Foreman Feature: Lorie Tibbetts
If you’ve ever admired a large-scale Lewis commercial project in Seattle, there’s a good chance general foreman Lorie Tibbetts helped build it.
Over her career, Lorie and her crews have placed more than 560,000 cubic yards of concrete. That’s 2.2 billion pounds of material.
Her journey with Lewis began back in 1990. She was 22 when a friend suggested she ask a superintendent for a spot on the Second & Seneca tower project. Before long, she found herself helping with a concrete pour, rake in hand.
That opportunity launched a career defined by both technical expertise and the ability to build strong, close-knit crews. Ranging from six to eight people, Lorie’s teams move together from job to job and handle everything from building structures, to flagging, to final cleaning.
If you’ve ever admired a large-scale Lewis commercial project in Seattle, there’s a good chance general foreman Lorie Tibbetts helped build it.
Over her career, Lorie and her crews have placed more than 560,000 cubic yards of concrete. That’s 2.2 billion pounds of material.
Her journey with Lewis began back in 1990. She was 22 when a friend suggested she ask a superintendent for a spot on the Second & Seneca tower project. Before long, she found herself helping with a concrete pour, rake in hand.
That opportunity launched a career defined by both technical expertise and the ability to build strong, close-knit crews. Ranging from six to eight people, Lorie’s teams move together from job to job and handle everything from building structures, to flagging, to final cleaning.
30 years of building
At Rainier Square Tower, Seattle’s second-tallest high-rise, her crew was involved in building the first-of-its-kind SpeedCore structure. At one point, the team pumped a specially-formulated concrete mix 850 feet above downtown Seattle. She was also involved in building a full-scale mockup of the structure offsite.
"We’d build the plan together—subcontractors, workers, foremen—and then execute it. We made hard things look easy,” she says.
Other memorable milestones include building the Seattle Metro Logistics warehouse at Terminal 106 and the Seattle Convention Center Summit addition.
Beyond those achievements, it’s Lorie’s leadership style that she takes the most pride in. She’s not afraid to speak up.
“Sometimes you have to be the one to say the hard thing,” she says.