world architecture top 100 January 2016 65
merger mystery
Why do some tie-ups create successful powerhouses, while others serve only to
damage relationships with trusted partners? David Blackman investigates
Managing the merger of two big
businesses is no easy task.
And the construction industry
has seen a wave of big tie-ups in
recent years, the most signifcant
of which is AECOM’s union with
its competitor URS to entrench
its position as the world’s biggest
construction consultant.
However, the merger seems to
have gone down like a lead balloon
among the world’s top architects,
according to BD’s WA100 survey.
When it comes to which cost
consultant architects think
provides the best service, AECOM
has dropped from frst to equal
ffth place.
The company, which only
picked up two votes in this
category from the WA100
respondents, was overtaken in
the poll by Rider Levett Bucknall,
Langdon & Seah, Gardiner &
Theobald and Turner & Townsend.
Rider replaced AECOM at the top
followed by the Singapore-based
Langdon & Seah, which is soon
to disappear as a separate brand
following its absorption into the
Dutch-based Arcadis group.
Responding to the news of its
slip down the polls, AECOM said:
““Of course we are disappointed
that we have lost our number
1 position, particularly having
spent so many years at the top.
“AECOM is an organisation that
prides itself on being responsive
to clients and the wider market,
and as such we have spent time
over the last year looking at how
we can best serve our clients,
including the architecture
community.”
It’s a diferent story so far at
WSP Parsons Brinckerhof,
created following the sale of
the US-based engineer by UK
contractor Balfour Beatty. WSP
has retained its edge over Arup as
the services engineer that ofers
best-quality service, according
to respondents, although the
tables were turned when the
same question was posed about
structural engineering.
The WA100’s favourite project
manager was Mace by a clear
margin. Opinion on contractors
was more mixed with no company
scoring more than the four votes
secured by Bouygues, followed
by BAM and Brookfeld on three
apiece. In this category, big didn’t
necessarily mean beautiful, with
German giant Hochtief barely
troubling the scorers and the UK’s
biggest contractor Balfour Beatty
failing to secure a single vote.
Commenting on her frm’s
success in topping the cost
consultant poll, Rider Levett
Bucknall global chairman
Ann Bentley pointed to the
partnership’s independent status.
“This is a fantastic accolade for our
work globally, and we are proud
that the architecture community
holds our consultancy in such
high regard.
“Our market has seen a lot
of change over the last few
years, with many mergers and
acquisitions taking place. Our
status as an independent frm
gives us a clear diferentiator and
it is an important distinction for
our clients when they are selecting
their partners to appraise their
projects. Our company structure
is focused on a regional approach
in every country we operate in,
meaning that we can provide
local support and expertise
underpinned by the strength and
knowledge of the global practice.”
Philippe Honnorat, UK head
of building services at WSP
Parsons Brinckerhof, said that
his company’s merger is working
one year on. “Because we have very
diferent client bases we are not
stepping on each other’s toes,” he
says, explaining that while WSP’s
biggest strength traditionally
lay in private-sector building
work, Parsons Brinckerhof was
more rooted in public sector
infrastructure projects.
Bringing the two companies
together has created
opportunities – for example,
Parsons Brinckerof’s strength in
transport had helped open doors
at the UK’s two biggest airports,
Gatwick and Heathrow. The
other big plus point is Parsons
Brinckerhof’s strong footprints in
the Asian and US markets.
