Our History
The heritage of Columbia Engineering and Services, Inc. goes back to 1925 with the establishment of A.R. Abrams, Inc., located in West Palm Beach, Florida, by Alfred Abrams (1899-1979).
1927 | A.R. Abrams, Inc. was relocated to South Bend, Indiana where Mr. Abrams had attended Notre Dame University.
1940 | In advance of the southern building boom, Mr. Abrams moved the company to Atlanta, GA.
1963 | Columbia Engineering and Services, Inc. was created to provide engineering services for A.R. Abrams' sister companies.
1972 | A.R. Abrams, Inc. was renamed Abrams Industries and additional companies were added.
1982-1990 | Columbia Engineering began an external focus on expanding the client base to include companies and individuals who were not a part of the Abrams family of companies.
1990 | Abrams sold Columbia Engineering to Executive Vice President, Don Shillington, who in turn offered his co-worker and engineering peer, Louis Young, part of the company to come with him.
1992-2000 | Columbia Engineering began experiencing growth by providing civil site design and land planning for Kmart Corporation and other retail developers. We also began a targeted effort to gain public sector work to diversify the client base including transportation, water resources, and public utility services for local municipal, county, and state governments.
2003 | Columbia began providing additional services, performing subdivision design, boundary and topographic surveys, and construction staking.
2013 | Columbia Engineering and Services, Inc. purchased our headquarter facility in Duluth, Georgia and enjoys being a contributing community partner.
2022 | Columbia acquired HSA Consulting Group, with offices in Gulf Breeze, Chipley, and Tallahassee, Florida. The acquisition provides additional staff and depth of resources to HSA Columbia. Similarly, HSA staff enhances Columbia’s services in the areas of transportation planning, lighting design, data collection, and GIS. For more information about HSA Columbia, click here.