Despite a generally mixed near-term outlook for the U.S. economy, manufacturers are continuing to call on design firms for help in staying competitive in an increasingly volatile marketplace.
AECOM, ranked No. 1 on ENR's Top 500 Design Firms list, disrupted engineering-sector size norms when it purchased URS Corp. in 2014. Now it is moving forward in its link with mega-disruptor Elon Musk, and others, to design test tracks for his Hyperloop transportation system concept.
For ENR's Top 500 Design Firms, 2014 was a tumultuous year. It was a year when some of the nation's largest firms became even larger through the continual consolidation that the design profession has undergone over the past decade.
Photo Courtesy of Black & Veatch Related Links: 2014 ENR Top 500 Design Firms Overview: A Recovery in Need of Speed At about 1:00 a.m. on April 16, 2013, snipers hit and knocked out 17 transformers in 19 minutes at the Pacific Gas & Electric's Metcalf power transmission station near San Jose, Calif. This illustrates a nightmare scenario for electric utilities: A physical or cyber attack that disrupts power transmission.More and more utilities are bringing in engineers to examine the electrical grid's vulnerabilities to attacks."Our security consulting division is closely involved with our utility customers to find the best ways
Daredevil aerialist Nik Wallenda safely crossed 1,250 ft above a Grand Canyon gorge last June, thanks to the cable-rigging design prowess of POWER Engineers Inc.
The design profession has been hit hard over the past six years. By some estimates, as many as 40% of architects were unemployed during the height of the recession, in 2009.
Photo Courtesy of 20th Century Fox Studios A scene from "Walking With Dinosaurs 3D," which used digital-mapping images from WHPacific for some of its backgrounds. Related Links: 2014 ENR Top 500 Design Firms Overview: A Recovery in Need of Speed When moviegoers watched the film "Walking With Dinosaurs 3D," which premiered on Dec. 20, 2013, they were not just seeing the work of gifted computer animators; they also were seeing the work of WHPacific Inc., an engineering and surveying firm.Many background scenes in the film were digital manipulations of mobile-mapping images generated by WHPacific from the Denali National Forest in
Image Courtesy of Black & Veatch Related Links: The Top 500 Design Firms Natural-gas liquefaction and gasification plants are huge, expensive and, up until now, land-based. However, in July 2012, Black & Veatch (No. 14) and Shanghai-based shipbuilder and engineering firm Wison Offshore & Marine Ltd. won a contract to design and construct the world's first floating LNG (FLNG) liquefaction, regasification and storage unit.The ship is being constructed in Nantong, China, and will be floated to the Pacific Coast of Colombia, where it will process gas from the La Creciente gas field, located in the Lower Magdalena Valley Basin. The
