Holistic Thinking for Multidisciplinary Design Solutions

Designers of building HVAC systems do not act in a void but rather in a community of design and construction professionals who are all dedicated to the success of a given project. We can better contribute to this success when we understand the perspectives of our partners and can articulate our own technical parameters in a way that looks for synergy without strife. This session will draw on the speaker’s two decades of experience as a design leader of teams with up to a dozen different analytical disciplines. The talk starts by introducing the idea of unconscious bias built into our professional world view by our academic and specialist training and then turns to tips for transcending that bias to develop design empathy and proactive working relationships. By exploring a series of short case studies involving interface and coordination between architectural, structural, civil, MEP, façade, acoustics, fire and sustainability disciplines working in the building design context, the audience will be able to better recognize the needs and design sensibilities of our partners outside of the HVAC field.

Meet the Speaker: Erin McConahey

Erin McConahey is a Principal in Mechanical Engineering with Arup, an employee-owned global engineering, advisory and planning consulting firm. During her 26 years with Arup, she has worked internationally and now leads multidisciplinary design teams in Los Angeles on a wide variety of project types.

Erin’s passion for finding integrated design solutions through a collaborative design process began with a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Master’s degree in Structural Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley. As she rose in leadership within her firm, she served on Arup’s global Trustee Board, was named an Arup Fellow for her technical excellence, spearheaded the Americas Region Diversity and Inclusion Initiative, and served on the leadership teams for a number of training programs. These service opportunities, coupled with growing concern over climate change, led her to a second Master’s degree in Ethical Leadership from Claremont Lincoln University.

Erin is a Professional Engineer in California and Colorado, a LEED accredited professional (BD+C specialty), an ASHRAE accredited High Performance Building Design Professional, and a Fellow of the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-conditioning Engineers. She is co-author of the ASHRAE Natural Ventilation Design Guide and writes semi-annually for the Engineer’s Notebook column in ASHRAE Journal. In the latter capacity, she has emphasized the link between mechanical engineers’ “skills for this decade” to the wider global trends around the carbon economy, healthy materials, and sustainable development.