Your honor

Carpentry apprentice Mitch Weed works on his project during the ABC of Wisconsin's Construction Skill Competition. Photo courtesy of ABC of Wisconsin

Cindy Knutson-Lycholat of Knutson Bros. II LLC, East Troy, won the January 2005 Remodelor of the Month Award from the Remodelors Council for her professionalism, involvement and enthu-siasm in the remodeling industry. … A. James Gersich, Fitchburg, won a Citation for Distin-guished Service from the American Institute of Architects Wisconsin's board of directors for his leadership, communication skills and service in representing AIA members in north central Wisconsin during his three-year term on the national AIA board of directors. … Barrientos Design & Consulting Inc., Milwaukee, won the 2004 Hispanic Business of the Year Award from the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce-Wisconsin… Several construction apprentices won awards in the Associated Builders and Contractors of Wisconsin's annual Construction Skills Competition. In carpentry, Michael Schumacher of Wirtz Brothers Construction, Malone, took first place; Jason Jacobitz of Stodola-Maas Construction Inc., Fond du Lac, took second place; and Brian Froehlich of Corporate Contractors Inc., Beloit, took third place. In electrical, Andrew Langfeldt of Lyons Electric Co. Inc., Delafield, took first place; Michael Carlson of Mike's Plumbing, Heating & Electrical Inc., Pulcifer, took second place; and Keith Weigel of Poellinger Electric Inc., La Crosse, took third place. In HVAC, Benjamin Andre of Idealair Heating & Cooling Inc., De Pere, took first place; Nathan Strojny of Idealair took second place; and Keith Schmidt of North American Mechanical Inc., De Forest, took third place. In plumbing, Scott Albright of Ahern-Gross Inc., Fond du Lac, took first place; Clint Gressler of J.D. Ogden Plumbing & Heating Inc., Neenah, took second place; and Nicholas Brucks of Keyes & Sons Plumbing & Heating Inc., Neenah, took third place. In sheet metal, Keith Elza of KBK Services Inc., Ashland, took first place; Jason Eickmeyer of Eickmeyer Heating & Sheet Metal Inc., Menominee, took second place; and Jesse Gensler of Sinkler Heating & Cooling Inc., Green Bay, took third place. In steam fitting, Chad Wood of Rohde Brothers Inc., Plymouth, took first place, and Chad Blanke of Rohde took second place. …

The University of Wisconsin-Madison Health Sciences Learning Center Photo courtesy of J.H. Findorff & son inc.

JJR LLC, a planning, design and engineering firm with offices in Madison, Chicago and Ann Arbor, Mich., won two Design Merit Awards from the Wisconsin Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects. The first award was for the company's work on the Marquette University campus design implementation in Milwaukee, and the second was for the company's work on the Racine Sam Johnson Parkway in Racine. … The State Building Commission recently honored several companies for excellence in design and construction in the state's building program. Arnold & O'Sheridan Inc., Brookfield, won an Excellence in Engineering Design Award for its work on the Waukesha State Office Building. Kee Architects, Madison, won an Excellence in Architectural Design Award for its work on the University of Wisconsin-Platteville Pioneer Student and Technology Center. Miron Construction Co. Inc., Neenah, won an Excellence in Construction Award for its work on the University of Wisconsin-Madison Southeast Recreational Facility. J.H. Findorff & Son Inc., Madison, won an Excellence in Construction Award for its work on the UW-Madison Health Sciences Learning Center. Berners-Schober Associates, Green Bay, won an Excellence in Sustainable Design and Construction Award for its work on the Department of Natural Resources' Northeast Region Headquarters. … ABC of Wisconsin recently announced that state Rep. Stephen Nass, R-Whitewater, will be this year's ABC Legislative Award recipient. … State Rep. Dan Vrakas, R-Hartland, and state Sen. Cathy Stepp, R-Sturtevant, won the Associated General Contractors of Wisconsin's Legislative Leadership Awards. … R.A. Smith & Associates Inc., Brookfield, and the Kenosha County Division of Highways won the 2004 Innovation Award from the Wisconsin Asphalt Pavement Association for their use of rubblizing on Highway H in Kenosha County. … Jim Zradicka of J.H. Findorff & Son Inc., Madison, won the AGC of Wisconsin's 2004 Community Service Award for his contributions to the community above and beyond the normal course of business. … McKee Associates Inc., Madison, won the AGC of Wisconsin's General Contractor of the Year Award for the company's bid ethics, contract administration, communication, safety, job-site supervision and scheduling.

