“Tony could have gone home or called others back or sat in his office,” says Redman, the visionary behind the $250-million Longwood Reimagined, with its stunning garden-under-glass conservatory, several other buildings and landscaping.

Redman immediately phoned Ingram’s boss, Bancroft’s president and CEO Greg Sawka. “We have a good one there in Tony,” he told Sawka.

In 2017, having seen Ingram’s work on smaller projects at the garden, Redman had specifically asked Sawka to assign Ingram to lead the garden’s most complex undertaking since its inception in 1921.

“We knew the project would be a big step up for Tony, but we knew he could do it,” says Redman. Ingram’s work ethic, attention to detail and his problem-solving gave Redman confidence the project would be delivered “maintaining Longwood’s highest goals.”

Conservatories are tough because they need to maintain plant and creature comfort. Glasshouses are even tougher, especially with sustainability features, such as operable roof windows for passive heating and cooling. A glasshouse with an architecturally expressed asymmetric steel frame is the most complex.

“I knew [the assignment] was going to be quite a challenge,” says Ingram, who was 33 when he started the job, having landed at Bancroft in 2013. In his role, he led a team of as many as 25, including five project managers.

The job had its share of workarounds forced by unforeseen circumstances. These included COVID-19 adjustments, delivery delays, supplier bankruptcies and the Russia-Ukraine war preventing visits to the glasshouse fabricator in Lithuania. There was even a four-day site shutdown triggered by an escaped convict.

“Tony has been the collaborative and unifying force integrating the dreams and practical needs of Longwood Gardens, our design partners, our trade partners and suppliers, local code officials and, of course, the Bancroft team,” says Sawka. “His abilities have made the success of this project possible.”

Ingram was exposed to construction as a youngster through his father, a structural engineer. But he wanted to be more hands on, so he pursued construction engineering and management. He first cut his teeth on hospital projects—good preparation for the complexities of Longwood’s infrastructure.

Redman offered to pitch in shoveling mud that night. The offer, which Ingram refused, was quintessential Redman, who considers Bancroft and everyone on the project part of the Longwood family. “It’s never ‘us versus them,’” but rather “collaboration, transparency, open communication and trust,” Redman says.

Redman and his team “always want to do the right thing, not necessarily the fastest and cheapest,” says Ingram. That’s “rare” in construction, adds Sawka.

Two days before the Longwood staff moved into its new headquarters, Redman saw Ingram removing protective film from the windows. “A job needed to be done and he did it,” says Redman, who considers Ingram an “extraordinary leader,” who has only begun to realize his potential.