Carla Sciara began working in construction as a design writer for an electrical contractor on their Four Seasons Hotel project in Manhattan, the first hotel designed by renowned architect IM Pei. As was customary in 1992, he drafted shop drawings by hand, on vellum, before they were reproduced and sent for approval.
It seemed like a nasty first job, but it was more than that because the construction manager noticed her work. “Tishman asked me for my resume,” says Sciara, now an executive vice president at AECOM Tishman.
Six years later, Sciara began working for Tishman as a mechanical, electrical and plumbing project manager for Condé Nast’s Four Times Square offices in Manhattan. The eye-catching curved glass wall in the employee cafeteria was by another well-known architect, Frank Gehry.
Sciara never left Tishman, rising from MEP manager to general project manager and carving a niche for herself on fascinating yet challenging institutional and cultural projects, often designed by famous architects. A partial list of clients includes the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Carnegie Hall, the New York Public Library and the Pace Gallery.
Topping the list, he says, is the American Museum of Natural History’s $465 million Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education and Innovation, a museum addition that opened last May, designed by the well-known architect Jeanne Gang. Sciara calls the project “a culmination” of his career, because of its educational significance and its mind-blowing 80-foot-tall skylight main entrance lobby—six levels of amorphous load-bearing walls designed to look like a cannon
Growing up in the New York City borough of Queens, the daughter and granddaughter of union electricians spent many hours playing in her father’s shop. A more memorable gift from a great uncle was a kit containing a tape measure, hammer, screwdriver and wrench. “My cousins and sisters have a stuffed animal or a candy,” she says.
Carla Sciara
At the Gilder Center, after structural engineer Arup suggested shotcrete to form the canyon walls and pedestrian bridges, Tishman searched the nation for a specialist capable of handling the non-orthogonal structure. After seeing three mock-ups, Tishman awarded the job to Wisconsin’s COST, because it had the best understanding of the shapes and the lowest bid.
Tishman had the temporary works modeled in 3D, which is not typical, says Michelle Roelofs, associate director at Arup. Arup then overlaid the temporary works model onto their own 3D structural model and the barrel wall bar model.
Sciara assigned a four-person team from Tishman to oversee the shotcrete operation. At its peak, its team for the 230,000-square-foot expansion numbered 32. “From a square footage standpoint, that was a lot of people,” says Sciara, who emphasizes that the project was a collaboration of all interested parties. , from the owner down.
“Carla was very engaged and enthusiastic about the project and that was critical to its success,” says Roelofs.
Sciara took his responsibilities seriously, especially with regard to the live butterfly conservatory and the insectary. “When someone tells you that ants leave their house at the University of Oregon and arrive on a certain day,” it’s important to have their new home ready, he says.
In retrospect, for Sciara, the “most phenomenal” part of Gilder wasn’t the canyon, but the “amazing” new connections to the main museum. “A wall was here and then it’s gone and suddenly I’m in the jaws of the T. rex,” he says. “There’s something about it that should make you smile.”
