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Jimmy Buffett, sea birds and tracking shipping containers full of Italian tile crossing the Atlantic Ocean all played a role in Iris O鈥橬eal鈥檚 first project as she began her construction career in Florida.

Originally slated to be a Hotel Indigo, the project transformed into a Margaritaville hotel after Buffett toured the site in his signature shorts and flip-flops. O鈥橬eal said she spent many weeks checking the site to make sure protected birds had finished nesting, oversaw submittals for sea turtle glazing and a swimming pool on an upper deck, and waited for the Italian tile to arrive.

O鈥橬eal moved to Beaverton in 2011 and joined LMC Construction in 2014. She said her first project for the company, the Laurel Parc expansion, remains dear to her because she met with residents of the senior living community each month to provide progress updates on the construction. Another of her favorites is Miracles Central, a five-over-one sober living community in the Lloyd District.

O鈥橬eal, who also oversees LMC鈥檚 Project Engineer team, said she feels that she has won the 鈥渟uperintendent lottery鈥� lately because she had a 鈥渨onderful group of smart, helpful, kind, problem-solving field experts on my projects that wrapped in 2020, and am slated for another group of great field team members on my projects in 2021.鈥�

The mother of children ages 17, 12, 10 and 3 notes that while COVID-19 has complicated both her personal and professional life, it also has helped her appreciate other aspects. These include LMC鈥檚 pro bono work at the Kenton Women鈥檚 Village, where she acted as project manager on the Phase 1 relocation efforts and Phase 2 landing of its new community building.

鈥淚 utilized my connections in the industry to obtain 90 percent of the Phase 1 costs via donated labor and materials. For our scope for Phase 2, we were able to acquire 100 percent of material and labor costs in donations,鈥� she said.

O鈥橬eal also organized the LMC Pod Build for the first-ever Pod Build Challenge. Its team won the Best Craftsmanship award and its pod now anchors the village鈥檚 southeast corner.