A Commissioning Team that Knows How to Optimize Facilities

We empower people and project teams so they can achieve their highest potential for client success. Our mission is to make our clients successful and our highly responsive teams are focused on improving quality of life for building occupants. Our commissioning (Cx) team fulfills this vision by helping building owners, operators and users get the most value out of their new or existing facilities.

Meet Our Distinguished Team

David Meyers, AIA, CxA, PMP

Director

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Brian Schwartz, CxA, CCP, LEED

Operations Manager

Federal Cx

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Tanya Martella

Business Development Manager

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Carl Poettker, PE, CxA

Design-Build and Field Cx

MEP Coordination & Aviation Cx

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George Hawkinson

Building Automation Systems

Ongoing Cx & BACnet Controls

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David Meyers, AIA, CxA, PMP

Director

  Connect on LinkedIn

David thrives when working with high-performing teams that help each other learn and grow while bringing the owner's vision to reality. He is also passionate about helping others create and maintain their vision.

“Burns & McDonnell has demonstrated exceptional management and leadership. Their team as acted as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ commissioning lead and was able to counter excessive customer demands, which would have resulted in major cost increases and possible schedule delays to the program. This occurred at several points in the development of the Cx documents and the design-build request for proposal, which the Cx documents support. They also managed subconsultants in such a way that created a seamless team. Contractual and financial commitments were all handled in a professional and well-coordinated manner.”
- Benjamin Davis, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Kansas City

Brian Schwartz, CxA, CCP, LEED

Operations Manager

Federal Cx

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Brian has always loved working with teams to solve problems. He is not only focused on the end result, but also the process and collaboration of a diverse team working to achieve an end result that is in the interest of the client. Brian believes in the value that Cx can provide to designers, builders and clients to produce better facilities.

“I was impressed with the way Burns & McDonnell performed commissioning services and integrated with the entire project team to achieve LEED Gold certification. I also have to offer special recognition to Brian Schwartz. He demonstrated extraordinary professionalism and commitment to our project despite an evolving design throughout construction. I look forward to working with Burns & McDonnell again for any type of commissioning services. They made the job of commissioning our facility painless, cost-effective, and efficient and I would definitely hire them again.”
- Greg Brown, Sage Manufacturing Facility

Carl Poettker, PE, CxA

Design-Build and Field Commissioning

MEP Coordination & Aviation Cx

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Carl, a Certified Commissioning Authority (CxA) and licensed Professional Engineer (PE) in Illinois, brings nine years of commissioning experience, focusing on mechanical and control systems for critical facilities. His portfolio includes comprehensive commissioning and retro-commissioning services for higher education, data centers, and healthcare industries. Engaging with clients, design teams, vendors, and trades, Carl aids in designing MEP systems, implementing solutions for field conditions, and accommodating post-bid owner requests. His expertise extends to custom HVAC solutions for commercial and light industrial applications. With a LEED Accredited Professional designation, Carl provides leadership to help clients achieve various LEED certifications. Based in St. Louis, he leverages extensive local knowledge for successful building enclosure verification, particularly for the Next NGA West (N2W) project. Carl has served as a Commissioning Authority for over 6 million square feet in completed new construction, encompassing mission-critical data centers, research facilities, industrial manufacturing, healthcare and higher education facilities. Specializing in testing, adjusting and balancing verification of HVAC systems, he excels in troubleshooting complex problems and developing robust Integrated Systems Testing programs for whole buildings and campuses. He is also an active member of industry associations such as USGBC, ASHRAE, BCA and ACG.

George Hawkinson

Commissioning Manager

Ongoing Cx & BACnet Controls

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George brings more than 23 years of experience in the design, development and deployment of building automation, industrial automation, energy management, and distributed big-data architectural solutions. The combination of his experience and the Burns & McDonnell market leadership position has accelerated new business opportunities, supporting stakeholders by providing strategic decision-making tools that offer holistic insights into enterprise-wide operations, building conditions and occupant comfort and productivity.

