Kiel keeps things on an even course at Spire

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Meghan Kiel has always enjoyed desiginging spaces for specific purposes.

As a child, she would sketch with crayons, make a fort from blankets and an old piano bench, and build a Barbie house using a coffee table and Legos.

“I would always make the living spaces first, then play with the toys themselves for just a little bit before I decided that they needed a renovation,” Kiel said.

That interest continued through high school, where Kiel took a Project Lead the Way course called Civil Engineering and Architecture. “That course spurred me to pursue Architectural Engineering at the Milwaukee School of Engineering, and since I have always been intrigued by how things go together … I naturally ended up specializing in Structural Engineering.

Kiel, a structural engineer at Spire Engineering, takes great satisfaction in seeing all the work she and her peers do go from books and numbers to reality. “The fulfillment of being able to physically see the efforts my work is truly exciting and inspires me to try just as hard on the next project,” she said.

Jenna Jordan, business development manager at ECS Limited, said that Kiel has played a big role in bringing instructional opportunities to her fellow structural engineers.

“She’s organized, responsive, pleasant, helpful, humble, and tough when she needs to be,” Jordan said. “She’s exactly what a woman in construction needs to be to succeed.”

Kiel said she began working remotely before the coronavirus outbreak, so the pandemic has not really interrupted her job duties.

“I was one of the lucky few during the pandemic,” she said. “I had shifted to a 100 percent virtual role in a remote location about a month and a half before the pandemic caused everything in Milwaukee to shut down. For me it was a very smooth transition, although I cannot say the same for my coworkers and our clients.”