Senior project manager for McHugh Construction had to move “Michael Jordan”
By Dee Longfellow
For The Elmhurst Independent
An Elmhurst resident is living her dream with a well-respected company well known to Elmhurst that has allowed her to work as a senior project manager on a new atrium addition at the United Center. The project included the relocation of Michael Jordan — the statue, that is.
Ten years ago in September of 2007, Elizabeth Theis started her career with McHugh Construction, the company who built the “new” York High School, which is not all that new anymore. After Theis as project manager for construction done at White Sox park, the person in charge of that project also runs the United Center. So when bids were requested for the United addition, Theis found herself at the top of the list to be senior project manager.
After managing a project at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in downtown Chicago, Theis was named assistant project manager at U.S. Cellular, her second job with McHugh Construction. From there, McHugh promoted her to senior project manager for Virgin Hotels, one of which sits at Lake & Wabash in Chicago.
After working on these big construction projects, she likes to come home to Elmhurst.
“I’ve lived here since 2009,” she said. “My husband works for McMaster Carr. We lived in the City for a few years but didn’t really like that. We picked a place to live based where he works, rather than mine. After all, mine can be anywhere, I mean, I went from Cellular Field to the United Center.”
They have a little girl who attends preschool at Sunbeams and Rainbows and are expecting another in about four months, she said.
Getting along with the guys…
Asked how it felt, working in such a male-dominated profession, she admitted there were “pros and cons.”
“When I went to school, it was all guys,” Theis said.
The Independent asked about her education, schooling and any other industry certifications she might have.
“Just one — I have a B.S. in construction engineering,” she said. “In this industry, you learn the most with experience, not with school. If you’re hard worker and have some decent social skills, well, they’re more important. You have to be able to get along with people so you can manage the team.”
Theis said the most the second most important part of her job is the financial part — she finds herself “Keeper of the Money.”
“At the beginning of the job there is the estimate process, then you set the final budget with owner,” she said. “Then we award the sub-contracts and manage all along the way, even with change orders. It’s managing people, money, and scheduling. That’s the most important part of the job.”
The best part of the job for Theis is figuring out to get the building built, that is, the sequence of projects that need to take place in what order to make the project come together.
“A particularly challenging project was a five-story office building with an atrium,” she recalled. “It seemed like there wasn’t a lot to it, but it was the hardest thing I’ve ever built. A four-story atrium? How do you do the ceiling and roof? And, it was a monstrosity of an open space. It was definitely the most challenging.”
Moving Michael Jordan…
She talked about the five-story, 190,000 square-foot United Center atrium addition, which houses brand-new offices for the home teams, an expansive retail store and of course, the Michael Jordan statue. Theis talked moving the statue of MJ.
“It was outdoors you know, so now it’s back in it original space, it’s just indoors now,” she said. “We moved the statue outside the footprint of the project and then before we closed up the atrium and the glasswork, we moved it back.”
It was a nerve-wracking experience, thanks to the press.
“The first time we moved him [the statue], someone told the press and that was just terrifying because there were so many people,” Theis said. “The second time, we hired the company that put him in place the first time and it was simple. Just four bolts hold him in, they unscrewed them, put him onto a truck crane and moved him.
“But I’ve never been more nervous about doing something!”
Now that the United Center is complete, what’s next for Theis? I guess one would have to ask McHugh Construction.
“McHugh has done a lot of work in Elmhurst and I’d love to work on a project here, just to be close to home,” Theis said. “But that’s not likely to happen. I couldn’t be that lucky!
“But I loved the thrill of working at the United Center and the people there. The owner is a client of ours who I would work with for the rest of my life, given the chance.”
