Nicole Hammer on Building a Sustainable Future

Currently working on exciting built environment projects in the US, Nicole Hammer shares her thoughts on how buildings are evolving to become part of a more sustainable world.

Global | 09 January, 2024
Reading Time : 8 mins

Building innovation sounds exciting. Can you explain more about your role?

I work as part of a small team within WSP called Market Innovation + Advisory Services – set up to explore how clients can align their organizational goals with the infrastructure they build and operate. Over the course of my career, I’ve gone from being an electrical engineer to specializing in innovation and smart building initiatives. In practice, smart buildings collect information that adds value and creates efficiency and actionable business intelligence for stakeholders. For example, they can measure and improve how sustainable, healthy, safe, and efficient their buildings are, as well as how productive and engaged the employees inside it are.

Have you always wanted to be an engineer?

As many engineers would say, I’ve got the engineering gene! I’m a third-generation engineer and as a kid, I was always asking how things worked. I used to find pictures of amazing houses in my mom’s Architectural Digest and recreate them out of Lego. I’ve always loved creating things and find it rewarding to see the tangible results of my work. I studied architectural engineering at college and found the technicality of engineering and the creativity of architecture a perfect mix for me.

You spent your early career at WSP and then left and came back. What made you return?

As someone who grew up in America’s Midwest, I really wanted to move to the coast and work in a big city to work on large, complex projects. So, after graduating I headed for San Francisco and joined WSP as an electrical engineer. I was drawn by the opportunity to work on industry-leading projects and the company’s forward-thinking approach to sustainability. Creating sustainable buildings wasn’t as commonplace then as it is today, so it was great to be part of the positive momentum at WSP.

Nicole Hammer

Vice President of Market Innovation and Advisory Services

United States

Contact

The NOAA Daniel K. Inouye Regional Research Center showcases the adaptive reuse of two historic,
World War II-era hangars.

One of the best projects I worked on was a new regional center for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) in Hawaii, which involved renovating WW2 aircraft hangers. I remember being told that if a tsunami warning needed to be issued, the people in its path could have only minutes to reach safety. The electrical systems we were designing were critical – they supported power for systems that identified tsunamis and warned people as early as possible. That really struck a chord with me. As engineers, we’re designing buildings that serve vital functions in the world, including saving people’s lives.

I loved my job, but life eventually took me to Colorado, where WSP had no presence at the time – in 2010 – and so I left to take on a more strategic role looking at the environmental and social impacts of the built environment. However, I missed the nitty-gritty of designing buildings and returned to WSP three years later, working remotely from Colorado with my former San Francisco colleagues. As WSP has grown over the years, my career has been able to grow along with the company – including my ability to sit in a local office in Colorado and no longer be “remote”.

What projects are you working on now?

We’ve recently completed a smart workplace strategy for a global corporation, which focused on aligning their real estate portfolio with their corporate goals, by providing meaningful data to key stakeholders from which they can make informed decisions. Projects such as this allow an organization to measure and optimize everything from environmental comfort in their buildings, to nuances of space utilization and energy consumption.

Another exciting project in the pipeline is the renovation of Pennsylvania (Penn) Station in New York. The old station has been added onto and expanded over the years, and largely sits underground. The new design will open up the space and bring in more natural light, making it simpler, safer, and more sustainable; and deliver a better experience for passengers.

What do you like most about working in the built environment, and what excites you about the future?

I’ve always enjoyed challenging the status quo and innovating for the future for our clients. For example, I worked on the Zero Irving project near New York’s Union Square. The project involved a multi-disciplinary team of experts from across WSP and together, we helped to create a sustainable, community-focused addition to the city. It’s a great feeling to stand back and watch people use a building that our team has worked on.

What gives me hope for the future is the global shift to a focus on ESG, which is driving innovation. Organizations are increasingly holding themselves accountable for being more socially responsible and good stewards of their environment.

Conversations with clients are evolving as the whole supply chain is looking at how it can decarbonize from a life cycle perspective. There's also much more awareness of how healthy the built environment is, through integration of sensors and systems capable of measuring and improving conditions.

Zero Irving at Union Square.

What’s helped to shape your career and what advice would you give to aspiring engineers?

My career has been shaped by my desire to make the world a little bit better in some small way, as well as my innate desire to create. A few things have helped me along the way:

As a young engineer, I quickly learned you can always find a way to resolve a technical issue. You just need to learn where to look. That’s step one – knowing what questions to ask, and who to ask them to. And don’t just learn from one person; learn from lots of people and take the best of what they give you to find your own style.

As a young woman engineer, I was motivated by seeing other women successfully navigating a career and motherhood. These women were my mentors and gave me hope that someday, I too, could have a successful career and still be able to prioritize having a family. 20 years out of college, I do have both – a career I love and a wonderful family – and while it’s not always easy, it’s possible and incredibly rewarding on both fronts.

The built environment is constantly evolving, and there is no shortage of opportunities to learn and grow. One of my proudest moments was being chosen to take part in WSP’s pilot global Design Management Learning Programme in 2019, which allowed me to connect with peers across the globe and learn best in class design management and leadership strategies from our subject matter experts. This experience opened a new mindset for me in terms of what is possible for our industry, for WSP, and for myself. Never stop learning and connecting with people – you never know where it will lead you!

I also tell my kids about the value I find in the work I do – a small contribution toward making the world a better place.

Nicole enjoying Kebler Pass aspen forest in Colorado, US.

What do you think makes a place?

This is a hard question to answer succinctly. It’s a feeling that you are walking into a place that is truly special – be it the way the sunlight pours through the windows (St. Chappelle in Paris), the way it integrates with its surroundings (Fallingwater in Pennsylvania), or the way the details seem to add up to more than the sum of their parts (the Getty Museum in Los Angeles).

Some of the most iconic places are national parks or remote campsites where I can marvel at 100ft tall sequoias, canyons carved by water over millions of years, star-filled skies. I am so inspired by what nature can teach us about how to design buildings better.

What’s most exciting about our industry is that we are always innovating. My hope is that those of us who are involved in building design and construction will continue to push the envelope to make them better for the people who inhabit them and for the world we live in. That’s what keeps me motivated. It will be very cool to look back years from now and see how far we’ve come.