Photo: Tudor Van Hampton 'Roach coach' cuisine aside, construction jobs can be stuffed with nourishment for the soul.

From a 23-year-old to a septuagenarian, from the depths of a tunnel to the roof of a ballpark, from Chicago to London—the lives and times of construction professionals are rich with extremes: A teacher. A crane operator. A development manager for a 92-story highrise. A drilling superintendent. An overseer of the London Underground's reconstruction. A plumbing contractor. A structural engineer pushing steel quality. An architect. Builders of a ballpark, a casino, a biotechnology campus and a transmission line. A transportation planner in Beijing. A surveyor. A safety manager. An inspector.

The "lucky 16." Men, women, the young and the old. Their careers and daily lives are all over the map. Yet they have much in common. They are all dedicated and passionate about their work.

The 16 whose work days are described in the coming pages represent just some among many fortunate enough to love what they do on a daily basis. Why else would a person chuck early retirement in Hawaii to start a plumbing company in Florida or battle the "ole boy" network to elevate quality steel production?

For some, their jobs are a culmina-tion of life-long dreams—in a way. A little boy growing up in the Bronx had longed to play ball in the House that Ruth Built. He didn't make it to major league baseball, but he did to major league construction, building the replacement Yankee Stadium. Another youngster turned his childhood passion—model making—into his profession. He became an architect.

One person's dream job might be another's nightmare. Some couldn't handle surveying, where an error could throw a whole job out of whack. Others would tremble just sitting up high in a crane cab, let alone lifting loads. But what counts is that each of the 16 has found a niche. That's about as good as it gets.