What does your job entail?As a Senior Architect, I have many responsibilities on the projects I am involved with and act as the Lead Architect on those jobs. Typically, I help plan and develop medium to large scale complex projects for the Department of State’s Bureau of Overseas Building Operations (OBO). I lead and direct other team members to ensure that the project scope of work is met while helping interpret, organize, execute, and coordinate assignments. The other part of my job is helping to mentor and facilitate the professional growth of our staff within the architecture department.
There are a lot of things to love about my job, but what I enjoy most is fulfilling our company’s mission of Building a More Secure World. To me, using my knowledge as an architect to provide safe, secure, and resilient facilities for our Diplomatic Mission worldwide is incredibly rewarding and important. The complex nature of these facilities and their locations across the globe means that every project is different and challenging. It has also been a great experience to travel abroad to see these projects. To date, we have provided A/E services on projects in more than 165 countries.
Like most industries, technology has had a huge impact on the profession of architecture. It wasn’t too long ago when designing in 3D was a niche service. Full 3D BIM is now more mainstream than ever. This has been a useful tool as our projects have become more complex over time. When we are trying to coordinate numerous engineering disciplines within tight footprints—with limited floor-to-floor heights—the ability to find and resolve clashes early in the design process is invaluable. The advancement of Virtual Reality (VR) is also a game changer. Not only does the use of VR allow us to have clients walk through their designs as we develop them, but we also have the opportunity to look at things like clearances and equipment spacing so the Operations and Maintenance of facilities is well thought out.
When I was looking to join a new firm, Mason & Hanger truly stood out in my mind. Our core values of Safety, Integrity, Diversity, and Success played a big part in accepting my position here. As an architect, being an advocate of the built environment is very important to me and our work allows me to pursue that. I also feel like the type of work we do is my way of giving back. Knowing that I am designing facilities that help keep Americans safe while furthering our Diplomatic Mission all over the world really resonates with me. I am very proud of the work we do.
