Back to People Spotlight: Meet Our Team
Buildings & StructuresBuilding StructuresNew South Wales
Tonkin's People Spotlight gives you behind the scenes insights about the technical specialists in our business.
When you speak with Savas, it’s hard not to feel inspired. No matter the topic, whether it’s diving into the technical details of a project, or talking about his experiences mentoring younger team members, his passion for the engineering industry is palpable.
When you speak with Savas, it’s hard not to feel inspired. No matter the topic, whether it’s diving into the technical details of a project, or talking about his experiences mentoring younger team members, his passion for the engineering industry is palpable.
A Principal Structural Engineer based in Tonkin’s Sydney office, Savas joined us in 2018 when his former company – TLB Engineers – was acquired by Tonkin. With more than 28 years of industry experience, he’s one of the go-to structural engineers in Sydney who has experience working on an extremely wide range of building projects across the metropolitan area and NSW.
What are some of the projects you’ve worked on over the years?
There have been so many! I've worked on over 1500 projects in my 28-year tenure at TLB Engineers and Tonkin; projects which have varied from small residential fit outs to a large $200 million dollar plus project. So, I’ve been fortunate to have experience working on a very wide range of building structures with different materials and structural systems. Early in my career I worked on many industrial warehouses, as well as Institutional buildings for Macquarie University. Over the years I developed a great relationship with the University and still do quite a lot of work for them – from small refurbishments through to designing new buildings. My two eldest children are now attending Macquarie Uni, and so it’s a great feeling to have been part of designing the facilities they are making use of!
One of my favourite projects for Macquarie Uni was the Arts Precinct. It was a $150 million project and a key feature was the innovative roof design. The Ethylene Tetra Fluoro Ethylene (ETFE) roof which allows natural light to flow into the atriums of the building, resulting in a bright space that brings the outdoors inside. At time of construction, it was one of the biggest roof areas in the southern hemisphere that used this technology.
Another project I was involved in that stands out is the Sustainable Buildings Research Centre in Wollongong. The University of Wollongong wanted to house their own environment sustainability research centre and needed a structure that would live by its work. We worked from concept design right through to construction. The building achieved full marks under the world’s toughest sustainability standard for buildings, the Living Building Challenge (LBC) – the first time a building in Australia had achieved this credential.
Another project I was involved in that stands out is the Sustainable Buildings Research Centre in Wollongong. The University of Wollongong wanted to house their own environment sustainability research centre and needed a structure that would live by its work. We worked from concept design right through to construction. The building achieved full marks under the world’s toughest sustainability standard for buildings, the Living Building Challenge (LBC) – the first time a building in Australia had achieved this credential.
I’ve provided engineering services for a range of projects around Sydney and wider NSW including health facilities, schools, retail outlets and car show rooms. Also, plenty of refurbishments and additions to existing buildings – which are always satisfying projects to work on where you’re helping clients revitalise their existing facilities, and it’s a more sustainable solution.
What are you most proud of achieving during your engineering career?
There has been a lot of personal milestones and growth over the years. Long before Tonkin acquired TLB, I started as a junior engineer and worked my way up to becoming a director of the company. When I became a director there was a photoshoot and I was in TLB’s marketing materials. I’ll always remember how proud my dad was - he had TLB flyers up on walls and on his fridge and wouldn’t stop talking about it. So that was a very proud time for me.
There are also the milestones of achieving professional registrations and certifications, but one of the most rewarding aspects of my job is being able to mentor our younger engineers. It’s a chance to share the experiences I’ve had and what I’ve learned. I like to think I’m helping our junior engineers become exceptional engineers, who help raise standards across the industry. One of Tonkin’s key values is excellence, and that’s important to me.
What are your plans for your part of the business?
We have so many fantastic, long-term clients in NSW in the structural space, and we’ll keep working closely with them, but I would also like to see our client list continue to grow. Tonkin as a company has had strong and steady growth over the years and we’re at the stage now that we’re evolving together and working on larger and larger projects. I’m excited to be part of that! Yet it does come with more challenges as you require more resources for these size projects and that is more people to manage, liaise, coordinate and care for, in order to deliver an outstanding product within our fee budget.
A big part of my role will be mentoring and supporting our younger team members on their career journeys to be exceptional engineers who will instil our value of excellence. In our Sydney office our people have a broad spread of experience, including plenty of mid-level engineers who are moving into the leadership space. In addition to the technical aspects of engineering, leadership development is a big focus for us at Tonkin. So, I’ll keep supporting and trusting in our younger engineers to be the principal engineers and leaders of tomorrow.