The consulting engineering firm of Johnson & Anderson, Inc. was originally founded in 1946 as Clark, Johnson, & Anderson. Until 1956, the firm was primarily engaged in subdivision development work, performing preliminary subdivision plat layouts, and preparing final plans and construction plans for subdivision improvements, inspection, and construction.

In 1956, Johnson & Anderson, Inc. recognized the need for developing municipalities to protect their interests by adopting and enforcing uniform design and construction standards. To promote orderly growth and development consistent with the long range goals of municipalities, J&A developed design and construction standards and began to offer plan review and inspection services to many communities throughout Southeast Michigan. The concept of protecting the municipalities’ interests through the adoption of standards consistent with good engineering practices is now standard operating procedure in virtually all communities.

In the late 1960’s J&A entered the computer age with an IBM 1130 and a flatbed plotter. With no commercial CADD package available original software was written in-house, which allowed specially taken field notes to be keypunched and plotted into a strip topographic survey for the hundreds of miles of water main and sanitary sewer design that was being undertaken at the time.

In the 1970’s J&A entered a new area of engineering, developing Flood Insurance Studies for the Federal Emergency Management Agency for both coastal and river flood prone areas. J&A has since performed over 120 Flood Insurance Studies throughout Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio.

Also in the 1970’s, J&A became involved in regional shopping mall design, serving several clients with facilities all over the United States. While in many cases J&A did the detailed design from beginning to end, in other instances J&A worked with planners and architects to determine the preliminary design, and then helped select local designers to finish the plans. Often J&A’s involvement included construction overview responsibilities.