“Navigating Careers in the AEC Industry”
Aparna Bapu possesses over 25 years of experience on complex, large-scale, high-profile projects, now as Principal of her own project management consulting practice. She comes from an architectural background and has experience as a structural engineer, a construction manager and as an owner’s representative. Her current responsibilities as a project manager are to: review design documents for completion, constructability, coordination between trades, and implementation of client requirements to then communicate any concerns to the project team for resolution; manage financial aspects of the project including bidding, contract negotiations and award, value-engineering, change management and invoice processing; oversee close-out on complex, high-performance projects including commissioning, punchlist; provide logistics planning and move management oversight to meet client’s needs and construction constraints.
Prior to starting her own practice, Ms. Bapu has worked as a structural engineer on iconic projects including GM Headquarters in Detroit and the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago’s Millennium Park. Transitioning into construction management, she has served as an assistant project manager for the O’Hare Airport Façade and Circulation Enhancements (FACE) for Terminals 2, 3. She has significant experience on high profile cultural projects as a project manager and owner’s representative including the roof enclosure at the Kogod Courtyard at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the renovation and expansion of the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Harvard Art Museums and the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College.
As Principal of her consulting practice, Ms. Bapu is providing project management services to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History’s Transformation Project. This includes the selection of the design team and oversight of the multi-phased design and construction of the expanded and renovated museum.
Additionally, before her career in project management, Ms. Bapu taught at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1998-2000 as a visiting Assistant Professor in the School of Architecture’s study abroad program at Versailles.