David Farnsworth

Farnswort

Bridging relationships across continents and feeding work flow
36, Associate Principal
Arup
New York

With its 160-meter-span and shell arch roof, the New Songdo City Convention Center near Seoul was civil engineer David Farnsworth's first private-development building project. It allowed him to put his previous infrastructure experience, specifically his work on tied arch bridges, to good use. Farnsworth specialized in high-performance structures as a graduate student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and spent the first five years of his career working on bridge, airport and infrastructure projects. His bridge work has ranged from architecturally driven footbridges, such as Iowa's Center Street Pedestrian Bridge across the Des Moines River, to retrofit designs for major river crossings like the Tappan Zee Bridge over New York's Hudson River. His infrastructure projects include work on Manhattan's Second Avenue Subway and multiple terminal projects at John F. Kennedy Airport in Queens, N.Y. His work in 2004 on the Songdo center led to an invitation from developer Gale International Korea to be project manager and lead structural engineer on Incheon's Northeast Asia Trade Tower, currently the tallest building in Korea. Arup says Farnsworth's success on these early projects has ensured a steady flow of work in Korea for the firm's New York office.

Christine Flaherty

Flaherty

Stepping in to talk up CM and help the newcomers along
36, Director of Business Development of the Construction Management Division
STV
New York

Christine Flaherty credits the positive experiences she has had with mentors for making her a lifelong proponent of mentoring. It was her first mentor who gave Flaherty a project management opportunity at a young age and prompted Flaherty to pursue an MBA degree. "You have to believe in young people and give them the chance," Flaherty says. "That made a big difference for me." Her overall work experience includes owner, general contractor, and CM positions as well as owner's representative for nonprofits and private and public sector firms with project values ranging from $1 million to $175 million. Flaherty says she is passionate about CM certification both within and outside STV and that she focuses on developing the skills of younger professionals. "Being a construction manager is a meaningful and challenging profession, requiring a unique combination of business acumen and technical skill," she says. "What we contribute to society, the level of professionalism and technical skills required, is grossly misunderstood and poorly stereotyped. This perception needs to change." Flaherty is the founding dean of STV's Construction Management College, where she teaches courses. Her other activities include work with the New York City School Construction Authority Mentor Program.

Rebecca Hill

Hill

Adding some green to the urban concrete jungle
38, Associate
dlandstudio
Brooklyn, N.Y.

Believing that increasing green space in urban settings is crucial to improving the lives of city dwellers, Rebecca Hill earned a master's degree in landscape architecture with a focus on neighborhood planning from the University of California, Berkeley. Upon graduation, Hill received the Geraldine Knight Traveling Fellowship to study neighborhood planning in former communist countries. Her early work included a position at Hargreaves Associates in New York City, where she worked on the University of Cincinnati master plan, among others. Hill joined dlandstudio in 2004 and has helped manage some of the firm's most complicated projects, including a Brooklyn Queens Expressway project in Carroll Gardens that provided two blocks of the BQE with park space that would come to be known as BQGREEN. Hill gathered data demonstrating the negative effects of the highway on residents' health and economic status and convinced community groups and local politicians that a new park could help with some of the issues. Her volunteer work includes school painting and planting projects with New York Cares, and she is currently one exam away from obtaining her landscape architecture license.

Emmanuelle Humblet

Humblet

Preparing the runway for sustainable transportation
29, Project Manager of Sustainability & Adaptation Planner
VHB Engineering, Surveying and Landscape Architecture
New York

Immediately after obtaining an environmental studies degree from the University of Pennsylvania, Emmanuelle Humblet joined VHB in 2005 to work on transportation-related projects. But it was winning the Airports Council International-North America Environmental Achievement Award in 2006 for work involving greenhouse gas assessments for the San Francisco Airport that sparked her interest in sustainable transportation. Humblet returned to school, earning a master's degree in environmental science and policy from Columbia University and re-joined VHB, opening the firm's Manhattan office as primary sustainability planner for its airport practice. Her work includes sustainability programs funded by the Federal Aviation Administration, and she is currently focused on a Passenger Facility Charge application for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's five regional airports. She is a LEED Accredited Professional. She is also the author of the "Roadmap to a Green Campus" guidebook, commissioned by the USGBC. Humblet volunteers as a member of AV030 on the Transportation Research Board's Environmental Impacts of Aviation Committee. She is working on TRB-funded research projects and hopes to shape sustainability as a concept and practice within the airport industry and beyond.

Elisabeth Malsch

Malsch

Stacking up degrees and experience
34, Associate
Thornton Tomasetti
New York

A registered professional engineer in New York, Elisabeth Malsch created the forensic information model, an interactive computer graphic program that Thornton Tomasetti now uses as a staple to organize, visualize and analyze data related to its high-profile forensic investigation projects. Malsch, who has worked for the firm for six years, has a long list of academic credentials—a bachelor's degree in civil engineering and engineering mechanics, a master's in civil engineering and engineering mechanics, a master's of philosophy in civil engineering and engineering mechanics, and a doctorate in civil engineering and engineering mechanics from Columbia University. In 2003 she received Columbia's Mindlin Prize, given to graduate students with outstanding promise of a creative career in research and/or practice. She has also done post-doctoral work at the Braunschweig University of Technology in Germany under an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship. She is currently Thornton Tomasetti's leader of advanced analytics and mentors colleagues and students at Columbia, where she serves as an adjunct professor.

Cristina Martinez

Martinez

Making science and engineering real to city kids
38, Senior Associate
Thornton Tomasetti
New York

With a bachelor's and master's degree in engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, N.J., Cristina Martinez began work at Thornton Tomasetti initially as an engineer. She used her structural engineering background for complex tower analysis and design and for historical buildings renovations, participating in projects including Manhattan's Times Square Tower. She had an interest in the business side of the profession, however, which led her transition to marketing and business development. In her current role, Martinez is responsible for organizing and implementing initiatives that include outreach events on a national scale. Martinez is active in several organizations, including the ACE Mentor Program of New Jersey, where she serves as president. She says her community involvement reflects causes of personal interest to her. As a 13 year old who moved to Newark from Portugal, she had limited exposure to science and engineering careers. She learned about the challenges of urban settings and their sometimes negative image and says she aims to encourage students to pursue science and engineering as well as to support the ongoing revitalization of Newark.

Tony Mastrolia

Mastrolia

Tapping into the technological complexities of data centers
33, Vice President
Jones Lang LaSalle
New York

After five years in real estate on the contracting side, Tony Mastrolia switched to project management with a job at Jones Lang LaSalle. With a master's in construction management from Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, N.J., Mastrolia's focus is on complex infrastructure projects. One of his past projects was on a LEED-Gold-certified data center in Atlanta for which his duties included site selection, project team procurement, design, construction and LEED certification. He says that when it was completed in 2009 there were fewer than a dozen LEED-certified data centers nationwide, as the technological complexities of these facilities make them difficult to certify. He is a member of his firm's national Data Center Solutions group and of several organizations, including the national and metro New York chapters of the 7x24 Exchange—a knowledge exchange for those who design, build, operate and maintain mission-critical enterprise information infrastructures—and the Young Real Estate Professionals of New York. Mastrolia's community service work includes the Special Olympics of New York. He says he aims to oversee a team of project managers, focusing on data center development and heavy infrastructure projects. "I would also like to continue developing more opportunities for the company and grow our Data Center Solutions business by using my network of contacts," he adds.