G/BA co-founder Alexander S. Butkus, P.E., was named a Fellow of ASHRAE at the association’s recent 2019 Winter Conference in Atlanta.
The Fellow grade of membership recognizes exceptional contributions in the art of engineering. Al has been principal-in-charge for hundreds of projects, primarily in the hotel and healthcare sectors. He is known for creative solutions to efficient HVAC design in complex facilities and energy conservation in existing buildings. For instance, he developed a statistical methodology to determine diversity factors, and pioneered the use of hotel laundry water recovery for cooling tower makeup.
The quality of Al’s work has been recognized by more than 20 awards from ASHRAE’s Illinois Chapter and Region VI, as well as two Society-level Technology Awards. He is the author or co-author of six articles in ASHRAE publications.
“Al has always been an ‘engineer’s engineer,’ with a practical approach to the most difficult engineering challenges,” says Chad Luning, G/BA President. “His projects often solved multiple problems simultaneously while reducing operating costs and the environmental impact of building systems. Perhaps most impressively, in an era of glitzy but not always practical projects completed in the name of sustainability, Al’s projects always made financial sense for the building owners he served. His approach carries forward in all the work done by the firm.”
Al retired at the end of 2017 and now lives in Oswego, IL; he continues to participate on G/BA’s Advisory Board. He also has a track record of service to charitable organizations in Evanston, IL, including McGaw YMCA, Senior Connections, and Youth and Opportunity United (Y.O.U.).
The firm congratulates Al on this impressive achievement, making him one of only about 500 people who have been recognized as Fellows of ASHRAE: a group that currently has some 57,000 members. He is the company’s second ASHRAE Fellow, after founder David L. Grumman, P.E.
