T. Baker Smith climbs list of top design firms

Houma-based engineering firm T. Baker Smith landed at number 323 on the list of Engineering News-Record magazine’s Top 500 Design Firms in the nation for 2008.

The magazine, a weekly that provides news and information for the construction industry, published the list in the April 15, 2009 issue. Companies were ranked according to gross revenue for the year.

The list contains mostly engineering firms but includes architects and environmental firms also. T. Baker Smith leaped up 143 places from the company’s 2007 ranking at 466. The company placed on the list in 2006 as well.

Kenny Smith, president and CEO, said the magazine gathers information about all domestic and international business, including work with schools and energy companies, to compile the rankings.

T. Baker Smith was the only engineering firm in the Tri-parishes to make the list. Besides Houma, the firm has offices in Thibodaux, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Shreveport and Houston.

“Last year, 2008, was a phenomenal year for us on every front,” Smith said. “Oil and gas were booming. Oil was at $147 a barrel. Natural gas was double what it is now. Every aspect of the business was doing well.”

Recovery money for the recent hurricanes also stimulated business, he said, including work related to federal Gulf Opportunity Zone (GO Zone) funding.

“We had government work, industrial work,” Smith said. “A lot of different things came together that drove our business.”

The magazine reported that the design firms in the Top 500 generated $90.6 billion in revenue in 2008.

That amount was more than in 2007, but companies began to feel the effects of the recession in the U.S.

Of the companies on this year’s list, 166 experienced a decline in revenue from the previous year.

Six other firms from Louisiana were ranked on the list: The Shaw Group, Baton Rouge, No. 6; Wink Cos., Baton Rouge, No. 137; Waldemar S. Nelson and Co., New Orleans, No. 201; C.H. Fenstermaker & Associates, Lafayette, No. 272; Burk-Kleinpeter, New Orleans, No. 470, and G.E.C., Baton Rouge, No. 479.