History

Smith, Fause & McDonald, Inc. (SFMI) was founded in San Francisco in 1986 by Peter McDonald, previously a principal in the firm of Smith, Fause & Associates (SFAI) of Los Angeles. Providing acoustics and audiovisual systems engineering services, the firm primarily served institutional and public sector clients involved in the construction or renovation of multi-use and complex facilities, including schools, universities, city halls, convention centers, and institutions for similar public uses. Early on, SFMI developed a reputation for its ability to execute complex designs on time and on budget.

Responding to the growing interest in integrating communications engineering into a building’s fabric, SFMI began to formally offer communications engineering services in 1991. Since then, the demand for communications engineering has spread beyond the building types that SFMI served at its start, encompassing entire university and school campuses, office buildings, and metropolitan-scale communications infrastructure. Today, SFMI has proudly served on more than 3,500 projects representing an immense range of building types and clientele.