The merger of HKS architects with Hill glazier, becoming HKS Hill Glazier Studio has made the new firm arguably the largest hospitality design group in the world. Before the merger, both companies enjoyed wide acclaim and recognition, ranking in the top ten nationally and grossing almost $3 billion in anual work making them leaders in the hospitality design sector.
The merger, which occured in June of 2007 had me wondering how strong the new collaboration would be as many successful and strong willed architects have a hard time working symbiotically with each other, especially when it comes to? Yep, design concepts. I expected that there would also be some cut backs in the firm size in terms of staff and offices but that has not been the case. In the past year, HKS Hill Glazier has not only doubled its workload but also introduced 23 new offices around the world, hired over 100 hospitality design staff members and have more than $14 billion in construction underway in California alone.
One reason for this seamless transition is the fact that before the merger, the two firms had worked together for more than 10 years on projects such as the One&Only Palmila in Los Cabos, Mexico, the Ocean Club in Paradise Island, Bahamas and the Rosewood Resort in Telluride, Colorado. This helped foster a strong relationship of professional trust and familiarity and confidence in each of their respective design strengths.
I am happy to see that HKS Hill Grazier is a true partnership and I think that the firm is only going to get stronger in the coming years establishing themselves as the big fish in the small pond of the hospitality design industry but I think that they are beginning to set a precedent for large company monopolization in the field of architecture.
3 comments:
In your opinion, how do architectural firms achieve 'true partnership'? And do you consider that mergers among architectural firms can become a new trend?
Well I think that like any partnership in life, there has to be mutual respect and consideration between the two parties. I think that if two architectural firms can work on a project without vying for more control over the other and are willing to be flexible in accomodating their respective ideas, they will be an ideal partnership.
If more firms can achieve this, such mergers may indeed begin to occur more but I hope that is not the case. Some projects need the touch of a smaller sized firm than a large corporation. As has been seen over the years, smaller firms are able to dedicate more time and effort to lower profile community projects than large firms who are too busy with projects they hope will put them on the front cover of Architectural Record.
I do not think its a good idea. A firm that large becomes unwieldy. An architectural or engineering firm is only as good as the team you get on your project and size has absolutely nothing to do with that. Its not like HKS or Hill Glazer was struggling for work before this merger, so whats the point. Access to more markets? HKS is doing work all over the world. I think it's more a case of greed.
If your an Architectural Project Manager at HKS this merger does nothing for you. In fact it makes your life more complex. If your a principal then your firms overall billing are increased and your 1% share goes from being 1% of $100 million to 1% of $200 million. Thats why this merger happened. Good old greed!
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