Engineering Influence from ACEC

Allen Douglas joined the program to discuss ACEC/FL's new recommendations on building inspections - a topic of great interest in the wake of the Surfside collapse earlier this year.  Allen released the following press statement today, which gained international attention.

MIAMI (AP) — The state of Florida should consider requiring high-rise buildings near the coast to undergo safety inspections every 20 years, according to a coalition of engineers and architects that formed after a Miami-area condominium collapsed in June, killing 98 people.

The recommendations, released four months after Champlain Towers South collapsed in Surfside, are based on “preserving the long-term health of buildings by assessing environmental and other degradation of structures and their systems over the life of a building," the American Council of Engineering Companies of Florida and the Florida Engineering Society said in a news release.

Seven of the state’s engineering and architecture associations formed the Surfside Working Group to come up with ideas to prevent another tragedy like the partial collapse of the 12-story beachfront property.

The group also said nearly all large buildings in Florida should be inspected for structural problems within their first 30 years, with follow-ups every 10 years. Buildings within 3 miles (5 kilometers) of saltwater should be inspected within their first 20 years, with follow-up safety inspections every seven years, the group said.

The Miami Herald and the Tampa Bay Times first reported the recommendations on Thursday.

The report calls for inspections on a wide range of buildings, including condominiums, offices and other structures that exceed 10 occupants and are covered by the state’s building code.

Only Broward and Miami-Dade counties require mandatory inspections of tall buildings.

Champlain Towers South was undergoing its 40-year inspection when it crumbled in the middle of the night. A 2018 engineer's report noted “major structural damage” caused by lack of proper drainage on the pool deck.

The condominium board's discussions over how to pay for the repairs delayed work on the building.

We were joined on the podcast with our first general session keynote speaker, Mitch Joel, Founder of Six Pixels Group.  

When brands like Google, Walmart, Starbucks, Microsoft, and Twitter want to leverage technology to better connect with their consumers, they call Mitch Joel.

Mitch is the founder of Six Pixels Group – an advisory, investing, and content producing company that is focused on brands, commerce, community, and what’s next. 

Mitch Joel has been called “one of North America’s leading visionaries” and the “Rock Star of Digital Marketing” by Strategy Magazine. He has been listed as one of the “Speakers Worth Catching” by Forbes, and he was recognized as one of the top online marketers in the world.

Yvonne Castillo and Nahom Gebre from Victor Insurance join the program to discuss professional liability protections and emerging professional practice risks for engineering firms.  

What is good leadership and how does it manifest itself within the leadership team and the firm?

This issue is increasingly important for engineering firms as the Baby Boom generation retires and new leaders are evolving. It’s something you want to get right from the get-go.

To offer some direction on how to do that, Mark Goodale, a principal at Morrissey Goodale,  came on the program.

Mark recently presented a program for ACEC on Building Effective Leadership Teams. Click here for more information on the online class

Infrastructure is THE topic on Capitol Hill right now and the engineering industry is very invested in what happens. ACEC’s advocacy team has been working for months to build support for a robust infrastructure program and continues to work towards passage.

As the Congressional debates drag on, however, individual engineering firms face uncertainty, unsure about how to incorporate these potential huge infrastructure investments in their business planning.

To offer some context to where we are right now and to provide some guidance for engineering firms, Deniece Peterson, Senior Director of Federal Market Analysis at Deltek, joins the program.

Renewables are the fastest-growing sector in the energy market, with solar and wind expected to make up 70% of utility-scale electricity generation capacity domestic additions in 2021. Critical to the current and future expansion of the renewables market is storage, because solar and wind are intermittent but energy demand is constant. Storage technologies have developed at a rapid pace in recent years, but what about going forward. What can we expect in the energy sector in 2035?

Arup offers an answer to that question in its report—Future of Energy 2035: What will a future U.S. energy storage look like?

Joining us on the program are two authors of the report. Cole Roberts is Arup's Energy Business Leader for the Americas region, and Geoff Gunn is the Energy Systems Lead.

Click here to download the report.

In the podcast, Roberts highlighted two Arup projects:

Charge4AllTM, which is geospatial site suitability software for streamlining the deployment of public charging points for electric vehicles.

