Christopher Pell, 35

Christopher Pell was involved in one of the largest and most notable office projects completed in the U.S. last year: J.P. Morgan Chase’s headquarters building at 270 Park Avenue in New York.

Pell, a principal at engineering firm Jaros, Baum & Bolles (JB&B), directed his firm’s commissioning of the 2.5 million-square-foot tower’s base mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems as well as its interior fit-outs. He coordinated the project across ownership, design, construction management and operations teams to ensure that J.P. Morgan’s design goals were executed.

Essentially, he had a major part in adding what is now a significant part of Manhattan’s skyline, and Pell said it’s been his most complex and rewarding project so far.

“That’s been, for me and our commission team, our single biggest project to bring that building online,” Pell said. “It’s the biggest fully electrified skyscraper of that magnitude in the city. It lights up the skyline. You can’t miss it these days.”

But 270 Park Avenue wasn’t the only major career milestone for Pell, who’s generally working on up to 100 projects at any given time.

He also worked on the construction of Silverstein Properties’ 3 World Trade Center, the redevelopment of SL Green Realty’s One Madison Avenue, the development of Hudson Square Properties’ 345 Hudson Street and 555 Greenwich Street, and Phase 3 of Penn Station’s Moynihan Train Hall development. He also led the development of a 1,000-bed hospital at SUNY Old Westbury Alternate Care Facility in Long Island, which was designed and built in the span of one month during the pandemic.

“It’s about wanting to understand how things work and make them work better,” Pell said. “Construction in New York can certainly be a frustrating place to be, but those moments of breakthroughs and solving problems that have been a bit of a sticking point for days, weeks, months — those breakthroughs are what’s really rewarding.”

And the work is far from over for Pell’s team at JB&B, who already have several more skyscraper projects in the works.