Articles

By Michael Anderson, EIT

Growing up, I always had a passion for math and science. I wasn’t sure exactly what career path I wanted to take, but in high school I was introduced to the world of engineering and had my first experience working with AutoCAD. One of the first things I drafted was a Batman symbol that I was able to make with a 3D printer. It was a pretty small application with no real-world use, unless you happen to be the masked vigilante of Gotham, but I thought it was really cool that I could draw something on a computer and then have it come to life.

That experience helped me realize engineering could be a good career path for me. I enjoyed drafting and creating things, but I was also interested in finding solutions to environmental problems. That led me to environmental engineering. When I started my career at Prein&Newhof, I wasn’t sure exactly where I would fit. I was an environmental engineer working at a primarily civil engineering company, and I still wanted to find a way to use my background to help solve environmental problems.

About two years into my career at P&N, I was introduced to site development, and I quickly realized it was a great fit. Site development combined my interest in CAD and the construction side of engineering with some of the environmental work that drew me to the profession in the first place. Stormwater management is a big part of that. When a new project is developed, we have to think about how it will change runoff from the property and make sure the design doesn’t negatively impact the surrounding areas.

I also quickly learned how much detail goes into designing a site development project. We start with a building footprint and then work with the owner and architect to figure out how that building should reasonably fit onto the site. From there, there are a lot of pieces that have to come together, including site grading, stormwater management, and the design of underground utilities such as storm, water, and sanitary mains. It is also very much a team effort. One of the things I like about our site group is that everyone touches the plans. You may take the lead on one portion of the design, but you are still coordinating with a team and utilizing specific strengths from each member.

One of my first site development projects was MSU’s new Dairy Cattle Teaching and Research Center, which was especially memorable because Michigan State is my alma mater. Prein&Newhof worked with TowerPinkster on the site design, and I had the opportunity to work on a little bit of everything as the plans developed, with my main focus being the utility layout and profiles. The project helped me understand how connected every part of site design is. Where you place a building affects utilities. Utilities affect grading. Grading affects drainage and stormwater management. A change in one place can create changes somewhere else in the plans. That carries over to the way we work with other disciplines, too.

Projects typically move through schematic design, design development, and construction documents, and the design is constantly evolving throughout those phases. Civil engineers are coordinating with architects, structural engineers, and mechanical and electrical disciplines, and everyone may be at a slightly different point in their design. The civil portion of a project often needs to be ready for bidding while other pieces are still being finalized. Because of that, you have to expect that your initial design is probably going to change.

That was something I had to get used to early in my career. It can be discouraging to spend time developing a design and then find out that something has changed and you need to adjust it. Over time, I learned that this is just part of private development. Being flexible and knowing how to pivot have become a big part of the job. Sometimes that means reacting quickly to a change. Other times, it means knowing when to put the pencil down and allow another discipline to catch up before moving too far ahead. I’ve found that I really enjoy that coordination. You get to work with people from different disciplines, each looking at a project from a different perspective, and eventually all of those pieces come together into one final design.

Nearly ten years into my career, I’ve moved on from drafting Batman symbols to drafting sites for buildings. The projects are obviously a little more complicated now, but one of the things I enjoy most about engineering is still the same. You can start with lines on a computer screen and eventually see something you helped design come to life.

By Zac Culbert, PE

I didn’t set out to be a civil engineer. When I started college, I was looking at computer engineering, then electrical, and honestly, I changed my major three times in one semester before landing on civil. What finally clicked was pretty simple—I like building things. I like seeing something go from a plan on paper to a real structure that people use every day. Civil engineering gave me that.

What I didn’t expect was how much more the profession had to offer beyond the work itself.

Early in my career, I joined the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). If I’m honest, I walked into my first meeting not knowing a single person in the room. I didn’t have a strategy or a networking plan. I just showed up. And that turned out to be the most important career decision I’ve made outside of choosing my discipline.

