Photo by Nadine Post/ENR Vacca (left) spent March 27 offering advice to a future structural engineer, Lehigh University graduate student Megan A. Toumanios. Related Links: Main Feature: Industry Women Weigh In on the New Normal The Harman Group Inc. Aquinas Realty Partnership As structural engineer Jan Vacca stopped in her office to grab coats and bags before heading to a jobsite in Philadelphia, she apologized for the clutter to graduate student Megan A. Toumanios—Vacca's "shadow for a day." Clutter aside, the eye-catcher in the office that morning was the desk wall, which is papered with pithy sayings.VACCA"Angry people do not
Photo by Dan Sellers Leite talks with University of Texas grad students about a design coordination research project using building information models. Related Links: Main Feature: Industry Women Weigh In on the New Normal Fernanda Leite's UT Web page Fernanda Leite has a passion for teaching and technology. A tenure-track assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin, she clearly delights in the research her graduate students are doing. Third-year Ph.D. student Li Wang, for example, is capturing decisions made by experts while resolving clashes detected in building information models to help train novice designers in the future."We developed
Photo courtesy of Connie Crawford Related Links: Main Feature: Industry Women Weigh In on the New Normal People on the Move NYC Transit Officials Celebrate Once And Future Subway Did Connie Crawford, the first-ever female chief engineer at the New York City Transit Authority, ever experience blatant sexism? After all, since 1981, she has been a civil engineer who frequently used to be the only woman in a room of hundreds.Yes, she says, but she hardly noticed it. “One reason I’ve succeeded as I have is that I grew up with four brothers,” she says. “The joshing among my siblings
As Kimberly Spain, assistant superintendent at the Jacksonville, Fla.-based Haskell Co., makes the rounds on the project site for a new $200-million, high-tech cancer facility being built at the University of Maryland BioPark in West Baltimore, she makes frequent stops.With equal zeal, she explains the complex work being done on-site and some of the finer points of the state-of-the-art radiation cancer treatment technology for the 122,000-sq-ft facility. On the jobsite, she gently but firmly tells a worker to don protective headgear. He grins and nods yes. A few minutes later, she’s dealing with a ventilation problem that has cropped up.
During a press conference in 2012, Bauer explains the work on the third phase of the Golden Gate seismic retrofit project. Related Links: Main Feature: Industry Women Weigh In on the New Normal Golden Gate Span Undergoes Complex Seismic Revamp (2005) As a youngster growing up under a communist dictatorship in Poland, Ewa Bauer's aspiration to be an engineer was inspired in part by her architect father, who fought the Nazis after they invaded Poland in 1939, then survived as a prisoner of war under Joseph Stalin."My father encouraged us to do what we wanted and not to think about
Photo by Luke Abaffy for ENR Bajoria designed a Buddhist meditation center and bookstore in New York City that opened last October. Related Links: Main Feature: IIndustry Women Weigh In on the New Normal Performa-Studio website Sarika Bajoria found a peaceful refuge when she started attending meditation classes at a modern Buddhist center in Manhattan three years ago. Her spiritual immersion coincided with a bold professional move: She started her own architecture practice in the thick of the recession in 2010."It took a huge leap of faith," she says. "I had to put myself out there and market to clients,
Photo Courtesy of Goldieblox Inc. GoldieBlox (above) makes learning about engineeringincluding how a belt drive worksfun for girls, says its Stanford U. engineering grad developer Debra Sterling. Photo Courtesy of Goldieblox Inc. Related Links: Goldieblox Official Website National Academy of Engineering's Engineer Girl Don't let the GoldieBlox story confuse you.The toy isn't just about a ballerina music box—it's about ripping the box apart and putting it back together. It's about building a spinning machine to develop spatial skills.But it's also about a female engineering grad from Stanford University who aims to make the engineering field more appealing to young girls.
Photo by Bob Vale Engineering student (left) and a contractor tour guide interact in East Side Access rail tunnel; more than 425 students toured the project on a Moles-sponsored tour on April 12. Related Links: Learn About Moles Education Programs at Redesigned Website! MTA Capital Programs-East Side Access ENR New York/MTA a Decade Late, $4.4B Over Budget on East Side Access Project Those who build civil works underground aren't seen much by the public or by the industry's next generation. But this was not the case on April 12, when hundreds of engineering and construction college juniors and their contractor
Related Links: Unions Ramp up Direct Marketing to Owners on PLAs Sean McGarvey, president of the Building and Construction Trades Dept. of the AFL-CIO, believes it is time for organized labor to rethink how the BCTD delivers its message to politicians and industry. The moment could be at hand, with Capitol Hill debating immigration and lingering concerns about nationwide construction jobs.McGarvey warmed to the task during his keynote address at the Building Trades 2013 National Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C., on April 22-24.During the 2012 election cycle, McGarvey claimed, the building trades—along with the carpenters and operating engineers—were the No.
Photo Courtesy of Women Building California and the Nation Craft workers looking to network and boost their clout at meeting in California. Photo Courtesy of Women Building California and the Nation Attendees got motivation from AFL-CIO executive Liz Shuler. Related Links: Union Carpenter Connects, Fuels Support for Tradeswomen Around the World Arecord 650 union tradeswomen attending the annual "Women Building California and the Nation" conference earlier this month were urged to take a cue from top Facebook executive Sheryl Sandburg and "lean in" to become leaders at jobsites, union halls and in their communities.The Sacramento, Calif., conference, co-sponsored by the
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