OPN Architects plans Iowa City office

OPN Architects, a nearly 40-year-old Cedar Rapids regional design firm, will open an office next year in downtown Iowa City.

The Iowa City design studio, which will be on the second floor of a building on N. Clinton Street adjacent to The Airliner, is expected to open by mid-2016. Justin Bishop, who recently was named an associate principal at OPN, will lead the office, which initially will have about 10 employees.

OPN, founded in 1979 with an office in Marion, also has offices in Des Moines and Madison, Wis. Bishop said the Iowa City office will be similar to the Wisconsin studio that opened in early 2014 with eight employees.

'We will have a fully-staffed office,” Bishop said. 'I am excited that we can fully engage with the community and immerse ourselves even more than we do now.”

OPN will compete with Neumann Monson Architects in Iowa City, a more than 40-year-old design firm that also has an office in Des Moines. Both firms have handled a variety of building projects for the University of Iowa as well as other public and private clients.

OPN's work at the UI spans 20 years and more than 150 projects, including two of the university's signature buildings - the College of Pharmacy and Hancher Auditorium.

Bishop is leading the exterior envelope team on the $172 million Hancher Auditorium with internationally renowned architect Pelli Clarke Pelli. He also was instrumental in leading the convention center team on the Cedar Rapids Event Center, a $175 million 2008 flood recovery project.

OPN also has designed several schools for the Iowa City Community School District, including Borlaug, Alexander and Penn elementaries.

'The time is right to reaffirm our company's commitment to the southern end of the Eastern Iowa Corridor,” said OPN Principal and President Daniel Thies in a news release. 'We've built long-standing connections with clients in Iowa City and Coralville from our Cedar Rapids location for more than two decades.”

Bishop, who lives in Cedar Rapids, said he and his wife are planning to move to the Iowa City-Coralville area before the new office opens.