Company Overview
Moses Engineers is a New Orleans-based consulting engineering firm established in 1947 by Warren G. Moses and is now in its second generation of family management, led Howard Moses. The firm provides mechanical, electrical and telecommunications engineering consulting services for government agencies, developers, building owners and architectural firms who require such services. All senior design personnel are registered professional engineers and 70% of the firm’s technical staff are LEED Accredited Professionals.
The firm provides services regionally among the States along the Gulf of Mexico Coast and even internationally. One of the firm’s Principals, Lenny Zimmermann, has extensive international experience having designed projects on every continent.
Our recent portfolio includes significant hospitality projects beginning with the Lucayan Plaza Resort on Grand Bahamas and local projects such as the Four Seasons Hotel and Residences, and Condominiums, The Standard Condominiums; the Odeon Apartment; the Virgin Hotel; and, the NOPSI Hotel.
Focus on Sustainable Design
In 2012, the U.S. Green Building Council awarded Moses Engineers its first annual Sustainability Leadership “Community Championship Team” Award. This award is given for the total body of work provided in the field of sustainable design practices. In 2009, Moses Engineers’ MEP design contributed to Tulane’s Lavin-Bernick Center being awarded the National AIA Top Ten Green Project award for its “thermal zoning, technically innovative variable shading, moving air and radiant cooling.”
Sustainable Design has become a major focus of the firm in recent years. Moses Engineers was the Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing Engineers for the USA Global Green Holy Cross Project, a sustainable residential and community center complex achieving LEED Platinum Ratings in the New Orleans Lower Ninth Ward. Moses Engineers also designed the first LEED rated film studio in the Country, achieving LEED Gold Certification and over 15 LEED Silver and LEED Gold K-12 schools in New Orleans.
Hurricane Katrina provided Moses an additional definition of Sustainable Design, the ability of a building to perform both during and subsequent to a significant natural disaster. In addition to the obvious feature of locating equipment above potential flooding elevation, many of our recent K-12 school projects include photovoltaic arrays to offset utility costs and, although they’re presently arranged for sustainable energy cost offset in a net metering fashion, there is the capability of conversion to an islanded configuration should utility power not be available for an extended period. We have included the capability for the connection of portable whole building generators for use by First Responders; and, as a matter of course utilized natural gas as the fuel source for backup generators as it is deemed more reliable than the ability of diesel fuel truck access to some sites subsequent to a significant disaster.
Rainwater harvesting systems have been designed by Moses on such as the Global Green Holy Cross project which utilizes rainwater as the cooling medium for water cooled residential heat pumps. The buildings were also piped so that either rainwater or grey water re-claimed from hand washing sinks & bathtubs could be used for toilet flushing & potentially irrigation; but, the grey water concept was not yet understood and accepted by the local authorities, so is presently bypassed.
We have also recently participated in the East Jefferson Levee District Safe House and the Saint John the Baptist Parish Safe Room projects both of which are hardened facilities for First Responder Operations Centers and Emergency Housing. Features include potable water storage, redundant whole building generator backup, wind-hardened outdoor equipment, and sewerage storage in the event flooding renders utility services inoperable.