Burns & McDonnell is in the right place at the right time. With high demand in the critical and energy sectors, the company’s offices in Texas and Oklahoma are particularly well positioned to take advantage of today’s market opportunities. Last year, the company generated record financial performance, over $1 billion in revenue, in ENR’s Texas and Southeast region. Approximately 75% of these revenues were earned in ENR’s Texas and Louisiana sub-region.
The company has leaned heavily on integrated delivery models, including working with its own construction arm. Its regional offices have become centers of excellence for the global company, while remaining connected to local communities. In light of its recent success, ENR Texas & Southeast named Burns & McDonnell its Texas and Louisiana Design Firm of the Year.
The mission-critical sector has been a boon for Burns & McDonnell in the region. The firm launched its mission-critical practice nearly a decade ago, when the number of design firms in the space was more limited. With a competitive edge, the company now works with some of the world’s largest hyperscalers, as well as several tier two data center customers.
Today, the company’s Dallas office has 100 employees dedicated to mission-critical work and serves as a mission-critical Center of Excellence for the entire company.
For Scott Clark, vice president and general manager of Burns & McDonnell’s North Texas region, the rapid increase in mission-critical demand has been remarkable. A mechanical engineer, he started working in data centers in the 1990s, during the dotcom boom. “It’s been a really hot market and a really good place for us over the last 10 years,” he says. “It started off pretty slow, we only had a handful of people, but over the last five or six years, it’s been a really big part of our growth.”
Clark says the demands associated with mission-critical work dovetail very well with many of the company’s other practices.
“[Mission critical projects] They need mass levels, they need roads, they need electrical substations, they need water treatment plants, and they need power,” he says. “So it’s literally everything: it’s civil, architectural, structural, mechanical, electrical, fire protection, commissioning. It’s the whole range.”
While data centers have been an important part of the company’s growth strategy in recent years, other sectors are also strong. Karen Bray, senior vice president and general manager who oversees Burns & McDonnell’s South Central region, including Houston, Austin and San Antonio, says the electric sector has been particularly strong. In addition to energy needs for data centers, population growth is also driving demand. Meanwhile, energy infrastructure is also needed for the export of energy, including liquefied natural gas. “Whether it’s power generation, battery storage, solar, transmission, distribution, substations, grid interconnection, anything in the energy value chain has been important to us,” he says.
In a progressive design-build project for Port Arthur, Burns & McDonnell used a 360-degree automated LED immersive cave virtual environment to collaboratively engage in a full-scale, high-definition virtual environment.
Photo courtesy of Burns & McDonnell
Progressive design-build
Other strong markets include advanced manufacturing and traditional infrastructure, such as transportation and water, Bray notes. An increasingly important part of the company’s strategy is scaling integrated delivery models to deliver greater speed, certainty and collaboration on complex projects. With its in-house construction capabilities, the company’s ability to combine engineering, procurement and construction self-execution capabilities is a key differentiator.
The Everman Parkway Extension Project for Fort Worth is the city’s first progressive design-build transportation project. When completed in 2027, the $42 million project will provide nearly 1 mile of new road, a multi-lane roundabout and a 750-foot bridge over the Union Pacific Railroad.
Last year, the company was selected for the progressive design and construction delivery of a new water reclamation facility in San Marcos, Texas. The new 2 MGD facility is intended to support rapid residential growth and long-term water reuse needs. As part of its scope, Burns & McDonnell will implement an interim rapid wastewater management system while designing the permanent facility.
Since 2023, the company has been engaged in Port Arthur’s first progressive design construction. Ed Long, Port Arthur’s director of engineering, says Burns & McDonnell first suggested using the delivery method to effectively navigate the project’s many complexities. Long, who had not worked with the firm before, says he was surprised by the team’s professionalism. Before winning the project, Long estimates that the company had completed about 30 percent of the preliminary design.
“Once people get here, they want to stay.”