By design

Drs. Andrew Campbell and Al Tauscheck are hoping to create a sort of one-stop shopping opportunity for their patients. Campbell and Tauscheck, who specialize in
plastic surgery and dermatology, respectively, have turned to Bamco Architects Inc., Sheboygan and Manitowoc, to help them lay out plans for a regional medical
center on North Taylor Drive in Sheboygan. The 19,000-square-foot, one-story center will feature a central atrium flanked by dermatology and plastic surgery offices.
The project, with an estimated construction cost of $2.9 million, should start in April and reach completion by Jan. 1. The project team plans to select
general contractors for a single-prime bid, and those bids should be due by late March.

On the move

Shaw Environmental & Infrastructure Inc. is moving its Pewaukee office to Milwaukee's Schlitz Park campus. Shaw, headquartered in Monroeville, Penn., has more than 6,000 employees in 62 offices, including four offices in Wisconsin. Shaw's local office focuses on site assessment/restoration, brownfields redevelopment and environmental compliance and management systems. … Patrick Engineering Inc. moved from its Kilbourn Avenue office in Milwaukee to 10101 W. Innovation Drive, Suite 450, Milwaukee. The company's new number is 414-771-0264.

Hot spot

The Park Place Technology Center is a marriage of opportunity and ability. Inland Companies Inc., Milwaukee, teamed up with Park Place Technology Center LLC to create the business park on Milwaukee's northwest side because both Inland and the owner saw an opportunity for a multitenant facility in the area, especially considering its easy access to Interstate 45. The park will include three buildings totaling 170,000 square feet. Inland Construction, a division of Inland Companies, worked off a design by Eppstein Uhen Architects Inc., Milwaukee, to complete construction of the first building in 2002. The 67,601-square-foot, one-story structure has 7,000 square feet to 60,000 square feet available with build-to-suit opportunities for office, technology, light manufacturing and light distribution. The second building is slated for construction this year.

Luther

In memoriam

Herbert A. Kurth, Brookfield, died Jan. 12 of undisclosed causes. Kurth, 92, was the former president of Kurth Plumbing Corp., now known as Kurth-Conway Plumbing Corp., Milwaukee. He also served as president of the Wisconsin Association of Plumbing Contractors and chairman of the Board of Plumbers Mutual Liability Insurance Co. … Jason A. Luther, Fall River, died Jan. 16 of heart complications. Luther, 34, had worked as a foreman for Middleton Construction Inc., Middleton, since 1992.

Milestones

The Boldt Company's new Wisconsin River Valley office has earned a Silver Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating from the U.S. Green Building Council. The 21,000-square-foot office and warehouse in Stevens Point was designed by Boldt Technical Services and built by Oscar J. Boldt Construction.

Peer Review

'ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION HERO'

“The point is 12-year-old girls shouldn’t get brain cancer and die. That’s what makes me tick.” Brett Hulsey

Julie Hooper didn't die in vain.

One of her classmates bore witness to her tragedy and, many years later, still fights on her behalf.

"My girlfriend in sixth grade got brain cancer and died," said Brett Hulsey, the Sierra Club's Midwest senior representative in Madison. "I read that kids who live within 250 yards of a road with 20,000 vehicles per day are eight times more likely to have leukemia and six times more likely to have all cancers. Did that kill Julie Hooper? I don't know, but somebody better do something about it.

"The point is 12-year-old girls shouldn't get brain cancer and die. That's what makes me tick."

There's an open suitcase on the floor of Hulsey's office as he talks about Julie Hooper. He's packing for a trip to Denver where he will meet with local elected officials, clean air modelers and Sierra Club members to train them on how to promote community redevelopment rather than more road building.

