Women take the lead on landmark building project
One of the four industry managers who are the main contacts on the Auckland project recalls how she used to be the only woman on a construction site. Times have changed, writes
Construction has long been a male-dominated industry, but it is changing, and that is evident on the “heart project” of one of the country’s biggest commercial builds where all four industry managers are women.
Wynyard Quayside is the third and final stage of Precinct Property’s development in Auckland’s Wynyard Quarter. It is made up of three interconnected, multi-level buildings across neighbouring Halsey and Pakenham street sites on the waterfront.
Five floors, or about 14,000m₂ of space, will be leased by engineering and consulting firm Beca, which has naming rights on the building. The remaining two floors, or just under 5000m₂, are still to be leased.
The three new, high-spec buildings are being constructed to a six-star green building rating, and to Well Platinum certification. They are due to be completed in early 2025, and are expected to be worth about $240 million on completion, Precinct Properties chief executive Scott Pritchard has said.
Beca, which is New Zealand-owned, will be moving 1200 of its staff from its old Pitt St headquarters into the buildings.
Francie Lawson, who is Beca’s director on the build, says the project has allowed it to create a motivating, engaging and flexible new work environment for its staff.
“The space encourages human connections, and the location connects us to the heart of Auckland city for our clients and staff. It fits with our strategy of bringing people together, and is a special project to be involved with.”
Wynyard Quayside sits at the heart of the huge Wynyard Quarter redevelopment, and the commercial fit out for its three buildings will be New Zealand’s largest to date.
But that is not all that makes the Beca project unique. Another point of difference is that the four industry managers who are the main contacts on the project are all women.
Alongside Lawson, there is Savory Construction’s business and strategy general manager Marisa Lorigan, Barnes Beagley Doherr director Robyn Montgomery, who is lead quantity surveyor, and Warren & Mahoney head designer Kate Henderson.
Lorigan says this is rare as these roles are normally male roles, and to have all women leading such a huge-scale project would be one of the first times it has happened.
“It is an example of how the industry is changing, and also shows there are exciting opportunities and career pathways for women in construction.”
Only about 15% of the industry’s workforce are women, according to the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment’s 2022 report on Building and Construction Sector Trends.
But the report shows that between 2012 and 2022, the number of female workers rose by 93.7% to 20,500 of the 295,300-strong workforce.
At the same time, Building and Construction Industry Training Organisation (BCITO) statistics record an increase in the number of women training in a trade.
In 2015, fewer than 1% of building and construction apprentices were women, while now nearly 7% of carpentry, painting and decorating, and timber joinery apprentices are female.
This year there were 986 active female apprentices, and 396 new signups to BCITO trades training programmes.
Lorigan says more women are coming into the industry, but to boost the numbers it is necessary to raise awareness of it as a career option, and of the “awesome opportunities” it offers.
To that end, all four women regularly visit schools, such as Epsom Girls, to talk to young women about careers in construction. Each of their different professional journeys highlights how many possibilities there are, she says.
Her own start in the industry was accidental. When she left school she did not know what she wanted to do, and became a flight attendant. After four years, she moved into the furniture and interiors industry, and “caught the bug”.
A stint as national business development manager for Zenith Interiors led to a transfer to Sydney, where she did a construction management diploma, and spent time in Silicon Valley securing the fit-out contracts for some of the big tech companies setting up Australian headquarters.
She then moved into senior management at Taylor, where she worked on projects such as the Sydney Opera House renewal, and the Wildlife Retreat at Taronga Zoo. Since returning to New Zealand, she has worked in several commercial fit-out companies, before finding a home at Savory.
Lawson’s path began with a passion for sport, and degrees in psychology and sports science. A move to Auckland led to roles at Auckland City Council. managing the relationship between the council and the sports sector.
She survived the super city merger, and sidestepped into project management and property management roles. But she then headed overseas, and ended up working with international construction firm Mace Group in London on a big residential redevelopment in Hyde Park.
It furthered her passion for property, and prompted her to return to New Zealand to work in project management with Beca. She is now the company’s project management principal.
Henderson, who is a senior associate at Warren & Mahoney, has a degree in design. In her 19 years of practice, she has worked for companies in Sydney and Auckland, but has been at Warren & Mahoney for 13 years.
She has worked on projects of all scale and across many sectors. Her clients have included PwC, Buddle Findlay, Harmos Horton Lusk, Beca, Meredith Connell, Spark, ASB, NAB, BNZ, Fidelity Life, Brisbane Airport, Chapman Tripp, and Service NSW.
There is nothing as fulfilling as going back to visit a client and witnessing their people using the spaces as they were all intended, she says.
“People together with a shared purpose creating communities with spaces we have helped them to realise. It really is a great thing.”
Montgomery left school early, and was unsure of what to do, but her father, an electrical engineer, encouraged her to get into a trade. He believed that if you have a trade, you have a job for life, she says.
That led her to do a diploma in quantity surveying, followed by two years of jobs for construction companies in regional New Zealand. She then took her skills overseas, and worked for the Saudi Bin Laden Group, building palaces and hotels.
On her return to Auckland, she worked as a quantity surveyor for a number of companies. Ten years ago, she helped found Barnes Beagley Doherr, and she became the first woman director of a large quantity surveying firm in New Zealand.
Over the course of her career, she has seen the sector’s workforce changing, Montgomery says.
“When I started out, I was the only woman in my class, and then I was usually the only woman on construction sites. It was tough, and often very challenging.”
There has been a dramatic increase in the number of women studying construction-related disciplines, although the majority still go into architecture or engineering, she says.
“We want to open the eyes of young women to the extent of the roles they can go into, and make them, and their parents, aware of the great opportunities in this sector.
“More are moving into different parts of the industry now. It is no longer unusual
to see women tradies, or working as foremen or site managers.”
Last month, Jess Nielsen, an apprentice builder from the Waikato, took out third place in MasterBuilders’ annual national competition, becoming the first woman to place in the competition since it started in 2003.
And in August, Fletchers Living initiated a New Zealand-first project called Buildhers. It involves a four-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bathroom home in Auckland’s Whenuapai, which will be entirely planned, designed, engineered and built by women.
It is intended to be a tangible example of the diverse skills women working in construction have, and also to help normalise the presence of women on a building site. It is not intended to be a one-off build.
These examples show change is happening, but all four of the female leads on the Beca project say more is needed, and they want to see more women present across the sector.
Lorigan says women now make up about 17% of the workforce across the wider sector, although companies such as Beca have a much higher percentage of women.
They are pushing to get that general figure to about 25% over the next few years, but it would be great to one day see women making up about 40% to 50% of the sector’s workforce, she says.
“We want to serve as role models for young women, to show what you can achieve. It has not been easy, but we hope we’ve paved the way so it is easier for girls, like my daughters, to succeed in this industry.”
Lawson says their personal stories speak to the diverse range of career pathways construction can offer that women might not expect.
“There are always new opportunities emerging too – sustainability services didn’t exist 10 years ago, and now there are exciting roles in that space, for example.
“You don’t have to know where you are going, but it’s worth recognising there are many quality options in our industry, and giving some of them a try as you could find something you love doing.”