One of our integrated project delivery (IPD) projects finished at the end of 2021. It survived a COVID-19 shutdown, reduced productivity due to restrictions of personnel onsite, cost increases and material-procurement challenges. Everyone was looking…
ReEngineering the Engineer: Tips to Survive While Professionally Underwater
My brother, sister and I spent a lot of time at the beach when we were younger. We lived about 5 miles from the east coast of New Jersey, so it was…
ReEngineering the Engineer: Do You Hear What I Mean?
We’re working on a project that involves the demolition of a multi-story existing building with new construction going back in its place. The programming…
ReEngineering the Engineer: Times Change: Don’t Be the Cranky Old Neighbor
My wife and I moved into our current home about two years after we were married and, coincidentally, just as we found out she was pregnant with our first of two daughters. It was located at the end of a street outside Charlotte in a neighborhood of 25 homes.…
ReEngineering the Engineer: Longing for the Good Ol’ Days of Engineering
While 3D images from BIM certainly convey a lot of information in one shot, having the skill to physically draw something by hand will always hold its value.
ReEngineering the Engineer: Self Preservation Through Workload and Stress Management
If there’s a silver lining to COVID, it helped push us to more-efficient ways of communication. Rather than traveling to meetings and wasting a ton of time on the road, we’ve embraced the idea of virtual meetings. I think that’s actually an OK thing.…
ReEngineering the Engineer: Fostering Personal and Corporate ‘Sustainability’
When I started my firm in 2004, I had a decent idea of the corporate inner workings. I had been a partner at my previous firm for more than 15 years, but I had not started a company from scratch. Dealing with the engineering registrations was an obvious…
ReEngineering the Engineer: Learning Is a Two-Way Street
My days seem to be much busier and seemingly more complicated through this whole COVID thing. I find myself working through emails and phone calls during the day, and using nights and weekends to keep up with my own projects—not healthy, really, but…
ReEngineering the Engineer: Patience Required: Getting Up To Speed Can Be a Slow Process
Our older daughter was an early professional casualty of the pandemic. Although she received her college degree in finance and marketing, she had a passion for event planning. She started working with a local woman shortly after college, part time. She…
ReEngineering the Engineer: Security 101: COVID, a New Level of Growing Pain
Life was seemingly simple when I started engineering. We printed out a large floor plan from the architect and drew the floor framing on tracing paper. Then we designed one beam after another, writing the reactions on the plan, then the girders, then on to…