"Then I went skiing at Loveland Basin," he said. "Nine inches of fresh powder."

Hulsey grew up in Oklahoma with plans to promote wise use of environmental resources and to be the first Oklahoman to make the Olympics as a cross-country skier.

His father was a doctor, his mother was a teacher, and both were conservationists.

"I went to the first Earth Day," Hulsey said. "That's when I decided I wanted to be an environmental action hero."

It would be several years before he donned the green cape, but his experiences in the interim only strengthened his childhood environmental plans, if not the skiing dream. He graduated from high school in 1977, spent a short time at Colorado State, an even shorter time at Oklahoma State and then decided to hop in a 1957 Ford pickup with three bald tires and drive to Alaska.

He was 19 when he reached Alaska, where he became the youngest energy conservation advocate through the Volunteer in Service to America program, which was like the domestic peace corps.

"Energy efficiency has an impact everywhere, but in Alaska, it's a survival issue," Hulsey said. "I worked with a lot of native tribes in the bush. Energy conservation was stuffing newspapers in a hole."

After about a year and a half of energy conservation, hunting, salmon fishing and narrowly avoiding a stampeding grizzly bear, Hulsey moved on to Middlebury College in Vermont, where he eventually earned a bachelor's degree in political economy. Middlebury also offered him his first taste of Washington, D.C., politics.

"I slept on a guy's couch and worked the Hill," he said. He also successfully advocated the Alaska Lands Bill, which opened 130,000 acres of new park and wildlife refuge.

Hulsey spent the next several years hopping around the country. He worked as a stonemason in Colorado, skied every slope in the Aspen basin, accepted a graduate scholarship at Dartmouth College and saw the scholarship disappear right around the time that his work on California Sen. Alan Cranston's presidential campaign came to an end.

He landed in Oklahoma, where he worked as a substitute teacher, joined Gary Hart's presidential campaign as a district chairman and earned a master's degree in natural science and science education in 1987 from the University of Oklahoma.

Shortly after, he answered the Sierra Club's call and ended up in Madison in October 1988. Since then, Hulsey has served as an environmental policy advisor for President Clinton, joined the Dane County Board of Supervisors and worked on Sierra Club issues ranging from the Clean Air Act to the cryptosporidium outbreak in Milwaukee to flooding along the Mississippi River, for which he earned a Distinguished Public Service Award from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

"Part of my job as a field rep is I do what comes up," he said.

Lately, urban sprawl has fallen under Hulsey's focus, but it would be a mistake to think he's forgotten Julie Hooper.

"It started with one flake, and it turned into an avalanche," he said. "There are 38 studies that say living near highways causes cancer, asthma … This medical evidence says we have to change our transportation system."

- Chris Thompson

Best of the Web

Robert Bruno is an architectural sculptor and artist who has spent the last 30 years creating a steel house. His Web site at www.robertbruno.com is short on words and explanations, but it's long on style and imagination. Be sure to check out the QuickTime movie, which features an interview with Bruno and provides a closer look at his incredible project. - Rick Benedict

Off the clock

Driving Mr. Thayer

There's nothing quite like one of Tom Thayer's pleasure rides when he's behind the wheel of his 1964 Amphicar.

Tom Thayer wouldn't mind getting his hands on an International Harvester Scout SS2.

The vehicle only comes with a cloth top and no doors. It looks a little like an off-road racer, but it's street legal. International Harvester made this particular model of the Scout from 1975 to 1978, but Thayer isn't picky.

"Any vintage would be fine," said the president of Tri-North Builders Inc., Madison.

A successful hunt for the SS2 would make Thayer the proud owner of 25 antique cars, which characterizes him as either a car collector or the owner of a really outdated cab company. Luckily for Thayer, it's the former, especially considering that his oldest car, a 1928 six-speed special International Harvester, tops out at about 30 mph, which probably wouldn't earn him a lot of tips in the taxi trade.

"I've always been a car guy," Thayer said. "Actually, I still have the second new car I bought in 1974. It's a 1974 International Harvester pickup. The first new car got wrecked. A friend flipped it."

