These year-end/turning the calendar articles are becoming an annual thing. By that, I mean this is the 2nd annual one. As we referenced in last year’s article, many people use the time towards the end of one year and the beginning of the next to reflect on the journey and plan for the road ahead. It goes by different names: The Gap & The Gain, reflection & prayer, Annual Planning, whatever you call it, we hope you had time to do it and wish you luck on your 2026 goals!
It was another big year for Duffy Engineering and our team. We made our first full-time NYC hire, Kevin Budd, in the Sr. Building envelope Consultant role. With Kevin, we established two things: our NYC office (500 7th Avenue, NY, NY), and that whether you are a NYC or Boston area-based client, you will have a Kevin from Duffy Engineering on your project. We have a really limited talent pool going forward, so if you are a Kevin in the building envelope industry interested in working with other Kevins, drop us a note!
Similar to last year, our work performed was incredibly varied as were the geographies where we performed it. Our projects this year took us from the deep south (of New Jersey) to the slopes of Sugarbush Mountain, Vermont. While we didn’t quite go coast to coast on our work, we did go from the shores of Lake George to Boston. As we look forward to projects in 2026, we are looking to stay within the confines of the Northeast again, going from NJ to ME, with particular focus on NYC & Boston.
In terms of the types of projects performed, it was similar to last year; we had parking garage investigations and restorations, façade restorations, roof replacements, due diligence reports, shoring designs, condition assessments, peer reviews, and sidewalk replacements.
On the “running the business” side of things, our team made huge advances in our onboarding process, meaning we have one now, and standardization of our reports. We created and implemented new branding guidelines and transitioned to a full enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. We are always looking to improv,e so none of these are perfect, but they meet our needs at the moment and will grow with us.
The year was not without hardships; we didn’t meet our hiring goals or our revenue goals for the year. I learned some hard lessons along the way in when we should say no as a firm to protect our sanity.
On the home front, our daughter Caroline began kindergarten this past fall, so that was a big step forward! Teddy continued with pre-school, and Jack is terrorizing all toddlers (and some adults) he encounters. As a family, we laughed together, we cried together, and we played a serious amount of Magic Statue together.
2026 is looking to be another record year for us. Our goals call for aggressive growth and standardization as a firm (to assist the growth). Our goals include hiring several people in both NYC and Boston to help us assist building owners and managers in those markets meet the needs of their tenants and clients, and steward these buildings into the future for the next generation to enjoy.
I’d love to hear what your personal, professional, or organizational goals are for 2026. Send me an email at KD@DuffyEngCo.com, and perhaps we can push each other to be the best versions of ourselves this year.
Kevin M. Duffy P.E.
Principal
