Stephen Costello.
Stephen Costello, 29
Superintendent at J.T. Magen & Company
Irish native Stephen Costello first dipped his toes into construction work after attending university, when he worked on hospital renovations and other projects on Ireland’s west coast. He found the pace of the industry much slower in Ireland, where he worked “long, drawn-out jobs” as a site engineer for general contracting firm J.J. Rhatigan.
Raised in County Mayo on the country’s northwestern coast, he was also exposed to the industry at an early age, with a father and an uncle who were both civil engineers.
In 2013, a year after completing his civil engineering degree at the National University of Ireland Galway, Costello landed in New York City. He was immediately hired at J.T. Magen and plunged into the high-stress world of big-city construction. One of his first gigs was the 42,000-square-foot H&M flagship store in Times Square.
“When I came to New York, it was completely different,” Costello said, “working on huge skyscrapers and ridiculously high-end retail jobs with crazy schedules — 24-hour shifts, 100 hours a week. But I’m able to come to work every day with a smile on my face.”
And he has worked on some significant jobs over the past seven years. At the moment, he’s overseeing the buildout of Facebook’s 1.5 million-square-foot offices at 30 Hudson Yards. His other big projects include the LinkedIn offices at the Empire State Building and the Snapchat and Yahoo offices at the old New York Times building near Times Square.
His typical workday begins on site at 7 a.m. He meets with the forepeople of each trade — carpenters, electricians and mechanical and plumbing workers — and he helps them resolve any roadblocks in construction. He also meets with the projects’ architects and engineers, and helps process change orders.
The pandemic and social distancing have made his job a little more challenging.
“There’s a lot of Zoom calls that go on with the architects, the building engineers,” Costello said. “We have to be able to open a clear dialogue without additional people being on site. Whereas, in the past, we’d have a weekly meeting on-site, and we’d have a walkthrough. It’s a learning curve, but we’re trying to make the best of it so we can proceed with working.”
In his off-hours, he likes to play or watch sports, particularly Gaelic football, which is like a cross between soccer and rugby.
