What does a typical day as Principal Engineer look like for you? My day involves a lot of coordination. I am on the Costco team, so I have calls with my team members, listen to what’s going on, and then delegate. I make sure everyone has the information they need to do their job and do it well. I also like to have goals for each day. Some days I have to reassess those goals depending on needs, but I enjoy the variety.
What are you most excited about in your industry? I’m such an engineer, because I’m excited about my new role coordinating Costco utilities. It’s one of my favorite things. I like the coordination. I like solving problems. I like all those things coming together into a successful project. Beginning my career as an engineer, I loved figuring out drainage, and problem solving. Really getting my hands into the nitty gritty. Now, I’m more on the management end, which usually means you don’t get to do the “fun” stuff like that anymore; but we’ve somehow found a role where I can manage and still get into the details of the project. I love that even after all these years, I am still learning, and I get to share that learning with my team and mentor younger employee owners as well as the program expands.
What are some practical ways you try to make land development projects more sustainable while still meeting regulations and client expectations? I think most people genuinely want a better world and more sustainable sites, but “sustainability” is a very broad term especially in land development. Realistically, a detention pond is just a hole in the ground where water infiltrates. Whenever we can, we try to favor surface detention because it’s simpler: you can grade it, it’s visible, and you don’t have to manufacture plastic chambers or underground systems. Limiting underground structures means fewer materials being produced, fewer items being trucked to the site, and often lower costs overall. Digging a hole is almost always cheaper than bringing in specialized equipment, so it tends to be a win for both the environment and the client.
That balance, doing what’s better environmentally while keeping costs down for the client, is really at the core of our role. There are also limitations. Until someone invents light-colored or truly heat-reducing pavement, there are some impacts we just can’t fully address. That said, some clients do make a difference. Costco is a great example. They really value landscaping, shade, and well-designed islands in parking lots. We try to incorporate those elements, but parking counts and code requirements still drive the overall layout.
A lot of sustainability in land development overlaps naturally with good engineering practice. Minimizing grading, keeping dirt on-site, reducing trucking of materials, shortening pipe runs, and keeping parking lots as compact as possible are things we’ve always done to control costs and improve constructability. As a side benefit, those practices are also better for the environment. In many ways, what’s now being marketed as sustainability is something our industry has been doing all along.
What are you looking forward to in your personal life this year? Hopefully my son and I are meeting up with some of my friends and going on trip to London and Cairo. We keep talking about how we will see the pyramids and my son is a huge Harry Potter fan so London will pretty much be all about Harry. I love planning trips. When one trip ends, I like to start planning the next one to give us something to look forward to. I want my son to experience as much as possible.
