Based on its strong steady growth in both its architecture and engineering practices, ENR Texas & Louisiana named HDR its 2012 Design Firm of the Year. Despite a soft economy, the firm has more than doubled its regional revenue in the past five years, propelling it to the upper ranks of our annual Top Design Firms Survey. HDR has seen solid returns in a wide variety of sectors, including general building, health care, transportation, power, correctional, landscape and water/wastewater.

Its health care practice is tops in the region, thanks in large part to its work on the $1.3-billion Parkland Hospital replacement project, one of the largest hospital projects under construction in the world. HDR also designed the $500-million Ambulatory Care Center at Lackland Air Force Base, which was selected to receive an Honor Award for Concept Design in the 2011 Air Force Design Awards. When completed, the 680,000-sq-ft $481-million center will become the largest Ambulatory Care Surgical Center in the Department of Defense.

Meanwhile, it continues its strong record in civil engineering. In transportation, the firm is part of the team delivering the 11.5-mile President George Bush Turnpike Western Extension (SH 161) in Dallas and it is working on the IH 45/IH 610 Interchange in Houston. Its water/wastewater practice saw recovery in 2011 with HDR picking up three key projects in the DFW Metroplex. These included design of a 23-mile, 84-in pipeline segment of the joint Dallas Water Utilities and Tarrant Regional Water District IPL Project delivering raw water from Lake Palestine to the Metroplex; design of the City of Dallas Able Storm Water Pump Station, one of the first large applications of concrete volute pumps in the U.S.; and design of the largest headcell grit removal installation in the U.S. at the Dallas Water Utilities Central Wastewater Treatment Plant.

For more insight about HDR’s continued success in the region, be sure to check out the June 11 edition of ENR Texas & Louisiana.