Armand Harpin, Director of Federal Healthcare at IMEG, joins this episode to discuss the firm’s extensive work with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Defense Health Agency (DHA), and Indian Health Services. Under Armand’s leadership, IMEG has been ranked the top Veterans Affairs engineering firm by BD+C Magazine.

“We serve the VA across probably 75 percent of the campuses throughout the country,” Armand says. These projects span a range of services, from facility condition assessments and master planning to infrastructure upgrades like boiler and chiller plants. “We've also spent a great deal of time over the last few years and are still involved in electronic health record projects for the VA,” Armand adds.

For most of the firm’s federal healthcare projects, IMEG collaborates closely with more than 20 service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses—partnerships that are extremely valued. “It’s a real pleasure to support those architectural and AE firms,” says Armand. On larger projects, those $100 million and above, the firm partners with national AEC firms across the country.

Armand says the federal healthcare market is currently experiencing a transitional period, with shake-ups in leadership within the VA’s Office of Construction and Facilities Management (OCFM). “They’ve lost their senior director, they’ve lost a good portion of their associate directors, and so they're in the process of rebuilding,” he says. This comes as the VA continues to face major issues with its building stock; most VA facilities are 50 to 60 years old, creating significant operational challenges. “It’s becoming more and more difficult... to provide for today’s healthcare needs,” Armand says. Some major campuses, he adds, are being “decanted,” with their services being moved to leased, community-based outpatient clinics in more population-dense areas. “That’s called ‘commercialization,’ and it's been a critical piece for bringing services and positive outcomes to veterans in underserved areas.”

Speed and efficiency in project delivery have become top priorities, with Armand citing increased use of design-build and integrated delivery approaches to accelerate project timelines. One such example is a $600 million healthcare center project in El Paso, Texas, currently being executed by IMEG in partnership with Clark Construction.

Armand has been involved in the federal healthcare market for many years and his work in the sector hits close to home. “My brother served in the Air Force. My father served as a Marine... and passed away in the VA hospital in San Diego,” he says. “This is an incredibly personal mission.”

His passion also dovetails with IMEG’s stated purpose to create positive outcomes for people, communities, and the planet.

“It’s a mission of stewardship, of accountability, and trying to provide the healthcare outcomes that VA and active military patients need,” he says.

This episode of The Future Built Smarter examines parametric engineering, which transforms design from a static, linear process to a dynamic, adaptive one. “By leveraging specialized 3D software like Rhino, Grasshopper, and Karamba, engineers can create flexible and intelligent design models that respond instantly to changes in parameters as opposed to building a model using fixed dimensions,” says Michael Kilkelly. A member of IMEG’s Innovation Team, Michael has been working with others on a new structural service for clients that has just been launched: Project SPEED, which stands for Structural Parametric Engineering for Efficient Design.

“Building owners want projects delivered on a shorter timeline than ever before,” says Michael. “Traditional design processes, however, are not well suited to this reality, especially for structural engineers, for whom complexity and time are two of the biggest challenges. As a result, engineers often can’t fully explore the breadth of possible solutions, one of which might better meet a project’s goals. Parametric engineering allows engineers to create lightweight structural design models, very quickly make changes, test the design, and iterate quickly.”

Instead of taking a few days using the traditional design process, parametric engineering enables engineers and clients to instantaneously see the feasibility and impact of changes—moving shear walls, changing bay sizes, using concrete or mass timber versus steel, etc.—as well as the resulting impacts on material cost and embodied carbon. “So instead of, ‘It'll take us two days to get back to you,’ it's ‘Let's look at it right now.’ It becomes a much more interactive, collaborative process.”

Watch a video on parametric engineering and learn more on the IMEG blog.

This episode of The Future Built Smarter examines modern high performance computing facilities and the opportunity to use their waste heat as an energy source.

“High performance facilities for computing are different than what most people would consider a data center,” says Brandon Fortier, IMEG's Director of Science and Technology. “Data centers serve general purpose IT needs for a building or a company, things like web hosting, cloud storage capabilities, et cetera. High performance facilities for computing serve more of a scientific or other research need. They use significantly more computing power because they're doing things like climate modeling or machine learning for AI.”

Such energy-intensive AI deep learning computing requires an intense amount of cooling, which generates a significant amount of waste heat. In the right locations—such as on a healthcare, higher education, or federal campus, as well as private research campuses—this heat can be recovered and pushed into district energy systems for use in the heating of neighboring buildings, greatly supporting overall sustainability and greenhouse gas reduction goals in the process.

“These high performance data centers definitely produce a lot of heat,” says Ken Urbanek, a client executive in IMEG’s Denver office. “On the other hand, that's a great energy source. Let's grab that source energy from that data center and push that into the campus.”

Ken provides several real-life examples of leveraging such an energy source, from an East Coast university that is planning to condition millions of square feet across its campus to more niche examples such as conditioning greenhouses in colder climates and even warming a pond at a trout farm.

