AECOM is a global company of design, engineering, and construction professionals that cooperates with clients to solve their most complex problems and improve the quality of life in communities. This American corporation is engaged in a variety of activities in the fields of architecture, design, landscape, management, planning, commissioning and decommissioning, consulting, etc. Its clients are businesses in 150 countries, and its annual revenue reaches $20 billion. More at la-future.
What you should know about the company
AECOM, formerly known as AECOM Technology Corporation, is a multinational engineering corporation based in the United States. The company employs around 87,00 people and ranks 157th on the Fortune 500 list for 2019.
The company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
The design and building of airports, Olympic venues, ports, trains, mines, stadiums, marketplaces, conference centers, tunnels, real estate, skyscrapers, drainage systems, bridges, government laboratory complexes, labs are just a few of the many projects it has completed.
Since 2018, AECOM has been included in Fortune’s list of the world’s most respected companies. In addition, the company has achieved a record in engineering: it has remained the first design firm by revenue for eight consecutive years and the No. 1 company in transportation and construction in the ENR “2019 Top 500 Design Firm” ranking.
They have created the world’s longest cable-stayed bridge, built venues for the world’s largest sporting events, implemented major greenfield port development projects, life-saving disaster recovery programs, and built the tallest tower in the Western Hemisphere.
How did the history of AECOM begin?
AECOM began its history with J. Fred Miles, who founded Swiss Drilling Company in 1910 in Oklahoma. Later, the company transformed into the Ashland Oil & Refining Company in Kentucky, which became the predecessor of the Corporation. Miles established the Ashland Refining Company in 1924 to process oil. Paul Blazer was responsible for overseeing the operation of the business. Miles was fired due to the parent company’s unsatisfactory performance, but Blazer’s management was credited with Ashland’s success. In 1936, he accepted the position of President of the newly established Ashland Oil & Refining Company.
In 1966, Ashland re-established its relationship with Warren Brothers and began the process of laying down roads and building supplies. Using waste from the refineries, the company produced asphalt. Ashland became one of the leading highway construction firms in the country and laid the foundation for AECOM.
In the 1970s, the business formerly known as Ashland Oil & Refining changed its name to Ashland Oil. Five years later, Ashlands developed a coal company in addition to consolidating its building operations into a single organization. This suggested that the company was focusing on a separate issue. When Ashland’s sales reached $1 billion per year, the oil sector was still a tiny component.
Ashland sold its operational assets in the 1980s, and a year later it became a new holding company. A new corporate strategy was implemented, as Ashland focused on refining and marketing, and sought to expand its business.
In 1984, the business acquired Daniel, Mann, Johnson & Mendenhall (DMJM), a leading provider of services for transportation engineering on a global scale. Following the end of World War II, the company first worked on military projects before emerging as one of the first engineering and architecture firms in the western United States. The DMJM firm was founded in 1985 as an Ashland Technology firm subsidiary.
AECOM disassociation
It was decided to go back to the oil-refining business in the late 1980s. Chairman Newman proposed the acquisition of Ashland Technology. This prompted the formation of AECOM, which encompasses architecture, engineering, consulting, operations and maintenance. The firm acquired numerous engineering, design, and planning firms, including Maunsell Engineering, EDAW Urban Planning, Economic Research Associates, ENSR Environmental Management and The RETEC Group. They also bought well-known architects and experts.
In 2007, AECOM went public and began selling shares, which marked a capital raise of nearly $500 million. The proceeds were used to buy five large consulting, engineering and construction firms.
The current situation
The modern AECOM helps with things like archaeology, architecture and design, capital asset management, building, cost management, economics, engineering, protecting the environment, international projects, IT and cybersecurity, operations and maintenance, planning and consulting, managing projects and managing risks. The main areas of work are combined in the acronym:
- А – architectural business (Architecture),
- Е – (Engineering),
- C – design (Construction),
- O – operation, production activity (Operations),
- М – (Management).
AECOM is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. The company’s clients and projects can be found in more than 150 countries.
In 2018, the company’s total revenue amounted to $20.16 billion, of which $8.24 billion came from construction services and $8.22 billion from the design and consulting division.
The most notable works of the firm
- Keppel Marina East Desalination Plant (KMEDP) in Singapore. It is the first dual-mode desalination plant that can process 137,000 cubic meters of water daily, saving energy. It can treat seawater and freshwater depending on weather conditions. AECOM is one of the companies that supported the design of the desalination plant.
- Testing wastewater for COVID-19 in the United States. AECOM partners with Columbia University to monitor COVID-19 ribonucleic acid (RNA) in wastewater in the BCUA sewer outfall to assess the incidence of COVID-19 in New Jersey.
- NEOM in Saudi Arabia. AECOM is the program manager for NEOM, a city built from scratch in the Arabian Desert and one of the latest urban projects to support and urbanize the northwestern region of Saudi Arabia. It includes the design of public utilities and major transportation infrastructure, as well as geotechnical and environmental services.
- Hyperloop technology in Texas. AECOM is partnering with Arrivo and HyperloopONE, private developers, and the state government to create an urban context and make travel from one metropolitan area to another suburb possible in minutes. AECOM is also the only company to have ever planned, designed and built a Hyperloop project.
- Taizhou Bridge in China. The Taizhou Bridge is the first three-tower suspension bridge connecting Jiangsu, four major cities in China: Zhenjiang, Taizhou, Changzhou and Yangzhou. AECOM’s recent experience in the construction and design of the Sutong Bridge made it skilled enough to create an unrivaled design for the bridge and its unique feature of asymmetric constant load.
