Alastair (Aly) MacGregor has been named the executive business line leader for Property and Buildings at WSP USA, one of the nation’s largest engineering and professional services consultancies. MacGregor, who joins the firm from an international infrastructure consulting firm, assumed the role on June 1.
“Aly brings varied experience across digital innovation and transformation; sustainable, low carbon and high performance design; smart buildings; strategic portfolio energy and decarbonization programs; and more key areas that will help us deliver on our key strategic priorities in the U.S.,” said Lou Cornell, president and chief executive officer of WSP USA. “Aly will leverage this expertise to help us further the work our teams are already doing in these areas, bringing the full strength of our interdisciplinary offering to our clients to help them deliver on their ambitions.”
MacGregor, who is based in our Irvine, California office, succeeds Rick Rome, who has led WSP’s U.S. Property and Buildings business since 2020. Throughout his more than 36 years at WSP, Rome has held multiple roles with the company, leading Building Systems and as a key member of the U.S. and business line leadership teams. He will continue with WSP in a role focused on client development and integration of acquired firms.
“Rick has played a critical role in expanding our foothold in complex sector markets like healthcare, science + technology, mission critical and higher education, as well as in mentoring our next generation of leaders,” Cornell said. “We are grateful for his incredible contributions to our business thus far, and grateful that our clients, employees and colleagues from newly acquired firms will continue to benefit from his vast expertise.”
Prior to joining WSP, MacGregor held various leadership positions of increasing scope and responsibility over the past 25 years with an international infrastructure consulting firm. In his most recent role, he served as senior vice president directing the global tech and logistics market sector within the firm’s global buildings business. He previously led the firm’s teams for digital solutions and building engineering in the Americas.
His recent work has included support of client innovation via projects ranging from electric vehicle charging networks and advanced air mobility infrastructure to net zero carbon sports venues and the creation of new software as a service (SaaS) solutions. He was also the leader within the firm responsible for developing its integrated environmental, social and governance (ESG) design methodology for buildings, offering demonstrated multi-faceted whole-life performance benefits, including carbon, operational effectiveness and staff well-being.
“Aly’s varied experience in service of U.S. and global clients will be invaluable to our employees and clients,” said Tom Smith, global director, Property and Buildings for WSP. “We are excited to leverage his passion for creating innovative sustainable solutions and employing digital technology to enhance building performance in service of our work as we seek to help clients deliver more Future Ready® operations.”
MacGregor has also held roles with his previous firm leading high-performance building design, as well as technical excellence and innovation in North America.
He is a graduate with honors from the University of Newcastle, in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, UK with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, and Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland, with a master’s degree in building engineering services, engineering management.
MacGregor has presented at conferences including TedX, Greenbuild, the National Building Institute’s Better Buildings Summit, ASHRAE and the Energy Exchange Conference. He is a previous winner of the National Sustainability Award from the Construction Management Association of America, a FitWel Ambassador and LEED AP, and a two-time U.S. Patent awardee.
“I am excited to see how Aly uses his experience to build on the work we have done to date in Property and Buildings and support initiatives across the business,” Rome said. “Our clients are increasingly looking for digital-forward, resilient and sustainable solutions that add lasting value to our communities; Aly will have an incredible impact on nurturing our existing offerings and growing our talent in these areas, benefiting our employees and our clients.”
WSP USA’s Property and Buildings business is among the most versatile in the industry, with leading positions in engineering and specialty services for markets ranging from healthcare to super-tall residential high-rises, from science and technology to commercial offices, and from mission critical to hospitality. The group’s project history includes Manhattan’s One World Trade Center and 53W53; Dell Children’s Medical Center, the first hospital in the world to achieve LEED Platinum certification; laboratories that played key roles in the fight against COVID-19, including the Rocky Mountain Integrated Research Facility; LaGuardia Airport, the first airport in the world to achieve LEEDv4 Gold certification; and Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the first stadium in the world to achieve LEED Platinum certification.
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
BIM adoption tops 80% among the nation's largest AEC firms, according to BD+C's Giants 300 survey
The nation's largest architecture, engineering, and construction companies are on the BIM bandwagon in a big way, according to Building Design+Construction's premier Top 50 BIM Adopters ranking, published as part of the 2009 Giants 300 survey. Of the 320 AEC firms that participated in Giants survey, 83% report having at least one BIM seat license in house, half have more than 30 seats, and near...
| Aug 11, 2010
Thrown For a Loop in China
While the Bird's Nest and Water Cube captured all the TV coverage during the Beijing Olympics in August, the Rem Koolhaas-designed CCTV Headquarters in Beijing—known as the “Drunken Towers” or “Big Shorts,” for its unusual shape—is certain to steal the show when it opens next year.
| Aug 11, 2010
Robert F. Kennedy Main Justice Building
The Robert F. Kennedy Main Justice Building houses the U.S. Attorney General's office, the Justice Department headquarters, and the largest historic art collection of any GSA-built facility, so its renovation had to be performed with the utmost care. Offices housing hundreds of lawyers and staff had to remain operational during the construction of a brand new $3.
| Aug 11, 2010
Silver Award: Please Touch Museum at Memorial Hall Philadelphia, Pa.
Built in 1875 to serve as the art gallery for the Centennial International Exhibition in Fairmount Park, Memorial Hall stands as one of the great civic structures in Philadelphia. The neoclassical building, designed by Fairmount Park Commission engineer Hermann J. Schwarzmann, was one of the first buildings in America to be designed according to the principles of the Beaux Arts movement.
| Aug 11, 2010
Bronze Award: Garfield High School, Seattle, Wash.
Renovations to Seattle's historic Garfield High School focused mainly on restoring the 85-year-old building's faded beauty and creating a more usable and modern interior. The 243,000-sf school (whose alumni include the impresario Quincy Jones) was so functionally inadequate that officials briefly considered razing it.
| Aug 11, 2010
Managing the K-12 Portfolio
In 1995, the city of New Haven, Conn., launched a program to build five new schools and renovate and upgrade seven others. At the time, city officials could not have envisioned their program morphing into a 17-year, 44-school, $1.5 billion project to completely overhaul its entire portfolio of K-12 facilities for nearly 23,000 students.
| Aug 11, 2010
Tall ICF Walls: 9 Building Tips from the Experts
Insulating concrete forms have a long history of success in low-rise buildings, but now Building Teams are specifying ICFs for mid- and high-rise structures—more than 100 feet. ICF walls can be used for tall unsupported walls (for, say, movie theaters and big-box stores) and for multistory, load-bearing walls (for hotels, multifamily residential buildings, and student residence halls).
| Aug 11, 2010
Financial Wizardry Builds a Community
At 69 square miles, Vineland is New Jersey's largest city, at least in geographic area, and it has a rich history. It was established in 1861 as a planned community (well before there were such things) by the utopian Charles Landis. It was in Vineland that Dr. Thomas Welch found a way to preserve grape juice without fermenting it, creating a wine substitute for church use (the town was dry).
| Aug 11, 2010
Team Tames Impossible Site
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the nation's oldest technology university, has long prided itself on its state-of-the-art design and engineering curriculum. Several years ago, to call attention to its equally estimable media and performing arts programs, RPI commissioned British architect Sir Nicholas Grimshaw to design the Curtis R.
| Aug 11, 2010
Silver Award: Hanna Theatre, Cleveland, Ohio
Between February 1921 and November 1922 five theaters opened along a short stretch of Euclid Avenue in downtown Cleveland, all of them presenting silent movies, legitimate theater, and vaudeville. During the Great Depression, several of the theaters in the unofficial “Playhouse Square” converted to movie theaters, but they all fell into a death spiral after World War II.