Thornton Tomasetti, the international engineering firm, has acquired Becker Structural Engineers, Inc., a Portland, Maine-based firm with specializations in mass timber, parking structures and highway bridge projects. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed, as the company says in the press release received by Lesprom Network.
Company Founder and President Paul Becker, P.E., SECB, and Vice President Todd Neal, P.E., SECB, will become senior principal and principal at Thornton Tomasetti, respectively. Becker’s 27 employees will remain in its existing office.
The acquisition will complement Thornton Tomasetti’s current offerings, including increased expertise in mass timber projects. Becker has completed a number of mass timber projects, while Thornton Tomasetti is currently providing structural engineering services to what could be the tallest mass-timber tower in the Western Hemisphere, the 16-story Ascent in Milwaukee, Wis., and was on the team behind the concept of an 80-story timber skyscraper in Chicago, Illinois.
Paul Becker is an advocate for the expansion of the heavy timber industry in Maine. His expertise in the field, along with that of Thornton Tomasetti’s Sustainability team, will give the firm a strong foothold in Portland, which will join the firm’s other mass timber centers of excellence in Toronto, Seattle and Chicago.
