It's Feature Friday! Meet Belarmino Romero – Intern for Macallan Construction!

• What’s your construction specialty?
  I’m currently an intern in Preconstruction for commercial construction. I also do various project management tasks.

• What attracted you to the construction industry?
  I have always had an interest in buildings and seeing how every structure has its own character - from building with Legos when I was younger to studying ancient Greek and Roman structures. I took an architecture class in high school where we worked with AutoCAD and Revit to design buildings, then I chose a construction field when joining the military. I think I was just always meant to be in some sort of construction.

• What was the most memorable construction project you’ve ever worked on?
  I am very new to the construction field but the construction project that I will remember for a long time will be an interior renovation of the Omni Hotel @ the CNN Center. This project is important to me because I was invested in it from the beginning. I assisted in the initial preconstruction phase of this project. Once awarded, I went on to assist the Project Management team and Field Supervision team in daily responsibilities. I got to price and assist in the building of this project from start to finish. I got to work with the subcontractors and see how the Jobsite runs. Most of the time after preconstruction is done and you hand off a project, your job is done - but with this one, I got to work in every aspect of the process. It was fantastic!

• What advice would you give someone who wanted to enter the construction field?
  Keep an open mind. Growing up, I didn’t know exactly what a general contractor did. I just figured it was one superintendent, the subcontractors, and they got the work done. There is a lot of people behind the scenes and if they weren't there, it would make it impossible to complete the project! Construction is not just swinging a hammer at a nail. There is an art to it, and so many job fields within it that could interest people. So explore the industry! You might be pleasantly surprised at what you find.

• Tell us an interesting or fun fact about yourself!
  When I was 15, I told my older sister to come with me on a road trip (I only had a Learners Permit, so I needed someone with a license). I drove to Alabama to meet up with a farmer and bought a pygmy goat. I put him in my backyard and acted surprised when my parents brought it up. I named him Boomer and he is still part of the family to this day.