Our History

George, Miles & Buhr, LLC was established on January 1, 1960 by Thomas S. George, AIA, William B. Miles, Jr., P.E., and Victor W. Buhr, P.E. All three were in the Navy during World War II and previously served as partners for five years in the firm Victor Buhr Associates.

GMB’s initial office was located on the 3rd floor of the current First Shore Federal Bank building in downtown Salisbury, Maryland.

Victor Buhr was a retired Admiral of the U.S. Navy. Therefore, many of GMB’s early projects were military-related.

GMB designed Maryland’s first and only ocean outfall in Ocean City.

Other notable projects in the 1960s included Eastern Shore State Hospital (pictured), the City of Cambridge Port Authority, Worcester County Courthouse, Wesley Temple Methodist Church, Water & Wastewater Treatment Systems in Ocean City, MD, Shad Landing Marina & State Park, and the Salisbury branch of Maryland National Bank.

In the 1970s, GMB experienced a shift from military projects towards municipal works for many towns and cities on the Delmarva Peninsula, establishing our legacy as a municipal “Trusted Advisor”, which continues to this day.

The Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1972 gave rise to a number of water & wastewater projects, including facility upgrades in Seaford (pictured), Ocean City, Delmar, & Georgetown.

John L. Graham, AIA and George K. Miles, P.E. became partners in 1973.

GMB completed many important Delmarva-area architectural projects in the ‘70s, including Chesapeake Hall at Salisbury State University (pictured), the new Parkside High School in Salisbury, Public Libraries in Caroline & Wicomico Counties, the Aspen Institute in Queenstown, and the Ella Fitzgerald Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES).

In 1976, GMB relocated to 724 East Main Street to accommodate our growth to approximately 15 employees.

The 1980s saw continued demand for GMB’s civil engineering services as work carried forward in the municipal sector.  Sussex County, Delaware became a client as GMB developed the South Coastal Area Planning Study and designed the South Coastal Regional Wastewater Facility (pictured) outside of Bethany Beach.  Other WWTFs included the Towns of Delmar and Snow Hill.

GMB established a strong structural-marine presence during the ‘80s, completing several marina projects in the area including Somers Cove Marina in Crisfield, Maryland (pictured), Sweden Point Marina in Southern Maryland, and Fort Washington Marina outside of Washington, D.C.

In 1985, GMB expanded to the Western Shore of Maryland where an office was opened in Hunt Valley.  That office, relocated several times, continues to operate today from the north Baltimore area.

GMB’s 1983 softball team.

The Inn at Perry Cabin, a riverfront traditional English-style country inn in St. Michael’s, Maryland, opened as an executive retreat. The GMB-designed historic resort has won numerous accolades and served as the main backdrop for the 2005 romantic comedy, Wedding Crashers.

Important community projects in the 1980s included Peninsula Regional Medical Center (now Tidal Health) in Salisbury (pictured), a Marine Science Lab at the University of Maryland Horn Point, and the Wicomico County Airport (now Salisbury Regional Airport – SBY).

1987, the iconic Dunes Manor Hotel opened in Ocean City, Maryland. The 12-story, 170-room luxury resort was designed by GMB in a classic, Victorian motif. GMB continues to be a preeminent A/E firm serving Ocean City high-rise hotels and condominiums, both new and existing.

The 1990s were dominated by GMB’s participation as lead engineer of the new West Rehoboth Sanitary Sewer District for Sussex County, Delaware.  The $88-million project was, at the time, the largest non-Federal infrastructure project in the State. The 13,000-acre service area included 260,000 feet of sewer pipe and 43 pump stations.

In 1991, GMB relocated our Salisbury office to the Downtown Plaza at 206 West Main Street, where we remain today.

In 1993, GMB received the National ACEC Grand Award, the highest-ranked water/wastewater treatment award in the country. The award was given for the design of the first BNR Treatment Plant in the State of Maryland: Back River WWTP in Baltimore. This innovative project created a facility that could experiment with nutrient removal via several methodologies simultaneously.

GMB’s staff in 1993.

Architecturally, we were pleased to complete the City of Salisbury Police Station, the Carousel Hotel Renovation, and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore Student Residential Complex (pictured). 

GMB’s then-CEO, Jim Thomas (pictured far left with other firm members in 1999), served as the President of the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) from May 1997- May 1998.

In 2001, GMB opened a branch office in Seaford, Delaware to better serve the needs of our clients in the Western Sussex County area. 

