Treanor Architects merges with Denver firm; headquarters to remain in Lawrence

Lawrence-based Treanor Architects has completed a deal that will add about 50 employees to the firm and will position the company to become more of a player in health care design projects across the country.

Treanor announced it has completed a deal to merge with Denver-based H+L Architecture. Headquarters for the new company will be at Treanor’s downtown Lawrence offices.

“We’re excited about the deal,” Dan Rowe, president of Treanor Architects, said. “They espouse the same core values that we have. It will really help us get a stronger foothold in the health care market.”

H+L does a significant amount of design work for health care facilities in Colorado. Rowe said that business will complement Treanor’s existing studios that focus on justice facilities, life science and technology projects, historic preservation, student residential facilities and housing and mixed-use projects. In addition to the health care group, H+L also has a K-12 school facilities group and a team who works on data centers and other such facilities.

The combined company will have about 150 employees. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Both companies will keep their names for the time being, but Rowe said a name change may be in the works in the coming months as the firms study options for a new branding identity. H+L has offices in Denver and Colorado Springs. Those offices will remain. Rowe said there is no discussion of moving Treanor’s headquarters from Lawrence.

“The headquarters will be in Lawrence forever and ever,” Rowe said. “This is home and we take a lot of pride in being based in Lawrence.”

The company two years ago moved into multimillion dollar office space near 11th and Vermont streets to house the headquarters staff and a team of architects.

Rowe said business is on an upswing, and the company has been working on projects that reach well beyond the region. Rowe said the company has been involved in about $500 million worth of construction projects in Texas in the last four years, including a $180 million school of engineering building at Texas A&M. Other major projects across the country have included new residence halls for LSU, and the company has won work to design renovations to the Missouri and Oklahoma statehouses. Treanor was the architect for the Kansas statehouse renovation that recently was completed.

“We’re doing exciting work all across the country,” Rowe said. “We believe we have become one of the major architectural firms in the country, but we have done it kind of quietly.”