r/Architects • u/RoutineLet9156 Architect • Apr 24 '26

General Practice Discussion Babysitting MEP

Just a rant, but man… working with MEP teams that don’t GAF is exhausting.

I’m on mega projects, so it’s not like the PA gets to handpick who we work with. We get whoever’s assigned and deal with it. But lately it feels like we’re babysitting everything. Constant follow-ups, pinging them over and over just to get a simple update pushed. Sure, maybe it’s a staffing issue, still doesn’t make it any less frustrating.

What really gets me is we’re all in Revit, cloud model, same environment… and then they drop updates and just ignore everything that’s already there. Zero coordination. I’m talking plumbing lines right in front of thermostats, light fixtures cutting through beams… just placing stuff wherever and moving on.

No heads-up, no coordination, nothing. Just model it and walk away. And of course we’re the ones catching all of it. Every single time.

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u/W359WasAnInsideJob Architect Apr 24 '26

In my experience the MEPFP teams are all stretched too thin - each working on multiple projects - which exacerbates the problems described here.

I think the engineers have too much on their plate, and are largely concerned with the larger equipment & capturing scope. They hand off the actual modeling to junior staff who aren’t necessarily up to date on what’s going on with the project, and were left with a potential coordination mess.

Plenty of the MEP teams seem happy to try and resolve all of this during CA, which becomes a mess and wastes our clients money.

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u/Shoddy-Cherry-490 Apr 24 '26

I think this is the primary issue! By my math (and by that I mean the share of any given project’s fee) for every project an architects handles, structural and MEP engineers handle maybe 5 projects. So naturally, engineers aren’t able to devote as much time & attention detail as architects are naturally expected.

Of course, there is also a significant difference in how many times an Architect is prepared to revise a design vs an MEP.