SPARK

Discoveries, innovations, and insights that illuminate the future of the built environment

We’re ‘walking in’ for climate change

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By Dean Allen, CEO, McKinstry

Today, millions of students, tech workers and others across the globe will be walking out of their classrooms, places of work and homes to join together in a Global Climate Strike to demand action against the looming climate crisis. We at McKinstry applaud these efforts, and I’m personally inspired by the youth leading this movement and hopeful for their future.

Today, as we do every day at McKinstry, we’ll be spending our time innovating the waste out of the built environment; designing projects with aggressive energy and carbon reduction goals leveraging renewables, shared energy, and other leading-edge technologies; and constructing, renovating and servicing building systems in ways that create less impact to the earth’s fragile ecosystems. This work is critical to the fight against climate change.

We are part of an industry that greatly contributes to the climate crisis despite having the power to do something about it. But, because of persistent silos, slow innovation and poor organization, the construction industry has so far been ineffective at embracing what’s possible in the fight for our planet. The time to act is now, which is why McKinstry is working hard to change the paradigm and lead the way to a carbon-free future.

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What I’ve learned at McKinstry…and what comes next

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Growing up, I always loved science and math. When those two classes combined in my high school physics course, I decided to major in engineering. Though I wasn’t sure what being an engineer would specifically entail in the professional world, I knew that my many interests (math, physics, science, tech, Boeing’s newest jet, epic LEGO Star Wars sets, etc…) put me in a place where studying to become an engineer made sense.

What I hadn’t accounted for was my development into a full extrovert. I love people. I love hearing stories about where they’ve been and where they come from, what they do and how they got there, meeting new people, working with people…you get the idea.

Stereotypically, engineers are not known as “social butterflies.” My love for people has sometimes made me unsure whether I’d picked the right major during college. I’m happy to say that my experience at McKinstry has shifted me back toward confidence in myself and my future career.

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Leaning and learning at McKinstry

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One of the things that attracted me to McKinstry’s internship program was the opportunity to work on a team where I was of tangible use. So far, my experience has been just that—I’ve been an entry-level design engineer who gets to learn while doing work that needs to be done.

Bunji McLeod at his desk in McKinstry’s Spokane office.

Energy auditing and mechanical design adjustments to boost energy efficiency has been the name of the game for me as I’ve worked in the Spokane office this summer.

During my first week on the job, I traveled with Derek Larson, a design engineer, to a small town in the rolling hills of the Palouse. McKinstry recently helped a small school district there win a large grant to fund an elementary school renovation. The building itself was two stories and made up of several classrooms, office spaces and a gym whose layout was engraved into stone tablets by an architect in the Jurassic era (OK, it was 1927). Adaptations and renovations since then have added offices and rooms to the plans we didn’t know about until we stepped into the school.

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Bunji McLeod: Getting to know me & my journey to McKinstry’s B.L.U.E. Program

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So, first things first, my legal name is not Bunji. I was born in Kagoshima, Japan, on the south end of the island Kyushu. Originally, my mother wanted to give me the name Benjamin. However, I’ve been told “benjo” is Japanese slang for toilet, which must have been why I soon was born—”legally”—as Jason Shang McLeod.

Bunji McLeod.

That name didn’t last long. In the operating room, my dad mentioned that the umbilical cord for a baby is like a bungee cord with a little human attached to the end. My mom didn’t think it was as funny as he did, but I quickly became baby Bunji—much like the name Benji (i.e. Benjamin), but with a little extra spring of uniqueness in it. It has no meaning in Japanese, no cultural rooting in my Taiwanese ethnicity, and no daredevil bungee jump that deemed me worthy of such a nickname. It’s simply my name now.  

Three years after jumping into this world, I moved to Bellingham, Wash., where I lived underneath the smells of damp shade and never-ending greenery. There, I took two classes with a high school teacher who has shaped my college experience more than any other: Mr. Doud. The local legend of a physics teacher could inspire us to tackle any mathematical challenge with passionate fervor, using only a pen, whiteboard and cheesy one-liners developed over decades of classes. Because of him, I am here now in Spokane going into my fourth year of mechanical engineering and working at McKinstry.

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Celebrating Earth Day every day

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For Michael Frank, McKinstry’s VP of Engineering & Design, Earth Day is a reminder of personal and professional passion for sustainability.

Every year, Earth Day mobilizes millions of Americans to serve our planet. I’m fortunate to work for a company that celebrates Earth Day each day through the work we do to make every building we touch more efficient. I joined the company more than 19 years ago because my personal passions aligned so well with the company’s values, and I’ve never looked back. To put that statement into context, when I was interviewing, I was wrapping up a thesis design project for a heat recovery system at the Staten Island Ferry System in Manhattan to use the Hudson River as a heat source/sink. Fast forward to today and I’m still designing alternative solutions for energy use such as an eco-district to serve our first zero-energy building, Catalyst, and others on the South Landing campus in Spokane.

I care deeply about our planet, and I’ve been told that sometimes my passion for the environment may come across as extreme. I’ll take that as compliment! So maybe it’s true that I take an air quality monitor on vacation. And maybe I build bee houses every spring with my daughters for one of our native pollinators, the mason bee. Would you be surprised to know, or should I be embarrassed to say that I make sure misplaced recycling finds its way into the appropriate bins at home?

