By design

Milwaukee Developer Tim Dixon is looking for the next hot spot for urban site development around Milwaukee’s downtown. He found it in Walker’s Point, and he turned to Continuum Architects + Planners SC, Milwaukee, to help turn his plan for Castings Point into reality. Dixon and Continuum embarked on a three-phase project to turn the former Kramer Foundry on First Street into a mixed-use development and village center. The first phase of the project, which reached completion last summer, included restoration of the historic portion of the foundry and an addition that made space for a café and restaurant on one floor and office space on the second. The second phase, which started in February, calls for the construction of the estimated $4 million Castings Point Tower, a three-story, 27,000-square-foot structure with retail on the first floor and office space on the second and third floors. The third phase will include a four-story apartment building. The entire project should reach completion in December 2007. Subcontractor bids should hit the streets in April.

Your honor

Bray Associates Architects Inc., Sheboygan, won an Outstanding Design Award from American School & University magazine for the firm’s work on the Frank G. & Frieda K. Brotz Science Building at the University of Wisconsin-Sheboygan. ... IBC Engineering Services Inc., Waukesha, won the ASHRAE Technology Award from the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers for the company’s work on the Chicago Center for Green Technology. ... S.J. Janis Co., a Wauwatosa-based design/build firm, won several awards at the Milwaukee/National Association of the Remodeling Industry’s Wisconsin Remodeler of the Year Awards. The company won Silver awards in the Residential Kitchen $30,000-$60,000 and Residential Addition $100,000-$250,000 categories. S.J. Janis won Bronze awards in the Residential Kitchen $60,000-$100,000, Residential Addition $60,000-$100,000 and Residential Interior Under $100,000 categories. S.J. Janis employees Gary Sannes and Mike Ellery won individual awards at the event. Sannes won the Marvin Johnson Meritorious Service Award for his leadership, devotion and accomplishments on NARI’s behalf. Ellery won the Certified Professional of the Year Award for his excellence in the field and work with other association members.

Peer Review

Keeping the faith

Neumann trusts his career instincts

Mark Neumann remembers the cheese.

It was the late 1970s, and he was grocery shopping in Janesville with his wife, Sue, who was pregnant with their second child.

“I was good in math, and I realized that the groceries cost more than I had in my wallet,” he said. “I put the cheese back on the shelf. I remember that
distinctly.

“I went home thinking, ‘There’s got to be a better way for my family.’”

Neumann, the president and owner of Neumann Enterprises Inc. in Pewaukee, was teaching math and coaching football and basketball at Milton High School. He said he loved the job, but it didn’t support the lifestyle he wanted for his family.

So he earned a real estate license in 1979 and started Neumann Realty out of his basement in 1980. It was a tough time to get into real estate, with interest rates rising, and at least one major Milton plant permanently shutting down.

Neumann survived.

“The hours were outrageous, but we sold a lot of homes, and it was going great,” he said.

It was so great that he started Neumann Homes and turned the realty end over to his parents. In its first year, the construction company built nine homes, and Neumann lost $25,000 plus his salary. Once again, he found himself looking for a better way.

“The following year, I subbed out my work, and we became one of the first companies in the area to use computers to track costs and organize work,” he said. “It basically gave us a huge advantage over the competition.”

The company built 27 homes the next year, 81 in 1986 and about 120 in 1987.

At that time, there still was no evidence that Neumann would one day serve two terms representing Wisconsin in Congress.

olitics didn’t play a role for Neumann growing up in the East Troy area with two brothers and two sisters. It wasn’t evident in his University of Wisconsin-Whitewater courses when he graduated in 1975 with a math degree.

A political dream didn’t necessarily start with his wife, whom he met in fourth-grade Sunday school. But, Neumann said, it was Sue who inadvertently got the political ball rolling when she suggested a vacation in Washington, D.C., in the late 1980s.

“I wanted to go fishing in northern Wisconsin,” he said.

But the family stayed four nights longer than planned, and Neumann went home with an idea.

“I was very aware of the growing debt for the country, and we decided if we wouldn’t do something about it, who would?” he said. “I decided to run for Congress. I had no clue what that meant.”

It meant a loss with 41 percent of the vote to Les Aspin in 1992. It also meant another attempt when Aspin became secretary of Defense in spring 1993.