—Karen Bray, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Burns & McDonnell
“I was very impressed with them because they had done a lot of design and looked at several alternatives of how we could put this project together,” he recalls. “[During the RFQ process]they pulled ahead of the pack with all the work they put into it. They are one of the most professional companies I have worked with in terms of the work done. His internal communication is amazing because he could say one thing to one person and the whole team would do it. It was great to never have to repeat things.”
The project was also among the first to use the firm’s new Innovation Center, which includes what it describes as the world’s only automated 360-degree LED Immersive Cave Virtual Environment (CAVE). The space allows teams and customers to collaborate in a high-definition, full-scale virtual environment for design reviews, virtual prototypes and scenario testing without isolating participants in individual VR headsets. Through the immersive experience at the CAVE, the team was able to effectively support infrastructure planning at the port of Port Arthur. Stakeholders were able to walk through the proposed layouts, evaluate truck and rail movements alongside active operations, and identify potential safety and constructability issues before finalizing design decisions.
The company’s penchant for integrated delivery also enhances collaboration with its business partners. Michael Kimmell, vice president of preconstruction at specialty contractor MEP Southland Industries, says the company’s ability to see a project from both an engineering and construction perspective is a benefit.
“They definitely operate more as a team and really get the advice that the installers have,” he says. “A lot of engineering firms will tell you they have their own standard or best practice, and they really operate in a silo. I think Burns and McDonnell do a really good job of developing projects as a team to really get the best input, not just from their own expertise, but everyone else’s.”
Burns & McDonnell employees often volunteer time at local charities, such as Kids’ Meals in Houston
Photo courtesy of Burns & McDonnell
Talent search
Keeping up with growth means attracting and retaining enough qualified staff. Bray notes the particularly high demand in today’s market for electrical engineers, who are critical to much of the company’s workload. Still, the firm has proven to be a place where talent not only accepts offers, but also stays. Burns & McDonnell is a 100% employee-owned company, meaning everyone from C-suite leaders to a mailroom worker has ownership.
“There are a lot of people who come to Burns and McDonnell and stay their entire careers,” says Bray, who joined the firm 24 years ago. “We have one of the lowest turnover rates in the industry. I think we’ve grown organically and very naturally and developed talent internally. We also hire externally, but I think once people are here, they want to stay.”
The company has made the Houston Chronicle’s Best Places to Work list every year since 2009. FW Inc. magazine. has also ranked it on its list of the best companies to work for in Fort Worth since 2017.
Internships also serve as a proving ground in the company’s recruiting efforts. This summer, the firm’s Houston office will host 60 interns. Last year, the firm hired 700 interns company-wide, out of 62,000 applicants.
“Unless there’s a bubble, I don’t see an end in sight.”
— Scott Clark, Vice President and General Manager, North Texas Region, Burns & McDonnell
Burns & McDonnell has also demonstrated its commitment to the communities it serves. Employees contributed more than $1 million to United Way chapters throughout the region. They awarded approximately 25 STEM education grants, totaling approximately $125,000, to K-12 schools in Texas, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Puerto Rico.
Beyond education, Burns & McDonnell teams supported a wide range of community organizations and service initiatives, including Girls Engineering the Future, Junior Achievement of Southeast Texas, regional science museums, and employee-led volunteer efforts such as STEM festivals, Heart Walks, and youth mentoring programs.
Looking ahead, Burns & McDonnell leaders continue to see a well-defined path to growth. Clark notes that since opening in 2010, the Dallas office has grown every year, and he expects that to continue. The company’s construction arm has definitely been a big contributor to this growth, doubling in size from 2021. However, design opportunities are also robust.
“Unless there’s a bubble, I don’t see an end in sight,” he says. “Our utility customers are asking us for more equipment, both design and construction, our hyperscalers want more equipment, our infrastructure customers need us to do more. So yes, it’s a great time to be in our business right now.”
