In this episode of the Florida Engineering Society, Engineering Florida Podcast, host Sam Yates has an in depth discussion with Scott Martin, P.E., President of the American Council of Engineering Companies, and Principal, Project Director and Design Builder Market Leader for Walter P. Moores Structure Group in Tampa, Florida.
We delve into Scott's background , major accomplishments, and project varieties for Walter P. Moore as well as take a look at what is happening with the investigation into the the Surfside Champlain Tower collapse.
The Florida Engineering Society, Engineering Florida podcast, is produced by Yates & Associates, Public Relations & Marketing. Contact Sam Yates, Sam@Yatespro.com.
In this episode of the Florida Engineering Society, Engineering Florida Podcast, host Sam Yates has an in depth discussion with Scott Martin, P.E., President of the American Council of Engineering Companies, and Principal, Project Director and Design Builder Market Leader for Walter P. Moores Structure Group in Tampa, Florida.
We delve into Scott's background , major accomplishments, and project varieties for Walter P. Moore as well as take a look at what is happening with the investigation into the the Surfside Champlain Tower collapse.
The Florida Engineering Society, Engineering Florida podcast, is produced by Yates & Associates, Public Relations & Marketing. Contact Sam Yates, Sam@Yatespro.com.
Engineers are ingenious professional. Engineers invent, design, verify and qualify, engineers are the professionals who make our lives and businesses prosperous and safe. The Florida Engineering Society is proud to put our engineering professionals in the spotlight so that they may educate, share information and introduce you to the world of engineering that is thriving in Florida. Here's your host of the engineering Florida podcast. Sam Yates, with today's guest Hello, everyone. And welcome to another exciting edition of the Florida Engineering Society in engineering, Florida. It's a very special podcast and today to go along with that I have a very special guest Scott Martin is here. Scott is the current president of the ACEC of Florida. That is the American Council of Engineering Companies. We're going to talk about that in more detail in just a few moments. But Scott is also a principal project director design build a market leader for Walter P. Moore. That's the Structure Group out of Tampa, Florida. It's a great organization scattered I've looked into some of the projects. And when I look at their projects, I get this wow factor. So along with that great introduction, I'm going to say thank you. And wow, glad to have you on the program.
Scott Martin:Thanks, Sam. Glad to be here. You know, to continue on briefly about your introduction. I always put everybody on the spot. First thing with that. Great, tell me what you're all about questions. So share a bit about yourself. Thanks, Sam. So I'm a native Floridian I was born and raised in Florida and moved around the state a little bit went to the University of Florida, graduated in 1998. And I've been in structural engineering practice ever since then, I've bounced around a few small firms and found myself a lot of people and around 2004. And I've been there ever since. And really what I've what I've focused on and what I've really found a passion around recently is, is collaboration being part of a collaborative team, not just in designing buildings, and building some of the some of the most fascinating projects I think in the country, but also in my my time with ACC and finding ways to be much, much more collaborative across the industry.
Sam Yates:You know, I think every time I have a conversation with an engineer, whether it is here on this program or in connection with some of my clients activities, lo and behold, I turned around and there's a gator. It's got one hell of a good engineering school, I have to say, ethics.
Scott Martin:I'm pretty proud of me again and myself.
Sam Yates:Absolutely. Let's let's switch to the company itself that you work for. Sure. I know I believe if I recall my my homework dating back to about 1931, headquartered in Texas, but tell us a bit about the company.
Scott Martin:Sure. So we've been in Florida for at least 3040 years. This is the third office I believe will be more open a while ago. But we're an international company. We've got I think 17 offices nationally, everywhere from New York down to San Diego. We've got a few international offices in Mexico City, Pune, India, Panama, and some in Canada. And we really, we specialize in structures, we've got a civil engineering group and infrastructure group in Texas. And we do some some of that kind of work in the middle part of the state or middle part of the country. But we really focus on new design of structures and diagnostics of existing structures, and really specializing in the whole structure of a building. And that goes for not just the skeleton of the building, what structural engineer would typically design, but also the enclosure, the scan, the secure design for secure buildings, federal buildings, things like that. And really how they go together even so we've got a construction engineering group that really focuses on not just what a building is going to look like, but how to put it together and partnering with builders to most efficiently build a building. So we're really structured specialists, as we like to think of us as a firm. And like you mentioned, I think we do some of these some small projects, but all the way up to some of the biggest projects in the country right now.