Here’s what I learned pretty quickly: joining an organization and being involved in an organization are two very different things. A lot of people sign up, attend a meeting here and there, and call it good. I get it—we’re all busy, we all have projects and deadlines and families pulling at our time. But the real value doesn’t come from sitting in the back row at a luncheon. It comes from raising your hand when someone asks who wants to help with the next event. It comes from volunteering for a committee before you feel ready for it.

That’s exactly what I did. I asked what needed to be done, and I did it. No one handed me a roadmap. I just kept showing up, kept saying yes, and before I knew it, I was helping shape the direction of our chapter. The relationships I built through that process—with peers at other firms, with clients I never would’ve crossed paths with on a project, with seasoned engineers who’d been in the profession for decades—those relationships changed the trajectory of my career.

The other thing that surprised me was how much I didn’t know about my own profession. Civil engineering isn’t one thing. It’s dozens of disciplines under one umbrella—water resources, transportation, structural, geotechnical, environmental, and more. Through ASCE, I got to hear from engineers working in areas I’d barely considered. It broadened my understanding of what civil engineering actually looks like and gave me a much deeper appreciation for the work happening across the industry.

That’s a big part of why I’ve gotten involved with student outreach at Western Michigan University. I go back to campus and talk to students about what this career actually looks like from the field, not just the classroom. Some of those students are in the same spot I was—not entirely sure which direction to go, maybe second-guessing their choice, wondering if engineering is really for them. I tell them what I wish someone had told me: don’t knock it until you try it. The uncertainty isn’t a problem. It’s part of the process. You will miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.

And somewhere in that room, there’s going to be a student who connects with what you’re saying. Maybe they hadn’t considered civil engineering before. Maybe they were about to change their major for the third time. If your experience helps one person find their direction, that alone is worth every minute you spent getting there.

Industry trends are showing that younger professionals are attending conference sessions during the day, and then back to their hotel room for the night. I get it—I get the pull—your phone is right there, your laptop is right there and socializing with people you don’t know feels like a lot after a full day. But here’s what I’d ask you to consider: the engineers sitting at that dinner or standing around at that reception have been doing this work for 30 or 40 years. They have knowledge that doesn’t exist in a manual or a webinar. They learned it by doing it, by getting it wrong, by figuring it out in the field. And when they retire—and they are retiring—that knowledge walks out the door with them.

The only way to access that experience is through real conversation. Face to face. Not through a screen. Those hallway conversations and post-session dinners are where the real learning happens, and that window is closing. If anything, your generation has an opportunity to shape what professional organizations look like going forward. But you’ve got to be in the room to do it. You’ve got to stay for the dinner.

So, if you’re a young engineer reading this—or even a mid-career professional who’s been meaning to get more involved—here’s my advice. Don’t just join an organization. Get on a committee. Volunteer to help with an event. Sign up to present at a luncheon or speak at a student activity. It doesn’t have to be a keynote at a national conference. Talk about what you know. Share what you’ve learned. That’s enough.

The hardest part is walking through the door the first time. After that, it gets easier. And the return on that investment—in your career, in your network, in your understanding of the profession—will be more than you expected.

I know, because I’ve lived it.

By Jackie Steinbruch, SHRM-CP, PHR

Each summer, Prein&Newhof welcomes a new group of interns into our offices and project teams. For students, an internship is a chance to take what they have learned in the classroom and see how it applies to real projects. For us, it is an opportunity to introduce future professionals to the work we do and help them better understand where their interests may take them.

As the person who coordinates our summer internship program, one of the most rewarding parts of the experience is watching students grow over the course of a few months. They arrive with different levels of experience and different ideas about what their future careers might look like. By the end of the summer, they have had the chance to work alongside experienced professionals and gain a much clearer picture of the industry.

Our goal is to give interns meaningful exposure to the day-to-day realities of their field. Depending on their role, that may mean assisting with design, spending time on construction sites, or seeing how projects move from plans to finished work. That field experience can be especially valuable for students pursuing civil engineering.

