McKissack & McKissack grew from a family building tradition shaped by slavery and Reconstruction into a Black- and woman-owned New York firm managing major transportation, healthcare, education, and infrastructure projects.
Editorial Note
Minority-Owned Business Spotlight is a recurring New To Education series highlighting businesses with publicly documented minority, immigrant, women, veteran, Indigenous, or historically underrepresented ownership and leadership stories.
This article is provided for educational and informational purposes. Inclusion does not constitute an endorsement, sponsorship, paid promotion, investment recommendation, procurement recommendation, or independent confirmation that the company qualifies for every government or private minority-business certification.
McKissack & McKissack publicly describes itself as the oldest minority- and woman-owned professional design and construction firm in the United States. The company has a long family history, but readers should be aware that similarly named McKissack businesses operate separately. This article focuses on the firm headquartered in New York and represented by the website McKissack.com.
Most minority-owned business stories begin with a founder identifying an opportunity and launching a company.
The story of McKissack & McKissack begins much earlier.
Its roots stretch through more than two centuries of Black construction knowledge, beginning with an enslaved West African man who was forced to make bricks and later passing through generations of builders, architects, engineers, and business leaders.
That inherited knowledge eventually became the foundation of one of the country’s most historically significant African American-owned professional firms.
Today, McKissack & McKissack is headquartered in New York City and provides planning, program management, construction management, project oversight, diversity consulting, and related services. The company says it has participated in more than 6,000 planning, design, and construction projects during more than 120 years as a family business.
Its portfolio includes work connected to airports, hospitals, universities, transit systems, courthouses, public buildings, commercial developments, and disaster-recovery programs.
The company’s significance extends beyond its age.
McKissack & McKissack demonstrates how technical knowledge can become generational wealth, how a family company can survive major changes in the economy, and how Black leadership can influence the infrastructure of one of the world’s largest cities.
A Family History That Began Under Slavery
The McKissack family’s construction history is commonly traced to an enslaved man brought from West Africa to the United States during the late eighteenth century.
He was trained to make bricks and became part of a building tradition that was passed through later generations.
That history reflects a painful contradiction in American development.
Enslaved African Americans possessed valuable knowledge in construction, agriculture, metalwork, carpentry, masonry, and other trades. Their labor helped create homes, businesses, public buildings, universities, roads, and entire communities, but they were denied wages, ownership, freedom, and recognition.
The McKissack family’s later business success did not erase that injustice.
It transformed knowledge once exploited under slavery into professional authority and family ownership.
By the early twentieth century, brothers Moses McKissack III and Calvin McKissack had developed the family’s building knowledge into a formal architecture and construction business.
Their company became known for churches, homes, educational buildings, and other projects, particularly within African American communities that were often underserved by white-owned architectural firms.
Turning Skilled Labor Into Professional Ownership
The transition from builder to business owner was especially significant during segregation.
Black professionals faced barriers to education, licensing, financing, insurance, government contracts, professional organizations, and access to wealthy clients.
Even when a Black architect or contractor possessed the necessary skill, racism could limit the projects that person was permitted to lead.
McKissack & McKissack survived by building trust, developing a strong professional reputation, and serving institutions that recognized the value of Black technical leadership.
Historically Black colleges and universities, churches, community organizations, and Black families became important clients.
These projects were not minor simply because they existed outside the white-controlled commercial mainstream.
Schools, churches, libraries, homes, and civic buildings helped create the physical foundation of African American community life.
They gave people places to learn, worship, organize, build families, and pursue opportunity.
More Than 120 Years as a Family Business
McKissack & McKissack states that it has operated as a family-owned company for more than 120 years.
Few businesses of any ownership background survive that long.
A company must navigate economic recessions, wars, industry changes, leadership transitions, new technology, changing regulations, competition, and shifting customer needs.
Family companies face an additional challenge: succession.
The skills needed to establish a business are not always the same as those required to maintain or expand it. Each generation must determine whether family members are prepared to lead, whether outside executives should receive greater responsibility, and how the company’s history can remain relevant.
McKissack’s longevity shows that generational business ownership is not merely a matter of inheriting a company.
Each generation must earn client confidence again.
Cheryl McKissack Daniel Continued the Family Legacy
Dr. Cheryl McKissack Daniel represents the fifth generation of her family’s building tradition.
A civil engineer by training, she served as president and chief executive officer of McKissack & McKissack from 2000 through 2025. She now serves as chair of the company’s board.
Her leadership helped expand the firm’s role in major public and private projects throughout New York and other markets.