Sam Yates:You know, as I look at the projects I mentioned earlier, the wow factor. Tell us about some of the ones that you have done here in Florida. I know in your neighborhood, the the Aquarium is one the Buccaneers training facility is another but these are awesome, very recognizable structures that you know, we may know it because we're talking engineering, but other people may not recognize the role that you played in those.
Scott Martin:Sure. Well, we were we specialize in sports structures, aviation structures, higher education, health care are really our main four service lines. We do all project types, but those are the ones we do the most of and in my career here in Florida. I've done a lot of cultural facilities. I was the engineer of record for the Dali Museum and St. Pete That opened back in 2011. I'm you mentioned Some of the Bucs facilities we did the Ice Palace, which is now the Tampa Bay Times forum. We were involved with Raymond James Stadium, not just when it was built, but also ongoing maintenance and expansions that have happened there over the years with the Florida aquarium, not just one that was built but also as they've expanded and built out over the over the years. And I a lot of my resumes in higher education, I spent about 10 years doing primarily higher education work. So labs, student centers. I did that at USF Marshall Center in Tampa. done while working for the state for the international university. University of Tampa, USF UCF. So my resume tends to be in Florida tends to be a lot of lot focus on higher ed and cultural facilities. But we do we do stuff all over the country that's very similar to that. And we've done we've done most of Tampa International Airport, and we've been on quite a bit of work in Orlando International also,
Sam Yates:Two things pop out, just as we're having this conversation. One is the collaborative efforts that you're talking about, which requires something called leadership. And the other thing that you were mentioning, is working with builders, which brings up a phrase that not everybody is familiar with, I am from working in that industry. And it's called Design Build, explain why design build is such a great phrase?
Scott Martin:Well, it's a new way of doing buildings. It's not that new, it's been around for quite a while. But I think more and more, as the industry looks to innovate somewhat. I don't know how much you know about the AEC. industry in general, but But building design and how buildings go together, has relatively remained unchanged for over a century, especially in the US. And as projects get bigger, faster and more complex, the owners want to get in the ground, and they want to have their building immediately opened before designing because even done. Owners and practitioners like myself are looking for new ways to do things. And design build is one way to do it, where you're not just following the traditional model of hiring a design team to design a building, and then a build team to build a building a general contractor. It's bringing that team together from the beginning. And having the entire design team and build team work together to figure out the best way to build the building for the owner. And it's it can result in very successful projects that get built quickly, certainly on time and everything else. But it can go wrong to it's a new way of doing things. And when all parties don't understand that relationship, and that it is more of a collaborative team environment. projects go south and I know a lot of builders on some of these big, big big projects that I find myself getting into the last five or six years. They've sort of walking away from those projects, they won't take the risk on because it's too risky. And it's and they can't figure out how to do it the right way. But that's really where I found my specialty the last few years is specializing in that collaborative type environment, that collaborative nature and really, when we get involved in some of these big projects, trying to lead from within and really make sure the entire team is moving the same direction and collaborative from the start all the way to the end.
Sam Yates:Back to that key word leadership. And that's what it's all about. You're in that leader. Notice I've made that transition, you are in the leadership position for the ACEC tell us about the organization.
Scott Martin:So ACEC is really the it's a specialized in the business of engineering FES, and a lot of other organizations ASCE FSCA group that I've been involved in through my career, you as an engineer as a PE JOIN US organizations is to be part of a group that's that's like minded and focused on similar goals. ACC really represents the companies that do engineering in Florida. Originally, ACC when it was formed was a practice session of FeS it was the the it was it was known as Feiss. And it represented the companies within FES. But nationally the American Council of Engineering Companies has member organizations throughout the states. And over the years, we've transitioned within Florida to really align ourselves with the American Council, the National Council of Engineering Companies. But again, we really represent the business of engineering the companies that our that deliver projects and and, and are in the engineering space. And our focus is on bettering the built the business of engineering more so than just the the engineering disciplines itself.
