在将近十年的时间里，LJA工程经历了一个“有史以来最好的一年”，这是由成长或死亡战略以及对其员工及其客户的承诺的驱动。LJA的增长没有停下来的迹象，2019年正是有史以来最好的一年。

2018年，这家总部位于休斯顿的全方位服务设计公司的区域收入增长了30％，今年达到1.825亿美元。

“2018真的是建立在2015、2016和2017, and the acquisitions and hiring that we did,” says Calvin Ladner, LJA’s president. “We’ve always done acquisitions, but we’ve actually done more organic hiring—organic growth is what we call it—than acquisitions. Every year, the organic has beat the M&A.”

To address its backlog, the firm hired about 250 more employees in the last 12 months—increasing its workforce 28% to more than 900 across its 28 Texas offices and one office in Jacksonville, Fla. LJA opened a new office in Round Rock in September, a Midland office in October and expanded its Corpus Christi office in November.

Each of LJA’s acquisitions has either expanded the firm geographically or by sector, Ladner adds. The firm’s latest acquisitions were Berg-Oliver and Horizon Environmental Services in 2017, which formed LJA’s Environmental Services Group with 45 staff.

Ladner解释说：“我们最初是一家土地开发公司（1972年），从那以后，我们扩展到了另外八个工作领域。”“我们也在土地开发中发展，但土地开发从公司的100％增加到了该公司的50％。因此，即使它迅速成长，其他部门，能源，铁路，调查，环境 - 这些领域的增长很大。”

LJA’s services also include GIS, construction management and public infrastructure.

养育文化

The constant expansion has been fueled by one of the company’s principles, “grow or die.”

“We believe in growth of the business, but we also believe in growth of the employee, and those two, in our opinion, definitely go hand in hand,” explains James D. Ross, senior vice president for land development. “We hire a lot of young engineers, planners and environmental scientists, and if LJA is not growing, the opportunity for that employee is limited.”

策略有效。罗斯（Ross）补充说，许多LJA的员工就在学校毕业了，而多年来，他们已经成为高级副总裁。1997年毕业后，他于1998年加入该公司，并于10月晋升为高级副总裁。

LJA’s employee stock ownership plan supports the company’s growth. From Day 1, every single employee is an owner of the company.

“That is really our culture. The fact that everybody understands if we win, we win together, if we fail, we fail together,” Ladner says.

尽管在过去几年中增长迅速，但该公司仍致力于确保持续的小公司感受。罗斯说：“我们为此付出了很多努力，并确保我们不会成为那么大公司的公司。”

例如，仅在休斯敦，LJA就有10个办事处 - 不一定适合其客户，而是为了帮助其员工保持更好的工作与生活的平衡。

全面服务

LJA’s constant growth is also driven by its clients’ growth.

“We want to be the one company for our clients. So, when they start to expand, they take us with them,” explains Kristin Kautz, LJA’s director of marketing.

约翰逊总裁迈克尔·史密斯（Michael Smith）指出，约翰逊开发公司（Johnson Development Corp.该公司曾与LJA合作，在休斯顿地区的总体规划社区合作，包括西耶纳种植园，伍德福雷斯特，大中央公园，托斯卡纳湖和帝国。

史密斯说：“我们主要利用了LJA的土地开发部门，但它们确实是一家多学科的公司，我们依靠其他许多部门（特别是计划，调查，GIS，GIS，环境，环境，水资源和废水资源）。”“他们是一家提供全方位服务的公司，当我们开发复杂的项目时，让他们加入我们的团队真是令人欣慰。”18luck官网

Despite LJA’s growth in technical resources, engineering disciplines and other areas, it never lost “that small firm customer service culture,” Smith says. “They have done an excellent job of scaling up their operation while never losing touch with the client’s needs.”

LJA also provided design and construction engineering for Perry Homes’ master-planned communities Shadow Creek Ranch and Southlake.

The LJA team was chosen because of “their reputation and then specifically their experience in the Pearland area, which is where those two projects were,” says Rick Hale, executive vice president at Perry Homes. “They understand schedules are important and make sure those are a priority in the same way we would. I probably could not say enough good things about the level of service that we get out of them. That, more than anything, brings us back to them on other projects.”

For the last 30 years, LJA has also been involved with the development of The Woodlands, a 25,000-acre planned community located 27 miles north of downtown Houston. The firm has provided design services on countless projects for the community, including parks, sports fields, roadways, bridges, dams and reservoirs.

LJA’s Infrastructure Group was the design/builder of the Iron Horse Amelia Loop Track and Storage-In-Transit Yard Railyard in Beaumont, Texas—one of the group’s most significant and largest projects to date, completed earlier this year.

The 1,000 railroad car storage-in-transit yard—with four departure/receiving tracks, a 14,000-ft loop track and car repair tracks also includes a 90-ft railroad bridge, a drainage system with more than 400 inlets and 12-acre retention pond—were all built on a fast-track schedule.

In Austin, LJA recently provided civil engineering and site development permitting on the planned 6 X Guadalupe residential and office tower. The 848-ft, 66-story tower planned at the northwest corner of Sixth and Guadalupe Streets in downtown Austin will be the city’s tallest building upon completion.

In Houston, LJA is working on various projects for Harris County Toll Road Authority, including the interchange at SH 225 and Beltway 8 on the east side of Houston.

“我们试图分散工作，但是尽可能多地尝试使用[LJA]，因为它们做得很好，”该管理局执行董事加里·特里特（Gary Trietsch）说。“他们听我们的话，并试图给我们我们想要的东西。我们的项目经理与他们合作非常好，这是一项协作的设计工作。”

LJA is also providing construction, engineering and inspection services on the 514-ft north tower of the Ship Channel Bridge project for the toll authority. The towers will be among the tallest structures in the region—slightly shorter than the 523-ft Penzoil Place twin skyscrapers. The main span of the bridge will be 1,320 ft, and the overall project will cost $962 million.

Expansion Ahead

While 2018 currently stands as LJA’s greatest year, that record may be broken in another six months, considering the way 2019 is tracking, Ladner says.

The North Texas market continues to look promising for the firm’s land development, public works and construction engineering and inspection groups, Ross says.

“We’re definitely not plateauing—we still see a lot of growth in everything that we’re involved in right now. It’s hard to even split one of them out,” he says.

The company plans to continue to expand.

拉德纳说：“我们将继续寻找优质的人。”“我不知道我们是否会进入其他任何领域 - 我们真的没有看到任何东西，但是我们一定会扩大所在的部门并扩展地理位置。”