Planning For the Best: Meet Tom Maclosky, DSC Project Manager

Tom Maclosky Photo

What is your name and job title? My name is Tom Maclosky and I am a Project Manager in the Transportation Division with Denver Service Center (DSC) located in Alexandria, VA.

What experience and education do you have? I started out with a business degree from a small college in upstate New York. After graduating and several years of work, I decided to change careers after coming across the profession of landscape architecture. In 1992, I enrolled in the Landscape Architecture undergraduate program at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA. At the conclusion of this four year program, I then attended the graduate program in Landscape Architecture at the University of Massachusetts, in 1996.

After I received my graduate degree, I decided it was time to start working again and over the next 12 years, was employed with a number of Landscape Architecture and engineering firms throughout the northeast United States. I became aware of National Park Service through several friends that I met in the private sector and both of whom were (and still are) employed with DSC. After a year working on American Recovery and Reinvestment Act projects in 2009 at the Great Smoky Mountains, I transferred to Washington D.C. and have been here since.

What is a typical day like? There are no typical days really. A day can range from being out in the field scoping projects or reviewing construction progress. At the same time, I can find myself in the office all day reviewing design and construction documents or participating in multiple project conference calls. The variety afforded is one of the major reasons I choose to change careers in the first place. The proximity of multiple parks and affiliated work in the National Capital Region adds to the daily variety.

What career advice would you give to someone who wants to follow a similar path? Having come from the private sector, I would suggest to people interested in Landscape Architecture and the National Park Service (NPS) is to try as many different experiences to develop an idea of what interests you the most. Landscape Architecture is a pretty board profession and the more you can experience early on the better able you will be able to hone in on what you like to do the most.

What is one of the bigger projects you are working on and what about that project might surprise people? Some of the bigger projects I am working on in Washington D.C. include DC Clean Rivers and Dyke Marsh. Although these projects are not technically transportation projects, the work involves providing technical assistance and permit support to the local parks. One of the aspects of working in the field is this opportunity to become involved with non-standard projects that would be challenging from long distance. The most surprising thing regarding DC Clean Rivers is the extent of the work that occurs underground. Other than surface staging areas and tie-in points, most people have no idea this project even exists. Yet, at the same time, the finished system will function to remove over 95% of the sewer overflow and trash that goes directly into the area’s waterways.

For transportation projects, we just finished a bridge repair project on George Washington Memorial Parkway. The interesting thing about this work was that the unique traffic control developed for the project. To get work done as quickly as possible and provide a quality project, traffic flow patterns were manipulated to move northbound and southbound traffic to opposing bridge deck lanes. We were able to maintain two lanes of traffic corresponding to the predominant flow during the day. A single lane of traffic was also keep open at the same time. The flow configuration changed twice a day for several months. What could have turned out as a logistical nightmare actually worked well. I suspect the configuration will be used on other similar parkway projects.