Osborn Engineering

Osborn Engineering was founded in Cleveland on July 1, 1892 by Frank C. Osborn and incorporated as The Osborn Engineering Company in 1900. It has stayed employee-owned ever since. The firm made its early name designing sports venues, with more than 75 facilities to its credit by 1928, and it still runs that work under the OSPORTS brand. Since the 1950s it has operated as a full-service architecture and engineering practice covering structural, MEP, civil, transportation, water and wastewater, fire protection and life safety, commissioning and building technology. More than 350 employees work from 14 offices across Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Florida, with headquarters still in downtown Cleveland. Osborn provided civil engineering on the new Sherwin-Williams global headquarters.

The Osborn Engineering Company opened its doors in Cleveland on July 1, 1892, and the firm still runs from downtown at 1111 Superior Avenue. Bridges came first, a few of them patented, and as spectator sports grew Osborn became the country’s leading stadium designer.

What the firm did next explains its shape today. Rather than stay narrow, Osborn kept adding service lines through the industrial expansion of the mid-twentieth century, and the practice now covers MEP engineering, structural, civil and transportation engineering, water and wastewater, stormwater and green infrastructure, fire protection and life safety, facade and building envelope work, concrete restoration and cathodic protection, energy consulting, commissioning, facility assessments, and BIM modeling.

Projects are organized by market rather than by discipline: healthcare, higher education, primary education, federal, justice and public safety, corporate, cultural, manufacturing and logistics, parking structures, mixed-use high rise and hospitality, retail, transportation, urban infrastructure, and water resources.

Two sister practices sit alongside the core engineering group. OSPORTS handles sports and entertainment architecture, with teams working on architecture and interior design, sports engineering, master planning, field houses and training facilities, tracks, turf and green spaces, experiential branding, facility condition assessments, fan experience technology, and esports venues. Osborn Lighting Studio covers lighting design. A specialty services group rounds this out with commissioning, restoration, and media and entertainment work that runs across every market the firm serves.

Osborn describes its operating model as One Osborn: twelve regional offices spread across four states, staffed to work as a single team rather than as separate branches. The University of Miami Health SoLe Mia ambulatory surgery center and medical office building shows how that plays out. Eight Osborn offices, from Cleveland and Akron to Detroit, Tampa, Orlando, St. Petersburg, Cape Canaveral and Deerfield Beach, contributed mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection, technology and energy modeling services to the 363,000-square-foot facility. The company is employee-owned, and staff hold stock through an employee stock ownership plan.