Tony Williams, of the
consultancy Building Value, says
that the contrast in the WA100
poll fortunes of AECOM and WSP t
WHEn yOU Buy A COnSULTAnT, yOU ARE nOT BuyInG ASSETS, A fACTORy OR LAnD, yOU ARE BuyInG PEOPLE AnD PEOPLE ARE MOBILE
tony williams, building value
065_WA100_2016_ddv2.indd 65 11/12/2015 16:01
coSt conSultantS
2016 practice
1 Rider Levett Bucknall
2 Langdon & Seah
3 Gardiner & Theobald
4 Turner & Townsend
5= AECOM
5= DG Jones
5= Arcadis
5= Hanscomb
SerVice enGineerS
2016 practice
1 WSP
2 Arup
3= Aurecon
3= Buro Happold
5= Hoare Lea
5= Meinhardt
Structural enGineerS
2016 practice
1 Arup
2 WSP
3 Thornton, Tomasetti
4= AKT II
4= Aurecon
4= Buro Happold
4= Eckersley O’Callaghan
BeSt partnerS Surveyed architects’ favourite professional associates
66 world architecture top 100 January 2016
proJect ManaGerS
2016 practice
1 Mace
2= Drees & Sommer
2= Arcadis
2= Hill International
2= RCP
BuildinG contractorS
ranK
2016 practice
1 Bouygues
2= BAM
2= Brookf eld Multiplex
4= Laing O’Rourke
4= Larsen & Toubro
4= Lendlease
4= Sir Robert McAlpine
4= Skanska
4= Züblin
2016 pra
1
2
3
4
5= AECOM
5=
5= Arcadis
5= Hanscomb
2016 pra
1 Mace
2=
2= Arcadis
2=
2= R
2016 pra
1 WSP
2 Ar
3= A
3=
5=
5= M
2016 pra
1 Ar
2 WSP
3
4=
4= A
4=
4=
Residential developers are
architects’ favourite clients,
according to the WA100 poll.
Responding to a poll question
on who had been their best type
of client this year, 23% named
housebuilders, followed closely by
offi ce developers (19%). Healthcare
providers were the third best
client, named by 13%.
for those working in the far
East, though, these splits feel
increasingly arbitrary. Keith
Griffi ths, chairman of Hong
Kong-headquartered Aedas argues
that projects being delivered in
East Asia’s big cities increasingly
fall into the mixed commercial
camp, embracing retail, offi ces and
loft apartments. “We very rarely do
a stand-alone offi ce development
in Asia. There’s a much wider
range of product.”
nik Karalis, chief executive
of Woods Bagot, agrees that
mixed-use is the biggest trend
he sees. “Tenants are looking to
diversify uses.”
He believes that developers
are keen to avoid putting their
eggs into one basket for sound
commercial reasons. “Land values
are so signif cant that projects
sometimes don’t stack up without
a massive tenant so you now need
a blend to make feasibility stack.”
Griffi ths adds that where offi ce
development is taking place in
the far East, it is the campus-style
developments that were popular
in the UK during the 1970s and
80s. “Many of the companies are
enormous multinationals and
they are building large
campus-type developments across
most of the large cities in China.”
But with a rapidly ageing
population, healthcare looks
set to be the long-term growth
area in construction. The Global
Construction 2030 report,
recently published, forecasts that
China will need tens of thousands
of new and upgraded hospitals and
clinics to cater for the country’s
exploding elderly population
over the next 15 years, which
helps to explain why the Chinese
government has recently opened
up its healthcare sector to foreign
investment through public private
partnerships.
Doug Wignall, president of US
practice HDR, says that his firm
is well placed to benefit from
greater demand for a new wave of
retirement living communities,
thanks to its expertise in the fields
of both healthcare and hospitality.
And he predicts that the
application of new technolog will
transform the nature of healthcare
facilities being built. “There is a
strong decentralisation of projects.
facilities are based more in
communities and neighbourhoods
rather than for cities and regions.
They are smaller in scale but have
to be planned as part of the overall
urban framework.”
tHe FUtUre’s mIXeD
Parsons Brinckerhof this year
refl ects the dif erent ways the two
companies have merged.
He praised the decision
by Canadian consultancy
Geniver, when it bought WSP
three years ago, not to junk the
internationally better known
British brand. “They had good
sense to change the name of the
group and they haven’t looked
back.” now they have repeated
the trick by retaining the Parsons
Brinckerhof name.
By contrast, recent
empire-building by AECOM
and Arcadis has seen the
disappearance of venerable and
well-respected brands like Davis
Langdon and EC Harris. In the
case of AECOM’s UK operations,
recent months have seen the
departure of a number of key
personnel.
Williams says: “When you buy
a consultant, you are not buying
assets, a factory or land, you are
buying people and people are
mobile. you protect that: otherise
you are buying fresh air.”
t
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