Daniel first met Richard Naish when the young architect rented an office from them at 6A Ponsonby Road. “He arrived bright eyed and bushy tailed, but he had a real charisma about him,” he recalls. As luck would have it, not long after, Samson Corp needed to refurbish a villa on nearby Great North Road. It was the start of a long, productive partnership.
Although Ironbank may have topped the list in the awards’ stakes, it was following the redevelopment of a set of shops in the West Lynn precinct that Daniel first understood the level of architectural acumen found at the practice. “Their respect for architecture from the past and the way it intersected with the modern and wrapped around the three different properties to connect with the community - it was a distinctive fingerprint,” he says.
Two decades and a bit have since gone by and more than 100 collaborations, mainly commercial space for small to medium enterprises on the city fringe. For RTA Studio getting to know this business, which shapes the local landscape, has been a privilege and a pleasure. There’s always something from Samson on the drawing board. “They really ‘get’ their clients,” says Daniel. “They’re great listeners and communicators who understand what you are trying to do and then add their value in design.”
Such good value that it wasn’t until earlier this year that the RTA team, which has shifted from premises to premises as it has grown, moved out of a Samson Corporation building. Rich took Daniel for lunch to break the news. No worries. That’s business. With two more projects in the immediate pipeline, including the reimagining of the existing four-storey block at 137 Great North Road (read more here…), the roots of shared values run deep. “We’ve enjoyed seeing the transition from the established team to the younger people coming on stream at the practice. We’re not going anywhere.”