91视频

A transition at the top this summer isn’t the only change on the horizon for Ankrom Moisan Architects.

When managing principal Dave Heater in July replaces Tom Moisan as president, the 300-person firm will be preparing to move both its Portland and Seattle offices to new locations and pursuing plans to open a third office in the San Francisco Bay Area. The growing firm that provides architectural, branding and urban and interior design services is also hiring more staff while seeking to expand into new markets and project types.

Moisan, who co-founded the firm with Stewart Ankrom in 1983, is planning to retire in a couple of years; in the meantime, he will remain the board chairman. In the past, Ankrom Moisan staffers have primarily worked on multifamily projects, but since the recession they have taken on more hotel and office developments, Moisan said.

鈥淲e’re really cranking in all those markets right now,鈥� he said.

In particular, firm leaders hope to position Ankrom Moisan as a specialist in the design of large-scale, urban mixed-use projects up and down the West Coast, he said. The firm’s new Portland office, under construction in Old Town Chinatown, is a perfect example of the type of projects Ankrom Moisan will pursue, Heater said.

鈥淭hat is a true mixed-use project,鈥� he said.

When crews from general contractor Andersen Construction complete the new six-story building at the corner of Northwest First Avenue and Davis Street in spring 2016, Ankrom Moisan’s headquarters will occupy 42,000 square feet on the third and fourth floors. The new office will replace a space the firm has occupied on Southwest Macadam Avenue for more than 20 years.

The new mixed-use building developed by Portland-based Gerding Edlen will house on the ground floor the Portland branch of the University of Oregon’s Lundquist College of Business, additional office space on the second floor and 58 units of workforce housing on the fifth and sixth floors.

Heater, who lives in Seattle and started Ankrom Moisan’s office there in 2006, has been preparing for another move. In December, the 85 Ankrom Moisan staffers who work in Seattle will relocate from the city’s Pioneer Square area to a larger, 24,000-square-foot office, at 1505 Fifth Ave., near Westlake Park downtown.

With Seattle and Portland office moves in the works, Heater and Moisan have turned their attention to establishing a physical presence for the firm in California. The plan is to open an office in San Francisco within the next three years, but Moisan said he’d like to see it happen sooner, preferably before he retires.

The number of projects that Ankrom Moisan staffers are designing in both northern and southern California continues to grow and has reached the point where it would be to the firm’s advantage to open an office in the state, Heater said.

鈥淥ur clients have brought us there,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he clients really want us down there and helping them.鈥�

The new San Francisco office will likely start out with a half dozen employees and eventually expand to include about 20 staffers, Heater said. Several firm staffers have already expressed interest in moving to the Bay Area, he said.

A large project that Ankrom Moisan is contributing to there is , a mixed-use, transit-oriented development in Oakland. It will include 624 units of market-rate and affordable housing. The firm also is working on a senior housing project for Jewish Home of San Francisco and mid- and high-rise housing developments in downtown Los Angeles.

Moisan said he’s confident that opening an office in San Francisco will help the firm further expand its work in California. He’s also comfortable with Heater taking charge of the task after he successfully opened Ankrom Moisan’s Seattle office.

鈥淗e built the Seattle office on his own,鈥� Moisan said.

Heater, who started his career at Ankrom Moisan in 1990 as an intern, said Moisan’s and Ankrom’s commitment to give their employees chances to take on greater responsibilities and work independently helped prepare him for his new role as firm president. He plans to perpetuate that ideal.

鈥淭om and Stewart set this up for us to find our own direction,鈥� Heater said. 鈥淚t helps us create a lot of pretty great leaders here.鈥