Insights

Since 1979 when the firm’s big project was an energy audit at San Jose Hospital, Salas O’Brien has created thousands of well-designed, safe, and efficient healthcare facilities. As we have grown from a single California office to 24 offices nationwide, we’ve continuously expanded our health care leadership and expertise. When OMB Electrical Engineers joined Salas […]

Rush University Medical Center (RUMC) is a key member of the larger Illinois-based Rush Health Systems that include hospitals, clinics, and a medical university. Today’s massive Rush network all began with Rush Medical College, which received its charter two days before the incorporation of Chicago. Today, RUMC and its connected medical university are pillars of […]

Salas O’Brien announced today that OMB Electrical Engineers has joined the company, creating a combined firm of 24 offices with more than 650 employee-owners, 135 registered professionals, and clients that are the most significant companies in the United States. The addition of OMB and its offices in southern California and Phoenix expands Salas O’Brien’s portfolio […]

Salas O’Brien’s landfill client in Akron, Ohio, installed a landfill gas-to-energy (LFGTE) system that, combined with the anaerobic digester at a nearby composting plant, provides 95% of the two plants’ energy needs and saves the city $50,000 in utility costs each year. Here’s some background on this important technology. The US EPA’s latest report on […]

This past week, we welcomed the WMA Consulting Engineers to the Salas O’Brien family. WMA’s outstanding work, commitment to sustainability, and reputation for reliability make them an ideal addition to our team. One example of the team’s impressive work is the McDonald’s Corporation Headquarters, built in 2018 in Chicago’s West Loop. McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook […]

Salas O’Brien is expanding again! We have merged with WMA Consulting Engineers, adding locations in Chicago and Denver and creating a combined firm with 21 offices and more than 600 employee-owners. The addition of WMA expands Salas O’Brien’s portfolio in the design of large high-rise, commercial, higher education, healthcare and institutional building projects. WMA will […]

Salas O’Brien believes in supporting local communities through good design, and that’s why we’ve helped design many fire stations across North America, ensuring that these local heroes have safe, energy-efficient buildings that pay special attention to critical design elements such as generators, breathing air compressor systems, spaces for practice drills, exhaust and fume detection systems, […]

For many commercial, retail, and hospitality venues in historic districts, “old” can be preferable—even premium. Some popular historic districts even put regulations in place to ensure buildings on their prime real estate maintain the historic charm that put them on the map. But historical renovations come with unique challenges. Often, these projects aim to accommodate […]

At Salas O’Brien, we’ve been focusing on sustainability  since well before the creation of LEED in 1995. Even without certifications and code requirements, sustainable design provides a clear long-term value for clients, and combined with the environmental benefit, the choice is often obvious. Although LEED is not the only measure of sustainability, our expertise and […]

Atlanta, Georgia, is exploding with offices, business headquarters, travelers, and commuters and is home to many Fortune 1000 and Fortune 500 companies, including The Coca-Cola Company, Delta Airlines, UPS, and Home Depot. Salas O’Brien has helped design and engineer many facilities in Atlanta for clients in the transportation and hospitality industries. Here are three examples. […]

Salas O’Brien is blessed with an amazing team of dedicated and talented professionals who model excellence and embody the Salas O’Brien difference. Each year, we recognize several of these team members for their demonstrated growth in leadership, technical skills, client or team development, and project management. The following employee-owners were nominated for an executive-level position […]

In between visits with Mickey Mouse and Cinderella, Disney World guests can shop, dine, and find evening entertainment at Disney Springs, a themed promenade with four neighborhoods. Disney Springs houses more than 150 shops and dining experiences, including several notable flagship retail locations.

Salas O’Brien designs facilities that are a part of our everyday lives, whether they are the complex facilities where we work, produce, manufacture, and create, or the places our kids go to school, the universities that educate and research, the hospitals that rehabilitate, or the facilities that power our mobile world. We’ve always worked hard […]

Cumulative change orders on a large building will cause construction to run anywhere from 11-15% over budget and 10-20% over schedule. At Salas O’Brien, we’ve studied our change order rate and discovered that we consistently keep our change orders below 3% of construction costs. This means that on a typical $1 million construction project with […]

At a recent shareholder meeting, CEO Darin Anderson spoke to Salas O’Brien’s employee-owners about how the company’s core values impact our growth, and what that means for the future. Why Grow? While growth can be a worthy goal in itself, Salas O’Brien believes that growth has never (and will never) prevent us from living out […]