Bolstered by its California roots, BKF is in the midst of a determined transition from a regional civil engineering firm to an acquisition-driven West Coast engineering powerhouse.
“BKF is 110 years old. We have a very long legacy, having been founded in the Bay Area, being a California-based company and having the majority of our staff in California,” said Peter Wijsman, BKF’s Infrastructure Solutions Division Executive. “We can deliver great infrastructure and have the power to do it. We do it through deep local connections, and I think that makes us different.”
The AEC company saw its California and Hawaii regional revenue grow year-over-year to $217 million by 2025, and 2026 is poised to be another breakout year thanks in part to two recent strategic mergers.
BKF provided construction management and site design for the El Estero de Santa Barbara wastewater treatment plant improvement project, enhancing its recycled water program.
Photo courtesy of BKF
In March, BKF merged with MNS Engineers, which focused on multi-service infrastructure services, and partnered with Lotus Water, which specializes in water resources and climate resilience. These strategic growth opportunities have not only expanded BKF’s water and transport infrastructure offering, but also strengthened its regional workforce. Currently, the company’s team consists of 800 people spread over 20 offices.
“Part of bringing these companies together is to offer expanded solutions to our customers, but also [it provides] opportunities for our employees,” says Darren Riegler, BKF’s newly installed president and CEO, who led MNS as CEO for the past three years.
Stanford recently upgraded some key intersections with roundabouts to improve safety. BKF led the design, plan preparation and construction support for the first of these roundabouts.
Photo courtesy of BKF
Strategic strengthening
Before the mergers were completed earlier this year, BKF went through a restructuring to better align its markets and services, all to better serve its clients, explains Patrick Chan, executive of the firm’s development division. Since then, the BKF team has been seeing synergies with their performance and growth.
“As we grow and look at current and future partners, it’s very important and very exciting to be able to make sure we’re strategic in understanding what services we need to bring together and offer to our customers,” he says.
“BKF has developed great working relationships with both its staff and management and has provided excellent support to our teams.”
—Timothy J. Campbell, Assistant District Director, District 5 Project Development and Construction, Caltrans
Now, with the mergers of MNS and Lotus Water completed, BKF’s service offering in transport and water has expanded dramatically. The result is a company nimble enough to offer regional and local solutions, backed with the depth and experience of a large company.
“Many of our customers are excited about the expanded services. These are local municipalities, utilities and state agencies,” says Wijsman. “Whereas before we would do a particular element of a job, we are now able to provide services from planning to engineering to construction management and surveying for these projects.”
Today, BKF’s services span engineering, planning, surveying and construction management in four markets: transportation, water, government and land development. But beyond that, BKF teams have a deeply embedded presence in the California communities they work in, and that’s a differentiator.
“We are an employer of choice in the market. I think we are in a unique strong point; we offer local connectivity, we are small enough for everyone to know each other, but big enough to take on big projects,” says Wijsman.
BKF provides engineering, planning, surveying and construction management services throughout the state of California. Its employees are deeply embedded in local communities and, following mergers with MNS and Lotus Water, the company now has 800 employees across 20 offices.
Photo courtesy of BKF
Prioritize associations
Long-term relationships with West Coast clients are at the core of BKF’s work, with a focus on understanding the broader needs of clients that go well beyond any single project. The company is currently working on some of California’s most visible and complex infrastructure challenges, from the seawalls of San Francisco’s waterfront to the cliffs of the 101 Freeway.
“Some of the amazing clients that BKF has, from elite universities like Stanford to our friends in the tech industry at Alphabet, to the growing need for health care in the state and west to Kaiser and Sutter Health, are just clients that we truly value the partnership with and appreciate that they keep coming back to us for ongoing services,” says Riegler.
“BKF is very responsive and comprehensive in finding durable and cost-effective solutions.”