SolarResilient, which provides recommendations for solar PV plus battery storage systems to simultaneously answer the need for energy resilience during a grid disruption while also decarbonizing the community by providing renewable energy storage and generation.

Steve Hall joins the program to discuss the current state of play on infrastructure and reconciliation as well as the impending EO on vaccinations for federal contractors.  

Make sure to register for our webinar on Monday, October 11th at 1:30pm "Ensuring Adequate COVID Safety Protocols for Federal Contractors." Register here: https://education.acec.org/diweb/catalog/item?id=8329585 

The September 24th guidance to federal contractors covered a broad range of contract types and contractors, and mandates COVID-19 vaccinations for covered contractor employees along with masking and social distancing measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The guidance also includes some unanticipated exceptions. The guidance sets baseline requirements under the Executive Order that are expected to be updated over time and implemented through a contract clause that will be issued by the Federal Acquisition Regulatory (“FAR”) Council on October 8th.

Join attorneys from the Covington & Burling Contracts Practice Group on Monday, October 11 at 1:30 EST to review the requirements A/E firms must meet in order comply with EO 14042 and continue contracting with the federal government.

Presenters:

Jennifer Plitsch, co-chair of the firm’s Government Contracts practice group. Her practice includes a wide range of contracting issues for large and small businesses in both defense and civilian contracting. Her practice involves advising clients on contract proposal, performance, and compliance questions as well as transactional and legislative issues. Her practice also includes bid protest and contract claims and appeals litigation before GAO, agency boards and the federal courts. Ms. Plitsch has particular expertise in advising clients in the pharmaceutical and biologics industry. She advises a range of pharmaceutical and biologics manufacturers on Federal Supply Schedule contracts, including the complex pricing requirements imposed on products under the Veterans Health Care Act, as well as research and development contracts and grants with various federal agencies. She also has significant experience advising on the requirements of various programs under which vaccine products and biodefense medical countermeasures are procured by the Government.

Tyler Evans, partner in the Covington & Burling’s Washington, D.C. office and a member of the government contracts group. His practice covers multiple subject-matter areas, including research and development, non-traditional contracting, intellectual property, contract negotiations, flow-down requirements, small business issues, sourcing restrictions, costs, and compliance.

Diversity and Inclusion is an important pursuit across U.S. industries and within engineering firms. It’s the right thing to do, but it is also a critical component in solving our STEM talent shortage and studies have found that diverse and inclusive companies perform better in the market.

Many engineering firms have established D&I programs, and we have one of the leading firms with us today. Thornton Tomasetti, which is #62 on the 2021 ENR 500 and has 1,500 employees worldwide, launched its formal D&I program in 2016 and has continued to build and augment it ever since.

Joining us on the program are Thornton Tomasetti President Wayne Stocks and Senior Principal Peggy Van Eepoel.

Immediately after Hurricane Ida swept through Louisiana last month, leaving a trail of destruction, the Terracon Foundation, which is a corporate philanthropy initiative of ACEC member firm Terracon, made two $5,000 grants to food banks in Louisiana for food and supplies in the hardest-hit communities. This is just the latest instance of the good work the Foundation has done since its founding in 2008, and we wanted to know more about it, so on the program with us today are two leaders of the Foundation.

Scott Kolodziej is the Foundation Chair. He is an Environmental Department Manager and Principal at Terracon, and was appointed this year to the Chair role after three years on the Terracon Foundation Board.

Kristi Tahmasiyan is the Manager of the Terracon Foundation. She is the Director of Mergers and Acquisitions at Terracon and a Principal of the Firm.  She has served the Terracon Foundation in various roles, including a three-year term on the Foundation Board from 2014 to 2017.

In August, Walter P Moore published a white paper titled An Introduction to Flood Protection: What Owners Need to Know to Protect Their Properties. The white paper focuses on the numerous flood protection approaches and building owner needs and provides an in-depth review of the flood protection process. 

One of the authors of the report joined the program to talk about the white paper and flood protection. Ray Drexler is a Principal and Senior Project Manager in Walter P Moore Diagnostics with experience in diversified aspects of forensic engineering. Ray's expertise includes evaluating, assessing, and designing repairs for distress related to facades, steel/concrete structures, and below-grade waterproofing.

Click here to view the white paper.