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Growing up, J. Michael Galway, PE, LEED AP, CPD, loved to draw. He loved it so much, he thought about becoming an architect. However, he was influenced into an engineering program by his father, who happened to be an industrial engineer by trade. Today, Galway is a licensed Mechanical Professional Engineer with over 40 years of experience in building design for federal, military, state and local governments, private development, historic restoration and renovation projects, health care and laboratory projects, educational facilities, hospitality, multi-family residential, commercial, high-rise, and light industrial buildings — you name it, he’s designed it.

Today, Galway is a principal with Loring Consulting Engineers, leading the firm’s Gaithersburg, Maryland office. He is well-respected by his peers for his expertise, attention to detail, calming professional demeanor and the fact that he’s not afraid to get out into the field and get his hands dirty, which is why he has been selected as Plumbing & Mechanical’s 2024 Mechanical Engineer of the Year.

Since then, Galway has worked for a handful of engineering firms throughout his impressive career. While there is quite a lot that goes into being a design engineer, Galway enjoys the problem-solving aspect of it.

“I love coming up with solutions and designing systems for buildings,” he says. “Throughout the years, my job description has significantly changed from being a design engineer to project management, managing an office and being a part of the board. But, at the end of the day, it’s still the design aspects of the job that excite me.”

As a principal with Loring Consulting Engineers, Galway has managed the engineering firm’s Gaithersburg, Maryland office for the past two years after making the move from managing the Washington, D.C. office. He spends much of his time mentoring the next generation of mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) engineers.

“There are many aspects of my current role — from going out and developing and finding clients, responding to requests for proposals, writing proposals and making sure we’re operating as smoothly as we can,” he explains. “Nobody can do anything by themselves, it’s a collaborative effort. We have a lot of talented people who work together, and I’m very supportive of mentoring young professionals and trying to find young college graduates to join our firm. We have hired engineers from Penn State, the University of Maryland, Virginia Tech, and more.”

“There just aren't enough mechanical or electrical engineers in our business right now — there's too many other opportunities for engineers to go into other fields,” Galway continues. “Mechanical Engineers can go work for a lot of lot of different companies. We're interested in attracting young graduate engineers who want to get into building design. Mentoring those young professionals is really important because we want to make sure our young engineers do not make too many mistakes along the way. And I've always said — I really do mean this — that it would be a shame if at some point, when I retire or die, to leave behind all of the information and all of the experience that I've gained over these 40 years. So really, it is incumbent on me to try to get all that information out and get it into the heads of younger engineers so that they can take advantage of the lessons that I have learned during my career.”

NEW TECHNOLOGY, OLD BUILDINGS

When asked about how decarbonization and electrification is impacting the way he designs buildings today, Galway says it is an exciting time to be a mechanical engineer.

“Personally, I am on board with trying to be sustainable and eliminate greenhouse gases to the greatest extent possible and to decarbonize buildings,” he says. “But it is a tall order. It is a big challenge. Sometimes I’m concerned that those create policies may not fully appreciate the complexity of the challenge. It is easy to develop and pass legislation requiring the industry to implement net zero requirements, and though I’m happy they’re on board, it’s a huge challenge for us in the industry. Primarily because, in some cases, we do not yet have the technology to accomplish their requirements. The technology has not been developed to the point where it can be affordably implemented.”

Making the transition from natural gas to electric is challenging for a few reasons, Galway explains.

“No. 1 is the economics,” he says. “Natural gas is significantly less expensive as a heating fuel than using electricity, requiring us to transition to heat pump technology. We support it. We endorse it. It has significantly impacted the way that we provide HVAC systems for buildings. It has encouraged and required that we change the way we design our systems. I'm excited about it because it does require us to think outside the box and come up with solutions that we didn’t think about even a decade ago. It's a brave new world, and it's exciting.”

Given his long career in the industry, Galway has quite a few projects in his portfolio of which he is proud.

“Getting involved in various different types of projects makes it exciting for me,” he says. “There have been a large range of projects I’ve been involved with that I think are really cool — including my first (the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens), to others early in my career like the New River Valley Regional Jail and the Erie County Courthouse.”

