Acorn Engineering

The Acorn Landscape Studio escaped the office earlier this spring for a visit to Pierson Nurseries in Dayton. They toured Pierson's extensive selection of ornamental, wetland, and coastal plants—definite inspiration for upcoming projects.

Big thanks to the Pierson team for a great afternoon!

Acorn has been collaborating with Community Housing of Maine, Dovetail Consulting, and Ryan Senatore Architecture on a 10 unit redevelopment in Skowhegan, which secured final planning board approval last month. The project transforms a long neglected plot with two abandoned apartment buildings into new, much needed housing along Waterville Road.

The redevelopment introduces 10 modern units supported by on site parking, internal pedestrian connections, and a stormwater retrofit featuring a new rain garden to treat runoff from the parking area.

The innovative housing project focuses on creating safe, stable homes within a service-enriched community setting. Through strong partnerships and thoughtful design, this project will help foster connection, stability, and opportunity for residents.

Acorn is proud to provide engineering and permitting services for this effort and is excited to move into the next phase as this quality housing begins to take shape.

Freeport is on track for more housing!

Acorn was excited to take part in last week’s groundbreaking for Depot Terraces, a 45 unit workforce housing project in Town of Freeport. Just steps from the Downeaster and Main Street, this development is perfectly sited to support the Town’s growing housing needs. Congratulations to Domus (Hebert Construction, LLC + Avesta Housing), and all the project partners driving this important project forward!

Oh, what a night!

We had the pleasure of attending the grand opening of the Maine Audubon’s Ann and Jim Hancock Native Plants Education Center earlier this week. The overall project adds two new buildings to the property that will nearly double the space available to the public for education and connection with Maine’s natural world.

Seeing everyone’s hard work over the past 4 years come to life and on such a beautiful night was inspiring! Kudos to Kaplan Thompson Architects, Aceto Landscape Architects, Wright-Ryan Construction, R.J. Grondin and our other project partners. We can’t wait to come back and visit with our friends and family.

Acorns love ping pong and our love runs deep enough that no matter where we are – city or country, streets or woods – we will find a place to play. Here are some of our engineers getting a game in during lunch while out in the field.

Can’t stop, won’t stop learning!

Several Acorns attended the Coastwise Workshops in Freeport and Ellsworth last month hosted by Maine Audubon. The training programs delve into how to plan and build resilient road crossings in tidal wetland areas to accommodate tides, sea level rise, increasingly powerful storm surges and improve habitat connectivity.

We’re thrilled to announce that Sam Lebel has been promoted to Vice President at Acorn Engineering.

Sam has been an integral part of the Acorn team since 2016, when he joined us as a new graduate of the University of Maine, working alongside Will Savage, Acorn’s President. Over the years, Sam has contributed to a wide range of projects and developed a particular passion for affordable housing. His commitment extends beyond his civil engineering work at Acorn through his service with the Portland Society for Architecture and, more recently, the Maine Affordable Housing Coalition -MAHC.

With this promotion, Sam has also taken on an expanded leadership role and now serves as a Member of the Board. We’re grateful for his dedication to Acorn, our clients, and the communities we serve, and we look forward to the continued impact he’ll make in this role.

Please join us in congratulating Sam! 👏

Coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee…

Some days we just can’t get enough --- and some days you hit the motherlode. Here are members of our survey crew on the job and finding a little fuel along the way.

Ready for Round Two

Acorn couldn’t be prouder to be sponsoring the Portland Hearts of Pine for the second year running! We are not only fans of soccer but also the larger community that this team and organization have built over the past year. Can’t wait to see what’s to come…

Acorn has had the privilege of working on several trail design projects around the State of Maine. As nature lovers, it is an honor to assist with work that connects people to the one of Maine’s greatest resources – the outdoors.

Trail design dovetails into our experience with floodplain management, stream-smart crossings, and habitat preservation. That work continues as we head up to Maine Coast Heritage Trust’s 2026 Maine Land Conservation Conference in Augusta tomorrow. There, we look forward to seeing colleagues old and new and continuing conversations about conservation in an effort to meet our local communities' needs.