Neumann lost that race by one-half of 1 percent, but the loss didn’t hurt as much as the accumulated debt from a campaign staff that spent a lot of unauthorized money.
“So I started a couple businesses that didn’t work, and I spent about six months pouting,” he said. “I remember it was the Monday after Thanksgiving when I decided to stop pouting.”

Neumann got back into real estate and back on his feet by 1994, just in time to answer the next call from the Republican Party. This time he won and arrived in Washington in January 1995 with a plan to fix the federal budget and solve Social Security.

In 1998, he walked away, content that he reached his goals.

“We did it,” he said. “I didn’t do it alone, but four years later, the budget was balanced and Social Security was back on track.”

Neumann gave politics one more try — losing a tight race for U.S. Senate to Russ Feingold — before eventually starting Neumann Enterprises in 2000.

“It was very small at the time, and then it grew gradually,” he said. “I think our niche is doing developments with an eye toward the environment.”

But through it all, Neumann said, he’s kept his eye on a much more important objective.

“All of this stuff is centered on a deep-rooted faith and strong commitment to family that supersedes anything related to business or politics,” he said.

- Chris Thompson

On the horizon

Bray Associates Architects Inc., Milwaukee, won the design contract for the estimated $4.2 million ECAM Applied Technology Center for Energy Conservation & Advanced Manufacturing at Milwaukee Area Technical College’s Oak Creek Campus. ... Palmer Johnson, Sturgeon Bay, is seeking city approval to build a new, 217,000-square-foot yacht factory on the corner of Neenah Avenue and Redwood Street in Sturgeon Bay. ... Potter Lawson Inc., Madison, is waiting for Rock County approval to proceed with designs for an estimated $11 million expansion and renovation of campus facilities at the University of Wisconsin-Rock County in Janesville. Potter Lawson also has entered the design development phase for an estimated $56 million county jail expansion and renovation in Janesville. ... The city of Janesville is planning for a fall construction start for an estimated $5 million bus garage for the city. ... Mandel Group Inc., Milwaukee, is working with the city of St. Francis on plans for an estimated $17 million shopping center on South Lake Drive and East Howard Avenue. ... Gorman & Co. Inc., Madison, is working with Eppstein Uhen Architects Inc., Milwaukee, on an estimated $18.6 million commercial development with apartments and condominiums on State and Main streets in Racine. ... Engberg Anderson Design Partnership Inc., Milwaukee, is helping the Mukwonago Public Library design an estimated $5 million addition to its facility. ... Partners in Design Architects, Kenosha, is designing a $400,000 to $500,000 baseball stadium for Bradford High School in Kenosha. ... The Zimmerman Design Group, Milwaukee, is adding a City Hall remodeling project to its original contract to design a new police station for the city of Sheboygan. ... Strang Inc., Madison, will provide consulting, architectural and engineering services for the estimated $29.35 million renovation of Sterling Hall on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. ... Muermann Engineering Inc., Kiel, will offer architectural and engineering services for the estimated $1.69 million replacement of fire alarm systems in the Eagle Heights complex at the UW-Madison. ... Durrant, Madison, is working with the state Department of Corrections in designing an estimated $1.33 million visiting center at Ethan Allen School in Wales. ... GO/A Architects Inc., Madison, will provide architectural and engineering services for an estimated $1.01 million Americans With Disabilities Act renovation of 12 rooms in two assisted-living facilities at Wisconsin Veterans Home in Union Grove. ... LifeCare Hospitals of Milwaukee plans to buy a 40-acre site on Golf Road in Waukesha for construction of a 60-bed, 60,000-square-foot, intensive-care hospital. ... The city of Delavan is considering plans to construct an estimated $2.4 million fire station near Ann Street in the city.

