Bolstered by its California roots, BKF is in the middle of a purposeful transition from a regional civil engineering firm to an acquisition-driven West Coast engineering powerhouse.
“BKF has been around for 110 years. We carry a very long legacy, having been founded in the Bay Area, being a California-headquartered company and having the majority of our staff in California,” explains Peter Wijsman, division executive of infrastructure solutions at BKF. “We can deliver large infrastructure and have the horsepower to do so. We do that through deep local connections, and I think that makes us different.”
The AEC firm saw its regional revenue for California and Hawaii soar year over year to $217 million in 2025, and 2026 is looking to be another banner year thanks in part to two recent strategic mergers.
BKF provided construction management and site design for the Santa Barbara’s El Estero Wastewater Treatment Plant Improvements project, upgrading its recycled water program.
Photo courtesy of BKF
In March, BKF merged with MNS Engineers, which focused on multiservice infrastructure services, and partnered with Lotus Water, which specialized in water resources and climate resilience. These strategic growth opportunities have not only expanded BKF’s transportation and water infrastructure offerings, but also bolstered its regional workforce. Today, the company’s team spans 800 across 20 offices.
“Part of putting these companies together is to provide expanded solutions to our clients, but also [it provides] opportunities for our employees,” says Darren Riegler, BKF’s newly installed president and CEO, who led MNS as CEO for the last three years.
Stanford recently upgraded some key intersections with roundabouts to improve safety. BKF led design, plan preparation and construction support for the first of these roundabouts.
Photo courtesy of BKF
Strategic Strengthening
Before the mergers were finalized earlier this year, BKF went through a restructuring to better align its markets and services, all to better serve its clients, explains Patrick Chan, the firm’s division executive of development. Since then, BKF’s team has been seeing synergies with its performance and growth.
“As we grow and look at current and future partners, it’s really important and really exciting to be able to make sure that we’re strategic in understanding what services we have to bring together and offer our clients,” he says.
“BKF has developed great working relationships, from both their staff and management, and provided excellent support to our teams.”
—Timothy J. Campbell, Deputy District Director, District 5 Project Development and Construction, Caltrans
Now, with the MNS and Lotus Water mergers complete, BKF’s service offerings in transportation and water have been dramatically broadened. The result is a company nimble enough to deliver regional and local solutions, backed with the depth and expertise of a large firm.
“A lot of our clients are excited about the expanded services. Those are local municipalities, utilities and state agencies,” Wijsman says. “Whereas previously we would do one particular element of a job, now we are able to provide services from planning to engineering to construction management and surveying on those projects.”
Today, BKF’s services span engineering, planning, surveying and construction management across four markets: transportation, water, government and land development. But beyond that, BKF’s teams have a deeply embedded presence in the California communities in which they work, and that’s a differentiator.
“We’re an employer of choice in the market. I think we’re in a uniquely strong spot; we provide local connectivity, we’re small enough that everyone knows each other but big enough to take on large projects,” Wijsman says.
BKF provides engineering, planning, surveying and construction management services across the state of California. Its employees are deeply embedded in local communities, and following mergers with MNS and Lotus Water, the firm now has 800 employees across 20 offices.
Photo courtesy of BKF
Prioritizing Partnerships
Long-term relationships with clients across the West Coast are at the core of BKF’s work, with a focus on understanding clients’ broader needs that go well beyond any single project. The company is currently working on some of California’s most visible and complex infrastructure challenges, from the seawalls on San Francisco’s waterfront to the cliffsides of Highway 101.
“Some of the amazing clients that BKF has range from elite universities like Stanford to our tech sector friends at Alphabet, to the growing need for health care in the state and in the West between Kaiser and Sutter Health—just clients that we really value the partnership with and we really appreciate them continuing to come back to us for ongoing services,” Riegler says.
“BKF is very responsive and integral to finding solutions that are durable and cost-effective.”
