News From Professional Firms

MRB Group News

MRB Group Again Ranked Among Top 100 in Finger Lakes

The Rochester Chamber of Commerce recently named the “Top 100” businesses in its Finger Lakes Region service area for 2021 and once again, MRB Group is among those selected for recognition.

President Ryan Colvin, PE, shared the announcement and credited his team members for the firm’s continued growth in the past three years, the basis for the competitive designation.

“We are honored to share this distinction among Rochester’s fastest growing companies,” said Colvin. “It’s an even more significant accomplishment given the tremendous challenges businesses have faced over the past 18 months,” he continued, referencing the devastating impacts of COVID-19.

“This award speaks to the region’s perseverance. It’s a story of strength and resilience. First and foremost, I want to thank MRB Group’s dedicated team members who helped our communities face the challenge by stepping up, working hard, and serving our clients’ needs,” Colvin stated.

“It’s especially rewarding when an organization like the Rochester Chamber of Commerce recognizes that effort, and honors its businesses. All of us contribute to the fabric of Greater Rochester – what makes the area thrive. Together we make Rochester and the Finger Lakes strong, beautiful, and a great place to live and work,” he said. MRB Group is a municipal services firm. Providing engineering, architecture, and planning, MRB Group team members work primarily with local governments, helping community leaders to provide essential services more effectively and efficiently, and to plan for community development in more strategic ways.

In addition to tremendous growth over the past three years in the firm’s architecture and engineering teams and services, the firm has continued to expand on its SmarterLocalGov division, providing an array of enhanced services to community leaders, including economic development services, grant writing and administration, and utilization of GIS, as well as data analysis to support municipal operations.

Currently working with more than 140 communities in New York State, the firm is appointed Term Engineer or Engineer of Record for many, providing a wide range of municipal services that enhance local governments and their capacity to manage and preserve critical resources.

This year marks the Rochester Chamber of Commerce’s 35th annual recognition of businesses with a “Top 100” designation, listing the fastest-growing, privately owned companies in the Rochester and Finger Lakes region. The Chamber will reveal rankings at an awards ceremony on November 4. Greater Rochester Chamber President and CEO Bob Duffy said, “The Greater Rochester Chamber Top 100 program serves as the perfect illustration that Rochester has indeed moved from a company town of a few major employers to a place made up of industry from every sector. This year we are excited to see a strong cross-section of well-established companies and startups competing for a coveted spot on the list. The 2021 Greater Rochester Chamber Top 100 companies employ close to 67,000 people and reported total revenue of over $14 billion in the most recent fiscal year. The economic impact generated by these businesses has real and lasting influence on our community, and we are proud to have them in our region.”

Colvin says that his firm’s combination of municipal experience, capabilities, and oncall availability to clients will likely continue to drive the future growth of MRB Group. He is confident that its trajectory will keep the firm on the “Top 100” list.

“We will continue to support Rochester and Finger Lakes communities, and help our local governments get more accomplished,” Colvin stated, inviting those interested in that effort to consider joining the MRB Group team. “We are always looking for talented, innovative team members who want to make a difference!”

IBC Engineering News

Hendricks Chapel Air Conditioning Retrofit: Not to be seen, nor heard

IBC Engineering was hired to provide an innovative engineering solution for a new mechanical cooling system by Syracuse University. The main challenge was to ensure that the system would not be heard nor compromise the architectural features for the centerpiece of their campus, Hendricks Interfaith Chapel. The Chapel was originally constructed in 1930 and was later added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. A New York architectural firm Pope & Baum designed the original brick and limestone structure in a style that can be traced all the way back to the 16th century work of Italian architect Palladio, and to the Roman Pantheon. Through careful design implementation and project execution, the end result was an extremely satisfied owner and IBC Engineering being awarded with another ACEC Engineering Excellence Platinum award.

