Foster + Partners, the largest architecture firm based in the United Kingdom, has announced a new partnership with a Canadian private family investment firm. The partnership with the Canadian firm, named Hennick & Company, sees the Hennick family now become the largest shareholder of Foster + Partners, followed by Norman Foster and his family.
The financial sum paid for the shares, and the size of the stakes, remains undisclosed according to the UK outlet Building Design, who first reported the story. Going forward, the practice’s existing partners will remain as long-term shareholders, retaining the balance of the equity between the Foster family and Hennick. Norman Foster will continue to serve in his current role as Executive Chairman, while all present partners will remain in their roles. The firm’s existing leadership team will also retain day-to-day operational responsibility.
The partnership received unanimous support from the firm’s partners at a recent general shareholders meeting. In a statement, Foster + Partners say the sale of shares will allow the practice to expand beyond its current 180 partners, and “ensure that the next generation of professionals can become shareholders in the practice, and allow for an orderly succession of existing partners over the long-term."
At present, Foster + Partners employees approximately 1500 people in 14 studios around the world. The firm has announced a series of new projects over recent months, including the Museo del Prado expansion in Spain, the La Fabrica masterplan in Chile, the Centennial Yards masterplan in Atlanta, and the Marina Tower in Athens, set to become Greece’s tallest building.
Hennick & Company, meanwhile, holds significant equity in real estate company Colliers International and property firm FirstService Corporation, among other professional services, financial services, manufacturing businesses, and real estate properties.
“Towards the end of last year, we started to explore long-term structures for the practice that would respond to the challenges and opportunities of growth and encourage the next generation of leadership and this partnership is the culmination of that process,” said Norman Foster in a statement. “This evolution has the potential to expand the range and depth of our studio – particularly in the fields of sustainability, infrastructure, urbanization and recycling.”
The well-known architect, who founded Foster + Partners in 1967 along with his late wife Wendy, has recently made headlines for doubling-down on his support for airport projects, following a previous dispute with environmental groups Architects Declare and ACAN over the impact of air travel on climate change. Separately, the Norman Foster Foundation has recently released a masterclass series called On Archives, exploring fundamental aspects related to architectural archives and libraries around the world.
9 Comments
Dolla Dolla Bill Y'all
Fuck being famous, I came to get the butters.
"Hennick & Company, meanwhile, holds significant equity in real estate company Colliers International and property firm FirstService Corporation, among other professional services, financial services, manufacturing businesses, and real estate properties."
Current state of so-called architecture in one sentence.
The moves Norman Foster makes to enlarge his personal monetary wealth never cease to amaze me. Selling out to a private equity (PE) outfit is good for him, but it is really questionable to me how the new owners will steer the business over the long term. PE types generally care only about finances. I could easily them re-selling the place or running it into the ground.
The Pritzker is like an Oscar - the winner becomes a highly sought marketing commodity. As with movies, subsequent projects are more about branding than anything else (for both developer and architect). Few manage to avoid the trap of such success.
Architects are brands now, and exist for the same reason.
The art metaphor is Roy Lichtenstein. Roy produced a single series of work for an entire lifetime. Today he would be partnered with the fashion houses who copy him, and still producing the same crap.
For a moment in time (1960's Pop) he was relavent. As time passed he grew less and less so, repeatedly producing the same tired work. This is the essence of branding.
Wikipedia has a delightful history on the origin of the dot paintings.
This is how Callison ultimately wound up being eaten by RTKL.
Tortured, Burnt, Massacred and then eaten up, I may add. Amazing how they gutted all of Callison, and then ended up being a sinking ship themselves.
This is just a simple reselling as F(+P) sold out already long time ago...good for them. Maybe they can now return to their core brand values and once again innovate technologically, materially and conceptually, I miss that Foster (+ Partners).
Nope. Private equity owners will expect strict adherence to aggressive and ever-increasing profit targets. In architecture, this is best realized through the opposite of innovation: formulaic design and repetition of those designs.
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