Multiple MKK Projects Receive Industry Accolades

Posted December 6th 2012 @ 12:00AM (permalink)

Six projects using MKK Consulting Engineers, Inc. design teams have received industry accolades this year: History Colorado Center, Denver Department of Human Services Eastside Building, Google Boulder Phase II, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Denver Central Platte Campus, and the Denver County Jail housing project.

Two of the four projects earned multiple awards. History Colorado Center took home an ENR Mountain States “Best Projects” award, and several AGC Colorado awards. These included the Silver “Best Building Project ($6-$10 Million) SUB” (awarded to RK Mechanical), Jack Mincher People’s Choice, and Silver “Best Building Project (over $70 Million) General” (awarded to Hensel Phelps). MKK proudly accepted an ACEC Engineering Excellence award for the Denver Human Services Eastside Building, while our design and construction partners received an AIA Colorado Merit Award for Built Architecture (awarded to RNL) and the AGC Colorado Bronze “Contribution to the Community” award (awarded to Kiewit).

Numerous awards were also bestowed on our design and construction partners. The Denver County Jail housing project won AGC Colorado’s Silver “Meeting the Challenge of a Difficult Job (SUB)” which was awarded to Duro Electric, and ENR Mountain States named Google Boulder Phase II in their “Best Projects” category. Tryba Architects was given an Honor Award for Built Architecture for the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, and RNL received a Merit Award for Built Architecture for Denver Central Platte Campus (as well as for the Eastside Building, listed above).

“It’s an honor for us to have so many projects recognized this year. We are grateful to all of our design and construction team members for doing a superb job,” said Denver Branch Director Angie Huber.

MKK’s Denver Human Services Eastside Building Wins ACEC Excellence Award

Posted November 29th 2012 @ 12:00AM (permalink)

ACEC Colorado has awarded MKK Consulting Engineers, Inc. (MKK) a 2013 Engineering Excellence Award for Denver Department of Human Services Eastside Building. Stuart Monical, President and CEO of MKK stated, “This project gave us a great opportunity, not only to help repurpose an existing vacant site with a facility that serves the local community, but also provide a facility that is energy conscience as well as net-zero energy ready.”

The Denver Department of Human Services Eastside facility is a new 54,000 square foot two-story office building. MKK provided mechanical, plumbing and fire protection consulting services on this LEED-NC Gold project. The high performance mechanical system included paring of a variable refrigerant volume (VRV) system for perimeter heating and cooling with an under floor air distribution (UFAD) system for building ventilation and internal space conditioning. This hybrid mechanical system has an energy modeled savings of 40% beyond ASHRAE 90.1-2004, even with a proposed 12% increase in window area over the project baseline.

“We really enjoyed working with our client and the city to create a unique project that expanded the horizons for mechanical design,” stated

Ken Urbanek, MKK Director of Engineering and Project Manager for the Eastside Building.

MKK Opens Helena, MT Office

Posted October 19th 2012 @ 12:00AM (permalink)

MKK Consulting Engineers, Inc. (MKK) has expanded our Montana presence to include Helena. “We are looking forward to expanding into the western part of the state after having been in Billings for over a decade. This will enable us to serve our Montana clients better and be more competitive in the western Montana market,” stated Stuart Monical, President and CEO of MKK.

The Helena office is being headed by Chris Drake, PE. Chris is an experienced project manager and mechanical engineer who has been with MKK for seven years in our Cheyenne, WY office. “I am grateful and excited to be back home in western Montana representing MKK. We believe that the Helena area and western Montana present many opportunities for our business and look forward to serving these great communities,” stated Chris. Chris can be reached at 406.438.1467 or cdrake@mkkeng.com.

MKK Opens North Dakota Office

Posted September 21st 2012 @ 12:00AM (permalink)

MKK Consulting Engineers, Inc. (MKK) is thrilled to announce the opening of our Dickinson, North Dakota office. This office will serve as home base for the numerous projects we are currently working on in the area, and will ultimately be staffed full-time by an engineer (we are presently in the process of recruiting a Branch Development Engineer). The office is located at 50 South 3rd Avenue West, #1008 (701.483.3422).

MKK is currently working on seven projects in North Dakota, including a hotel, restaurant, truck stop, office building, and apartment complex. “We are extremely excited to be part of the amazing growth taking place in the region. We look forward to working with the many companies in the area and becoming an integral part of the community,” noted Stuart Monical, President and CEO of MKK.

If interested in the Dickinson Branch Development Engineer position, please contact MKK’s Senior Human Resources Manager, Jaxon Seekins, at 303.796.6075 or jmseekins@mkkeng.com.

MKK Designs Ptolemy Data Systems Data Center

Posted September 21st 2012 @ 12:00AM (permalink)

MKK Consulting Engineers, Inc. (MKK) recently wrapped up design of Ptolemy Data Systems data center in Sheridan, Wyoming. The project is a secured data storage facility and is the first structure and high-tech anchor in what owners hope will become a full data park.

The facility is a structurally secured building: the data room is contained within a concrete vault, there is a biometric entry system, and a full agent-release fire suppression system (as a rule, MKK specifies Encro25 for the fire suppression system as it is an environmentally friendly gas). The 1,100 SF data center has a full generator back-up which supports a UPS distribution system and a state-of-the-art APC in-row cooling system. A second generator supports a call center, office, and life safety (fire alarm and lighting). Greg Gedney, MKK’s project manager for this facility, commented on the collaboration that went into the project: “This team uniquely blended technology, form, and architecture to create an outstanding project.”

