QUAD Consultants was established in 1972 in the City of Visalia, California by former City Manager Harry Tow and former Community Development Director Randy Zeeb. Harry was both a registered professional engineer, and a planner certified by the American Institute of Certified Planners.

During the first year of business, QUAD Consultants became the Contract City Engineer for the cities of Woodlake, Exeter, and Farmersville and have served many California cities since then. We are still the City Engineer for Woodlake, Exeter, and Farmersville today. Quad Consultants became Quad Engineering in 1974.

In 1976, current Chairman of the Board Mike Knopf formed Canvasser and Knopf (later called Michael Knopf & Associates then Knopf Engineering) as an engineering and land surveying firm, and QUAD Consultants established a branch in Bakersfield.

QUAD moved into the Sacramento region in 1982, and Fresno in 1984, and the firm was growing exponentially. Complimentary disciplines were added to the firm’s services including land surveying, land use and environmental planning, architecture, environmental biological sciences, GIS/GPS, and landscape architecture. At the time, few firms understood the importance of being able to provide this broad range of services in-house. As California regulations and project requirements grew more and more complex, this unique package of multi-disciplined experts proved to be invaluable to our clients, and our over-arching concept-through-completion philosophy remains the foundation of how we serve our public and private markets today.

In 1998, QUAD Engineering merged with Knopf Engineering. The combination provided new strengths in civil engineering, surveying, and GIS services, and the company name was officially changed to Quad Knopf, Inc.

Between 2007 and 2011, Quad Knopf weathered through the Great Recession by taking the opportunity to make positive changes to the firm’s approach for project management, technical leadership, and strategic plan implementation. Post-recession review of this shift still reveals that these changes made for significant progressive development of our company, our team, and our ability to serve clients.

The next big change came on December 17, 2013, when Fremming, Parson & Pecchenino (FP&P) in Merced joined QK. This merger enabled both firms to expand their geographic presence, and to provide enhanced specialized environmental, planning, construction support, and GIS services to FP&P clients, while strengthening Quad Knopf’s water resources, surveying, and engineering services.

In 2016, Quad Knopf underwent a corporate rebrand and through a doing-business-as (dba) filing, officially became Quad Knopf, Inc. (dba QK), or, as we all know today, simply … QK.

Shortly after the rebrand, QK welcomed James “Jim” Winton & Associates (JWA) employees into our family. A few years beyond the 2018 JWA acquisition, we are still honored to continue Jim’s legacy of serving the City of Porterville and his long-term Tulare County clients with a helping hand, and a literal open door.  In addition to JWA, we’ve added clients and team members from long-time associates who chose to retire such as Smithtech in Bakersfield, and Forrester Weber and Associates in Visalia.

On July 1, 2021, QK announced completion of the acquisition of Zumwalt Hansen Associates, Inc. (ZHA). With an office in Hanford located just 22 miles from QK’s headquarters, QK and ZHA had already been teaming together for many years. With the combination of our professional relationship, years of working together, and both firms’ deep care for and commitment to the communities we serve, this new partnership simply made sense.

Today, QK employs nearly 140 people in six California cities: Bakersfield, Porterville, Visalia (headquarters), Hanford, Clovis, and Merced. The firm is owned by employee shareholders and governed by an elected Board of Directors and as stated above, co-founder Mike Knopf still serves as the Chairman of the Board.

In these five decades, QK has transitioned through four generations of leadership and ownership while strengthening client relationships and providing growth opportunities for our employees. Our history is our legacy, and we hold each step on our journey close to our hearts as we continue to expand beyond our Central Valley roots.

Join QK on LinkedIn as we celebrate the innovation and creativity that drove us through the journey toward our 50-year milestone at https://www.linkedin.com/company/32698/, and pandemic-willing, we hope to celebrate with you in person throughout the year.

Happy Anniversary QK!