Draper Aden Associates moves headquarters from Blacksburg to Richmond

Published October 16, 2017 by Paula C. Squires

Draper Aden Associates (DAA), an engineering, surveying, and environmental services firm, has moved its headquarters office from Blacksburg to Richmond. The move gives the company a more central location as it celebrates its 45th anniversary and positions itself for future growth. 

Anniversary events and philanthropic activities are planned through June 2018.

Founded by Joe Draper and Bill Aden, two Virginia Tech alumni, DAA began with six employees and a small office in Blacksburg in 1972. The firm has grown to include more than 250 employees in nine offices in Virginia and North Carolina.  The Blacksburg office will remain open, but 150 of the company’s employees, including most of its executive staff, will work from the Richmond area office at 8090 Villa Park Drive in Henrico County.

“Everyone at Draper Aden Associates is excited to celebrate this impressive milestone,” Jeff Lighthiser, CEO and president of DAA, said in a statement.

DAA is a multidisciplinary firm that offers site development and infrastructure design, surveying and scanning, civil engineering, structural engineering, geotechnical engineering, environmental services and subsurface utility engineering.

The firm serves clients in higher education, municipal, energy, utilities, private development, healthcare, and contractors. DAA has worked on many projects with universities across the mid-Atlantic, at schools including Virginia Tech, North Carolina State, William & Mary, VCU and the University of Richmond.
 
The firm has experienced significant growth in the past five years, adding more than 75 team members and increasing revenue by more than 125 percent since 2012. During that time, DAA opened five new offices in Northern Virginia, Fayetteville, Raleigh, and Virginia Beach.

That growth spurred the firm to move its headquarters from Blacksburg to its Richmond region office, located in Henrico County.