Engineering firm VHB leaving Canal Crossing for James Center

VHB is heading to Two James Center downtown. (Courtesy The James Center Facebook)

A Boston engineering firm is relocating its downtown Richmond outpost. 

VHB will be leaving its current office at the Canal Crossing building in Shockoe Slip in favor of a new space in Two James Center at 1021 E. Cary St.

The company, whose full name is Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, has been in Richmond for about 20 years and has grown here recently via acquisition, particularly through a 2022 deal for local landscape architecture firm HG Design Studio. 

Don Cole, who leads VHB locally with Piotr Swietuchowski, said the company recently merged its Richmond operations with those in the Virginia Beach and Williamsburg areas, creating what it is referring to as “The I-64 Corridor.” Though it still keeps offices in those other markets, getting the three territories working in sync has helped VHB grow its profile throughout Virginia. 

Don Cole and Piotr Swietuchowski

“We made a conscientious decision to merge all those three offices in the one operation to build upon the strengths of each of them because each had a little bit of different flavor and type of work to clients,” Cole said. “By bringing all those groups together, we’re really elevating VHB within that Hampton Roads to Richmond corridor.”

VHB has a Richmond staff of 60, and is currently in about 9,600 square feet in Canal Crossing. The move to the James Center will give it 12,500 square feet on Two James Center’s second floor. 

“We’ve got more people and need some additional space. We also wanted a space that really puts us near our clients and right downtown in Richmond,” Cole said. 

VHB offers transportation, land development, environment and technical engineering services. 

Some of its local work includes The Shockoe Project, Virginia Union University’s campus master plan and a D.C. developer’s planned mixed-use, mid-rise apartment building that’ll span an entire block at 3200 W. Moore St. in Scott’s Addition. 

VHB also works on infrastructure projects, including the broadband projects along I-64, which fueled VHB’s decision to combine the Richmond, Williamsburg and Virginia Beach operations. 

“There’s a lot that’s happening that’s maybe not above the ground or visible, but I-64 is definitely becoming recognized as a new innovation corridor and internet hub,” Swietuchowski said.

The privately held company was founded in 1979 and now counts around 30 offices up and down the East Coast. 

The move to James Center will reunite VHB with former neighbor Baskervill, the local architecture firm that also made the move from Canal Crossing to James Center in 2019. Baskervill, along with CBT Architects, is designing VHB’s new office space, which Cole said they hope to move into in the fall. L.F. Jennings will handle the buildout. 

Since being sold to Bill Goodwin’s Riverstone Properties for over $100 million in 2017, the James Center’s three towers have undergone a considerable renovation that’s helped it land new tenants beyond VHB and Baskervill. Other office tenants that have moved into the James Center in recent years include law firm Whiteford Preston & Taylor and lobby-focused coworking space Capitol Caucus, while restaurants like Chick-fil-A and Chopt have also signed on. 

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