Discovering the Black engineering greats behind Kansas City’s biggest landmarks
For many residents in Kansas City, the name Taliaferro & Browne may not ring any bells. But if you have taken a stroll through the riverfront, driven into the stadiums, went to a concert or caught a flight out of town, you are already unknowingly acquainted.
The Black-owned engineering firm founded in the late 1960s has played a central role in shaping Kansas City’s modern landscape. From the Berkley Riverfront and downtown arenas to major civic corridors and the Kansas City International Airport, the firm’s work is embedded across many of the city’s most visible and heavily used spaces.
Yet when conversations turn to successful engineering firms in Kansas City, the name Taliaferro & Browne is often absent, according to the organization.
That disconnect is part of why the firm’s leaders say telling its story during Black History Month matters.
“We’re a local firm that just happens to be a good firm that just happens to be owned by two Black guys,” said Leonard Graham, the company’s president and co-owner.
A firm rooted in Kansas City
Taliaferro & Browne was founded by Will Taliaferro in 1968 during a period when Black professionals faced systemic barriers to education, financing and opportunity. In one of the firm’s defining origin stories, Taliaferro once protested a Kansas City, Kansas, department store that would sell goods to Black customers but would not allow them to sit at its lunch counter.
A decade later, Taliaferro bought that same building and moved his business into it.
“That is the legacy that we carry,” said Hagos Andebrhan, the firm’s CEO and co-owner. “We stand on their shoulders to learn that you do work with integrity and try to be the best you can be.”
Andebrhan came to the city in 1970 from Eritrea, then part of Ethiopia, for advanced pilot training at the Fairfax Airport, where Trans World Airlines operated a training center. During that time, he met Taliaferro, began spending time at the office and took on entry-level work before formally starting his engineering education.
“I started as a young trainee, kind of an errand boy,” Andebrhan said. “That’s how I started.”
Today, Andebrhan and Graham have co-owned the firm for more than three decades, after buying it from Taliaferro, growing it from 13 employees to roughly 70.
Building a name
Taliaferro & Browne provides civil and structural engineering, land surveying, landscape architecture, inspection and construction support services. Its portfolio includes many of Kansas City’s most prominent public and private projects.
The firm served as civil engineer of record for the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, overseeing site grading, stormwater systems, drainage, erosion control and LEED compliance, along with the reconstruction of Wyandotte Street nearby.
It led the site-clearing effort for what is now the T-Mobile Center, coordinating demolition, environmental remediation, land acquisition and utility relocation across four downtown blocks. That work was completed within one year and $3 million under budget, allowing the arena to open on schedule.
The firm provided engineering services for major improvements at Arrowhead and Kauffman stadiums, including concourse expansions, infrastructure relocation and site utilities. It played a role in the adaptive reuse of the former Kemper Arena, now Hy-Vee Arena, providing inspection and quality assurance for structural systems during renovation.
Downtown residential towers including One Light, Two Light and Three Light also bear the firm’s imprint, as do public spaces such as Barney Allis Plaza and University Way at the University of Missouri–Kansas City.
But perhaps no area reflects the firm’s long-term influence more clearly than the Berkley Riverfront now being called Current Landing by the KC Current soccer team.
A vision for the riverfront
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Berkley Riverfront was largely a landfill and vehicle tow lot. It was not a destination and held little appeal for residents or visitors.
Taliaferro & Browne partnered with Port KC and other stakeholders to help create a master plan for redevelopment. The firm served as lead civil engineer in shaping what the riverfront could become.
What followed was a transformation that now includes residential developments, public parks, recreational spaces and the Kansas City Current’s women’s soccer stadium, the first purpose-built stadium for a women’s sports team that does not share space with a men’s team.
The firm provided civil engineering and surveying services for the stadium, coordinating with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to ensure construction near the Missouri River levee did not compromise flood protection. It also provided engineering services for nearby developments such as the Origin Hotel, Union Berkley, The CORE and mixed-use projects now rising along the riverfront.
“Everything along the riverfront, we were the civil engineer of record for,” said Ashli Harris, who works in marketing and communications for the firm.
Transforming neighborhoods
Beyond marquee projects, Taliaferro & Browne has worked extensively in neighborhoods historically affected by disinvestment.
Beacon Hill, once marked by deteriorated housing and crime, has undergone decades of redevelopment supported by infrastructure upgrades. The firm has worked in the area for nearly 30 years.
“When we started working down there, it was terrible,” Graham said. “It’s a far cry from what you see there now.”
The firm also played a key role in the Blue Parkway corridor, completing street and drainage improvements during work on Brush Creek. The improvements helped pave the way for developments such as the Shops at Blue Parkway and Swope Health Center.
“These are things that are more than just projects to us,” Graham said. “This is our town.”
Breaking barriers
Despite its extensive portfolio, the firm’s leaders say skepticism has followed them throughout their careers.
“In the early days, we had trouble being able to get loans to finance the company,” Graham said. “All of the typical kinds of things that minority-owned businesses see and feel.”
He said doubts about the firm’s capacity have persisted, even in recent years.
“When we went after the airport project, we heard through the grapevine that people said, ‘This is too big for them,’” Graham said.
That project was the Kansas City International Airport terminal replacement, the largest infrastructure project in the city’s history. Taliaferro & Browne managed all landside civil design responsibilities, overseeing nine subconsultants and designing permanent and temporary roadways, utilities, parking, stormwater systems and traffic control while the existing terminals remained operational.
“We competed with national and international companies,” Andebrhan said. “We were the only ones who could show the client work we had already done at the same site.”
The firm was selected and completed its scope while keeping more than 20,000 cars per day moving through the airport.
Creating opportunity
Internally, the firm emphasizes long tenures and mentorship. Many employees have spent decades at Taliaferro & Browne.
Nicki Chestnut, a senior project manager and civil engineer who has been with the firm for nearly 30 years, leads work on Kansas City’s Water Smart Sewer program, a 25-year initiative aimed at improving water quality.
“There are highly visible projects people see,” Chestnut said, “but there are also things people don’t see that improve everyday life.”
The firm’s workforce includes employees from across Kansas City and around the world, a diversity leaders describe as intentional.
“We have the United Nations of engineers here,” Andebrhan said.
The firm also prioritizes bringing minority- and women-owned businesses onto major projects. On the airport project, eight such firms worked as subconsultants under Taliaferro & Browne.
History still being written
As Black History Month highlights contributions often left out of public narratives, Taliaferro & Browne’s story sits not at the margins of Kansas City’s development, but at its foundation. Graham and Andebrhan are both confident that the firm will be remembered for impact rather than accolades — that as they continue to do good work in the community, the story will be known by how they have help build a better metro.
As Kansas City prepares for global events such as the World Cup, the firm’s leaders see their work as part of a larger civic arc. Harris believes the growth will only continue as the organization keeps producing culture-defining elements of the city. Proving that they aren’t just making Black history, but Kansas City history.
“Kansas City tends to punch above its weight,” Harris said. “We’ve been doing that for decades.”
This story was originally published February 19, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
