Full speed ahead

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Champion’s plaza, part of MotorCity development.

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Nakheel’s Jebel Ali Village is one of Burt, Hill’s larger projects at the moment.

Design consultancy group Burt, Hill set up operations in the Middle East in 2004, and has been on an expansion drive ever since, growing from four people at start to over 400 at present, and recruiting 187 people since March this year alone.

The US firm, which offers a range of services including landscape architecture and masterplanning, recently consolidated its position in the region with the opening of a second Middle East office, located in Abu Dhabi.

The company puts its success in the region down to a range of factors including repeat business, being a career-based, family-based organisation, and its emphasis on sustainable design.

Why the comma? According to the firm's website, the comma has a multitude of different meanings. It refers literally to Ralph Burt and Alva Hill, two of the firm's visionaries; it stands for 1936, 1938 and other milestones in its history; it represents site design, sustainable design and its other services; and it emphasises the firm's mantra to take a pause before realising a client's wishes. ‘Stand for something. That's the reason for the comma,' the company states.

Can you tell me a little about Burt, Hill's background in this region?

Burt, Hill started in the Middle East in 2004 with four people. By the end of 2005, we had 204 people and today we've got 404. The Dubai office was our first office overseas.

We established our organisation as a mirror image of what we have in the United States. Landscape architecture is one piece of the overall ‘who we are'. We pride ourselves on the fact that we do creative services, branding and visioning. It is basically setting up a story for a client. We're part of the development team in setting the vision and the financial goals and then we do the actual planning, landscape architecture, engineering, MEP, structural and then interior design so we're full service.

What makes Burt, Hill different from its competitors?

We are not an ‘I' organisation, we are a ‘we' organisation. We do everything we; sometimes I play architect and Haydar [Hassan, principal/board of directors of the firm in Dubai] plays landscape architect. We're also an employee-owned organisation, we've got 160-170 people that are owners in our company and that is something I'm not sure that many people offer here in the UAE as an incentive. Burt, Hill is a career-based, family-based organisation.

How does being a US firm differentiate you?

Landscape architecture was basically born in the US. In university, we have a curriculum of landscape architecture so I think the US was one of the first countries to actually recognise landscape architecture as a profession. The Middle East is one of the few places it is hard to find landscape architecture in the college curriculum.

What projects are you working on at the moment?

We are doing a masterplan, for example, of MotorCity with Union Properties, one of our existing clients. It's based on Bath, England. That is going to be a unique project. We have roof gardens and all kinds of different things.

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