Alyssa Parker has spent more than 20 years working in architecture and construction.
The director of commercial project management at Portland-based Wright-Ryan Construction Inc., says her favorite part of the job is the variety.
“It’s challenging, each project and the people involved are different, and I learn something new every day,” Parker said.
Originally from Winchester, Massachusetts, Parker, who is 47, says she got her master’s degree in architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1995.
She needed professional experience in a variety of different areas, and when the Boston architecture firm she was working for could not find construction hours for her, she took a job with a construction company.
“I quickly gained those hours and it was clear that being a construction manager was truly what I wanted to do. Twenty-plus years later, I’m still learning, being challenged and meeting some great people along the way,” she said.
Parker says the hardest part of her job is dealing with information – retaining, processing and communicating all of it to various parties.
“You have to be thick-skinned,” Parker said.
Parker has worked on various construction projects, including conversion of the historic brick and stone Gannett Building to The Press Hotel, a 110-room boutique hotel in Portland.
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