The company credits her with overseeing work connected to more than $50 billion in construction projects, including New Terminal One at John F. Kennedy International Airport, the LaGuardia Central Terminal redevelopment, Columbia University’s Manhattanville expansion, JPMorgan Chase’s corporate headquarters, the Coney Island Hospital campus renovation, and consulting services for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
These projects demonstrate the scale at which a minority-owned construction-management firm can operate.
McKissack is not limited to small renovations or symbolic diversity assignments.
Its professionals participate in complicated infrastructure and institutional projects involving large budgets, public accountability, extensive coordination, regulatory requirements, and long-term consequences for New Yorkers.
A Leadership Transition After 25 Years
In 2025, Cheryl McKissack Daniel moved from president and chief executive officer to chair of the board.
Albert Odjidja now serves as the company’s president and CEO.
According to the firm, Odjidja has more than three decades of design and construction experience and has been with McKissack since 2006. His responsibilities include long-term strategy, external relationships, growth, and daily operations.
This transition is an important part of the company’s modern story.
A family-owned business does not necessarily need a family member to occupy every executive position indefinitely.
Sometimes protecting the family legacy requires developing professional leadership capable of managing the next stage of the company.
The board can preserve ownership, mission, standards, and long-term direction while an experienced executive team oversees operations.
Successful succession should be measured through continuity and capability rather than whether every title remains inside the family.
Helping Build New York’s Infrastructure
McKissack & McKissack’s portfolio is closely connected to the physical systems that allow New York to function.
The company lists work involving John F. Kennedy International Airport, LaGuardia Airport, Metropolitan Transportation Authority projects, Moynihan Train Hall, the World Trade Center Transportation Hub, hospital campuses, universities, sanitation facilities, courthouses, parks, and other public infrastructure.
Infrastructure is often noticed only when it fails.
Passengers expect airports to operate. Students expect buildings to remain safe. Patients expect hospitals to have functioning systems. Residents expect transportation, water, sanitation, and public facilities to work.
Behind every major project are teams responsible for scheduling, budgeting, procurement, regulatory compliance, safety, community coordination, quality assurance, and risk management.
Construction management is therefore not simply supervising physical labor.
It requires technical knowledge, documentation, negotiation, leadership, and the ability to coordinate architects, engineers, contractors, agencies, suppliers, employees, and community stakeholders.
New Terminal One at JFK
One of the firm’s most visible current projects is New Terminal One at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
McKissack identifies itself as part of the project’s capital-delivery team, providing services that include project-management oversight and minority- and women-owned business participation management and outreach.
Airport construction is especially complicated.
Work must occur within highly regulated environments involving security, transportation, international travel, airlines, government agencies, technology, baggage systems, passenger movement, retail, and connections to surrounding infrastructure.
A delay in one part of the project can affect many others.
Participating in a project of this scale demonstrates the importance of minority-owned professional firms not only as subcontractors but also as organizations with the experience to help manage complex infrastructure.
Rebuilding the Coney Island Hospital Campus
McKissack also played a major role in the renovation of the Coney Island Hospital campus, now associated with the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Hospital.
The project followed extensive damage caused by Hurricane Sandy and required reconstruction designed to strengthen the hospital against future flooding and extreme weather.
McKissack’s current CEO, Albert Odjidja, previously served as project executive for the approximately $800 million campus-renovation effort, according to the company.
This project connects construction management with climate resilience.
Hospitals cannot simply close when extreme weather arrives. They need backup power, protected mechanical systems, safe access routes, reliable utilities, and emergency plans capable of serving patients during a crisis.
The rebuilding of a public hospital therefore affects healthcare equity as well as infrastructure.
Communities depend on facilities that can remain operational when they are needed most.
Education Projects Are Part of the Company’s Portfolio
McKissack’s work also includes universities, public schools, libraries, laboratories, and other academic facilities.
The firm lists projects involving Columbia University, Medgar Evers College, Baruch College, Lehman College, SUNY Maritime College, SUNY College of Optometry, Temple University, the University of Pennsylvania, Lincoln University, and the Philadelphia school system.
Educational construction has a direct effect on learning.
Ventilation, lighting, accessibility, classroom layouts, laboratories, technology systems, libraries, recreation areas, and building safety influence what students and educators can do.
A new academic building is not merely a real-estate project.
It can expand course offerings, increase research capacity, improve accessibility, and create spaces better suited to modern teaching.
For historically Black institutions and campuses serving large numbers of students of color, the participation of a Black-owned professional firm also carries symbolic and economic significance.
