Dive Brief:

• The Washington, DC, office of Gensler, one of the largest architecture firms in the world, announced it has acquired a design duo to help the firm make a greater push into the mixed-use and residential real estate spaces.
• At the end of the year, Phil Esocoff and Amy Weinstein will close their 15-architect Esocoff & Associates/Weinstein Studio in Washington, DC, and take new positions at Gensler as co-practice area leaders.
• Escocoff and Weinstein will bring along several projects already in the works, including the redevelopment of the Chinese Embassy and the Hine School redevelopment featuring a Trader Joe's.

Dive Insight:

Gensler hopes the new designers will help the firm develop greater expertise in the mixed-use and residential spaces, as well as submit more competitive bids for those projects.

In the past, the DC architecture giant has delegated the residential portions of mixed-use projects to other designers. Now, with Escocoff and Weinstein, Gensler will have in-house architects to work on the housing portions of a design.

"Both of them are, frankly, legends in the Washington, D.C., architecture community..." Jordan Goldstein, managing director of Gensler's DC office, told the Washington Business Journal. "It really allows us to grow an area that is pretty key for us going forward."

Gensler said it plans to bring on as many of the two architects' current staff as possible.