Site Logo

Stantec moves some staff from Lynnwood to Seattle

Published 1:30 am Monday, October 3, 2016

By Jim Davis

Design and consulting firm Stantec opened a new office in the South Lake Union neighborhood of Seattle last week. Thirty-nine employees of Stantec’s office in Lynnwood moved south. (Photo courtesy of SkB Architects)
1/4

Design and consulting firm Stantec opened a new office in the South Lake Union neighborhood of Seattle last week. Thirty-nine employees of Stantec’s office in Lynnwood moved south. (Photo courtesy of SkB Architects)

Design and consulting firm Stantec opened a new office in the South Lake Union neighborhood of Seattle last week. Thirty-nine employees of Stantec’s office in Lynnwood moved south. (Photo courtesy of SkB Architects)
Design and consulting firm Stantec did work on acoustics, lighting and AV for its 16,993-square-foot office in South Lake Union neighborhood of Seattle. The urban office setting will be a demonstration of what the firm can offer for its clients. (Photo courtesy of SkB Architects)
Stantec moves some staff from Lynnwood to Seattle
While 37 workers moved to the South Lake Union neighborhood of Seattle seen in this photo, Stantec kept 59 employees remained in Seattle. (Photo courtesy of SkB Architects)

LYNNWOOD — Stantec opened a new office in the South Lake Union neighborhood of Seattle last week and moved some of its staff from Lynnwood south.

The design and consulting firm is keeping its Lynnwood office open and is actually consolidating staff at outlier offices into its office at 4100 194th St., Lynnwood.

“We still have a very large presence in Snohomish County,” said Kristy Alley, a principal with Stantec in Lynnwood. “This move allows us to free up space in both offices. We have room in Seattle and we were bursting at the seams in Lynnwood.”

Altogether, 37 employees moved to the South Lake Union office at 400 Fairview Ave N, Seattle. Fifty-nine employees remained in Lynnwood.

The company’s lease for the Lynnwood office, called the Sparling Technology Center, was up in August. Stantec renewed the lease for several years, Alley said.

Stantec employees were given the option of whether they wanted to move to the 16,993-square-foot office in Seattle. Some wanted to stay for family, housing or other reasons, Alley said.

“Having multiple locations is a nice recruiting carrot,” Alley said. “There’s a lot of staff that don’t want to deal with the traffic and they don’t interface with the clients.”

The move also allows the company to expand its offerings in the Puget Sound region. The firm known for its electrical engineering and architectural lighting design wants to start offering mechanical engineering and plumbing. This move allows that to happen, Alley said.

“It’s what the market wants,” Alley said. “It’s what our clients want.”

The move also puts Stantec staff closer to many major architecture firms that are in Seattle.

Stantec’s Lynnwood office was the headquarters of Sparling, a lighting and engineering firm that has worked on some of the major Pacific Northwest landmarks including Benaroya Hall and Experience Music Project in Seattle, the Museum of Glass in Tacoma and Providence Medical Center’s Pavilion for Women and Children in Everett.

Last year, Stantec purchased Sparling, which had a total of 130 employees in offices in Lynnwood, Portland, Oregon, and San Diego.

Stantec, based in Edmonton, Canada, and which has more than 22,000 employees, also has two Bellevue offices. The company also moved some of its staff from Bellevue to South Lake Union. At the Seattle office, Stantec now has 50 employees.

Seattle is “a magnet for top-tier, young talent who want to be in the vibrant neighborhood,” Alley said. Keeping the Lynnwood office open has its own advantages.

“Ultimately it provides a nice alternative to our staff who want to avoid the commute,” she said.

You Might Like