This 1977 International Scout II is one of four Scouts in Thayer's collection.

That friend never got to drive Thayer's second new car, which allowed it to remain a seed of what would become a much larger collection.

"Nine years ago, someone told me about a 1945 International Harvester that was for sale," he said. "I took a look at it, test drove it and bought it. And I got the bug.

It's been all downhill since then, according to my wife."

Actually, Thayer's wife is just as involved in his hobby as Thayer. She joins him at International Harvester shows about two times a year, and she's watched him grow his collection of International Harvesters to 22 cars.

"I buy one or two a year," Thayer said. "It all depends on when one comes up that I'm looking for. This past year, I only bought two vehicles."

Tom Thayer's car collection features this 1948 International Woodie wagon.

He keeps his cars stored at his house in the country and sticks to more modern modes of transportation during the winter. But when the cold weather breaks, Thayer rolls out his collection.

"During the summer, I drive a different vehicle every day," he said. "I tinker with them. It keeps me occupied. I enjoy driving them. People enjoy riding in them."

And for those passengers who think they've seen it all when it comes to antique cars, Thayer can always pull out his 1964 Amphicar. The vehicle travels on both land and water thanks to its buoyancy and a couple of propellers in the back.

"That is a very fun vehicle," Thayer said. "You can be going down the road and turn and go into the water if you want. It's fun to tease people if they don't know what they're in."

- Chris Thompson

Dotted line

J.P. Cullen & Sons Inc., Janesville, won an $11.4 million general-work contract to construct a new residence hall on the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse campus. North American Mechanical Inc., De Forest, won a $1.8 million HVAC contract for the project. Town & Country Electric Inc., Viroqua, won a $2.1 million electrical contract. … Ellis Stone Construction Co., Stevens Point, will construct kitchen additions and renovations at the Wisconsin Veterans Home in King after winning a $1.2 million contract for the job. Ellis Stone also won a $4.6 million contract to upgrade a wastewater-treatment facility in Port Edwards. … Mainline Sewer & Water Inc., Wauwatosa, landed a $1.7 million contract to construct the north side interceptor sewer and water main in Slinger. … CG Schmidt Inc., Milwaukee, was selected to construct patient rooms on the second, fourth and fifth floors of the Waukesha Memorial Hospital Southwest Tower. … Total Team Construction LLC, Brookfield, won the construction- management contract for an interior remodel and upgrade of the Tuckaway Country Club in Franklin. … M.J. Construction Inc., Milwaukee, will construct combined sewer relays for the city of Milwaukee after winning a $2 million contract for the job. … Feaker & Sons Co. Inc., De Pere, won a $2.6 million contract for street and utility construction work in Ashwaubenon. … Carl Bowers & Sons Construction Co. Inc., Kaukauna, landed a $1 million contract for sewer and water-main construction and grading and gravelling work at Apple Hill Farms II in Appleton. … Lunda Construction Co., Black River Falls, will construct airport improvements at Dane County Regional Airport in Madison after winning an $11.9 million contract for the job. … PDM Bridge LLC, Eau Claire, won a $2.2 million contract for street-extension steel procurement on Canal Street in Milwaukee. … Klobucar Construction Co. Inc., Beloit, will construct a new fire station for the city of Beloit after winning a $1.1 million contract for the job. … Reuben Johnson & Son Inc., Superior, won a $2 million contract to construct storage improvements, a lift station and a collection system for the Superior Public Works Department in Superior. … MSI General Corp., Oconomowoc, will transform a former Kohl's Food Store in Bay View into an Outpost Natural Foods Store after winning a design and construction contract for the job. … C.D. Smith Construction Co., Fond du Lac, won an $11.8 million contract to construct improvements at a water-treatment plant in Green Bay.

Branching out

The Bentley Company, a general contractor based in Milwaukee, opened a new office at 2924 Marketplace Drive in Madison. Bentley also formed BMG Corp. at the new Madison location. BMG will offer integrated program management services as well as property investment, development and management services. The Bentley Group of companies operates in six states.

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