RMF Engineering

RMF celebrates the tenth class of graduates from RMF's Project Management Development Program!

Over the past year, this group has expanded their project management knowledge and leadership capabilities through focused training, collaboration, and practical application.

At RMF, we recognize that investing in our people is essential to delivering exceptional results for our clients. Programs like this provide employees with opportunities to continue developing professionally while preparing them for increased responsibilities and leadership roles across the firm.

We appreciate the commitment and dedication demonstrated by this year's graduates and look forward to seeing their continued impact as they lead successful projects.

Preserving historic buildings also means preserving the hidden infrastructure that powers them.

For Yale University’s 1918 Central Power Plant (CPP), RMF helped transform an aging cooling tower installation into a modern, efficient system designed to support the university’s evolving campus needs without interrupting operations or losing sight of the facility’s historic context and neo-Gothic and Georgian architectural styles, representing the latest in a series of successful modernization projects conducted by RMF at the site.

Providing steam, electricity, and chilled water to Yale’s main campus and Science Hill area, the project required navigating the realities of a century-old plant shaped by limited space, decades of modifications, ongoing utility production, and strict noise, aesthetic, and operational requirements.

During design, RMF and architect Pirie Associates Architects teamed with Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates - WJE to evaluate existing building conditions and incorporate those considerations into the construction modernization effort. This included a visual assessment of the masonry structure, brick repointing and staining to maintain continuity with the existing façade, installation of a new roof beneath the cooling tower array, and restoration work addressing deteriorated architectural elements. One of the project’s enhancements involved the southern battlement, where substantial brick displacement and limestone spalling required removal of deteriorated materials and installation of new limestone coping to restore structural integrity while preserving the building’s historic appearance.

Working alongside Pirie Associates, whose scope required approval through the New Haven Historic Commission, the project team carefully balanced modernization goals with the building’s historic aesthetic. A notable design element included acoustically engineered screening featuring louvers and metal panels that improved airflow, aesthetics, and sound control around the new four-cell, high-efficiency, field-erected cooling tower array designed to reject 263 MMBTU/hr. of heat supporting 9,000 tons of campus chiller capacity. The modernization also included piping, electrical, DCS controls, and structural upgrades.

Laser scanning, BIM coordination, and rigorous shutdown planning enabled accurate design and construction coordination within a constrained, continuously operating utility plant, helping minimize risk and streamline ex*****on during a limited off-season shutdown window.

Upgrades that happen behind the scenes often have the biggest impact, especially with regard to performance and reliability.

RMF is nearing completion of a significant replacement project at the Frank S. Bressler Research Building at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, enhancing energy recovery, exhaust systems, and overall building performance within this critical, 24/7 research environment.

Delivering this project required a unique opportunity and lockstep coordination across RMF’s mechanical, electrical, and structural teams, working as one integrated group to support a seamless transition from legacy systems to a more sustainable, high-performing future.

This complex project replaced aging glycol run-around heat recovery systems with modernized equipment, including new heat exchangers, energy recovery coils, energy recovery pumps and associated hydronic, steam and condensate piping systems, exhaust fans, and fully integrated DDC controls tied into the existing Siemens Building Automation System. All work was carefully phased to maintain continuous operation, ensuring research and lab functions were never disrupted.

With 1 million BTU/hr. of energy recovery and systems designed for redundancy, this upgrade strengthens efficiency, resiliency, and long-term reliability for one of the institution’s cornerstone facilities.

University of Maryland, Baltimore