Dotted line

Creative Constructors LLC, Menomonee Falls, won a contract to construct penthouse and mechanical upgrades to the chiller stage three at Milwaukee Area Technical College’s downtown Milwaukee campus. ... Joe Daniels Construction Co., Madison, landed a $1.63 million contract to construct a new fire and EMS facility for the Brooklyn Fire and EMS Protection District. Joe Daniels also won a $1.41 mil-lion contract to construct utility extensions for a new residence hall in Platteville. ... Capelle Bros. & Diedrich Inc., Fond du Lac, won a $1.01 million general contract for a culinary addition and remodeling at Moraine Park Technical College in Fond du Lac. ... R.G. Huston Co. Inc., Cottage Grove, secured a $1.11 million contract for a street construction job in Madison. ... Champion Environmental Services, Madison, took home a $1.92 million contract for a demolition project at Milwaukee Trade and Technical High School in Milwaukee. ... Rawson Contractors Inc., Hales Corners, will construct a sewer-relay project in Milwaukee after winning a $1.66 million contract for the job. ... Olympic Builders General Contractors, Holmen, will cross the state line to Winona, Minn., for a remodeling and expansion job at Minnesota State College after winning a $3 million contract for the job. ... Miron Construction Co. Inc., Neenah, won a $24.36 million combined bid for general, plumbing, HVAC and fire-protection work on the Phoenix Sports Center expansion and renovation on the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay campus. Miron also won a $3.65 million contract for an elementary school addition to Highland High School/Middle School in Highland. ... Seater Construction Co. Inc., Racine, landed a $1.31 million contract to construct the Waterford Fire Department No. 2 building in Waterford. ... Michels Pipeline Construction Inc., Brownsville, won a $6.49 million contract to construct storm sewers on Meade and Pacific streets in Appleton. ... Magill Construction Co. Inc., Elkhorn, won a contract to build a new church for Sun Prairie Community Church in Sun Prairie. Magill also won contracts for remodeling work at Mercy Health Systems in Janesville and Mercy Walworth Hospital and Medical Center in Lake Geneva.

A burning question

With Paula Wydeven

Wydeven is the marketing manager for The Boldt Company, Appleton.

What do you most dislike?

"Getting my picture taken. Every woman is her own greatest critic, and any man who is married or has a girlfriend knows the double-edged sword of the question: Do I look fat in these jeans?"

Giving back

County Materials Corp., Marathon, donated three truckloads of brick to Habitat for Humanity's ReStore in Appleton. It's just the first part of a larger brick donation the company has planned for ReStore.

Off the clock

Members of the Neighborhood House family gather in front of the organization. Photos courtesy of Neighborhood House of Milwaukee

Neighborhood watch

Gary Jorgensen gives his time.

In exchange, he gets the knowledge that he’s part of something that’s making a community stronger. The way he sees it, he’s coming out way ahead in the deal.

“It’s the top of the list as far as I’m concerned — just to see the smiles on the kids’ faces and hear the success stories,” said Jorgensen, chairman of VJS Construction Services in Pewaukee and president of Neighborhood House of Milwaukee.

Neighborhood House is an inner-city organization on West Richardson Place that offers a variety of services for children, teens, families, single parents, immigrants and seniors. It offers a wide range of programs that cover education, recreation, literacy, career development, day camps, outdoor adventures, life enrichment and the arts.

And in the 15 years since Jorgensen first got involved with Neighborhood House, he’s watched those programs create plenty of success stories. There’s the story of the neighborhood basketball team that won a state competition, went to Florida as a heavy underdog for a national competition and lost in the finals by only 3 points.

There’s the story of Maddy Tarbox, VJS’ marketing director, who, along with her husband Jeff, adopted Neighbor-hood House participant Artie Turner after his mother died of cancer. Jorgensen said Turner is now at the top of his eighth-grade class and playing on all-star basketball teams around Milwaukee.

Gary Jorgensen (right) is building on 15 years of working with Clarence Johnson (left) at Neighborhood House. Photos courtesy of Neighborhood House of Milwaukee

There’s the organization’s 92-acre farm in Oconomowoc and the partnership programs in development with Oconomowoc students. There are plans for a second Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra concert at the Milwaukee School of Arts, which has ties to Neighborhood House.

There are a lot of stories to tell, and Jorgensen said he’s happy to be a part of it.

“I started because I knew Clarence Johnson, the executive director,” he said. “I always thought that I had been so fortunate in life, and I wanted to do what little I could do. Once I got involved, I fell in love with the kids and the other people down there.”

But even with so much going on, Jorgensen said he and the rest of Neighborhood House are always looking to do more.

“We’re always looking for new challenges,” he said. “With the education problem in Milwaukee, we’re working hard to get them into classrooms, and that starts at home.”

- Chris Thompson

Best of the web

The Great Buildings Collection Web site at www.greatbuildings.com is a gold mine of images and spatial, 3-D models of famous buildings around the world. The library is organized by building type, architect and region. Through a partnership with Architecture Week magazine, the site is able to link to the largest architecture database on the Internet. — Rick Benedict