—Belinda Young, Regional Healthcare Leader, HOK
In late 2025, MNS (prior to the merger with BKF) was re-elected to lead construction with Caltrans for another three years. BKF is now working on two CMGC projects for Caltrans. The first is the $1.1 billion South Coast Highway 101 project, which adds 11 miles of HOV lanes and includes a full rehabilitation and modernization of the existing lanes. The second is the $500 million State Route 46 Corridor Improvement Project, which includes 11 miles of four-lane divided highway in a new alignment and a new interchange on Highway 46 between Paso Robles and Bakersfield.
“BKF has developed great working relationships, both from its staff and management, and has provided excellent support to our teams,” says Timothy J. Campbell, Caltrans District 5 Assistant Director of Project Development and Construction. Campbell worked with MNS for more than two decades before the merger. “BKF has played a critical role in the pre-construction and construction phases of both CMGC contracts. They have taken the lessons learned from each phase and applied them to future phases.”
Campbell adds that the BKF team understands the practical side of how projects are built and is well versed in design standards.
“The staff that they’re bringing to augment ours has had a lot of experience in the transportation industry, specifically Caltrans experience, and they’re a perfect fit,” he continues. “They are always ready, whether it’s to engage with local agencies or the public or to provide technical expertise on engineering matters.”
Health care has been another prominent market, with new hospitals, acute and emergency care centers, outpatient clinics and seismic upgrades at mission-critical medical facilities throughout California.
BKF is HOK’s go-to civil engineering firm, adds Belinda Young, HOK’s regional health care leader in San Francisco. He first worked with BKF on the expansion of Kaiser Permanente’s Roseville inpatient bed tower. Subsequent partnerships include Sutter Health Santa Clara Medical Center, Stanford Medicine Cancer Center, and El Camino Health Los Gatos Campus.
“These are all very complex OSHPD 1 hospital projects that require in-depth expertise, coordination and collaboration,” says Young. “The nature of our projects is client-facing and requires agility to respond to project scope and continually changing design parameters. BKF is highly responsive and comprehensive in finding durable and cost-effective solutions.”
Young says BKF’s ability to understand and work well with different planning departments is key to making permit approvals easier. “We work on healthcare projects that are particularly challenging in California, with rising costs and demanding requirements. BKF has the experience and expertise to successfully complete these types of projects,” he adds.
BKF is also leading work for clients such as California State Parks, revitalizing roads and water infrastructure. And at the Port of San Francisco, work is underway to improve resilience to earthquakes and sea level rise. “It’s a very visible and very urgent set of projects,” says Wijsman. “It speaks to the resilience of 21st century infrastructure and we’re very proud to be a part of it.”
Other landmark work includes San Francisco’s Mission Bay, the city’s largest ever planned development. Design began in the 1980s, but it took decades to advance. BKF was involved in the design of utilities and infrastructure, while Lotus Water was involved in the design of the waterfront and park. Today, the result is an expansive mix of waterfront homes, offices and entertainment.
Customers first
With its major mergers now out of the way, 2026 is looking to be a banner year for BKF.
“I think if you looked at us 20 years ago, a little secret sauce for us was just our entrepreneurship,” Chan explains. “And what we can do now is target it specifically to our customers and the markets we want to be in, so choose what to do and what not to do.”
And with the vast opportunities offered by West Coast markets, from the technology sector to healthcare, transportation and water, growth is paramount. But BKF is not growing just for the sake of growing.
“I don’t want anyone to misunderstand why we’re growing; we’re growing to be able to offer our customers what they need,” Riegler emphasizes. “So if we add service lines, if we add geographies, it’s really to make sure we’re on the same page with our customers.”
This creates opportunities for leadership and career growth for employees. It’s an environment where people can benefit from the success of the organization, he adds.
BKF’s goal is to one day be a top 10 company in ENR West, Riegler says, noting that the company will continue to focus its energy on providing customer-centric solutions.
at the heart of it, we like to help people. We know how to do it. And when we do that, I think that’s what creates the synergies,” says Chan.
