When leaders of the California Science Center learned they had won the competition to provide a permanent home for the retired space shuttle Endeavour, the museum had a problem. How would they move the 175,000-pound shuttle with a 78-foot wingspan the 12 miles from Los Angeles International Airport to the center in Exposition Park?

Museum President Jeffrey N. Rudolph turned to long-time board member George Pla, owner of civil engineering and project management firm Cordoba Corp., and asked, “Your company does this kind of thing, doesn’t it?”

Cordoba is a Southern California company involved in projects that require complex engineering plans, including California’s proposed high-speed rail, and Santa Ana’s streetcar project.

“He asked me because he knew we’d do it pro bono,” said Pla, a Newport Beach resident. “We did it pro bono because it’s good for the community. My CFO is still mad at me.”

Three Cordoba engineers in the company’s Santa Ana office tackled the job and spent 18 months plotting every inch of the shuttle’s much-watched move on Oct. 12 and 13. They occasionally drew in other Cordoba employees and worked with everyone from utilities to transporters to tree trimmers. Other companies also donated products or services.

“Cordoba was a very important member of our logistics team,” said Marty Fabrick, project manager for the science center. “They did all the detailed planning and engineering to allow us to understand what obstacles remained. They also worked closely with us and the cities of Los Angeles and Inglewood. And George also functioned as a senior advisor to help us with certain city departments. It was 100 percent pro bono.”

Although it wasn’t a money maker, the project will pay benefits for Cordoba, Pla added. “Someone already said to me, ‘If you can move the space shuttle, you can do my project.’ It makes sense for business.”

Pla is not an engineer, but he sees that as a plus for Cordoba. Pla received his undergraduate degree in sociology and master’s in public policy. He was a vice president at TELACU, a Los Angeles economic development nonprofit with for-profit subsidiaries, and a deputy in Gov. Jerry Brown’s first administration. He has been aligned with Los Angeles and Santa Ana city council members and Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign.

These experiences, he said, gave him the ability to see the big picture of projects when he started Cordoba as an urban planning consultancy based in Los Angeles.

“I think it’s the American spirit that causes entrepreneurs to start businesses, the desire to provide a service or product to follow on a good idea,” Pla said. “The motivation hardly ever is money. I started as a planning firm and did studies on transportation systems, housing and job development.”

Pla expanded Cordoba into engineering and construction management when he found that such work brought more revenue than planning alone.

“If we hadn’t evolved, we wouldn’t have survived,” Pla said.

Cordoba Corp. won numerous public works projects including Los Angeles subways and leadership of a consortium to raze hundreds of buildings damaged in the Los Angeles riots, which was criticized for taking longer than promised.

Pla shrugged off such criticism and the controversies around some projects, saying “you wouldn’t believe how thick my skin is.”

California’s high-speed rail faces both controversy and long-term funding uncertainties. The Santa Ana City Council was criticized for awarding a $5 million streetcar contract to Cordoba in 2009, even though two other bidders scored higher in the rating process. Critics said Cordoba won the contract because of its campaign support for Mayor Miguel Pulido and Councilman Carlos Bustamante.

But Pla said recently that Cordoba won contracts not only because of relationships but because it understands local problems and presents a bigger vision for solving them. “I never saw the Santa Ana streetcar as a little project; we saw it as a regional transportation system,” he said.

Critics also blasted the space shuttle move, angry about plans for cutting down 400 trees to make room along the route. The Science Center has promised to plant 1,000 trees after the move.

A 1995 Harvard Business School study of Cordoba Corp. credited the company’s strong relationships with contracting agencies and potential partners for some of its success. The study quoted Pla as saying, “In the service business, it’s all about relationships…Any one of the finalists in a competitive bid can do the work, There has to be something more.”

Recently Pla explained, “It’s not just who we know, it’s our approach. We understand the local concerns. We use local companies and people.”

Cordoba has done international work in China, Armenia, Mexico and the Dominican Republic, but now Pla is content to focus on California infrastructure projects. “California infrastructure has been crumbling for years. There’s plenty to keep us busy.”

He also rejects the notion of taking the company public or bringing in equity partners to grow more quickly.

“My role is long-term planning. Some projects will keep us busy for 20 years. I wouldn’t do that if (Cordoba) was public. I’d have to focus on quarterly results,” he said. “Equity partners would also look at their returns. And what’s wrong with growing 10 percent to 15 percent a year every year? Last year we hired 15 people, this year 10 and it will be 15 by the end of the year.”

Contact the writer: 714-796-7927 or jnorman@ocregister.com