Commercial Engineering Projects

Types of Projects

• Office building structural and MEP engineering
• Retail and shopping center structural
• Restaurant MEP and structural engineering
• Hotel and hospitality MEP systems
• Fitness and recreation facility engineering
• Industrial and warehouse structural
• Data center structural and MEP
• Commercial tenant improvement structural and MEP
• Mixed-use development engineering
• Brewery and specialty commercial facility engineering

Scope of Work

Commercial scope ranges from a single tenant improvement to a ground-up office or retail building, and the engineering follows the lease and the shell condition as much as the architecture. We engineer structure, MEP, and civil for new buildings, expansions, and tenant work — including the base-building upgrades (service capacity, rooftop structure, exhaust routes) that tenant spaces depend on.

Typical Deliverables

A commercial package typically includes structural calculations and drawings, coordinated mechanical, electrical, and plumbing plans, COMcheck or the adopted energy-code compliance documentation, and civil site plans where the work touches the site. For tenant improvements, the deliverable is a permit set scoped to the space plus base-building verification — existing capacity confirmed before new load is added.

Codes and Standards

Commercial work is designed to the IBC and its referenced standards: ASCE 7 for loads, ASHRAE 90.1 or the IECC commercial provisions for energy, NFPA 70 for electrical design, and the mechanical and plumbing codes adopted by the jurisdiction. Restaurants and assembly uses add their own layers — commercial kitchen exhaust and grease provisions, occupant-load-driven egress — that we resolve in the first code review, not at plan check.

Coordination and Permitting

Commercial schedules are lease-driven, so coordination runs on the tenant's clock. We coordinate with the architect and the landlord's base-building team on capacity and criteria, with kitchen and specialty equipment vendors on real loads and connections, and with the jurisdiction through pre-application conversations where the use is new to the building. The goal is a permit set the tenant's contractor can price without allowances.

Design Risks We Manage

The recurring commercial risks are existing services too small for the new use, rooftop equipment the existing structure cannot carry, and kitchen exhaust with no legal route to the roof. Each is a survey question before it is a design problem: we verify service capacity, rooftop framing, and chase routes during scoping, while the lease can still absorb the answer.