Posted on February 26, 2024
Following the integration of the former TSX-listed IBI Group Inc., things are going well for Dutch-owned Arcadis and its US-based design arm CallisonRTKL, after Arcadis acquired IBI last fall.
According to Mansoor Kazerouni, former director and executive vice-president of IBI Group, and the newly named global director of architecture and urbanism for Arcadis NV, Arcadis currently has several projects on the go in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), across Canada and in other parts of the world.
“The integration has been going extremely smoothly. We have combined the Buildings and Placemaking teams of legacy IBI with CallisonRTKL to form the Architecture and Urbanism Division of Arcadis, that sits in the Places Global Business Area. The Global Business Area structure that Arcadis now follows has led to some major new integrated business wins for the company around the world, including a five-year capital asset management project with Infrastructure Ontario; a contract to design and build a solar-power component manufacturing facility for CubicPV, a U.S. company partially funded by Bill Gates; and an agreement to develop and manage a community-focused sustainable and affordable integrated mass transit and public commuting program across the region of Atlanta, Georgia, one of the largest metropolitan areas in the U.S.,” said Kazerouni.
“The legacy IBI Infrastructure business has been integrated with Arcadis’ Mobility and Resilience Global Business Areas and, finally, a fourth GBA called Intelligence has been formed, combining the capabilities of IBI’s Intelligence sector with Arcadis Gen.”
Kazerouni said they have also added deep design bench strength through their global Architecture and Urbanism division with core expertise in retail and retail-led mixed-use design, combined with placemaking expertise. This is relevant in many Canadian cities where significant intensification and/or redevelopment of existing shopping centre sites is being seen.
Kazerouni also noted that they have expanded their ability to service global commercial workplace and hospitality clients with increased design expertise in these areas.
Aside from the transition, Kazerouni noted the continuing role that the resources of the former IBI Group are now playing within Arcadis.
U of T Scarborough (Image courtesy of Arcadis)
“With some 37,000 employees working within Arcadis’ global organization, we have increased in size by more than tenfold from when we operated as IBI Group. As a globally unified organization, Arcadis is moving with purpose toward meeting our strategic objective of growing within key markets – North America, in particular – and putting our deep cross-disciplinary knowledge and innovative solutions to work across entire asset lifecycles to help accelerate a planet positive future for all,” said Kazerouni, noting that hundreds of Canadian employees of the former IBI Group are playing a very strong and continuing role within Arcadis.
“This is reflective of the fact that Canada is now Arcadis’ third biggest revenue market after the UK and the U.S., a position we see continuing well into the future.”
In terms of projects, they currently have several on the go in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and across Canada, according to Kazerouni. They include the David Crombie Park revitalization and U of T Scarborough Passive House Residences in Toronto, the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre master plan in Vaughan, Exchange District Condos in Mississauga and the Curv in Vancouver, in which they are working collaboratively with WKK Architects Limited.