Construction Observation Intern David Clark has spent the past two summers with Prein&Newhof and described how seeing projects built has shaped the way he thinks about engineering:

“Through my summer internship with Prein&Newhof, I have gained valuable experience and knowledge of both the civil engineering and construction industries. Spending all day on the construction site shows you how designs go from drawings to real life. This is the biggest takeaway I’ve gotten from my past two summers interning with P&N, that you have to have an understanding of how the project physically comes to life in the field to successfully design and execute a project well. Knowing how the physical process works makes the designing phase for a project that much easier for not only the engineer, but also the contractor.

I’m inspired to be a part of the civil engineering industry because of the multitude of people that the projects we work on impact. Whether it be new roads, walking paths, or clean water, people are impacted by our work each and every day. Much of the work done is for the greater good of society and less for the self, which is a rewarding feeling when you leave work every day.

My goals for the future are to continue doing work for the greater good of society. If being a civil engineer leads to making positive impacts in our cities, states, or even country, then I know I made the right decision in my career path.”

David’s experience captures much of what we hope students take away from their time here. Seeing how a project is actually built gives future engineers context they can carry back into design work and helps them understand the practical side of decisions made on paper. Internships also give students room to figure out what kind of work they enjoy. Civil engineering covers a wide range of projects and career paths, and real-world experience can make those possibilities feel much more concrete.

Our interns bring plenty to Prein&Newhof as well. Their questions and perspectives are a valuable part of the summer, and our staff always enjoys the opportunity to share what they have learned along the way. At the end of the summer, we hope each intern leaves with useful experience and a clearer sense of where they want to go next. Seeing students like David connect their work to the communities it serves is one of the best parts of the program and a strong reminder of why these opportunities matter.

By Collin Manns, PLA

Parks have always had an impact on my life. As far back as I can remember, they have been the setting for some of my earliest memories. I can remember climbing on the playground, rolling through the dirt, and then racing my parents back to the car.

I loved going to the community park in our neighborhood. It had a ballfield where my dad and I would play catch and a community building where people gathered to celebrate the Fourth of July. It had access to the nearby river and plenty of open space for me to run around or ride my bike. It was a place where people could enjoy different activities, spend time with family, and connect with others in the neighborhood.

As a kid, I noticed certain things whenever I visited a park. I would scope out the playground and evaluate how high it would allow me to climb, or I would look for a ballfield where I could run around or play catch with my dad and siblings. I didn’t realize it then, but even as a kid I was taking inventory of what made parks and public spaces so great. I appreciated having a space dedicated to a wide range of activities that anyone could enjoy with family and friends, even if I didn’t yet understand why those places were so meaningful.

Looking back, I can see how those experiences shaped the way I think about public spaces and ultimately influenced my career. What drew me to landscape architecture was that it allows me to take all the little things I’ve experienced over the years, both as a child and now as an adult, and use them to help create spaces that encourage people to go outside and be with one another. Each community has its own needs, and part of the landscape architect’s role is to understand those needs and determine how a space can best serve the people who will use it.

As I’ve grown in the profession, I’ve also come to appreciate how important parks and public gathering places are to a community. These places are sometimes referred to as “third places,” meaning the casual places outside of work and home where people can relax, socialize, and connect with each other. Third places are important because they serve as the meeting grounds that facilitate the human connections and interactions that help create a sense of community and healthy living.

Creating those opportunities for connection requires thoughtful planning. When designing and conceptualizing a public space, we need to consider how people will move through it as well as what might encourage them to stop and stay for a while. A successful gathering place should feel neutral and welcoming, allowing people to linger without feeling like they need to keep moving or make a purchase.

Seating is one element that can help create that feeling. A mixture of semi-fixed tables and movable chairs gives visitors choices based on how they want to use the space, while open green areas can accommodate families or community gatherings. Providing shade and viewpoints can also make a space more comfortable and encourage people to stay longer. Accessibility must be considered throughout the design so that people of different ages and abilities can feel welcome and participate in the space.

