Archinect - News

George Eugene Kostritsky, founding member of RTKL, passes away at 98 from COVID-19 complications

2020-09-10T12:57:00-04:00

George Eugene Kostritsky, one of the founding members of the architecture firm RTKL (now CallisonRTKL), has passed away. According to a remembrance posted to the CallisonRTKL website, Kostritsky passed away from complications resulting from COVID-19; He was 98 years old.

Kostritsky was born in 1922 in Shanghai, was raised in San Francisco, and ultimately settled in Baltimore, where the firm he helped found got its start. Kostritsky served in World War II and was educated at the University of California, Berkeley, later going on to study briefly at the Princeton University Graduate School of Architecture before eventually transferring to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned a master’s degree in planning and urban design.

Described as "a classic modernist" in an obituary published by The Baltimore Sun, Kostritsky arrived at the existing Rogers, Taliaferro, and Lamb firm in 1961, bringing an urban planning sensibility to the practice that would help expand the sc...

Design & the trade war: American architecture firms on the challenges of doing business in China

2019-07-10T08:30:00-04:00

Trade often gets shorthanded to its most tangible form, the flow of goods from one country to another. But the exchange of services is also part of the equation, with building design offering a high-demand example in China amid an extended economic boom there.

Dallas News correspondent Tom Benning highlights the business setbacks two major U.S.-based architecture firms — HKS and CallisonRTKL — experienced while operating in China: from breach of contract, to intellectually property theft, all the way to corporate imposture, these all-too-common challenges are also part of the ongoing trade tensions between the United States and China, which, as HKS chairman emeritus Ralph Hawkins calls it, "such a growing economy, I don't think any firm can ignore it."

Callison and RTKL merge in hopes to "bring swagger back" to Seattle office, CEO says

2015-10-20T20:06:00-04:00

On Tuesday, Callison and architecture/engineering firm RTKL announced they have officially joined forces as CallisonRTKL...[CEO Lance] Josal said the merger is good news for both firms and 'especially for the Seattle office.' In talking to the firm's senior leaders, Josal said there has been 'a little bit of frustration on their part' because they felt the firm 'may have lost a bit of swagger locally' and wanted an owner that would invest in the firm...

Previously on Archinect:

ARCADIS to buy Callison

RTKL Gets to Design a 28-story Tower in Indianapolis

2013-08-13T18:12:00-04:00

The bid to design an $81 million, 28-story residential tower on the site of Indianapolis' former Market Square Arena just went to RTKL (together with developer Flaherty & Collins Properties). The winning design was chosen by a panel of local government, real estate and community leaders and prevailed over five other competitors.