In 2001, GMB designed the first Membrane Bioreactor Process for wastewater treatment in the State of Maryland at the Glen Riddle community in Berlin. The 995-acre planned unit development is the former training grounds of Triple Crown racehorse Man-O-War. Design of a 400,000-gallon elevated water storage tank and drinking water treatment plant was also provided by GMB.

The residential housing boom through 2006 allowed GMB to expand our land development engineering services.  GMB designed several award-winning developments including Bayside near Fenwick Island, Del. (pictured), The Village of Five Points and The Vineyards Village near Lewes, Del., as well as Sunset Island in Ocean City, Md.

Throughout the 2000s, GMB partnered with Baylor Medical Center in Texas to design a series of Children’s Clinical Centers of Excellence for the pediatric treatment of HIV/AIDS and nursing/physician education. These centers treat more than 90,000 children in 7 countries, mostly in Africa. Centers of Excellence are located in Romania, Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho, Malawi, Uganda, and Tanzania. In addition to design, GMB provided the overall project management for the facilities, including teaming with local consultants/contractors in each country.

In 2002, the U.S. Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) opened a one-of-a-kind facility to train ATF investigators in fire dynamics to aid in forensic analysis. The ATF National Fire Research Laboratory Center is the world’s first laboratory devoted to forensic fire research. GMB was commissioned to provide planning, engineering, and construction phase services for the water treatment facility. This project was selected by the GSA to receive a 2004 GSA Design Award for its innovative and highly technical design. 

GMB’s 2005 Softball Team

Educational opportunities on Delmarva were broadened when Delmarva Christian High School opened in 2005. The GMB-designed 120,000-square-foot school is now home to Sussex Academy, whom GMB assisted with a variety of fit-out, renovation, and athletic facility projects.

In 2006, the Mattawoman Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) in Charles County became the first Enhanced Nutrient Removal (ENR) WWTP in the State of Maryland.

In 2008, GMB’s architectural staff began using Revit, an advanced building design software that allows the designer to construct the building “virtually” using Building Information Modeling (BIM) technology.

In Delaware, GMB won the 2008 Governor’s Conservation Award for Excellence for Urban Conservation Activities in Sussex County, sponsored by Governor Ruth Ann Minner.  GMB was nominated by the Sussex Conservation District for the high quality of our plans and calculations as evident in submittals and certified construction reviewer (CCR) inspections.

In 2010, after 20 years of serving as President / Managing Member, James R. Thomas, Jr., P.E. handed the leadership reins to James H. Willey, Jr., P.E.

GMB assisted the Town of Laurel, DE in many capital improvements, including the upgrade and expansion of their wastewater treatment facility, and the extension of water and sewer to newly annexed areas.

GMB worked closely with other long-term municipal clients including the City of Seaford, DE, Town of Denton, MD, Pocomoke City, MD, Sussex County, DE, and City of Fruitland, MD where we were awarded “Business of the Year” in 2013. 

GMB further solidified a niche in designing healthcare facilities throughout the 2010s. We were privileged to partner with Eastern Shore Rural Health System, Inc. for the design and construction of three prototype community health facilities on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. The facilities provide multi-discipline health care services for large sectors of this historically underserved area, including its general population, seasonal migrant worker families, rural poor, and corporate clients.

Our Washington Street Flood Control & Stormwater Management Retrofits Project for the City of Seaford was awarded a 2013 Engineering Excellence Award from ACEC Delaware. GMB proceeded to win multiple additional awards through ACEC-DE in the 2010s and was selected as “Best Architect in Southern Delaware” in 2016 and 2018 by the readers of The Metropolitan Magazine.

GMB’s work can be seen throughout NASA’s Wallops Island Flight Facility in Virginia, from rocket launch pads to mission operations centers to the LEED-certified Fire Station, furthering our legacy of providing support to the aerospace & aviation industry.

We opened branch offices in Lewes and Ocean View, Delaware, allowing us to better serve our clients in eastern Sussex County.

GMB’s owners pictured in 2016.

Our Coastal Resiliency Group was established to assist our clients in coastal areas with combatting the effects of climate change and sea-level rise. This group is led by a Certified Floodplain Manager (CFM) and a Certified Climate Change Professional (CC-P).

We continue to build our GIS and Drone services, assisting clients with orthorectified aerials, point clouds, DEM/DTM, 3D renderings, promotional videos, construction progression videos, building survey inspections, and indoor flights.

GMB remains a solid Trusted Advisor to our clients. We emerged stronger than ever from the pandemic and look forward to designing the future for the next 60+ years.