New direction for Liverpool design practice following takeover deal

Graham Trewhella

Liverpool multi-disciplinary design practice, Cass Associates, has been acquired, for an undisclosed sum, by DLP Consulting Group.

It has led to the merger of the Cass planning team with DLP Planning, to form a North West planning team, led by Graham Trewhella, a senior director with Cass Associates, which was established in 1983.

The new team will work alongside other DLP Planning offices in London, Bedford/Milton Keynes, Rugby, Nottingham, Sheffield, Leeds and Bristol.

The Cass architecture, master planning/urban design, heritage design and landscape architecture teams have merged with DLP’s design company, BE 1 Architects, and now practice under the name Cass.

The new Cass design company operates from offices in London, Liverpool, Leeds and Bedford and is led by Ivan Soldo and Richard Roberts, with Selma Hooley leading the master planning team.

Simon James, managing director of Bedford-based DLP, said: “The acquisition of Cass Associates is another very important step for DLP, and follows on from its successful transition to a staff-owned company.

“The Cass Associates team, led by Graham Trewhella, will further add to DLP’s well established, growing planning teams, but also creates a new regional presence for the business. Furthermore, it also very considerably strengthens the group’s design offer, and, in particular, adds both landscape and heritage design to its service offer, which also provides architectural, master planning and sustainability engineering.”

He added: “The expansion of the business demonstrates our commitment to our clients and staff, and the additional skill sets we now possess will mean we can better serve our very wide and diverse client base, particularly given the increasing emphasis on environmental and landscape led design and biodiversity.”

BE1 directors, Ivan Soldo and Selma Hooley, said: “BE1 are thrilled to welcome Cass Associates to our team. The new merged name Cass, will build on the heritage and professional offer of the two companies, and will complement our existing scope of expertise with landscape, heritage design and sustainability.”

Speaking on behalf of Cass Associates, Graham Trewhella and Richard Roberts, said: “The merger will enable us to broaden our existing, multi-disciplinary services of architecture, landscape and planning to include transport and environmental and sustainability design, and to apply our skills more widely across the UK.”

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