The San Francisco office of DLR Group has announced its acquisition of two smaller local specialty design practices in a move that will expand services to clients in the areas of civic and public safety design as well as high-end hospitality and residential interiors.

Thirty-five-year-old BraytonHughes Design Studios and Sonoma-based RossDrulisCusenbery (RDC) were the two firms acquired in separate deals. Both are well-known in the Bay Area market, having developed nationally recognized designs in their respective practice areas for the last three decades. 

The boutique interiors specialist BraytonHughes Design Studios will add their expertise in high-end hospitality, resort, corporate office design, and residential projects to the DLR portfolio. Its addition helps DLR to accelerate growth in these segments and is strengthened by the firm’s longtime clients like the Four Seasons, Waldorf Astoria, and Grand Hyatt hotel brands, according to DLR. 

In a statement, BraytonHughes President Janea Nakagawa said: "We made the decision to join DLR Group to accelerate our growth and access scale to provide our people with more design opportunities. This ensures the design legacy of BraytonHughes. DLR Group is 100% employee-owned and that became incredibly attractive as we went through this process. Everyone at BraytonHughes will have the opportunity to be an owner and benefit financially from their design work as part of DLR Group."

Joel Villalon will remain on as a Principal in the new operation, joined at DLR's 235 Montgomery Street offices by his colleagues Janea Nakagawa, Rachel Fischbach, Kiko Singh, and Towan Kim, who will all share the same title. 

The move was preceded by an early-January acquisition of the public safety specialists RDC that will bolster DLR’s Justice+Civic practice area with 65 new designers in between two offices. 

In a news announcement, the DLR Group's Board Chair Griff Davenport said: "There is cultural alignment of shared values for justice sector work. We have enhanced the design depth and resources of our Justice+Civic studio. With RDC, we are a more nimble firm that can better serve city, county, and state government clients to meet the unique needs of their constituents."

Since DLR Group is a 100% employee-owned firm, new RDC design staffers will get the opportunity to purchase stock and invest in DLR Group immediately. The RDC office in Sonoma will maintain the RossDrulisCusenbery name in the immediate future, the firms say. RDC staff from the former Berkeley operation will join BraytonHughes relocating to 235 Montgomery Street in San Francisco.