KPFF is a multi-office, multi-discipline engineering firm. We’re driven by a commitment to our core values of Excellence, Trust, Relationships, Stability, and Passion; defining our professional practice, how we are organized and our commitment to our clients and employees.
The Nines Hotel Project, Portland, OR
Working at KPFF has allowed me to further my technical and professional growth with the only limitations being my own. The culture has provided the best incubator for creative solutions to complex projects and problems. The innovative work we produce provides a significant level of satisfaction which in turn generates the drive to further improve on everything we do.
Bill Thorpe, Principal
At KPFF we recognize how fortunate we are to have the resources available to maintain our thriving practice and provide an excellent quality of life for our employees. We take corporate social responsibility seriously, and actively look for ways to improve the communities where we live and work, minimize our environmental footprint, and promote inclusion throughout our firm. While each of our KPFF locations develop and practice their own programs, they are united by our Core Values of Excellence, Trust, Relationships, Stability and Passion…the foundation for everything we do at KPFF.
A Message from John Gavan, KPFF President
At KPFF, our core purpose is to engineer opportunities. The issues of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion are critically important to ensure that those opportunities are available to everyone.
In our Supportive Business Organization, we recognize that each of our offices is unique: The location, demographics, scale, and environment vary widely. Although each group is unique, our local leaders are unified around following our JEDI philosophy: Listen, Unite, and Act.
Company-wide, we share what we are hearing from our teams. We are transparent with the plans that we have made for action, and develop them based on successes, challenges, and lessons learned from those efforts. By distributing ideas, speaking openly about what is and isn’t working, and constantly learning from one another, we can create a multiplying effect on our shared commitment.
Our JEDI philosophy includes looking at these issues through the lens of our core values:
KPFF is committed to the communities in which we design and live. We contribute both through financial sponsorships and with the donation of the time and talent of our employees to many organizations. We aid through monetary donations, volunteer hours, and pro-bono engineering. Our employees work with numerous organizations including: Engineers without Borders, ACE Mentorship program, YWCA, Bridges to Prosperity, Rebuilding Together, United Way, American Lung Association, Habitat for Humanity, American Heart Association, local food banks, and countless other non-profit organizations throughout the U.S. and abroad.
KPFF strongly believes in the need to increase DBE, MWBE and SMB contracting in the AEC industry and welcomes opportunities to partner with these firms. Some KPFF offices also promote a mentorship strategy that emphasizes communication and helps mentees develop their expertise and capacity. KPFF understands that small businesses may not have the resources including administrative staff and software that are beneficial to a large design and construction project. We continually seek Certified Businesses providing services in Engineering and/or Architectural Design to partner with. If you qualify, we would love to hear from you. Please submit a letter of interest, qualifications, disciplines provided and geographic area of your practice (not to exceed 2 pages) to smallbusiness@kpff.com.
As a leader in sustainable design, KPFF takes our commitment to environmental stewardship seriously. Firm-wide, we have over 60 LEED Accredited engineers and have completed over 450 LEED Certified projects. Whether project related or within our office environments, our dedication to incorporating sustainable design features and preserving valuable natural resources remains constant. Some of the ongoing practices we have implemented to reduce our environmental impact include electronic filing systems to reduce paper use, incorporation of recycled and renewable materials in our specifications, and repurposing plotter trimmings into notepads. Our offices are stocked with reusable flatware, dishes, glasses and mugs. Many of our locations encourage employees to use public transit and active transportation, often subsidizing monthly transit passes and bicycle parking.
Our Beginning: Al Kelly opens one-man office, Albert Kelly and Associates, which becomes the multi-disciplinary engineering firm now known as KPFF.
Albuquerque: Structural Design of the Trestle to military aircraft support, a 115' tall wood framed test stand utilizing trunnels, a combination of oak dowels and wedges to connect members.
Los Angeles: Structural Design of the New Otani Hotel, the first concrete ductile frame building in Southern California, a 22 story, 320,000 Sf downtown hotel.
Western Sudan: KPFF's first international project- Structural Engineer of Record for 150+ Agricultural Research Stations designed using local brick and first use of light gage steel roof framing in Sudan.
Portland: Structural Engineer of Record for Phases I & II of the award-winning 840,000 SF Oregon Convention Center - the first convention center to be LEED EB certified.
Portland: Structural and Civil Engineering for the 200,000 SF Oregon Museum of Science and Industry - renovation of a 1910 power plant including one of the first permitted biofiltration swales.
Los Angeles: Authored the building code language for base isolation analysis and design while providing structural design of the 345,000 SF USC University Hospital, the first base isolated hospital in the world.
San Bernadino: Base Isolated Arrowhead Regional Medical Center Replacement Hospital by the San Andreas and San Jacinto faults. First to combine high damping rubber bearings with fluid viscous dampers in an isolation design.
