WHO WE ARE

McKissack & McKissack is a national architecture, engineering, program and construction management firm with 30 years of experience working with clients to envision and deliver building and infrastructure projects that enrich people’s lives and empower communities to flourish.
McKissack & McKissack is a national architectural, engineering, and construction services firm that has earned a strong reputation for consistently delivering results on time-sensitive, complex, high-profile projects for both government and private sector clients.
With over 150 employees, the firm is large and diverse enough to have the full range of technical capabilities to manage our clients’ projects, yet still small enough that each project receives the attention it deserves.
$15B
Managing $15 Billion in Construction
63rd
Top 100 Construction-For-Fee Firm in the United States
34
Years in the Architecture Business
5th
Generation to Carry the Building Tradition

McKissack & McKissack is a leader, enhancing people's lives by advancing the design and construction industry.

Our
Leadership

Advisory
Board

Eric McKissack
Advisory Board
Eric T. McKissack, CFA, is an investment executive, entrepreneur, and independent board member. As founder and former chief executive officer of Channing Capital Management, he was at the helm of the Chicago-based investment manager for fifteen years. Previously he served as vice chairman and co-chief investment officer of Ariel Investments. Mr. McKissack has also served in other corporate and nonprofit board roles. He currently serves on boards of Farmer Mac (NYSE:AGM), Northern Trust’s FlexShares ETF Funds (where he serves as chair), and Morgan Stanley Pathway Funds. His civic engagements include the boards of The Arts Club of Chicago, Terra Foundation, Berkeley Haas School of Business, and the Grand Victoria Foundation (which he chairs). McKissack is also a trustee of The Art Institute of Chicago, and a member of the Economic Club of Chicago. He earned his SB from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.
James P. Cramer, Hon AIA, Hon IIDA
Advisory Board
Mr. Cramer has spent a lifetime in the fields of architecture, design, and construction and has become one of the world’s foremost thinkers on the future of both the architecture profession and the construction industry. He is chairman and principal of the Greenway Group, a leading management consultancy based in Atlanta, Georgia; president of the Design Futures Council, a Washington, DC-based think tank; and publisher of "DesignIntelligence", a management and leadership journal. He has also has served as chief executive of the American Institute of Architects as well as publisher and group publisher of "Architecture" magazine. Mr. Cramer has authored three books on management and leadership: "Design Plus Enterprise: Seeking a New Reality in Architecture" and two works co-authored with Scott Simpson, the bestselling "How Firms Succeed: A Field Guide to Design Management" and "The Next Architect: A New Twist on the Future". Mr. Cramer has also served as president of the American Architectural Foundation and president of the AIA Service Corporation, where he was publisher of "Architecture" magazine in the mid-1980s.
Michelle Franklin
Advisory Board
Ms. Franklin is a longtime IBM employee who specializes in transformation management. Having started in 2000, she is currently managing consultant for Strategy & Transformation Global Center of Excellence. Ms. Franklin has focused on change management, knowledge management, human capital management, product management, supply chain management, customer relationship management, operations management, commercialization of technology, new manager training, portal/website content management, cloud computing strategy, web 2.0 adoption, crowdsourcing, ideation and social media. She possesses particular strengths in business and technology strategy development and process improvement for public- and private-sector organizations. Ms. Franklin has consistently delivered across multiple phases of strategy and change projects, with high client satisfaction, for numerous federal agencies. Her commercial sector include: ENN (a China-based energy company), Cisco Systems, Inc., Fluor Corporation, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., Federated Department Stores, Inc., and Dollar Tree, Inc.
J. Neal Ferry
Advisory Board
Mr. Ferry is owner of J. Neal Ferry Business Consulting. where he specializes in employing methodology to provide goal-oriented, process driven improvements via internal changes to make existing revenue accretive. The processes identifies and executes against measurable milestones to ensure that all aspects of a given area of needed improvement will be completed successfully. Mr. Ferry is driven and motivated by results. He finds methods with internal organizational resources to achieve needed improvements. Mr. Ferry has repeatedly worked with businesses to expand gross margins, lower costs, and increase revenue. He engages with businesses across many industries, including building construction, real estate remodeling, water treatment and filtration, pipeline construction, property management, and heavy civil construction, among others. Prior to the creation of his consulting firm, he held several positions at Astec Industries and Peter Kiewit Sons Inc.. Mr. Ferry also serves on several corporate boards.
Amy Radin
Advisory Board
Ms. Radin is a pragmatic innovator and customer-driven, tech-enabled marketer who builds businesses and solves problems in ways traditional approaches cannot achieve. She builds and mobilizes high-energy teams that view the world through the lens of the customer and push the envelope to achieve unexpected and extraordinary results. She is the former senior executive director and chief marketing officer at AXA Group, a $139 billion global insurance and asset management company with a team of 100 and a $65 million budget, where she reported to the CEO. She led a $40 million digital investment, including an award-winning site redesign, which improved lead generation, service account management, and client relationship financial drivers. Ms. Radin transformed AXA Group’s marketing division, aligning it to business priorities. She centralized the division into one team with five centers of excellence—brand, digital, insights and analytics, product marketing, and communications. Ms. Radin led a US launch, involving a $73 million media spend over three years, which leveraged a number one category position. She has held executive positions at E*Trade Financial Group, Readers Digest Association, Inc., Dime Bancorp, Inc. and the American Express Company.
Shahara Ahmad-Llewellyn
Advisory Board
Ms. Ahmad-Llewellyn is a former owner and vice chairman of the Philadelphia Coca-Cola Bottling Company, Inc., a privately-held corporation and the fourth largest Coke bottler in the United States. She pioneered the creation of home care in New York City, and had a successful career in the home healthcare field. Ms. Ahmad-Llewellyn currently serves as a vice chairman of Jazz at Lincoln Center, is vice chairman of The New 42nd Street, and is on the board of Peace First, originator of the Peace First Prize. Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg appointed her to the New York City Commission on Women’s Issues, where she served during all three of his mayoral terms. She is a founding board member of Platform.org, a new non-profit organization focused on diversifying participation and success in the growing innovation economy.

