The Rita Louie Story (Ch. 1): My First Day in Construction

Even after 40 years in the Construction & Development industry, people STILL ask me:

“How did you get into this business”? 

Pretty sure no man is EVER asked that question. 

Rita when she first entered the industry.

So, here is my story:

It was while I was studying Urban Landscape Architecture and Art History in Tuscany in the summer of 1979 when I first knew I didn’t want to actually be an architect. The assignment was to make the Village of Cortona (yes, THAT Cortona of Under the Tuscan Sun fame) a better place.  I spent countless hours in the Piazzas talking to residents & watching how people moved about, went about their day & used the public space. Doing the research for my project was thrilling.  Designing a new fountain for the Piazza Garibaldi was exciting. Sitting behind a desk drawing it up, getting the technical details correct and penning the words and numbers by hand, with machine-like precision, was grueling & downright boring.

When I got home from Italy that Fall, my sister got me a job as a paralegal clerk at Skadden Arps, et. al. so I could pay the loans I had taken out to study abroad. After almost 3 years of working 60-90 hour work weeks, I was able to land a job for a big NYC Real Estate Developer. The job was in the leasing department doing lease abstracts & analyses, but at least I was closer to the industry I had trained for & wanted to be in and worked more regular hours, so I was able to go back to finish College. I analyzed leases, took minutes at boring leasing meetings and wrote abstracts 5 or 6 days a week for almost a year, while finishing my degree in Urban Studies at night. I had pivoted from Architecture to Urban Studies after I got home from Italy, with plans to get my Masters in Urban Planning.

During that 1st year with the Real Estate Developer, I became familiar with other department heads and especially took an interest in the construction department and how they interacted with Leasing, writing work letters & negotiating Tenant Allowances. One day, the VP of Construction, Jim, came by my desk to say hello and how are you doing? He was probably flirting with me, even though I was 23 & he was somewhere in his 40’s. It was 1982 and sexual harassment was rampant, but not frowned upon. I saw an opportunity, took advantage of the moment and said “I’m ok, but I’d really rather be working in the construction department”.

The tall, slightly balding, ominous looking man, who had just a moment ago been smiling and flirtatious, suddenly got very serious. “You really want to work in construction?” He asked.  “Yes”, I replied, “yes I do. I went to architecture school and I have a degree in Urban Studies.  I’m only doing this lease stuff because I was a paralegal during college.”

A new, almost sinister, smile came over his face. “Ok, if you really want to work in construction, meet me at 6am tomorrow at the Battery Park City World Financial Center site, Gate F”.

And he walked away.

Wow, what just happened???

Was he just flirting?  Was he setting me up? Was he serious? How is this really happening tomorrow? I didn’t care. I was unsure, uneasy & petrified, but I dressed in warm, woolen leggings, a long wool skirt (No, we did not wear pants to work) and some old boots and showed up at that gate before the crack of dawn the next morning.

Jim was actually shocked I showed up. He really did not think I would, but he got me a hardhat out of the shed & walked me through the gate. Before we took another step, he said “STOP!  Look up.  Look down.  Look side to side and know what is around you at all times when walking on a construction site.”

For 40 years, every time I walked on a site, I repeated those words in my head and it probably saved me, many a time, from tripping or hitting my head

We waited with a bunch of burly guys in hard hats and orange vests, carrying lunchboxes and tool chests for the exterior construction elevator and were ushered on when the operator arrived and opened the gates. I was standing in the far corner, next to the metal mesh as the elevator ascended into the sky with a loud clanging noise as it passed each floor.

How out of place I must have looked in that construction elevator, little blonde-haired girl, all 5’4” 106lbs of me, in my colorful woolen skirt

Every so often the car would stop with a jolt, a rough jump and a loud bang as men got off and on at their respective work floors. The sun was just peering over the horizon and the enormous fear I was feeling was only eased by the beauty of that sunrise, just at my eye level across the Hudson River. I dared not look down. I’d grown up in a 6-story building, so elevators were not a big deal to me. This, however, was just as terrifying as it was exhilarating!

When the elevator got to the top we got out.  32nd floor, as high as it went, even though the building was taller. We walked across metal decking to a set of metal stairs and continued up.  The wind was whipping, the handrails had a thin coating of ice on them, cold wind was going right through my layers of woolen garments, but I kept my head up, tried to not show any emotion and plowed through. We got to the top just in time to see a helicopter lowering the cooling towers into place with the glare of the sun streaking around the units. It felt almost spiritual. Ironworkers were eagerly stationed below waiting to begin securing the base to the platform. I actually did not even know what I was looking at, but it was, by far, the most amazing & intriguing thing I had ever seen. I was no longer afraid.  No longer cold. No longer unsure or uneasy. I was mesmerized. I was hooked. 

THIS, I thought, is what I want to do the rest of my life.

Contributor: Rita Louie