Trimble’s latest deal a dream for Frank Gehry

Ground-breaking starchitect finds his muse in positioning technology giant…

Frank Gehry, the Los Angeles-based design dynamo behind Bilbao’s Guggenheim Museum, Chicago’s Millennium Park, and countless other mind-bending structures, announced Sept. 8 that he had sold his software and consulting services firm, Gehry Technologies (GT), to the growing global positioning pioneer Trimble Navigation Ltd., Sunnyvale CA.

“This merger is a dream for me,” said Gehry. “In Trimble, we find a partner who has like-minded ambitions and goals to create efficiencies in the AEC industry that allow the creativity of the architectural profession to flourish and deliver value-added solutions within the realities of our economic times.”

Famous for driving engineers crazy with seemingly impossible designs impulsively drawn on cocktail napkins, paper bags, etc., Gehry had formed the side business out of necessity in the 1990s while working in Spain, first on the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games and later in Bilbao. His designs were so complex that Gehry’s firm felt the need to develop its own software to exert more control over the entire design and construction process.

As that expansion inevitably led to responsibilities that distracted from the core mission,  Architectural Record reports that Gehry sought partnerships that would allow him again to focus more on design. In Trimble, he apparently found such a partner.

For its part, Trimble couldn’t be happier. “The acquisition, described as a strategic alliance, is part of Trimble’s broader strategy to integrate the work flow among the architecture, engineering, and construction industries,” writes AR. “Since 2009, Trimble has acquired 29 companies that produce software, including CAD, BIM, GIS, and GPS applications. With GT, Trimble gets GTeam, a cloud-based project management and collaboration platform. Perhaps the most unique aspect of the deal, though, is the fact that Trimble will now own GT’s project design, modeling, optimization, and management services arm, as well.”

For more: Architectural Record, 9/11/2014, bit.ly/AR-Trimble; Trimble News, bit.ly/Trimble-GT-912

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Author:

Rob McManamy

Rob is responsible for leading our blog’s news and analysis. His experience includes 10 years as a reporter and editor with ENR, most as its Midwest Bureau Chief.