Carolina Zapata, 34
Senior project manager at Shawmut Design and Construction
Carolina Zapata feels as though she has a “degree in quirks.”
The New York-based Zapata specializes in historical restoration work for Shawmut. She has led, or contributed to, projects for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Saint Ann’s School, Columbia University, the Buckley School and New York-Presbyterian Hospital, among others. What makes the work compelling, Zapata said, are the unique problem-solving challenges that each restoration project commands.
“My job is to manage the quirks, understand which are more detrimental than the next, and just assess risk and bring all teams together,” Zapata said. “Every day you may find an existing chase that was buried behind a wall that’s not represented on any drawing because it hasn’t been touched in 100 years. … Those are the kinds of things that excite me — buried artifacts, and just understanding how they built things back then, and quite literally tying in those old construction methods to the methods that we use today.”
One of the biggest projects of her career so far exemplifies that style of singular work. Zapata and her team were responsible for the restoration of the Church of the Epiphany on New York’s Upper East Side, a roughly 180-year-old complex which spans some 29,000 square feet. The sheer amount of work is daunting on paper, let alone in person: new mechanical, electrical and plumbing infrastructure, façade restoration, circulation core with a new elevator and stairwells, installing an organ and sound system, just to name a few. The project was completed in May 2022, despite pandemic delays — and the team discovered an unexpected flue that altered its structural understanding of the project.
“The architects, structural engineer and my team just did a really great job problem-solving on the spot,” Zapata said. “Working with our subcontractor, we were able to advance that as quickly as possible … and I think that just comes from my company’s experience in doing this type of work.”
With a bit of prompting, Zapata admitted that her work is sometimes akin to archaeology.
“I’m not going to update my email signature, but I think it is very similar,” she said, laughing.
