Celebrating Greta Eckhardt

Today we celebrate Greta Eckhardt, Senior Specification Writer, who is retiring this week and starting an exciting new chapter!

Greta joined PAYETTE in 2012 and has written architectural specifications on numerous projects. Some of the more notable projects she has worked on include Amherst College New Science Center, Boston College Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society, University of Hartford New Academic Building for Health Sciences, Engineering and Nursing, the National Coast Guard Museum and Boston Children’s Hospital-Waltham. Greta is a valuable resource on technical topics for the entire firm, with a breadth of knowledge on construction materials. Greta’s areas of expertise include air barriers, indoor air quality and sustainability among others.

Greta earned her Bachelor of Architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design, her Bachelor of Science in Geology from the University of Minnesota and her Doctor of Philosophy in Geophysics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is a Registered Architect, Certified Construction Specifier and is LEED accredited. She is very active in various professional organizations including the BSA Building Envelope Committee, CSI Boston Chapter, and PAYETTE’s Annual MLK Day of Service. Greta was a former committee member and chair of the MasterSpec Architectural Review Committee (MARC).

We could go on at length about her professional talents and accolades, but Greta’s impact on the people she has worked with is immeasurable. We reached out to a few colleagues past and present to provide their perspectives, what it has been like to work with her and what they will miss.

Daniel Russoniello writes, “In working with Greta the quality I’ve come to admire most is her curiosity; her willingness to question an application from multiple angles sparks engaging conversations and results in more holistically thought through decisions. I am also personally grateful for her succinct and organized presentation of complex information that becomes a tool for me to use again and again. The humble attitude Greta brings to her work belies a fierce desire for informed decision-making that is an example to all professionals. Greta applies these same traits in her commitment to community service, as I witnessed while sharing a leadership role with her during the inaugural Day of Service, which she has participated in every year since, as well as through her service to the profession with groups like the AIA Building Performance Knowledge Community.”

Emily Miyares has worked with Greta on our Social Justice Forum and wrote, “It has been such a pleasure getting to know Greta better as part of the Social Justice Forum. She is an earnest and empathetic person who considers her words and actions with thoughtfulness and care, which has been invaluable for the often-difficult topics and conversations we tackle in our group. We will miss her thorough reading (and proofreading!), her patient, open-minded listening, her sweet sense of humor and her generosity of spirit. She has been an essential contributor (and founding member) of our group and will be sorely missed!”

Milly Baker, former colleague, said “she is hard working and passionate about what she does, which everyone will say about Greta. She was a great colleague. What others don’t know is that she and I share a strange wanderlust for the Arctic. Particularly before my trip to Greenland we traded books and stories about the Arctic and about cold weather life. Greta introduced me to some authors who really changed the way I thought about Greenland. Who knew that at heart she is an intrepid explorer? I can picture her in a beautifully knit sweater by a fire reading an arcane book in the depths of winter. Greta is a whole lot more then she let on to the world and I miss working with her.”

Another former colleague, Jess Smith, summed it up the way many of us would, “My memories of Greta are simply that she was 100% integrity 100% of the time. No artifice, no pretending to be anything other than real. Such a lovely genuine colleague.”

Greta, we are grateful for your many contributions to the architectural profession and offer congratulations on a wonderful career and wish you the best of luck in the future!