Lowry & Associates, an Irvine-based engineering firm...

Lowry & Associates, an Irvine-based engineering firm founded in 1946, has agreed to merge with the San Diego-based engineering firm of Neste, Brudin & Stone, effective May. 1.

The new firm, to be called NBS/Lowry, will be headquartered in San Diego, with Norman Neste serving as chairman and John B. Brudin serving as president and chief executive. Alfred W. Jorgensen, a Lowry principal and the firm’s chief financial officer, will serve as chief operating officer for the merged company.

Brudin said the merger was a moneyless transaction that enabled the two engineering firms to combine operations and expand their respective market areas.

Neste, Brudin & Stone was founded in 1958 and has 145 employees in offices in San Diego, San Bernardino, Hemet, Corona, Rancho California and Palm Desert. Lowry, with 75 employees, has offices in Irvine, San Diego, northern San Diego County, San Francisco, and Phoenix.

Lowry has annual revenues of about $4 million, Brudin said, while Neste, Brudin & Stone’s sales for 1985 totaled $13 million. Both companies are privately owned.