VHB is heading to Two James Center downtown. (Courtesy The James Center Facebook)
A Boston engineering firm is relocating its downtown Richmond outpost.
VHB will be leaving its current office at the Canal Crossing building in Shockoe Slip in favor of a new space in Two James Center at 1021 E. Cary St.
The company, whose full name is Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, has been in Richmond for about 20 years and has grown here recently via acquisition, particularly through a 2022 deal for local landscape architecture firm HG Design Studio.
Don Cole, who leads VHB locally with Piotr Swietuchowski, said the company recently merged its Richmond operations with those in the Virginia Beach and Williamsburg areas, creating what it is referring to as “The I-64 Corridor.” Though it still keeps offices in those other markets, getting the three territories working in sync has helped VHB grow its profile throughout Virginia.
Don Cole and Piotr Swietuchowski
“We made a conscientious decision to merge all those three offices in the one operation to build upon the strengths of each of them because each had a little bit of different flavor and type of work to clients,” Cole said. “By bringing all those groups together, we’re really elevating VHB within that Hampton Roads to Richmond corridor.”
VHB has a Richmond staff of 60, and is currently in about 9,600 square feet in Canal Crossing. The move to the James Center will give it 12,500 square feet on Two James Center’s second floor.
“We’ve got more people and need some additional space. We also wanted a space that really puts us near our clients and right downtown in Richmond,” Cole said.
VHB offers transportation, land development, environment and technical engineering services.
Some of its local work includes The Shockoe Project, Virginia Union University’s campus master plan and a D.C. developer’s planned mixed-use, mid-rise apartment building that’ll span an entire block at 3200 W. Moore St. in Scott’s Addition.
VHB also works on infrastructure projects, including the broadband projects along I-64, which fueled VHB’s decision to combine the Richmond, Williamsburg and Virginia Beach operations.
“There’s a lot that’s happening that’s maybe not above the ground or visible, but I-64 is definitely becoming recognized as a new innovation corridor and internet hub,” Swietuchowski said.
The privately held company was founded in 1979 and now counts around 30 offices up and down the East Coast.
The move to James Center will reunite VHB with former neighbor Baskervill, the local architecture firm that also made the move from Canal Crossing to James Center in 2019. Baskervill, along with CBT Architects, is designing VHB’s new office space, which Cole said they hope to move into in the fall. L.F. Jennings will handle the buildout.
Since being sold to Bill Goodwin’s Riverstone Properties for over $100 million in 2017, the James Center’s three towers have undergone a considerable renovation that’s helped it land new tenants beyond VHB and Baskervill. Other office tenants that have moved into the James Center in recent years include law firm Whiteford Preston & Taylor and lobby-focused coworking space Capitol Caucus, while restaurants like Chick-fil-A and Chopt have also signed on.
VHB is heading to Two James Center downtown. (Courtesy The James Center Facebook)
A Boston engineering firm is relocating its downtown Richmond outpost.
VHB will be leaving its current office at the Canal Crossing building in Shockoe Slip in favor of a new space in Two James Center at 1021 E. Cary St.
The company, whose full name is Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, has been in Richmond for about 20 years and has grown here recently via acquisition, particularly through a 2022 deal for local landscape architecture firm HG Design Studio.
Don Cole, who leads VHB locally with Piotr Swietuchowski, said the company recently merged its Richmond operations with those in the Virginia Beach and Williamsburg areas, creating what it is referring to as “The I-64 Corridor.” Though it still keeps offices in those other markets, getting the three territories working in sync has helped VHB grow its profile throughout Virginia.
Don Cole and Piotr Swietuchowski
“We made a conscientious decision to merge all those three offices in the one operation to build upon the strengths of each of them because each had a little bit of different flavor and type of work to clients,” Cole said. “By bringing all those groups together, we’re really elevating VHB within that Hampton Roads to Richmond corridor.”
VHB has a Richmond staff of 60, and is currently in about 9,600 square feet in Canal Crossing. The move to the James Center will give it 12,500 square feet on Two James Center’s second floor.
