Our history
A firm foundation
Peter Brett, a structural engineer, established the Practice in 1965. He valued independent thinking over the broad-brush approach to technical issues favoured by his peers, and was consequently able to deliver highly innovative steel frame constructions solutions to world-class architects.
It is this spirit of invention and challenging convention, based on a firm foundation of commercial pragmatism, which has defined and shaped the Practice. By the early 1970s, the firm began to grow and diversify into civil, transport and municipal work, and moved into offices in Reading.
The firm formally became a Partnership, Peter Brett Associates, in 1974. Project management and the provision of multi-disciplinary services remain core skills today.
Innovative designs and solutions were also a vital factor in the firm's growth. One of our first civil engineering projects in Reading led PBA to offer an original and, at the time, controversial, drainage solution which made possible the prestigious business development now known as Green Park. In 1978, the firm joined the development team for Aztec West, the UK's first business park. Over the following years, new offices were opened in Kent and Northampton, and by the late 1980s staff numbers had increased to 250. International expansion followed in the early 1990s.
In 2008, we converted to LLP status and with more than 500 employees are today one of the UK's premier independent engineering-led interdisciplinary consultancy firms, bringing together engineering, project management, planning and scientific skills and experience to deliver sustainable development and infrastructure projects worldwide.
Peter Brett realised from the start that good and loyal staff are the core asset to a professional firm, and our commitment to staff development and education continues. Embracing the spirit of our founder, we are passionate about our work, we apply new ideas and encourage all within the practice to be creative, to develop their skills and to challenge traditional thinking.
Today, we remain true to Peter Brett's spirit of challenging convention through our research and technical work. We're pioneering the use of social networks to embed behaviour change in favour of sustainable transport. We've found new ways to integrate long-term flexibility into previously fixed, linear transport planning processes. We pushed the boundaries and put the Manual for Streets to work on a major trunk road for the first time in the UK.
Like Peter Brett, we understand that as consultants, our offering is our people, their intellect and their experience.