Each year, since 2006, Building Design+Construction magazine selects 40 emerging AEC leaders under the age of 40 who have distinguished themselves by their career achievements, service to their professions and communities, and active participation in charitable work. They will gather for BD+C’s 5^th annual Leadership Summit “Advancing Your Career” in Chicago this month for leadership development, team building, and networking.

Primera is both honored and humbled to have another one of our talented team recognized with this significant achievement. Jill Deichmann, AIA, NCARB is our resident architecture expert. After receiving her Masters of Arts in Architecture, Jill joined Primera in 2002 as a drafter and now leads our architectural services group. Jill’s expertise is the result of nearly 20 years of experience with new construction and renovation projects in the healthcare, institutional, commercial, higher education and parks and recreation markets. Working within a full-service engineering firm has allowed her to broaden her architectural design, project management and construction administration skillset to also include engineering-focused services like code consulting, life safety analysis, and building envelope commissioning.

At Primera, Jill has worked on projects for some of the area’s largest hospitals and higher education institutions. Some of her most high-profile projects include the current redevelopments of Navy Pier and Maggie Daley Park. Lending her architecture and code consulting expertise, Jill designed unique solutions to present different variances to the City of Chicago and the fire department for life safety requirements, while assisting the landscape architect with creative solutions of building on top of an existing fully operational underground parking garage.

Jill’s list of impressive accomplishments extends beyond her workday. Since 1994, she has dedicated herself to the Metro Chicago affiliate of Rebuilding Together where she volunteers more than 200 hours of her time per year. Rebuilding Together is dedicated to improving the homes and communities of elderly, disabled and low-income residents. Since Jill joined, the organization has repaired more than 1,400 homes and 150 community facilities with the assistance of tens-of-thousands of volunteers. They’ve grown from a handful of staff members to 3,500+ volunteers. A natural-born leader, she became House Captain in 1998 and has lead a team of volunteers on a house project every year since. In 2008, Jill was elected to the board, and later Second Vice President in 2014 where she’s next in line to be President in 2016. Likewise, she’s on the fundraising committee and co-chairs the projects organization committee, which oversees six subcommittees. She’s active all-year round, planning and coordinating National Rebuilding Together Day, multiple give-back days, and an annual golf outing.

Primera would like to congratulate Jill on her achievement as well as the rest of BD+C’s “40 Under 40” Class of 2015.