In 1961, Bill LeMessurier founded LeMessurier Associates in Boston, Massachusetts along with his business partners William Thoen, Emil Hervol, and James Collins. This new firm grew quickly and took on a variety of work from its first project at the Dartmouth College Field House to its first tall building, the State Street Bank Building at 225 Franklin Street in Boston. LeMessurier, in its earliest incarnation, was off and running.

The 1970s saw LeMessurier reach new heights and showcased the firm’s leadership in producing inventive responses to industry-wide challenges. Innovative design solutions enhanced the significance of many projects: a bold load path and the first application of a Tuned Mass Damper at the Citigroup Center, hung framing and a mat foundation at Boston Public Library, and plastic analysis at the headquarters of Johns Manville, each the first implementation of a system never before used in building design. During the 1970s LeMessurier also designed a second Tuned Mass Damper, this time as a retrofit to improve the performance of the existing structure at the John Hancock Tower in Boston. To top it all off, LeMessurier was responsible for the structural design of the new home to Harvard’s Graduate School of Design as well as the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

By the 1980s, LeMessurier’s enhanced profile began to result in national-level commissions and an array of international projects the world over. Singapore’s Treasury Building, the National Aquarium, Dallas Main Center, Chase Tower in Indianapolis, and the King Khalid Military City were projects exemplifying the stature and success of the firm. Amongst all its international work scattered across the globe, LeMessurier also worked on an ambitious project closer to home known as Cambridge Center and designed by an architecture faculty member at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design named Moshe Safdie. Throughout this decade, LeMessurier built on the work of the 1970s to demonstrate its ability to take on an array of concurrent, technically demanding projects in an array of different materials and geographic locations – the hallmark of a mature firm primed and ready to more than meet the needs of a broad range of clients.

The early 1990s saw new leadership emerge at LeMessurier. Coupled with a new generation of engineers in the office, and clients in the industry, LeMessurier’s focus was reflective of the first 30 years of experience with a fresh eye toward the future. LeMessurier looked to strengthen its existing client relationships while cultivating new ones, with these efforts resulting in such projects as the Moakley United States Courthouse, IBM Headquarters in Montreal, Boston’s new TD Garden, Landmark Tower in Japan, Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood, and Boston College’s Alumni Stadium. Design of the new Shriners Hospital to be constructed over top of an existing building and a new pediatric center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia also demonstrate LeMessurier’s presence in Healthcare.

The Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, rehabilitation of Boston’s Trinity Church, and Northeastern University’s International Village strengthened LeMessurier’s portfolio at home, while two new towers in Dubai – Jumeirah Towers and World Trade Centre Residences – as well as the new Beijing Yintai Centre show a maintained presence abroad.  Two projects at MIT, the new Koch Center for Cancer Research and the Brain & Cognitive Science Center, signaled things to come in the Science & Laboratory market and show LeMessurier’s early involvement in this business sector.

The second decade of the new millennium brought exciting new challenges and opportunities for LeMessurier – from the Wind Technology Testing Center designed to facilitate testing of the world’s largest wind turbine blades, to the Avalon North Station tower and the monumental development of the Hub on Causeway, to the MIT nanotechnology facility and Northeastern University Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex where significant advances in science will be realized. Exciting work at Cleveland Clinic also continues to underline Healthcare and Science & Laboratory in our project portfolio. Our rich history comes full circle with the beautiful revitalization of Boston Public Library’s Johnson Building.

The new decade brings new leadership, new professional services, and a selection of transformative projects to LeMessurier.