Advanced capabilities keep engineering firm ahead of the curve
Author: Anne Straub
You might not know TLC Engineering for Architecture but you definitely know its work.
The art deco Disney cruise terminal at Port Canaveral, Holmes Regional Medical Centers heart hospital and trauma center in Melbourne, many Brevard County schools, Mall at Millennia in Orlando, Miami's often-photographed cruise terminal with a roof like sails-those and many more familiar sites are counted among the company's engineering portfolio.
The Orlando-based company employs 37 people at its Cocoa division, one of eight offices in Florida. The company recently added a Nashville office and Cocoa director Gary Krueger expects more expansion.
"Right now it's probably a matter of filling in the space in between," he said.
The 400-person firm focuses on mechanical, electrical, structural, communications and technology systems. The full-service engineering firm typically teams with an architect supporting the building owners. The goal is to become the engineer of choice. "When they think of who they want to team with in a project, we want them to think of us," Krueger said.
The company is developing a specialty in sustainable design. Employees are pursuing certifications and regularly serving on panels to advance the practical applications of energy efficient design, sometimes called green building.
"The priorities should be routinely integrated into designs," Krueger said. "There's a perception that sustainable design costs more and is expendable," he said. "In reality it's just more prudent design. You're taking a longer view and not just counting the initial construction costs."
More than 10 percent of the company's professional and technical staff are LEED-accredited a designation for Leadership in Energy and Environmental design by the US Green Building Council. TLC designed the first LEED-certified building in Florida.
Thirty percent of the company's business is for clients in the health-care sector, with hospitality and residential and K-12 education following, to account for almost half its customers.
TLC has carved a niche in schools partly because of the cost effectiveness and technological advantages of the prototype design the company did for the state Department of Education. The smart school design has cabling built-in for computer systems.
The company has worked on Viera High School, Bayside High School in Palm Bay and most of the county's elementary schools.
"We're doing school design in virtually every county in the state," Krueger said.
TLC aims to further distinguish itself by its investment in object-oriented CAD capability. The tool helps designers discover potential conflicts and interferences between different systems by creating a 3D model of the project. "You can basically walk through the building," Krueger said.
In addition to investing in the software, TLC has upgraded other equipment to support it. Krueger believes the capability will pay off in better service to the customer, leaving other engineering firms to catch up. "We're way ahead of the curve," he said.
The company works hard to attract top talent in what's a tight market for engineers. Family-friendly policies include a network that allows employees the capability to work from home.
The Cocoa division was formerly the independent firm of Gardner, Griffith & Associates, until it merged with TLC in 1994. At the time the Cocoa firm employed just nine people, including Bud Gardner, a former state senator. "I think they saw the potential of the people we had here," Krueger said.
Gardner now serves as chief operating officer of TLC.
Krueger himself was on staff before the merger, having relocated to Florida to escape Northern winters. A native of Saginaw, Mich., he graduated from Michigan State University in 1983 with a bachelor's degree in structural engineering. After working in Chicago for a while, he started looking for a job in a warmer climate.
He landed in Tampa for a short time, but after his wife-to-be Pam, found herself an engineering job at Kennedy Space Center, he relocated to the east coast and joined what became TLC.
The Kruegers have two children, Alison, 17, and Kenny, 14, both avid basketball players. The family also is enjoying breaking in the boat they bought last fall.
Krueger, past president of the Rotary Club of Cocoa, also serves on the board and executive committee of the Economic Development Commission of Florida's Space Coast and the board of the Brevard Cultural Alliance. He's on a Brevard Community College panel charged with developing curriculum to train students for jobs his and other companies need filled.
He sees the involvement as part of his role at TLC. "We're here as a partner to the community," he said.