100 Years of Engineering Excellence
By John Mesenbrink, Chief Editor
Plumbing Engineer presents its first engineering spotlight for 2010 — St. Paul-based TKDA is center stage for this edition. TKDA is proud to celebrate its 100th year of providing forward-thinking engineering, architecture and planning to communities, government and private industry. German engineer, Maximilian Toltz, founded the Toltz Engineering Company in Saint Paul, Minnesota in 1910. Over the years, the firm has helped to build and grow communities, schools, airports, railroads, and corporations such as 3M, BNSF Railway, Nestle, and Kraft, to name just a few. TKDA’s experience includes such diverse projects as the I35W St. Anthony Falls Bridge in Minneapolis and the Wabasha Street Bridge in Saint Paul, a steam generating facility for Andersen Corporation, and complete city engineering services for communities throughout the region.
Since its founding, the company has grown to become TKDA (Toltz, King, Duvall, Anderson and Associates, Incorporated), a 100% employee-owned firm with a staff of nearly 200 to provide single source, integrated services and solutions nationwide to clients in eight key markets: Aviation, County Government, Education, Corporate/Industry, Military, Municipal, Rail and Transit, and State/Federal Government.
The following is an exclusive interview with Thomas Stoneburner, P.E., LEED AP, vice president facilities at TKDA.
PE: What is your mission statement for the company?
Stoneburner: To provide services that build on our tradition of creating value for our clients, communities, and employee owners.
PE: What are your initiatives for the company?
Stoneburner: For the near term, our goal is to increase revenue and staff size to pre-recession levels.
PE: What are your core markets?
Stoneburner: TKDA provides services in the following core markets: aviation; county, state and federal government; education; corporate/industry; military; municipal; and rail and transit.
PE: What are the services you provide?
Stoneburner: Engineering — Civil, Structural, Electrical, Mechanical, Municipal, Water and Wastewater, Transportation, Bridge, Rail, Water Resources, and Aviation
Architecture —Master Planning, Programming, Space Planning, Architectural Facility Design, Interior Design, Site Design, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Design Planning — Comprehensive, Land Use, Transportation, Traffic, and Environmental
PE: How are you immersed in sustainable design?
Stoneburner: In order to assist our clients on all aspects of their projects, TKDA set and achieved a goal to have LEED Accredited Professionals in each of our building design disciplines (Architectural, Civil, Structural, Mechanical, Electrical, and Landscape Architecture). Also, long before LEED, we have promoted practical, energy- and material-efficient designs on all of our projects.
PE: How has your firm dealt with the economic uncertainty? How do you see your vision through this tough time?
Stoneburner: We have always been a fairly conservative company. This is reflected in our current multi-disciplinary structure. TKDA’s market diversity has certainly helped the firm weather the difficult economic times. Because we aren’t focused specifically in one industry or one marketplace, we have done better recently than some of our competitors. Hopefully, this strategy will see us through to brighter days.
PE: How can engineers better assist builders and contractors in today’s economic climate?
Stoneburner: Engineers combined with builders and contractors can serve as a team to better meet the Owner’s needs. Integrated Project Delivery can be a valuable and efficient means of providing a successful project.
PE: What are some new trends or new products that peak your interest for 2010?
Stoneburner: We are excited about the trend of reducing energy costs. This objective can lead down many avenues, such as sustainable design, energy conservation, energy audits, boiler upgrades, heat recovery, energy plants, etc.
PE: How do you avoid “green” over-saturation? How do you spec products that are truly sustainable and true to the application?
Stoneburner: Virtually everyone claims to be green these days. We try to couple sound research with common sense in specifying products.
PE: Are you seeing any of the stimulus money open up? If so, in what markets?
Stoneburner: Yes, we have seen stimulus money in energy- and transportation-related projects.
PE: Any recent projects of which you are most proud? Why?
Stoneburner: We’ve been working with a major food industry company on a couple of large projects that I’m very proud of because of the projects’ technical and schedule demands.
PE: How do your satellite offices complement your overall goals?
Stoneburner: Our satellite offices help us achieve our goal of serving our clients wherever they need our help. These offices originally began as a direct response to the needs of our Rail and Aviation clients.
PE: How do you achieve an 80% repeat business client base?
Stoneburner: We have served many of our clients for several decades. TKDA’s brand is rooted in our reputation for providing the highest levels of engineering, architecture and planning to clients who need single source, integrated services. Our repeat client base has come to experience and expect this high level of service and our firm continues to deliver and meet this expectation. Each of our projects is a complete collaboration with our clients. And many times we deliver solutions that go above and beyond the initial client request. For example, in 2005, a major window and door manufacturer was notified that they would be losing a major source of steam for their facility. (They had been generating a portion of their steam in-house and purchasing additional steam from a nearby thermal facility, which was changing its offerings and no longer was able to meet this manufacturer’s needs.) TKDA offered an innovative solution that went beyond our client’s initial need of replacing a steam source. We designed a facility that eliminated a reliance on coal-based steam, decreased landfill waste and emissions, and enabled the company to control its current and future energy requirements by using state-of-the-art equipment.