Today, Grimshaw announced the opening of an Auckland studio, the eighth studio in the practice’s global network.

Projects in New Zealand include the City Rail Link, which started with the business case in 2012 and, subsequently, the preliminary design. Their work continues on City Rail Link with the final construction delivery as lead architects with the Link Alliance consortium.

In late 2021, Grimshaw was successful in a bid for the outer suburban Auckland Drury Stations project. In 2022, its work on the Domestic and International Terminals of Auckland Airport was reactivated following a Covid pause. Also in 2022, Grimshaw secured the business case for the Auckland Light Rail project in collaboration with Aurecon and Arup.

Grimshaw announced the appointment of Neil Stonell as managing partner of the Auckland Studio. He has previously led the Melbourne studio as managing partner and has been closely involved in most all of Grimshaw’s New Zealand work for the past 10 years.

Stonell will be supported by a senior management team comprised of Katarzyna Jurkiewicz and Malgorzota (Gosha) Haley, both Grimshaw principals. Grimshaw says its studio in Auckland will be home to 20 architects and support staff.

“Grimshaw is today taking a significant step in the evolution of our robust New Zealand business by committing to a new studio in Auckland,” says Stonell. “We have an energised and thriving team helping deliver our current work in our transport and aviation sectors, simultaneously developing our work in master planning, workplace, residential, adaptive reuse and education. We will apply and develop our knowledge, informed by our work in sustainable and regenerative projects, for our clients and forthcoming projects here in New Zealand.”

Mark Middleton, Grimshaw’s global managing partner, said: “We are delighted to concurrently announce the opening of our Auckland studio and the leadership of Neil Stonell as managing partner. We can now enhance the collaboration of our design teams and support staff, providing enhanced services to our clients and fully engaging with Grimshaw’s design expertise, sustainability initiatives and knowledge sharing, which flows between our studio network. Grimshaw is anticipating the expansion of our offer to clients across all sectors of architecture, design and planning in New Zealand.”

Grimshaw operates across the globe and says its offices work with autonomy and independence accorded to its local studio network. “Our approach is to establish local work, local projects and, importantly, local affiliations, which, over time, lead us to the desire to consolidate our in-country or regional activity into a stand-alone studio. Our development in New Zealand will now be facilitated as the ground-breaking work we have done in establishing our business connections to government agencies, developers, design collaborators and, importantly, industry associations evolves.”

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