Perkins Eastman

Perkins Eastman is an international architecture, urban design, planning, strategic consulting, interior design, landscape architecture, graphic design, and project management firm. Headquartered in New York City, the firm is led by founding Principals Bradford Perkins and Mary-Jean Eastman.

History
The history of Perkins Eastman goes back more than a century, when Co-Founder and Chairman Brad Perkins' grandfather, Dwight Heald Perkins, started an architecture firm in 1897. Dwight later received commissions for the design of two universities in China. Brad's father, Lawrence Bradford Perkins, would go on to form to the global firm Perkins&Will. Bradford Perkins met his future Perkins Eastman co-founder, Mary-Jean Eastman, in the late 1970s when they were both working on New York City's bid to host the 1984 Summer Olympics -- Perkins was with the joint venture of Davis Brody and Llewelyn-Davies International while Eastman was working in tandem for the State of New York. When Los Angeles won the bid, Eastman went to work for Davis Brody briefly, while Perkins joined Perkins&Will in 1977 as the managing principal of its East Coast offices. Eastman followed Perkins there in 1978 as the studio leader of its New York office.

In 1981, Perkins and Eastman left Perkins&Will and partnered with Eli Attia to form Attia & Perkins. In 1984, Perkins bought out Attia's interest and reorganized the firm as Bradford Perkins & Associates. By 1985, Perkins and Eastman partnered with Barbara Geddis, and the name changed to Perkins Geddis Eastman. Geddis stepped down in 1991, and the firm became Perkins Eastman.

Leadership
In addition to the co-founders, Chairman Bradford Perkins and Vice Chair Mary-Jean Eastman, the company named Shawn Basler, Nick Leahy, and General Counsel Andrew Adelhardt III as co-CEOs on Sep. 25, 2019. The five leaders comprise an executive committee that also includes principals Hilary Bertsch, Jeffrey Brand, Jason Haim, Stephanie Kingsnorth, Barbara Mullenex, Supriya Thyagarajan, Jeff Young, Chief Financial Officer Paul Grillo, and Human Resources Director Salema Gumbs.

On January 25, 2019, the company named Basler, Leahy, and General Counsel Andrew Adelhardt III as co-CEOs.

Growth and expansion
The firm has expanded mainly by merging with other architecture, planning and design firms:

1994: Quick Ledewitz

1998: BFJ Planning

1998: SMS Architects

1999: Susan Black Architects

2000: Basler Mosa Design Group

2001: MedArc LLC; OWP/P Senior Living Group

2002: Van Summern Group; Roesch Landscape

2004: Healthcare Interiors Inc.

2005: Akol Architects; Larsen Schein Ginsberg Snyder

2006: Urbanomics

2007: Liebman Melting Partnership

2011: Ehrenkrantz, Eckstut & Kuhn

2011: Janson & Tsai

2011: S9 Architecture

2015: Lee, Burkhart, Liu (LBL Architects)

2016: ForrestPerkins; Design Partnership of Cambridge

2018: Dougherty & Dougherty; Packard Design, Inc.

2021: Pfeiffer Architects; VIA; MEIS

Today, Perkins Eastman is the second largest New York-based design firm per Crain's New York Business, the tenth largest architectural firm in the United States according to the Architectural Record, and the fourth largest architecture firm in the world by revenue according to Building Design + Construction.

Beyond its New York headquarters, the firm maintains domestic offices in: Pittsburgh (1994); Stamford, Connecticut (1998); Charlotte, North Carolina (2001); Chicago (2002); San Francisco (2002); Washington, DC (2006); Boston (2007); Los Angeles (2015); Dallas (2016); Costa Mesa, California (2018); Oakland, California (2018); Raleigh, North Carolina (2020); Austin (2021); Providence, Rhode Island (2021); and Seattle (2021). Internationally, Perkins Eastman operates in Toronto (1999); Shanghai (2005); Dubai, United Arab Emirates (2007); Guayaquil, Ecuador (2008); Mumbai (2008); and Vancouver (2021).