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History
OHM Advisors began with a simple premise: to create extraordinary relationships with our clients.
Since our beginnings, we've understood that meeting the advisory needs of our clients starts with building their trust. For more than 60 years, our goal has been to create honest client partnerships for today's challenges that last well into the future.
Relationships, Not Clients
In 1962, engineering veteran John E. Hiltz joined Melvin “Ernie” Orchard to form John E. Hiltz & Associates in Detroit, Michigan, with 15 employees. Their vision was a firm built on extraordinary relationships with municipal clients, providing insightful engineering counsel, and delivering on a promise to Advance Communities.
Purposeful Growth
Over the years, John E. Hiltz & Associates became Orchard, Papke, Hiltz and McCliment, Inc., Orchard, Hiltz & McCliment, Inc., and then OHM Advisors; while continually growing and diversifying our team and offerings to become a full-service consulting firm.
Some of our growth has been through strategic mergers and acquisitions and some has been organic, but the driving force has always been to create an exceptional team of people committed to best serving our clients.
Trusted Advisors
More than 60 years later—with a talented 800+ team in multiple states—we’re still living our mission of Advancing Communities through our work with municipalities, state and regional agencies, schools, corporations, developers and local entities. We’ve grown our extraordinary relationships to become our clients’ trusted advisors, and continue to nurture those partnerships to endure for tomorrow's challenges.
Historic Highlights
Founded as a municipal engineering firm, partners John E. Hiltz, Melvin "Ernie" Orchard, Frank Papke and Dick Toal launched John E. Hiltz & Associates, Inc. in Detroit, Michigan with 15 employees. The new firm began serving as the consulting engineer and community advisor for the City of Livonia—a relationship that continues today.
With the retirement of John E. Hiltz, the renamed Orchard, Papke, Hiltz and McCliment, Inc. moved to new headquarters and continued growing as trusted advisors to our Michigan community clients, including the cities of Livonia, Ypsilanti, and Farmington and the townships of Superior and Pontiac (now the City of Auburn Hills).
OHM Advisors expanded to provide services for county road agencies and completed our first projects for the Michigan Department of Transportation. We also delved into the new world of computer-aided drafting, launching a Structural Design Group focused on roadway infrastructure.
We continued our robust development of client services and expanded our Livonia headquarters to a second office location to house our growing Construction and Geographic Information Systems departments.
Impactful mergers with Hitch, Inc. in 2005 and Bird Houk Collaborative in 2010, along with the opening of a Nashville office, helped expand our geographic footprint across Michigan, Tennessee, and Ohio. Our growth under the leadership of President John J. Hiltz brought new architecture, planning, urban design, and mechanical and electrical engineering services to our clients, launching a new era for OHM Advisors as a full-service, multidisciplinary consulting firm dedicated to Advancing Communities.
Our team grew to include more than 500 people in offices across Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Tennessee during this period of historic growth for OHM Advisors:
- 2015: We merged with Northeast Ohio-based Krock Esser Engineering, integrating municipal engineering, construction management, and private sector development services.
- 2018: Established the OHM Advisors Scholarship Program to foster talent in critical areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
- 2020: Opened the first Indiana office in Jeffersonville, serving southern Indiana and the Greater Louisville area communities.
- 2021: Jon Kramer, PE, assumed the role of President of OHM Advisors, succeeding John J. Hiltz, PE.
Achieving impressive rankings on ENR's Top 500 Design Firms and Gallup’s “Exceptional Workplaces,” OHM Advisors continues to build a world-class team and culture positioned for growth into new markets:
- 2022: Opened our first Kentucky office in Frankfort, located between the Louisville and Lexington metro areas.
- 2024: Acquired Griner Engineering, Inc. in St. Petersburg, Florida, and THY, Inc. in Memphis, Tennessee, which expanded our presence in the southern United States.
- 2025: Strengthened our team by acquiring Community Image Builders (CIB), a community planning and development consulting firm in Fenton, Michigan, opening offices in Alabama, and growing operations in Indiana.