My “extreme” passion for our environment carries over into my work every day where I have the opportunity to innovate with teams to make better decisions that meet current building needs while advocating for the next generation.

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Building a thriving planet in 2019…and beyond

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February is already upon us and McKinstry’s work on projects across the country is in full swing. I’m proud to say that our platform provides unique opportunities for us to explore, invent and create an ever more efficient built environment.

That efficiency takes many forms if you’re building a 40-story skyscraper, retrofitting an elementary school or servicing a boiler. But, the underlying need is always the same: Today’s built environment costs more than it should to build, operate and maintain.

There’s no shortage of strategies for making the built environment more efficient, and—when you consider that construction is one of the least productive sectors of the U.S. economy—there’s also no shortage of opportunity. So, what will this new paradigm of efficiency look like for McKinstry in 2019 and beyond?

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Steve Leonard grows McKinstry’s fire protection capabilities across the Pacific Northwest

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Back in the late 1980s, Steve Leonard was living in Southern California and thought he wanted to work for a fire department, maybe as a firefighter. When a friend asked if he would consider working in fire protection design, it changed Steve’s direction and sent him off on a 30-year journey into the world of fire protection.

“No one is born with a passion for sprinklers or alarms, it’s usually a series of twists and turns that bring people into the fire protection industry,” Steve explained. “I didn’t think about fire protection when I was a kid, but I’m glad that my career path led me into this field.”

At McKinstry, we’ve offered fire protection services for decades because identifying and installing the right protection system to prevent or reduce fire damage is fundamental to every project we undertake. McKinstry has built a national reputation for designing and installing fire protection systems for a wide variety of venues—from office, retail, and hotel buildings to stadiums, laboratories, and museums. Owners and designers come to McKinstry for our expertise on systems, costs, and knowledge of all current fire codes and compliance standards for the National Fire Protection Association.

Steve’s fire protection path has been extremely unique at McKinstry. Since joining the company in 2010, he’s lived and worked in three of McKinstry’s major Pacific Northwest offices—Portland, Spokane and Seattle.

“I sometimes joke that I’ve completed the trifecta,” Steve said. “Working in three of our Pacific Northwest offices has been a pleasure, and they all have a different atmosphere that’s still connected by the common McKinstry culture.”

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Energized by our future

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October is Energy Action Month. While we take action every day to drive waste out the built environment, Energy Action Month offers an ideal opportunity to reaffirm our commitment. With each action we take, we’re one step closer to our vision of together, building a thriving planet.

McKinstry balances current action with remaining resolute on driving future innovation. Spokane embodies that balance, embracing innovation while honoring its historic buildings and rich past. Every trip to Washington’s Inland Empire inspires me. Here’s why.

The power of net positive energy

Catalyst will be the first net-zero energy building in Eastern Washington.

Catalyst will be the first net-zero energy building in Eastern Washington.

Net-zero energy buildings and net-positive eco districts are inevitable. State and local governments are now mandating solar photovoltaics as building code, and behind-the-meter energy storage is emerging in both commercial and residential buildings. Technology costs for these renewable energy systems are dropping at an astounding rate. By 2030, we will see net-zero energy system design become the norm in every new construction project with clusters of buildings working together to produce more energy than they consume.

Spokane will soon be home to the future of the built environment. McKinstry and our partners broke ground on the Catalyst Building in August, starting construction on what will become the world’s largest verified net-zero energy building. The five-story, 159,000 square foot building will demonstrate what’s possible in our built environment – and what we’re capable of delivering here at McKinstry.

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My B.L.U.E. Summer: Sara Berry-Maraist (Spokane)

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Hello! My name is Sara Berry-Maraist, and spending my summer as a project design engineer intern in McKinstry’s Spokane, Wash. office has been a wonderful experience. I graduated from Gonzaga University (also located in Spokane) in the spring of 2018, and interning at McKinstry has made for a smooth life transition.

Sara Berry-Maraist.

Sara Berry-Maraist.

Everyone has been so welcoming and—even when I ask questions multiple times—I always get nothing but positive responses. I’ve wanted to work at McKinstry since I toured the office in 2017 and working here has exceeded my already-high expectations. Even as an intern, I’ve felt like an important part of the company—doing real work and not stereotypical tasks like getting coffee and making copies.

This summer, I’ve worked on a variety of projects from smaller Seattle projects to significantly helping design the zero energy Catalyst Building in Spokane. Recently, I’ve done a lot of load calculations and duct static pressure calculations. I think my favorite activity, though, is designing in Revit—a building information modeling software. The only modeling software I learned in college was a different one called SolidWorks, so learning Revit and expanding my skillset was important for me.

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Innovation is thriving at McKinstry

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Whether you’re talking about technology, systems, hiring or even building materials, the answer is the same: The construction industry is ripe for innovation. As our computers and phones have gotten more and more sophisticated, our buildings haven’t always kept up. However, this won’t be the case for much longer! As we celebrate International Women’s Day and Women in Construction Week, we spoke with three women at McKinstry who are on the front lines of innovation in the built environment:

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