Thomason and Associates

What Thomason and Associates does

Thomason and Associates is a Nashville-based historic preservation consulting firm founded in 1982 by Phil Thomason after he earned his M.A. in Historic Preservation from the University of Middle Tennessee. The firm provides eight core services: Section 106 environmental review and consultation, comprehensive historic preservation plans (including Cultural Resource Management Plans and Integrated Cultural Resources Management Plans), historic tax credit certification, National Register of Historic Places nominations, design review guidelines manuals, cultural resource surveys, cultural landscape inventories, and U.S. military heritage preservation planning. Deliverables are produced by a small team of preservation planners, architectural historians, researchers, and associates, with the firm's output scale including 50,000+ surveyed structures, 13,000+ National Register nominations, 80+ design guideline manuals, and 200+ cell tower site studies.

The firm's client base is anchored by federal and state government agencies, including the U.S. Department of Defense (30+ projects), U.S. Department of Energy (notably Oak Ridge Reservation), National Park Service (Trail of Tears eight-state assessment), Tennessee Department of Transportation (Section 106 work spanning Memphis to Bristol), and the Tennessee Valley Authority. Secondary clients include local governments and municipalities seeking preservation plans and design review commissions, plus private property owners and developers pursuing historic tax credits (e.g., 21c Hotel Nashville, the Rhea Building, E.W. King Building in Bristol). The firm's competitive differentiation rests on Phil Thomason's four-decade track record, established agency relationships essential to Section 106 consultation, and a portfolio of award-winning preservation plans for municipalities including Little Rock, Arkansas and Cary, North Carolina.

Thomason and Associates operates as a private, founder-owned professional services firm with a fee-for-service, project-based revenue model. GTM is conducted through direct consulting engagement, competitive bidding on government contracts, conference presentations, industry publication contributions (notably The Alliance Review), and referrals from a network of established partners including The Walker Collaborative, Encore Interpretive Design, and Centric Architecture. Pricing is project-based, determined by scope, complexity, and client type, and is not publicly disclosed. The firm is not venture-backed, has no parent company, no disclosed subsidiaries, and has completed no acquisitions or funding rounds. With 1–10 employees operating from a single Nashville headquarters, the business functions as a boutique, principal-led practice rather than a scalable platform.

Name

Thomason and Associates

Legal name

Thomason and Associates

Website

https://thomasonandassociates.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1982

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Thomason and Associates is a Nashville-based historic preservation consulting firm founded in 1982 by Phil Thomason, providing Section 106 review, National Register nominations, cultural resource surveys, design guidelines, historic tax certification, and military heritage preservation services to federal agencies, state DOTs, local governments, and private property owners across 36 states.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Historic Preservation Consulting

NAICS

Architectural, Engineering, and Related Services (5413)

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742)

akta.pro primary industry

Historic Preservation & Conservation Planning (BPAHAKAH)

Keywords

• Historic preservation planning
• Section 106 review
• National Register nominations
• Cultural resource surveys
• Historic tax certification

Headquarters

HQ city

Nashville

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Professional Preservation Consulting Services: Fee-for-service consulting engagements for historic preservation planning, Section 106 review, National Register nominations, cultural resource surveys, design review guidelines, and historic tax certification. Projects range from individual property assessments to large-scale government contracts for agencies such as Tennessee Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Defense, and U.S. Department of Energy.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Thomason and Associates is a historic preservation consulting firm that delivers Section 106 environmental review, historic preservation planning, historic tax certification consultation, National Register nominations, design review guidelines, cultural resource surveys, cultural landscape inventories, and U.S. military heritage preservation services. Engagements are project-based and serve federal agencies, state transportation departments, local governments, and private property owners across 36 states. The firm relies on a small team of preservation planners, architectural historians, and researchers to deliver compliance-driven and planning deliverables.

