May 29, 2015

Thornton Tomasetti opens office here

International engineering firm Thornton Tomasetti is expanding into the Northwest with an office in Seattle.

This is the 27th location for the New York-based firm, which has a staff of more than 850 people in the U.S., Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.

Briggs

The Seattle office is headed by Greg Briggs, who has 25 years of experience in structural design, analysis and project management, most recently at Seattle-based Magnusson Klemencic Associates.

The Thornton Tomasetti Seattle office will work on commercial, institutional, cultural, higher education and multifamily projects.

Briggs has joined the firm as a principal. He is working out of temporary space until a lease is finalized soon for a downtown Seattle office.

The firm will initially have six to 10 people here, and focus on structural engineering.

Thornton Tomasetti offers construction engineering, facade engineering, sustainability consulting, forensics, property loss consulting, and renovation and repurposing of buildings.

Briggs said the Seattle office already has two projects.

It is working with design architect EHDD of San Francisco on a new aquarium at Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium in Tacoma, with construction expected to start next year.

It also is working with Mithun on the Louisiana Children's Museum: Early Learning Village in New Orleans.

Briggs said Thornton Tomasetti is attracted to the Pacific Northwest because of its thriving design work, and the opportunity to serve clients here.

“It's always been a really rich design environment,” he said. “The whole A/E/C community has been very strong here.”

He said it is natural for an international firm to be in this market.

The Seattle area has a lot of growing firms, including Amazon, Microsoft and Starbucks, and an expanding population, he said, and all that creates demand for Thornton Tomasetti's services.

Briggs spent 18 years at Magnusson Klemencic Associates, most recently as a senior principal, and specialized in museums and cultural projects. He has worked on about 25 such projects, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art expansion; renovation and expansion of St. Louis Art Museum; Philadelphia Museum of Art expansion and renovation (a multiphase project designed by Frank Gehry); LeMay-America's Car Museum in Tacoma; and projects for the Museum of Flight.

He also worked on 1700 Seventh Avenue office tower and Alley24 mixed-use project, both in Seattle, as well as Redmond City Hall.

Briggs will do business development and project management at Thornton Tomasetti, and work on getting more cultural and museum projects company-wide.

He holds a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, a master's degree in civil engineering from North Carolina State University in Raleigh and a master's degree in business administration from University of Texas at Dallas.