“We’ve got more people and need some additional space. We also wanted a space that really puts us near our clients and right downtown in Richmond,” Cole said.
VHB offers transportation, land development, environment and technical engineering services.
Some of its local work includes The Shockoe Project, Virginia Union University’s campus master plan and a D.C. developer’s planned mixed-use, mid-rise apartment building that’ll span an entire block at 3200 W. Moore St. in Scott’s Addition.
VHB also works on infrastructure projects, including the broadband projects along I-64, which fueled VHB’s decision to combine the Richmond, Williamsburg and Virginia Beach operations.
“There’s a lot that’s happening that’s maybe not above the ground or visible, but I-64 is definitely becoming recognized as a new innovation corridor and internet hub,” Swietuchowski said.
The privately held company was founded in 1979 and now counts around 30 offices up and down the East Coast.
The move to James Center will reunite VHB with former neighbor Baskervill, the local architecture firm that also made the move from Canal Crossing to James Center in 2019. Baskervill, along with CBT Architects, is designing VHB’s new office space, which Cole said they hope to move into in the fall. L.F. Jennings will handle the buildout.
Since being sold to Bill Goodwin’s Riverstone Properties for over $100 million in 2017, the James Center’s three towers have undergone a considerable renovation that’s helped it land new tenants beyond VHB and Baskervill. Other office tenants that have moved into the James Center in recent years include law firm Whiteford Preston & Taylor and lobby-focused coworking space Capitol Caucus, while restaurants like Chick-fil-A and Chopt have also signed on.
This “64 corridor” thing… One of the things I find most interesting is an concept that may be The Future or more just a mirage is this concept of Regionalization in Virginia in particular. Everyone knows that a large area known as NoVa is generally accepted as being an ecosystem that is largely separated more by “hassle” than geography and the reality is that it is far bigger than NoVa since it includes DC and its Maryland suburbs. But there is occasionally talk by Big Thinkers that there is increasingly a region developing that is central VA PLUS Hampton Roads… Read more »
Oh, of questionable relevance is something I tell mention to people about Petersburg: that it is also two hours from the Research Triangle. Now, I don’t know anyone who commutes there from Petersburg and that would be crazy to do it regularly. But people DO do it with jobs that only require being on site say once a week in DC, and the traffic is better… so…. If one needs to actually commute there are better options of course — Wilson and Rocky Mt and South Hill, VA are only an hour or so away and, like Richmond, the ex-urbs… Read more »
And if you keep the DC base as a federal employee (and some private firms too) and only go in 1 day a week the pay bump/stipend for being “DC” is incredible and why so many people are relocating to RVA. And running up home prices.
Yeah, but mostly in the counties as I keep telling people that the stats say the population in Richmond Proper has been mostly flat — like only up 1000 people the past 3 years.
https://www.axios.com/local/richmond/2024/01/30/richmonds-population-growth-northern-virginia#
And Richmond is also getting more educated, is that bad?
Oppps! Richmond Proper gained 2500 since 2020 — which is 1% — but Chesterfield Co gained 10x that. My point is that all these people complaining about all these “unaffordable apts” being built should be cheering them since more apts mean more supply. One of the reasons that it seems the reality is that most people that are leaving DC are NOT moving to the Richmond Metro is that you can move to better job markets with less social problems like Raleigh and even Austin where there are also even single family homes for less than 400k — because supply… Read more »
And, don’t think I am some Austin booster — I went to college in a state capital that was not RIchmond and was not Austin and everyone who had ever been to UT there always told me “EVERYTHING is better in Austin than here.” and that was in the early 90s. Now, that is even moreso. And I’ve never even been to Austin — but I keep track of things and talk to lots of people all over the place — I mean, imagine if you had a bigger version of Virginia Tech in Richmond, and a LOT more high… Read more »
I met a guy yesterday that is a Fireman that commutes to DC from PETERSBURG!!!
He says that most DC firemen don’t have DC plates — he is able to do this because Firehouses are like youth hostels and he does those long multiday shifts on and off, so he I guess only drives up and down once a week, and likely at non rush hour time to boot.