March 13, 2024

David Winter reflects on four decades of engineering in Seattle

Photos courtesy of Haley & Aldrich [enlarge]

Winter’s projects in Seattle include designing the roof support and monitoring system for Climate Pledge Arena.

David Winter has been leading teams and working as an engineer in Seattle for more than four decades.

Most of his career has been spent at Seattle-based geotechnical and environmental firm Hart Crowser, where he started working in 1981 and was president and CEO from 2010 to 2020 until the firm was acquired by Massachusetts-based Haley & Aldrich.

Following Hart Crowser's acquisition, which Winter spearheaded, the storied engineer has been the general manager and director of Haley & Aldrich's Seattle office. Winter officially retired from that role on March 4.

Winter has worked on many marquee buildings in the city and across western Washington encompassing a diversity of markets. These include Rainier Square Tower, 1201 Third Avenue, Climate Pledge Arena and Husky Stadium in Seattle and the Federal Center South and the Naval Station in Everett.

His career has also taken him further afield to work on highly visible projects including Governors Island in New York Harbor and buildings in Brazil, Malaysia, and the Middle East.

ACEC Washington in 2017 named Winter its Washington State Engineer of the Year.

Winter

On the occasion of his retirement, Winter shared some thoughts and reflections on his career:

Q. How are you feeling about your retirement?

A. Naturally I have a mix of emotions. I have been working in this marketplace and with a lot of the same colleagues and clients for 40 years. I will miss the challenges and excitement of new projects. But I am just as excited about what comes next in our lives.

Q. As you look back on your career, what are some of the projects/moments that stand out?

A. Three projects and two moments have been the top highlights in my career. The projects were 10 years of work developing the Naval Station at Everett; figuring out how to support the deep excavation for Rainier Square Tower right next to and below the existing Rainier Square; and the roof support and monitoring system for Climate Pledge Arena.

The “moment” highlights were when I became the president/CEO of Hart Crowser; and when we were able to put the deal together to merge Hart Crowser with Haley & Aldrich.

Q. What are some of your proudest moments?

A. I think being elected the 2017 Washington State Engineer of the Year by ACEC is my top personal moment, but as I have always said, these personal accomplishments don't happen without the backing and support of strong teams. I have been blessed to work with some terrific partners and to have had some outstanding clients.

When I became CEO of Hart Crowser our company was struggling, but I had a strong team and we transformed the company in just a couple of years so that by the time we merged with Haley & Aldrich we were more profitable than Hart Crowser had ever been in its 45-year history. It was a remarkable turnaround.

Q. What have been some of the toughest moments?

A. Leading Hart Crowser through the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic required us to think and act in so many unexpected new ways. We were most concerned with the health of our staff and their work environment. We had to figure out how to keep our people safe on jobsites, and to not just work remotely, but also to work efficiently. Again, I mostly credit the resilience of our staff and clients. We were making decisions every day on things we had never seen before.

[enlarge]

During his time at Haley & Aldrich, Winter worked on the shoring design at Rainier Square Tower.

I have also been through several recessions and being able to quickly retool our staff to prevent layoffs and shift our markets to maintain our revenue stream was always a challenge. Fortunately, our staff have diverse backgrounds and have been able to work for different types of clients. For example, as the downtown in commercial development work has ebbed and flowed through the years, we have made significant investments in government funded transportation and waterfront work. Our staff can shift between both markets, so we are not overly reliant on any one client type.

Q. What would you say are the keys to a successful and long-term career in your field and in the local market?

A. Seattle is a small town. And one of the great things about the local market is that there are a lot of people like me who have worked here most of their career. We not only get to know each other, we trust each other. Solving tough problems is a lot easier when there are familiar faces across the table. Also, in my opinion we always have to tell our clients and each other the truth, even if the truth is not always comfortable. Only then can we be trusted to really help each other achieve our goals.

In my business we use engineering and science to solve technical problems. But to really help clients we have to be consultants, which is a lot more challenging than engineering and science.

Q. How have you seen the cities of Bellevue and Seattle change during your career?

A. Both cities have really grown up since the early 1980s, with dozens of new, tall and impressive towers and landmark structures. It is gratifying to have had a hand in so many of them. I think the redevelopment of the South Lake Union area has been the most impressive, along with a “re-do” of the Seattle waterfront. But the advent and growth of Microsoft and Amazon has transformed both the skyline and the marketplace like no others.

From a geotechnical standpoint there has also been significant changes. The foundations and excavation support and seismic solutions are much more advanced and efficient than they were 40 years ago. The evolution of the environmental laws and risk-based remediation has also transformed the area, allowing more sites to be cleaned up and redeveloped. I think we have had a positive impact on the environment across this region.

Q. What are your hopes for the future of development in Seattle and Bellevue?

A. I hope we can work together to make our downtown areas safer so more people can come to and live in the city. I hope we don't get so enamored with the ability to do more of our engineering and communicating through AI that we forget how to consult. And I hope my younger colleagues have as rewarding a career as I have had.

Q. Is there anything else you would like to share with DJC readers?

A. I have been very fortunate to work with good people and good companies. As engineers and scientists, we don't celebrate our work enough. We make the environment cleaner; we help create nice places for people to live and work; and we help get them to those places safely. We need to continue to volunteer and be generous with our time and money to help make people's lives better and our communities stronger.