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For much of her career, Alison Landry has been on the public side of civil engineering.
After several years working in New York City, Landry left City Hall in the spring and took some time off with his family. Then, in September, he joined Jacobs as the Dallas-based contractor leader in New York City, managing infrastructure projects in transportation, water, environment and resilience.
Her first few months on the job have already given her the opportunity to stand up for the industry and women. On Nov. 6, Landry participated in a panel hosted by the New York chapter of Professional Women in Construction with other leaders to share ideas about anticipated market opportunities.
Here, Construction Dive talks to Landry about her path to working for Jacobs, her passion for construction, and what’s important to her about being a woman in construction.
Editing Note: The following has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Construction Immersion: Why did you choose to get into construction?
Alison Landry: One of the themes of my career is collaboration. As an architect, I became very interested in how design teams interact with construction teams. As the industry has evolved with tools like design-build and progressive design-build, I’ve always been curious about, if we’re ever going to build this, we need people who are builders to be part of that design process.
So this is where my relationship with construction has really come to. I don’t have a construction background, but the more projects I’ve built, the more I find it helpful to be integrated into that construction process in the field and have the experience and intelligence of the construction team as part of the design process from the beginning.
What aspect of your career are you most proud of so far?
In the summer of 2006, I was working for a professor who had this new idea to bring together design work from students around the country who were focused on New Orleans after Katrina. Schools of architecture around the country, really internationally, were looking at what needed to happen for housing, infrastructure, public open space, health education, all these critical interrelated projects.
Alison Landry
Permission granted by Jacobs
Through the Tulane School of Architecture we collected all this work and put on an exhibition. Eventually, we created a repository of websites and it turned into this larger project, “Project New Orleans,” where we hosted a symposium with thought leaders on post-Katrina planning in New Orleans. We eventually turned it into a book where we published a selection of writings on the topic of post-Katrina planning and rebuilding.
So, in 2011 I moved to New York to help finish this publication. And a year later it was Superstorm Sandy here in New York. So it really became this basic line of how we share lessons learned for people who are dealing with it in real time in New York?
You recently spoke on a panel for the New York chapter of Professional Women in Construction. What should people know about this event and discussions like this?
I am very excited that the chapter has assembled this panel. And I love the idea that they allow their local members of the design and construction industry to access information from an interdisciplinary panel, with people from a real estate or land use perspective, or a financial perspective. For me, my perspective is delivery and public works.
The work we must do to get to the future of New York City is inherently interdisciplinary. We all need to be able to speak each other’s language. We need to be able to translate for each other and find that shared responsibility and common ground that is critical to starting these complex projects.
So we were having a conversation about what work is going on right now? what’s good What needs to change and evolve? That, as well as what’s to come and how we work together for these projects, is really exciting.
What does being a “woman in construction” mean to you? Have you seen the industry change or evolve?
It is so important that we continue to focus on inclusion and high performance in our teams from all perspectives. I believe that the more inclusive we are in our teams, the better the quality of the work we are doing and the more public impact it will have.
One of the things that has been really exciting about the Jacobs New York team is how strong their female leadership is locally. So I think we’re seeing more and more commitment to inclusion, and that’s seeping into hiring practices.
One thing I want to add to this is that there are still challenges in ensuring that the way people talk about inclusion is embedded in the work itself. So what I mean by that is, and this has always been a pet peeve of mine, when people talk about “Mr. Contractor” or “Your Change Order” or “Your Contract Says.” It tends to focus on bias and training, but I would love, in the future, to see more emphasis on how people talk and communicate at the leadership level.
What advice do you have for women looking into construction?
Find things you’re passionate about and go to work on them. Sometimes you have a mentor or teacher who is working on something cool and you want to be a part of it. Sometimes it’s about finding companies that do work that you feel like you’re related to or agencies in the city that are doing work that you’re excited about.
But deep down, design and construction require a lot of internal motivation because you’re solving problems all day, every day. And even if there are problems that are somewhat similar to the ones you’ve solved before, you keep finding new challenges. I think finding the things that internally drive you to stay excited and motivated about this work is the North Star.
