What started with a

simple phone call

out of the blue one No-

vember morning 2012,

turned quickly into a

Chinese expansion of

Leffl er Simes Architects.

How is that possible?

But yes, one simple

call has changed this

company in all sorts of

amazing, challenging

and yet slightly scary

ways.

Sitting here in Mel-

bourne, a call comes through from a

young Chinese National wandering

around one of Leffl er’s Shopping Cen-

tres, The IKEA / Springvale Homemak-

er Centre here in Melbourne. He had

discovered the Architects and hence the

call.

Three hours into a meeting with Dr Liu

that afternoon, it is obvious that life was

about to change for LSA.

Dr Liu’s Father in Law owns a Property

Development / Construction Company

called Jiuxing Real Estate Development

Co Ltd. They were into their fourth

large development in Anshan, Liaoning,

Northern China and had no real confi -

dence in their local Architects.

We were asked if we would like to help

them out. !

Is this really happening, I ask myself

that November morning.

November 2012 to February 2013

A few months of general email chit

chat between myself and Zhen ( we

are well and truly friends by this stage),

exchanging ideas and ways to move

forward.

February 2013

A single call to Managing Director, Chris

Goodman in February 2013, to convince

him that this is worth exploring.

Well if you know Chris, his excitement

is infectious and you now that he is

already booking fl ights and hotels before

you put the phone down. Two words

spring to mind. “wing it “. Which is exact-

ly what we did. Rocking up to Anshan, a

city of some 4 Million people, very close

to the North Korean Border to meet our

potential Clients.

An amazing experience for two Archi-

tects from Australia, who had always

thought about the possibilities of Chi-

na, but just hadn’t had the chance to

explore to date.

We arrive back in Australia a week later

with two large projects to design. !!

Way more than we had hoped for.

February 2013 to Present

What can only be described as a wild

ride of numerous China visits, the ex-

citement of designing our fi rst Chinese

Projects, being overwhelmed by the po-

tential that is China, and making some

incredible friends in the process.

With our great team here at Leffl er

Simes, all very enthusiastic and eager

to make it work, we immediately altered

our business, a dedicated Chinese LSA

Magazine, Chinese Business Cards,

Chinese Marketing Materials, Voiceo-

vers in Mandarin, etc.

Our drawings were leaving the offi ce

bilingual, with the assistance of our

many Chinese speakers already in the

company.

How amazing was that to see, the whole

offi ce all working together to make this

happen.

We were slowly being introduced to

new Clients in Anshan, through our very

positive existing Clients and before you

know it, we are designing two very large

local Kindergartens and a Music School.

To get our ducks aligned 2014 saw us

apply for a Chinese Business Entity A

Wholly Owned Foreign

Enterprise (WOFE )

which was approved

Nov 2014, after what

can only be described

as a mountain of

Chinese Paperwork.

Who knows what we

signed…! But with the

assistance of our Local

Accountants Lehman

Brown International,

Leffl er Architects Beijing

Pty Ltd was born.

Our next step is to

secure further work

and that’s where we have been concen-

trating our Marketing, making sure we

access all the available resources.

We truly can’t believe the assistance

from so many people, all of whom are

making this exploration into China pos-

sible.

AUSTRADE. Through the Federal Gov-

ernment, with direct contacts through

the Australian Embassy in Beijing and

the Austrade Shenyang Offi ce. I can’t

thank enough Roger Yuan and Fiona Yu

for all their help.

The Victorian Government with direct

contacts through the offi ce in Beijing.

Huge thanks to Song Lei and his team

in Beijing for the many introductions that

they have made for us.

The Melbourne City Council, with their

Sister City arrangement with Tianjin. A

huge thank you to Dr Chaoyi Wei and

Bonnie Shao in Tianjin and also Stella

Zhang here in Melbourne.

AustCham. The Australian Business

Chamber in Beijing. A huge thanks

to Nick Coyle, Matt Contuzzi, Tash

Jamieson and Andrew Britz for all their

assistance.

ACBC. The Australian Chinese Busi-

ness Council here in Victoria. A huge

thank you to all in the Council who have

given us such solid assistance through-

out this last two years.

What an experience to date. All from a

single phone call out of the blue on that

November morning.

Stephen Evans

Director

Leffl er Simes Architects PTY. LTD.

Leffl er Architects Beijing PTY. LTD.

CALL FROM WHO…! Leffl er Simes embraces China

LEFFLER SIMES ARCHITECTSMELBOURNE SYDNEY BRISBANE BEIJING

November morning 2012