Testimonials

Columbian Park Zoo had the honor to work with Satchell Engineering to design our life support system for our 6,000 gallon penguin pond.Satchell Engineering provided  great support  to complete  this project even through the Covid-19 pandemic!

With being a small facility and not having a life support specialist on staff,Robert Satchell worked  closely with animal care staff to provide  knowledge and training on his design.Robert Satchell is a wealth  of knowledge and it was a privilege to have him on site!

Satchell Engineering continues  to provide support even a year after the project was completed. We know Satchell Engineering will stand behind their design and are always very responsive with  questions and technical support.

The penguin exhibit is a guest favorite  and brings so much value to our small zoo! We hope to work with Satchell Engineering again in the future!

I am happy to write this letter on behalf of Satchell Engineering and Associates. I have known Robert Satchell for 25 years, almost as long as my nearly 31 years of experience in this field dating back to Disney’s Living Seas. I currently lead SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment’s Environmental and Habitat Design errorts, and so my professional relationship with Satchell continues today and into the future.

We have collaborated on many projects in our parks over the years. Currenly, the largest and most notable, is SeaWorls Abu Dhabi where Satchell serves Animal Life Support Systems’ design consultant. Here, in collaboration with SeaWorls and our partner Miral, Satchell has introduced several creative, and potentially game changing design innovations that will advance multi-species habitat design in this new decade and beyond.

In fact, over the nearly two or two and a half decades of SeaWorld projects, Satchell has contributed to the delivery of several SeaWorls animal habitats. Among these Wild Arctic (Walrus/Beluga/Seals) in Orlando and San Diego dating back to the mind-90s, the reenvisioning of Discovery Point (Bottlenose Dolphins) in San Antonio, the multi-species Hippo exhibit at Busch Gardens Tampa, and the fairly recent Shark Encounter filtration renovation the included adding fractionation and denitrification to the processes.

Satchell is one of our preferred and trusted consultans, and we would not hesitate to use his firm again on future projects.

It is with great pleasure that Appel Osborne Landscape Architecture provides this letter of reference for Satchell Engineering & Associates, Inc. We were fortunate to work with Satchell as our consultant for the design of the life support system that was required for the $1.8 million Elephant Pool Project completed at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse, NY this year.

Satchell was responsible for the design of the life support system that provides continuous filtration and recirculation of the new 50,000-gallon elephant pool. The thorough scope and preliminary budget information provided by Satchell at the start of the project set realistic expectations for the project and proved to be extremely reliable through project completion. The timeline for this project was also extremely aggressive, and despite being based on the other side of the country, we found your team to be incredibly responsive and collaborative from start to finish. Despite having never worked together before, the entire design team and Owner’s team quickly came to have great confidence in Satchell’s expertise throughout what ultimately proved to be a very amicable collaboration. The expertise, responsiveness, and commitment exhibited by Satchell Engineering & Associates helped to ensure the project’s successful completion and exceeded all our expectations.

Appel Osborne Landscape Architecture would be happy to be listed as a reference for Satchell Engineering & Associates and share our positive experience with others. We wish you all the best in your future endeavors, and look forward to opportunities to work together again in the future!

I am writing with respect regarding Robert Satchell and Robert Satchell Engineering and Associates. I have worked with Robert Satchell for more than 20 years on a wide range of professional aquariums and zoos engineering life support systems (LSS) for freshwater and saltwater environments. Some of these zoological facilities have included SeaWorld (3 parks), Busch Gardens Tampa and the St Louis Zoo. I have also worked with Robert Satchell on the LSS engineering for the world’s newest and largest marine life park located on Hengqin Island, Zhuhai, China. The completed facilities included freshwater ans saltwater exhibits and holding in temperature ranges from 45F to 75F and a wide range of taxa.

Satchell Engineering and Associates has been retained by the Wildlife Conservation Society New York Aquarium to work through the Hurricane Sandy FEMA restoration of the storm damaged LSS. As the Executive Director, New Projects I work directly with Satchell Engineering and Associates to manage the very difficult and technical restoration work.

Additionally, Satchell Engineering and Associates has been retained to upgrade a 24 year old walrus exhibit LSS. This project involves some very demanding requiremnts and spatial restrictions.

My experiences have been very positive and I find Robert Satchell and Robert Satchell Engineering and Associates very receptive to the owners concerns and the needs of the living collection.

I work for the City of Louisville Metro Government as the Water Quality/ Life Support Systems Specialist assigned to the Louisville Zoo. It has been my privilege to work with the firm – “Satchell Engineering and Associates”, since 2014. Prior to coming to the Louisville Zoo, I worked for 28 years as’ Water Plants Manager’ for the City of Milwaukee Wisconsin and for 10 years as ‘Senior Water Sciences’ Manager for Walt Disney Company’s Animal Programs and Environmental Initiatives Team.

Satchell Engineering and Associates have partnered with our Zoo on development and implementation for numerous Water Treatment Systems located here. These include the “Glacier Run” exhibit dedicated to Marine Mammals and Pinnipeds. This exhibit won the “Association of Zoos and Aquarium” 2011 ‘Best Exhibit ‘Award. More recently Satchell facilitated design and install for our new “Small Penguin” water treatment system. This exhibit was placed on line during 2016 and has met and exceeded all our expectations.

Satchell excelled in working closely with our Animal Care and Life Support staff in designing systems which have proven to be reliable, capable of exceeding all water quality standards, and easily maintained and serviced. We have also received tremendous on-demand technical support after the systems were placed in service.

We are extremely pleased in our partnership with the Team at Satchell Engineering. They have consistently supplied us with design solutions which met our needs and their staff has proven to be hardworking, intelligent and trustworthy individuals.

I would highly recommend, without reservation that you seriously consider them as a partner in design and implementation of your water treatment system projects.

I have worked in the zoo and aquarium industry for thirty years, during this time I have had the opportunity to work with Satchell Engineering & Associates on a few projects both in the past as an industry partner and in my current role as Superintendent of Engineering at the Philadelphia Zoo. Recently, Satchell Engineering helped my team with some challenging water quality issues with regards to utilizing habitats for different species than originally designed. I found Satchell Engineering to be a good value with high standards, they also understand budgets and how that affects design. I was impressed with the SE&A team and find them to be knowledgeable and available. They were able to provide a good design, specifications and commissioning in a timely manner.

I have had a professional relationship with Robert Satchell for the last 25 years and have utilized his knowledge many times over the years, I find him creative, helpful, able to think outside the box, and able to turn around designs on time and on budget. I can recommend SE&A for any LSS, water treatment or water feature work and I look forward to working not only with Robert but with the whole SE&A team in the future.

Aquatic Equipment & Design Inc. has had the privilege to work with and for Satchell Engineering & Associates on many occasions.  We recently worked and completed jobs for the Savannah State University’s new Marine Lab in Georgia, Miami Science Museum in Florida and large Koi Pond exhibit in Hawaii.

Satchell Engineering & Associates with the leadership of Robert Satchell was responsible for the engineering for the animal water filtration systems.  Robert and his team are always ahead of the timetable, and with tight budget restraints, always find ways to stay in budget or below through creative engineering and responsive communication with the owner and other team members.

Having worked with several engineering groups in our industry over the years, I can say that this team is the most practical, efficient and knowledgeable of all.   When we are looking for engineers for our projects, they are our first pick.  They have experience with incoming water disinfection as well as recycling water systems.

Aquatic Equipment & Design looks forward to teaming with Satchell Engineering & Associates Inc. on future projects because we know the expertise and commitment shown of previous jobs and how the owners are always satisfied with their work.