SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 3, 2026--
The global integrated design firm DLR Groupannounced today that San Diego-based science and technology design firm McFarlane Architects has joined the firm. The addition of McFarlane Architects strengthens DLR Group’s science and technology practice and accelerates access to science and technology clients in San Diego, one of the largest life science hubs in the country.
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Founded by Neal McFarlane, McFarlane Architects is nationally recognized for architecture, planning, and interior design of science and technology and advanced manufacturing environments. It brings a diverse portfolio through long-standing relationships with science and technology clients including Alexandria Real Estate Equities, BioMed Realty, Healthpeak Properties, Longfellow Real Estate Partners, Phase 3 Real Estate Partners, as well as active clients in Boston and San Francisco.
“DLR Group is committed to growing an industry-leading science and technology practice and McFarlane elevates our capabilities in California and across the nation,” said DLR Group CEO Steven McKay, AIA, RIBA. “Neal and his team have earned an outstanding reputation in one of the country’s most competitive life science markets. McFarlane Architects brings proven science and technology expertise, a deep portfolio of laboratory and research environments, and a commitment to design excellence that mirrors our own.”
Joining DLR Group ensures the continuity of McFarlane Architects’ design legacy for its employees and clients. McFarlane Architects gains access to DLR Group’s depth of specialized design resources across 38 offices, enabling pursuit of larger and more complex science and technology projects as a combined science and technology practice.
“It was time to start planning for the future of this firm and I was determined to find a partner firm that shared our design and business philosophy,” said McFarlane Architects Founder Neal McFarlane. “I was looking for a firm with a long-term view, an established presence in California, and a commitment to growing a leading science and technology practice. DLR Group is that firm.”
The opportunity to be part of a 100% employee-owned firm was also a key factor in McFarlane’s decision to join DLR Group.
“I’ve watched our industry consolidate over the years, and I wanted to find a partner with real experience guiding firms through this kind of transition,” said McFarlane. “DLR Group’s 100% employee-ownership model gives our people a real stake in what we design next, and it’s the right way to carry our firm’s legacy forward.”
McFarlane Architects will operate as DLR Group|McFarlane Architects in San Diego and complements DLR Group’s existing 35-person office in downtown San Diego, and offices in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Francisco, Sonoma, and Sacramento.
About DLR Group
Celebrating 60 years in 2026, DLR Group is an integrated design firm delivering sustainable, human-centered solutions for communities locally and globally. The firm’s architects, engineers, interior designers, and planners collaborate with public and private sector clients to create projects with long-lasting social, economic, and environmental value. Fast Company named DLR Group among the World’s Most Innovative Companies for its industry-leading adaptive reuse strategies: innovative design that serves clients and communities while significantly reducing carbon emissions.
DLR Group’s promise is to elevate the human experience through design. As a 100% employee-owned firm, DLR Group fosters a culture of ownership and accountability that shapes its daily practice and drives its commitment to sustainability initiatives, including the 2030 Challenge, the China Accord, and the AIA 2030 Commitment.
About McFarlane Architects
McFarlane Architects is a San Diego-based architecture firm specializing in laboratory, research, and science and technology design. Founded by Neal McFarlane, the firm has built a reputation as one of San Diego’s leading science and technology design practices, serving clients across the science and technology sector.
McFarlane Architects' design for Vividion Therapeutics' expansion unites lab and corporate functions in a cohesive campus focused on small-molecule therapeutics for cancer and immune disorders. Image © Brady Architectural Photography
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two Republican senators who threatened to block acting Attorney General Todd Blanche's bid to lead the Justice Department said Monday that they will vote to advance his nomination, ending an impasse over plans to create a fund to compensate allies of President Donald Trump.
The statement from Republican Sens. John Cornyn and Thom Tillis came after Blanche issued an order late Sunday formally rescinding the $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” to compensate people who believe they were unfairly prosecuted by the Justice Department.
