I do miss Engineering.
I passed by my old medical campus today, taking my oldest son to get some stitches removed (it was icy runoff in the road, he's fine). He was asking me about the demolition taking place, and the buildings on the campus. I spun "fascinating" tales about the systems and equipment and buildings and realize how much I miss the trouble-shooting and intricacy of the systems we worked with at the hospital. I do also miss my mentor, Jim. He was the mechanical engineer with whom I worked most closely.
He'd throw out relevant information and I'd flip (or click) through all of the applicable plans rapidly, until I detected the information he was seeking.
The combinations of buildings and their subsequent renovation projects means that a lot of research goes into any fix for an MEPFP problem.
I had to be adept at organizing and drawing information from hundreds of CAD projects and dozens of BIM submittals (don't get me started on the paper archives dating back over 100 years).
I had many internal users to supply information to (see article, What Do Owners Want With BIM?), and countless architects, engineers, contractors and subs to supply existing conditions documentation to.
Archiving projects, then migrating the pertinent comments to a set of "working" or "existing conditions" documents was always a challenge, especially when the project management team (for new construction and renovations) does not pay attention to the electronic submittal/close out portion of their projects. They have many demands upon their attention, which is why the responsible party on the Facilities side *must* be a vocal advocate for mindfulness in this area.
The takeaway? Always talk to ALL stakeholders and ask why they need what they're asking for... don't make assumptions and blow off stated or implied expectations.
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