CDi Engineers

Specialty: Mechanical engineering, health care, sustainable design

Management: Richard Moeller, president and principal; Norm Brown and Richard Gerber, vice presidents and principals

Year founded: 1988

Headquarters: Lynnwood

Current projects: Children’s Hospital emergency department addition in Seattle; Providence Everett Medical Center’s Colby Campus; Bayview Tower in Bellingham; Sea-Tac Airport retail and concessions; Westfield mall expansions in Tukwila, Culver City, Calif., and Joliet, Ill.

Photo courtesy CDi Engineers CDi Engineers provided mechanical engineering for HVAC, plumbing and fire-protection systems to accommodate an expansion at Sea-Tac Airport.

Richard Moeller, president of CDi Engineers, says the profession of mechanical engineering has lost a hefty chunk of its potential young workforce to tech firms such as Microsoft. But he said he sees revitalization in the industry’s future, due to the trend of sustainable construction.

“It’s bringing some excitement back to some of the mundane things we do. We’re being asked to engineer and not just repeat what we did the last time,” he said.

Attracting youth

Influenced by sustainability, owners are choosing designs and equipment that will save money in the long run, instead of the cheapest option now.

Moeller said he thinks this trend will bring youth interest back to mechanical engineering, and has also pulled the industry into a better direction then it was headed a few years ago.

“Too many decisions were being driven by first-cost mentality,” Moeller said. But now, firms are driven by the competitive mantra, “Hey, I can be greener then you!”

Today CDi has a larger range of clients then it did a decade ago. The firm built a health-care niche during the recession, and held on to it. But in the past few years, the percentage of health care projects dropped as CDi realized there were new areas it wanted to concentrate on and new ways it needed to diversify.

So the company’s project list now includes more school projects, art centers, defense work and laboratories.

Good workers wanted

And while green construction may be the wave of the future, Moeller is always looking for a few good engineers. Especially when they’re hard to find.

“There’s a lot of good firms in this town and there’s just not enough good people to go around. There’s enough people, but not enough good people,” he said.