Ivey Harris and Walls, Inc.
Site Engineering, Land Planning and Landscape Services
Orlando, Florida
July 1991 - Feb 1992
"Why are you looking for a job?"
"My boss told me he was looking for a job."
"Is he any good?"
"He's very good."
This was deep into the early nineties recession.
I connected Joe Harris to Steve Dieter, and Steve joined Ivey, Harris and Walls six months after me. He stayed there until he retired.
My primary work there was site and drainage engineering and permitting for our Orange County Public Schools Services Contract. I basically worked with the Orange County rep to produce plans and get Stormwater Drainage Permits for school additions (Media Centers, Bus Loading/Unloading improvements).
I enjoyed the work, but I was very curious about the whole software under-the-hood/blackbox enigma. Barry, my co-worker from my previous job had moved back to his native Alabama to work for Intergraph Corporation eighteen months earlier. "Barry, get me an interview." This was a big turning point in my career. It kind of ballooned in scope from that point forward.
Interesting Note: Joe Harris, co-owner, showed me shortly after I joined a project he was working on. He was documenting all the rules used to create a site design. In Excel, of course. "It's an expert system, Jeff. In theory if we put all the rules together, it can completely automate how we work." I thought he was a little bit crazy. Now, almost 30 years later, SiteOps/OpenSite Designer does just that: it optimizes side design and earthwork based on pre-load engineering constraints. Apologies to Joe: when you're THAT FAR ahead of the times, you can appear a little crazy.