Award-Winning Quality
We are nationally recognized for our technical solutions and commitment to performance excellence.
Performance Excellence
Through Continuous Improvement
Performance excellence is a cornerstone of Freese and Nichols’ 130 years in business, and continuous improvement is our key to excelling in all that we do. Continuous improvement focuses on methodical planning, measuring, analyzing and refining. By instilling accountability and transparency, it empowers all our employees to make their work better, ultimately resulting in exemplary service to our clients.
CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
Quality is Our Foundation
For almost three decades, FNI has focused on continuous improvement as a key driver to delivering quality. Continuous improvement requires methodical planning, measuring, analyzing and refining to create processes that can apply across the company and repeatedly result in successful projects. Our systematic approach instills accountability and transparency, empowering employees to make individual improvements in the workplace.
Our commitment to quality and continuous improvement has been recognized nationally, with FNI twice receiving the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. We’re among only 13 organizations to earn this distinction as a repeat recipient. We also are the first engineering/architecture firm chosen for the award, the highest level of recognition for performance excellence in the United States. The Baldrige program’s integrated management framework and assessment tools have helped our firm improve practices and measure results so we can continue delivering exceptional service.
We are also one of a select few Baldrige-winning organizations chosen as Trustees of the Baldrige Foundation’s Institute for Performance Excellence (2022). The business practices that led to these Baldrige recognitions align with our LEADS values and provide the foundation for how we operate. Those same practices bring superior results to our clients, communities and employees.
View our profile with the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Recent Project Awards
American Society of Civil Engineers
2025 Outstanding Civil Engineering Honor Award
Bois d'Arc Lake Program
Design-Build Institute of America, Southeast Region
2025 Design-Build Project/Team Award
Gwinnett County Eastern Regional Infrastructure
American Planning Association
2025 Vernon Deines Award for Outstanding Small Town or Rural Plan
Brownwood Downtown Plan
Engineering News-Record, Texas & Louisiana Region
2025 Regional Best Projects Award
Cleburne Wastewater Treatment Plant Expansion and Indirect Reuse Program
U.S. Society on Dams
2025 Excellence in Constructed Project Award
Bois d'Arc Dam
National Association of Flood & Stormwater Management Agencies
2024 Excellence in Innovative Water Project Award
Texas Regional Flood Plans
American Public Works Association, Texas Chapter
2025 Public Works Project of the Year
Spurs Ranch Road Reconstruction
American Society of Landscape Architects, Oklahoma Chapter
2025 Award of Excellence
Stephenson Park Master Plan and Park Improvements
Associated Builders and Contractors, Central Florida Chapter
2025 Excellence in Construction Award
Westside Regional Water Reclamation Facility Influent Pump Station
Incubating Innovation
We’ve found that our focus on quality and continuous improvement provides a natural incubator for innovation. Our level of innovation in our project work, client programs and internal processes helps our clients solve their business needs. We see the impact of these innovative techniques through our high client satisfaction scores, repeat business, and our many project awards.
Read more about our Ideas & Innovation