McCarthy Building Companies announced the promotion of Michaela Rempkowski to director of integrated design for the firm’s national water group. In her new role, Rempkowski is leading the water group’s design services team, which focuses on providing design strategies management and implementation. Her team serves clients with design-build and alternative delivery water and wastewater construction projects across the country.
Integrated design delivery focuses on minimizing risk, enhancing quality and constructability, as well as facilitating the start-up and commissioning of water and wastewater treatment plants through ongoing project team collaboration. With her team, Rempkowski creates solutions to fold into the construction cost model, schedule, constructability and value engineering feedback and safety. Focus on the effective integration of design and construction allows owners to expect fewer surprises, increases safety and facilitates innovation during construction of major infrastructure projects.
“Michaela is taking McCarthy’s water construction team approach to an entirely new level by providing a deeper understanding of the design and clients’ perspectives in relation to our teams and identifying value-driven alternatives and solutions through every stage of the construction process, including during a project’s start-up phase,” said Joe Brunsman, senior vice president of operations and national water team leader. “Through her development of the firm’s design management program, Michaela is helping to further distinguish McCarthy as a leader in water design-phase services, while also training its next generation of integrated design delivery leaders.”
Rempkowski joined McCarthy’s water team as integrated design manager just prior to the start of the pandemic. By collaborating with fellow design managers across McCarthy’s various business sectors, she developed a program that applies the best integrated design strategies from each sector to water infrastructure construction projects and is successfully applying them nationally with her team.
“I am excited for the opportunity I have as director to develop, scale and train our team to implement integrated design services across every water project with the goal of enhancing efficient collaboration and delivering successful projects for our communities,” said Rempkowski. “With the rise in popularity around collaborative delivery in water construction, our team has found success through a conduit of understanding between the owner, designer, and contractor acting as one team to build better infrastructure.”
Rempkowski continues to elevate the McCarthy Water brand by pursuing membership in the Envision program, a rating system and best practice resource that measures the sustainability of an infrastructure project from design through construction and maintenance. It is equivalent to LEED certification for buildings.
In her free time, Rempkowski enjoys volunteering in her community, playing rugby, and furthering herself personally and professionally in any way she can. She is currently a member of the AWWA's International Council, the secretary for the Arizona Society of Professional Engineers, Design-Build Council Board Alternate and a graduate of the WEF Water Leadership Institute. In each of these positions, she brings a strong commitment to inspiring, motivating and engaging the community as well as other professionals.
Since 2010, McCarthy's water group has completed or is in the process of constructing more than $1.4 billion in collaborative delivery water and wastewater projects in communities across the country. The water group partners with municipal, governmental, and private clients to help them process wastewater, address plant upgrades, and deliver cost-effective clean water to the communities they serve.