From Drafting Designs to Virtual Design Manager: Meet Columbia, South Carolina Member Natalye Jackson

As a child, Natalye Jackson watched intently as her father worked on construction designs at a drafting table in his home office. Eventually that drafting table migrated to her bedroom and became the desk where she sat to do her homework.

That early exposure to design sparked a passion in Jackson and, as a young adult, she earned a certificate in interior design from Midlands Technical College. A decade later she returned to the same school and obtained a second degree, this time in Architectural Engineering.

Today Jackson is a Virtual Design Construction Manager for Hood Construction in Columbia, South Carolina. Her drafting table is now a computer loaded with 3-D visualization and BIM (building information modeling) software that allows her team to create virtual worlds for clients.

These worlds give a “unique and insightful look into each project, allowing for better, more-informed decisions to be made, all before the team even breaks ground,” Jackson says. “Building or recreating virtual worlds to show potential clients, or current clients, how their projects will look is so rewarding,” she added. “The amount of detail that goes into a 3D visualization is immense, but the outcome is visually spectacular.”

Especially when the project is big, like the recent job her team had of modeling 20 city blocks. “I personally modeled 130+ buildings.”  Jackson found the work challenging, because of a tight timeline, but she’s proud of finished product. “This is the kind of work I dreamed of creating!”

Technology, Jackson says, is the most exciting aspect of construction today.  “The amazing things that can be accomplished with the technology we have currently would blow people’s minds. However, to see what is on the horizon for construction also excites me.”

When looking to the tech-focused future, Jackson said she also would like to see more women of color get involved in this area of construction. “In South Carolina there are only two African American architects, and I don’t know any virtual designers. I would really like to see more representation in this field when it comes to women of color.”

Which is where her own goal and her hopes for the industry intersect. “I would love to mentor young people and encourage them to get into the field of virtual design, as it has many avenues that do not only involve sitting behind a computer,” she explained.

Jackson herself was mentored to some extent by her NAWIC sisters, she says. “NAWIC has helped me tremendously in my career, from my confidence to public speaking and especially my leadership skills. NAWIC is an amazing organization that has given me so much and I hope to be able to pour into NAWIC the lessons that have been granted to me,” Jackson enthused.

She’s certainly done a lot of that so far, serving in multiple positions with the Columbia, South Carolina NAWIC chapter including Director, Recording Secretary, Vice-President, President-Elect, President (her current position), plus Membership Chair, Annual Sponsorship Chair and PD&E Chair. At the national level, she is currently the Communications Chair for the DEI committee.

True to her communications role, Jackson has some words for young women just entering the field. “The construction industry is a viable and lucrative career path if you are willing to learn. You will have to fight to prove your worth, but once you show you have value, people will respect what you bring to the table.”

Whether that table is a computer desk or a beloved family drafting table.

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