Civil Engineering Alumni Organization

Peter J. Cheever, PE, MSCE ’80 is a structural engineer. He practiced his craft with LeMessurier Consultants, for 43 years serving as vice President since 1992 and President since 2011.

His projects include Long span such as TD Garden and The Boston Convention and Exhibition Center; High Rises including the 52 story Chase Center in Indianapolis; Historic renovations like Faneuil Hall Marketplace and Boston Public Library Johnson Wing; Health Care – Taussig Cancer Center at Cleveland Clinic; Government Buildings- Cedar Rapids Courthouse; Performing Arts Centers- Seijji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood; and many other commercial and Institutional projects.

During his term at LeMessurier, Mr. Cheever had the opportunity to work on over 50 College campuses on a diverse portfolio of new buildings and renovations including his alma maters Tufts and Northeastern. The volume of work achieved while collaborating with Northeastern is remarkable. Commencing with a 1992 investigation into the failed ice rink slab at Matthews Arena and spanning the ten buildings comprising the West Village, International Village and most recently the Harleston Parker Award winning ISEC Building designed by Payette and many, many other projects and investigations in between.

While building design was the focus at LeMessurier, Mr. Cheever also engaged in infrastructure projects such as the Central Artery and Deer Island working directly with contractors on “means and methods” projects as well as value engineering work. The collaborations with contractors also includes complex phased renovation work. The varied Boston foundation conditions also served as fertile training for designing every conceivable foundation type.

Early in his career, Mr. Cheever recognized the benefit of Bill LeMessurier teaching at MIT and the dynamic created between academic and professional practice, including attracting top talent to the firm. Thus began a 20 year involvement at Tufts University mentoring students on Capstone Projects, serving on the External Advisory Committee and fostering a workplace where LeMessurier’s engineers where encouraged to teach and/or mentor.

Mr. Cheever was also an active participant in professional organizations starting with the Tufts University student chapter where he served as Secretary. Mr. Cheever was a long time member of the ASCE Committee on Design of Steel Building Structures for which he served as Chairman for 3 years. He was also a frequent speaker at NASCC conferences as well as Structures Congress and SEAMass events. Through these events Mr. Cheever has gained the opportunity to engage with the leading professionals and academics in the industry.

Mr. Cheever was also actively involved in civic engagement in Boxford where he coached little league baseball, youth basketball and was the ice director and then president of the 300 member Masco Youth Hockey program. He also served on the Town Hall and Police Station Building Committees.

In 2015 he was awarded the Tufts University Civil Engineering Department Outstanding Achievement Award. In 2021 he received the Boston Society of Architects Honorary Membership Award.

He currently resides in Ipswich, overlooking the great salt marsh with his partner Anna Hardy.

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Maureen McDonough, E’82, is both an engineer and an attorney with over 30 years of experience in the area of program management. She is currently the president of MAM Strategic Advisory Group, serving as a trusted partner and advisor providing consulting services to all members of the Construction Industry. Maureen has extensive experience as a senior leader on public and private multi-billion dollar capital improvement programs including the Boston Harbor Clean-up, the Modernization of Logan Airport and Allston Development for Harvard University. She is considered an expert in project delivery with a focus on organization design, procurement, development and negotiation of contracts, risk management and dispute resolution.

Prior to starting her own consulting firm in 2018, Maureen served in a number of leadership positions in both the public and private sectors including as chief risk officer for Suffolk Construction where she was responsible for the implementation of Enterprise Risk Management. Before joining Suffolk, Maureen was at Harvard University for 11 years where she was the senior director of administration strategies serving as an institutional resource for capital project delivery and leading the effort to create the Harvard Project Delivery Guideline, which created the Harvard way of delivering a capital project. She also authored a full suite of integrated, customized Standard Forms of Agreement for Harvard and restructured Harvard’s approach to insuring capital projects.

Prior to Harvard, Maureen spent 11 years at the Massachusetts Port Authority as an assistant director in Capital Programs, where she was responsible for the development and implementation of project management policies and contracting procedures utilized on the successful delivery of capital projects in excess of $1.5B. While at Massport, Maureen authored and secured legislative approval of a modified public procurement process for sensitive security projects and structured the accelerated procurement and implementation of the Baggage Screening Program, allowing Boston Logan Airport to be recognized by Homeland Security as the only airport to meet the federal mandate requiring baggage screening issued following the events of September 11, 2001.

Maureen also served as a member of the MA Construction Reform Task Force which led to sweeping improvements in public procurement and authorized CM at Risk Delivery to be used on public construction projects. She developed the first CM @ Risk Procedures in compliance with new reform legislation approved by the Inspector General and implemented the first ever public CM @ Risk Project demonstrating the value of private sector CM firms in the public sector. Prior to Massport, Maureen worked at CDM Smith as the claims/risk manager and also for the MWRA as the claims/risk manager for the Boston Harbor Clean-up Project.

Maureen also has a Juris Doctorate from Suffolk University Law School and was admitted to the MA Bar in 1988. Maureen’s contributions to her community have been well recognized by a range of organizations. She received the New England Person of the Year Award from CMAA in 2017 and the Manuel Carballo Governor’s Award for Excellence in Public Service in 2003. Maureen has been a member of many boards for various organizations and institutions and continues to volunteer as a member of the Building Renovations Committee in her hometown. Maureen is a founder and advisor of WELL (Women’s Exchange for Leadership and Living). She resides in Canton, MA with her husband Louis Tarmy, and their two children, Griffin and Kierce.

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