HGA Architects and Engineers (HGA) announced January 16 that it has acquired San Jose-based design firm, ReelGrobman. HGA says the acquisition will strengthen its current San Francisco Bay area practice, which now includes offices in San Francisco and San Jose, and expands HGA's California presence.

HGA, which now has four California offices and a total of eight nationwide, says the ReelGrobman move creates a seamless integration of services between the two firms, which includes everything from based-building architectural design to corporate interiors services throughout the country. 

"The acquisition of ReelGrobman is a natural fit for HGA," said HGA's CEO Daniel Avchen in a recent press release. "They are a strong market leader in the corporate interiors arena and bring well-known technology companies such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Apple to the HGA roster."

HGA, which specializes in the fields of science and technology, healthcare, energy and infrastructure, higher education and performing arts industries, is also looking to strengthen its presence in the Los Angeles area, where the firm recently hired Celine Larkin and Jessie Robertson.

Jessie Robertson has rejoined HGA's LA office as associate vice president and business developer. Robertson, who previously served as HGA's business developer between 2006 and 2010, will implement new business and marketing strategies in healthcare, higher education and government/corporate market sectors in Southern California.

Robertson has more than 20 years marketing, business development and strategic planning experience for both public and private architecture and engineering firms. Before rejoining HGA, she was associate vice president/alliance director for AECOM in Los Angeles. She is a founding board member of the Lean Construction Institute-Los Angeles Chapter (LCI), and past president of the Southern California Development Forum (SCDF).

Celine Larkin, AIA, LEED AP, also recently joined HGA. She was hired as associate vice president and senior planner in the LA office, where she will direct planning across the firm's growing healthcare, higher education and public/corporate practice groups.

Larkin has more than 25 years of experience focused on urban design, master planning and architectural design for educational, institutional, mixed-use commercial and housing work. Her notable projects includes a campus master plan for Gonzaga University in Spokane, WA; the Puerto Rico Convention Center District and the San Juan Waterfront in San Juan, Puerto Rico; and the Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribal Housing in Chilmark, MA. She is also currently working on a campus study for a California State University campus.

"I consider the holistic vision of master planning, from the grand scale of an urban or campus environment to the fine grain of architectural detail," said Larkin in a recent news release. "Successful planning balances an organization's cultural, functional and sustainable goals with financial benchmarks and business objectives."

Before joining HGA, Larkin was most recently an Urban Design + Planning Leader with Gensler in Los Angeles. Previously, she held architectural design and planning leadership roles with SITU Architecture + Urban Design and CBT Architects, both in Boston, MA. Larkin has a Master of Architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Arts in visual and environmental studies from Harvard University.