Two of the nonresidential building industry’s leading engineering firms have joined forces to leverage their similar sizes and market strategies.
KJWW Engineering, based in Rock Island, Ill., and TTG Engineers, based in Pasadena, Calif., will continue to operate under their own banners, but within a newly created holding company with common management.
Ranked 11th and 14th, respectively, on BD+C’s 2014 Engineering Giants list, the firms’ combined revenues last year would have elevated them to No. 4.
The merger unites two companies with a combined 860 employees working in 25 national and five international locations. “The merger gives TTG and KJWW a larger presence throughout the U.S. and strengthens our collective dominance in the healthcare, higher education, government, entertainment, industrial, and transportation markets,” said Zareh Astrouian, PE, SE, president of TTG. Paul VanDuyne, PE, KJWW’s president, added that the merger “allows us to build on those strengths with greater geographic mobility.”
In an interview with BD+C, VanDuyne—who will be CEO of the holding company, with Astrouian its chairman— said the two firms would spend the next 15 months integrating their operational infrastructure, such as accounting, IT, etc. Over that period, the companies will keep their engineering teams intact, while integrating similar practices. VanDuyne was quick to note that the merger is not a prelude to staff reductions. “Human capital is at such a premium right now, and we would be very happy to go through this process without losing a single person.”
VanDuyne believed this merger would allow both companies to serve national end-user clients more effectively. TTG should gain from KJWW’s strengths in such areas as medical equipment planning and architectural lighting, while KJWW should benefit from TTG’s expertise in the entertainment sector. “We feel this is a great opportunity to take a look at a brand new organization. That’s a little bit extraordinary for two $50 million companies,” he said.
The firms’ executives have been discussing this merger for about a year, said VanDuyne. “It started with a phone call about getting together. We met at [KJWW’s] offices in Chicago, and it went on from there.”
KJWW and TTG announced their merger less than a month after Thornton Tomasetti merged with Weidlinger Associates. While VanDuyne didn’t think these events necessarily presaged more consolidation among engineering companies, he did note that “scale” is becoming more important for firms to be relevant to clients in such areas as BIM and sustainability.
It hasn’t been determined whether the firms would eventually operate out of a single headquarters. That seems unlikely, at least in the near future, especially when Van Duyne said “I don’t think this is the last time you’re going to hear from us about expanding across the country.”
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
USGBC honors Brad Pitt's Make It Right New Orleans as the ‘largest and greenest single-family community in the world’
U.S. Green Building Council President, CEO and Founding Chair Rick Fedrizzi today declared that the neighborhood being built by Make It Right New Orleans, the post-Katrina housing initiative launched by actor Brad Pitt, is the “largest and greenest community of single-family homes in the world” at the annual Clinton Global Initiative meeting in New York.
| Aug 11, 2010
Nation's first set of green building model codes and standards announced
The International Code Council (ICC), the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), and the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IES) announce the launch of the International Green Construction Code (IGCC), representing the merger of two national efforts to develop adoptable and enforceable green building codes.
| Aug 11, 2010
More construction firms likely to perform stimulus-funded work in 2010 as funding expands beyond transportation programs
Stimulus funded infrastructure projects are saving and creating more direct construction jobs than initially estimated, according to a new analysis of federal data released today by the Associated General Contractors of America. The analysis also found that more contractors are likely to perform stimulus funded work this year as work starts on many of the non-transportation projects funded in the initial package.
| Aug 11, 2010
Jacobs Engineering acquires Jordan, Jones and Goulding Inc.
Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. announced that it has acquired Jordan, Jones and Goulding Inc. (JJG), a 500-person professional services firm based in Atlanta.
Museums | Aug 11, 2010
Design guidelines for museums, archives, and art storage facilities
This column diagnoses the three most common moisture challenges with museums, archives, and art storage facilities and provides design guidance on how to avoid them.
| Aug 11, 2010
Philadelphia cancer center seeks LEED certification
The New York office of Thornton Tomasetti provided structural engineering services for the Ruth and Raymond Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine in Philadelphia, a $232 million medical research center and advanced treatment center for cancer and cardiovascular disease. Designed by a joint venture of Perkins Eastman Architects and Rafael Vinõly Architects, the 340,000-sf facility will hous...
| Aug 11, 2010
Broadway-style theater headed to Kentucky
One of Kentucky's largest performing arts venues should open in 2011—that's when construction is expected to wrap up on Eastern Kentucky University's Business & Technology Center for Performing Arts. The 93,000-sf Broadway-caliber theater will seat 2,000 audience members and have a 60×24-foot stage proscenium and a fly loft.
| Aug 11, 2010
Citizenship building in Texas targets LEED Silver
The Department of Homeland Security's new U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services facility in Irving, Texas, was designed by 4240 Architecture and developed by JDL Castle Corporation. The focal point of the two-story, 56,000-sf building is the double-height, glass-walled Ceremony Room where new citizens take the oath.