President & Chief Executive Officer
Sunil Patel has over 30 years of experience as a national and international AEC industry leader and holds professional engineering licenses in 10 different states. He is known for executing prominent landmark projects such as LAX Bradley West expansion, LAPD Headquarters, and many more. Sunil Patel is a proven leader with outstanding technical and entrepreneurial skills, who also brings excellent business insights to the company.
Sunil Patel has expertise in Project development, Project Management, Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing, Structural, and Civil – and specialized services including Commissioning, LEED Certification, Energy, and BIM/Integrated Project Delivery services.
When Sunil is not working he enjoys hiking, yoga, listening to music and traveling for fun. Additionally, he is passionate about spending time working on charity projects and social impact work.
Key Highlights VRF suits buildings with many small zones, mixed loads and tight ceiling space, but it is not the default answer for every project. Refrigerant piping limits, set by each manufacturer, decide where outdoor units can sit and how far indoor units can be...
Key Highlights TIA-568 defines how generic cabling is laid out, built and tested, so networks can change equipment without rewiring walls. Horizontal cabling follows a star topology with a 90 meter permanent link and a 100 meter channel limit. Category 6A copper and...
Key Highlights A short circuit study finds the largest and smallest fault current at every bus, panel and protective device in the system. A coordination study selects device ratings and trip settings so the device nearest a fault opens first and the rest of the...
Key Highlights Scan-to-BIM turns millions of measured points into a model that shows what is actually in the building. Retrofit conflicts are cheaper to find on a screen than in a ceiling, so scanning pays back during design. Define accuracy and level of development...
Key Highlights Retro-commissioning is about making an occupied building behave the way it should, not about verifying a design before opening. The work proceeds in four phases: planning, investigation, implementation and hand-off with verification. Most findings are...
Key Highlights IEEE 1547 defines how distributed energy resources must behave when connected to the grid. UL 1741 SB listing is the equipment-level proof that an inverter has been tested to those behaviors. California utilities apply a staged review, with initial...
Key Highlights The fixture count starts with the occupancy classification and occupant load, not with the restroom floor plan. The IPC and the UPC use different tables, so a project moving between jurisdictions needs a fresh calculation. California projects follow the...
Key Highlights The OPR records what the owner needs. The BoD records how the design team intends to deliver it. Both documents are the reference that commissioning tests and acceptance criteria are measured against. California energy and green building codes include...
Key Highlights Nurse call is the clinical backbone of low-voltage design in any patient care building, linking patients, staff and records. Equipment listing, essential electrical power and fire alarm interfaces are the heart of the code review. Modern projects choose...
Key Highlights NFPA 855 is the main installation standard for stationary energy storage, and it works alongside UL product standards and test methods. Lithium-ion failures involve thermal runaway, flammable off-gas and spread between cells, so protection is layered....
Key Highlights NFPA 99 treats piped gas and vacuum as life-support utilities, graded by risk category. Oxygen, medical air and nitrous oxide usually run near 50 to 55 psig, with nitrogen far higher. Source equipment is built with redundancy and tied to the emergency...
Key Highlights A mass notification system delivers clear, authorized instructions to occupants during fire, security and weather emergencies. NFPA 72 treats mass notification as one part of an emergency communications system, with its own risk analysis and design...
Key Highlights Part 6 compliance for lighting is a package of power limits, mandatory control functions and acceptance testing, and all three must line up. Core control functions include area controls, multilevel dimming, automatic shut-off, daylight response and...
Key Highlights ANSI/AIHA Z9.5 treats laboratory ventilation as a managed safety system, not just a set of fans and ducts. Face velocity, containment testing and room airflow patterns work together to keep hazards out of the breathing zone. Air change rates should come...
Key Highlights Human-centric lighting designs for biology, comfort and task performance together, not only for footcandles on a desk. Circadian effect depends on the spectrum and the light reaching the eye, so designers use melanopic metrics measured on a vertical...
Key Highlights Grounding ties the system to earth. Bonding ties metal parts to each other and to the source. Fault current returns through bonded metal and conductors, never through the earth. The neutral is bonded to ground once, at the service or at a separately...
Key Highlights A fire pump closes the gap between the water supply you have and the pressure your sprinklers and standpipes need. NFPA 20 governs the pump, driver, controller and installation, while NFPA 25 governs testing and upkeep. Pump size comes from a hydraulic...
Key Highlights A fire alarm system detects a fire, warns occupants and commands other building systems to act. NFPA 72 sets the technical rules, while the building and fire codes decide where a system is required. Addressable panels with supervised pathways are the...
Key Highlights Good charging design starts with energy and dwell time per vehicle, not with the number of charger boxes. Level 2, DC fast and heavy-duty charging place very different demands on service size, space and cost. NEC Article 625 treats charging as a...
Key Highlights NFPA 110 defines how an emergency or standby generator system is built, started, fueled, tested and maintained. Level 1 systems protect life safety loads, while Level 2 systems serve loads where failure is serious but not life threatening. Monthly...
Key Highlights Egress lighting keeps exits visible during normal use, while emergency lighting takes over for at least 90 minutes when power fails. NFPA 101 and the International Building Code set the same core targets: 1 foot-candle average, 0.1 foot-candle minimum...
Key Highlights A one-line diagram shows the path of power from the utility to every major piece of distribution equipment on a single page. Each symbol carries data: voltage, ampacity, interrupting rating, transformer size and protective device settings. The diagram...
Key Highlights A recirculation loop trades some energy for fast hot water, so the design goal is to keep that trade as small as possible. Pump flow is set by heat loss and allowable temperature drop, not by the fixture demand of the building. Balancing is the step...
Key Highlights A distributed antenna system spreads radio signal through a building with many low-power antennas instead of relying on weak outdoor signal. Commercial carrier coverage and public safety radio coverage are separate design problems with separate drivers....
Key Highlights Kitchen drainage is built around indirect waste, floor sinks and a grease interceptor. Hydromechanical units suit smaller kitchens. Gravity tanks handle larger or shared loads. Sizing methods use fixture volumes, peak meals, retention time and operating...
Key Highlights Cold storage is a thermal machine wrapped in a building, so envelope, refrigeration and electrical design must be solved together. Refrigerant selection drives safety rules, machinery room design and long-term regulatory exposure. Dock traffic and...
Key Highlights A central utility plant consolidates cooling and heating production so loads share equipment and operators. Chilled water temperature difference is the single most influential design number for pumping and pipe size. Redundancy should follow the...
Key Highlights Electrification replaces on-site fuel combustion with electric equipment, led by heat pumps for space and water heating. The largest engineering effects fall on electrical service capacity, panel space and utility coordination. California energy code...
Key Highlights Backflow protection is chosen by the degree of hazard downstream, not by pipe size or convenience. Air gaps are the most reliable protection, and assemblies are the practical alternative when an air gap cannot be built. California water suppliers...
Key Highlights An arc flash study converts fault current and protective device speed into incident energy, boundaries and PPE guidance for each piece of equipment. IEEE 1584-2018 is the calculation standard most studies follow, and it depends on electrode...