That’s one of the things I enjoy most about projects like the City of Whitehall’s West Colby Promenade, which is currently under construction. It’s exciting to help create a space designed to bring people together, whether they are stopping for lunch, attending a community event, or simply enjoying time near the waterfront. The project includes gathering areas and amenities intended to strengthen the connection between downtown Whitehall and the waterfront while giving residents and visitors another reason to spend time in the area.

Projects like this show how landscape architecture can help turn an area people might otherwise pass through into a place where they want to stay. The goal is to consider how each element works together and how the completed space will fit into the community’s daily life. When a public space is comfortable and connected to its surroundings, it can support both planned events and the small, everyday moments that happen naturally.

As I’ve gotten older, my own priorities have shifted, and new things have started to stand out when I visit a park. Occasionally, I still look for ballfields to run around on, but now with my toddler, I also notice practical details like how far away the restrooms are or whether there is enough parking. My wife and I have always enjoyed visiting parks to unwind, but now we especially seek out places with the defining features of a good third place. We look for places that allow us to engage together as a family and play with our son. Play equipment for our toddler is important, but we also value open green space where we can run around together and a shaded place where we can sit down for a snack.

These experiences have given me a better understanding of how one park can serve people differently depending on where they are in life. A child might be focused entirely on the playground or the nearest ballfield, while a parent may be thinking about seating and restrooms. Someone else might visit for a walk, a community celebration, or a quiet place to spend time outdoors. A thoughtful design makes room for those different experiences without making any one group feel like the space was not created for them.

As a child, I looked at parks as an outlet to play sports and associated them with being active. As I got older, I realized that parks encompass so much more and can serve many different purposes within our lives. They provide space for people to gather and spend time outdoors, but they also become part of how we experience our communities and remember different stages of our lives.

That is what continues to inspire me as a landscape architect. The spaces we design may eventually become the setting for someone’s family outing or neighborhood tradition. They may be where a child learns to ride a bike, where friends meet after work, or where a family simply slows down together for an afternoon. Knowing that the places we help create can become part of someone else’s memories makes the work especially meaningful to me.

By Jim Rinke

At Prein&Newhof, environmental consulting focuses on helping clients understand what’s beneath the surface and what it means for the future of their projects and communities. That work is continuing to grow, and I’m grateful to now be part of a team that approaches complex environmental challenges with both technical expertise and a clear focus on practical solutions.

My path to becoming a geologist and working in environmental consulting didn’t follow a straight line. I actually started out in the engineering program at Grand Valley State University. Although engineering was interesting, I never really felt like I had found my place. I made a trip to see the head of the Geology Department and knew right away that this was where I belonged. Physics applied to chemistry with a bit of camping mixed in.

After graduating from GVSU, I applied to geology jobs all over the country. The call I received was from Detroit, where I started my professional career as an Environmental Geologist with Arcadis. While there, I was exposed to a variety of field work including underground storage tank removals, subsurface vapor sampling, mercury spills, asbestos cleanups, drilling, and monitoring well installations. It was great experience, but I wasn’t ready to call Eastern Michigan home. I wanted to see a little more of the world.

I left environmental geology and headed back to school to work toward a master’s degree in geology at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington. Getting back into school was difficult but well worth it, and nothing like I expected. I thought I would end up in structural geology, but a professor who specialized in creating digital models of tectonic activity recruited me for a seismology study in Western Antarctica. Antarctica sounded like the adventure I was looking for despite having no experience in seismology.

Two years later, armed with a degree focused on seismics, it was time to rejoin the workforce. A friend from GVSU had been working for a mining company and helped connect me with a copper mine in Arizona. About a year in the desert of Bagdad, Arizona was enough for me, so I transferred to a molybdenum mine in Climax, Colorado. Living high in the Rocky Mountains brought beautiful seasons, incredible views, and plenty of hiking, camping, skiing, and biking.

