Fitting 50 Pounds into a Two-Pound Bag After graduating from Georgia Tech with his bachelor’s degree, Chris’s early career took shape in consulting, where he worked on projects across 22 states and two countries, navigating a wide range of regulations, environments, and constraints. From developing recycling centers and gas stations to contributing to major institutional projects, his work required constant adaptation. The job, he says, often comes down to one core challenge: balancing competing demands. “You’re trying to fit 50 pounds into a two-pound bag,” he says. “And
Among his notable projects: contributing to infrastructure at the Center for Disease Control campus and the World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta, building systems for a Shriner’s Hospital in Mexico City, updating floodplain maps for the State of Georgia, and overseeing construction elements of McGregor Square, a major development adjacent to Coors Field in Denver. Even these large-scale projects reflect a broader philosophy: design in engineering is not just about what is built, but how it serves. Much of the work is invisible when it succeeds. Streets don’t flood. Systems function. Life continues uninterrupted, and people never notice the engineering underneath it all.
you’ve got to do it legally.”
Working with Nature, Not Against It
That tension—between vision and feasibility, creativity and constraint—
Today, Chris works in the public sector in Colorado with the City
is where civil engineering relies on excellent design. Every project is
of Aurora’s water and stormwater systems, reviewing designs and
a puzzle: how to meet a client’s goals while honoring environmental
guiding projects from concept through approval. His role has shifted
realities, regulatory frameworks, and long-term impact. One of Chris’s
from creating designs to evaluating and refining them as he helps
largest projects involved supporting the national expansion of Navy
others navigate the same challenges he once faced. At the center of
Federal Credit Union, where he helped evaluate properties, coordinate
that work is water.
design, and navigate permitting across municipalities.
In the American West, water is not just a resource—it is a constraint,
“It was everything from understanding the history of the site to asking:
a negotiation, and a defining factor in how communities grow.
‘Can we build what we want here?’” he says. The work is as much about
Chris’s work involves everything from flood mitigation to water
asking the right questions as it is about finding answers.
rights, requiring a deep understanding of both natural systems and human needs. Water is also limited, and communities in western
From Paper to Place
states like Colorado need systems in place to keep track of it.
One of the most rewarding aspects of Chris’s work is seeing ideas
That reality has led to increasingly sophisticated approaches to design
materialize, seeing what has been laid out on paper come up out of the
and systems that slow, store, and filter water, mimicking natural
ground. Whether it’s an underground stormwater system beneath a
processes while supporting development. In Aurora, that includes
plaza or infrastructure supporting a stadium development, the work
engineered stream corridors that allow water to move naturally while
may not always be visible, but its impact is enduring.
protecting surrounding communities.
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