LE: In high school, I decided it’s what I wanted to do. Like many people, I was very involved in art, as well as in theater. I did theater set work, lighting design, and other things. I also took a mechanical drafting class, which started to bring me toward thinking about art in a different way. Both my father and grandfather were engineers. There was always some sort of attachment to architecture. Somewhere along the line, it just seemed like the thing to do.

When I think back, I have one or two experiences that shaped my thinking about architecture, but I didn’t realize it at the time. When I was young, we lived in New Jersey and my grandmother lived in Queens. As I noted, my father was an engineer, and he used to take me to certain buildings that he thought were notable. One of the things he took me to see — it’s hard to explain because the buildings are no longer there — was to the Chapels at JFK Airport. They were these beautiful, individual, small buildings. He also, ironically, took me to see Saarinen’s TWA Building, as well as to Dulles. Back then, before security, you could ride on the People Mover bus even if you weren’t a passenger. When I started to plan my career, I think those experiences were at the back of my mind.

Like many people who are considering fine art as a career, my parents said, “You’ll be a starving artist. Find something more productive to do.”

JH: Do you think those early experiences steered you toward a transportation specialty?

LE: No [laughing], I think they just steered me into considering architecture. Like many people who are considering fine art as a career, my parents said, “You’ll be a starving artist. Find something more productive to do” [laughter]. In high school, as I said, I was doing art and theater. Those sorts of things didn’t seem like a career that would be easy to manage. Architecture seemed like a good idea.

JH: While you were in school, did you ever dream that you would be a project manager and not a designer?

LE: No, we all think that we want to be designers. My evolution to becoming a project manager is like many other people. I began as a designer, the first couple of years. Ultimately, I ended up being the equivalent of a technical coordinator. In the last couple of years at Ellerbe, I had taken on project management. To this day, I still sketch and draw, and I sit with the technical and design teams to work though issues. I’m very interested in the planning, design, and technical success of projects, as well as the little details.

JH: Within SOM, peoples’ management styles are very different. What is your philosophy on leading our teams?

LE: From my perspective, the most important thing is empowering people to do as much as they can and to take on as much as they can. Also, I’m very interested in being part of the design and technical development of jobs. Fortunately, with these massive projects, you have enough time to get involved at all levels.

I also find that with these large international projects, being the single point of contact for the client, you really need to know what’s going on. But at the same time, you really need to trust the people on your team. My goal has been to learn to work with the senior designers and the senior technical people, and also to engage the members on our team as much as possible — to fully understand what we are doing, why, and what the client’s goals are. I am a very hands-on, detailed person, but my goal is to optimize my trust in the team and to create strong collaborative relationships — with our team, our consultants, and most importantly, with our clients.