This episode features IMEG civil project manager Matt Pohlhaus in a discussion on how artificial intelligence is transforming site design. Based in the Washington, D.C., metro area, Matt leads land use and civil engineering projects across Maryland and West Virginia. Increasingly, he says, AI is becoming as much a part of his toolkit as CAD software or site surveys.

“We use artificial intelligence daily,” Matt explains, describing how it’s woven into tasks both big and small—from communication to design. “If you’ve ever been stuck trying to get some language out the right way, just throwing a few prompts into ChatGPT or something similar” can result in a “very well-worded email” and freeing up time, he says.

On the conceptual side, his team is utilizing AI-driven generative design software. With just a site location and a few inputs, the program quickly produces fully fleshed-out site layouts. “When a client asks, ‘Can we put a 60,000-square-foot grocery store on this site?’ I can now show them in minutes,” Matt says. In the past, that answer might have taken days of drafting and another round of meetings.

The ability to test ideas in real time with clients has proven invaluable.

“The coolest thing about it is everything updates on the fly,” Matt says. He describes meetings where clients ask to move a building across the site or add a parking garage—what once required rescheduling is now an instant adjustment. “It becomes a lot more conversational,” he says. “I think clients tend to see us more as a partner than just a consultant drawing lines on a screen.”

A medical office building project, for example, completely shifted direction during a single meeting. The client had arrived with a looping driveway design they thought was final, but after moving the building within the AI model, the layout quickly evolved into something more straightforward, visible, and cost-efficient. “That was probably a 20-minute conversation,” Matt says. “And the scheme they ended up moving forward with was completely different from what they came in thinking they were going to do.”

Another project—an industrial site tied to a rail line—showed off the software’s deeper analytical power. The developer wanted to run railroad tracks into the property, but when Matt layered in topographical data, a problem appeared immediately: the proposed line ran over a 30-foot cliff. “If anyone’s been on a train before, they don’t go up and down hills all that well,” he says. By shifting the entry point half a mile, the team avoided an impossible design and a change that in the past might have taken weeks of back-and-forth.

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.