Cornyn and Tillis, whose votes Blanche needs to advance through the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, had said they would not endorse his nomination without written confirmation that the fund is dead.
“We want to express our gratitude to Mr. Blanche and his staff for working with us on this, and we look forward to voting to advance his nomination out of the Senate Judiciary Committee soon," Cornyn and Tillis, who are not returning to the Senate next year, said in a statement.
Blanche said at a June hearing that the Justice Department would not move forward with the fund as he faced bipartisan outrage over the possibility that violent rioters who attacked police at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, could be considered for payments. But skeptical lawmakers said they were concerned that it could be revived without a commitment in writing, especially because Trump has continued to defend the idea.
In a statement accompanying the order Sunday, the Justice Department said that “although the Acting Attorney General has repeatedly advised Congress through testimony, including under oath, as well as in written responses, that the Fund is not moving forward, and the Department has repeatedly represented to district courts that the Fund is not moving forward, today’s Order officially rescinds the May 18, 2026 Order.”
Since the settlement of the president's lawsuit against the IRS was announced, “No Members were appointed; no funds were transferred; no process for receiving claims was established; no claims were paid,” the order says. “This order establishes, beyond any doubt, that there is no Fund.”
The document released by Blanche on Sunday night also limits the scope of another provision of the settlement that provided broad immunity for Trump and members of his family from tax audits.
The deal clarifies that the tax audit immunity agreement “applies by its terms only retroactively” to claims open at the time of the settlement and does not protect the president from examination of future tax filings.
Cornyn, who lost reelection this year after Trump endorsed his primary opponent, and Tillis, who is retiring when his term ends in January, have blocked Blanche's nomination as many of their GOP colleagues have criticized the fund.
The Judiciary Committee postponed a vote on Blanche’s nomination that had been scheduled for Thursday morning after Tillis and Cornyn said they needed more from the administration before they could provide the necessary votes.
The two senators have repeatedly said the Justice Department seemed interested in reaching an agreement, but the White House wouldn’t budge even to aid the confirmation of Trump’s loyal former personal attorney, who has aggressively pursued the administration’s priorities as acting attorney general.
“I think as far as Blanche and the Department of Justice, we were pretty much on the same page,” Cornyn said Thursday. “But then when the president got wind of it, he wasn’t willing to go along with it.”
Blanche, who served as Trump’s defense lawyer in his criminal cases, entered the Justice Department last year as deputy attorney general. He was elevated to the top post after Pam Bondi was fired in April by Trump, who was frustrated by her failure to successfully prosecute his political enemies.
Though Blanche insisted he wasn’t auditioning for the permanent job, he has moved aggressively to pursue the Trump administration’s agenda and accelerate investigations into the president’s perceived foes.
The two sides have been negotiating for weeks, but Trump has said repeatedly during the talks that he thinks the fund should go forward and threatened to move forward with it if Blanche was not confirmed.
After the Thursday vote was delayed, Trump said in a social media post that he might pull Blanche’s nomination and resubmit it after Cornyn and Tillis leave office next year.
On Sunday evening, Trump said that people who had faced charges from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and could have benefited from the fund had “their lives destroyed.”
“This would be a reimbursement for the pain that they suffered,” Trump said. “A lot of people like it.”
On Friday, Trump’s attorneys notified a court they would appeal a judge’s scathing ruling that characterized the settlement of the president’s lawsuit against the IRS as an improper exercise in self-dealing. The judge in her order last month referred one of Trump’s attorneys for potential disciplinary action and criticized Blanche’s involvement in the settlement, given his prior representation of Trump.
Blanche has said he disagrees “with the judge’s insinuations” about him. Justice Department lawyers had previously written in court papers that the fund was not moving forward but they refused a judge’s request to have Blanche and other administration officials file a declaration under penalty of perjury that the administration would not take any further action to create the fund.
The Justice Department said the court’s demands were “unnecessary.”
FILE - Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, July 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