CORE PRINCIPLES

  • Safety is First: Our staff prioritizes safety of both new and existing facilities during project work. This unwavering commitment to safety is ingrained in us, making us personally accountable to colleagues, clients, families, communities, and ourselves. This is evident in our proactive approach to creating a safe testing environment before conducting functional tests on equipment.
  • Client Service Drives Our Success: Our dedicated staff, comprised of results-focused individuals, consistently works towards enhancing the customer experience by thinking strategically from project inception to completion. With clients viewed as valued partners and friends, our unwavering dedication and responsiveness confirm that we go the extra mile, putting in the necessary hours to help them complete projects on time. We know schedules may get pushed during testing and we proactively work to make sure the right staff are available for your project.
  • What We Do Matters: Amidst tackling some of the world's most challenging problems, we recognize the immense responsibility and opportunity to collaborate with clients, aiming to enhance the global quality of life through our work. Working on intricate projects, from US Department of State, top universities, hospitals to unique endeavors like the U.S. Department of Energy Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF) Near Site Conventional Facilities (NSCF) at Fermilab, our commissioning team confirms that these facilities operate precisely as intended by the client.
  • We Boldly Go: At Burns & McDonnell, the entrepreneurial spirit propels us forward with a strategic vision that benefits all stakeholders. Committed to unyielding integrity, our team, whether working for a building owner, general contractor, or design-build team, persists until systems function precisely as envisioned. Inspired by the daring and caring example of our entrepreneurial founders, we continue to move forward with vision, courage, and precision, advancing their dreams for the collective benefit of all.
  • We Are All Employee-Owners: Working with our team means engaging with personalized and dedicated members who embody a shop-owner mentality, combining the responsiveness of a close-knit team with vast resources and experience. This commitment to employee ownership serves as the common thread that binds us, fostering accountability, hard work and ambitious thinking for the collective success of our projects. From a commissioning perspective, the customer experience offered is that of a small firm with resources of a large global company.

CLICK TO ENLARGE

13,500+

PROFESSIONALS

100%

EMPLOYEE OWNED

60+

OFFICES WORLDWIDE

150+

Cx SPECIALISTS

#2

Cx Giant
Consulting-Specifying Engineer

15

MILLION SQUARE FEET OF ONGOING Cx PROJECTS

200+

LEED CERTIFIED
Cx PROJECTS

50+

INDIVIDUAL Cx CERTIFICATIONS

425+

Cx PROJECTS COMPLETED IN THE LAST TEN YEARS

$1B+

CONSTRUCTION COST FOR 10 Cx PROJECTS

CLIENTS AND INDUSTRIES WE SERVE

SERVICES

NEW BUILDING Cx

We help you verify that buildings will function as you envision. Our Cx experience combined with the numerous Cx guidelines we follow (e.g., ASHRAE, LEED, ISPE, PECI, NIBS, NEBB, BCA, ACG, etc.) will give you the confidence that our technical approach will match your needs, technology, complexity and budget while providing program-level uniformity and standardization.

EXISTING BUILDING Cx, ENERGY AUDITS, RETRO-Cx

Due to the deterioration of buildings over time, we aim to optimize each facility's operation through our existing building commissioning, energy audits and retro-commissioning services.

BUILDING ENCLOSURE Cx

Our building enclosure Cx (BECx) consulting group can help you mitigate risk by creating a quality assurance process that reviews and documents the performance of a building’s enclosure. We follow industry guidelines — such as ASTM E 2183, NIBS Guideline 3 and ASHRAE Guideline 0, along with documents such as the enclosure design guide for federal office buildings, thermal integrity and airtightness NISTIR 4821 — to help us create a risk avoidance program.

BUILDING AUTOMATION SYSTEMS

Our controls group help our clients mitigate the challenges of implementing and integrating an enterprisewide facility management solution. By utilizing the BACnet communication protocol, we deliver high-performance environments that provide the essential command and control of facility assets and capture day-to-day energy and equipment performance data to execute proactive and effective facility management practices. We follow the ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 135 and utilize the BACnet protocol and BACnet Secure Connect (BACnet/SC) to securely bridge the communication gap of disparate building systems.

CONDITION ASSESSMENTS

It is important to keep your aging facility’s systems maintained regularly and operating efficiently. With understanding of the overall objectives of the facility, our infrastructure condition assessments include identifying and documenting current facility condition and deficiencies, recommending corrections for the deficiencies, providing cost estimates for corrections, forecasting future long-term capital renewal costs, providing/hosting information in a cloud-based server either on- or off-site, and providing equipment inventory and bar coding.

Cx PROGRAM MANAGEMENT

Our Cx program management approach streamlines project-related processes, resources and methodologies. We also monitor and control projects by meeting program goals through document, schedule, cost and quality control.

PREVENTATIVE MAINTENANCE WRITING

We develop preventative maintenance and continuous Cx procedures to align with our clients’ philosophy and resources. Our Cx specialists develop this custom process by interviewing the owner’s staff to understand essential needs and current behaviors. Our job plans cover various asset types, maintenance trades and recommended frequency intervals. The job plans equip the maintenance staff with a simple process and procedures to evaluate, maintain and restore optimum performance of the building systems.

MONITORING-BASED Cx AND MEASUREMENT VERIFICATIONS

We can optimize your operations and maintenance practices by integrating three components: permanent energy monitoring systems, energy analysis, and ongoing Cx. This analysis provides real-time equipment performance information to your facility operators. You can track energy consumption, detect faulty equipment operation and identify unusual energy or power consumption patterns as they occur.

FAULT DETECTION AND DIAGNOSTICS

Our fault detection and diagnostics software collects a large amount of data from a facility and can be customized to provide the facility management team key insights that can improve your facility’s energy efficiency, comfort and reliability. Our team analyzes the data and provides you with upfront planning, hardware/software implementation and results verification services.

David Meyers, AIA, CxA, PMP

Director

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