Thornton Tomasetti’s Brazil inducted into National Academy of Construction

National Academy of Construction President Hugh Rice; Aine Brazil, Thornton Tomasetti; and NAC Vice-President Tom Sorley

New York — International engineering firm Thornton Tomasetti announced that Vice Chairman Aine Brazil, P.E., F.SEI, LEED AP, was selected for membership in the National Academy of Construction’s (NAC) Class of 2017. Brazil, along with the 28 other industry professionals nominated for membership, was inducted into the organization during a ceremony at NAC’s Annual Meeting on October 26, 2017 at the Fairmont Hotel in Washington, D.C.

The NAC, one of the nation’s esteemed construction industry institutions, establishes a body of acknowledged industry leaders and provides them recognition through election to the organization. The organization is affiliated with the University of Texas at Austin, and Brazil will join a small group of just more than 230 members. The NAC is characterized by its extensive and diverse expertise, proven leadership and trusted judgment. An important purpose of the NAC is to provide a network system among past and present participants in the construction industry.

Brazil is the third executive at Thornton Tomasetti to become a member of the NAC. Chairman and CEO Thomas Z. Scarangello, P.E. became a member in 2015, and Charles H. Thornton, Ph.D., P.E., Hon. AIA, Hon. ASCE, consultant and founding principal of the firm, joined the NAC in 2005.

Throughout her 40-year career, Brazil has been responsible for the design and construction of nearly every building type and is widely recognized for her engineering achievements in the United States and internationally. She has been instrumental in shaping the Manhattan skyline. She has led structural engineering teams in the design of more than 3 million square feet of high-rise office development in New York City’s Times Square area, including the structural design of the 975,000-square-foot Eleven Times Square, which is the city’s first core-first office tower.

Brazil’s portfolio features such New York City landmark projects as the 54-story Bloomberg Tower and the Greenberg Pavilion at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. She has been actively involved in the development of 30 and 10 Hudson Yards and in the redevelopment of LaGuardia Airport. Other projects include the Rockefeller University, Stavros Niarchos Foundation – David Rockefeller River Campus in New York City, and Comcast Technology Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Brazil also led the structural engineering team on the Lombardy Regional Government’s headquarters in Milan, Italy.

Brazil has garnered dozens of professional awards for her leadership and innovative projects. In 2016, she was awarded the Homer Gage Balcom Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers Metropolitan Section. In 2014, Brazil was named International Engineer of the Year by Engineers Ireland, one of the country’s oldest and largest professional organizations. She was honored as Woman of the Year by WX, New York Women Executives in Real Estate, and Crain’s New York Business has named her one of “New York’s 100 Most Influential Women in Business.”

Brazil was recently named as an Honorary Member of the AIA New York Chapter. She was also a member of the Mayor’s Commission on adopting the International Building Code and the first president of the Structural Engineers Association of New York. Brazil holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from University College, Galway, Ireland and a master’s degree in engineering from Imperial College of Science and Technology in London.