Monteverde Engineering & Design Studio, PLC is very pleased to announce the hiring of Jonathan Ernest as our Land Planner + Designer. I had the pleasure of working with Jonathan while at our former employer, so this is a very welcome reunion for me. Jonathan is an extremely talented land planner, with a particularly keen eye for the aesthetic. If you’re not already familiar with his work, you soon will be!

I recently had the pleasure of attending a re-certification course for my Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) professional designation, given by the National Institute for Crime Prevention (NICP) and its presenter, Thomas Wyatt. It was a 2-day ‘special topics’ course focusing on the subject of “placemaking,” and it was a great refresher on a subject in which I have a special interest. For the unfamiliar, placemaking is (generally speaking) the process of capitalizing on a local community’s assets, inspiration, and potential, with the intention of creating public spaces that promote the health, happiness, and well-being of the community’s residents and visitors.

I don’t quite remember which class it was, but I can vividly remember one of my engineering professors standing at the front of the class assuring us that these engineering classes were great and all, but the most important classes we could take are business classes, liberal arts and the like. I knew everything 20 years ago, so I stayed as far away from those as I could. Now I’m trying to figure out which taxes we have to pay and when, how to run payroll, and how to administer a Qualified Small Employer Health Reimbursement Arrangement (if you don’t know what that is, and you’re a small business you should check it out).

We are very excited to announce a new addition to the Monteverde team. Elam Summey, who recently passed his PE exam, joins us as a Project Engineer and will further increase our ability to efficiently serve our clients. Elam and his wife Brandi moved to the Harrisonburg area from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where Elam worked for the architectural and engineering firm CRA Associates. If you’re in the area, please stop by and welcome him to the community!

6 months in… I know it’s cliché, but the first 6 months of this venture have proven to be a whirlwind. Between getting the business up and running, helping out a number of both new and long-time clients with their exciting and innovative projects, and trying to maintain a reasonable semblance of a work-life balance, we got behind on one “little” thing: this website! Luckily for us, we were able to team with Dusty Burchnall, a graphic and web designer operating as 2Fish, to get this site off the ground and looking sharp.