With only his shovel and a broom for company, Tony Ingram cut a lonely figure after a few hours one night last spring as he cleaned up runoff from a torrential rain that had turned a section of the driveway rear of the 1,100-acre Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square. , Pa., on a muddy plain.
For Ingram, Bancroft Construction’s senior project manager for the 17-acre Longwood Reimagined expansion, shoveling mud was all in a day’s work. But Longwood President and CEO Paul Redman, who stopped by, was impressed.
“Tony could have gone home or called the others or sat in his office,” says Redman, the visionary behind the $250 million Longwood Reimagined, with its stunning glass-enclosed conservatory, multiple buildings and landscaping .
Redman immediately called Ingram’s boss, Bancroft President and CEO Greg Sawka. “We got a good one there Tony,” he told Sawka.
In 2017, having seen Ingram’s work on smaller projects at the garden, Redman had specifically asked Sawka to put Ingram in charge of the garden’s most complex undertaking since its inception in 1921.
“We knew the project would be a big step forward for Tony, but we knew he could do it,” says Redman. Ingram’s work ethic, attention to detail and problem-solving gave Redman confidence that the project would be delivered “upholding Longwood’s highest goals.”
Conservatories are tough because they need to keep plants and creatures comfortable. Greenhouses are even tougher, especially with sustainability features such as operable skylights for passive heating and cooling. A greenhouse with an architecturally expressed asymmetric steel frame is the most complex.
“I knew it [the assignment] it would be quite a challenge,” says Ingram, who was 33 when he started the job, having landed at Bancroft in 2013. In his role, he led a team of up to 25, including five project managers.
The job had its share of forced solutions due to unforeseen circumstances. These include COVID-19 adjustments, delivery delays, supplier failures and the Russia-Ukraine war that prevented visits to the greenhouse manufacturer in Lithuania. There was even a four-day shutdown of the site caused by an escaped convict.
“Tony has been the collaborative and unifying force that integrates the dreams and practical needs of Longwood Gardens, our design partners, our business partners and suppliers, local code officials and, of course, the team of Bancroft,” says Sawka. “His skills have made this project a success.”
Ingram was exposed to construction at a young age through his father, a structural engineer. But he wanted to be more hands-on, so he went into engineering and construction management. He first cut his teeth on hospital projects — good preparation for the intricacies of Longwood’s infrastructure.
Redman offered to throw in the mud that night. The offer, which Ingram declined, was quintessentially Redman, who considers Bancroft and everyone on the project part of the Longwood family. “It’s never ‘us versus them,'” but “collaboration, transparency, open communication and trust,” says Redman.
Redman and his team “always want to do the right thing, not necessarily the fastest and cheapest thing,” says Ingram. That’s “rare” in construction, Sawka adds.
Two days before the Longwood staff moved into their new headquarters, Redman saw Ingram remove the protective film from the windows. “A job needs to be done and he did it,” says Redman, who calls Ingram an “extraordinary leader” who is just beginning to realize his potential.
