Integrated Engineering at its Best

Staff -- Consulting-Specifying Engineer, 12/1/2000

Successful integrated engineering depends on two things: technology and people. Technologically, greater integration occurs as a result of the development of new multi-purpose building systems with common controls. As automated building-systems technology develops, integrated engineering is rapidly changing from a choice into a necessity, particularly for mission-critical facilities.

As important, however, is the integration of the efforts of each design professional into a harmoniously working team.

This year's winners of Consulting-Specifying Engineer's annual Integrator Awards all demonstrate the highest level of cooperative team effort in the design of integrated mechanical and electrical systems. With some projects, the building owners requested systems that work together; in other cases, the design firm faced the challenge of convincing its client of the advantages of an integrated systems approach. But in all of these projects, the winning firms delivered state-of-the-art automated building systems-and long-term savings.

Congratulations to the winners: The Austin Company, Irvine, Calif.; Affiliated Engineers, Inc., Madison, Wis.; and Syska & Hennessy, Inc., Los Angeles.