Facility design for electrical and low-voltage systems.

What we design

A building's electrical scope starts at the utility connection and doesn't end until the last device is addressed and labeled. We draw all of it, or the portion you need coordinated with someone else's work.

Power distribution and lighting

Service entrance and metering, switchgear and distribution, panelboards and branch circuiting, feeder sizing, grounding and bonding. Lighting layouts with photometric calculations, control zoning, and the energy-code compliance documentation that goes with them. Load calculations, short-circuit and coordination studies, and arc-flash labeling where the project calls for it.

Fire alarm and mass notification

Device layouts, riser diagrams, battery and voltage-drop calculations, sequence of operations, and coordination with sprinkler, elevator, and HVAC shutdown. Designed to NFPA 72 and the amendments the authority having jurisdiction actually enforces — which in the Metroplex vary meaningfully between Dallas, Fort Worth, and the suburban municipalities.

Security and access control

Card readers, door position and request-to-exit hardware, electrified locking coordinated with the door schedule, video surveillance layouts with camera fields of view, intrusion detection, and head-end equipment. The door hardware coordination is where these projects usually go wrong, so we do it explicitly rather than leaving it to the field.

Structured cabling and other low voltage

Telecommunications rooms and pathways, horizontal and backbone cabling, rack elevations, grounding for the telecom infrastructure, plus nurse call, intercom, distributed antenna, and AV rough-in as the facility requires.

What you receive

A design package is only useful if a contractor can build from it and a plan reviewer can approve it. Ours typically includes:

• One-line diagram and panel schedules
• Power, lighting, fire alarm, and low-voltage floor plans
• Risers, details, and device schedules
• Load, fault current, and voltage-drop calculations
• Written specifications, or notes on the drawings for smaller projects
• Permit submission support and response to plan review comments

How a design project runs

1. Program and site review. We look at what you have — existing drawings, prior studies, a program document, the architect's floor plans — and walk the building if it exists.
2. Schematic design. Service capacity, distribution strategy, and system selections, with enough definition to price a budget against.
3. Design development. Layouts firm up, calculations run, equipment gets selected, and coordination with architecture and the other trades happens in earnest.
4. Construction documents. The permit and bid set, with specifications.
5. Permit and bid support. Plan review responses, addenda, and bidder questions.

Estimating and construction-phase services are available at any of these stages — see electrical cost estimating and project management.

Markets we design for

Aviation, transit, commercial, education, and healthcare facilities across North Texas. Each carries its own standards and its own tolerance for downtime: an occupied concourse and an empty shell building are not the same design problem, even when the electrical scope looks similar on paper.

Common questions