Something that touches your heart and thrills you has got to be good.
Project manager, fitness coach and passionate dancer. 200% dedication to job and sport.
What does working for CANZLER mean to you?
CANZLER is a growing company with a vision and personality, where I feel really happy and am free to develop my passion in a competent team. A trusting, valued relationship with my colleagues is very important to me, and for this reason over the course of time many of them have become friends. This close team spirit cuts across all our various offices and is a crucial factor in successful project execution. Being part of the company and with my colleagues growing successfully on the back of the projects gives me great pleasure.
Is any one project special for you?
Basically, every project has a special challenge. As such it is difficult to say which stands out as "special". I would, however, like to single one out all the same: The tenant fit-out in the POLLUX office high-rise. The special challenge here was to handle the tendering process, planning, and construction as part of our general planning services within the space of only one year and while part of the building was in use - 1/3 of the space was occupied. For this particular construction measure I was the general planning project leader and structural engineering interface coordinator for the defensive maintenance project that ran in parallel.
What is your job in the company?
As a structural engineering project manager at CANZLER I accompany and advise the client at all stages of the project. My duties are extremely varied: They begin with a needs assessment and the development of strategies for existing real estate or complex construction projects; they then include conducting the due diligence, and managing planners engaged in general planning services; and they culminate with project management for the client in the capacity of project leader. An efficient, interdisciplinary team is always in play when it comes to overcoming the invariable challenges involved.
Prior to joining CANZLER I was a project and team leader for the management and controlling of public sector construction projects. Then I became aware of CANZLER. I was looking for a company that would promote my personal and professional development. CANZLER gave me this opportunity, and indeed still does!
What do you do in your free time?
Outside work my friends are very important. In my free time I do a lot of sport and indulge in my big passion, Latin American dancing. Sport has defined me ever since I was a child. Having for many vears been involved in gymnastics as a competitor and trainer, nowadays in my free time I act as a coach for fitness courses. Motivating people in my courses and sharing in their success gives me great pleasure. I take myself to my physical limits in international steeplechase races. In addition to sport I'm passionate about dancing. For me it means passion, enjoyment, and aesthetics. The two together are the perfect way to wind down from everyday work I feel. In everything I do in both my private and my professional life I tend to follow the advice of US architect Daniel H. Burnham who once quipped
"Make no little plans, they have no magic to stir men's blood".
How did you end up as an architect?
My career wish pretty much emulates my life in sport. It too takes me back to my childhood. When I was six and on my way to my friends I saw a man sitting on the church wall in our road drawing the church down to the very last detail with a pencil. I joined him and, full of enthusiasm, watched him for a while. When I asked him where you learn to draw so well, he answered "architects can". University later on was just a formality en route to my chosen career. I basically see myself as very determined and ambitious.
In my opinion your professional life always has an influence on your private life, time-wise, emotion-wise, and character-wise. Professionally and privately I always try to see the big picture in the small parts. Every challenge you overcome shapes your character in the long term, which is why I think the experiences and new ways of looking at things you get from your professional life also have a positive impact on your private life.
About
Heiko Töllich is a graduate architect and works for CANZLER as a project manager in the Frankfurt office. He studied Architecture, focussing on project management, construction, construction & and contract law as well as real estate economics at Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences. Prior to that he completed an apprenticeship as a specialist construction worker. He has a passion for Latin American dancing. In his free time the former gymnast works as a fitness coach in Frankfurt.