“There are a lot of synergies out there,” Ken says. For a campus, he adds, “as you're looking to decarbonize and you're looking at various options, part of that exercise should be if a data center makes sense… There's not a research facility, whether it's on a healthcare, academic, or other campus, that probably can't find a business case to say, ‘How can we utilize advanced AI to help further our research?’

Now you just have to say, ‘Where on this campus can we find 10, 15, 20 megawatts of power?’ In your decarbonization plan, you might be pulling that energy anyway. And better to put it into AI and utilize it for research than to put it into heat pumps or some sort of electric generation system.”

This episode of The Future Built Smarter explores the evolving landscape of healthcare design and engineering with guest Eric Vandenbroucke, Vice President of Healthcare at IMEG. “2025 started with a lot of optimism, but it’s definitely been a roller coaster,” he says.

Despite uncertainty in the market amid potential federal reductions in Medicare reimbursements, Eric says many healthcare clients remain focused on sustainability initiatives. “Healthcare contributes about 5 percent of global emissions,” he says. “Owners are committed to reducing their carbon.” Resiliency and future proofing are also critical. From extreme weather to human threats, resilience demands a layered approach, including redundant power, onsite water storage, and cybersecurity. Vulnerability assessments set the stage for creating future-proof plans. “The biggest thing we can help clients with is understanding the state of their building or campus and what its vulnerabilities are,” Eric says. “Healthcare facilities need to be operational—period.”

Security is a top concern as well, especially in the wake of increasing threats like active shooter incidents. “We take a holistic approach,” says Eric, stressing that security requires much more than just cameras and guards. Key additional components of an all-encompassing security plan include employing the principles of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) and personnel training, including tabletop exercises. "No one wants to deal with these events, but being prepared makes a huge difference," Eric says.

Technology, of course, is the main driver of innovation for healthcare facility operations, clinical operations, and delivery of care—all of which need to communicate with each other and be interoperable. “We’ve moved beyond siloed systems to a smart system approach,” says Eric. “Alarms, patient monitoring, building automation systems, command centers, medical records, real-time location solutions, robotics—all of those things and more have to work together.”

As for artificial intelligence (AI), Eric says, “Where we are at right now in the industry is just the tip of the iceberg. Our clients are now using AI for clinical documentation, predictive analysis, optimizing their revenue cycle, using chatbots for scheduling, triage, and patient education. On the AEC side, AI is going to be a big tool for design assist. At IMEG we've developed our own AI system that helps us increase our design efficiency and accuracy. We've also developed many tools within Revit and Power BI to help with that efficiency and accuracy, and with coordination. And we continue to grow and expand the use of our virtual reality and augmented reality tools. It’s all very exciting.

“Technology and trends are going to continue to influence healthcare care moving forward. That’s one of the cool things about healthcare: It’s never the same. It's always evolving.”

This episode of The Future Built Smarter features Robbie Jones, an IMEG project executive and mechanical engineer who led the firm’s design of the new Advanced Engineering Building at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas—ENR’s 2024 Best of the Best Project in the higher education/research category.

The Advanced Engineering Building (AEB), located in the university’s “Innovation Corridor,” is designed to foster innovation and interdisciplinary collaboration within UNLV’s Howard R. Hughes College of Engineering. The AEB supports growing enrollment, education, and research in robotics, cybersecurity, biomedical engineering, energy and water, and artificial intelligence. The three-story, 52,000-sf building features wet and dry labs, classrooms, a maker space, an outdoor aviary for drone testing, and a flexible auditorium or “flexatorium” that can be used as a lecture hall or event space.

IMEG provided MEP and technology design for the facility, which also will aid start-ups in Nevada’s growing tech industry. To ensure the MEP design would meet the needs of the university, Robbie, a UNLV engineering graduate, met with several engineering department faculty members—some of whom had been his professors when he was a student.

“Never in a hundred years would I have thought that I would be designing an engineering building for UNLV,” says Robbie. “I was excited about doing it, and it was a cool thing for me … kind of a feather in my hat. I've done some billion-dollar gaming projects, and I think this is one of my favorite buildings.”

Read the IMEG case study to see photographs of the AEB and learn more about the engineering design. For a tour of the building, watch this UNLV video.

In this episode of The Future Built Smarter, Abby Coleman discusses IMEG’s use of immersive extended reality experiences, 1,300 of which were provided by the firm to project stakeholders in 2024. “Extended reality is an umbrella term for virtual reality and augmented reality,” says Abby. “I essentially use those technologies to help our clients and engineers visualize their design before anything is even built.”

As IMEG’s Innovation Extended Reality Specialist, Abby also incorporates VR and AR technology into the firm’s engineering workflow to revolutionize the design process and bolster IMEG project team collaboration. “Whether reviewing a critical space or evaluating workflows, both the engineers and clients will be able to make confident and well-deformed decisions,” she says. Overall, she adds, immersive experiences help accelerate the decision-making process, reduce the number of costly revisions, and optimize project outcomes.

