Buro Happold - History

History

Buro Happold was founded on 1 May 1976, with its first office on Gay Street in Bath, United Kingdom. The firm started with eight partners:

  • Edmund Happold
  • Peter Buckthorp
  • Michael Dickson
  • Terry Ealey
  • Ian Liddell
  • Rod Macdonald
  • John Morrison
  • John Reid





The King's Office, Council of Ministers and Majlis Al Shura (KOCOMMAS), Central Government Complex in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia was the firm's first major design project in 1976. Initially, Buro Happold offered only structural engineering consultancy, with a particular strength in lightweight structures, but in 1977 it added civil engineering and geotechnical engineering and in 1978 building services engineering. In 1982 Buro Happold started to work with Future Tents Ltd (FTL) on a variety of temporary and recreational structures. The firms combined their operations in 1992, but split again in 1997.

In 1983, Buro Happold opened an office in Riyadh, and has since opened offices around the UK and internationally:

  • 1976 Bath
  • 1983 Riyadh
  • 1989 Leeds
  • 1990 London
  • 1991 Berlin
  • 1996 Glasgow
  • 1997 Warsaw
  • 1999 New York City
  • 1999 Manchester
  • 2000 Dublin
  • 2003 Birmingham
  • 2004 Dubai
  • 2006 Edinburgh
  • 2006 Los Angeles
  • 2006 Belfast
  • 2007 Munich
  • 2007 Boston
  • 2007 Toronto
  • 2008 Pune
  • 2008 Cairo
  • 2008 Copenhagen
  • 2009 Abu Dhabi
  • 2009 Hong Kong
  • 2009 Jeddah
  • 2009 Kuwait
  • 2010 San Francisco
  • 2010 Chicago
  • 2011 Beijing




By 1993, Buro Happold had 130 employees and 8 partners. In 1998 this had grown to 300 employees and 12 partners, while in 2000 with over 500 employees the partnership was increased to 23. In 2006 the partnership stood at 25 with over 1400 employees and 14 offices. Due to this growth and the addition of so many different services, the company was restructured in 2003 to consist of multi-disciplinary teams of engineers, each with structural, mechanical and electrical engineers supported by specialist consulting groups.

In 2005, Buro Happold launched Happold Consulting, a management and overseas development consultancy with expertise in the construction sector, and Happold Media, a subsidiary offering graphic design and media development services. In 2007, Buro Happold launched Happold Safe and Secure, a subsidiary offering security consultancy and design services. The firm now places over 100 distinct different services under the headings:

  • Buildings
  • Infrastructure
  • Environment

Significant amongst its specialist consultancy services are its fire consultancy group, FEDRA, and software development group SMART which worked with Sheffield University to develop Vulcan software, widely used throughout the fire engineering industry. SMART also develops Buro Happold's in-house software Tensyl, a non-linear finite element analysis and patterning program for fabric structures, and people flow modelling software. Also notable is its group COSA, which undertakes computational modelling and analysis and the Sustainability and Alternative Technologies Group.

In 2007 Buro Happold became a limited liability partnership, and in 2008 appointed 18 new partners.

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