Durrant Architects Now Operate in Asia as ''Durrant,'' Not PDI
August 30, 2006 10:22 AM Eastern Time
MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Durrant Group Inc., U.S.-based architecture and engineering firm with many high-profile projects in South Korea and throughout Asia, announced that it is now operating internationally under the name Durrant. Previously, the firm used the name Parker Durrant International (PDI) in Asia. The change became effective June 1.
Durrant also announced that Stephan S. Huh no longer is affiliated with the company. He is starting an independent business, seeking new projects on which Durrant and its staff of designers will not be collaborating. All projects on which Huh had been involved remain Durrant projects, although he may serve as a consultant on some.
Durrant's projects include the 107-story Lotte II tower in Busan, which will be one of the tallest buildings in the world when completed in 2012, and the 54-story Xi Park tower in downtown Ho Chi Minh City, which will be the tallest building in Vietnam when completed in 2008.
"We remain the same firm as when we used the name PDI," said Dennis Wallace, principal in charge of Durrant's Minneapolis, Minnesota, office where the company's South Korean projects are based. "We have all the same projects, the same local partners, and our same extraordinary group of designers, many of them South Korean. All that's really different is that from now on, we'll be known in Asia as Durrant, the name our firm has used in the U.S. for almost 75 years."
Durrant's current projects in South Korea include two won through design competitions: a Republic of Korea Air Force hotel on the Haeundae beachfront in Busan, on which Durrant partners with Haenglim Architects & Engineers; and Pangyo Techno Valley, an IT development in Pangyo on which Durrant partners with Mooyoung Architects and Engineers.
Designers on Durrant's South Korean projects are Karl Ermanis, Sae Min Oh, and Merle Hansen. Oh is one of 11 South Koreans who work on a wide range of Durrant projects in various countries.
Services of The Durrant Group include architecture, engineering, planning, project delivery, financing, interior design and graphic design. Projects of Durrant's Minneapolis office include justice centers, embassies and numerous international mixed-use and entertainment developments, as well as convention centers, hotels and museums in the U.S. and Asia.
I guess 2012 sounds about right.
