Farnsworth Group, Inc., a national full-service engineering, architecture and survey firm, has acquired FWAI Architects effective Jan. 31. Carl and Kay Fischer founded the firm in 1976, originally known as Carl Fischer Associates until August Wisnosky joined the business in 1982 and it was renamed Fischer-Wisnosky Architects, Inc. In 1996, the name changed to FWAI Architects to allow for a smoother transition of ownership.

The firm currently employs 13 people and provides architecture, interior design and planning services to a wide variety of clients, including in the areas of education, health care, office and commercial.

Farnsworth Group, based in Bloomington, has more than 500 employees and offices located throughout the country.

“The addition of FWAI coincides with our strategic planning goals to add talented staff, clients and capabilities to our existing operations,” said Farnsworth Group president and CEO Karen Jensen.  “Farnsworth Group and FWAI have the same business philosophy and approach which is to do the very best for our clients. The synergies between our two firms will allow for a seamless transition and allow us to deliver services and solutions to a broader set of clients.”

As Farnsworth Group, FWAI will now be able to offer its clients the value of a full-service engineering and architecture design team.

“Joining Farnsworth Group allows us to become a fully-integrated single-source provider of design solutions for our existing clients,” said FWAI president Paul Wheeler, who along with Forrest Hoffman, have been leading the FWAI team. “Together, our architecture teams will be a direct complement to each other, and the addition of engineering and survey will be a value-added component to the clients we serve on a daily basis.”

This is Farnsworth Group’s seventh acquisition in the last eight years, having completed the acquisition of Design Alliance Architects in Waukee, Iowa in 2019.

David Blanchette profiled FWAI in the December 2019 issue of Springfield Business Journal.