Client-Focused Service
Construction Business - AB & Alberta's Construction Mazazine | Sept-Oct 2022
Roger Steers, MEng, P.Eng., LEED® AP | Executive Principal
Roger Steers has been practicing structural engineering in B.C. for almost three decades, and is a well recognized expert in the evaluation, restoration and repair of structures.
Recently appointed as executive principal of RJC Engineers, Steers has been involved in restoring many parking structures in Western Canada. “There was the old Woodward’s Cordova Street parkade, work for the City of Vancouver and lots of parking structure work for mall owners including Oakridge, Metrotown and Pacific Centre,” he says.
Steers has watched the firm grow it services from structural and parking restoration, post tensioning and through the leaky condo crisis to building envelope restoration, roofing inspection and more recently energy modeling and air tightness testing.
He says the firm’s client-focused approach has been key to success. “I like to think we’re known for client relationships and the work we do... being trusted advisors with our clients and their projects,” says Steers, who began his career at RJC as a summer student. After he obtained his degree in structural engineering at the University of Alberta, he joined RJC’s Edmonton office full time. He worked there for five years and earned his Masters in Engineering in 1994.
Then he moved to Vancouver, joining the building sciences and restoration group. He became an associate in 1999 and then principal in 2003. He continued to move up the organization until he was appointed to his current position in 2022.
“When I arrived in Vancouver, we had two offices in B.C. and probably 150-200 people in total. We now have teams that are larger than RJC was 20 years ago and our largest office is Toronto,” says Steers.
Since the company was founded by John Read in 1948, the employee owned engineering firm has diversified and grown to 14 offices and more than 650 people across Canada. There are five offices in B.C. with almost 200 in the Vancouver region.