WD Partners

WD Partners is an architecture, engineering, and consulting firm that works with multi-unit retail, restaurant, healthcare, and consumer brands. It combines strategy, brand and experience design, operations engineering, and architecture and engineering in one firm, so the same group that sets a prototype can also document and roll it out.

The brand side covers brand development and positioning, brand identity and communications, digital and UX work, visual merchandising and fixturing, branded environments and store design, and production and documentation. Operations work applies industrial engineering to store workflows: labor assessment and standards, product flow and supply chain improvements, queueing and line management, equipment capacity and utilization, foodservice design and equipment specification, workstation and fixture design, and store operations manuals.

Build services cover prototype and remodel design, architecture and engineering for national rollouts, program and vendor management across internal teams and outside partners, and facilities work using asset data and BIM modeling. Published project work includes prototype programs, remodels, flagship stores, and fire protection engineering for large retail chains.

The firm was founded in 1968 by an architect who emigrated from Austria, starting as a six-person studio in Columbus, Ohio, and now describes itself as an integrated global consultancy. Fees are not published.