McKim & Creed celebrates 35 years of engineering and surveying

RALEIGH, N.C. — On June 1, McKim & Creed, Inc., one of the largest engineering, surveying and planning firms in the U.S., celebrated 35 years of providing the “most responsive and dependable service all the time.” This mission statement has guided the company’s operations since Herbert P. McKim, Jr., P.E., PLS and Michael W. Creed, Ph.D., P.E., established McKim & Creed in 1978. The two young North Carolina State University graduates set up shop in downtown Wilmington, N.C., and “prayed for the phone to ring,” recalls Creed. “Praying for the phone to ring quickly gave way to getting out of the office and doing cold calls to potential clients. That is ultimately what changed the tide and got us moving in the right direction.”

In those early days, the fledgling firm specialized in structural engineering, working primarily for local architects. But over the next three decades, McKim & Creed expanded its services to include civil, mechanical and electrical engineering, surveying, and land planning. Market sectors shifted from heavy industrial to municipal water, wastewater and reclaimed water, transportation, energy utilities, and land development.

Today, McKim & Creed’s 400 employees work in 20 offices located throughout North Carolina, Florida, Virginia, Georgia, Michigan and Texas. The company was recently ranked by Engineering News-Record Southeast as the #1 surveying and mapping firm in the Southeast. Nationally, McKim & Creed is included among the top 500 design firms and the top 200 environmental firms in the U.S. by Engineering News-Record.

“Since day one we have focused on providing the most responsive and dependable service to our clients all the time,” says Creed. “We’ve been fortunate to have employees who embrace this mission and clients who believe in our company and the infrastructure solutions we provide. We’re proud to have been in the ‘people business’ for 35 years and look forward to continuing to build successful, sustainable communities and careers for many years to come.”