St. Louis, MO – BLDD Architects, with offices throughout Illinois plus one in St. Louis, has acquired Dickinson Hussman Architects (DHA) of St. Louis. Both firms specialize in helping school districts address their need for facility improvements. Between the two firms, 28 major design awards have been won in the past 20 years.
“From our very first meeting with BLDD principals, we knew this was a perfect fit,” Don Hussman, one of the founders of DHA said. “Our corporate cultures matched. The commitment to clients, quality work, and most importantly, school kids and their parents and communities was shared by both firms.”
For BLDD, this acquisition moves forward the firm’s desire to become even more active in St. Louis and the state of Missouri.
“We know of no architectural firm that has more work than we have between St. Louis and the Chicago metropolitan area,” Todd Cryulik, BLDD’s K-12 Design Group Director said. “With our current work with the Edwardsville School District, a project under our belt for Ritenour School District, and some volunteer work for the St. Louis Public Schools, it just made sense for us to become more active in the St. Louis area. Acquiring DHA was a perfect way to make that happen.”
DHA was founded 30 years ago by Dwight Dickinson and Don Hussman. During the last 30 years, DHA has been a leading K-12 architectural firm in the St. Louis area completing projects for school districts such as Rockwood, Mehlville, Webster Groves, St. Charles and others. BLDD is 94 years old and has worked extensively across the Midwest including districts such as Springfield (Illinois), Iowa City, Decatur, Edwardsville and Fort Worth.
With the acquisition, more Missouri school districts will have an opportunity to learn about QLEO (Quantified Learning Environment Outcomes). QLEO, named second in industry innovations by BD+C Magazine, is BLDD’s proprietary master plan modeling and analysis software that is of enormous help in developing school districts complete long range facility improvement master plans.
“We are really excited about bringing QLEO to our clients,” Dwight Dickinson, the other co-founder of DHA said. “It is a powerful tool that provides valuable data in helping select the most cost-effective facility planning solutions that provide students with the learning environment they need to achieve.”
“Perhaps the best part of this acquisition is that DHA shares our commitment to community engagement — developing and implementing long range facility improvement plans developed by the community, for the community, so students have the best opportunity possible for success,” Damien Schlitt, BLDD’s Educational Planning/Community Engagement Lead concluded. “We passionately believe that successful programs require real and extensive community involvement. DHA shares that belief. Perhaps that is why this union seems so natural.”
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