Objectives:

- Provide mechanical cooling and ventilation - Minimize any effect on chapel acoustics - Integrate mechanical system into historic building and architecture - Phase project so special events could still be held during construction - Provide education opportunity for junior engineering staff

Approach:

- Studied building's structure and original pathways to provide cooling and ventilation systems - Analyzed placement of air handling units to optimize system strategy & preserve building’s aesthetics - Utilized mezzanine space above the chapel’s dome to run new ductwork, since re-use of existing distribution systems was not feasible - Utilized low air velocity & sound limiting ductwork layout to minimize impact on building acoustics - Utilized existing ceiling heating relief grilles as cooling diffusers

Outcome:

At the completion of the project, the Dean of Hendrick's wrote “It was great to visit the other day, for not only is the new HVAC a delight, it has been a joy and pleasure to learn and witness such passion and enthusiasm. Please know that you have made a tremendous difference, and I am left inspired!” q

Bergmann News

Bergmann Climbs in the Rankings of National Architecture and Engineering Design Firms

Bergmann Moves Up on Multiple Lists from Engineering News-Record and Architectural Record

National architecture, engineering and planning firm Bergmann has made the top 100 in Architectural Record’s list of 2021’s Top 300 U.S. Architecture Firms. Bergmann ranked no. 87, climbing 23 spots from last year’s report. The annual list, compiled by Architectural Record’s sister publication, Engineering News-Record, compares companies’ architectural revenue from the prior year.

Bergmann also moved up in the rankings on several regional lists published by Engineering NewsRecord (ENR).

“We are proud to be listed among the top architecture and design firms nationally and in the regional markets we serve because it reflects the great work that we strive to deliver each day,” said, Pietro V. Giovenco, President & CEO, Bergmann. "We thank our clients for the opportunity to serve as their design partner and our employees for their commitment to excellence that helped us achieve this important recognition.”

Regionally, Bergmann has seen tremendous growth and increased rankings on multiple ENR lists of top design firms. Bergmann climbed 16 spots on the ENR Mid-Atlantic Top Design Firm List based on designspecific revenue. In the New York list, Bergmann climbed 3 spots to rank no. 27. Among Midwest firms Bergmann rose seven spots to no. 75 and ranked 16th overall in the state of Michigan. In ENR’s Sourcebook of industry-specific rankings, Bergmann ranked no. 24 in retail and 30 in manufacturing design firms.

Notable growth throughout the firm can be attributed to regional work with clients including A.C. Marriott and other national brands, PennDOT, FDOT and work with leading rail and freight suppliers, Bergmann has also experienced exponential growth in core markets including the Science, Technology & Industry practice in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. q

SWBR News

SWBR Wins National Marketing Award

SWBR has been recognized nationally by the Zweig Group with a 2021 Marketing Excellence Award. These awards recognize outstanding, results-driven marketing in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction industry. Award entries were judged by a team of marketing professionals and evaluated based upon overall creativity, messaging, results achieved by the campaign, and level of design.

SWBR was recognized with a Marketing Excellence Award in the Website category for the design of their intranet called the Hub. The “Hub” was designed with the goal of enhancing the firm’s culture and communication. It also provides employees with a one-stop-shop for the firm’s most critical communications – in one place instead of critical information getting buried in an email inbox. The Hub became a critical internal communication tool during the COVID-19 pandemic, providing real-time updates regarding the firm’s practice and safety protocols.

“The standard of entries for these awards continued to rise year after year. This year’s winners are an excellent display of highly effective creativity, and an inspiration for the industry!” said Christy Zweig Niehues, Zweig Group’s Director of Research & E-Commerce.

Winners will be celebrated at both the virtual and in-person versions of the ElevateAEC Conference this year – the virtual ElevateAEC Conference and ElevateHer Symposium kicks off on September 13, and the in-person ElevateAEC Conference and Awards Gala takes place this November 3-5 in Denver, CO. Winners will also be featured in Zweig Group’s weekly management newsletter, The Zweig Letter, and Zweig Group’s other marketing channels.