New Castle-based Eckles Architecture and Engineering, which was led by principals Mark Scheller and Jeremy Beatty and employed six in total, has now joined DRAW Collective, formerly VEBH Architects.
“As we continue to build for our ongoing successes, it gives us great pleasure to announce that Eckles Architecture has merged to become part of DRAW Collective,” the firm says on its website. “Eckles Architecture brings more than 120 years of notable and significant experience to our team with countless projects focused on positively impacting the lives of people in the regional communities we serve.”
DRAW Collective is no. 12 on The List of largest Pittsburgh-area Architectural Firms, ranked by number of local architects, published by the Business Times in March 2022.
Scheller and Beatty join DRAW’s principals, Daniel Engen, Cassandra Renninger, John Reid and Christopher Brown in leading the firm. The newly combined firm now employs 32 in total, according to its website. DRAW Collective said that two of its principals, Engen and Renninger, began their careers at Eckles.
Eckles Architecture has been in business since 1898. DRAW Collective was founded in 1945. With the merger, DRAW now has two office locations in the region, one in Mt. Lebanon and one in Cranberry.
DRAW Collective’s current project portfolio includes many educational facilities, with Steel Valley School District, Bethel Park School District, South Fayette School District, Trinity Area School District, Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf and Waynesburg University listed amongst its current projects of interest. On Eckles’ website, it states that since the company’s founding, 95% of its client experience has been in the education sector.