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June 07, 2010

LEHRER ARCHITECTS LA and WESTLAKE REED LESKOSKY FORM STRATEGIC ALLIANCE

Synergy in Architectural Design and Delivery of Nationally Distinguished Firms

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA (June 2010) – Two internationally published, award-winning distinguished national design firms have formed a strategic alliance to bring a potent combination of complementary practice in architectural design and delivery to the built environment.

This alliance joins Lehrer Architects LA, an innovative design studio based in Los Angeles with a reputation for its agile, spirited design, nurturing a culture of creativity in its projects and in its workplace, and Westlake Reed Leskosky, a design powerhouse with studios in Los Angeles, New York City, Washington, D.C., Phoenix, and Cleveland, and recognized for its vertically integrated design model enhancing architecture with engineering and knowledge-based specialties.

The announcement formalizes the long-standing professional collaboration and mutual relationship between managing principals Michael B. Lehrer, FAIA, and Paul E. Westlake, Jr., FAIA. Their close working association began in their academic work at Harvard Graduate School of Design over thirty years ago. Their ties have continued to evolve, from consulting on their first projects and onward throughout their professional careers. As freshly minted architects sharing a deep and passionate commitment to design excellence and a long-term vision of collegial partnership, Lehrer and Westlake collaborated on several projects following graduation, including an early AIA-award winning design in Florida. In fostering their individual practices, Lehrer and Westlake have in common powerful affinities to design and to materializing design ideas as built work, characteristics that define their firms. Between them, they have gone on to win hundreds of major national, international and regional architectural, sustainability, interiors, business and construction industry design awards.

Michael Lehrer comments, "Architecture is about community, and engagement: it is about the beauty of performance and the performance of beauty. Paul and I both share that sensibility and very powerful bonds. At Lehrer Architects, a deep philosophical underpinning of practice is that the aesthetic and the spiritual are virtually synonymous. This cultural approach is translated into our work and studio. The pursuit of excellence and making places of joy is not negotiable. In our work, delight is a matter of extreme gravitas."

"Westlake Reed Leskosky complements our practice with the power of a large, robust organization and a capacity for award-winning design and delivery. By melding our individual strengths through this alliance, we are able to deliver exquisite product in the fullest sense of the word. Together we take the level of our work and the type of projects to a higher level of experience. Ultimately, design excellence and delivery excellence are inseparable," Lehrer adds.

"Michael's firm is a strong design practice," notes Paul Westlake. "Our firm complements Lehrer Architects with a full range of integrated disciplines and project delivery package, a robust variety of project experience, and depth in architectural staff that endows our alliance with the ability to bring design excellence to projects of large scale."

Westlake continues, "Our mutual practice specialization and diversified portfolio also provide opportunities. Westlake Reed Leskosky's staff in Los Angeles shares space in Lehrer's studio; and we hold all registered architectural and engineering disciplines in California including seismic design capability."

The alliance offers clients a comprehensive list of design services: architecture, interiors, energy modeling, mechanical, plumbing, electrical and structural engineering, data transport and telecommunications technology, audio visual, theatrical, lighting, security, historic preservation, tax credits consultation, sustainable design and enhanced commissioning. Both Lehrer Architects and Westlake Reed Leskosky have built and demonstrated experience in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) and sustainable design as another defining attribute of the firms. Their alliance incorporates that focus in impacting cultural and institutional changes that support high performance buildings.

Lehrer concludes, "Our firms bring significant value to each other and to our clients. Our alliance instills an unusually high level of confidence to deliver truly superior work and a process that is tight, state-of-the-art, and even joyous and profound."