Sam Yates:Seven regions around the state of Florida if I recall,
Scott Martin:that's right. It's mostly aligned the way the DoD breaks or returns up to because we're you have a lot of what we're not trying to find we're not only a transportation company, a lot of our groups because we have a very strong relationship and interface with the Ford a D O T, a lot of the groups that belong to us do so to have that take advantage that interface. So we are heavily D O T. A lot of our members are D O T involved, but not primarily. A
Sam Yates:all right, Scott, you'll have to keep me posted because one of the things that I'm watching for I'm both the DOT angle and also some of my DOD and Air Force past history... verta ports. I know in intermodal transportation, we have airports, we have reliever airports, somewhere in there, Berta ports are going to be a significant factor. And we have not even touched on background on that. But verta ports in our future, correct?
Scott Martin:Absolutely. I was in I happen to be in New York a few years ago, walking down on Wall Street. And it was it was when a company called Joby was was ringing the bell on Wall Street and going public for the first time. And they had a full scale mock up of one of their drones is basically the best way to describe it as an Uber for like a drone, Uber. So it has four propellers, it would take off, it's got four seats in it. But it's coming. I mean, the industry is there, the technology is there, a lot of the big aviation groups are investing in these companies that are looking to provide these flying drones for people. But it's definitely coming in another state this year starting to look at rules and laws to help regulate that state.
Sam Yates:Ionic propulsion. That's all I will say I've got some things up my sleeve that we'll be covering in the future. But you know, that's all fascinating. And it's really something that we all keep on our on our toes, because technology is always developing. But even as we speak, our legislative leaders are in Tallahassee, and they're looking at engineering from a different vantage point. And that is, how can engineers help prevent what happened at surf side, we're coming up on the anniversary of the surf side, condo collapse. But what's happening in that arena, because I know you're involved.
Scott Martin:Thanks for teeing up that. Yeah, we've been involved. And I think the legislature doesn't do anything by themselves. They're not a lot of them come from different backgrounds, and not all lawyers, but they do count on the industry to help inform them on what laws need to be passed. And that's what happened a couple of years ago. Last year, the governor signed into law, what was called Senate Bill 40 At the time, but that was the condo Safety Inspection Act. And that was based on a white paper. That's a group that I was involved in, and I was the chair of what we called the Surfside working group. We published a white paper that really explained to the state what needed to happen. It was a working group that the leadership at FeS and ACC brought together, we brought together industry professionals from the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Florida Structural Engineers Association, the American Institute of Architects, the concrete repair Institute, and I feel like I'm even one i in the building officials of Florida, we brought all these professionals together and really talked through as building professionals, what needed to happen to prevent this from happening again. And so we put together a white paper that the legislature used heavily in drafting Senate Bill 40. So a lot of the language around phase one and phase two inspections, getting building professionals and they're looking at the buildings on certain timeframes which Miami Dade and Broward County already had this program in place to do something very similar. But making this a statewide initiative so that there's there's no question that the buildings we live in, in Florida should be considered safe. And there, there won't be a questions from the insurance industry like have popped up over the last few years on if they can insure the buildings in Florida because they want to make they want to have some, they want to have some kind of surety that the buildings that they're insuring are structurally sound.
Sam Yates:And I think that's also where the National Institute of Standards and Technology comes in.
Scott Martin:Because we really don't have anything. We look at it very seriously here in Florida, because we're used to hurricanes and other things. But from a national standpoint there, there really needs to be some sort of standard for buildings to monitor them and make sure that they are solved. And most sophisticated owners understand them. They do that themselves. And you mentioned the NIS T, they're very much like the NTSB or after a collapse, they're going to come in and look at it. And they're going to spend years looking at every single piece of what happened and make sure that the public knows why that happened. The same thing happening happened after 911 with the Trade Towers and I asked you look at it. But that's totally retroactive proactively, we want to be at ahead of ADD, and I think we do have in Florida, one of the strongest building codes in the country. But we absolutely engineers, building professionals that we all look at it constantly to make sure we stay on top of the latest technologies, and we keep the latest technologies informing how we design our buildings.
