Carrie Cremin.
Carrie Cremin, 33
Project Manager and P/FP Engineer at AKF Group
Carrie Cremin’s passion for health care projects blossomed when COVID hit, as she was assigned to be AKF’s project manager for the construction of a new — and yet not so new — ICU for the New York Presbyterian Critical Care Unit’s West Building in Manhattan.
“That was a project to renovate a new ICU for an existing building,” Cremin said. “That project was incredible because in March 2020, about 90 percent of the engineering systems were installed. Then COVID hit, so the client made a big shift. They wanted to build in significant adaptability measures to be able to handle COVID, including the ability to switch to negative pressure and to be able to handle a large number of ventilated patients. But, since a lot of the overhead was installed, they wanted to accomplish this without having to take anything out. The project was successful, and they opened on time.”
Cremin, who earned a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from Cooper Union, has worked on numerous health care projects, also serving as the project manager for New York-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital, winner of 2017’s ENR New York Best Health Care Project.
She notes that as complex as these projects can be, having them in New York ups the ante.
“Health care facilities in New York City have such a difficult challenge. One of these buildings was built in the ’40s,” Cremin said. “They’re really not tailored to the systems we now have in place. They don’t have available duct shafts. At the time these buildings were built, overhead air distribution wasn’t a thing. So to get these systems to work in these existing buildings is extremely challenging. It’s like a crazy puzzle.”
Knowing that state-of-the-art health care systems have never been more crucial, Cremin looks forward to greater challenges in that department.
“I love working with hospitals — I love the challenges they present,” Cremin said. “Helping health systems keep up with ever-changing technology, ever-changing codes, and how COVID has changed the way we approach things, I love seeing that be successful and helping them get there on time and on schedule.”—L.G.
