Frank Wilson, new president of the architectural and engineering firm Daniel, Mann, Johnson, & Mendenhall, says it is possible for L.A. to have a workable public transit system.
Before coming to the firm, Wilson spent two years as commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Transportation. Before that, he was general manager for five years of the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART), where he helped boost daily ridership by 54,000 people.
Now, among other national and international projects, he will oversee program management done by his firm for the L.A. Red Line and the Alameda Corridor freight rail line. That work includes hiring construction firms and coordinating designs.
“Any Los Angeles (transit) solution will have a big price tag to it, because everything is magnified here,” Wilson said. “There aren’t going to be any pat solutions, people are going to have to modify their behavior.”
Wilson, who was hired by DMJM two years ago, believes the solution involves mixing a good highway system and public transportation. The trick, he says, is creating a mix that will entice people to give up some of their time behind the wheel. He compares it to the introduction of ATMs.
“Years ago, people couldn’t fathom the idea of going to a machine to get money,” he says. “Today, you are penalized for going into the bank and doing business with a live person. We have become completely accustomed to banking that way.”
Dealing with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority on local rail projects will be just part of Wilson’s focus. He says the architectural and engineering industry has been undergoing a transformation in which clients want firms to provide a full array of services, not just design and construction.
That can mean maintaining and sometimes even financing a structure. Nowadays, a design firm might be asked to provide the operating staff and personnel for a project, as well as arranging debt and equity basically allowing clients to do one-stop shopping for a design firm.
“There is a very intense competition among architectural and engineering firms, and you are going to be more useful if you can provide all of these functions for the (project) owners,” Wilson said.
Karen Teitelman
