Thornton Tomasetti, the industry’s third-largest engineering/architectural firm, has joined forces with Weidlinger Associates through a merger whose goals include cultivating a broadly based global practice that focuses on innovation, research, and development.
The combined company remains based in New York, and will operate under the name Thornton Tomasetti. However, the Weidlinger brand is sticking with three of the combined company’s 10 practices—applied sciences, protective design, and transportation—to leverage that brand’s already established recognition among customers.
While the terms of the merger were not disclosed, the Wall Street Journal reports that this transaction will be completed through an exchange of stock.
Jim Kent, a company spokesman, tells BD+C that all of Weidlinger’s senior-level management team are staying on, including Ray Daddazio, Weidlinger’s CEO, who will serve as Co-president of Thornton Tomasetti with Robert DeScenza until the end of 2016, at which point DeScenza plans to retire. Two of Weidlinger’s board members will join Thornton Thomasetti’s board of directors.
Thornton Tomasetti and Weidlinger already have experience developing products and services for the industry. These include PZFlex, an ultrasound product for the medical field that emerged from a seismic shock simulation product Weidlinger had developed for the federal government in the 1990s.
“Combining our firms [creates] significantly greater potential for growth and innovation than either firm could achieve alone,” says Thomas Scarangello, Thornton Tomasetti’s Chairman and CEO. “Our more-diverse merged expertise allows us to address a wider range of client needs, while offering enhanced breadth and depth of services and extended geographic reach.”
A key component of this merger will be the formation of an R&D holding company to develop innovative products and services for the company, as well as for other firms. Weidlinger also has strong connections as a government contractor in both the U.S. and the United Kingdom.
The combined company has 1,200 employees working in offices in 34 cities. (There had been relatively little competitive overlap between the two firms before this deal.) The Journal, quoting company officials, reports that the company is projected to generate about $240 million in revenue this year.
When asked about the timing of this merger, Daddazio tells BD+C that he and Scarangello, who have known each other for years, had dinner during the Construction Industry Roundtable conference in Florida last October. Scarangello told Daddazio about his company’s plans for the next five and 20 years, “and a lot of those goals resonated with me, especially when one of the first things he said was ‘we bet the farm on innovation.’ This is what Weidlinger has been about, with applied sciences and pushing the envelope.”
Weidlinger, he says, had previously spoken with several other firms about the possibility of mergers, but combining with Thornton Tomasetti had the potential for being a good fit, especially after a dinner meeting attended by the senior leaders of both companies last January, which Daddazio says went well enough to lead to more in-depth discussions.
Thornton Tomasetti and Weidlinger already have experience developing products and services for the industry. These include PZFlex, an ultrasound product for the medical field that, Daddazio explains, emerged from a seismic shock simulation product Weidlinger had developed for the federal government in the 1990s. “That product represents a couple million dollars in licensing revenue, and could be exponentially larger, now that we have a bigger platform to exploit.”
The same is true of tuned mass dampers that Thornton Tomasetti has developed with NASA, which are also being applied to reducing movements in skyscrapers.
Daddazio, who has been with Weidlinger since 1979, and was its President and CEO since January 1996, holds a doctorate from Columbia University’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. In his new role at Thornton Tomasetti, Daddazio expects his immediate focus will be to make sure the integration—which both companies’ boards and shareholders approved unanimously—goes as smoothly as possible.
“We’re really excited about this, and making it work,” says Daddazio.
Related Stories
| Apr 18, 2012
Syska Hennessy re-launches Information and Communication Technology practice
The ICT practice will focus a blend of products including Information Technology, Security, Audiovisual, Building Automation, Fire Life Safety, Medical Communications and Intelligent Building Systems.
| Apr 18, 2012
Perkins+Will designs new complex for Johns Hopkins Hosptial
The Charlotte R. Bloomberg Children’s Center and the Sheikh Zayed Tower create transformative patient-centric care.
| Apr 18, 2012
BBS Architects & Engineers acquires Ward Associates
The merged companies’ on-going project portfolio valued at $220 million.
| Apr 17, 2012
Princeton Review releases “Guide to 322 Green Colleges”
The guide profiles 322 institutions of higher education in the U.S. and Canada that demonstrate notable commitments to sustainability in their academic offerings, campus infrastructure, activities and career preparation.
| Apr 17, 2012
FMI report examines federal construction trends
Given the rapid transformations occurring in the federal construction sector, FMI examines the key forces accelerating these changes, as well as their effect on the industry.
| Apr 17, 2012
Freese and Nichols awarded Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award
Freese and Nichols is the only engineering and architecture firm to ever receive this recognition.
| Apr 17, 2012
Miramar College police substation in San Diego receives LEED Platinum
The police substation is the first higher education facility in San Diego County to achieve LEED Platinum Certification, the highest rating possible.
| Apr 17, 2012
Alberici receives 2012 ASA General Contractor of the Year award
Alberici has been honored by the ASA eight times in the award’s nineteen-year history--more than any other general contractor in its class.
| Apr 16, 2012
Freeland promoted to vice president at Heery International
Recently named to Building Design+Construction’s 40 Under 40 Class of 2012.
| Apr 16, 2012
University of Michigan study seeks to create efficient building design
The result, the researchers say, could be technologies capable of cutting the carbon footprint created by the huge power demands buildings place on the nation’s electrical grid.
