Goettsch Partners was commissioned by developer Guangzhou R&F Properties Co. Ltd. to design a new 294,570-sm mixed-use tower in Tianjin, China. The Tianjin R&F Guangdong Tower will be located within the city’s newly planned business district, and at 439 meters it will be one of China’s tallest buildings. The massive complex will feature 134,900 sm of Class A office space, a 400-key, five-star hotel, 55 condominiums, and 8,550 sm of retail space. The architects are designing the tower with multi-story atriums and a high-performance curtain wall to bring daylight deep into the building, thereby creating deeper lease spans. The project is currently finishing design.
| Feb 11, 2011
Two projects seek to reinvigorate Los Angeles County medical center
HMC Architects designed two new buildings for the Los Angeles County Martin Luther King, Jr., Medical Center as part of a $360 million plan to reinvigorate the campus. The buildings include a 120-bed hospital, which involves renovation of an existing tower and several support buildings, and the construction of a new multi-service ambulatory care center. The new facilities will have large expanses of glass at all waiting and public areas for unobstructed views of downtown Los Angeles. A curved glass entrance canopy will unite the two buildings. When both projects are completed—the hospital in 2012 and the ambulatory care center in 2013—the campus will have added more than 460,000 sf of space. The hospital will seek LEED certification, while the ambulatory care center is targeting LEED Silver.
| Feb 11, 2011
Sustainable community center to serve Angelinos in need
Harbor Interfaith Services, a nonprofit serving the homeless and working poor in the Harbor Area and South Bay communities of Los Angeles, engaged Withee Malcolm Architects to design a new 15,000-sf family resource center. The architects, who are working pro bono for the initial phase, created a family-centered design that consolidates all programs into a single building. The new three-story space will house a resource center, food pantry, nursery and pre-school, and administrative offices, plus indoor and outdoor play spaces and underground parking. The building’s scale and setbacks will help it blend with its residential neighbors, while its low-flow fixtures, low-VOC and recycled materials, and energy-efficient mechanical equipment and appliances will help it earn LEED certification.
| Feb 11, 2011
Texas megachurch inspired by yesteryear’s materials, today’s design vocabulary
The third phase of The First Baptist Church of Pasadena, Texas, involves construction of a new 115,000-sf worship center addition. Currently in design by Zeigler Cooper, the project will include a 2,500-seat worship center (with circular layout and space for a 50-person orchestra and 200-person choir), a 500-seat chapel (for weddings, funerals, and special events), and a prayer room. The addition will connect to the existing church and create a Christian Commons for education, administration, music, and fellowship. The church asked for a modern design that uses traditional materials, such as stone, brick, and stained glass. Construction is scheduled to begin this summer.
| Feb 11, 2011
Apartment complex caters to University of Minnesota students
Twin Cities firm Elness Swenson Graham Architects designed the new Stadium Village Flats, in the University of Minnesota’s East Bank Campus, with students in mind. The $30 million, six-story residential/retail complex will include 120 furnished apartments with fitness rooms and lounges on each floor. More than 5,000 sf of first-floor retail space and two levels of below-ground parking will complete the complex. Opus AE Group Inc., based in Minneapolis, will provide structural engineering services.
| Feb 11, 2011
Four-story library at Salem State will hold half a million—get this—books!
Salem State University in Massachusetts broke ground on a new library and learning center in December. The new four-story library will include instructional labs, group study rooms, and a testing center. The modern, 124,000-sf design by Boston-based Shepley Bulfinch includes space for 500,000 books and study space for up to a thousand students. Sustainable features include geothermal heating and cooling, rainwater harvesting, and low-flow plumbing fixtures.
| Feb 11, 2011
Green design, white snow at Egyptian desert retail complex
The Mall of Egypt will be a 135,000-sm retail and entertainment complex in Cairo’s modern 6th of October district. The two-story center is divided into three themed zones—The City, which is arranged as a series of streets lined with retail and public spaces; The Desert Valley, which contains upscale department stores, international retailers, and a central courtyard for music and other cultural events; and The Crystal, which will include leisure and entertainment venues, including a cinema and indoor snow park. RTKL is designing the massive complex to LEED Silver standards.
| Feb 10, 2011
7 Things to Know About Impact Glazing and Fire-rated Glass
Back-to-basics answers to seven common questions about impact glazing and fire-rated glass.