The project has been a great success. Ryan Mulholland, President & CEO of Ptolemy Data Systems stated, “MKK was excellent to work with and I will absolutely use them for our next phase of construction. I only wish I would have consulted with MKK earlier than I did.”

Mission critical facilities differ from most standard commercial projects which are constructed and designed to meet the requirements of applicable building codes. Mission critical facilities, on the other hand, typically entail much more extensive owner expectations which often far exceed building code requirements. This is due to preferred levels of reliability, efficiency, and system redundancy.

A main necessity of a mission critical project is enhanced reliability that covers the entire system down to each individual component of the mission critical facility. One of the challenges is to design a facility anticipating all possible scenarios that can affect system performance and operation. The cost of system downtime is potentially huge compared to the cost of preventing a failure; this necessitates redundancy and complexity that is not usually encountered on other projects.

In the past three years alone, MKK has worked on over 60 mission critical projects. These include data centers and facilities in the telecommunications industry where equipment operation is a crucial aspect of their business process, as well as with clients whose 24/7 operations and data storage is critical, such as in the industrial and healthcare industries

MKK Announces Promotions and Welcomes New Employees

Posted June 18th 2012 @ 12:00AM (permalink)

MKK is happy to announce the addition of several new employees to the Greenwood Village and Cheyenne offices, as well as two promotions.

Ken Urbanek, PE, LEED AP, HPBD and Angie Huber, PE, LEED AP, have both been promoted to associate principal. Ken has been with MKK for eight years and is the director of engineering. He is a past president of the local ASHRAE chapter and sits on the Board of Governors. Angie has been with MKK 15 years and is the Denver branch director.

New hires in the Greenwood Village office include Clint Bowen (mechanical engineer), Christina Jaret (corporate marketing coordinator), Tim Lillehoff (mechanical engineer), Amanda Maul (project administrator), Todd Kielty (summer intern), and Ben Williams (summer intern). Two new additions to the Cheyenne office are Sarah Brown (mechanical engineer) and Derek Edwards (summer intern).

Ken Urbanek to Speak at BEST3 Conference Today in Atlanta

Posted April 3rd 2012 @ 12:00AM (permalink)

MKK associate Ken Urbanek is speaking today at the Building Enclosure Science and Technology (BEST) conference today in Atlanta. The conference is put on by the National Institute of Building Sciences. Ken will be speaking on the subject of underfloor air distribution systems (UFAD). Click here for more information on the conference: BEST3.

MKK Principal Craig Watts Presenting Tonight at the CoGEHPA Seminar

Posted March 22nd 2012 @ 12:00AM (permalink)

Announcing MKK New Hires and Employee Achievements

Posted January 27th 2012 @ 12:00AM (permalink)

MKK Consulting Engineers, Inc. (MKK) is thrilled to welcome four new employees to the Greenwood Village office, in addition to one of our associates gaining a new certification.

Kate Schmitz and Chris Fullerton joined the office in December. Kate is our new project administrator. She has over four years of experience in the construction industry as a project engineer, and holds a BS in Business Administration from the University of Colorado. Chris Fullerton, LEED AP, is taking on the role of energy services manager. This is a new position within MKK. "Energy Services" encompasses engineering consulting services such as facility energy audits, re- and retro-commissioning, and energy modeling. An experienced mechanical engineer with commissioning, retro-commissioning, energy audit, and construction administration experience, Chris also commissions new construction projects. He is a graduate of the University of Arizona with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, and is currently pursuing his CEM certification.

In January, Matt Campbell and Brett Nelson joined the MKK team. Matt is MKK’s new senior business development manager. He has been part of the A/E/C industry for over 12 years, and is a huge asset to the firm. Matt will work with the market leaders and director of marketing and business development to cultivate relationships with other firms in the industry. Brett Nelson brings over 25 years of building engineering and HVAC/R experience to MKK as our new commissioning agent. He studied architecture at Iowa State University, and is NATE (North American Technician Excellence) certified and BOMA Systems Maintenance Administrator certified.

Aaron Zimmerman, associate and mechanical engineer at MKK, has earned a High-Performance Building Design Professional certification from the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE). ASHRAE’s certification program identifies individuals who have demonstrated they have the necessary training and tools for the design of high-performance buildings that live up to their performance capability. In addition to this certification, Aaron is also a LEED AP and Qualified Commissioning Process Provider (QCxP).

MKK Welcomes Our New Energy Services Manager!

Posted January 10th 2012 @ 12:00AM (permalink)

Chris Fullerton has joined MKK as our Energy Services Manager. Chris is an experienced mechanical engineer with commissioning, retro-commissioning, energy audit and construction administration experience. He has managed every level of the commissioning process and specializes in installation, programming, service, and maintenance of central plants (chillers, boilers, and pumps), cooling towers, heat pumps, air handling units, terminal units, domestic water systems, and lighting control systems. He has worked closely with a wide variety of building automation systems and technologies.

Chris has worked in the field on many large scale commissioning projects, ensuring safe conditions, inspecting product quality, verifying proper installations and programming, training owners and operations staff, integrating the scheduling of MEP and commissioning activities, improving owner relations, and optimizing the energy performance of buildings. He has overseen design and submittal reviews, documentation, construction observations, acceptance testing, O&M training, M&V implementation, and submittal of LEED documentation.

Additionally, Chris is slated to take the CEM exam (Certified Energy Manager) through the Association of Energy Engineers in January, and the PE exam (Professional Engineer) in April, 2012.