Construction Creates Multiple Career Pathways
McKissack & McKissack’s story can help students understand that the construction industry includes far more than the jobs most visible at a worksite.
Major projects require architects, civil engineers, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, estimators, schedulers, project managers, safety specialists, lawyers, accountants, community-engagement professionals, procurement specialists, technology staff, sustainability experts, and compliance officers.
These careers require different forms of education.
Some begin through apprenticeships or trade programs. Others require associate, bachelor’s, or graduate degrees. Certain engineering and architectural positions require professional licensure.
The industry therefore provides pathways for students with a wide range of interests and educational goals.
A young person interested in technology might work with building-information modeling. Someone interested in law might specialize in construction contracts. A student focused on environmental science could work in sustainability or resilience.
Why Black Representation in Construction Leadership Matters
Black workers have always contributed to the American built environment.
They have not always received equal access to ownership, leadership, contracts, professional licensing, or wealth generated by development.
Representation at the executive and ownership level changes who makes decisions and who benefits financially.
A Black-owned construction-management company can hire professionals, develop future leaders, pursue public and private contracts, establish supplier relationships, and create opportunities for other minority-owned firms.
It can also challenge the assumption that diversity goals require lowering standards.
McKissack’s longevity and participation in major projects demonstrate that minority-owned businesses can compete through experience, technical ability, and organizational capacity.
Diversity and competence are not opposing ideas.
Diversity Consulting Is Part of the Business
McKissack provides diversity consulting designed to help projects meet participation, workforce, and community-employment goals.
Its services include supporting minority-, women-, locally and disadvantaged-owned business participation, community outreach, and referrals for qualified workers.
These programs can create meaningful opportunities when they are integrated into real project planning.
A participation goal has limited value when minority firms receive only very small assignments, are brought into the project too late, or must accept terms that make successful performance difficult.
Effective inclusion requires early outreach, realistic scopes of work, prompt payment, transparent procurement, technical assistance, and accountability.
The purpose should not be to create the appearance of diversity.
It should be to help capable businesses gain the experience, revenue, relationships, and capacity required to compete for larger opportunities later.
Minority Certification Does Not Eliminate Barriers
Government and corporate certification can help minority-owned firms become visible to buyers and qualify for certain contracting programs.
Certification does not guarantee a contract.
The company must still identify opportunities, prepare proposals, secure insurance and bonding, hire qualified staff, finance early project costs, meet technical requirements, and compete against established firms.
Large construction projects may require businesses to spend considerable money before receiving payment.
That cash-flow challenge can prevent smaller minority firms from accepting work even when they are technically qualified.
McKissack’s long development demonstrates that business capacity is built gradually.
One contract can create the experience required for another. A successful project can improve the firm’s reputation, workforce, financial position, and ability to compete at a greater scale.
Generational Wealth Requires More Than Income
McKissack & McKissack is frequently discussed as an example of generational wealth.
Generational wealth is often reduced to money or property passed from parents to children.
A business can transfer something broader.
It can pass down professional knowledge, customer relationships, reputation, intellectual property, institutional memory, leadership expectations, and access to networks.
The McKissack family’s greatest inheritance may not have been a single building or financial account.
It was a tradition of understanding how things are built.
That technical knowledge was strengthened through formal education, licensing, business experience, and ownership.
The company’s history illustrates how expertise can become an asset when a family gains control over how that expertise is organized and sold.
A Family Name Can Become a Business Asset
A company operating for more than a century develops a reputation attached to its name.
That reputation can help attract clients and employees.
It also creates pressure.
Every project affects how future clients interpret the name. Leadership failures, quality problems, financial difficulties, or ethical concerns can damage trust built across generations.
Family companies therefore need strong governance.
A respected surname cannot replace financial controls, qualified management, succession planning, modern technology, and accountability.
McKissack’s current leadership structure reflects an effort to combine family stewardship with professional executive management.
The family legacy remains important, but the business must continue earning its place through current performance.
Technology Is Changing Construction Management
Modern construction depends heavily on technology.
Digital project platforms can track schedules, contracts, budgets, design revisions, inspections, safety issues, and communication among project teams.
Building-information modeling allows professionals to coordinate architectural and engineering systems before certain problems reach the construction site.
Drones, sensors, artificial intelligence, digital twins, and predictive analytics are also changing how projects are planned and monitored.
McKissack’s stated mission includes building on its legacy through innovation, technology, and sustainability.
That mission highlights a challenge facing every long-established company.
History may create credibility, but it cannot become an excuse for resisting change.
