BCC alum Jim Lamb ('70) has had the benefit of two different courses of study at Broome. With a Criminal Justice degree, Jim went on to a successful career as a police officer, and retired a few years ago.

    "After retiring, I needed to make myself marketable," Jim said. He had always liked surveying in school, and he decided to retrain at Broome taking Civil Engineering Technology courses so that he could pursue that first love. His courses sparked a new interest in designing. In his most recent BCC studies, he said, "The surveying software amazed me."

     After working as an entry-level designer at another company, Jim is now the senior designer for Newman Development Group, and has had the opportunity to design many local projects. (The company's owner is Marc Newman, a 1982 BCC graduate.) A conceptual design of Hoyts Cinemas hangs above Jim's desk, a project he is especially proud of. He was also responsible for new Vestal Parkway landmarks such as Chucky Cheese and The Shoppes at Vestal (Old Navy).

      Jim especially enjoys taking projects from concept to reality. "It could start out as simply an idea drawn on a napkin," he said.

      The challenge comes in trying to follow the restrictions of the construction site. "Sometimes it's like trying to fit 50 pounds of pastrami into a tiny space," Jim said. He uses tax maps and land topography to guide his design decisions.

      Jim enthusiastically explains the creativity required to meet the site-specific challenges of each of his projects, such as the stream he had to incorporate into The Shoppes at Vestal site, which actually runs underneath the building. "The more inventive you can be, the better," he said. Yet he has also learned that he has to be precise, and that inches count in a carefully planned project. "Nobody thinks about what it takes to put that building up," he said.

      They probably also don't think about the Broome Community College graduate who played such a key part in making it happen.

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