BRPH Earns National Engineers’ Council Awards for Work with Boom Supersonic, Alaska Aerospace
MELBOURNE, FLA. Feb. 16, 2024 – BRPH, a nationally ranked architecture, engineering and construction firm, announced today that it earned six awards at the 2024 National Engineers’ Week Honors & Awards Banquet presented by The Engineers’ Council in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Now celebrating its 70th anniversary, The Engineers’ Council was formed in 1955 in Los Angeles and has grown to a nationwide presence, with the goal of advancing the art and science of engineering for the welfare of humankind and the public through engineering, as well as providing public recognition of engineering achievements. The awards program is presented in three cities nationwide—Los Angeles; Huntsville, Alabama; and West Palm Beach, Florida.
BRPH earned an Outstanding Engineering Project Achievement Award for its work with Boom Supersonic, with a citation for “exceptional performance, excellence and high-quality designs in support of the Boom Supersonic Overture Superfactory.” Team members recognized were Jeff Crowe, Alessandro Giulio, David Balawajder, Danyell Wilson, Gregg Kirkendall, Devon Minnich and Will Lawton.
The firm also won the Outstanding Engineering Project Achievement Award for its work on the Alaska Aerospace Corporation Launch Complex Area 3 Pad C Rebuild, specifically, for “exceptional responsiveness and a high level of performance in the rebuild of the AAC Area 3 Pad C.” Team members included Andrew Miller, Art Waite, Jennifer Harvin, Brian Ribbans, Jason Abbott, Adolfo Luna and Jay Dougherty.
Two team members received the Distinguished Engineering Achievement Merit Award, Bernie Manuel and Joe McDaniels. Manuel was selected for the award “in recognition of his leadership, technical abilities and customer service on complex structural engineering systems.” As group leader and senior structural engineer, Manuel has worked on some of the most complex structural steel projects in the firm’s portfolio, including a client confidential project which amassed more than $500 million in structural systems installed. McDaniels was selected for the award based on his “outstanding leadership and technical acumen on complex process piping systems.” As a group leader and senior process piping engineer, he has developed complex piping systems including hydrogen, LN2, nitrogen, and various other cryogenic gaseous systems and has had an instrumental engineering influence at various launch complexes at Kennedy Space Center and beyond.
Additionally, two BRPH team members were selected for the Future Technology Leader Award, structural engineer Jennifer Ledene and electrical engineer Samantha Ewer. Ledene was selected “in recognition of her technical expertise and managerial skills, and for her work with complex structural steel systems,” including her work as lead structural designer of a client confidential project for which she has designed complex steel structures and detailed entertainment finishes. Ewer was selected for the same award based on her “outstanding leadership and technical acumen on various complex electrical systems.” She has had significant influence in the electrical designs of the Airbus Final Assembly Line, Gateway: The Deep Space Launch Complex at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, and a multitude of other entertainment projects.
Cris Vigil, BRPH senior vice president and principal at BRPH, serves as the Engineers’ Council awards chair for the Eastern United States. “I’m proud to partner with the Business Development Board (BDB) of Palm Beach County, our grand sponsor, Aerojet Rocketdyne, an L3Harris Technologies Company, and our platinum sponsor, Pratt & Whitney, to recognize some of the most outstanding engineering accomplishments achieved in the past year,” Vigil said. “This is truly a ‘best in show’ of the engineering world and it gives me tremendous hope in the future to see the level of innovation and technology emerging from today’s young professionals.”
ABOUT BRPH – BRPH is a technically focused, creative AEC firm dedicated to solving clients’ most challenging problems through architecture, engineering, design, interior design, construction and mission solutions. The firm partners with mission-driven clients in the aerospace, defense, manufacturing, commercial, education, entertainment and hospitality markets to identify gaps in their program delivery, then plans, designs, manages and constructs facilities and solutions that get the job done – beautifully and intelligently. Founded in 1964 to support America’s space program, BRPH is consistently ranked among the nation’s top firms and has completed a wide range of projects across the United States and throughout the world. Headquartered in Melbourne, Florida, BRPH operates regional offices in Orlando, Boca Raton and Jacksonville, Florida; Atlanta; Charleston, South Carolina; Huntsville, Alabama; Seattle; Phoenix and Palmdale, California. For more information, visit brph.com.