A 120-year-old business must compete using twenty-first-century systems while preserving the values and knowledge that helped it survive.
Sustainability and Resilience Are Becoming Central
Construction companies are increasingly expected to address climate change, energy efficiency, environmental impact, and disaster resilience.
Buildings account for significant energy use, and infrastructure decisions can influence emissions and public safety for decades.
New York also faces risks from flooding, storms, heat, aging systems, and population density.
Firms working on hospitals, transit, airports, educational buildings, and public facilities must consider how those assets will perform under future conditions rather than only whether construction is completed on time.
McKissack’s work in disaster recovery and resilience demonstrates how construction expertise can support communities before and after emergencies.
Resilient infrastructure is not an optional design feature for vulnerable communities.
It can determine whether residents retain access to healthcare, transportation, housing, and essential services.
Cheryl McKissack Daniel’s New York Leadership Role
In February 2026, the New York Building Congress selected Cheryl McKissack Daniel as its first Black chair and the third woman to hold the position.
The Building Congress represents organizations involved in construction, real estate, infrastructure, architecture, engineering, labor, and economic development.
Her appointment gives a Black woman with a multigenerational construction background a prominent role in conversations about New York’s built environment.
The organization identified housing affordability, aging infrastructure, climate change, and workforce transformation among the major issues facing the city.
Representation in such a role matters because infrastructure policy determines where public and private resources flow.
It affects which neighborhoods receive investment, which firms obtain contracts, which jobs are created, and how the city prepares for future challenges.
From Family Leadership to Industry Leadership
McKissack Daniel’s appointment also demonstrates how entrepreneurship can lead to broader institutional influence.
A business owner may begin by trying to win projects and keep a company financially stable.
Over time, accumulated experience can position that person to influence policy, workforce development, procurement, education, and industry standards.
This form of leadership is especially important for underrepresented groups.
When organizations lack Black decision-makers, they may discuss inclusion without understanding the practical barriers minority-owned firms face.
A leader who has pursued contracts, hired workers, managed major projects, and navigated industry relationships can bring operational knowledge to policy discussions.
The Difference Between Symbolic and Substantial Participation
Large institutions frequently celebrate diversity when a minority-owned business appears on a project.
The meaningful question is what role that company performs.
Did it manage a substantial portion of the work? Did it receive a fair contract? Was it included early enough to influence decisions? Did the assignment strengthen the firm’s future capacity?
Substantial participation helps a company develop employees, increase revenue, gain references, and pursue larger projects.
Symbolic participation may satisfy a reporting requirement without changing the distribution of opportunity.
McKissack’s participation in major infrastructure demonstrates what can happen when a minority-owned professional firm builds enough capacity to take on significant responsibilities.
The long-term goal of supplier diversity should be to produce more companies capable of operating at that level.
What Entrepreneurs Can Learn From McKissack & McKissack
The first lesson is that technical knowledge can become a durable business advantage.
Construction expertise is difficult to imitate because it develops through education, licensing, project experience, and relationships.
The second lesson is that longevity requires adaptation.
McKissack moved through generations, geographic changes, new leadership structures, technological development, and expansion into modern program and construction management.
The third lesson is that family legacy should be supported by professional systems.
A strong name does not replace financial management, capable executives, succession planning, and measurable performance.
The fourth lesson is that institutional work can create stability and scale.
Public agencies, universities, hospitals, airports, and transportation systems require long-term professional services.
The final lesson is that representation becomes more powerful when it includes ownership, technical authority, and participation in major decisions.
Why This Business Is Different From Other Spotlights
Many minority-owned business stories center on food, retail products, beauty, fashion, or consumer services.
Those businesses are important, but they represent only part of African American entrepreneurship.
McKissack & McKissack operates within professional services, construction management, engineering, infrastructure, and government contracting.
Its customers are often agencies, institutions, developers, and major project teams rather than individual shoppers.
This makes the company a useful example of business-to-business and business-to-government entrepreneurship.
It also shows students that minority ownership can exist in highly technical industries that shape entire cities.
Supporting Black-Owned Professional Firms
Consumers can support a restaurant or retail company through purchases.
Supporting a professional construction firm works differently.
Government agencies, universities, developers, corporations, and prime contractors determine much of the available opportunity.
These institutions can support Black-owned firms by using transparent procurement, breaking appropriate projects into accessible scopes, ensuring prompt payment, and evaluating companies on real experience rather than assumptions about capacity.
Schools and universities can also help by introducing students to architecture, engineering, construction management, skilled trades, and public infrastructure careers.
