ikon.5 to focus on campus designs.
By: Melinda Sherwood
Five leading architects with The Hillier Group have left the firm to strike out on their own, hoping a more nimble operation will allow them to concentrate on what they do best designing buildings for college and university campuses.
Alan Chimacoff, Joseph Tattoni, Arvind Tikku, Charles Maira and Richard Holmes, former principal and associate principals in Hillier’s higher education studio, formed ikon.5 architects on Oct. 1. The firm is located at 864 Mapleton Road in space previously occupied by another Princeton-based architectural firm Ford Farewell Mills and Gatsch.
Between 1986 and 2002, the principals of ikon.5 worked closely together on projects at Arizona State, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Duke, Howard, Johns Hopkins, Princeton, Rutgers and Southern Methodist universities. Beyond academia, their accomplishments include office buildings, conferencing centers and research facilities for clients such as DuPont, Hoffman LaRoche and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Designing buildings for universities and colleges will continue to be the core of the firm’s business. "During the past 15 years this group has done every type of building you can find on a college campus, as well as campus master planning … and helping educators and administrators understand what they need in terms of a strategic view," said Richard Holmes, the former marketing lead in Hillier’s studio. But, he added, the principals are looking forward to spreading their wings and working on other types of design.
The departure from Hillier was amicable, said Mr. Holmes. "We think very highly of friends and colleagues there, and we will continue to work on the projects we were working on in Hillier to hand them off in a fluid manner," he said.
Mr. Tattoni and Mr. Maira will continue to consult for Hillier on projects they were intimately involved with during their tenure. "There are other people who have stepped into the breach and will pick up where we left off," said Mr. Holmes.
"Of course I was sorry to see them go," said Bob Hillier. "I’m always disappointed when someone has to leave the firm. "On the other hand, we’ve spawned like 12 firms in the history of this firm, so I feel good that we’ve trained people to go out and be architects, and I wish them the best. I’m sure they’ll do well."
Approximately 23 people work in Hillier’s higher education studio, and the firm employs roughly 287 at offices in Newark, New York, Washington, Philadelphia, Kansas City, Kan., and Dallas.
A shared desire to return to the intellectual roots of design and good timing propelled the five partners to start their own firm. "The reason we left Hillier is to take advantage of a moment in time where we were all sort of primed to do something like this, and ready in our personal lives to make the jump," said Mr. Holmes. "We would hope we would lower overhead to spend more time in taking design to its ultimate development."
The market in higher education buildings is vibrant, added Mr. Chimacoff.
"Some of the great buildings in America are on college campuses so it’s a great venue," he said. "It’s not as vulnerable to the fluctuations of the economy as business buildings are. And because colleges and universities are in it for the long haul they view it as a 100-year building they build well. They exist on a pretty high plane of architectural aspiration because there’s a lot of competition among universities to attract and retain students."
Mr. Chimacoff, a Princeton resident who has taught at both Cornell and Princeton, was the director of design at Hillier for 16 years before leaving last November. He and Mr. Maira, the technical lead at Hillier and a Morrisville, Pa.- resident, were instrumental in the design of the new Princeton Public Library. Mr. Tikku, a resident of Westfield, was the administrative lead at Hillier and worked on the new performing arts center at Montclair State University. Mr. Tattoni, who lives in Princeton, was instrumental in the design of the new law school at Rutgers University in Newark.
The partners have invested in new computing and graphics systems that Mr. Chimacoff believes will be "visual equalizers" when competing with larger firms. "We are seemingly a startup, but we’re actually all mature people," he said. "We’ve done great big academic projects (and) we have similar resources."