Evan Silberquit, PE // Manager, MEP Engineering & Principal // Hartford & Meriden, CT Offices // Employee Owner since 2019
How long have you been at BL? I will have been at BL for 6 years this May.
What drew you to a career in engineering? Ever since I was young, I have always gravitated towards figuring out how things worked and how they were constructed. I would take things apart and (usually) be successful in putting them back together. My passion for construction, architecture, and design developed from watching tv shows such as This Old House and resulted in me taking on the role of Project Manager for the neighborhood tree fort projects! Looking back, I was destined to become an engineer after a childhood trip to Mystic Seaport where there was a rope making machine on display, and I immediately went home and reconstructed a replica out of K’Nex toys.
Can you tell us a little bit about your role as MEP manager? And what are you most looking forward to about this role? My role as MEP manager is really about keeping all the pieces of our department flowing in the same direction. MEP is unique in that it has three separate disciplines that need to work together to achieve project completion. I keep the MEP team coordinated from within and then also with our civil and architecture departments. One thing I’m looking forward to is continuing to expand our client base, and the resulting diversification of services as a department. This will continue to provide our employee owners with new and exciting challenges and allow us to grow as a company.
What is your favorite part of the job? This really goes back to why I became an engineer: I like solving problems. As a manager, I enjoy being able to provide guidance to the team and our clients from a high-level perspective and also diving into the details of a project to provide input at the technical level. I feel this gives me the best of both worlds, as I get to contribute on the project level, but also the managerial and company level as well.
What do you enjoy doing outside of work for fun? I enjoy just about anything outdoors, from working in my yard, to hiking, kayaking, and playing golf. One of my passions is landscaping, so each spring I look forward to that first lawn cutting, trimming the hedges, and getting new plantings in for the year.