One of the qualities of a good learner is being able to take in information, process it and use it to your advantage. Failure often is just as helpful as success. Having an example of “what not to do” can be just as beneficial as having a great “what…
ReEngineering the Engineer: What Was I Thinking?
A funny thought crossed my mind this week. I started my career at a slow time in the early 1980s and considered myself lucky to find work at a small engineering…
ReEngineering the Engineer: Curiosity: Engineers Do Better than the Cat
To date, my engineering firm has been a team member for two different Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) projects. Both included many regularly scheduled…
ReEngineering the Engineer: Do You Have a ‘Plan B’ for the Totally Unexpected?
I try to take some time over the holidays to reflect on the previous year. What good things happened? Were there any things we could have done better? Do our employees have the proper skill sets for their current positions? Is there any software we’re missing…
ReEngineering the Engineer: Not ‘My’ Job? Engineers Don’t Have that Luxury
One of our architectural clients approached us with an interesting renovation of an existing building. It was a relatively older building with an existing tenant in one half of the building and several vacant suites in the other half. The owner had purchased…
ReEngineering the Engineer: A Tale of Two Projects
Every now and then, you get a project that just seems to run into headwinds no matter which direction you turn. This latest one, however, came at a time when we were closing out our Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) project. The difference between the two…
ReEngineering the Engineer: What Am I Missing?
Historically, the kickoff keynotes for the NASCC Steel Conference are a must-see, and the 2019 conference in St. Louis was no exception. Orzan Varol presented the keynote this year titled “The Power of Contrarian Thinking.” The gist of the presentation…
ReEngineering the Engineer: Sustainability: How Can We Help?
At about the time I was leaving my old firm in 2004, one of the large national architectural firms we worked with made a corporate announcement. Their firm would be focusing on the green movement (predominantly LEED at the time) and were committed to designing…
ReEngineering the Engineer: To Change or Not to Change? The Answer Usually Is to Change
Codes have changed significantly through the years. When I started engineering, the structural section of the North Carolina Building Code was just more than 100 pages and was basically the “one-stop shop” for all our structural engineering analysis and…
ReEngineering the Engineer: Why Not Dream Big?
When I started my company several years ago, I decided to play the “I need to be close to home” card. Instead of commuting 20 miles to Charlotte, N.C., every day, I found some office space close to our home. I was pretty sure I’d be spending a lot of…
