Global engineering firm expands to support Tri-Cities projects

Steve Cline

| Photo by Rachel Visick

Richland recently welcomed a global engineering, architecture and construction firm to its new office at 1060 Jadwin Ave., though the company’s presence has been in the works for a while, thanks to a multiyear contract with one of the Tri-Cities’ biggest employers.

Burns & McDonnell’s new workplace officially opened when office leader Greg Smith, project manager with the company’s Aviation and Federal Group, cut the ribbon on May 30.

The company was established in 1898 in Kansas City, Missouri, which remains the company’s headquarters today. Steve Cline, vice president of the Aviation and Federal group, explained that the founders wanted to pick a central location so that they could easily “go to where the customers are.”

For about 60 years, one of those customers has been the U.S. Department of Energy.

Smith said that in 2019, “Burns & McDonnell was looking for new opportunities to grow and expand, and we had been growing in the DOE marketplace.”

That was when the company won a multiyear contract with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

“We like to be present where our clients are,” Smith said. “Once we won that contract, we wanted to have a physical presence here to support them.”

Burns & McDonnell’s new Richland office recently opened at 1060 Jadwin Ave.

| Courtesy Burns & McDonnell

A growing team

That local support began two years ago, when Smith was contacted about launching a Richland office. At that time, he was the only local employee and worked from home.

To grow the local office, Smith realized that they needed a physical space. “I did some research in the area and Fuse seemed like the natural space to pick based on its relationships, its location and the opportunity that it provided,” he said.

Fuse SPC is a business accelerator that offers coworking space and private offices. Smith moved the growing Richland office into that space at the end of 2022, and by the time it moved out a year later, the team had grown to four employees. Now, there are five.

The company prides itself on being 100% employee owned, and 14,000 employee-owners work for Burns & McDonnell across more than 75 offices worldwide. “We’re invested in them,” Cline said.

The new Richland office in Suite 350 of the 1060 Jadwin Ave. building, just across the hall from Bouten Construction Co.’s offices, was initially unfinished. Burns & McDonnell spent four months remodeling the 2,000-square-foot space, which now contains an open office area, several smaller meeting rooms and a kitchen.

The office space can support 13 employees, and Smith anticipates a steady growth of one or two employees each year.

Burns & McDonnell’s current project with PNNL is its campus expansion, a project developing the 160 acres north of PNNL’s main campus.

Burns & McDonnell’s new Richland office is 2,000 square feet and can accommodate 13 employees.

| Courtesy Burns & McDonnell

Hanford contracts

In addition to that contract, the company also gained Hanford contracts with both Washington River Protection Solutions and Hanford Laboratory Management and Integration, or ATL-Navarro, at the beginning of 2024. “We’re excited to grow on the Hanford site,” Smith said.

The Richland office could also work with the ports and cities in the future, Cline said.

VR technology

The grand opening included a demonstration of the virtual reality technology the company uses to help design buildings. 

Andrew Hankins, a building information modeling and digital delivery manager based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, helped oversee attendees’ use of the VR headset. Users could explore a hangar in 360 degrees, using handheld controls to teleport to various spaces within the building without ever moving.

Greg Wunderlich, a mechanical engineer from the Denver, Colorado, office, explained that the technology serves to help visualize maintenance and design buildings, and it can even be used for training. Engineers can use it to have an immersive experience without being in the physical space.

Hankins noted that VR is also helpful in collaboration. Although Burns & McDonnell isn’t the first company to put virtual reality technology to work in its business, there are still many who haven’t yet begun to use it. That puts the company “more on the leading edge of things,” Hankins said.

The entrance to Burns & McDonnell’s new office was decked with balloons for its grand opening.

| Photo by Rachel Visick

Dignitaries celebrate

On the date of the grand opening, U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse was in attendance, along with Richland Mayor Theresa Richardson and representatives of Burns & McDonnell from across the country.

Newhouse welcomed the company to the Tri-Cities, stating that the area has “all the ingredients necessary for a dynamic future.”

Richardson’s welcome included a formal declaration pronouncing May 30, 2024, to be Burns & McDonnell Day.

“We’re really excited to be here, to support the community in Richland and to continue to grow in the area,” Smith said.