Sam Yates:You know, and I have to say for our audience, sometimes I do a little aside just to share a little information. I look out my window here on the banks of the St. Lucie River in Stuart, Florida on the east coast of Florida and I'm looking at a bridge it's the Roosevelt bridge over the St. Lucie River. And people drive over that bridge each and every day. It had a Problem number of months ago, they don't realize that there are acoustic monitors inside the core of that bridge decking to make sure that if there are any changes happening that could jeopardize the structural integrity of that bridge, a warning goes out and you know, sometimes behind the scenes engineers are working in ways that most normal people don't even know about.
Scott Martin:I think one of our one of our slogans that we've tried to use with FES is engineering the the everyday and the extraordinary. And it's it's not just the really cool buildings, it's not just the fascinating things, but it's when the water comes on and your tap when the toilet flushes. That's all based on the the engineering infrastructure that that we as a society and as a species have developed over the last few 1000 years.
Sam Yates:When that white paper that you referenced came out, I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. Because it interests me as a former news person, and some people say once I, a reporter, always a reporter. But so many questions were left out there after the Champlain tower collapse and another white paper that I came across it I guess I should clarify it. In calling it a white paper, it was called a white paper on speculation that and went into speculative details that perhaps one of the factors, not the factor, but a factor for the Champlain tower collapse could have been a change in climate causing a sea level rise, and therefore the water, the freshwater on top of sea water, corrupted some of the structural integrity. Nothing is left unturned when it comes to investigations like this is that a fair statement?
Scott Martin:That's why the NIST spends years doing this, and they have at least seven or eight teams looking at different facets of, of what could have been the cause that could be one with any kind of structural collapse, and whenever that whenever a collapse happens, that's usually when you hear about structural engineers on what caused it. There's very, very often more than one thing that happens, and I'm sure that's going to be the case at the NIS T is going to figure out the situation. Usually, it's not one thing, and I would, I would I'll go out and say that it wasn't just climate change. There were a lot of problems with with a lot of buildings in Florida. But by no means is it is it purely that but climate change is definitely affecting a lot of a lot of what we see as people living in the state, I would think that it's a lot more relevant to issues like the strength of hurricanes and the frequency of hurricanes and sea level rise and storm surge and some of the problems that came to the state based after Hurricane Ian, I would say that sea level rise and climate change had a much bigger part to play there than on the Champlain towers collapse.
Sam Yates:You know, they know that the NISD in particular, as recent as October November timeframe of 2022 is still saying to anybody in Florida, or wherever you might be from if you have photographs or video before that collapse, please share it with us because they want to establish that database. And and that's very much what engineering is all about creating something that you can look into and pull the fluids out is exactly what what happens. But what happens now to all those other buildings that we have in the state, as far as inspections, are they auto scheduled? I know Miami Dade, but what about everything else on a scheduled to be inspected? Well, most owners like you know, some of the big owners like power companies, Disney airports, commercial office owners, they understand that the buildings that buildings need maintenance over time, we can only do so much when we build a building to begin with. But over time, if a building is going to last 60-70 years, you've got to have professionals out there looking at it and making sure that all the systems that were installed 60 years ago, are still doing what they're supposed to be doing. And that's not just the structure of the building. It's also the enclosure, the envelope, making sure water doesn't get inside the building and cause damage. So most building owners know that the challenge has been and really where Champlain's hours falls in is you've got condo owners who are not just one owner, and not sophisticated in knowing exactly how buildings work, their homeowners and they they may not have been there when the built the condo was built. They may have bought it but when the building was 30 years old, and they're inheriting a lot of lack of maintenance over the years. So it's what the Senate and the legislature tried to do this last year was put in place rules for condos because that's really where it seems there's the gap and building ownership and maintaining your buildings and giving them some rules to have building professionals come in and look at the buildings and we're not there yet. There's still there's still some bill language being cleaned up this year. There's some there's some tweaks that are going to happen to what was passed. Last Last year was Senate Bill four D. But I feel like we're gonna get there as a state. I think we're talking about it in the right ways. I think we're over the last year as as the bill was passed, I think a lot of the right questions are being asked. And we're going to end up with a system in place that will make all the buildings in Florida much more safe in the decades to come. A little sidebar to what you were just saying about condo owners being home owners who happen to live in a building that is stacked up. interesting interview with a developer, a capital investment company, developer in Dade County recently, and they as a capital company looking to continue a multibillion dollar building surge in the Dade County area, are looking at those aged condos that may need repair may need something and the individual condo tenants don't either know how to do it can't afford it or don't have the interest and they're buying them and repurposing them. So the big question, I guess that comes up when and if they rebuild, they will have to rebuild to current viable standards, not what we did some 30-40 years ago.
