Justin Lundy
Earning His Place on the Team
By Sheila Smith Drapeau
As a member of the Rotational Project Engineering (RPE) program at Structure Tone, Inc., Justin Lundy has joined a team that is helping him forge a career path with solid training and experience. Based in Manhattan, Structure Tone is a global leader in construction management and provides general contracting services with its more than 1,800 employees. Annual construction volume exceeds $4 billion.
Justin started with the company as a summer intern in 2013 when he was still an undergraduate at Boston University where he studied electrical engineering. Upon graduation in May 2014, Justin entered the Structure Tone’s RPE program that provides newly minted college grads with exposure to multiple disciplines within the enterprise.
“Each RPE rotates through the Operations, Estimating and Engineering departments, receiving additional training classes from internal employees as well as consultants and industry experts,” explained Justin, now 25-years-old. “Each member is given a mentor, many of whom have graduated the RPE program themselves. They give insights on everything from company procedures to help with current project-related issues.
Currently working on a project for a leading university and healthcare system in Manhattan, Justin spent the past year at L.F. Driscoll Healthcare in Philadelphia, a division of the Structure Tone Organization. As part of a renovations team handling simultaneous projects on the campus for one of the largest regional healthcare systems, he worked on both infrastructure-related projects and patient-care areas.
“There are many challenges when working in an occupied hospital,” he added. “Coordination is key. Notifying the surrounding users of your plans helps everyone work toward the end goal of project completion. Working in the healthcare division may require extra work and coordination on a daily basis, but it’s rewarding to know the space you helped build will be used to help or even save people’s lives.”
Justin’s passion for construction and engineering has always been part of his being; he even has the pictures to prove it.
“My parents have photos of me holding plastic tools when I was two or three years old,” he said. “Growing up I enjoyed spending time with my Dad in our garage and workshop building or working on small projects. My high school offered the ‘Project Lead the Way’ program and it steered me to engineering.” He graduated from Wallkill (NY) High School in 2010.
Justin’s dad, Michael Lundy, is a member of Carpenter’s Union Local 279, which qualified him to compete for a scholarship awarded from the Construction Advancement Institute of Westchester & Mid-Hudson Region, Inc. The CAI provides college grants for a half-dozen students each year who have their college study sights on architecture, engineering, math or science. Justin’s award of $3,000 helped to cover the expenses of his 2010 freshman year supplies and study tools at BU.
“It was tremendous to have the scholarship money to help pay for my books, laptop and living expenses,” he recalled.
Within the next few months, Justin will be completing the RPE program, moving fulltime to the Operations Department of his company.
“I currently enjoy working on projects as a construction manager because I can work with the trades performing the work as well as coordinating with the architects and engineers. As I have gained experience over the past few years, I have earned and been given more responsibility and more challenging projects. As a superintendent, I look forward to the opportunity and challenges of running my own projects.”