Brian Barr

In 1997, Brian D. Barr joined Brasfield & Gorrie in Birmingham, Alabama, charged with development of an industrial construction division for the company. Since then, teams under his direction have built more than $5 billion in technically challenging projects across the country, including critical and high-profile projects in Alabama.

Barr is passionate about planning and efficiency—doing things in an optimum and often innovative way that saves time, resources, and energy. He believes this practice results in delivering the very best and creates a strategic advantage that results in satisfied and repeat clients. A team-oriented leader, Barr sees the key to success as having well-prepared people delivering well-planned projects. At Brasfield & Gorrie, this key has led to him internally creating a team of strong leaders while externally growing lasting relationships with clients and business partners. As a result, Barr ensures that we achieve our key objectives of building exceptional people, trusting relationships, great projects, and strong communities.

A native of Florence, Alabama, Barr earned a bachelor’s in civil engineering from The University of Alabama in 1981 and began his career at Texaco’s Central Offshore Engineering Department. As part of an in-house consulting and construction department, Barr managed the design and construction on offshore oil and gas production projects in the Gulf of Mexico, California, and the Far East. While with Texaco, he co-invented a patent for a corrosion protection system for offshore drilling platforms that was cheaper and more effective than structures used at the time.

After more than four years at Texaco, he went to Stanford University, where he earned a master’s degree in civil engineering through the Construction Engineering and Management program there. Barr then worked in heavy construction with Dunn Construction and later BEC, a civil and industrial contractor, before joining Brasfield & Gorrie.

Since joining Brasfield & Gorrie, Barr has served as a division manager, regional vice president, and regional president. His divisions of the company have handled construction of water and wastewater treatment plants, heavy civil works, infrastructure projects including emergency interstate bridge replacement projects in downtown Birmingham, large manufacturing plant projects, and power plant construction of both fossil and hydropower systems. Barr has 40 years of industry experience and a proven track record of successful project deliveries.

In 2017 Barr was inducted into the State of Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame. He is a member of the University of Alabama College of Engineering Leadership Board, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the National Association of Industrial & Office Properties, Associated Builders & Contractors, and the Capstone Engineering Society. He was active in the founding of the Construction Engineering program at the University of Alabama and is a member of the University of Alabama President’s Cabinet. He is a member of the Leadership Birmingham class of 2003 and Leadership Alabama class of 2012. He has been active locally as president of the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, a member of the Salvation Army Advisory Board, the Birmingham Business Alliance, United Way of Central Alabama, the Monday Morning Quarterback Club, Kiwanis, the Coalition of Regional Transportation, and the Birmingham Bowl. Barr and his wife.