Your Honor

University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Pharmacy. Image courtesy of AIA Wisconsin

The American Institute of Architects Wisconsin gave its Wisconsin Design Honor Award to Gastrau Fuerer & Associates, Milwaukee, and Fuerer Gastrau Architektur, Gossau, Switzerland, for their design of the Sutter Residence in Switzerland; KEE Architecture Inc., Madison, for its design of the RS+K Strategic/Creative Office Building in Madison; Potter Lawson Inc., Madison, and Perkins & Will, Chicago, for their design of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Pharmacy; and Vetter Denk Architects Inc., Milwaukee, for its design of the Milwaukee Rowing Club at Kilbourn Landing in Milwaukee. AIA gave its Merit Award to Flad & Associates, Madison, for its work on the ACT Headquarters Building in Iowa; Johnsen Schmaling Architects, Milwaukee, for its design of the Parts House Pavilion in Milwaukee; and The Renschler Company Inc., Madison, for its design of the UW Health Clinic in Portage. AIA gave Kahler Slater Architects Inc., Milwaukee, a Special Recognition Award for its design of the ASQ Center in Milwaukee. And AIA honored Meg Roback, an architect with Vierbicher Associates Inc., Reedsburg, for her design of the Kenosha Safety and Weight Enforcement Facility. … The Kenosha SWEF building also won a Finalist Award from the Wisconsin Concrete Masonry Association. The association also honored Eppstein Uhen Architects Inc., Milwaukee, with an Excellence in Masonry Best of Show Award for the Bethesda Lutheran Corporate Office in Watertown. Bamco Architects Inc., Manitowoc, won an Excellence Award for its work on St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Howards Grove, and MSI General Corp., Oconomowoc, won an Excellence Award for its work on River Glen Marketplace in Milwaukee. Wahlgren Schwenn Inc., Menomonee Falls, won a Finalist Award for its work on the Cary Francis Group Office and Warehouse in Franklin, and AG Architecture, Wauwatosa, won a Finalist Award for its work on the Badger Association of the Blind and Visually Impaired in Wauwatosa. … The American Institute of Constructors Wisconsin Chapter named Thomas Boldt, chief executive officer of The Boldt Company, Appleton, as its 2004 Constructor of the Year. … LaForce Inc., Green Bay, honored 42 of its employees for their years of service to the company ranging from five to 35 years. … The Sigma Group, Milwaukee, won the Environmental Stewardship Award from the Wisconsin Environmental Working Group for the firm's development of its headquarters on a brownfields site in Milwaukee's Menomonee Valley. …

R.A. Smith & Associates Inc., Brookfield, won the Wisconsin Business Ethics Award in the Small Business Category from the Madison and Milwaukee chapters of the Society of Financial Service Professionals for the firm's high standards of ethical behavior in business conduct, management philosophies and responses to specific crises or challenges. R.A. Smith also netted honors from the Waukesha County Chamber of Commerce and the Small Business Times as one of the top 10 small businesses in southeastern Wisconsin. … Thomas & Egenhoefer Inc., Menomonee Falls, won the 2004 BuildersEdge Award from a panel of education, business and construction industry representatives. The award recognizes commitment to the industry and efforts to enhance employee education, skill training and benefits. … McLain's Unique Impressions, New Berlin, won decorative concrete flatwork awards in the residential and commercial categories at the 25th Annual Concrete Design Awards sponsored by the Wisconsin Ready Mixed Concrete Association and the Wisconsin Chapter of the American Concrete Institute. … The Associated General Contractors of Greater Milwaukee honored several people from the construction industry at its Annual Past Presidents' & Awards Night. Robert K. Stelter of The Bentley Company, Milwaukee, won the Skill, Integrity and Responsibility Award. Don Gallow of Reinhart, Boerner, VanDeuren SC, Milwaukee, won the Chairman of the Year Award for his efforts on the AGC-GM Environmental Committee. Kim Hurtado of Hurtado SC, Brookfield, won the Associate of the Year Award for her contributions to the AGC-GM and the construction industry. Joe Miotke of Kotze Construction Co. Inc., Milwaukee, won the Pioneer Award for his dedication to the AGC and the construction industry. Kevin Sandkuhler of Hunzinger Construction Co., Brookfield, won the Harvey Peterson Award for his commitment to construction safety, and Mike Morgan of Hunzinger won the Gil Czaplewski Superintendent of the Year Award. … Craig Coursin, vice president and project principal at CG Schmidt Construction Inc., Milwaukee, won the Partner Award from Partners for Education Inc. for his leadership and support of business and education partnerships. … Zimmerman Design Group, Milwaukee, won the 2004 Outstanding Architect Award from the American Subcontractors Association of Greater Milwaukee. ASA gave the 2004 Outstanding General Contractor Award to Dahlman Construction Co., Milwaukee, and the 2004 ASA Friend of the Year Award to State Rep. Daniel Vrakas, R-Hartland.

Peer Review

Andrew Bangert

Bangert finds the light

June 20 was the longest day of the year and the most promising for Andrew Bangert.

With the sun at its peak, Bangert's photovoltaic panels were working overtime, fueling his house in Madison with electricity, charging his solar-powered lawnmowers and proving once again that he made the right decision when he was in third grade.

Bangert grew up in a commune on the side of a mountain in the Bitterroot Valley in Montana. His family and the 15 others in the commune didn't have power, so one of his daily chores was to fill the kerosene and Coleman lamps with fuel.

"Then we got a wind generator," he said. "To come in and just pull a chain, the proverbial lightbulb went off.

That always stuck with me. I became an electrician because I wanted to do renewable energy."

