In the early 1980’s, Louis Lepp had a vision to start a geologic/geotechnical engineering consulting company that was made up of several interrelated disciplines. Each discipline would function, to some extent, autonomously under the Corporation. Yet there would be project opportunities that would necessitate one or several of the other Company disciplines to work together to complete a study. From this idea Associated Earth Sciences, Inc. (AESI) was born.
Of importance and somewhat unique to Lou’s reasoning at the time were sound geologic interpretation and its influence on engineering design. Other geotechnical consulting firms may only look at the engineering properties of sediments in their engineering design and neglect the important interrelationship between geology and engineering design. From this basic concept AESI grew into a respected Puget Sound firm. Lou originally worked out of his Kirkland home to market his geologic expertise. Through continued perseverance for more than a year he secured a contract with a large corporate landowner cataloging their economic mineral resources. From this first project, AESI slowly grew into a consulting firm that employs over 70 professional geotechnical engineers, environmental engineers, geologists, hydrogeologists, and support staff. This growth now includes three offices in three adjoining counties in Western Washington.
