The storied architecture firm Yamasaki Inc. is back in Detroit with a new small headquarters office in the Fisher Building in the New Center area.

The company, whose namesake is World Trade Center architect Minoru Yamasaki, is taking 3,000 square feet in the building, according to a news release. It is now headed up by Robert Szantner, who bought the firm's intellectual property when it went into receivership in late 2009.

It had operated in Birmingham, according to a 2015 Crain's story on Yamasaki's legacy. Most of the firm's dozen or so employees will work out of the Fisher Building, while a few will operate out of the Kalamazoo suburb of Portage.

Minoru Yamasaki, who died in 1986, was the architect behind buildings including the One Woodward skyscraper and the Helen L. DeRoy Auditorium and McGregor Memorial Conference Center on the Wayne State University campus in Midtown, according to Historic Detroit, which tracks the city's buildings and architecture history. He also designed the Brookfield Office Park in Farmington Hills.

"The marketplace has provided us with an opportunity to bring back the Yamasaki name to its roots," Szantner said in the release.

"Detroit is about to grow in every way, including vertical. That fits into the experience of our professionals with urban projects of all types, so we want to play a role in the transformation of this city, as we have in so many projects here and around the world, while always being based in Southeast Michigan."

Szantner added that the company has designed 3 million-plus square feet of office space in Michigan and 5 million more outside of it.

Born in Seattle, Yamasaki moved to Detroit in 1945 from New York to work for the company now known as SmithGroup Inc. In the 1950s, he started his own firm.

The Fisher Building is owned by a joint venture between The Platform LLC, New York City-based HFZ Capital Partners and New York City-based Rheal Capital Management, which is owned by Detroit native John Rhea. The Platform is run by Peter Cummings and Dietrich Knoer.