Like Fine Wine!
Employee Feature:
Meet Fieldstone's Ian McCullough
by Brita Brookes | Marketing Coordinator
Introducing Professional Engineer Ian McCullough. In his role as Project Manager at the Auburn Hills, Michigan Fieldstone A&E office, Ian oversees the engineering needs for projects being worked on in several markets. Many of Fieldstone's large residential community projects call for the building design to withstand high wind loads since they are located in hurricane zones. Ian also reviews the commercial, amenity, residential and custom home designs for value engineering suggestions.
When he's not sizing joists, reviewing framing plans or designing for continuous load paths here at Fieldstone A&E, Ian enjoys travelling to New England, attending Real Estate Investment Workshops, music concerts and family time at home. Ian has become an integral part of the Michigan Real Estate Investors community and can be found regularily at their monthly meetings.
Prior to joining Fieldstone A&E, Ian McCullough worked as a structural engineer for Sonoma and Napa Valley wineries. Ian gained specialized experience with special concentric braced frame design. Ian’s work utilized intelligent connection detailing in conjunction with a proprietary system to meet the high seismic load demands of elevated wine fermentation tanks. As a result of his work, his design solution eliminated the need for field-welding which reduced construction time and schedule risk needed for these projects.
His winery projects have been highlighted in STRUCTURE Magazine and his manufacturing design projects have been aired on "Ultimate Factories" on the National Geographic Channel.
With so many wineries headquartered in Northern Michigan, we were eager to write this story and interview Ian to share some of Fieldstone A&E's "knowledge bank." We wanted the world to know that we can serve this niche’ demographic in both architectural design and in engineering, thanks to having Ian leading our very talented team.
We sat down with Ian in his Auburn Hills, Michigan office and asked him a few questions about his Winery experience.
Author: How did you end up working in California in the Sonoma/Napa Valley on winery engineering design?
Ian: Honestly? I landed in Sonoma County chasing a woman. She took a job out west in anthropology, and I was able to find work near her dig sites, and that work happened to be providing structural engineering services to the local wineries. Long story-short, she is now my wife and we are back in Michigan.
Author: It must have been interesting to see all the different wineries while working there. Was there any one winery of which the design was a particular challenge? And if so, what were some of the challenges?
Ian: The wineries and landscape in general were certainly interesting to experience in Northern California. The wine industry is clearly a major part
of the community life there. The town I lived in seemed that almost everyone had property with a vineyard growing wine grapes. In fact, we lived on a family vineyard in Sebastopol, CA while there with a winemaker.
As for the most challenging winery design, the E.J. Gallo Eastside Expansion comes to mind. As a large-scale wine producer the process called for twelve massive fermentation tanks, weighing up to 3,000 tons when full, to be elevated nearly forty feet in the air to allow the contents to be rapidly emptied into a press at ground level.
With the wine process piping involved, the flexibility of a moment resisting frame would have been problematic which led to the choices of Ordinary Concentrically Braced Frames (OCBF) and Special Concentrically Braced Frames (SCBF). After value engineering the options, SCBF was selected to decrease the seismic design loading significantly by allowing the use of a response modification coefficient R=6, compared to R=2.5 for OCBF.
This decreased foundation sizes and resulted in a more cost-effective structure. The special inspections associated with field-welding would have delayed the aggressive construction schedule, and an opportunity to use proprietary high strength cast steel connectors emerged as a solution for the SCBF connections. The result was a smooth construction process without a single RFI or change order generated leading to an efficient structure that met schedule and budget constraints.
Author: Do you have a favorite wine?
Ian: Although I prefer a beer, I recall enjoying the Hop Kiln (HKG Estate) Chardonnay (maybe it’s a coincidence because HKG Estate’s historic building was originally a drying kiln for the California north coast hop industry for beer).
Author: How can we at Fieldstone A&E help a winery or brewery who may want to build a new facility in Michigan?
Ian: Well, I can list a summary of what Fieldstone A&E can offer. I also suggest that if a business is interested in building a new facility in Michigan, that they call us, and schedule a free consultation with our team. Knowing the parameters and programmatic needs for your project allows us to have an educated dialogue in regards to what kind of services we can offer you- to make your building project a success!
Fieldstone Brewery & Winery Architecture and Engineering Services Include:
New Building Design and Engineering
Advanced 3D Modeling
Analysis and Evaluation of Existing Structures
Catwalk and Process Platform Design
Equipment and Tank Support Design
Seismic and Wind Analysis and Strengthening
Cut and Cover Underground Structures
Interior Design
Facility Planning:
Site Master Planning; Winery & Brewery- All site/campus building design
We specialize in amenity design like entry features, signage, entry gates, welcome centers and retail community spaces that so many wineries have
Equipment Layout and Process Planning
Fieldstone Employees have experience at:
- Seghesio Family Vineyards (Healdsburg, CA)
- Ferrari Carano Winery (Healdsburg, CA)
- E&J Gallo Winery (Livingston, CA)
- Domaine Chandon Winery (Yountville, CA)
- Chateau St. Jean Winery (Kenwood, CA)
Author: What other things can you share about yourself that may surprise us? Do you have a hobby outside of work? Or a recent milestone in your life?
Ian: A life milestone I attained while providing engineering service to the Sonoma/Napa Valley wineries was finishing the Lake Placid Ironman triathlon. A benefit to living in California is the ability to train outdoors year round, and practicing out on the mountains.
At home in Michigan, I am in my fourth season as an assistant coach with Hartland High School Varsity hockey program. We have led the team to back-to-back State Championship game appearances and look forward to more success ahead.
Author: Thanks to Ian for sharing a little about his experience!
We at Fieldstone Architecture and Engineering are lucky to have such a diverse group of people who can contribute so many different work experiences to our project portfolio.
If you have a winery or brewery project in development, Fieldstone Architecture and Engineering would be happy to meet with you for a free one hour consultation. We would value the opportunity to design and engineer your new project. And perhaps have a glass of wine! Cheers!
