New York City-based engineering firm Thornton Tomasetti has acquired Becker Structural Engineers Inc. of Portland.

Becker Structural Engineering worked on a new eight-story garage at Maine Medical Center in Portland. Becker has been acquired by Thornton Tomasetti. Press Herald file photo by Gregory Rec

The nearly 25-year-old Portland firm specializes in mass timber construction, parking structures and highway bridge projects. Its founder and president, Paul Becker, and Vice President Todd Neal will become senior principal and principal at Thornton Tomasetti, and Becker’s 27 employees will remain in their existing York Street office, a statement said.

Terms of the deal, which closed at the end of March, were not disclosed.

Becker is responsible for projects such as the $27 million, 1,000-space addition to the Portland International Jetport parking garage and the 2,400-car, eight-story garage for Maine Medical Center, currently under construction in Portland.

The acquisition increases Thornton Tomasetti’s expertise in mass timber projects, large structures that are built on wood frameworks instead of the traditional steel. The firm is providing structural engineering services to what could be the tallest mass-timber tower in the Western Hemisphere, the 16-story Ascent in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and was on the team behind the concept of an 80-story timber skyscraper in Chicago.