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Olson Engineering Inc.
Continuing a 50-year history of community leadership
50 years
222 E. Evergreen Blvd.
Vancouver, Washington 9660
360-695-135
www.olsonengr.com/
A walk through Olson Engineering is like a trip back in time, from the antique surveying equipment displayed in Jerry Olsons office to the archives that fill the lower level of the companys three-story headquarters in downtown Vancouver. And yet, the firm has consistently been on the cutting edge of multidisciplinary practices, technological advances and community leadership throughout its 50 years in business.
Olson left his job as an area engineer with the Washington State Department of Natural Resources in June 196 and traveled in Europe before starting his surveying company. His father owned a sawmill and had taught Olson about entrepreneurship long before Olson graduated from Oregon State University and started his own business at the age of 27.
I could tell from day one I wasnt cut out to be a bureaucrat, but I did gain a lot of experience by working for the state, he said.
From a drafting table in the kitchen of his apartment, Olson did topographic surveys, forest boundaries and logging roads. He then began surveying for subdivisions, streets and, in the early 1970s, began what is now a 45-years-and-counting involvement in The Cedars, one of Clark Countys first planned developments that ultimately included an 1-hole golf course and several hundred lots.
It was also in the early 1970s that Olson learned about and purchased an HP 300, the first affordable electronic distance measuring device, and partnered with Hal Lacy,...