OMAHA, NE, and PRINCETON, NJ - HDR Architecture, one of the world's leading healthcare design firms, and CUH2A, the world's largest science and technology (S+T) design firm, have announced their intent to merge to create the most comprehensive S+T design firm in the world. The merged company will assemble the deepest pool of design expertise across the entire spectrum of the rapidly converging fields of life sciences research, physical sciences research and healthcare.
The combined companies will employ nearly 1,700 architecture, engineering, and planning (AEP) staff in more than 40 locations worldwide. With complementary portfolios across the academic, government, and corporate S+T market sectors, HDR and CUH2A will deliver integrated AEP services to an extensive array of specialty areas including biomedical research and development, academic research, biocontainment, nanotechnology, vivaria, clean rooms, and forensics. The merged business practices will have unsurpassed knowledge and perspective in the emerging field of translational research with its "bench to bedside" facilities that combine research with clinical care.
The merger allows each company access to previously impenetrable markets and regions. As a result, HDR and CUH2A will each fast forward their company's strategic development by at least 10 years and will enable the combined company to focus further on the shared vision of bettering the human condition globally. The two companies create sustainable facilities that help the world's best researchers to discover cures for insidious diseases, the best healthcare providers to deliver medical solutions to enrich people's lives, and the most prestigious government agencies to defend communities against bio-threats.
The union is expected to be completed by the end of June 2008. Once the deal is completed, the science and technology groups of each company will merge into one business unit. Executives from HDR and CUH2A will form an integrated management team for the combined science and technology unit, which will be led by CUH2A's President Scott Butler.
