HDR, Inc.

HDR, Inc.
Name	HDR, Inc.
Type	Employee-owned
Founded	1917
Founder	Harrison D. Richardson
Headquarters	Omaha, Nebraska
Area served	Global
Industry	Architecture, Engineering, Consulting
Key people	Eric L. Keen, Harrison D. Richardson
Revenue	(private)
Num employees	12,000+

HDR, Inc. is a multinational design, architecture, engineering, and consulting firm founded in the early 20th century and headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. The firm operates across infrastructure, healthcare, water, transportation, energy, and environmental markets, working with public agencies, private corporations, and international organizations. HDR maintains an employee-owned structure and pursues projects spanning urban planning, major capital works, and program management.

History

HDR traces its roots to its founding by Harrison D. Richardson in 1917, emerging in the context of early American urban planning and infrastructure development during the Progressive Era. Throughout the 20th century the firm expanded through regional commissions tied to projects influenced by figures and movements such as Frederick Law Olmsted, the New Deal, and postwar Interstate Highway System development. HDR grew by acquisitions and organic expansion in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, integrating practices aligned with firms associated with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, AECOM, and Jacobs Engineering Group to broaden capabilities in architecture, engineering, and program management. The company’s timeline intersects with major industry shifts involving deregulation in the 1980s, globalization in the 1990s, and resilience-focused initiatives following events like Hurricane Katrina and the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.

Services and specialties

HDR provides professional services in architectural design, civil engineering, structural engineering, environmental consulting, and program and construction management. Its specialties include healthcare facility design influenced by trends from institutions such as Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins Hospital, and Cleveland Clinic; water and wastewater systems framed by precedent from organizations like United States Army Corps of Engineers and World Bank; transportation planning comparable to work by National Highway System designers and municipal transit agencies like Metropolitan Transportation Authority (New York) and Transport for London. The firm offers services in environmental remediation connected to standards set by agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and flood resilience practices adopted after events involving Federal Emergency Management Agency. HDR also engages in energy and industrial sectors with projects touching on standards from North American Electric Reliability Corporation and partnerships resembling those of ExxonMobil and Siemens.

Projects and portfolio

HDR’s portfolio spans large-scale hospital campuses, water resource programs, extraction-site reclamation, airport terminals, and highway corridors. Notable types of projects include healthcare complexes comparable to Mayo Clinic Hospital expansions, municipal water facilities like upgrades to systems overseen by Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, and transportation hubs reminiscent of terminals at Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport and infrastructure managed by Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The firm has undertaken basin-wide flood control and restoration programs akin to projects under the Mississippi River and Tributaries Project and collaborated on environmental assessments similar to those conducted for Superfund sites. HDR’s work often intersects with major capital programs administered by entities such as Department of Transportation (United States), European Investment Bank, and provincial agencies across Canada and Australia.

Organizational structure and leadership

HDR operates as an employee-owned corporation with a senior leadership team and regional management covering the Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Asia-Pacific. Executive leadership includes a chief executive officer and an executive committee alongside sector presidents who oversee markets such as healthcare, water, transportation, and energy. The firm’s governance model resembles structures used by other large consultancies like ERM, WSP Global, and CH2M Hill prior to its acquisition. HDR maintains studio-based architectural units, multidisciplinary engineering groups, and centralized corporate functions—legal, finance, human resources—coordinating work across offices in major cities including New York City, London, Dubai, Sydney, and Toronto.

Corporate governance and financials

As an employee-owned private company, HDR does not publicly list shares on stock exchanges such as New York Stock Exchange or NASDAQ and therefore issues limited public financial disclosure comparable to privately held firms like Bechtel and Fluor Corporation in certain periods. Governance is shaped by a board of directors and partner councils that steward strategic planning, risk management, and compliance with regulatory regimes like those of the Securities and Exchange Commission for applicable filings and international procurement frameworks used by institutions like Asian Development Bank. HDR’s revenue streams derive from fee-based professional services, design-build contracts, and long-term program management agreements with municipal, state, federal, and multinational clients.

Corporate responsibility and sustainability

HDR has emphasized sustainability, resilience, and community engagement, aligning practice with standards and certification systems such as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, Envision Sustainability Professional, and guidelines from the World Health Organization for health facility planning. The firm’s environmental work includes ecological restoration, climate adaptation planning responding to reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and water resource stewardship influenced by United Nations Environment Programme initiatives. HDR engages in pro bono work and partnerships with nonprofits and universities, collaborating with organizations similar to The Nature Conservancy, American Red Cross, and academic centers like Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of California, Berkeley.

Awards and recognition

HDR has received industry awards and recognitions from professional bodies such as the American Institute of Architects, the American Council of Engineering Companies, and Engineering News-Record. Project-level honors recognize excellence in healthcare design, water infrastructure, and sustainable engineering, placing HDR alongside peer recipients like SOM (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill), HOK, and Gensler in annual rankings and design competitions. The company’s leaders and project teams have been finalists and winners in regional and international awards programs that include design, innovation, and community impact categories.

Category:Architecture firms of the United States Category:Engineering companies of the United States