SAN DIEGO – Travel around San Diego and you’re likely to stumble upon a building developed in part by Project Design Consultants.
The civil engineering firm was founded 50 years ago and has worked on projects ranging from land use master plans across the county to major development projects downtown like Petco Park.
Most recently, the firm assisted in the development of Snapdragon Stadium and San Diego State University’s broader redevelopment plan in Mission Valley, working with the architecture and design firm Gensler as a subconsultant and as the design-build partner and prime consultant of Clark Construction to create the project’s master plan.
Along the way, Project Design Consultants was acquired in 2022 by the national civil engineering firm Bowman Consulting Group (Nasdaq: BWMN), the firm’s first expansion into Southern California and one of more than 100 offices across 35 states.
“They provide a much larger depth and breadth of services, and we found that those additional services have been valuable to our clients in terms of (mechanical, electrical and plumbing), structural, traffic, … our civil engineering and surveying and landscape architecture that we have traditionally provided to clients here locally,” said senior advisor Greg Shields. “It’s been a great fit.”
‘Large, Complex Projects’
Shields, who has been with Project Design Consultants and now Bowman since 1984, was part of a group of employees who transitioned to leadership roles in 2003 after founder Doug Paul stepped down as president of the firm.
Shields subsequently served as CEO until the acquisition, when he said it became clear that the firm needed additional resources to take on bigger projects and expand its footprint.
Since then, Bowman’s San Diego office has handled civil engineering and consulting for projects like the SDSU Mission Valley River Park, an adjacent mixed-use residential housing complex and bridge across the San Diego River, the Midway Rising mixed-use redevelopment project, the Riverwalk Golf Club site redevelopment and the Seaport San Diego redevelopment project.
“I think where we excel, in my opinion, is the large, complex projects,” said San Diego Branch Manager Marina Wurst. “They can be small, they can be large, but the complex projects. We are excellent at coordinating with consultants, making sure we’re the civil (engineers), but we wear many hats in many projects.”
Bowman’s resources have enabled the San Diego office to say, “yes” to virtually any project proposed to them and provide services that Project Design Consultants may not have been able to provide, Wurst added.
Growing Revenue, Share Value
Bowman estimated at the time of the acquisition that it would add roughly $13 million in annualized net service billing to the firm’s balance sheet. The firm has grown steadily since then, with gross contract revenue of $361.1 million through the first nine months of 2025, a 15% increase over the same period from the prior year, and net billing of $320.1 million, a 14% increase.
The firm’s share value has also consistently increased since the acquisition, when shares of BWMN sat slightly over $10, to roughly $36 per share in early 2026.
“Bowman has been very much a growth-oriented company, both organically and through acquisitions, they regularly make acquisitions across the country,” Shields said. “They’re focused very much on public infrastructure, transportation, oil and gas, power, renewable energy, so they’re very broadly diverse.”
Bowman Consulting Group Ltd.
FOUNDED: 1995
CEO: Gary Bowman
HEADQUARTERS:
BUSINESS: Civil engineering
EMPLOYEES: 2,300 total, around 55 in San Diego
REVENUE: $426.6 million (2024)
STOCK: BWMN (Nasdaq)
WEBSITE: bowman.com
CONTACT: (619) 235-6471
NOTABLE: Bowman entered the Southern California market in 2022 through its acquisition of civil engineering, surveying, planning and landscape architecture firm Project Design Consultants.
Eli is an award-winning reporter primarily covering the tech and life sciences industries. He previously worked as the San Diego City Hall reporter for the regional wire City News Service. He has also covered public health, transportation and state and local politics in the San Francisco Bay Area for Local News Matters, the nonprofit arm of the regional wire Bay City News Service, where he also oversaw the development and daily content management of the outlet’s public health and COVID-19 news and resource webpage. He is also a contributing writer covering Minor League Baseball for the analysis and commentary website Baseball Prospectus. Eli is a graduate of San Francisco State University and a native of Northern California.