Mentorship, internships, apprenticeships, scholarships, and exposure to worksites can make technical industries feel more reachable.
The future of Black business ownership depends partly on whether young people can see themselves entering fields where ownership requires specialized knowledge.
How New To Education Approaches Minority-Owned Business Spotlights
New To Education publishes Minority-Owned Business Spotlights to help readers understand the range of industries in which underrepresented entrepreneurs build companies, create employment, preserve culture, and influence economic development.
These articles do not rank businesses or guarantee the quality of their services.
They examine publicly documented company histories that may provide useful lessons for students, educators, aspiring entrepreneurs, professionals, and consumers.
McKissack & McKissack offers a particularly valuable case study because it connects education, engineering, construction, African American history, infrastructure, leadership, succession planning, and generational wealth.
Key Takeaways
McKissack & McKissack describes itself as the oldest minority- and woman-owned professional design and construction firm in the United States.
The company traces its family building tradition through more than two centuries and has operated as a formal family business for more than 120 years.
Its New York-headquartered firm reports participation in more than 6,000 planning, design, and construction projects.
Dr. Cheryl McKissack Daniel served as president and CEO from 2000 through 2025 and now serves as chair of the board.
Albert Odjidja currently serves as president and CEO.
The firm’s portfolio includes major work connected to JFK and LaGuardia airports, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, hospitals, universities, courthouses, transportation hubs, and disaster-recovery programs.
In 2026, Cheryl McKissack Daniel became the first Black chair of the New York Building Congress.
The company demonstrates how technical knowledge, ownership, succession planning, and professional leadership can turn a family tradition into generational economic influence.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does McKissack & McKissack do?
The company provides services including planning, program management, construction management, project management, regulatory compliance, diversity consulting, community outreach, disaster recovery, and infrastructure support.
Is the company based in New York?
The firm discussed in this article lists its main office at 498 Seventh Avenue in New York City. It also lists offices in Mount Vernon, New York, and Philadelphia.
Is McKissack & McKissack Black-owned?
The company publicly identifies itself as the country’s oldest minority- and woman-owned professional design and construction firm and is associated with the African American McKissack family’s multigenerational building legacy.
Who currently leads the company?
Albert Odjidja serves as president and CEO. Dr. Cheryl McKissack Daniel, who served as president and CEO from 2000 through 2025, is chair of the board.
How old is the business?
The firm says it has operated as a family-owned business for more than 120 years.
What major projects has it worked on?
Its publicly listed portfolio includes projects connected to JFK Airport, LaGuardia Airport, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Moynihan Train Hall, the World Trade Center Transportation Hub, Coney Island Hospital, Harlem Hospital, Columbia University, Medgar Evers College, and other institutions.
Does the company construct buildings directly?
McKissack provides a range of professional services involving planning, project management, program management, construction management, compliance, and oversight. Its specific responsibilities differ by project.
Are there other companies with the McKissack name?
Yes. Similarly named firms exist. This article focuses on the New York-headquartered McKissack & McKissack represented at McKissack.com.
Final Thoughts
McKissack & McKissack’s story is not only about surviving for more than a century.
It is about what was carried forward.
A construction skill forced from an enslaved ancestor became knowledge passed through a family. That knowledge became professional training. Professional training became ownership. Ownership became a company capable of helping manage some of New York’s largest institutions and infrastructure projects.
That progression was neither automatic nor guaranteed.
Each generation had to navigate a different version of exclusion, competition, economic pressure, and technological change.
The modern firm now faces the same challenge as every long-established business: respecting its history without becoming trapped by it.
Its current leadership must continue developing employees, adopting technology, managing financial risk, earning contracts, and delivering successful projects.
The company’s legacy provides a foundation, not a permanent exemption from competition.
McKissack & McKissack demonstrates why Black business history should not be limited to stories about overcoming obstacles.
It should also include stories about technical excellence, institutional authority, infrastructure, succession, and the power to help determine what gets built.
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Sources
McKissack & McKissack — Official Website
McKissack & McKissack — About
McKissack & McKissack — Leadership
https://mckissack.com/about/leadership/
McKissack & McKissack — Project Portfolio
https://mckissack.com/portfolio/
New York Building Congress — Cheryl McKissack Daniel Named Historic Next Chair
CBS News — Inside the Nation’s Oldest African American-Owned, Female-Run Construction Management Firm
The HistoryMakers — Cheryl McKissack Daniel
https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/cheryl-mckissack-daniel
Tennessee Encyclopedia — McKissack and McKissack Architects
https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entries/mckissack-and-mckissack-architects/
