Global design firm Stantec announced the acquisition of RNL, a Denver-based, 134-person integrated architectural, interior and urban design firm. The company's work includes transit facilities, urban design, workplace, civic, higher education, and mixed-use facilities, RNL also embraces a companywide strength in sustainable design. Services are provided from offices in Denver, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Abu Dhabi and Phoenix. The transaction is expected to close in late July.

With six decades in operation, RNL services clients in a wide variety of sectors, including public transit, civic, federal, energy, software development, telecommunications, and aerospace, among others. Large-scale projects in the firm’s portfolio include the Research Support Facility (RSF) at the National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden, Colo.

The 340,000-square-foot RSF is the first Net Zero Energy project of its kind, and RNL provided full design services — from architecture and interior design to site planning and landscape architecture — with mechanical, electrical, and plumbing design provided by Stantec.

Within public transit design, RNL provided architecture, interior and sustainable design for the 540,000-square-foot Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) Division 13 Bus Operations & Maintenance Facility, the first ground-up bus operations and maintenance facility for Metro in 30 years. Sustainably designed, the structure features photovoltaic panels, a green roof and an innovative rain capture system that repurposes water for bus washing needs.

RNL also provided architectural, interior, landscape, and lighting design for Spire, a 41-story, Denver high-rise residential project. In the Middle East, the firm provided master planning services for the Dubai-based Burj Khalifa development, which includes a high-rise workplace and residential towers, as well as retail and urban streetscape elements spanning roughly 415 acres.