Inspired by travel, food, archeology, and art, Eric is passionate about becoming totally immersed into a culture whenever he and his wife take a trip. And although they have been many places nationally and internationally, a personal favorite is nearby Mexico. Another notable trip was to Istanbul, Turkey, where “east meets west” and he says the incredible architecture is like nowhere else. “Outside this very modern and cosmopolitan city, there are Greek ruins which we were able to tour and, in many cases, we were the only two people there.”

When not traveling the world, Eric leads a team of engineers in BKF’s Walnut Creek office who he says “work hard and enjoy each other”. One of the reasons he feels that BKF succeeds in attracting top talent is that unlike other firms, BKF invests a great deal in mentoring and developing younger staff from the get-go,“ helping them to grow their careers, even if there is a downturn in the economy.”

While Eric has worked on a variety of projects, and mainly focused on K-12 work at the beginning of his career, he eventually transitioned to leading design-build projects, and even had the opportunity to work on a design-build dormitory project at his alma mater, San Jose State University. Eric says he really enjoys this method. “Design-build is a more collaborative process where you have more of an opportunity to work with contractors, instead of just participating in an advisory relationship. You learn more because you actually learn about construction methods – you get suggestions in tandem with completing the design.”