Women in Construction Week takes place during the first full week in March and is a time to highlight all the great initiatives and work of women within the industry. As the Ravenscroft community gets ready for the much-anticipated opening of the Olander Center for Student Life at the A.E. Finley Activity Center next week, we’d like to take a moment to celebrate some of the women on the Center’s project team and thank them for their outstanding work.

Anne Seeley, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP BD+C, is a licensed architect with Little Diversified Architectural Consulting with over a decade of experience in educational design. Her design remains focused on creating vibrant educational spaces that inspire curiosity and welcome all visitors. In working with Ravenscroft, Anne was inspired by the collective desire, from the earliest conversations, for a building that would exhibit and foster connections. The end result is a space that visually connects students to the outdoors, to one another and to the larger school community.

As the lead structural engineer for the Durham office of Little, Sarah Musser, PE, LEED AP, has over 20 years of experience in design, project management and construction administration. She’s motivated by team success and holistic solutions that inform design. With a broad range of building types on her resume, Sarah is detail oriented with an interest in restoring old structures to new and integrating materials efficiently. “Design of the Olander Center brought together so many aspects I love about engineering and construction with the evolution of the A.E. Finley Activity Center — the vision of the center as the ‘hearth’ of the campus, creating space for engagement, interaction and collaboration,” she said. 

The granddaughter of a grading contractor and daughter of an architect and developer, Maggie Bock, LEED AP, of Brassfield & Gorrie has had a lifelong fascination with buildings. She loves seeing how projects change as they progress and the new challenges they present each day. As senior project manager, Maggie serves as the primary contact for clients throughout the project — from preconstruction through closeout. “My favorite part of working on the Olander Center for Student Life project was working hand-in-hand with the wonderful staff at Ravenscroft to bring to life their vision for a transformational space in the heart of the campus,” she said.

Staff Professional Victoria Gordon of S&ME — a geotechnical engineering firm with expertise in engineering, design, environmental sciences and construction services — leads project efforts at worksites by overseeing high-level materials testing, mentoring and training field technicians and overall project management. In her role on the Olander Center team, Victoria did materials testing — verifying, among other things, that the soil at the site was compact and dry enough to support the load of the building and that new concrete was at the specified strength.

As the March 16 ribbon-cutting approaches, take a moment to revisit some of the stories about the project published on Magazine.Ravenscroft.org:

• New Center for Student Life Emphasizes Holistic Wellness (Nov. 11, 2020)

• Announcing the Olander Center for Student Life at the A.E. Finley Activity Center (Jan. 14, 2021)

• Trustee A.E. Finley Prized “Maximizing Growth for Students” (April 12, 2021)

• “The Vision Was Very Clear” (Aug. 27, 2021)

• Contemporary Spaces, Innovative Programming Define the New Center for Student Life (Nov. 17, 2021)

• Fine Arts Students Create Banner for Construction Team of Student Life Center (Nov. 23, 2021)