Place Capital Group have acquired design and regeneration practice MCAU (Modern City Architecture and Urbanism).

Founded in 2016, by Dave Skidmore, formerly a board director at Broadway Malyan, MCAU add yet another layer of significant experience and expertise to the group. Since the practice’s inception it has delivered a range of award-winning projects including mixed use town centre and heritage-led regeneration, urban PRS schemes, and family housing projects.

Notable projects include Ashton Old Baths, where a Listed Grade 2* former public baths was imaginatively repurposed as modern offices and a data centre, and the Welsh Streets scheme in Liverpool, where hundreds of derelict terraced homes were remodelled into an multi award winning PRS community.

MCAU is PCG’s third foray into the architecture and urban design sector this year after establishing the London-based design practice Grounded and the acquisition of Loop Systems, a community focused practice based in Manchester.

MCAU will merge with Loop into one combined studio at PCG’s offices in Castlefield, bringing staff numbers to 25 at its 3,200 sq. ft. Manchester office.

Dave Skidmore said: “I have worked with David Smith-Milne for many years now in a number of guises, so we totally understand the PCG vision to bring real innovation to the estate regeneration and placemaking sectors. With PCG’s backing we anticipate significant growth over the remainder of this year and into 2023.”

David Smith-Milne said: “MCAU is a respected and award-winning studio of high quality, experienced designers.  They are a natural complement to our existing teams and give us additional scale to service a rapidly growing pipeline of projects as the business tracks toward delivering over £4.7m of turnover by the end of 2022. We’re thrilled to have Dave and his team on board and look forward to working with them to grow the business.”