Luke Martinek, Senior Program Manager and Associate Vice President of HDR, joins us to explore how 19 years across survey crews, civil design, operations, and business development prepared him for the Penn Transformation Project. We discuss mentorship on hard days, the business side of engineering, making stakeholders "complicit," and the Kurt Vonnegut mantra that still guides his leadership.

Key Takeaways:

00:00 Introduction.

05:20 Growing up in San Antonio and finding engineering through family.

10:30 The Penn Transformation Project and the magnet that is Penn Station.

15:45 The change order that opened up the business side of engineering.

23:30 Stepping into a general manager role during the pandemic.

25:20 How variety has fueled two decades of career moves.

32:30 Why helping someone else is the fastest way out of a bad day.

35:45 Making every stakeholder "complicit" in the same mission.

38:15 The most impactful projects of his career.

44:05 A Kurt Vonnegut mantra he still leads by.

46:10 Hot takes on innovation, growth, and transparency.

Resources Mentioned:

Luke Martinek

https://www.linkedin.com/in/luke-martinek-p-e-8b979b6/

HDR

https://www.hdrinc.com

Penn Station Transformation Project

https://media.amtrak.com/2025/10/penn-station-transformation-fact-sheet/

Texas A&M University

https://www.tamu.edu

Langan Engineering

https://www.langan.com

Sam Schwartz

https://www.tylin.com/samschwartz

AKRF

https://www.akrf.com

Grain Collective Landscape Architecture

https://graincollective.com

NYC School Construction Authority

https://www.nycsca.org

NYC Department of Design and Construction (DDC)

https://www.nycsca.org

NYC Economic Development Corporation (EDC)

https://edc.nyc

Matthews Nielsen Landscape Architects

https://mnlandscape.com

Thanks for listening to the “Building Better Futures” podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a 5-star review, and be sure to subscribe so you never miss any insightful conversations.

#PeopleDevelopment #WorkplaceCulture #AECpodcast