Scott Martin:That's right. And the building code these days is a lot. When I started doing this back in the 90s, the southern standard building code much of Florida used was maybe one two inches thick and not afford a building code is much bigger than add volumes. And again, we update codes to represent the best knowledge we've got about how building should go together from all aspects. So anything built currently, is going to be much more able to withstand this current environment than anything built that was 3040 years old.
Sam Yates:You know, as we're doing our interview, sometimes I always wait to the last minute to say, Scott, I know that there may be people listening right now, who are members of the Florida Engineering Society or this program gets passed on to many different outlets. So there could be someone right now that says, hey, I want to reach out to Scott because his company is that single source that I want to partner with to do my next project? How do they do that?
Scott Martin:You can get us through our website. And we again, we've got offices all over the country. So if you're listening to this, and you're not necessarily in Florida, we've got offices in all over the southeast, the southern south or west coast, East Coast. So we'll be more.com is the best way to find out about us. And there's contact links on there for our local market leaders in different different markets. That's the best way to get ahold of us.
Sam Yates:Next question is an easy one. I hope I haven't been burned out on it yet. Would you be able to come back for a future episode?
Scott Martin:Absolutely. I'd love to for ACEC. Some of these individual engineers may be part of a larger firm, they should be part of your organization. How to do that. ACEC of Florida is AC E C. F l.org is our new website that we ramped up last year. It's been revamped. But you can contact us through that. And you can join the organization through that. And we're really looking forward to bringing more engineering firms together. One thing we didn't really touch on yet is one thing we're trying to do as FeS and ACC this year is to bring other organizations together. The Surfside working group, having all those groups come together and have an impactful work product that was able to inform the public and the legislature what should be done after Surfside. We really want to build off that momentum. And so we're starting a new journal called engineering Florida. It's a partnership not just with ACC and FeS, but also with a few other engineering organizations. ASC is a part of that FSCA SNPs, A S, H, E, and a few others. So look for that across the state. If you're willing to if you're interested in partnering with us finding out more about that that'll be online in the coming months. And again, ACC Florida that or ACC fl.org It's a great way to find out more about ACC of Florida.
Sam Yates:Scott, I want you to know I'm doing my part as a Board of Director representative for the Gold Coast Builders Association of trying to bring builders within our organization together with the engineering side of things. I think that creating the dialogue is something that is tremendously important. So I have volunteered to do my part. And I'm hoping to continue to do that before we wrap up because I always keep a close eye on time because that is very important for everyone. Hurricanes, I know you said you could come back at a future. Sure so but we have a lot to talk about hurricanes among them
Scott Martin:no problem but I think hurricanes in general it's it's a it's a growing risk. I mean it's always been a risk in Florida but I think the way we've developed a state and you can you can look at it from a lot of different ways from from clearing mangroves to put development end to building on barrier right Orleans to, to the infrastructure that we have built to keep storm surge out and things like that. I think as as climate change continues to have a growing impact on the intensity of storms, I think we're going to figure a lot more out and we're going to take a lot more proactive. We'll make a lot more proactive changes to hopefully change how we're building the state to keep. Keep more not just live safe, but property safe.
Sam Yates:Just another extraordinary duty of engineers in Florida with an engineer extraordinaire Scott Martin, ladies and gentlemen, we've learned an awful lot again in our program today. Scott, thank you for being here.
Unknown:Appreciate it, Sam. Thanks for having me.
Sam Yates:Until our next episode of the Florida Engineering Society, Engineering Florida. I'm your host, Sam Yates. Have a great day everybody. Thanks for listening to another informative episode of the engineering Florida podcast. Our goal is to help educate and inform everyone who listens to our podcast about our members and topics of interest to the Florida Engineering Society. On behalf of the Florida Engineering Society, and the Engineering Florida podcast, have a great day everybody