Bangert moved to Madison when he was in ninth grade, started out as a carpenter and plumber after he graduated from high school, moved back to Montana for four years, worked in Chicago for a short while and finally wound up back in Madison to start an apprenticeship with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

While under the apprenticeship in 1992, Bangert joined H&H Electric Co. Inc. in Madison, and he's been with the firm ever since. It was also around that time that Bangert got his first formal introduction to photovoltaic panels at the Mid-west Renewable Energy Fair in Amherst.

That fair helped set the course for the next 12 years of Bangert's career and gave him the tools to make his personal life an example of what he wanted to accomplish
professionally.

But first, he needed to learn more about renewable energy and, more specifically, solar power.

When the sun shines on a photovoltaic panel, it produces electricity that can accomplish the same work as the power pulled off a city's electrical grid. Photovoltaics are commonly used on homes and buildings that aren't on a grid, but they've started to find their place within cities.

"You can have a battery-based system tied to the grid," Bangert said. "It sells power to the grid and acts like a solar generator for your house. You also can be tied directly to the grid. Electricity follows the path of least resistance, so if your appliances are on, it goes to power them. The excess power goes to the grid."

Photovoltaics help people and businesses create their own electricity, reducing electrical bills and producing any number of environmentally friendly results. And it's the green reasons, fueled in part by his "100 percent hippie background," that drove Bangert to hundreds of hours of solar-energy classroom work at the National Training Institute at the University of Tennessee and the Midwest Renewable Energy Association.

So, in addition to his master electrician status and IBEW certification, Bangert is a solar power specialist and one of only 62 people in the country and two in the state certified through the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners.

Bangert said that certification helps him lend credibility to a technology that is too often stereotyped as tree hugging.

"Whether or not you believe in the technology, it is new, and somebody will be doing it, so let's learn it," he said. "When you're trying to become more educated or doing more specialized work, it's a great way to spend an eight-hour day, and I like the challenge."

And he likes the far-reaching results.

"I've got two kids who will be dealing with the messes we leave today," Bangert said. "I guess I like saving the world. I like it that I'm making a real difference."

- Chris Thompson

Off the Clock

Photographic memories

Larry Michael has traveled the world with his camera.

His love of photography has led him to Norway, Sweden, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg. Photography hooked him up with a Church of Norway minister, who married Michael to his wife north of the Arctic Circle.

His abstract nature photography has found its way into a variety of different publications and earned him numerous awards, including Photographer of the Year from the British Broadcasting Corp. and the Natural History Museum in London. Michael's work beat out about 19,000 other images from 68 countries for that honor.

"It was nice to get that acknowledgement, and, as a result, I've been invited to Europe to give presentations of my work," he said.

But for all the travels and accolades, the real benefits of photography to Michael, who is a surety-bonding agent with The Brehmer Agency Inc. in Butler, are pretty simple.

"It's a nice, creative outlet," he said. "It's very different from the left-brain stuff I do in surety bonding. It puts me where I want to be in the outdoor world."

Michael started photographing nature about 25 years ago, five years after he started in surety bonding.

"I began to use a camera during hunting and fishing trips," he said. "I found it tougher to get a good photo than to catch a fish or knock a duck out of the air."

And, in the last 15 years, what started out as simply taking pictures has evolved into abstract photography.

"It's the difference between seeing and looking," Michael said. "Most of us walk around looking, and if we begin to see from a right-brain perspective, subjects start to become angles, shapes, colors and lines. There's a natural design or order in everything out there.

"This is photography as an experience rather than as a documentary tool."

It's a great experience, and it keeps him out of trouble.

"If you sit by the side of a lake, and you don't have a fishing pole, a shotgun or a camera, somebody's going to call the cops," Michael said. "They'll think you're pretty weird."

- Chris Thompson

Giving Back

Robert Schoelzel, owner of Signature Homes & Development Inc., Menasha, will donate to the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin-Fox Valley all of the proceeds earned from the sale of a Signature Homes house being built in Appleton. Schoelzel said he is making the donation in response to the care the hospital gave to his daughter Maggie when she was stricken with severe pneumonia nine years ago. … County Materials Corp., Marathon, plans to make a financial contribution to the Wisconsin Architect Foundation to support the group's mission to build a better Wisconsin through architectural education. County Materials will make the contribution based on a portion of sales from Sound Cell Block, an architectural acoustical masonry unit manufactured by County Materials. … J.P. Cullen & Sons Inc., Janesville, gave a $1,000 renewable scholarship to Kevin Fanning, a senior at Parker High School in Janesville. Fanning plans to use the scholarship to attend the University of Wisconsin-Stout to pursue an education in construction management. … The American Subcontractors Association of Greater Milwaukee held both silent and live auctions and raised $5,500 for the Midwest Athletes Against Childhood Cancer.

By Design

The city of Waukesha is on a development spree. With projects popping up all over the downtown area on the southeast shores of the Fox River, the city is looking across the river for more development opportunities. And that's where the North Street Market, designed by AG Architecture, Wauwatosa, could find its niche. The
project, which includes 104 parking spots and space for up to 16 retailers, will sit adjacent to the city's new transit center in the middle of a high-traffic area of the city that was ripe for development. Construction of the 24,200-square-foot retail center project on a site owned by Bryce P. Styza, Waukesha, should get under way this fall with completion slated for summer 2005. Bids for the project should hit the streets in August.

Wrapped up

The Richardson Financial Group can sit back and enjoy the view now that its 11,447-square-foot office building on Main Street and Executive Parkway in Menomonee Falls has reached completion. Designed by Briohn Design Group LLC and built by Briohn Building Corp., both of Brookfield, the new structure, with construction costs topping $1 million, features a prairie-style and contemporary design as well as finishes that include metal-clad roofing, an interior plaster dome and custom-built trim work. Briohn started the project in August 2003 and reached substantial completion in February 2004.