2019 marks Parametrix’s 50th anniversary as a company. Throughout the year we’ll be celebrating this milestone by sharing the history of Parametrix. Today, we would like to share an overview of how Parametrix was founded and has grown into the company we are today.
Parametrix was founded in 1969 in Sumner, WA by George Capestany and Waite Dalrymple, originally as Delta Engineering. The firm was focused on the wastewater business but grew quickly and diversified into six very different business divisions. In 1974, two of the divisions, Delta Engineering and Seattle Marine Laboratories were restructured as Parametrix. With strength in both engineering and science, Parametrix became known as the premier firm for solid waste and city engineering in Washington. Continued steady growth led to expansion into Oregon in 1989 with the opening of our Portland office which specialized in solid waste and environmental remediation. One of the office’s first projects was the St. Johns Landfill closure.
In the early 1990s, the owners began considering transition options, and determined that becoming an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) would allow the company’s culture to remain intact and provide a secure future for the employees and their families. Parametrix was established as an ESOP in 1992, and through regular sales of the owners’ stock to the ESOP trust, became 100 percent employee owned in 1999. Parametrix embraced employee ownership and in 2001 was named the “Employee-owned Company of the Year” by the National ESOP Association.
Parametrix diversified into the transportation business in the early 1990s with the development of the master plan for the Washington Coastal Corridor Scenic Byway along US 101. In 2001, Parametrix expanded into New Mexico with the opening of our Albuquerque office, focusing on tribal and natural resource services in the Southwest. Expansion continued in 2003 when our Boise, Idaho office opened, focused on transportation. In 2008, we acquired Taschek Environmental Consulting in New Mexico expanding into the cultural resources business. In 2014, Parametrix again expanded its New Mexico operations to provide transportation design through the acquisition of Vector Engineering. In 2015, our geographic footprint grew when we opened an office in Bend, Oregon and acquired InterPlan, a transportation planning firm, in Salt Lake City, Utah. In 2016, through the acquisition of Taylor Engineering, Parametrix expanded into the Inland Northwest with offices in Spokane and Pullman, Washington and Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Most recently, we opened a Las Vegas, Nevada office in 2018. Today, Parametrix serves clients throughout the western United States from 13 offices in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, New Mexico, Nevada, and Utah.