I didn’t want to leave Colorado, but I was ready to leave the mine. With few opportunities for geologists nearby, I had to think outside the box. I had been homebrewing since graduate school and was a regular at local breweries when I was invited to spend time in the brewhouse to see what it was like. It was more fun than I’d had in a long time, and they called it work. It blended science and art in a way that immediately clicked for me.

A friend was opening a new brewery, and I joined him to help make it happen. I helped finish construction on the building, install brewing equipment, brew the first batch of beer, and open the doors to the public. Over the next eight years, I brewed hundreds of batches of beer and helped grow the brewery into one of the most popular in the county. After nearly a decade of crafting beverages, it was time to get back to something more sustainable. The physical demands were catching up with me, and I had now been away from home and family for almost 20 years. It was time to come home and return to the career that started it all.

Environmental work often begins with uncertainty. A site may look ready for development, a property may appear unchanged for decades, or a system may seem to be functioning as expected. Below the surface, conditions can tell a very different story. The role of environmental consulting is to identify those unknowns early and provide clarity so informed decisions can be made with confidence.

Our team supports clients through site assessments and investigations, regulatory navigation, and remediation and long-term management strategies. We work alongside clients to evaluate and address environmental conditions in a way that is both responsible and achievable. It’s not about applying a one-size-fits-all solution. It’s about understanding the specific conditions of each site and responding accordingly.

In recent years, one area has become an increasingly important part of that work: PFAS. PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a group of man-made chemicals that have been used for decades in manufacturing and consumer products. Their persistence in the environment means they do not break down easily and can accumulate in soil and water over time. Because of that, understanding where PFAS is present and what it means has become critical for many communities across Michigan.

Our approach to PFAS reflects the broader way we think about environmental challenges. It starts with investigation, identifying potential sources and evaluating the extent of impact. From there, we help clients interpret what the data means and navigate evolving regulations to determine next steps. That work is supported by our Prein&Newhof Laboratory, where certified testing provides reliable data for PFAS and other contaminants. Having that capability in-house allows us to connect field observations with clear results and move more efficiently from questions to answers.

Even with all the technical aspects involved, this work is ultimately about people. Every site we evaluate and every sample we analyze connects back to a larger purpose, whether that’s protecting a drinking water source, supporting a redevelopment project, or helping a community better understand its environment.

For me, PFAS is personal, not just technical. I found out how harmful PFAS could be before I really understood what PFAS were. In 2018, just two weeks after the grand opening of the brewery, I was diagnosed with a type of cancer linked to PFOA exposure. I grew up on well water in an area later identified as a PFAS site. At first, I appeared healthy and cancer free, but it spread and returned four years later. This time surgery wasn’t enough and chemotherapy was prescribed.

Unfortunately, most of us know someone who has faced cancer and understand how difficult it can be, not just for the person going through it but for everyone around them. I was fortunate in many ways and made it through relatively unscathed. I hope to use my experience to help others facing similar challenges. At the very least, I can now help identify areas of PFAS contamination and be part of a team working to prevent it from harming others.

Experiences like that bring the purpose of this work into sharper focus. Environmental consulting is often about identifying risks that aren’t immediately visible and helping others understand them before they become larger problems. It requires careful analysis and a commitment to doing the work thoroughly. That commitment shows up in how we approach each project. We focus on understanding the full picture, communicating findings in a way that is useful and actionable, and developing solutions that support long-term outcomes.

All the changes in direction, the challenges, and the experiences have built me into who I am and prepared me to be here. I feel fortunate to have the opportunity to apply all of this with a company that believes in what they do. I look forward to getting reinvested in the community I grew up in and using my knowledge and experience to help create a cleaner environment. It wasn’t the straightest line, but it has been an adventure.

Environmental conditions are not always visible, but their impact is. The work we do helps bring those conditions into focus so communities can decide what comes next. It’s a responsibility I take seriously, and one I’m proud to carry forward as part of this team.

