As it turned out for engineering firm WGI, 2020 was a pretty good year. The West Palm Beach, Fla.-based engineering firm grew its Southeast revenue by roughly 55%—up to $71 million from $45.7 million the year prior. The company also was in expansion mode during the pandemic, adding employees, services, clients and even stretching its geographic footprint, according to information WGI submitted via its Southeast Top Design Firms survey.

Actually, some of WGI’s considerable success during the past year resulted from its response to the COVID-19 pandemic. When the pandemic hit, WGI says it “concentrated significant energy on upgrading our website.” With the site now featuring dozens of videos, podcasts and blogs, the company says the upgrade drove record numbers of website visits and engagements. One such “engagement” paid off big-time, giving WGI the opportunity to land a new client the engineering firm describes as a “billion-dollar company specializing in home delivery services” that ended up procuring nationwide engineering and site-related services.

Also, like many other industry firms, WGI took steps to emphasize diversity, equity and inclusion within the workplace, creating and implementing a Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Council. From the firm’s nomination: “Leadership at WGI recognized that this was an essential initiative and immediately dedicated resources to its implementation to enhance the well-being of our employees and the community."

For these reasons and others, ENR editors have recognized WGI Inc. as 2021 Southeast Design Firm of the Year. We'll have much more information about WGI and the projects and initiatives it's undertaking in ENR Southeast's April 26 print edition.

NOTE: This year’s Regional Top Design Firms surveys—including ENR Southeast’s—remain open, and can be found here. We encourage any architectural and engineering firms to participate in the free survey.