News + Ideas

MGAC was founded in 1996 with three goals: to do the most interesting and challenging work, to have fun working together, and to build a successful business in the process. Twenty-five years later, we have met these goals and more. At this milestone moment, we thought it would be fun to look back at some of our most memorable projects—our favorite missions made real.

Over the past year, this series has given us the opportunity to revisit some of MGAC’s most fond memories—all of our “firsts,” our biggest wins, our wildest stories along the way. Our work began on a job that included buying, transporting, and then assembling a life-size skeleton cast of a Tyrannosaurus Rex—at a time where our team could be counted on two hands, and we hadn’t yet made business cards—and we made it happen. That same can-do firm has since moved highways, laid ocean cables, suspended a blue whale skeleton, and sourced rare materials from the far reaches of the earth on behalf of our clients.

BUILDING A BUSINESS—AND A BETTER FUTURE

What started as a project management and owner’s representative firm grew to encompass Technology Solutions, FF&E Procurement, Relocation Management, Project Controls, and Cost Management—and so much more. Along the way, we made a name for ourselves as a group willing to take on not only the biggest of asks, but projects that would exist as more than just brick and mortar, projects that truly endure. And that ethos has allowed us to dip our toes and develop expertise in virtually every sector shaping today’s built environment.

In the hospitality realm, we went from being asked how we had managed to get our foot in the door in meetings to building decades-long relationships with the world’s biggest names in the industry. In the cultural space, we have restored and raised national monuments, housed world-class art, and opened the doors to spaces that invite communities to contemplate and collectively experience the power of art. In the corporate sector, we have helped powerhouse companies truly live their values and have redefined what it means to build a workspace marrying form and function while pushing the envelope on innovation. We have partnered with all levels of educational institutions—from local grade schools to the Ivy League on forward-looking learning spaces. We have gone to work on the buildings and hallowed halls that keep the governments of the world running. Hospitals, laboratories, luxury living spaces—you name it, we have worked there.

Over the years, we have done and seen so many things, made countless “what ifs” a reality, and have so many memories we look back on fondly. We are proud of how far we have come, how much we have grown. Our once six-person team now looks a bit bigger. We went from a DC-based company to a coast-to-coast company, to a North American company when we took a leap and opened our doors to our first international office in Canada. Now, we have expanded our footprint even further by welcoming four new offices in the UK. No matter the project, no matter the new adventure, everything always comes back to one thing: finding the very best people in the business and putting them first, always.

MANY PERSPECTIVES, ONE SHARED PASSION

At MGAC, our success has always been rooted in our people. We built this company with folks who were willing to take on anything without a second thought, ready to roll up their sleeves to pull off the unthinkable. People with integrity, creativity, and enthusiasm. That is where we started in April of 1996, and in the months and years since, we have grown by finding that spark in others. Today, we are proud to have built an award-winning culture, and work every day to ensure tomorrow is even better through diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, and by hiring team members who push our capabilities and our passions further. That could not be truer than in this moment, as we welcome our newest members of the MGAC family in the UK.

Beyond our own team, we are fortunate to have built longstanding relationships with talented colleagues across the AEC industry, and with clients who have put their trust in us to help bring their biggest dreams to life. It is humbling to leave your mark on communities around the world in a tangible way. It is an honor to take someone else’s vision and make it your own. It is also just plain fun to do what we do every day. They say time flies when you are having fun and, from where we stand, we have not slowed down yet.