By Stephanie Potoka

As early as middle school, I knew that math came easily for me. Around that time, my dad showed me an issue of National Geographic pertaining to a rising environmental issue that a relative was studying. This was also in the days of only three TV channels out in the country (four, if we rotated the antennae). So when I was home sick from school, watching the kid-appropriate daytime channel, I discovered a career plan. The show I found, hosted by Jaime Escalante of calculus teaching fame, was about using math in environmental applications. Given my math abilities and growing environmental knowledge, this added up to a concrete and comfortable plan. Was civil engineering on my radar at this point? Not even close. Numbers were too beautiful with their patterns and connections, as evidenced by another lovely TV show of that era, Square One, making the Fibonacci series, tessellations, and code-making both memorable and comprehendible.

As a result, I decided to pursue an undergrad degree in mathematics at Calvin University where some of my classmates were, of course, engineers. I was, however, not pulled into the field yet. My next life choice was grad school for a master’s in industrial and applied mathematics at the University of Minnesota, an introduction to the field of math modeling. Finding this not to be practical enough, I decided to pursue another master’s, this time in civil engineering. Nine years after undergrad, I was the proud holder of two master’s degrees and mom to three. Given the pressures of life, the added constraint of an autoimmune disease, and addition of two more kids, the solution was to spend the next 12 years at home watching construction work in our Chicago and then Grand Rapids neighborhoods with two machine-loving youngsters, while also making time for classroom involvement relating to environmental issues.

Thanks to a civil engineering friend, I started part time at Prein&Newhof as an engineer on the first day that my youngest started full-time school. At the time, I really had no idea what civil engineers did day-to-day, but I happened to land in what P&N considers a “support service,” specifically that of hydraulics and hydrology. To me this is essentially the civil engineering version of industrial and applied modelling all about water, including both water on the landscape and contained within a system of pipes (think drinking water as well as wastewater). There was still a firehose of information, a steep learning curve, and so many questions which my co-workers graciously answered (and continue to answer).

A useful way for me to dive into work was involvement in Water System Reliability Studies. Unbeknownst to the vast population of Michigan residents, communities do this overview examination of their drinking water system every five years. This data-heavy report includes a map of the entire system of watermain, details of storage tanks, pumps, wells, and treatment plants, as well as water-usage related data like total pumping and billing. The other component of the study is flowing hydrants throughout the system, recording the changing pressures and flows, and then bringing the field data back to the office to calibrate the hydraulic model of the system.

To use any computer model, we must trust the reality of its abstraction: that the model does not 100% predict the system, but it gets close enough to be useful. Initial computer models began as text only, simply a list of pipes and associated connections with the program performing all the equation computations of water flow that, for decades, people had done by hand (or slide rule!). Given its ease of use now, with graphics and all, it’s tempting to use the model as a black box with magical answers. Given the iterations of these models that senior professionals have seen, though, we always ask the question “Do the results make sense?” Because sometimes they don’t, and if not, we must find out why. The purpose of the model is to aid in identifying areas of the water distribution system that could use improvement, often with larger diameter pipe or increased pumping capacity. The whole reliability study involves not just the model, spreadsheets, and numbers, but also the fluidity of patterns and connections.

In addition to enjoying the technical components of my job, coming to the profession so late in life has elevated my appreciation of municipal Department of Public Works employees and managers, as well as surveyors, GIS specialists, construction contractors, and all others involved in the work of infrastructure. I always knew that the fundamental building blocks of our first-world luxuries (clean drinking water, treated sanitary sewer systems, roads, bridges, and rainwater management) were taken for granted but had no idea how extensive the work behind them truly is. These building blocks are not perfect, though, as anyone with knowledge of PASER ratings, groundwater contamination, storm water quality, and aging infrastructure would know. There are still uncountably many environmental issues to approach from different angles, but I derive great satisfaction in being part of the integral behind-the-scenes work to maintain and improve infrastructure for local communities. While I now am fully converted to engineer, I am thankful to still be immersed in the beauty of numbers.