Edmonton Losses Another Mid-size Boutique Architectural Firm

[kcantor]

RPK and DISLOG are excited to announce our merger, effective August 1, 2025. This will bring together two teams with a shared passion for community-first design. We’ll be building on an existing strong history of collaboration, exemplified by the Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre Redevelopment. We’re excited to grow stronger together – united by a vision of creating community drive architecture, helping to provide a more resilient and sustainable future through great design. ​

 

[constance_chlore]

Is it a bad thing for an Edmonton-based firm to merge with another firm that has long maintained a strong presence in Edmonton?

 

[kcantor]

Is it a bad thing for an Edmonton-based firm to merge with another firm that has long maintained a strong presence in Edmonton?

I do think it’s a bad thing that in a community of more than a million people - a community that is looking to double in size in fairly short order - that it is becoming harder and harder for mid-size boutique architectural firms to remain viable.

It may make sense financially for the partners and perhaps even for the employees (and I know and have worked with many of them personally and wish them nothing but the best) but I do think it makes us poorer as a community.

Edmonton has a storied history of successful architects and architectural firms - most of them smaller - that is quite out of proportion for the size of the city, particularly when noting that we don’t have a School of Architecture, that is slowly being eroded one firm at a time.

 

[constance_chlore]

So is it strongly expected that this merger will result in reduced capacity to take on projects in Edmonton?

 

[kcantor]

^
Reduced capacity? Probably not,

Reduced diversity of design? Absolutely.

Reduced competitiveness? Absolutely.

Reduced likelihood of innovation? Probably.

Reduced likelihood of design excellence? Probably.

Reduced diversity of design team members (ie other disciplines) and more in-house (ie generic) solutions? Probably.

 

[Airboy]

I was talking to one of the former principals and he said it was the economics. Its hard to have a mid size consulting firm in a tough market. I know the fees are steadily going down in order to win contracts. RPK also did a lot of health care and with the reduced spending in that area it was tougher go.