—Belinda Young, Regional Leader of Health Care, HOK
At the end of 2025, MNS (before the merger with BKF) was reselected to perform construction management with Caltrans for another three years. BKF is now working on two CMGC projects for Caltrans. The first is the $1.1-billion South Coast Highway 101 project, which adds 11 miles of HOV lanes and includes a full rehabilitation and modernization of the existing lanes. The second is the $500-million State Route 46 Corridor Improvement project, which includes 11 miles of four-lane divided highway on a new alignment and a new interchange on Highway 46 between Paso Robles and Bakersfield.
“BKF has developed great working relationships, from both their staff and management, and provided excellent support to our teams,” says Timothy J. Campbell, Caltrans District 5 project development and construction deputy director. Campbell worked with MNS for more than two decades before the merger. “BKF has played a critical role in the preconstruction and construction phases of the two CMGC contracts. They have taken lessons learned from each phase and applied them to future phases.”
Campbell adds that the BKF team understands the practical side of how projects are built and is well versed in design standards.
“The staff they provide to augment ours have had a wealth of experience in the transportation industry—specifically Caltrans experience—and integrate seamlessly,” he continues. “They are always prepared, whether it’s engaging with local agencies or the public or providing technical expertise on engineering matters.”
Health care has been another standout market, with new hospitals, acute care and emergency facilities, outpatient clinics and seismic upgrades to mission-critical medical facilities across California.
BKF is HOK’s go-to civil engineering firm, adds Belinda Young, HOK’s San Francisco-based regional leader of health care. She first worked with BKF on Kaiser Permanente’s Roseville inpatient bed tower expansion. Subsequent collaborations include Sutter Health Santa Clara Medical Center, Stanford Medicine Cancer Center and El Camino Health Los Gatos Campus redevelopment.
“These are all highly complex, OSHPD 1 hospital projects that require in-depth experience, coordination and collaboration,” Young says. “The nature of our projects are high-touch with clients and require nimbleness to respond to continually changing project scope and design parameters. BKF is very responsive and integral to finding solutions that are durable and cost-effective.”
BKF’s ability to understand and work well with the various planning departments is key to facilitating permit approvals, Young says. “We work on health care projects that are particularly challenging in California, with escalating costs and exacting requirements. BKF has the experience and knowledge to get these types of projects completed successfully,” she adds.
BKF is also leading work for clients such as California State Parks, revitalizing roadways and water infrastructure. And at the Port of San Francisco, work is underway to improve earthquake and sea level rise resiliency. “It’s a very visible suite of projects, and very urgent,” Wijsman says. “It speaks to 21st-century infrastructure resilience, and we’re very proud to be a part of it.”
Other landmark work includes San Francisco’s Mission Bay, the city’s largest-ever master-planned development. Design began in the 1980s but took decades to advance. BKF was involved in utility and infrastructure design, while Lotus Water was involved with shoreline and park design. Today, the result is an expansive combo of housing, office and entertainment on the waterfront.
Clients First
With its big mergers already out of the way, 2026 is looking to be a banner year for BKF.
“I think if you looked at us 20 years ago, something of a secret sauce for us was just our entrepreneurship,” Chan explains. “And what we’re able to do now is funnel that specifically into our clients and the markets that we want to be in—so choosing what to do and what not to do.”
And with the ample opportunities that the West Coast markets are bringing, from the tech sector to health care, transportation and water, growth is top of mind. But BKF is not growing simply for growth’s sake.
“I don’t want anybody to misunderstand why we grow—we grow so we can provide our clients with what they need,” Riegler emphasizes. “So if we add service lines, if we add geographies, it’s really to make sure that we’re right there in lockstep with our clients.”
This creates leadership and career growth opportunities for employees. It’s an environment where people can benefit from the organization’s success, he adds.
BKF’s goal is to one day be a top 10 ENR West firm, says Riegler, noting that the company will continue focusing its energy on providing client-centered solutions.
the heart of it, we like helping people. We know how to do it. And when we do that, I think that’s what brings in the synergies,” Chan says.
