Focus on Staff With Gary Wilkin

Gary Wilkin, an engineer in the Office of Planning + Design + Construction, has been a UC employee for 22 years and has worked on the Medical Sciences Building (MSB) Rehabilitation Project since 2007 (it began in 2004 with groundbreaking for the CARE/Crawley Building and is scheduled for completion in December 2014). He took time out this week to answer our questions about his involvement with the project.

Where are you from, and what was your background before coming to UC?

I grew up in Hillsboro, Ohio, and ran the family heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) business that my grandfather had started in 1947, then came to Cincinnati in 1986 and worked with Kuempel Service as a project manager before starting work at UC in 1991.

What other projects at UC have you worked on?

I have worked on the College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) renovations, University Pavilion, the MainStreet project and a host of other smaller projects through the years

What are your main duties, and what is a typical day for you?

The main duty is probably trying to coordinate construction activities with everybody, which includes the contractors themselves as well as the occupants of the building, the designers and combinations of everyone to try and keep things running as smoothly as possible without complaints and on schedule.

What is the best part of your job?

I enjoy working with the contractors and the UC departments and getting to know them and feel privileged for my time and involvement over the years on the projects I have worked on. My time here at UC has flown by, knowing that all jobs end so if things are not the best on one it will change eventually.

What has it been like to see the MSB project take shape?

Being from a mechanical background I had worked in the MSB building early in my years here at UC so it has been fun to watch and help the upgrade of the facility from the old technology that it was when built in the ’70s to the much more efficient systems that are being installed now to help reduce the building’s utility cost and keep the structure more completive in today research world.

What do you like to do in your time away from work?  

More construction—I bought a large, old three-family house in East Walnut Hills that I am renovating so I can keep honing my skills!