Southern California: Northridge Earthquake exposes many deficiencies in building codes. KPFF assists the damaged St. John’s Hospital with emergency repairs, completed them in 9 months, including OSHPD approval.
Seattle: Project management, planning and design of the 188-acre Terminal 5 Container Terminal in the Port of Seattle, one of the two largest container terminals on the West Coast.
Oregon: Structural Engineer of Record for the award-winning, one-of-a-kind Evergreen Aviation Museum. The structure clear spans the 320-ft wing span of the legendary HK1 or “Spruce Goose” aircraft and includes a 110-ft tall glass curtainwall.
San Diego: Structural Engineering for the 650,000 SF downtown Renaissance Condominium Towers - primarily post-tensioned concrete with some structural steel, featuring a lateral system consisting of shearwalls stiffened with composite outrigger beams.
Portland: Civil, Structural, Surveying, Permitting and Marine Engineering for all phases of the Vera Katz Eastbank Esplanade, a recovered part of the Willamette River’s downtown East bank for bike and pedestrian use.
Springfield: Sacred Heart Medical Center next to the McKenzie River in Oregon. Detailed hydraulic analysis demonstrates that the hospital is the required 3' above the 100 year flood elevation despite being delineated within the flood plain by FEMA
Portland: Seismic strengthening of the downtown Pioneer Federal Courthouse, the second oldest federal building west of the Mississippi River. Design enables the building to be lifted off its foundation and re-founded on base isolators without disturbing the interior of the building.
San Diego: Palomar Medical Center West, an 800,000 SF, $950 Million landmark hospital with garden spaces on every floor and an undulating green roof. Awarded Autodesk Revit Project of the Year in 2006 and was a pilot project for OSHPD Phased Plan Review
Portland: Structural Engineer of Record for 6 housing towers in the South Waterfront, 130 acre public/private partnership development. Features top down construction techniques including using the excavation shoring steel sheet piling as the finished basement wall.
Portland: Providence Cancer Center, a 480,000 SF research and surgery building straddling the hospital’s existing steam plant. Design allows the plant to remain and be operational during construction and is the first new building in Portland to incorporate steel plate shear walls.
Brewery Blocks Portland: 1.7 mil. SF of upscale retail, housing and office space over three levels of underground parking spanning two-and-a-half city blocks, one of the largest redevelopment and LEED certified projects in Oregon’s history.
Los Angeles: Civil Engineering for the award-winning, sustainable, South Park - the first urban “Green Street” in the public right-of-way. Constructed as a part of the South Park Project by Williams & Dame Development and Gerding/Edlen Development.
Spanning State Route-14, the Vancouver Land Bridge connects Vancouver’s Columbia River waterfront to historic Fort Vancouver and is Vancouver's first bridge to integrate sustainable stormwater features.
Everett: Charles Luke Milam Bachelor Housing project - the first LEED Gold Naval facility in the world. KPFF provided Structural Engineering.
Pomona: Civil and Structural Engineering for the 70,000 SF Harvey Mudd College Teaching and Learning Building - first project in the US designed using bubble deck construction.
Seattle: Appointed Lead Consultant for the SR520 floating bridge project - modifications to the original bridge, a new replacement bridge and a $367 Million design-build 55-acre casting facility and 33 large concrete pontoons.
Portland: Bud Clark Commons becomes the first LEED® NC Platinum public housing project in the world. KPFF provided Civil Engineering.
Lancaster: Structural Enginner for the LEED Certified, 136,000 SF Antelope Valley Medical Office Building, future home of a wind turbine which will make this the first Kaiser Permanente Net Zero building.
La Jolla: Structural and Civil Engineering for the University of California, San Diego J. Craig Venter Institute - the first Net Zero laboratory in the United States.
Portland: Prime consultant for rehabilitation and redesign of SE Division Street, transforming it into one of USA Today’s 2014 Top 10 Up and Coming US Neighborhoods and ranked most comprehensive greening of a main arterial street.
Helsinki: US Embassy Innovation Center achieves LEED Platinum, exceeding original goals—a first for an overseas US diplomatic facility. KPFF was Civil Engineer.
Seattle: Grand opening of the SR 520 Bridge, the longest floating bridge in the world. KPFF is prime - providing design, civil, structural, and mechanical engineering.
Pennsylvania: The Chatham University, Eden Hall Campus/Falk School of Sustainable Design and the Environment becomes the world's first net-positive campus.
KPFF was founded in 1960 by Al Kelly in Seattle, Washington. Since that time, the firm has grown in both size and stature. Today, we are a multi-office,
multi-discipline engineering firm. Our unique history has led us to establish a culture that focuses our energy and our passion on our clients, our projects, and our staff.