F&S partners deepens its roots in Texas

SmithGroup/F&S in Dallas, US, provides architecture, interior design and planning services to clients throughout Texas and the southwest US. The office will also offer mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) engineering services through the expertise available at SmithGroup offices nationwide.

With the merger, Robert L. Shaw, Jr, AIA, president of F&S Partners, becomes a SmithGroup vice president and the office director of SmithGroup/F&S. He also joins SmithGroup’s board of directors. All of F&S Partners’ employees have been retained and its five principals maintain their management positions.

The merger gives F&S Partners the expanded resources necessary to design larger, more complex projects, while allowing SmithGroup to bring its national expertise in designing higher education, science and technology, health and workplace facilities to clients in Texas.

One of the major initiatives in Texas right now is the elevation of its emerging research universities to national status, and we wanted to find a way to help our clients meet this goal by designing the best facilities. Operating in Dallas as SmithGroup/F&S, we can now offer our clients access to some of the nation’s leading experts in university design and laboratory planning, said Shaw.

SmithGroup president & CEO Carl Roehling, FAIA, LEED AP, shares Shaw’s optimism for growth in Texas’ higher education market. F&S Partners has built key client relationships with the largest university systems in Texas, said Roehling. We’re confident they’re the right firm to accelerate SmithGroup’s growth in the higher education market. F&S Partners has an impressive portfolio of recreational facilities, which fits in well with SmithGroup’s student life initiative, he added.

The merger follows two years of communication and successful collaboration between the two firms. Earlier this year, SmithGroup and F&S Partners teamed up to win several significant healthcare, university and recreation projects in Texas and Arizona.

Presently, SmithGroup is designing the California Pacific Medical Center-Cathedral Hill Hospital, a $950 million, 914,000 square-feet, 555-bed hospital using lean construction, slated for completion in 2014 in downtown San Francisco.