South Coast Engineering:
Preserving beauty, facilitating function
Conducted by John Mesenbrink
Continuing on the success of its “Engineering Spotlight,” Plumbing Engineer recently spoke with Peter Kraut, PE, CPD, president of South Coast Engineering Group, Inc., Calabasas, Calif.
Founded in 2001 on the idea that the focus of any successful consulting engineering firm should be the creation of accurate, understandable and viable construction documents, South Coast Engineering Group has raised the standard of design. With HVAC, plumbing, fire protection, siphonic roof drainage and electrical engineering services, South Coast Engineering focuses on a broad spectrum of markets such as schools, hospitals, retail centers, theaters, restaurants, office buildings, convention centers, hotels, condominiums, apartments, athletic facilities and high rise buildings. Over time, South Coast has developed a few specialties, including sound stages and amusement park rides.
Plumbing Engineer was fortunate enough to conduct the following Q&A with Peter Kraut.
PE: Please provide a brief history of the company.
Kraut: In the 1990s, I worked for a large engineering firm in Los Angeles. A job came in from The Sports Club/LA, but it was relatively small and did not include HVAC or electrical so it did not get much attention from the principals or senior management. Through attention to that client’s needs and detailed involvement in the plumbing design, I turned it into a sizable account that included clubs in Boston, Washington D.C., San Francisco, New York, Miami and Houston. In 2001, that client — and many of the architects, engineers and contractors from those projects — asked me to start my own business. Each of those successful projects turned into a few more contacts and a few more jobs. Today, 75 percent of all of our contacts can be traced back to that one, small, plumbing-only job.
PE: How did you get involved in the industry?
Kraut: As a graduate in Architectural Engineering Technology from Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston Massachusetts, I had completed internships with a civil engineer and an architectural model builder. I moved to Southern California where I immediately began looking for work in architecture. With over 500 resumes in circulation, I expanded my job search into construction and finally landed a job as a project manager/estimator with a general contractor. When they closed their doors, I went back to school to brush up on AutoCAD and then found a job with what I thought was an architect; however, it was a mechanical engineer. Although I knew nothing about plumbing, I was hired as a plumbing designer and learned on the job by reading code books and mimicking the works of others. After a few years, I moved to a large firm in Los Angeles where I worked on larger projects including universities, hotels and convention centers. There I joined trade organizations, got involved in committees and was exposed to a whole new world of plumbing engineering.
PE: What are your initiatives for the company?
Kraut: I believe that building information modeling, or BIM, will surpass green building as the buzz word of design by 2010. We began drawing in 3D as beta testers for Autodesk’s Building Systems in 2001. For this, South Coast Engineering Group was the first success story on Autodesk’s website. We have evolved into using many platforms, including AutoCAD, Navisworks and Revit. As leaders in siphonic roof drainage, our 3D modeling has been the key to ensuring that the pipes fit where they are drawn and the system can be installed exactly as drawn.
PE: What makes South Coast unique from others?
Kraut: We avoid canned approaches to engineering. I believe that our job is to educate architects and owners and let them make the decisions. To do this, we need to explain complex engineering systems with features and benefits that a layman can understand. We identify the initial costs, utility costs, maintenance issues and other pros and cons. Then, we can design a system around their specific needs.
We work for owners, architects, developers and design build contractors. We prepare schematic designs, construction documents and even shop drawings. Our three-dimensional detailing work for contractors has made us smarter engineers. We can tell architects with authority how much space we need in a wall or around a piece of equipment. This means that everything fits with no wasted space.
What we have found is that an engineer can apply his knowledge and experience to any industry as long as he makes a concerted effort to understand his client. Sound stages, for example, are all about acoustics and include a unique feature — WAGS (water, air, gas and sewer) provided in the sound stage. These are used by set builders to the fullest extent of their imagination. In order to quantify those utilities, you must understand the business.
PE: What are the biggest obstacles when spec’ing a job?
Kraut: It would be convenient to specify only old-school, top-shelf, gold-plated products that are oversized and redundant, thus reducing our liability. Our clients, however, have budgets and space constraints. Our job is to specify products that meet their needs. There are many great products on the market. Some have been around for a while and some are relatively new. New technology has a place in design, but may not be a good fit for every project. Some clients may not be comfortable with the risk inherent to new products, but we owe it to our clients to keep them informed.
PE: Can you name a project of which you are most proud?
