GRAND RAPIDS -- At a certain age, time moves a bit faster. Grand Rapids engineering firm Moore & Bruggink spent nearly a year designing a theme for its 50th year. "Creating Community," and its principals were already four months into it before they had a chance to reflect on that statement.

Over the last half century, communities have had more of a need for water, sewer, navigable roads and sometimes highways. As they grow, factories, schools, shopping malls and hospitals are expected. Eventually, these all grow old, obese or obsolete, setting the stage for revitalization and some long-term planning.

"The water and sewer at these subdivisions in Walker, Indian Mill Creek and Tallman Creek, had lasted 40 years," said Vice President Joe Camp. "I was pulling the original documents for that first generation, and there was Gary's name."

Gary Voogt was promoted to CEO four years ago. He's been with the firm since 1966.

"I remember that sewer, it went up in a pasture that I played in when I was a kid," he said. "We had this old engineer help figure out how big the pipe was supposed to be, based on what was going to be flowing through it."

Like a scene from the move "Back to the Future," itself two decades old, Voogt paints a picture of Walker in the 1960s: Meijer was building a new office building; few subdivisions were under construction; the highway was new. That was about it.

There was concern over whether the pipe had to be 15, 18 or 21 inches. What would be needed in 40 years? Alpine Township was nothing but apple orchards. Marne was a distant thought.

The city went with the smaller pipe.

"He said, 'Forty years from now, they can replace it. This is all we can afford right now,'" Voogt said. Later, the firm negotiated the addition of Alpine, Marne and Tallmadge townships. "Four communities on that pipe and it held."

These types of things get engineers' juices flowing.

The firm that ousted city engineers, Millard Moore and Ray Bruggink, founded in 1957, is today responsible for the water and waste of roughly 286,000 people, 68,000 homes and 7,800 businesses.

The firm's first decade was driven by highway contracts. In its second 10-year span, the Grand Rapids metropolitan area was consumed by investments in water and sewer infrastructure. The city began annexing communities for that purpose. Townships such as Walker, Wyoming and Paris (now Kentwood) took another route and became cities.

In 1966, Ray Bruggink helped form the Kent County Department of Public Works, and soon enough, his firm was negotiating service contracts between the city and the suburbs. Kentwood, Grandville, Grand Rapids Township, Ada Township ... most of the region owes its "city water," the roads above, and corresponding treatment plants to Moore & Bruggink.

During its first quarter century, the firm's work was primary municipal. There was, after all, a lot of community to create. In the 1970s, the focus slowly shifted above ground. Private developers realized that whatever they built, wherever they built it, they would need to get approval from someone.

"Our background was that we knew how the government types work," Voogt said. "We had these relationships with staff and elected officials, and when the developer comes in with this Herculean task of getting something started and approved, we knew how to get that done."

What began solely in the residential housing sector quickly led to an enviable position in West Michigan's then-booming industrial market: Bob Grooters, Steelcase, Cascade Engineering, Herman Miller and others became prized clients.

"If you establish relationships, just through word-of-mouth, the work will expand," said Senior Partner Bill Kozak.

Some relationships, like the one with Grooters, have stood the test of time. Others come and go.

With the advent of the condominiums craze in the early '80s, the residential market boomed again; and then again in today's revitalization. Some current projects include Riverview Condominiums and Tall House Residential, both in downtown Grand Rapids.

Today, the firm offers a full line of land development services including engineering, surveying, environmental assessments and land acquisition from conceptualization to completion.

"We also have a niche market writing public-private partnerships," Voogt said. "I think we're unique in that aspect."

Starting with a Walker factory that required highway grants, sewer loans and special assessment bonds, the firm has found itself as an arbitrator of sorts on a number of projects. For the development of the former Greenridge Country Club on Alpine Avenue, Moore & Bruggink served as commercial and city engineers. They spearheaded the development, and arranged for extra lanes on Alpine, a new fire station and traffic signals.

Similar work was done for Grandville's RiverTown Crossings Mall and is currently underway for Grand Haven's Grand Landing project.

The public-private expertise also has allowed the firm to take its municipal civil engineering role to a higher level.

"Engineers are problem solvers," said second-generation President Bob Bruggink. "If someone thinks they have a great idea, we tell them what they need to do and how to get there."

Occasionally, the project just isn't feasible.

"You sometimes have to tell people they need to do a little more homework relative to the financial credibility of the idea," Bruggink said. "you have to save them from themselves."

In the Grand Rapids area, the firm is attached to one of the region's most sensational stories of the decade: the riverfront "mystery" project.

"This illustrates how far ahead people contact us," Voogt said. "Bill (Kozak) has been working on this mystery project for a year. He signed a confidentiality statement; I have no idea what it is and he's not telling us anything." (This interview was conducted prior to the revelation that Duane Faust's massive multiuse facility was still in the conceptual stage.)

"I talk to young engineers and tell them how in 10 years you can drive along and tell your kids that you worked on that building," Bruggink said.

A Calvin College graduate, he is particularly proud of the recent work on the school's East Beltline overpass, designed architecturally by Beta Design Group.

"I remember years of talking about how to get kids across East Beltline. Tunnel or bridge?" Voogt said. "It had to be a bridge, they said; bad things happen in a tunnel, that's the place of the devil."

Voogt is also a Calvin College alum (1962). One of his first projects with the company involved moving the school from its original Franklin Street campus to a farm adjacent the East Beltline.

"Creating community. I hope people understand it's not just stuff," he said. "It's not just buildings."

The firm recently helped establish a plan for an urban growth boundary with the Grand Valley Metro Council, as well as a master plan for the region's sewer infrastructure.

Though its resume now features everything form the JW Marriott Hotel, Grand Rapids Art Museum and Saint Mary's Richard Lacks Cancer Center to Grand Rapids Community College's Bostwick Commons and the $15 million redesign of Monroe Center, the firm still has its hands on the region's pipes.

It is currently working on the Zeeland sewer system, and continues its involvement with the Grand Rapids service contracts