Outdoor patio area at a restaurant or cafe with wooden tables and benches, people dining and standing around, and a modern building with large windows and a deck, surrounded by trees and mountains in the background.
An aerial view with several wooden structures, including two circular turret-like buildings with shingled roofs, a deck area surrounded by tall green trees, with some construction materials and tools nearby.

ABOUT

MISSION

At VSE, our mission is to deliver forward-thinking, efficient, and cost-conscious solutions that empower clients to create structures of lasting value—buildings that are not only technically exceptional, but regenerative and resilient by design. We strive to advance structural engineering by pioneering the scaled integration of low-carbon, deep green, and biogenic materials into the built environment. 

GET YOUR PROJECT STARTED
A multi-story building with a combination of wooden and stucco exterior walls, multiple balconies with wooden railings, and a steeply pitched roof. There are parking spaces in the foreground with numbered parking blocks and a sign that reads 'Oceanspray' in front of the building. The sky is blue with some scattered clouds, and there are trees surrounding the area.

VSE practices collaborative design where our first instinct is to explore.

Taking into account each project's unique desires, requirements, opportunities, and constraints, our technical expertise helps us to understand the project as a complete system. We balance building efficiency, constructability, and design elegance with cost and environmental goals. Our decades of experience help streamline the design, permit acquisition, and construction processes, regardless of how conventional or radical your project is.

We believe great engineering is green. This belief has driven us to develop expertise in alternative and low-carbon building materials such as straw, low-carbon concrete, adobe, rammed earth, hemp, bamboo, and more. We not only design with these materials; we helped write the building codes to make them accessible to the rest of the community.

We take on a variety of projects, including but not limited to: new residential, ADUs, multi-family and commercial buildings, residential remodels, and commercial tenant improvement. Whatever your project, we bring the experience, clarity, and expertise to make it work.

SEI logo with shield design, text 'Structural Engineering Institute', 'SE 2050', and the slogan 'Committing to Net Zero'.

Verdant is a proud member of the SE 2050 Commitment Program, an industry-wide initiative working toward net-zero embodied carbon in structural systems by 2050. Our Embodied Carbon Reduction Champion leads our internal action plan, ensuring that sustainability isn't just a value we talk about; it's built into how we engineer.

GET IN CONTACT

Built on Two Decades of Doing It Differently

Verdant grew out of Kevin Donahue Structural Engineers, a Berkeley-based practice founded in 2003. His work with sustainable materials has continued to guide VSE’s philosophy. Today, our team spans licensed engineers, designers, and natural materials specialists who bring that same curiosity and commitment to every project.

Meet the people behind the work.