CommonGrounds Workspace
Fort Worth, TX
Expertise
- Commercial
Services
- mechanical / plumbing engineering
- electrical engineering
BHB provided MEP services for CommonGrounds Workplace, a national coworking company, in order to open its first Texas location in a lease space in the first floor of a parking garage at 702 Houston Street in downtown Fort Worth. This company offers flexible office space to encourage collaboration and productivity among team members. CommonGrounds has expanded to Fort Worth because of the relatively low number of coworking companies and its rankings as one of the fastest growing cities in the country.
BHB provided a full mechanical design which included water source heat pumps utilizing a condenser water loop with a closed-circuit cooling tower. The tower and condenser water loop were designed by BHB as a part of the shell building which had electric unit heaters for freeze protection on the first-floor tenant space. The loop included two pumps sized to split the condenser water flow in half, or an N/2 redundancy. BHB overcame challenges of locating HVAC units and maintaining service clearance despite the various ceiling heights and types. BHB’s electrical team was able to successfully provide enough power for the high-density office space utilizing specified furniture systems with glass partitions. To maximize the leasable space, the electrical room was divided in half to increase the amount of wall space for electrical components.
Key People
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Saul Martinez, PE
Saul Martinez, PE
Associate | Mechanical Engineer
Growing up, Saul wanted to become an astronomer or historian. It wasn’t until high school, when his history teacher encouraged him to consider engineering, that he changed career paths. While attending TCU for a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering, Saul heard BHB was looking for interns, applied, and the rest is history.
During his time at BHB, he has pushed his career and responsibility upward within the firm. His project experience includes retail, higher education facilities, municipal, religious, medical offices, data centers, hospitality, multi-family, commercial, historic, and industrial buildings. Saul is an active member of the leadership team for the Fort Worth chapter of ASHRAE.
Outside of work, Saul enjoys cooking, baking, running, trivia, trying new restaurants, and video games. He also loves spending time with his two nieces and nephew. His favorite place to travel to is Japan because of the beautiful hot springs and delicious ramen.
Education
Texas Christian University:
Bachelors/2010/Mechanical Engineering -
Richard J. Watters, PE
Richard J. Watters, PE
Chief Operations Officer | Senior Mechanical Engineer
Richard Watters came to BHB after working with a design-build contractor in the area for two years. As an active member of BHB’s leadership team, Richard manages some of the firm’s multiple long-term engineering projects, including healthcare, commercial, oil and gas, retail, and municipal. He is experienced in sustainable design, energy studies/audits, design-build, hospitality, data centers, critical environments, medical gas systems, and construction administration.
Richard has been named one of the Top 40 Engineers Under 40 in the country by Consulting-Specifying Engineer Magazine and one of the Top 20 Engineers Under 40 in our region by Engineer News-Record magazine.
In the office, his hands-on style has helped him successfully find solutions for clients and mentor young engineers. Outside of the office, Richard has been past president of the Fort Worth Chapter of ASHRAE and has been active with various student organizations as a guest speaker or project sponsor; he also travels back to Texas A&M to guest lecture and has sponsored projects for the construction science department at Texas A&M.
With his wife Yesenia, he enjoys being outside with their kids, traveling, working on multiple home improvement projects, and helping others. They have sponsored scholarships for children in El Salvador, his wife’s native country, who would otherwise not have access to advanced education. In addition to these, they also have four annual scholarships locally at TCU and UNT. Expanding on this desire to provide resources and forward momentum for everyone, Richard is also a founding board member of the Paul Schulte Foundation, a non-profit organization with a goal to empower, inspire, and facilitate individuals with disabilities.
Project Experience
Arlington Animal Services Center
Doss Heritage and Culture Center
Ott Cribbs Public Safety Center
Star-Telegram Building
Texas Wesleyan University Jack and Jo Willa Morton Fitness Center
Education
Texas A&M University:
Master’s Degree/2001/Mechanical Engineering
The University of Texas at El Paso:
Bachelor’s Degree/1997/Mechanical Engineering