Thornton Tomasetti Acquires Dasse Design

SAN FRANCISCO — International engineering firm Thornton Tomasetti has acquired California-based DASSE Design Inc., a structural engineering firm that specializes in education, healthcare, government and corporate clients.

Dasse operates offices in San Francisco and Oakland with a total of 60 employees, including 38 engineers. Those offices will add to Tomasetti’s offices in San Francisco, Irvine and Los Angeles.

“Our combined expertise will make California our center of excellence for performance-based design, as well as enhance our ability to serve clients in the healthcare and education markets,” says Daniel A. Cuoco, president and CEO of Tomasetti.

Dasse founding principals, William Dasher and Joseph Sutton, will serve as senior vice presidents in Oakland and San Francisco, respectively. Tomasetti’s principals John Abruzzo in San Francisco and Bruce Gibbons in Los Angeles will jointly oversee all of Tomasetti’s California operations.

Founded in 1986, DASSE has designed hundreds of educational facilities in California, from K-12 campuses to facilities for the University of California and California State University systems. The company had more than 100 active projects across the state when it was acquired, according to officials.

Tomasetti opened its first office in Irvine in 1999. The company has 213 active projects in the state. Founded in 1956, Tomasetti employs 650 engineers and architects in offices across the United States, Asia, Europe and the Middle East.