Mckissack
Team

OUR HISTORY

McKissack & McKissack is an outgrowth of the oldest minority-owned architecture/engineering firm in the United States.
Its roots go back to before the Civil War, when a slave named Moses McKissack learned the building trade from his overseer. It was his grandson, Moses III, who launched the first McKissack & McKissack in Nashville, Tennessee. The year was 1905.
McKissack & McKissack was founded by Deryl McKissack in 1990. When Ms. McKissack established her company, she was the fifth generation of her family to carry on the building tradition.
1790
Moses McKissack comes to this country as a slave, owned by a prominent contractor who used him as a builder. He passed the trade down through the generations, with his grandsons becoming the first licensed black architects in the Southeastern United States.
1905
Moses III, along with his brother Calvin, launches the first McKissack firm in Nashville, TN. He was the grandson of Moses McKissack, a slave who learned the trade of building from his owner and began a family legacy in the industry.
1942
The McKissack firm is awarded a $5.7 million contract to design and build the 99th Pursuit Squadron Airbase in Tuskegee, AL, the largest federal contract at that time ever given to an African-American firm.
1968
William DeBerry, the youngest son of Moses III, takes the helm as President of the firm. He nurtured the talents of his daughters—Andrea, Cheryl and Deryl—who all excelled in the fields of architecture and engineering.
1975
Upon retirement, William DeBerry’s wife, Leatrice, assumes the position of Chief Executive Officer of the McKissack firm.
1990
As an outgrowth of the McKissack firm founded in Nashville, TN, Deryl McKissack starts her own company—McKissack & McKissack—in Washington, DC as a sole entrepreneur working with very limited financial resources.
1996
McKissack & McKissack is awarded its largest contract to-date, initially overseeing fire recovery efforts at the Main U.S. Treasury Building and later providing program management services for the renovation of the entire 500,000 SF building.
2002
Deryl McKissack expands the organization into the Chicago region, ultimately working on large programs for the Chicago Public Schools, Chicago Housing Authority and O’Hare Modernization Program.
2002
McKissack & McKissack makes its debut in Engineering News-Record (ENR) Top 100 “Construction Management-For-Fee Firms” at #91.
2008
McKissack & McKissack enters the west coast with its new office in the Los Angeles marketplace, with clients such as the LA Metropolitan Transportation Authority, LA World Airports and LA Unified School District.
2009
For the first time, McKissack & McKissack is ranked in the Top 50 “Program Management Firms” for Engineering News-Record (ENR) coming in at #49.
2010
McKissack & McKissack celebrates its 20th anniversary since its founding in 1990.
2011
MLK Memorial opens on National Mall. McKissack & McKissack provides project management services and is named Architect of Record for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial on the National Mall.
2012
McKissack & McKissack launches its initiative to become a best-in-class firm, building on its strong reputation for consistently delivering results on time sensitive, complex and high profile projects for both government and private sector clients.
2015
McKissack & McKissack ranked in Engineering News-Record (ENR) Top 50 and Top 100. McKissack ranks #35 in Top 50 “Program Management Firms” and #55 in Top 100 “Construction Management -For-Fee Firms.” McMillan Stormwater Storage named Best Water/Environment Project for ENR MidAtlantic.
2015
