2020 ENR Top 20 Under 40: Pandemic Generates Uncertainty and Evolving Expectations

Eric Solem, senior project manager at Exxel Pacific Inc., says: “The collective whole of all of society helping out will make a tremendous difference.”

*图片来源：Eric Solem*

托德·艾布拉姆斯 — With the pandemic lockdown, Todd Abrams has been unable to visit the gym or the lakefront to work out, so he has “grown addicted” to online yoga.

*ALL PHOTOS TAKEN BY, SUBMITTED OR COURTESY OF TOP 20 UNDER 40 WINNERS*

病毒路缘使大卫·巴里特·弗拉特（David Barritt-Flatt）再次演奏大提琴。他还将时间用于DC分数，通过足球和诗歌为贫困青年服务。

Herself the oldest of nine, Megan L. Crutcher has three children of her own. She has been spending more time gardening of late, expanding from one raised bed to three during the pandemic.

The youngest of seven, Michael Fish and his wife recently welcomed their fourth child. He enjoys exercise of all types in his shrinking spare time.

July 30, 2020

Justin Rice

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While the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed flaws in global, social, institutional and political systems, it has also created new opportunities for bright and motivated fixers—not unlike ENR’s 2020 National Top 20 Under 40 achievers.

加利福尼亚州圣何塞的布拉赫建筑公司业务开发和市场营销副总裁金·斯科特（Kim Scott）帮助她的一位直接报告，对提议生产远程工作至关重要，以便从另一个州进行远程工作，以便她的孩子可以更接近其他家庭支持。

加利福尼亚州格伦代尔市PCL Construction的副总裁兼地区经理Aaron Yohnke优先考虑其员工的心理健康，每个人都说：“不，您真的好吗？” - 一名员工说他或她很好。纽约市Gilbane Building Co.的首席校长Omotoye Omoniyi确保他的工作人员在回到布鲁克林最高的商业建筑时采取了“必要的预防措施”。

大卫·巴里特·弗拉特（David Barritt-Flatt）warns that it’s important to recognize the additional pandemic pressures on the industry’s young managers, who worry about COVID-19 derailing their employers and their own careers. Vice president for client service at Clark Construction Group LLC in Bethesda, Md., he says that young leaders need necessary support, tools and training. “They are the ones that are ultimately going to guide this ship for the company and the industry. I see that taking a toll,” Barritt-Flatt says. “At the same time, I look at it as a positive, a really awesome opportunity to lead in these challenging times.”

In stepping up, the T20U40 group has helped debunk longstanding misconceptions about the industry’s lack of nimbleness and flexibility, especially when it comes to deploying technology and addressing the challenge of remote work.

“A lot of [people thought] it was impossible for construction to ever go to a work-from-home model,” says Caleigh Raymer, vice president and director of operations for Lendlease in Los Angeles. “Because of COVID, we’ve all figured it out in the last couple months. I do think that [added flexibility] will drive some up-and-coming people toward the construction industry.”

Yohnke在强调大流行对工作人员和工作场所的工人的心理压力时，轻描淡写了建筑的男子气概。他说：“这是关于与人们谈论他们的个人情况，在家中发生的事情以及如何找到减轻压力和解压缩的方法。”“现实是，在Covid之前存在的安全风险仍然存在，现在您有分心，疲倦和焦虑的人。有风险，眼睛离球更远。这是我们一直试图在PCL上推动的一件大事，确保我们保持持续的脉动。”

Yohnke has also been amazed by technology adoption during the pandemic, including field employees using Microsoft HoloLens during a Microsoft Teams call “to show us on site what they were looking at.”

Raymer says her crews are using automated sprayers to disinfect hoists. She says limiting the number of workers carried on each lift has “been one of our biggest social distancing challenges; one way we’ve been able to solve it is by putting additional hoists on jobs.”

Perhaps the biggest impact of the pandemic has been uncertainty, according to Todd Abrams, principal-in-charge of civil engineering at WT Group, Hoffman Estates, Ill.

“Not knowing when the economy will be open completely will affect short-term and long-term planning for all industries,” he says. “Based on conversations I have had with nearby colleagues and competitors, we are all beginning to become concerned with how business will look in six months to a year, and that construction may come to a halt. This uncertainty is creating caution in our investments in technology, staffing and plans for growth.”

Still, T20U40 recipients have not only helped execute on new business opportunities presented by the pandemic, such as redesigning schools with more outdoor learning space and adapting hospitals to meet demands of COVID-19 and beyond, they are also emerging as thought leaders, helping to design the new normal.

俄克拉荷马城里斯的高级助理和室内设计师凯特·豪威尔（Kate Howell）说，她的公司在大流行之前完成了一项医院项目，该项目将急诊科与一个重症监护室结合在一起，在急性护理设施中，其中包括“可以轻松转移到ICU隔离的床位根据需要的空间。”她说，可以将类似的模型纳入重新思考：“医院将如何使用空间以及我们将来如何为这样的事情做准备。”

华盛顿州贝尔维尤（Jacobs）的岩土工程师Menzer Pehlivan说，允许餐厅“溢出到街上”的城市，并为“骑自行车和步行……让我想到需要我们的一些物理基础设施来创造更多的途径也许将来可以灵活，以便更好地允许和适应所有这些模式，”更不用说“一年前您从未想过我们会考虑的其他用途”。