Burckhardt International<span style="color:#000000"> </span>

In the decades following its founding, Burckhardt thrived amid the postwar boom and the global expansion of Basel’s chemical industry. Starting in the 1960s, the Basel-based architectural office followed companies like Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz around the world. This rapid internationalization wasn’t driven by a deliberate strategy so much as by necessity: They went where the demand took them. The firm’s international endeavors peaked in the mid-1970s, with Burckhardt simultaneously managing projects in 17 countries across six continents. 

Beyond Martin H. Burckhardt’s knack for networking, his language skills and genuine curiosity about other people and cultures fueled this global push. One of the first outposts beyond Europe was the branch in Nigeria. After gaining independence and navigating the transition from military to civilian rule from 1967 on, Nigeria emerged as an attractive hub for various industries. Burckhardt+Partner Nigeria was established, and Ulrich Beyeler was appointed «Manager Africa». Notable projects included an office building with laboratories and a canteen for Ciba-Geigy in Lagos and a factory for the Electricity Meter Company Nigeria (EMCON) in Zaria. By the late 1970s, however, Nigeria found itself in a deep recession. With no new contracts on the horizon, Burckhardt had to focus on wrapping up existing projects.

Nigeria’s trajectory was telling: After the oil price crisis, its economy froze in a state of shock. Burckhardt tried to sustain its overseas operations through aggressive acquisition efforts. But the global downturn forced the firm to complete or abandon most international projects and refocus on the Swiss market. 

Though many of its overseas ventures proved financially unprofitable, Burckhardt embraced the opportunities with a spirit of adventure and experimentation, exploring unfamiliar countries and probing new markets – sometimes for clients outside Basel’s chemical industry. The firm worked on hotel complexes in Al Khobar (Saudi Arabia) and Thessaloniki (Greece). The latter project even required surveying an entire island. In Iran, Burckhardt collaborated with the Tehran-based engineering firm H.A.R.N. Associates and Zurich’s Schalcher + Partner to build a diesel engine factory and an industrial park, also contributing to the construction of the new Omran Bank headquarters in Tehran. 

Numerous projects sprang up across Europe, too: from Stockholm to Brussels, from the United Kingdom to Southern Spain. Most overseas commissions – like those in Sydney (Australia), Manila (Philippines), Mexico City (Mexico), Santiago de Chile (Chile), Buenos Aires (Argentina), and São Paulo (Brazil) – were tied to Sandoz or Ciba-Geigy as clients. 

For Martin H. Burckhardt, the United States held a special allure. After completing his architecture studies, his parents funded his first trip to the U.S. in 1948 – by ship in those days – along with a year-long language immersion stay in New York. Six more extensive trips to the United States followed. Fueled by his enthusiasm for the country, the founder worked particularly hard in the 1980s to secure contracts there and forge a lasting link between Basel and the U.S. After a temporary merger with the NBBJ Group, Burckhardt formed a close partnership with Perkins & Will, Architects, a firm founded in 1935 with offices in Chicago, Washington, and New York that still exists today.

Perkins & Will, Burckhardt realized projects such as the interior fit-out for the Swiss Bank Tower on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan and a training center along Broadway, both commissioned by the Swiss Bank Corporation. Additional projects followed for clients including Ciba-Geigy, Sandoz, Lonza, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Libra-Pharm. 

With Martin H. Burckhardt’s departure from the company in the early 1990s, the strong connection with the United States faded. The firm’s leadership shifted its focus to bolstering Swiss branches and nearby foreign offices, setting the stage for the new millennium.