Most recently, the projects that excite Galway are those involving historic restoration.

“I got involved in the United States Supreme Court project,” he says. “Loring Consulting Engineers were finishing the project when I joined the firm — I got involved at the tail end, and just being able to say I actively participated in the project with the United States Supreme Court was pretty exciting. It spurred on quite a few restorations over the years, including the Virginia State House restoration project, which was also on the Historic Register. I was involved in the Wyoming State Capitol, which was a restoration of the State Capitol in Wyoming.

“I also got involved with the Christman Company on the Michigan State Capitol restoration, which involved a mechanical and electrical upgrade,” Galway continues. “It was very successful — we integrated geothermal design into that the State Capitol building. The Michigan Capitol itself was in pristine condition, but most of the MEP systems in the building were in bad condition since they hadn’t been replaced for a very long time. As mechanical systems get old, they get tired and they start to fail. The energy consumed in the Michigan State Capitol was quite high relative to a building today. We were challenged to replace the mechanical and electrical systems in the building to meet code while improving energy performance. We designed a geothermal system, created an underground central plant to house all the equipment so that it wasn't in view of all the visitors, and we designed an underground Welcome Center. We're very proud of the work that we did there.”

The new geothermal system at the Michigan State Capitol building is one of the larger and more energy efficient systems in the United States. The mechanical system includes a substantial geothermal well field coupled with a modular chiller/heater system meeting the heating and cooling needs of the Capitol Building and its Visitor’s Center. New energy-efficient air handling systems were added and connected to a new, very secure, above-grade outdoor air source. Also of significance was that the project was accomplished while the building was fully occupied. Careful phasing and sequencing were considered in the design and careful planning was necessary to ensure that the switch-over from the old to the new systems was accomplished with minimal impact on the building operation. As such, the design team developed a series of zoning diagrams that aided the planning process and was used to understand the arrangement of existing hydronic, air, and electrical distribution for each project phase. The project was awarded the ACEC National Project of the Year Recognition Award for 2023.

WELL-RESPECTED BY COLLEAGUES

Anthony Bochicchio, principal and project director at Page, a full-service design, architecture and engineering firm, first met Galway in 2016 when his firm teamed up with Loring Consulting Engineers to work on the Michigan State Capitol Project.

“We were brought in to oversee the infrastructure upgrades for the project in Lansing, Michigan,” Bochicchio says. “Loring was already engaged, and they wanted an architect to project manage, oversee and coordinate all the effort for the infrastructure upgrades which included replacing all the systems in this 1870s beautiful historic building. I knew Loring by reputation, but I hadn’t worked directly with them, and Michael was their lead engineer for the project. We got paired together and got to know each other.”

Bochicchio notes that Galway has a certain professional calmness about him.

“I see that trait as very desirable,” he says. “For instance, he's professional and friendly to the point of, I don’t think I've ever seen him get flustered. Even when a client throws a curve ball at him. He's extremely measured and thoughtful. I've been doing this a long time, too, and he's really a model for how to very calmly, collectively and professionally handle difficult situations in a very nuanced way. I really appreciate that about Michael.”

Bochicchio also says that Galway is probably the best mechanical engineer he’s ever worked with. “The guy has been doing this a long time — he’s a consummate professional. He brings a level of expertise to what he does that is, as far as I'm concerned, second to no one that I've worked with before. Just the way he approaches projects, problems, clients, and, frankly, difficult situations is just exemplary.”

He adds that Page has a standing joke, since the firm has been working with Loring Consulting Engineers for a long time — the two firms even formed a joint venture company to pursue GSA and other large projects.

“We have a senior architect on staff, and we joke that one of his colleagues at Page, Matt Chalifoux, is an engineer in an architect’s body because he is an architect, but he’s very technical,” Bochicchio says. “And Michael is the exact opposite. He’s an architect hiding as an engineer. Anytime we ask him for something, he comes back with a beautiful sketch and it looks like something out of an architect sketchbook. He’s very artistic. That just demonstrates how he’s able to envision the issues and express them very elegantly, which adds to his ability to communicate with not only architects but anyone.”

