Two prominent Atlanta-based design firms whose specialties include the hospitality sector are joining forces.
On Jan. 1, The Johnson Studio, which has been in business for more than 25 years and currently has 22 employees, will blend its operations into the Atlanta offices of Cooper Carry, a full-service architectural design firm founded in 1960, with offices in New York and Alexandria, Va., and an international portfolio.
Kevin Cantley, AIA, Carry Cooper’s CEO, says that his firm is one of the top three hotel designers in the country. As such, it has worked with myriad restaurant design firms, including The Johnson Group. “We are delighted to have them work alongside our talented hotel and retail team every day,” Cantley said about the merger.
Bill Johnson, AIA, Senior Principal and Founder of The Johnson Studio—whose first big restaurant design project was a Cheesecake Factory in Atlanta’s Buckhead neighborhood in the early 1990s—is staying on to lead the new business’s restaurant design practice. He will work with Cooper Carry’s seven Hospitality Studio principals.
The Johnson Studio will maintain its own brand. “This collaboration provides a platform for future services that we feel will be unparalleled,” said Johnson in a prepared statement.
According to its website, Cooper Carry has 11 specialty practices. Its services include architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, planning, sustainability consulting, and environmental graphics and wayfinding. The company emphasizes “environmentally responsible design,” as well as “connective architecture” that brings people and buildings within neighborhoods together.
Among its recent hotel design projects are the 1.1 million-sf Marriott Marquis Hotel in Washington, D.C., the 37,916-sf Sea Pines Plantation Golf Clubhouse in Hilton Head, S.C., and the 613,942-sf Hilton Cleveland Downtown.
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
Wisconsin becomes the first state to require BIM on public projects
As of July 1, the Wisconsin Division of State Facilities will require all state projects with a total budget of $5 million or more and all new construction with a budget of $2.5 million or more to have their designs begin with a Building Information Model. The new guidelines and standards require A/E services in a design-bid-build project delivery format to use BIM and 3D software from initial ...
| Aug 11, 2010
Opening night close for Kent State performing arts center
The curtain opens on the Tuscarawas Performing Arts Center at Kent State University in early 2010, giving the New Philadelphia, Ohio, school a 1,100-seat multipurpose theater. The team of Legat & Kingscott of Columbus, Ohio, and Schorr Architects of Dublin, Ohio, designed the 50,000-sf facility with a curving metal and glass façade to create a sense of movement and activity.
| Aug 11, 2010
Residence hall designed specifically for freshman
Hardin Construction Company's Austin, Texas, office is serving as GC for the $50 million freshman housing complex at the University of Houston. Designed by HADP Architecture, Austin, the seven-story, 300,000-sf facility will be located on the university's central campus and have 1,172 beds, residential advisor offices, a social lounge, a computer lab, multipurpose rooms, a fitness center, and a...
| Aug 11, 2010
News Briefs: GBCI begins testing for new LEED professional credentials... Architects rank durability over 'green' in product attributes... ABI falls slightly in April, but shows market improvement
News Briefs: GBCI begins testing for new LEED professional credentials... Architects rank durability over 'green' in product attributes... ABI falls slightly in April, but shows market improvement
| Aug 11, 2010
Luxury Hotel required faceted design
Goettsch Partners, Chicago, designed a new five-star, 214-room hotel for the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The design-build project, with Saudi Oger Ltd. as contractor and Rayadah Investment Co. as developer, has a three-story podium supporting a 17-story glass tower with a nine-story opening that allows light to penetrate the mass of the building.
| Aug 11, 2010
Three Schools checking into L.A.'s Ambassador Hotel site
Pasadena-based Gonzalez Goodale Architects is designing three new schools for Los Angeles Unified School District's Central Wilshire District. The $400 million campus, located on the site of the former Ambassador Hotel, will house a K-5 elementary school, a middle school, a high school, a shared recreation facility (including soccer field, 25-meter swimming pool, two gymnasiums), and a new publ...
| Aug 11, 2010
New Jersey's high-tech landscaping facility
Designed to enhance the use of science and technology in Bergen County Special Services' landscaping programs, the new single-story facility at the technical school's Paramus campus will have 7,950 sf of classroom space, a 1,000-sf greenhouse (able to replicate different environments, such as rainforest, desert, forest, and tundra), and 5,000 sf of outside landscaping and gardening space.
| Aug 11, 2010
U.S. firm designing massive Taiwan project
MulvannyG2 Architecture is designing one of Taipei, Taiwan's largest urban redevelopment projects. The Bellevue, Wash., firm is working with developer The Global Team Group to create Aquapearl, a mixed-use complex that's part of the Taipei government's "Good Looking Taipei 2010" initiative to spur redevelopment of the city's Songjian District.
