(Corrected, Dec. 21)
NEWPORT – Newport Collaborative Architects, once the state’s largest architectural firm, announced plans Monday to merge with a Connecticut company.
The storied firm will join Bianco Giolitto Weston Architects of Middletown, Conn. The combined company will take the name Northeast Collaborative Architects or NCA for short.
Those have been the initials used by Newport Collaborative Architects since 1981, when former college roommates Michael Abbott and John Grosvenor founded the company that now has offices in Providence and Newport.
On Monday, Abbott said the merger would create new market opportunities and save costs by combining back-office functions. No employees at either firm will lose their jobs as part of the merger and the combined company will maintain all three existing offices.
“We’re just trying to take our niche markets and spread them over a larger area,” Abbott said.
Newport Collaborative Architects has been a staple with historic preservation projects in particular. The company oversaw renovation work at the Providence Performing Arts Center, among other projects. The company also designed the Community College of Rhode Island Newport campus and some of the nearby houses in Newport Heights, which replaced the troubled Tonomy Hill.
At one point, the company had more than 70 employees. But the most recent economic downturn, like the ones before it, compelled Newport Collaborative Architects to scale back. Today, the company has 14 employees, roughly the same number as Bianco Giolitto Weston Architects.
Abbott said he and Grosvenor have been friends with the principals at Bianco Giolitto Weston for about 20 years and joined on projects in the past. The poor economic times helped speed the merger, which does not involve the transfer of any money, Abbott said.
“We probably would have done it anyway but it probably brought it to a head,” Abbott said.
Existing projects will be integrated into the new company, which will take effect unofficially Jan. 1. Abbott said it may take the principals a few months more to formally merge the companies.
An earlier version of this article incorrectly said NCA oversaw the renovations to the Stanford White Casino Theatre. The work was actually done by Durkee Brown Viveiros Werenfels Architects.
