Last updated April 15th 2023
AHR Architects
AHR ranks as one of the country”s largest architects and building consultancy firms with a major regional presence.
Its services include architecture, building consultancy, sustainable design, interior design, masterplanning, landscape design and BIM across all the major sectors. These include education, office & workplace, health, technology, transportation, hospitality, sports, residential, retail and civil + community.
As well as London, the firm has offices in Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester, Huddersfield, Leeds, Glasgow and Shrewsbury. In spring 2023, the firm opened a new office in Cardiff reflecting its growing presence in Wales. The firm employs around 140 staff.
Today, the firm is focusing on core sectors such as education, residential and healthcare and key projects in recent years include the design – with Arup – for Siemens” new £200 million rail facility in East Yorkshire. AHR also designed the new award-winning UK Hydrographic Office in Taunton and the new £30 million Barbara Hepworth Building at the University of Huddersfield.
Other major projects where the firm has worked include Crossrail Farringdon Station, the Greater Manchester Police Force hq; Colmore Plaza, Birmingham; the West Tower, Liverpool and the Hillhead Underground station, Glasgow.
Meanwhile, the firm has moved its Leeds team to a new central office space, near the city”s station. In summer 2018, AHR moved its 80-strong Manchester team to a new workspace on a single floor in the city”s Princess Street.
According to the 2021 AJ 100 league table, AHR ranked as the 19th largest UK architects’ practice, (unchanged on 2020) with 91 architects and 251 permanent UK staff. It had total fee income paid to UK offices of £16.08 million out of total fee income of total fee income of £17.65 million.
The latest annual report for AHR Architects published in autumn 2022 said that the visibility of the firm”s work pipeline remained short term but it was on track to deliver a satisfactory performance in 2022. The firm’s multi-sector expertise and balance of public and private sector projects gave it confidence. Today the firm is focusing on core sectors such as residential and education and it has seen a “pleasing growth” in healthcare.
The firm won education (nursery to 6th form) Architect of the Year at the Building Design 2021 Architect of the Year Awards and Architects of the Year at Insider Yorkshire Property Industry Awards.
Financials
To view the financials for AHR Architects Ltd. go to Companies House and use company ID 04347086.
The directors of AHR declared themselves to be satisfied with the firm”s performance in 2021. The latest accounts for AHR Architects Ltd saw turnover in the 12 months to end-December 2021 increase by 15% to £17.2 million as the economy recovered from Covidm although operating profits were unchanged at £1.5 million. Pre-tax profits were little-changed at £1.48 million. Meanwhile cash at bank and in hand fell to £408,451, from £600,245 previously. The accounts also show that AHR paid dividends of £2.25 million and had net assets of £2.6 million.
Projects
AHR is an architect on a £35 million Grade A office building in Liverpool, Hemisphere, where work is due to start this summer in the city’s growing KQ Liverpool Innovation District and which is one the first UK new builds to achieve six global sustainability accreditations.
Meanwhile, AHR is also an architect on 180,000 sq ft of new office space at Wilslow in Cheshire at the Royal London Mutual Insurance Society’s former campus. Two large buildings are planned at 63,000 sq ft each, with the two smaller buildings at around 28,100 sq ft each, together with 1,100 parking spaces.
In early 2023, planning permission was granted for City Place, AHR’s seven storey canal-side residential development in Chester which will involve 133 new one and two-bed apartments.
Traditionally, the practice has a strong presence in the education sector – having delivered over 3,000 schools – including flagship projects such as the redevelopment at Holland Park School in London and Darwen Aldrige Community Academy in Lancs.
AHR has recently been appointed to Kemnal Academies Trust’s framework for the provision of asset management services, a four-year framework for refurbishment work for one of the largest multi-academies trusts in the south and east of England.
Elsewhere in the education sector, AHR has recently been appointed on project to transform both Cornwall College and Yeovil College in the South West, combining its masterplanning, architecture, landscape design services.
Other landmark projects which AHR has designed include the advanced engineering research facility for Swansea University and the new £35m northern hq of the Royal College of Physicians, known as The Spine and designed jointly with Arup. The firm also designed the masterplan for Langarth Garden Village in Cornwall and the University of the West of England’s engineering building
The firm secured a key prestige project late in 2019 when – together with Arup – AHR was awarded the design contract for Siemens Mobility’s £200 million rail manufacturing facility in Goole, East Yorkshire, one of the country”s largest industrial buildings which involving 860,000 sq ft of space.
Meanwhile, AHR company PCKO has a place on Southern Housing Group’s £630m development framework on all four architecture lots: London, East and South East, West and South West, and the Isle of Wight. Southern is aiming to deliver over 450 new homes every year until 2025 through the new framework, with projects ranging in size between five and 300 homes.
AHR has also been appointed on two lots of the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) Projects Management and Full Design Team Services (PMFDTS) framework; Lot 1 Multi-Disciplinary Services and Lot 3 Architectural Services.
Glenigan Data
Data from Glenigan reflects a continuing healthy workload at AHR Architects. It shows that the firm is an architect on a £48 million Gateshead Quayside Hotel in Tyne & Wear where work is due to start in autumn 2023 (Project ID: 23059794). In the education sector, AHR is also the architect on the £22 million Easthouses Primary School in Dalkeith in Lothian where work is due to start in spring 2023 (Project ID: 19185922).
Conclusion: Faring well as an independent
Having separated from the more Asian-orientated Aedas business some years ago, AHR Architects appears to be faring well as an independent entity. In the UK, the firm has a reputation for imaginative design, particularly in the education and residential/regeneration sectors and should benefit from rising government spending on education, healthcare and infrastructure. Today, the ”visibility” of the firm”s work pipeline is more short-term than it was but its multi-sector experience and healthy balance of public and private sector projects are a source of confidence. Meanwhile, the firm should be well-placed to benefit from a revival in affordable housing spending materialises.
Winning work with AHR Architects
AHR puts an emphasis on collaborative working and to inspire with practicality, creativity with technology and innovation with responsibility. The firm aims to be holistic: as architects and building consultants, its work covers a building’s life cycle and it can take project from its conception, evolution, realisation, through to the final management of the facilities. In 2004, ARM became the first architecture-led firm to be BIM-verified by the BSI and it holds BS EN ISO 19650-2:2018
The firm has pioneered the use of digital technologies and in 2007 it adopted Building Information Modelling. Today, the firm”s advanced design group provides it with a dedicated in-house resource for research on developing digital practice and environmental analysis.
Contacts:
Mark Stead, Director (building consultancy) in Manchester
Email mark.stead@ahr.com
Tel: (0)161 828 7900
Allan Hunt, Managing Director, Building Consultancy
Tel 0207 837 9789