Kraut: We have designed the plumbing for a few amusement park rides. For a 500 seat theater, we designed the 40-horsepower, 2,000-gallon compressed air system that moves the seats in sync with the 3D projected show; the calculation had to be extrapolated from the movements in animation. We also designed the purified water system that sprays in the face of the audience when a character on screen sneezes. After my 7-year-old son went there on a field trip, I told him that I designed the water purification system. He looked at me with such admiration and said, “You made the spit? … cool!”
PE: Is your firm involved in sustainable design or “green” practices?
Kraut: Green building is here to stay; those who have not embraced it yet should do so now. Long before South Coast Engineering Group was formed, I was involved in the design of several green buildings, including one of the country’s first Platinum buildings. Those experiences have created forward thinking that South Coast Engineering Group has always practiced. The green building movement has opened our clients’ eyes, and now we are more likely to convince them to focus on energy and resource usage over first cost. The LEED rating system has become the standard by which green buildings are judged, but some creative designers have found ways to get around the intent and just get the points. ASHRAE’s new standard for High Performance Buildings may change that. It addresses many of the conflicts such as the water used in the irrigation demand on a green roof.
PE: How has the economy affected your business? How are you dealing with it?
Kraut: Like many firms, we have had to cut back some of our staff and expenses. We are still getting most of our work from repeat clients, but we find ourselves bidding more than ever in an overly competitive environment. These things are outside of our control so we are focusing on managing the things we can. We are steering away from high risk, like condominiums, indemnification clauses and pay-when-paid contracts. These practices have led to developers gambling with other peoples’ money and have left many engineers with invoices on which they will never collect.
PE: How can South Coast Engineering Group better assist builders in today’s economic climate?
Kraut: Builders are looking for ballpark information early to determine if a project is feasible or not. Any engineer can calculate utilities by the end of the construction document phase, but we bring the experience that helps in the planning before engineering begins. Estimating water supplies, planning equipment spaces, identifying code issues and even reviewing lease documents are a routine part of our practice.
PE: Speaking of climate: How does geography play a part in your work and how does it differ from, say, the Northeast? (temperatures, sunlight, humidity, pollution control, etc.)
Kraut: Climate and geography play a major part in design. In Southern California, we have it easy — seldom freezing, rarely humid and only an occasional tremor. Of course, we have become experts in air conditioning, air purification and water treatment. Our work in other parts of the country has rounded out our experience with frost protection, heating and humidity control. We also have consulted in even greater climate extremes outside of the country including Kiev and Dubai.
PE: It seems to me that California is on the cutting edge of technology, codes and standards. Would you agree? How does this affect your business? For the best?
Kraut: Codes and standards are constantly changing, usually for the better. Our own City of Calabasas, nationally known for banning smoking in public, passed a law that required commercial buildings over 5,000 square feet to meet LEED Silver requirements. I was a member of the recent General Plan Advisory Committee that upheld that ordinance. Now, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is leading the nation in green building ordinances to protect our natural resources. I am proud to be a small part of this effort as well. Staying on top of these changes allows us to pass that information on during design instead of reacting to it during construction.
PE: According to SOCO’s company profile, Innovation, Coordination and Presentation are three fundamental concepts by which the company abides. Can you expound those benchmark principles?
Kraut: First, as innovators, we are always looking for a better way to do things. Second, new ideas often require more effort to work with other building elements, but this coordination is essential to their success. Third, if these systems are not detailed clearly in the construction documents, there is little chance that the systems will be installed completely and correctly. The best example of these benchmark principles can be found in our siphonic roof drain design. We were the second engineering firm in the country to design these systems and today we are the leader in this innovation. Our coordinated three-dimensional model and fully-dimensioned drawings are essential the ultimate performance of these systems.
PE: I love this statement: “South Coast Engineering Group strives to create flexible, dependable mechanical systems within structures while preserving the beauty of the form in which they function.” Can you explain the Nautilus logo concept?
Kraut: Unchanged for 500 million years, the Chambered Nautilus embodies the principles of South Coast Engineering Group. Always a plan for future expansion, there are typically four compartments in a newly hatched specimen and over 30 compartments in a mature Nautilus. This creature occupies only the outer compartment and each time a new one is built, the old one is sealed off. Not only a shelter for protection, but a mechanical device, the shell’s inner compartments are filled with gas to maintain a neutral buoyancy at depths of 1,500 feet or more. The Nautilus can then freely move about by jet propulsion and by displacing or injecting fluid into the outer cavities. In this way, South Coast Engineering Group strives to create flexible, dependable mechanical systems within structures, while preserving the beauty of the form in which they function.