Grimshaw is known for its big global projects. In Australia, its work has included Sydney’s Metro, Light Rail and Martin Place Station and Melbourne’s Southern Cross Station and the Passive House rated Woodside Building at Monash University.
But as Michael Janeke, managing partner of its Sydney studio says, while the big projects are a “privilege” and do a lot to shore up business continuity, they’re also challenge the business on staffing.
Right now, the – not entirely bad – problem that can keep him awake at night is how to successfully integrate the 30 new architects he hopes to add to his over 100 staff in Sydney by July.
First, there’s the subtleties of getting new people to integrate into the culture of the business itself, and then there’s the challenge of managing relationships with some of the big clients on the books.
“It takes time getting people aligned in terms of what we’re trying to achieve here, our expectations, and managing their expectations,” he says during a lengthy interview in the company’s head office in George Street Sydney.
“You need the right number and the right diversity of people to do the work that we’ve got.”
Long term thinking pays off for both clients and industry
Janeke likes the big projects especially for the long term thinking and learning that can ensue, not just for stakeholders but the industry as a whole.
It’s a chance to develop the kind of relationships with clients and stakeholders that yield better understanding of the business “rather than a super transactional”, “in the moment piece” that can dominate in the architecture business, he says.
“Long-term partnerships allow you to develop common professional approaches and promote shared values, particularly around sustainability and community impact which are core to our work”. And which are priorities the business increasingly looks to in both staff and projects.
Big companies can have sophisticated capacities but there can still be a disconnect between the upper echelons that “get” the importance of good relationships and middle level executives who might be responding to significant pressure to deliver on economic results.
Not finding that balance can take a toll on highly talented staff, he adds.
Big projects in the wings
In the wings right now at the Sydney office is a raft of big projects. Among them work for Sydney Airport expected to last several years, Hunter Street Metro and a commercial tower above. A Super Science Laboratory building for Curtin University in Perth, which Janeke says a “very technical and complex but which will deliver the ‘beauty through ingenuity’ approach we like to be known for.”
There’s a range of smaller but high profile projects too, such as the repositioning of MetCentre at 60 Margaret Street for Ashe Morgan and Lipman and another repositioning of a building at the western end of Margaret Street for Shane Quinn’s Quintessential.
The work on adaptive reuse and asset repositioning was something the company set itself up for in the wake of Covid.
He notes the universities seem to be particularly busy on development and asset repositioning right now.
He mentions the University of New South Wales assessing a $1 billion redevelopment of the campus to include the Mathews Building, the University of Technology Sydney which is looking at strategies for its holdings around its Broadway precinct and Monash University which will build a major campus expansion in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia – an “interesting” concept and “very progressive”, Janeke says.
People skills are critical
At this scale, you can see why the calibre of staff and the timbre of the relationships with clients are critical to success.
Another thing that’s critical Janeke says is balancing experience with the dynamism that comes from a younger team
“Recently, we have had an influx of younger talent joining us but also some new senior people. The blend is important.
“These are people who have huge amounts of experience in delivering projects, but they aren’t at the interface with our clients or contractors; they’re sitting in the background, almost mentoring and providing experience to a lot of our younger staff.”
Data centres – no stopping the growth
Among the big challenges he sees both for his own business and the industry, data centres jump to the fore. (It’s an almost inevitable topic these days in any conversation with architects or engineers.)
Janeke says his company was an early adopter in the sector.
It been designing data centres in Australia since 2022 – and now have five in play, including with Goodman, which is expanding its industrial focus into data centres.
“Early on Grimshaw saw that the aim ahead was way beyond designing technically smart but introspective ‘AI factories’. It was how to design them to deliver their core functions while minimising their environmental and resources impact and maximising their benefits for the community and indeed the city in which they were located. That’s what we are trying to do.”
He credits the approach to the invitation for Grimshaw to exhibit at the 2025 Venice Architectural Biennale.
A recent briefing visit from AI business Nvidia, the world’s biggest company, underscored for Janeke the scale of this new market. The key takeaway for him was that “there’s no stopping this”.
“When you talk to them, they say there is no end in sight; this thing is just going to keep going.”
There will be constraints – not so much on the technology that will no doubt keep evolving – but on the physical implementation of the facilities through planning approvals and access to energy and water.
Goodman is a particularly good company to work with, he says.
He’s impressed with its strategic discipline and the youthful energy of the team.
“They’re respectful in their interaction with you. And so, they just get good outcomes. And maybe that’s the nature of good business.”
The Australian-grown global enterprise has morphed from an industrial property giant, expanding to data centre mogul and soon, possibly a residential developer, as the company tests some housing projects with the Housing Delivery Authority that Janeke’s team is helping with.
“From a business point of view, I think they’ve had a real long term outlook for their kind of assets. And unlike many traditional developers, they own land rather than option it. This makes them take a long term view.”
According to some sources Goodman owns more than 60 per cent of the industrial land in South Sydney along the so-called airport corridor.
The City of Sydney is “obviously super keen on retaining it as employment land,” Janeke says, but there’s a kind of “natural progression” that might make future rezoning feasible.
Designing for sustainability
Janeke says the company is a global leader in sustainability and has a good story to tell on net zero objectives. Its Woodside building at Monash (currently being renamed) is Passive House standard and has been recognised by several national awards.
However, there are constraints with sustainability and it’s not always easy to get great ideas across the line.
“Cost issues understandably matter to clients particularly in challenging times.
“As costs rise our suggestions say that we should use mass timber on a specific project may not be as well received as in easier times.
“But progress is being made and clearly it’s crucial on some of the big infrastructure projects, that from an embodied carbon point of view, we get to shift the dial as much as we can.”
Tenants drive demand
Where sustainability rises, he says, it’s driven by tenant demand.
“Landlords obviously are only responding to what the tenants require.”
This is where better engagement can kick in.
Collaboration, he says, is the future of architecture, “with partners beyond the usual ones.
“One of the things that we’ve been trying to do more recently is talk more to the agents, so the JLLs; the CBREs, around understanding what is driving the market through tenancies, the kind of briefs they get, rather than just through the landlords.”