This will be my last issue as ENR’s Midwest editor. I have been promoted to associate editor of technology and equipment, and while I will still be here in Chicago, I’ll be handing the ENR Midwest reins over to the highly capable Annemarie Mannion, who brings a wealth of experience at both ENR and the Chicago Tribune to the role.
Since becoming Midwest editor in 2017, it has been my honor to cover ENR’s largest region—11 states strong—and tell the story of the construction and design professionals who work hard every day to deliver the buildings, infrastructure and problem-solving know-how that makes everyday life in such a wide and topographically varied region possible. I stood against the wind in the blow-through floor of a 1,198-ft-tall Chicago skyscraper while then-ENR Managing Editor Scott Blair and I asked questions to the building’s engineer. I wrote about the first two U.S.-Canada border crossing bridges—the Baudette-Rainy River Bridge and Detroit’s Gordie Howe Bridge— in 60 years. I saw the 1917 Cook County General Hospital Building go from sitting empty for nearly 20 years to becoming two boutique hotels thanks to a renovation. Missouri even showed me how to bring a major federal investment like the Next NGA West Headquarters to a blighted part of town.