Sasaki Associates will be branching out and adding a new component after an announcement this week that they are acquiring Brooklyn-based DLANDstudio and opening a new office in New York City for the first time.

The 70-year-old firm has traditionally operated out of offices in Denver, Shanghai, and Watertown, Massachusetts, where it is headquartered, and boasts an impressive and well-known international portfolio which includes the Chicago Riverwalk, Xuhui Runway Park, and soon-to-be remade Boston City Hall plaza.

Sasaki says the new addition will help bolster its ability to address core issues such as climate adaptation, biodiversity loss, environmental justice, and social equity in keeping with its founder’s visionary pursuit of ecologically-minded architecture and design.

Speaking in a press release, DLANDstudio founder and principal Susannah Drake, FASLA, FAIA said: “Environmental justice was, and remains, an important driver of the work that we do every day. We recognized that, to realize our design vision, we needed a deeper team with a global track record of compelling and beautiful built work. Upon entering into conversations with Sasaki, we knew that we had found the right partner to help us deliver the goals that we have been working toward for the past 18 years.”

As a studio practice, DLANDstudio’s work has garnered several awards and has been included in the permanent collections of both the MoMA and Cooper Hewitt. Since being founded in 2005, the firm's focus has been on public projects in cities such as Little Rock, Washington, and Brooklyn.

Drake will continue in her role as principal at Sasaki and contribute to the firm’s design “excellence and strategic plan goals” along those lines. Sasaki’s Landscape Chair Michael Grove pointed to the shared mission of both organizations as a kind of synergy needed to meet the demands of the times, adding finally that he thinks the move “will allow us to deepen our bench of talented designers, thought leaders, and builders to help solve the complex social, ecological, and climatic challenges of the 21st century.”

Video courtesy Sasaki Associates