2023 Women in Construction: Elizabeth Colvin, Wendel Architecture and Engineering

In the past year, what project or accomplishment are you most proud of? Looking back at 2022, it’s difficult to select just one project or accomplishment that I am most proud of. Each day, I go in with the mindset to do my best and be a fair and authentic leader for my project teams, our clients, and of course, our company. I manage a diverse portfolio consisting of private, manufacturing, public transit, local government, and healthcare projects and appreciate the challenges each day presents. Having completed several projects last year and a handful under construction this year, it’s both refreshing and rewarding to see the design come to life in front of you. 

What was a pivotal point in your career? A pivotal point in my 17-year career in the A/E industry was when I managed and led our Wendel HQ build out and relocation to our current 375 Essjay, Williamsville office. Talk about a difficult client – haha! As you can imagine, our executives and employees were all personally invested in this project which made managing the ‘client’ a bit tricky. This was a tremendous growth period for me, both personally and professionally, as I juggled competing interests and conflicting requests. 

Luckily, with a solid and supportive team of (ironically) a majority of women, we developed a set of standards and guiding principles which set a fair playing ground and which successfully took us from programming through design and construction.