Q: What is your role at DPR? Describe the path you took to get there?

Haidary: I’m a senior project engineer in our Charlotte-Greenville Business Unit. I studied civil and structural engineering as an undergrad in Kabul, then I came to Clemson University on a Fulbright Scholarship to do a Ph.D. in Construction Science and Management. I focused mainly on planning and design in the built environment. At the time, DPR was building the Clemson College of Business, which I wanted to work on, so I reached out to the team and got involved with a part-time internship there. I graduated from Clemson in 2021 and then joined DPR full-time.

Q: Tell me about the project you’re on now. What are some interesting aspects about it?

Haidary: My project in Charlotte was delayed, so I’ve been working on a project in Dallas since August. We’re retrofitting an existing structure, phase by phase, to transform it into a manufacturing facility that will produce silicon carbide wafers used in chips for electronics, like vehicles and phones. The pandemic adversely affected manufacturing in the US due to supply chain issues and chip shortages, but these kinds of projects are coming back to the US. Congress passed the CHIPS and Science Act in 2022. It authorizes funding to boost research and semiconductor manufacturing here to strengthen our supply chain resilience and to bring these facilities back to America, so now there’s a push toward building these facilities.

This project is a design-build project for an existing client. Their engineers know their processes, so they came to us and said, “Here’s the building we bought. Here’s our process. How can we make it happen?” After phase one is complete, the client will be able to use that portion of the facility while we work on the next phase, and so on. In phase one, there are around 150 pieces of equipment required to make the product, and there are multiple systems required to make that equipment work. There are a lot of chemicals and gases involved, a lot of specific systems involved. That is a part of the complexity. This project will give us really valuable experience to draw on in the future for building these kinds of facilities. There are a lot of things we have to figure out, but it’s fun and challenging. It’s a good learning experience and an industry that’s going to grow more and more in the years to come.

Q: Why do you think being a self-performing general contractor makes a difference on a project?

Haidary: The schedule on this project is very tight, and because of that, we’re relying heavily on self-perform. We’re doing all interiors—waterproofing, fire stopping, interiors, drywall, DFH, concrete. Our strategic partner, EIG, is involved in our electrical systems and another partner, GPLA, is involved in our structural design. We started designing in mid-August and we’re due to give the facility back to the client for phase 1A on January 31, so using the SPW team and the DPR family of companies helps with the schedule. First, we don’t have to go through the process of prequalification, getting pricing, vetting, and onboarding it takes to get a trade partner on board, which can take weeks. Second, since the project is design-build, we have more control over the work we do. We are designing portions of it, so some unidentified gaps will be identified through the design development process. We don't know what those are yet, and if we were using a trade partner it would be more difficult to navigate those as they may not be involved until that process is complete. Since we’re using DPR teams, we can do what’s needed ourselves, control the methods, and figure out the paperwork side of it later.

Q: What is your proudest moment at DPR?

Haidary: That’s a tough question; there are a lot of them. I think the first projects where I did my internship, the Clemson College of Business and the Greenville County Administration Building project. We had largely the same team on both, and we did a really good job. We worked on Clemson during COVID, which affected everything, but we managed to avoid letting it affect our schedule. I was most proud of the team. Because of our efforts, both projects won ENR Best Project Awards in those years. It’s the team that makes it happen. I grew a lot with that team, so if I had to choose one, it would be that.

Q: To be successful in your role, what skills does a person need?

Haidary: We can talk all day about technical skills. You're learning every day, so your technical skills are always increasing. But soft skills are crucial, like having an open mind in terms of all the challenges. That’s very important. I take that very seriously because you can’t build these projects with just one person. As long as everyone is open minded to different methods and ways of working, I think it can be successful. So, skills I take very seriously are open mindedness and having a “team” environment instead of a “me” environment.