Our Team
Eric Eichler, MBA, LEED AP - Principal and Founder
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email: eeichler@forgeprojects.net
Mobile: 773.612.9858
Eric Eichler has 23 years of experience managing design, engineering, construction, and development projects in the Chicago, Los Angeles, and European markets. He has spent the past 13 of these 23 years delivering high‐quality institutional projects for Universities, religious institutions, schools, and other non‐profit organizations in addition to commercial property owners and developers.
Eric has significant expertise in conceptual budgeting, planning, design management, construction management, scheduling, and procurement & administration of architecture, engineering, construction, professional services, and FFE contracts. His experience has given him a solid understanding of how to execute successful construction projects and a deep knowledge of construction costs. Eric is well‐respected professionally in the architecture, engineering, and construction communities as a collaborator who excels at synthesizing input from large groups of stakeholders to deliver quality projects within challenging budget and schedule constraints.
constraints.
Eric founded Forge in 2017 after serving as Senior Project Manager at the University of Chicago for nearly ten years. Sitting in the Owner’s chair, Eric not only directed the design and construction of signature University buildings, but also remained connected to projects for years after completion. The opportunity to have seen a finished building begin its operating life, and to troubleshoot issues after several years of operations, provides Eric with a valuable perspective that guides his decision‐making during the course of a project. By retaining Forge for Owner’s Representative services, you will be selecting a team that always considers both the immediate and
long‐term implications of every issue.
Chip Weir - Associate Principal and Project Director
Chip Weir is a skilled project management leader with expertise representing developers, corporations, and lenders in the delivery of multiple project types including office space, corporate headquarters, hospitality, multi-family, retail facilities, healthcare, R&D, and industrial. With 35 years of industry experience, he utilizes a hands-on, detail-oriented approach throughout the course of a project. His leadership skills and ability to work effectively with diverse user groups supports his proven track record achieving client cost and schedule goals.
Drawing on his extensive experience working as both Owner's Representative and in the Construction Management arena, Chip is well suited to provide a full range of advisory and project management services and to lead multi-disciplinary project teams through complex real estate and construction projects from inception through completion.
email: aweir@forgeprojects.net
Mobile: 312.286,9138
Jennifer Hart O'Brien - Associate Principal and Operations Director
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email: jhobrien@forgeprojects.net
Mobile: 773.610.6323
With 22 years of progressive roles in university student housing operations and facilities management, Jennifer has extensive experience with capital projects as well as campus master planning activities. Drawing from her long career in higher education in Residential Education, Residence Life, Housing Operations, Facilities Services, and as a faculty member, she brings a nuanced perspective to her advisory services for planning activities or studies. Jennifer's experience has provided her with a unique understanding of student housing, both short-term and long-term planning and execution, as well as programmatic and student-facing roles. And, with over a decade in front of the classroom teaching undergraduate writing and rhetoric, Jennifer is extremely nimble at facilitation, presentation, and working directly with stakeholders.
Jennifer has worked on multiple new residence hall construction projects, large-scale building renovations, multi-million dollar FFE projects, building code upgrades, and coordination of large scale move processes. She is also well versed in the associated budgeting, planning, contracts, procurement, and client management elements of projects. Whether it is organizing and analyzing data as part of a student housing market study, or project managing a furniture replacement project, Jennifer approaches each project with a host of organizational tools and the experience to ensure a successful project.
David Crowell - Consulting Senior Director
Mr. Crowell provides strategic Development Management, Project and Program Management, advisory and planning services for complex Projects and Programs such as master-planned developments, mixed-use developments, residential, hospitality, corporate offices, retail, institutions, adaptive reuse, and real estate portfolios. Mr. Crowell provides clients with strategic and delivery services including: feasibility, best and highest use analysis, organizational structuring and restructuring, and process mapping, site analysis/selection, team development, procurement strategies, contract structuring, and project delivery solutions.
During his 40+ year career, he has been responsible for successful delivery of more than 150 major high profile programs and projects totaling over 100 million square feet in the United States, The United Kingdom, the Middle East, and China. He brings discipline to goal setting and decision-making throughout programming, pre-construction, procurement, and design phases. His work reflects a mastery of processes with high degrees of integrated technology, complexity, and quality.
Mr. Crowell has provided an array of building industry and real estate advisory services to a blue chip client base that includes cultural and higher education institutions, governmental entities, real estate developers, major financial institutions, multi-national corporations, global consulting firms, and healthcare systems.