McKissack & McKissack moves down south into the Dallas region providing program management and commissioning services to clients such as Texas A&M University and the Texas Facilities Commission.
2016
Opening of landmark National Museum. McKissack & McKissack serves as the project management company selected by the Smithsonian to coordinate design and construction of the National Museum of African American History and Culture on the National Mall.
2017
McKissack & McKissack expands nationally while expanding its private client base. The firm becomes a national firm with offices in Washington, DC, Baltimore, MD, Chicago, IL, Los Angeles, CA, Austin, TX, and Dallas, TX. 50% of McKissack’s clients are now come from the private sector.
2016
ENR ranks McKissack & McKissack in Top 100. The company achieves #54 ranking in the Engineering News-Record (ENR) Top 100 “Construction Management-For-Fee Firms” list. DC Water Blue Plains Tunnel named ENR MidAtlantic's Best Project of the Year.
2016
ENR ranks McKissack & McKissack in Top 100. The company achieves #54 ranking in the Engineering News-Record (ENR) Top 100 “Construction Management-For-Fee Firms” list. DC Water Blue Plains Tunnel named ENR MidAtlantic's Best Project of the Year.
1905
Moses III, along with his brother Calvin, launches the first McKissack architecture and engineering firm in Nashville, TN. He was the grandson of Moses McKissack, a slave who learned the trade of building from his owner and began a family legacy in the industry.
1912
Calvin McKissack starts his independent practice in Dallas, TX, specializing in the design and construction of dormitories and churches.
1922
Calvin rejoins Moses II and the two become among the first registered architects in the state of Tennessee and the first licensed black architects throughout the southeast.

Citizens of community

By Deryl McKissack

Trust for the
National Mall

McKissack & McKissack is a proud contributor to the Trust for the National Mall, the official nonprofit partner of the National Park Service dedicated to restoring and improving Washington, DC’s National Mall.
membership

Living Classrooms

Established in 1985 using unique learning environments, Living Classrooms provides access to more equitable education, workforce development, community safety, and health and wellness opportunities that enable individuals to achieve their aspirations and build safer, stronger, and healthier communities for all.
membership

ACE Mentoring

Founded in 1994, the ACE Mentor Program of America (ACE) is a free, award-winning, after-school program designed to attract high school students into pursuing careers in the Architecture, Construction and Engineering industry, including skilled trades.
membership

National Council of Negro Women

The National Council of Negro Women is an “organization of organizations” (comprised of 300 campus and community-based sections and 32 national women’s organizations) that enlightens, inspires and connects more than 2,000,000 women and men.  Its mission is to lead, advocate for, and empower women of African descent, their families and communities.
membership

Martha’s Table

For 41 years, Martha’s Table has been operating nationally accredited education programs beginning at birth; fighting for food justice and increasing access to healthy meals and fresh produce for over 20,000 residents; and promoting family success through our no-cost community store and engagement programs. During the pandemic, McKissack supported Martha’s table.
McKissack has been an extraordinary supporter of the NFBPA through the outstanding leadership Deryl McKissack has shown over the years.