Company News: Arup, IBI, Stantec, NORR
February 16, 2016
By
CCE
The consortium known as TransEd Partners has sealed its contract with the City of Edmonton to design, build, finance, operate and maintain for 30 years, a new LRT line. Consulting engineers Arup and IBI are on the team for the $1.8-billion Valley Line Phase 1. The line will eventually be 13 kilometres long, will have 12 new stations and a new operations and maintenance facility. It will run southeast to west from Mill Woods to Lewis Farms, crossing Edmonton’s downtown. The TransEd Consortium consists of Bechtel, Fengate, EllisDon, Veolia Transportation, Bombardier and American Transportation Canada.
TransEd was successful against two other consortia that responded to the original request for proposals for the LRT. They were MovingYEG, which included Stantec and MMM Group, and River City Transit, which included SNC-Lavalin.
Stantec has signed a letter of intent to acquire VOA Associates Incorporated (VOA), a 280-person Chicago-based architecture and planning firm. VOA works internationally and has offices across the U.S., in New York City, Washington, DC, Orlando, Florida, and Highland, Indiana.
In Chicago VOA employs more than 140 people while Stantec has a 50-person office. Combined, they will form one of the largest design firms in Chicago.
Bob Gomes, Stantec president and CEO, said, “VOA strengthens our collective ability to grow our building practice in U.S. markets. Their talented staff has produced an impressive portfolio of workplace, healing, leisure, learning, civic, and entertainment venues. Culturally, they share our commitment to transform lives through integrated design and active community engagement. We’re excited to welcome VOA to the Stantec team.”
VOA’s key projects include the Virgin Hotel in New York City, scheduled to open in 2018; the Hampton University Proton Therapy Institute in Virginia; and the sustainably-designed 661,000-sq.-ft. NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC.
The acquisition is expected to close in late March 2016. Stantec’s building design practice now stands at 3,800.
The U.K. arm of Ingenium international’s building group has been re-branded as NORR Consultants Limited. The U.K. practice was previously known as Archial NORR,
