Cooper Carry acquires Boulder’s 505Design

BOULDER — Atlanta-based design firm Cooper Carry has acquired 505Design Inc., a Boulder-based architecture firm.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

505Design maintains offices in Boulder and Charlotte, North Carolina, with 41 employees. The combined firm will have five offices — in Boulder; Charlotte; Atlanta; Washington, D.C.; and New York City — with 360 employees.

Cooper Carry CEO Kyle Reis has developed a five-year strategic plan focused on creative capital, agility and growth.

“We are thrilled to join forces with the great designers and thinkers at 505Design,” Reis said in a written statement. “We look forward to adding more capabilities to serve clients in the Carolinas, Colorado and beyond, and to bringing the clients of 505Design our deep expertise in everything from Science + Technology and Higher Education to Hospitality, Multifamily and Mixed-Use Design.

“The pandemic has taught us that the most successful places are those designed with intentionality and a holistic approach, led by a unified team that has the wide variety of expertise to get it right the first time. This acquisition solidifies and enhances our ability to do that.” 

505Design was founded in 2005 and focuses on mixed-use, retail, residential and environmental graphic design.

“We believe every dollar spent should be in service to your brand and what your project is trying to accomplish,” said John Ward, partner at 505Design. “We are designers and cultural anthropologists, and our sweet spot is project visioning, placemaking and storytelling. We’re joining forces with a design firm with 152 licensed architects and many other talented team members who are visionaries themselves and know how to bring complex projects to life in ways that work for the client and end users. We’re very excited about this union.”

Cooper Carry’s services include architecture, interior design, urban planning and design, landscape architecture, branding and experiential graphic design, sustainability consulting, programming, campus planning, and historic preservation and adaptive reuse. 

505Design partners Ward, Nick Igel and Carl Okazaki will lead Cooper Carry’s new Boulder/Denver office with Colorado-based Cooper Carry principal Krista Dumkrieger. Jim Babinchak, partner of 505Design, will serve as Cooper Carry’s new Charlotte office leader. 

Ward, Igel, Babinchak and Okazaki will become principals of Cooper Carry. 

505’s Kevin Kern, who leads Branding and Environmental Graphics, and Kevin Roberts, who leads Architecture, will become associate principals, as will Lynn Williams, who heads Interior Design for 505, and Mac Bernhardt, who heads the firm’s Multi-Discipline studio.

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