Jamie Kirkland
Jamie Kirkland, 30
Senior project engineer at Thornton Tomasetti
Few people in the construction industry can say they went from designing airplanes to building the likes of the Vessel at Hudson Yards. But Jamie Kirkland’s path was unique. After earning her structural engineering degree (with a minor in architecture) at Columbia, the Seattle-area native spent two years at Boeing, working on the design for the 787 Dreamliner. Then, hoping to do more architectural work, she joined Thornton Tomasetti in 2014.
Her first big project was designing the structure of the Vessel, working closely with Thomas Heatherwick’s studio in London as well as with Cimolai, the steel fabricators who manufactured the pieces of the structure.
“I was able to work on the Vessel because I had kind of a different mindset coming from the aerospace industry,” Kirkland said. “When I was working on the Vessel, I gave an internal presentation, and one of my coworkers was like, ‘Where are the columns?’ I knew the [structural] load could zig and zag.”
Kirkland is also working on the $550 million renovation of David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center, where she is coordinating the installation of new theatrical infrastructure in the building’s attic space. Her team has to ensure that they work around the existing abandoned rigging and hangers while installing new catwalks, rigging points for wires, and other support systems for a modern theatrical production.
Her other current projects include a $600 million training facility and playing field for the Carolina Panthers in Rock Hill, S.C., an amusement ride in Las Vegas, and a new health services center made out of mass timber at Princeton. The timber building is exciting for Kirkland because it’s the first time she’s worked on an engineered wood structure.
“It’s been really interesting to see a university willing to pay a little more to do this more sustainable practice,” she said, noting that the mass timber will cost the university 5 percent more than a traditional steel structure. “Getting to hone my skills with timber has been really nice.”
Outside of work, she volunteers with the ACE mentorship program. Architects, engineers and contractors meet with high schoolers twice a month to show them different aspects of the industry and help them work through a hypothetical construction project.
