ENR Colorado/Wyoming Design Firm of the Year: Big Investments in Renewables, Land Projects Pay Off for Westwood Professional Services
Westwood is serving as the civil engineering partner for the 248-MW Beaver Creek Wind project in Montana.
Photo courtesy Westwood
Established 50 years ago in Minnesota, Westwood Professional Services has been actively expanding its presence in the Mountain States, particularly in Colorado and Wyoming, where a regional shift toward renewable energy has helped the firm leverage its experience in wind, solar, energy storage and power delivery projects. Westwood entered the onshore wind industry in 1997 and, for a decade, has been working on the 3-GW Chokecherry and Sierra Madre Wind Project in Wyoming, one of the largest planned wind projects in the country.
Westwood’s expertise includes larger wind turbines, heavy civil engineering in mountain areas and data center projects leveraging power generation and infrastructure. The firm’s acquisition of Englewood, Colo.-based engineering and surveying firm CVL Consultants in 2020 has buoyed its land development portfolio, with projects that aim to address population growth to the east of the Denver metro area.
Westwood opened its first Colorado office in 2010, and today 150 employees work from the firm’s Englewood and Westminster locations while supporting multidisciplinary services nationwide, including civil, electrical, structural, land surveying, remote sensing, environmental, water resources and geotechnical engineering.
Firm revenue jumped by 30% across its more than 30 locations in 2024, and its workforce grew by close to 20%. Nationally, the firm reported $412 million in revenue, up from $320 million in 2023.
Recent Projects at a Glance
Windler Community
Earthwork and infrastructure design for the 840-acre master-planned community in Aurora, Colo.
Overland Pass Wind
Environmental permitting and engineering services for the 114,000-acre wind energy project in Sedwick County, Colo.
Converse County Wind
Civil, survey and utility discovery for the 393-MW wind energy project in Converse County, Wyo.
Chokecherry and Sierra Madre Wind
Development and onsite construction activities for the planned 3.5-GW project in Wyoming.
On this year’s ENR Mountain States & Southwest Top Design Firms list, Westwood is ranked No. 33 with $36.39 million in revenue across the region. Of that total, $20.76 million was reported in Colorado and Wyoming. Power projects accounted for $22.67 million in regional revenue.
Mallory Lindgren, senior vice president for market development, discussed Westwood’s regional presence with ENR Regional Editor Jennifer Seward. This Q&A has been edited and condensed.
“We leverage our local expertise to ensure we find common ground between what the local community wants and what is ultimately needed for our client, the utility and the grid.”
—Mallory Lindgren, Senior Vice President of Market Development, Westwood
What projects are pushing Westwood’s growth in the region? The growth of data centers in the area has created unprecedented power demands, and that leverages all of Westwood’s expertise in the renewables space: providing the power infrastructure that’s needed for those as well as the development of the data center itself in terms of the commercial property and the public infrastructure that’s needed, and being able to work on the road or transportation improvements, wastewater treatment facilities and other things that go along with that. We’re also targeting what we consider to be land development projects [master-planned communities, industrial campuses, commercial development] and working with those partners. And we are looking to complement this opportunity with our power business as well, which is focused on supporting utilities across the country.
How have you addressed any growth-related challenges? We entered the wind industry in 1987. And we’re truly leaders in honing that expertise of how to build and engineer wind and how to scale with that market as the wind turbines themselves have gotten bigger and heavier and more complex. And that has been truly differentiating for us to figure out those challenges of how to navigate the larger components and the heavy civil engineering and grading that’s required, especially in that mountain area.
We acquired a local company, CVL, because they were known for their relationships and for understanding the local entitlements and permitting requirements, and that has been key to helping our clients navigate some of those changing market conditions.
The 840-acre master-planned Windler community is currently under construction in Aurora, Colo.
Photo courtesy Westwood
As we serve clients across the country and as battery storage projects, for example, move into urban areas to support load centers, we leverage our local expertise to ensure we find common ground between what the local community wants and what is ultimately needed for our client, the utility and the grid.
Were there any specific internal strategies employed to help the firm adapt? Like most companies, we’ve had the challenge of building and maintaining teams as we scale, and we have found that Denver is a great market to attract key talent. We’ve also upgraded our total compensation package to attract and retain high performers throughout the area. And we’ve implemented new training programs, new recognition strategies and worked on our employee benefits and just really tried to reflect what today’s professionals value.