Matthew Chalifoux, principal and lead architect at Page, and also the aforementioned engineer in an architect’s body, also met Galway while working with him on a project. This one was the renovation of the Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C.

“I am an architect specializing in historic preservation,” Chalifoux says. “Historic preservation requires a great level of sensitivity and creativity, particularly when figuring out how to insert new building systems in very sensitive buildings and spaces. Early in my career, I was introduced to Loring Engineers, a firm that had a remarkable track record of this type of work. At the time, I was living/working in New Jersey and was working with Loring’s New York City office. In 2000, I relocated to Washington, D.C. because I was working on the renovation of the Supreme Court Building (with Loring). With the location shift on new projects, I connected with Loring’s DC office where Michael was the managing principal. Through that connection, we have worked together on a number of projects, including the systems upgrades at the Michigan State Capitol, the renovation of the U.S. Custom House in Philadelphia, and most importantly the revitalization of the Smithsonian Castle on the National Mall.”

Chalifoux says Galway loves old buildings, always wants to learn more and hates leaving a question unanswered.

“In historic preservation, those attributes are critical,” he says. “In most cases, our job is to restore and improve these buildings and make our work invisible. That’s a huge challenge for the mechanical engineers who are also required to provide modern systems and comfort levels, or even museum-quality environments in buildings that may have originally had just steam radiators. Michael takes this challenge very seriously. I never have to push him to find creative solutions, he is typically one (or two) steps ahead of me and the architectural team.”

During the Philadelphia Custom House project, the 1930s high-rise building needed to replace failing heating and cooling systems. Loring and Page were brought on to design the upgrades/replacements to the systems and develop a phasing strategy for how this could be accomplished in an occupied building.

“Everything hinged on the mechanical system design and first unraveling the 80 years of equipment and piping in the building,” Chalifoux explains. “An intermediate piping level, only about 5 feet high, which contained a maze of pipes needed to be documented with a laser measuring system. Michael could have sent out junior members of his office for this unenviable task, but when I poked my head into the space one day I saw Michael leading the documentation effort. When I laughed and asked why he was doing this work he said, ‘I need to understand this space to lead the design effort and helping with the scanning is the best way to learn.’

“I value Michael as a professional colleague and as a friend,” he continues. “He loves being a partner on these challenging and exciting projects and places the importance of the building above all else. We think alike.”

Dan Hanlon recently retired as director of Construction Administration Services at Loring Consulting Engineers. He met Galway when he joined the firm in 2017.

“I enjoy his great personality, his always positive outlook in addressing the challenges at hand and his extensive experience and expertise used in solving both major and minor technical and managerial problems and challenges,” Hanlon says. “Michael is patient and a good listener — he has the highest degree of integrity and professionalism. He also has a unique way of solving problems that provides creative, yet cost-effective solutions to complicated issues and challenges. Michael is an engineer's engineer!”

OVERCOMING CHALLENGES

Galway points to several challenges in the mechanical engineering field, but perhaps one of the largest is providing the best possible product and doing it in a way to still make money.

“We’re running a business, and you can’t forget about that,” he explains. “There's a sort of exponential curve that, when you look at the amount of work and the percent complete of a project, it's very easy. As you get closer and closer to the 100% complete project, the amount of time it takes to go from that last percentage point to the next percentage point from, let's say, from 98 to 100% is extraordinary and can consume a lot of resources. How do you get a lot of information pulled together on a design, do it efficiently, and then, not get sucked into this sort of black hole where you're just spending an enormous amount of time trying to get to the 100%.”

Additionally, Galway says one of the hardest things for engineers to do is keep up with new technologies and building codes.

“They’re all changing so fast, and as an example — the refrigerant of yesterday is not the refrigerant of today, which is not the refrigerant of tomorrow,” he says. “Every time there's a change like this, there's an education curve. We have to learn. We have to figure out what it all means. One thing that's interesting is if you look at a set of drawings from the 1900s, there weren't separate mechanical drawings. Today, you put out a similar set of drawings for a project of comparable size, and you could have 300 or more drawings. All the disciplines produce more work, more designs, more diagrams, more floor plans, more control drawings — all of these things.