IMEG’s immersive experiences are utilized in many markets and for different purposes. Among the 1,300 experiences of the past year, Abby singles out an experience in which IMEG designers “sat” on a hospital bed within a 3D model of a patient room to determine the optimal size and number of footwall digital display screens, based on the patient point of view. In a similar vein, higher education project stakeholders “sat” in various locations of a conference room 3D model to determine the best locations and number of projector screens, again based on the end users’ perspective. And in an augmented reality experience, an engineer inside an existing mechanical room saw how a new chiller and its piping, as designed, would fit in the space.

Floor plans, the AEC industry’s traditional medium for communicating designs to clients, cannot truly represent a space. IMEG’s immersive experiences, however, are created using the firm’s robust 3D models, which provide spatial awareness and understanding. “When we're able to put a client in a headset, some of the feedback is like, ‘Wow, now I understand this design. I know how it feels.’ “

In the future, Abby foresees every engineer having a VR headset on their desk and “essentially just using that on design from start to finish.” She also expects to see “VR more heavily incorporated with our client engagement,” with the annual number of stakeholder immersions exceeding last year’s 1,300 experiences. She bases her predictions on extended reality’s proven ability to bridge the communication gap between designers and clients.

As she says, “I believe that VR is a universal language of design.”

Watch IMEG extended reality experience videos of a patient room, conference room, and job site.

This episode of The Future Built Smarter—one in a series of conversations with IMEG’s market leaders—examines the industrial and manufacturing sector with Mike Walsh, Senior Director of Industrial. The teams under his leadership work on a broad range of projects from aerospace to wastewater treatment facilities. "The diversity of our work is what makes it exciting—every project has its own set of challenges and opportunities," he says.

Challenges currently facing industrial and manufacturing clients include speed to market (proper planning is critical to avoid delays that can cost companies millions); talent shortages (a lack of skilled professionals affects both operations and project execution); and technology integration (AI, automation, and robotics are becoming essential in addressing labor shortages and improving efficiency). "We’re seeing more companies invest in automation, not just to improve efficiency, but to fill the gaps left by labor shortages," Mike says.

Ensuring reliable access to power—a topic Mike examines in an IMEG blog post—also is critical for industrial and manufacturing owners. This is due to several factors affecting the power grid: increased demand due to population growth and electrification; increased power consumption by high-computing AI and data centers; aging infrastructure; severe weather impacts; and long lead times for major electrical equipment. "Securing enough power to support operations is one of the biggest challenges companies face today,” Mike says. “If you’re not thinking about power availability early in your planning process, you could be in for a long and costly wait.” To avoid such delays, he advises clients to evaluate power availability early in their project planning—ideally before purchasing land.

The challenges and opportunities in the rapidly developing industrial market make it imperative for owners to take a proactive approach, Mike says. This will enable them to stay ahead of the curve and build smarter, more sustainable operations. "The companies that succeed will be the ones that embrace change and invest in the right strategies today."

This episode examines the Missouri Botanical Garden’s new Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center in St. Louis, winner of ENR’s National 2024 Best of the Best Project Award in the cultural category. The LEED Gold project houses an event center, gift shop, meeting spaces, restaurant, and auditorium, and included the renovation of the historic Linnean House, the oldest continuously operated public greenhouse west of the Mississippi. Insight into the project is provided by guests Zach Carter of IMEG and Deniz Piskin, Vice President for Facilities and Construction at the Missouri Botanical Garden.

The decision to build the new center was largely driven by continual growth in the number of annual visitors; last year 1.3 million people visited the Garden, far more than the previous center could have comfortably accommodated. “The way the original visitor center was constructed, there were a lot of little bottlenecks in getting visitors through the center and into the garden,” Deniz says.

The overall visitor experience was the other focus of the project. In addition to the vastly improved entrance and its accessibility, upon entering the new center, visitors are immersed in natural light as they view the exterior gardens through the facility’s south wall of windows. An architectural lantern, or skylight, in the lobby includes a custom-designed scrim perforated in a pattern inspired by tree canopies. These and many other biophilic elements bring the outdoors in. “Everywhere you look, there's something related to nature,” says Deniz.

Hidden from sight are the mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection, and technology systems designed by IMEG. Key features include a 50,000-gallon rainwater collection cistern to provide water for the plants in the greenhouse (botanical garden staff consider rain “liquid gold”); displacement ventilation/natural stratification in the 50-foot tall lobby to improve occupant comfort; rooftop solar arrays; and a generator devoted to providing backup power to maintain the appropriate climate for the greenhouse, which features a variety of plants from the Mediterranean.

Collaboration among all stakeholders was integral to the design-assist project, which was completed in multiple phases and included the construction of a temporary visitor center to keep the Garden open to visitors throughout construction.

Deniz advises other organizations contemplating such a milestone project to “start with a clear understanding of what your goals and objectives are and check back throughout the design process to ensure you are not deviating from your goals. That's what this team did. We always kept in mind our visitors, always kept in mind the visitor experience.”

See photos of the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center and read the IMEG project case study. For further information and photographs, read this feature published by Metropolis.