James Del Monaco
PE, LEED AP BD+C, CxA
Principal Mechanical Engineer
James Del Monaco is the Principal Mechanical Engineer at P2S, where he leads the firm’s mechanical engineering practice. Over more than 20 years in the industry, he has built his work around a straightforward principle: pair the right strategy with the right project, balance the needs of every stakeholder, and deliver a facility that serves the people who use it. He designs innovative systems tailored to the specific demands of each project, large or small, balancing ambitious ideas against first cost and long-term operational impact. His experience spans higher education, laboratories, museums and galleries, healthcare, central plants, and campus infrastructure, among others. On every project, he works closely with clients and project teams to apply climate-appropriate, project-specific strategies that draw on every tool available and put each one to work where it genuinely fits.
A large share of James’s work takes place on higher education campuses, from universities to community colleges, where projects range from new buildings to phased renovations and central plant upgrades that must be delivered around ongoing campus operations. At times that means keeping a facility fully in service through construction; more often it means sequencing the work so daily campus life continues with minimal disruption. He has led utility, energy, and carbon master plans and critical infrastructure assessments, and has performed independent mechanical systems reviews for the California State University and UC San Diego. In 2026, he was appointed to the CSU Mechanical Review Board, the panel of practicing engineers that reviews mechanical and electrical systems, energy efficiency, decarbonization, and infrastructure resilience across the CSU system.
James is deeply engaged in advancing the profession. He is past chair of ASHRAE Technical Committee 1.4, Control Theory and Application, and a voting member of Standing Guideline Project Committee 13, Specifying Building Automation Systems. He contributed to the ASHRAE Center of Excellence for Building Decarbonization guidebook Building Decarbonization Retrofits for Commercial and Multifamily Buildings, writes the Engineer’s Notebook column for ASHRAE Journal, and serves on the Board of Governors of the ASHRAE San Diego Chapter, where he is also a past president. For James, these organizations and partnerships are where the profession keeps learning, and he channels that shared knowledge into more innovative, better-informed solutions for his clients.