Product overview

Thomason and Associates is a historic preservation consulting firm offering a portfolio of eight distinct service offerings. The firm provides Section 106 review and environmental impact assessment, historic preservation planning, historic tax certification consultation, National Register nominations, design review guidelines, cultural resource surveys, cultural landscape inventories, and U.S. military heritage preservation. These services are delivered through a team of preservation planners, architectural historians, and researchers to help communities articulate the value of their historic resources and prepare them for future use.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Section 106 Review Services Environmental impact assessment and Section 106 review services for historic resources, including preparation of Programmatic Agreements and Memorandums of Agreement for federal and state agencies. Delivered to federal agencies, state DOTs, and other entities undertaking projects that may affect historic properties.
• Historic Preservation Plans Comprehensive preservation planning documents for federal agencies, local governments, and the Department of Defense, including Cultural Resource Management Plans and Integrated Cultural Resources Management Plans (ICRMPs), as well as citywide preservation plans for municipalities.
• Historic Tax Certifications Consultation services guiding clients through documentation and restoration of historic buildings for federal historic tax credit certification, with working knowledge of the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation. Targeted at private property owners and developers pursuing historic tax credits for rehabilitation projects.
• National Register Nominations Preparation and submission of nominations to the National Register of Historic Places for individual properties, historic districts, counties, and cities, including recent past properties from the 1950s and 1960s.
• Design Review Guidelines Production of design guideline manuals for communities, providing property owners and review boards with information about appropriate rehabilitation and new construction, including climate resilience recommendations. Manuals typically include more than 100 illustrations.
• Cultural Resource Surveys Surveys of the built environment encompassing residential, commercial, public, and industrial buildings and sites, both rural and urban, including historic context studies and National Register eligibility assessments.
• Cultural Landscape Inventories Identification and evaluation of historic landscapes, including assessments of trails, roadbeds, campsites, and riverways as components of Section 106 reports and county-wide preservation efforts.
• U.S. Military Heritage Preservation Planning for preservation of America's military legacy, including battlefield plans (Revolutionary War to World War II), site-specific cultural resource surveys, National Register assessments, and integrated cultural resource management plans for the Department of Defense. Engagements span 17th-century barracks to uranium-enrichment facilities and missile silos.

Quantifiable outcome

• Successfully nominated over 13,000 properties to the National Register of Historic Places
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers8 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered frequent associate and notable.

• Encore Interpretive Designfrequent associateStrategic or Co-development PartnerPlanning and interpretation company led by Principal David Currey, who received his Master's in Public History from Middle Tennessee State University. Teams with Thomason and Associates on projects such as the Wood Lake Battlefield Preservation Plan in Granite Falls, Minnesota, an African American Heritage Interpretation project in New Bern, North Carolina, and various research and marketing projects for the Civil War Trust in Washington, D.C.
• The Walker Collaborativefrequent associateStrategic or Co-development PartnerPlanning practice of Philip Walker with 30+ years' experience in urban planning including downtown revitalization, battlefield preservation, comprehensive planning, and community visioning. Worked together on award winning Little Rock, Arkansas Citywide Historic Preservation Plan, Garden City, Kansas Historic Preservation Plan, and Georgetown, South Carolina Design Review Guidelines.
• Centric Architecture Inc. (Jim Thompson)frequent associateImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerHistoric architect with 40+ years' experience designing projects in accordance with the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation. Has worked with Thomason and Associates on assessments of TVA dams and powerhouses, historic structure reports, and tax certification projects.
• National Trust for Historic PreservationnotableOthersPhil Thomason serves as an Advisor to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a prominent nonprofit dedicated to protecting America's historic places.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• Stantec: International design and engineering firm with cultural resources and heritage services including Section 106 review, National Register nominations, and preservation planning for public-sector clients—an established competitor with broader geographic reach.
• AECOM: Global infrastructure consultancy with a heritage and cultural resources practice delivering Section 106, NEPA, and historic preservation services to federal and state agencies—much larger scale, overlapping practice areas.
• Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates: National engineering consultancy with a large historic preservation practice covering structural assessments, rehabilitation, and cultural resource work for federal and institutional clients—broader in scope and scale but overlapping in Section 106 and historic tax credit work.

Direct peers

• R. Christopher Goodwin & Associates: Cultural resource management and historic preservation firm with extensive federal client base including National Park Service, DoD, and transportation agencies—competes for the same Section 106, NEPA, and historic preservation planning work.
• Gray & Pape: Cultural and heritage resources management firm providing Section 106 consulting, architectural history surveys, National Register eligibility assessments, and historic preservation planning—comparable niche firm serving federal and state clients.
• Architectural Resources Group: Historic preservation architecture and planning consultancy with deep expertise in National Register nominations, cultural resource surveys, and design guidelines for public agencies and private owners—directly comparable services to Thomason and Associates across federal, state, and local clients.
• John Milner Architects: Historic preservation architecture firm specializing in National Register nominations, preservation plans, design guidelines, and rehabilitation consulting for municipalities and private clients—highly comparable service mix and client base to Thomason and Associates.

Emerging players

• Heritage Consulting Group: Specialist preservation planning firm offering National Register nominations, historic resource surveys, and preservation planning for municipalities and private clients—comparable niche focus, though typically smaller in scale than Thomason.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Thomason and Associates