Merger pools design talent

TWO of the city’s leading architecture firms are becoming one in a merger expected to help secure large- scale projects.

9POINT9 Architects and Outcrop Architecture will become Counterpoint and be based at 9POINT9’ s existing office on Ingham Rd at West End. The merger was announced at a launch event on Thursday night at West End State School.

9POINT9 Architects director Zammi Rohan said they had experienced huge growth due to their involvement with the North Queensland Stadium Project and they now had the skills and experience to take on larger projects but needed more staff.

“To address our need for additional personnel we have decided to merge with another local architecture firm,” he said.

“As there is no school of architecture in North Queensland the talent pool is very limited here and rather than employing staff from Brisbane or further south, we felt that the option of a local merger would be more beneficial to the NQ region.”

Mr Rohan and Outcrop Architecture director Mark Kennedy will become co- directors of Counterpoint.

The two firms have worked together on projects previously and Mr Rohan said Outcrop had been operating for six years and had a highly talented design team.

Mr Kennedy said he was looking forward to joining forces to create a larger architecture firm as Townsville continues to grow and develop.

“It gives both practices scope to have a bit more scale to service larger clients and deliver bigger projects locally rather than always having to team up with national companies,” he said.

“We’re pretty excited about the future of Townsville ... and the new company is about getting ready for that and being able to be part of that.

“We’re really grateful to our clients who have supported us to date and given us the opportunity to show what we are capable of,” Mr Rohan said.