Posted in Codes & Regulations | Current Events | Initiatives | Politics | Transportation by Steve Muller (Manager of Client Development) on March 4, 2013
© drouu
When Governor Corbett proposed his 2013 budget in early February, the PA transportation industry was pleased to see that one of his main initiatives is for funding transportation improvements. It has been a long time coming since release in August of 2011 of a comprehensive report from the Governor’s Transportation Funding Advisory Council. This report made a strong case for funding the $ 3.5 billion gap in transportation funds needed yearly in our state. (See an earlier LDG Blog for more information: The Transportation Funding Advisory Council)
New revenue is sorely needed to maintain and improve our transportation infrastructure in PA. In Governor Corbett’s words, “Our most costly option would be to do nothing.” In a February press release, the Governor pitched his approach to funding transportation, as proposed in his budget and outlined these initiatives:
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Posted in Employees by Jillian Ibbs (Marketing) on February 21, 2013
Ed Brown, PE
Senior Design Engineer
At Larson Design Group, we believe that our employees are our greatest asset. In this feature, we profile some of the staff members who contribute to our success. This month the spotlight is on Ed Brown, PE, Senior Design Engineer with our Williamsport office’s Water/Wastewater Group. Ed recently won LDG’s Greenest Employee Award for his commitment to sustainability. In 2012, he rode his bicycle to work over 100 times, a 32-mile round-trip.
Where did your career take you before joining LDG?
I spent two summers while still in college and one summer after graduating working for P. Joseph Lehman, Inc. in Hollidaysburg, PA. I did construction inspection on bridge projects, and inspections, structural analyses, and ratings of existing bridges.
I worked one year as Clerk of the Works/Construction Inspector for the Borough of State College on the construction of the Fraser Street Parking Garage.
I worked about 8 years for BCM Engineers in Plymouth Meeting, PA, and then 5 years at Gannett Fleming, Inc., in King of Prussia, doing water/wastewater engineering. While at BCM, I participated in the design of the new Water Treatment Plant and related facilities for the Williamsport Municipal Water Authority.
What was your first Job? What did you learn from it that still influences the way you work today?
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Posted in Architecture | Building Systems | Energy Conservation | Innovative Solutions | Sustainable Design by Serena Wray, LEED AP+ (Brand Architecture) on January 3, 2013
© Poofy
When I was a little kid, I was a tree-hugger. Literally. My mother recalls that at age four, I occasionally wrapped my small arms as far as they could go around my favorite tree in the backyard.
As the years went on, I became enamored with recycling in elementary school, energy efficiency in high school, and building reuse in my college architectural classes. Now, with “green” as the buzzword heard on every TV channel and seen in every store, you’d think I’d be in my glory.
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Posted in Architecture | Current Events | Site Design & Land Development | Sustainable Design | Urban Development by Andy Keister, PE, PLS (Chief Operations Officer) on December 12, 2012
The parking lot at Lycoming College before and after LDG’s redesign.
The rapid pace of change seems to affect everything in the engineering and construction world, even something as established as parking lots. First, let’s talk about design methods.
When I started doing retail/commercial site design 20 years ago, configuring a parking lot was a hit or miss process that involved analyzing multiple stall, aisle, and angle options in an effort to meet the client’s required stall count while complying with local zoning requirements. Once you developed a layout that met the numbers you needed, it was time to work around any stormwater and grading constraints that the site might offer, which may or may not require you to change your original layout.
Recently, AutoCAD introduced add-ons that allowed a designer to input all design variables such as stall size, angles, aisle widths, direction of travel, and boundary constraints. With a few clicks of the mouse, you could see several design options and stall counts. Now we’ve progressed to the point where our design software not only allows us to optimize our parking stall layout, but at the same time it can create preliminary grading and stormwater plans and estimate the cost for the site work.
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Posted in Employees | Marcellus Shale | Natural Gas by Jillian Ibbs (Marketing) on November 28, 2012
Karl Matz, PE
Director – Energy Group
At Larson Design Group, we believe that our employees are our greatest asset. In this feature, we profile some of the staff members who contribute to our success. This month the spotlight is on Karl Matz, PE, Director of our Energy Group.
Where did your career take you before joining LDG?
After getting married, my wife and I moved out to Colorado, where I worked for three years with a consulting firm that specialized in land development. The farthest away this job took me was to Germany. I worked on a vacuum sewer collection system, and the manufacturer flew the design team (and their wives) to their corporate offices and into the field to look at the vacuum stations and collection system construction projects. That was a truly enjoyable trip. Lots of good beer and sightseeing mixed in with German engineering design and construction.
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