🌆 ACE Club Digest - Reflections of an APM

Boo 👻… it’s us again

In this week’s newsletter, Emma shares a must-read reflection on her first 16 months in the construction industry. We also celebrate the new LaGuardia Airport’s award as the US’s #1 airport and highlight a few of our favorite articles from the past week.

But first, check out the details for our next in-person event!

An architect, contractor, and engineer walk into a bar….

Join us next month on Wednesday, November 20 - @ Stout Bryant Park at 5:30pm.

The more, the merrier. Share the invite below with colleagues and friends that may be interested!

A baker’s dozen takeaways from the first 16 months in the construction industry, from a residential interiors Assistant Project Manager

A dozen of takeaways from my first 16 months as a residential construction interiors assistant project manager:

1. Construction management, specifically luxury residential, lights up the whole brain. It’s a balanced diet of technical terms, problem-solving, relationships, creative/design, numbers/financials, and energy (1a. The variety of where work takes place keeps things fresh: office, site, respective walks and rides between).

2. Seeing a project from cradle to grave is rewarding and satisfying.

3. Construction’s reputation for extended schedules overlooks the day-to-day fast paced environment. The to-do list is a science of adding, working through, and crossing off items, big and small.

4. If project managers are a mile wide and an inch deep, subcontractors are an inch wide and a mile deep. Architects are a mile wide and a mile deep.

5. My appreciation for the built world & those humans who built it has grown 10x since working in the industry. Does anyone else find themselves staring at architectural details and wonder how long it was discussed at some weekly OAC (owner, architect, construction) meeting held months, years, or even decades ago?

6. A Thursday morning meeting in an UES kitchen with 5 people from 5 different countries is a common occurrence. Coming from the corporate world, the diversity of people is refreshing and more interesting.

7. It takes a village to renovate a dwelling in NYC: GC, Architect, Designer, Subcontractors, Client, Client Rep, Consultants, Engineers, Inspectors, Building Management. Remember to add them ALL to the access list!

8. If you’re lucky, the last day of a long project will feel like graduation; you’re stoked about the accomplishment but sad to depart from the squad.

9. Meeting minutes are universally disliked by APMs but will keep you current on your job and can save you time and $$ in the future.

10. Everyone starts somewhere. I learn everyday. Yesterday, I learned that a drop seal is synonymous with the automatic-door-bottom in a hardware schedule. Last year, I was puzzled seeing a “submittal.” Every industry has its own language that seems more intimidating from the outside.

11. There are more women within AEC than I anticipated but still not enough!

12. The industry is ready for a place like ACE Club to help young professionals learn and connect with others alike.

Have anything to add? To rebut? Reply and let me know! Better yet, come chat with me at the next meet up (details above).

🏗️ Project of the week

LaGuardia Airport Transformation (link)

• Development Team:

  • Developers: Vantage Airport Group, Skanska, Meridiam, JLC Infrastructure

• Project Overview: The $8 billion project, two-thirds of which is funded through private financing and existing passenger fees, broke ground in 2016 and was substantially completed in 2022.

• Why it’s interesting: LaGuardia was selected as best U.S. airport by Forbes Travel Guide last week!

📰 Our favorite articles

• How Gothic Architecture Became Spooky, Architectural Digest (link) — Get in the Halloween mood by learning about the evolution of Gothic architecture. Spoiler alert, it wasn’t always spooky!

• How contractors and their clients can navigate NDAs (link)— “NDAs can present a Catch-22 for contractors. Often, it’s a builder’s specific experience that makes them marketable to new clients, but NDAs prevent them from sharing details about what they’ve done in the past.”

• The Case for Single Stair Multifamily (link) — A fascinating read about the history of fire safety building codes in the United States and their unintentionally large impact on multifamily design and construction cost.

• Lloyd's Register: Construction 'Most Dangerous Industry' (link) — A sobering statistic: “New Lloyd's Register Foundation global survey reveals construction as second most dangerous occupation, with 22% of workers experiencing harm”

• Regenerative Materials NOW: A Playbook for Designers and Specifiers (Free Download) — This helpful guide, written by the awesome folks at Living Future, presents 40 strategies for supporting the economy of regenerative materials.

Please spread the word

Help us spread the word by sharing the newsletter and the November event with friends and colleagues!

We value your feedback! Feel free to reply to this email with any thoughts (good or bad)

Until next time,

Emma & Sawyer