Have we mentioned that we like to eat?

Waffo Food Truck Event

The Kleingers Group is excited to announce that Mike Brunner has joined our team.  Mike brings over 36 years of experience in site civil engineering, water resources, structural engineering, and surveying.  Mike will provide hands-on professional support and guidance for our civil engineering and surveying departments.

Most recently, Mike was President of Clifton Engineering, Inc. He is a licensed Professional Engineer and Professional Surveyor in Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky.

Mike is a 1976 graduate of the University of Notre Dame with a B.S. Civil Engineering. Mike is an avid bicycling enthusiast and also enjoys botany and local history.

Amanda Roehl was recently awarded the Marketer of the Year Award, by the Greater Cincinnati Society for Marketing Professional Services. The award recognizes members who have set new standards of achievement in the A/E/C industry and has gone above and beyond the call of duty within the chapter. Amanda has been a member of the Cincinnati Chapter for 10 years and has served on the board for the past three years. Amanda will serve as President-Elect for the 2014-15 season.

The Kleingers Group’s commitment to site accessibility goes beyond the design. The Kleingers designers take unique measures to get a better understanding of how the end-user benefits from their design.

Recently, members of The Kleingers Group transportation team spent an afternoon with visually impaired residents and their guide dogs in the Columbus area. The team was split into two groups and paired with a blind individual, their sight dog, a cane, and blindfolds. Team members were then given the opportunity to experience the end-user. Members were blindfolded and given simple instructions to utilize their given tools (guide dog or cane) to navigate around a city block. Through the experience, team members were able to gain a new perspective about how end-users experience their design in real life and how everything in the design from curb ramps to accessible pedestrian signals to street conditions is important. This experience has helped our transportation engineers become more mindful of their design and how it impacts daily users.

For the Leblond Regional RecPlex project, our engineers were given the opportunity to design a recreation facility for individuals with and without disabilities. The team looked for opportunities to exceed ADA requirements for the project. The end result was a facility with accessibility to nearly everything from nearly everywhere in the parking lot. Designers found the solution by removing the reveal at the curb/pavement connection, this, in turn, saved money on the curb, bringing the cost in line with the budget, all while creating a ‘flush’ connection to all sides of the site.

“We put in extra ADA spaces, but it’s as if the whole lot is ADA accessible because people can spread out and park wherever they want and cross the lot and access everything without a ramp. With the baseball field on one side, the basketball court and playground on the other side, and the building on a separate side of the lot, [users] can park wherever and get to all three easily. Good call.” – Doug (Cincinnati Recreation Commission)

The Kleingers Group is proud to look beyond the ADA requirements on projects. Ultimately, it is about the end-users experience in our designs, why not make it a stress-free encounter.