Mueller Associates has announced the retirement of Jeffrey Edwards, CPD, GPD, the firm's chief of plumbing and fire protection services. Edwards has been with the firm for more than 35 years and contributed to many of Mueller's most notable projects.

Throughout a career that spanned more than 50 years, Edwards became known as one of the region's preeminent specialists in plumbing engineering and fire protection design. He designed systems for many of the Mid-Atlantic area's most acclaimed museums, libraries, and institutions of higher learning. His contributions include work on the award-winning Enoch Pratt Free Library; the John and Frances Angelos Law Center at the University of Baltimore; the historic renovation of the National Academy of Sciences; the new University of Maryland Baltimore County Performing Arts Center; the renovation and expansion of the Towson University Center for the Arts; the new Capital One Hall; and the renovation of the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Most impressively, Edwards oversaw plumbing and fire protection systems for close to 200 projects for the Northrop Grumman Corporation, ranging in complexity and sensitivity including system design for industrial process facilities; electronics testing and assembly spaces; laboratory retrofits; engineering for cleanrooms, anechoic chambers, plating facilities, and secure areas; office fit-outs; equipment utility upgrades; and comprehensive infrastructure upgrades.

One of his final projects — the modernization of the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum — was the largest and most ambitious of his career. The project features cutting-edge sustainable systems, including a massive rainwater harvesting system that will collect and reuse more than four million gallons of rainwater a year. The renovation is now under construction. Edwards authored an article for Plumbing Engineer magazine on the unique and exciting features of the project's plumbing systems.

Edwards is also well known for his leadership in the industry and for mentoring students and young engineers. He has served as president of the Baltimore chapter of the American Society of Plumbing Engineers (ASPE). He is also a member of the National Fire Protection Association and the Society of Fire Protection Engineers.