PSH+’s staff. (Courtesy PSH+)
As it approaches its 15-year anniversary, a local design firm has traded downtown for Willow Lawn.
PSH+, an architecture and interior design practice formerly known as Price Simpson Harvey, recently relocated its headquarters from Foushee Street in Monroe Ward to 1700 Willow Lawn Drive.
It’s now on the second floor of a mixed-use building that houses Jason’s Deli and other retail tenants.
PSH+ was founded in 2009 and moved into 207 N. Foushee St. after buying the building in 2016. Principal Matthew Simpson said the nearly 30-person firm simply ran out of space downtown.
“We just ran out of workstations. We’re also a very collaborative firm and we were on multiple floors, and we really wanted to be in more of an open office environment,” Simpson said. “The creative field we’re in, we feel really benefit from mentorship and being in the same room as each other.”
The firm is leasing 5,500 square feet at Willow Lawn, up from the 3,500 it was in in Monroe Ward.
The design firm is now above Jason’s Deli at Willow Lawn. (Mike Platania photo)
In searching for a new home, Principal Eric Saylor said they’d looked out near Short Pump and in Chesterfield County, but that the Willow Lawn area felt right.
“Willow Lawn fit into that sweet spot of still being sort of urban and close to downtown. It had a lot of perks and walkability,” Saylor said.
PSH+ completed the move in late November. The relocation also comes nearly five years after the firm sold its Foushee Street building to a Raleigh-based investor. It had continued to rent in the building until its move last month.
The firm has worked on everything from Hardywood Park Craft Brewery’s Goochland headquarters, to Virginia Physicians for Women’s new Chesterfield facility to the River City Roll bowling alley near Scott’s Addition. But Simpson said lately PSH+ has been specializing on designing healthcare and aviation facilities. He said it recently redesigned Trenton, New Jersey’s airport in a $200 million project.
“The aviation work takes us all across the United States, but in Central Virginia, our healthcare presence is really strong,” Simpson said.
Other design firms that have been on the move this year include DNA Workshop, which recently found a new home in Scott’s Addition, and ENV, which is now in the old Roastology building in the Fan.