2023 Women in Construction: Sloane Brown, Swinerton

What is your favorite building in New York? I don’t know that I could pick just one. I have quite a few, for different reasons but I will say that my favorite ‘skyline’ view is always flying past the city at night. All of the buildings lit up and twinkling still gives me goose bumps to this day. 

How can AEC companies recruit more women? When I was considering career paths, general construction never even occurred to me. Thankfully I found a path that eventually led me here, but I think it’s really important to make sure women are aware of what is possible for them early on in their education and careers. A great way to accomplish this is through career fairs and internships, which Swinerton and many other GC’s invest a lot of resources in. And then, in more of a ‘boots on the ground’ sense, having women in the industry who lead by example and show others what is possible is key. Already in my career, I’ve had a few young women let me know that I helped inspire them to either explore construction or keep forging ahead with it. As more women see what is possible, this momentum will continue to compound.

In the past year, what project or accomplishment are you most proud of? I am most proud of being promoted to operations manager for Swinerton’s Northeast market after starting as an assistant project manager, coming from the architecture industry, less than six years ago. I believe this is a testament to my grit and determination as well as my commitment to excellence and leading by example during my time thus far at Swinerton.

What was a pivotal point in your career? The most pivotal point in my career was during my time at my first job out of graduate school at an interior architecture firm. I first joined as an architectural designer and spent my first few years gaining experience with drafting construction documents, putting together design concepts, specifying FF&E, and assisting the project managers with construction administration. And then, quite suddenly, the only project manager at our firm at the time left and I was called up to fill her spot. While I was not quite sure about it, the principal of my firm saw my potential on the management side of the business and ran with it (not to mention I was really the only option at the time!). That experience was sink or swim for me. I was immediately thrown into the fire and had to figure things out quickly, primarily on my own as we were a small company and there was not really any one to train me. Not only did I rise to the challenge but found that I much preferred being a project manager and that my passion for detail, organization, and structure was put to better use in that role. I also really enjoyed coordinating with the general contractors and subcontractors onsite to get the projects that my team was designing back in the office built in the real world, which eventually led me to becoming a general contractor, which was the perfect path forward for me as I would still get to work with architects and engineers and be part of the design process but from a more structured and functional perspective.