“So the complexity of what we do has grown exponentially,” Galway continues. “All of that requires significantly more coordination. We use tools today that are so much different than when I started in the business. When I started, we were using pencils on paper. Today, we use Revit and create designs virtually and electronically. The business has changed. And I think one of the hardest things for any of us in this profession, is you've got to remain flexible. You've got to be open to change. You've got to endorse change, Otherwise, as an engineer, you're not going to remain relevant. That’s probably the hardest thing, keeping up with the current technology of the day, the current codes of the day and making sure you’re still relevant in the field.”

Galway notes that Loring continuously invites suppliers and representative firms into the office to educate its engineers on the latest and greatest new products and technologies. He also advocates attending industry trade shows and reading industry and technical publications to stay up-to-date.

“You have to keep learning,” he says. “I've always said that you want to be on the leading edge, not on the bleeding edge. There are too many folks out there who get excited about new technologies that are experimental. They will just jump on the bandwagon and implement alternatives that are not good for our clients, because at the end of the day, the Engineer of Record is responsible for making sure that the product we're designing is appropriate. You just have to be careful. I don't want say that I'm cynical, but one of my traits as an engineer is to be very careful about the systems that I promote. We have to be able to take it in, analyze it, and just be very cautious that we don't over commit and provide something that ultimately doesn't work to satisfy the needs of the building.”

PARTING ADVICE

Galway notes that it is “super important” for young engineers to join professional associations. Galway himself is a member of both ASHRAE and ASPE, among others.

“There are various types of organizations, but when it comes to ASHRAE and ASPE, they are developing and documenting design standards and methods of design,” he says. “I can’t say enough about both of those organizations because they represent the universal technical expertise of the engineering community. They are an important resource. If there is a question of what we should be doing or how we should be doing it, there’s a pretty good chance that those two organizations will provide the guidance on how to move forward and what we should be doing.”

His advice for an aspiring mechanical engineer is not exactly simple: “This is not an easy industry. It’s very labor intensive. Whether you’re an architect, engineer, artist, these are time intensive professions. If there are individuals out there who are not passionate about putting the pieces together, assembling the puzzle and making sure all the T’s are crossed and the I’s are dotted, this may not be the profession for them. There is a work/life balance, but you sometimes need to work at that because sometimes it gets intense, especially as we get close to deadlines. We do not force our folks to work overtime, but there are times when it’s almost inevitable that it’s going to happen. That’s one of the things I want to caution young professionals. Yes, the work is hard but rewarding. You have to be passionate about it, otherwise you’re going to be miserable.”

He also encourages young professionals to take their Professional Engineering licensing exam.

“The most important thing that I’ve done from a professional standpoint in my career was become registered as a Professional Engineer,” he explains. “It opens the doors for growth, and opens the doors for opportunities. Having that professional engineering license in our design field is super important. It's something that I strongly, strongly recommend.”

Outside of the office, Galway enjoys working with his hands. In fact, before he was behind a desk, he spent time working for contractors.

“I was kind of a wannabe general contractor, doing everything from roofing to electrical upgrades, to HVAC ductwork, to siding and framing,” Galway says. “I’m very hands-on when it comes to construction, and I continue to love that. Really, it’s an extension of my mechanical engineering, and in a weird way, makes me a better engineer, too. I’ve always encouraged our young engineers to get out in the field and look at the things they’ve designed and things that are there — to understand what you’re looking at three dimensionally in the real world. Because your ability to visualize, to think three dimensionally, all those things really help when you're trying to put a design on paper. You have a better sense of what it means if you have actually seen it on the site. I'm a better engineer because of my hands-on construction experience.”

In addition to working construction, Galway enjoys volunteering and giving back to his community to those who are less fortunate. He also owns a 1966 Ford Mustang — which used to belong to his father — and which he is in the process of restoring. And, while he feels comfortable working around his home and rental properties, cars are a whole other story. When it comes to restoring a car, I will not come anywhere close to doing that. He jokes, “I spent about three days replacing an alternator in a Toyota Camry, and it almost ruined my marriage.” He added, “So when it comes to the automobiles, I’m going to let somebody else do that.”