(Above) Chip Zapinski (left) with fellow McHugh employees at Marina City in the early 1960s and (right) more recently.

June 9, 2013 – “Chip” Zapinski’s first job as a project engineer was one of his most dangerous. Working for James McHugh Construction Company, Zapinski helped build Marina City in an era when safety was no more important than getting the job done right.

Norbert J. Zapinski died at his home in Lombard, Illinois, on May 29 at the age of 80.

He worked for McHugh for 43 years. Other projects in downtown Chicago included Civic Opera House, restored in 1996, Goodman Theatre, Hotel Allegro, Hotel Monaco, Presidential Towers, and Westin Michigan Avenue Hotel.

“His focus was on just getting it built,” his wife, Patricia, told the Chicago Tribune. “He’d come home night after night and pore over those blueprints.”

The couple had five children and eleven grandchildren.

Zapinski graduated in 1957 from the University of Detroit with a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering. He started work at McHugh that same year.

When he retired on April 19, 2001, the Illinois House of Representatives passed a resolution congratulating Zapinski. Noting his experience with strategic planning, construction means and method, project management, project scheduling, labor utilization, and value engineering, the resolution called Zapinski “one of the most influential members of the construction community in Illinois.”

Zapinski died of complications from cancer and Parkinson’s disease. A funeral service was held on June 3, according to Brust Funeral Home in Lombard. Zapinski was buried at Assumption Cemetery in Wheaton, Illinois.

“We had no fear,” said Zapinski’s project manager, Clarence Ekstrom, in 2010. “We were fortunate. I mean, we would never finish the building if it was done today because we did shortcuts in safety.”

 Marina City history: Meet Clarence Ekstrom, McHugh Project Manager