As our engineering practice continues to evolve, we’re focused on expanding not only our capacity but also our depth of expertise and leadership. The addition of senior engineers plays a key role in this effort by bringing experience, perspective, and the ability to elevate both teams and projects.

We recently welcomed Lisa Marsh, a new senior mechanical engineer, to our team and had the opportunity to discuss what motivated her to join us, how she envisions her role taking shape, and what it means to contribute to a growing, integrated engineering practice.

What excited you most about joining our engineering team?

I’m excited about the collaborative environment, having architecture, civil, structural, mechanical, and electrical engineering under the same umbrella. As a larger-sized company, TowerPinkster works on a variety of interesting projects. I’m excited about the opportunity to work on a mix of projects, helping to optimize the environment and create comfortable, healthy atmospheres for schools, healthcare, and commercial spaces.

How does this role allow you to apply your experience in new and expanded ways?

Joining an integrated firm gives me the opportunity to collaborate with other disciplines early in the design process.  Being the first engineer in the New Albany office allows me to apply my consulting experience in the region combined with the established engineering team resources.  I am excited to act as a bridge between our firm’s deep resources in other offices and our client base in the New Albany/Louisville region.  This role allows me to combine my technical skills with a direct role in growing our local presence.

How do you approach knowledge sharing and mentoring as teams grow?

We need to focus on growing and sharing institutional knowledge.  Knowledge is not something to be hoarded.  I believe in the ‘rising tide’ philosophy of leadership.  When we share knowledge freely, everyone benefits, including the customer – we are lifting all boats.  I’ve benefited from some very good mentors in my career, and hope I am doing a good job passing along the knowledge I have learned along the way.

What does strong engineering leadership look like in a growing practice?

I think it is important to give newer engineers experience in unfamiliar areas, providing guidance, but not micromanaging and fostering an atmosphere where we all feel comfortable asking questions.  If there are no questions, then my next thought is to inquire whether they know enough yet to ask questions, or do I need to explain more.

How do you balance technical rigor with innovation as project complexity increases?

Sometimes the complexity of a project demands a new approach to designing the mechanical systems.  I’m thinking of a project where the renovation of a beautiful stone courthouse posed a real challenge with penetrating the 12” thick stone walls, even some interior stone walls.  Variable refrigerant volume units were a good solution to minimize the ductwork between spaces, requiring mostly smaller drilled holes for the refrigerant piping.  The innovative part of the system at the time was to connect the VRV condensing units to the same water source heat pump loop planned to serve the courthouse addition, allowing us to hide the condensing units in the existing courthouse mechanical room.  We were able to add cooling and outside air to the building without locating ruining the historic beauty of the outside the building.

What opportunities do you see for mechanical engineers to create more value early in the design process?

During the space planning process, we can review the plans to make sure adequate space is being allocated for the mechanical systems.  We can offer system alternatives based on space constraints.  For example, we may suggest geothermal heat pump system to add cooling to a historic campus building so that there are no outside cooling towers, or rooftop units to take away from the historic nature of a building that is viewed from all sides.  Sometimes we can help in hiding our “beautiful” HVAC equipment.

How does a growing, integrated engineering team ultimately create better outcomes for clients?

By having the engineering team integrated into the design process we can communicate very well amongst the design team to coordinate the many building systems and details.  By sharing knowledge between disciplines, we shape the project early on and work to eliminate the ‘silo effect’ that so often happens when engineering and architecture are in different firms.  We can reduce risk and cost.  by catching interference between building elements in the digital model, not on the construction site.  We can improve energy performance when mechanical engineers and architects collaborate to optimize the building envelope to balance the first cost of the building with the operational costs of the HVAC system load.

As our engineering team continues to grow, conversations like this help clarify what that growth truly means, stronger collaboration, deeper expertise, and better outcomes for the clients and communities we serve. Senior leadership within our engineering teams enables us to think more holistically, engage earlier, and deliver solutions that are both technically sound and thoughtfully integrated.