Steven Hrubecky serves as Pearl Engineering’s Senior Structural Engineering Project Consultant, a role which requires him to wear many hats.
“Every day is a little bit different,” Steve said. “That’s the really great thing about Pearl Engineering. The team is small enough that everybody pitches in, making the variety of work fun.”
Some days Steve finds himself doing calculations and developing the designs for new structures. Other times he works with existing structures, planning structural supports for new equipment and additions, like an industrial client updating a process or improving worker safety, so simply adding a monorail beam, or assisting in occasional structural emergencies. Over the course of these projects, Steve also finds himself visiting these kinds of work sites.
Outside of structural engineering, Steve also takes a leadership role in managing projects, as well as assisting with department staffing and marketing assignments.
Since starting in December 2018, Steven says he has made a smooth transition to the new environment, praising his team and the leadership of Pearl Engineering, and the new work. But that wasn’t likely to be much of a challenge for him.
Steve came to Pearl Engineering with over 29 years of structural engineering experience working in industrial settings, specifically in the pulp and paper industry. Steve’s position now opens him up to managing more projects and a larger variety of work which he is relishing.
Originally considering a career as an architect, Steve graduated from the Milwaukee School of Engineering with a bachelor’s in Architectural Engineering with a Structural Engineering emphasis.
While his architectural studies have ultimately proved very valuable, knowing and understanding a variety of codes, standards and safety protocols vital to doing his job, pivoting towards structural engineering, he says, had a lot to do with his personality.
“I’ve always been more logic driven, I suppose,” he said. “Growing up I had more of a focus in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) and the strict aesthetic creativity wasn’t what I enjoyed. Structural engineering, however, does require a different kind of creativity.”
Reared in Neenah, WI, Steve still lives in his hometown with his wife of almost 29 years, and commutes to the Pearl Engineering Appleton branch. Most of Steve’s family, including his two sons, still live in and around Neenah.
When he isn’t working Steve enjoys exercising with his wife as well as spending time doing a variety of outdoor activities together like cross country skiing, back packing, canoeing and visiting local and national parks. In their travels, their favorites so far have been the many parks in Utah as well as Yosemite National Park. They are planning a trip to Glacier Park in the very near future.
He volunteers with a local Boy Scout troop and at the local Neenah public library and is a fan of the Green Bay Packers, Milwaukee Brewers, Wisconsin Badgers and Milwaukee Bucks.
Have a complex situation that requires an innovative solution? Contact us to work with Steve and the rest of the Pearl Engineering team.
