On the horizon

The Washington County Highway Department is seeking 2006 budget approval from the Washington County Board of Supervisors for 14 road and bridge projects ranging in cost from $25,000 to $1 million. … Engberg Anderson Design Partnership Inc., Milwaukee, is working with the city of Kenosha on an estimated $14.80 million Civil War museum in the city's HarborPark area. … St. Ann Center for Intergenerational Care, St. Francis, is developing plans for a family respite center adjacent to the center on East Morgan Avenue. … The Redmond Company, Waukesha, is seeking approval for the construction of a shopping center on a 17-acre site in Eagle. … Rogers Cinema, Marshfield, is planning a $2 million to $3 million lobby and theater addition to its cinema on Front Street in Beaver Dam. … Plunkett Raysich Architects LLP, Madison, will provide architectural and engineering design services for a new Badger Prairie Health Care Center in Verona. … Kehoe-Henry & Associates Inc., Elkhorn, is working on the study phase for an estimated $13.90 million replacement facility for the Drug and Alcohol Treatment Program in Oshkosh. … The state Department of Corrections is planning an estimated $4.78 million food service facility at the Oakhill Correctional Institution in Oregon. … The Milwaukee Pain Treatment Center LLC, Wauwatosa, is developing plans for an estimated $2.23 million medical clinic on North 118th Court in Milwaukee. … The Wisconsin Historical Society is moving forward with an estimated $1.70 million plan for site improvements and building construction at the historic Black Point property in Lake Geneva. … The University of Wisconsin-Extension, Madison, is planning the estimated $1.15 million construction of the Lowell Hall parking structure on Langdon Street in Madison. … Excel Engineering Inc., Fond du Lac, is designing a two-story manufacturing facility for Kleen Test Products that will go up next to the company’s current facility on Sunset Road in Port Washington. … River Architects, in association with HDR Architecture Inc., La Crosse, is providing consultant services for an estimated $21.37 million engineering building on the University of Wisconsin-Platteville campus. … MSA Professional Services Inc., Beaver Dam, is working with the village of Lowell on an estimated $2 million replacement of the village’s sewage-treatment plant. MSA is also consulting on an improvement project at the Tri-County Regional Airport in Spring Green. … Short Elliott Hendrickson Inc., Chippewa Falls, signed up to help the town of Rib Mountain design a new public safety building. … Palermo Villa Inc., Milwaukee, is planning an estimated $30.50 million production facility and offices for Palermo Pizza in Milwaukee’s Menomonee Valley. … Developers Boulder Venture Inc., Milwaukee, and General Capital Management, Mequon, want to purchase the former GE Hotpoint Appliance Factory site at Miller Park Way in Milwaukee and redevelop it for commercial and light industrial. … The city of West Bend is planning construction of the estimated $1.30 million Rivershores Drive Bridge across the Milwaukee River. … Bucyrus International Inc. is planning an estimated $22 million expansion of its manufacturing operations on the company’s South Milwaukee campus. … Carroll College is developing plans to build athletic fields near the college’s Schneider Stadium in Waukesha. … Bray Associates Architects Inc., Sheboygan, is working on an estimated $3.98 million emergency services facility for the Johnson Creek Community Fire Department. … OMNNI Associates, Appleton, is helping the Door County Cherryland Airport work through possible improvement projects at the Sturgeon Bay facility. … Aquatica Design LLC, Green Bay, is designing a $2.60 million to $3 million aquatic center for the city of Green Bay. … The Jewish Community Center, Milwaukee, is considering development of a family park and swimming pool on a 7.3-acre site on Market Street in Mequon.

Knudson

In memoriam

Joseph M. Daniels, Madison, died Aug. 3 after a brief illness. Daniels, 79, founded Joe Daniels Construction Co., Madison, in 1953. Daniels was also a past president of the Madison Area Builders Association. … Alvin S. Knudson, Greenfield, died Aug. 31 of undisclosed causes. Knudson, 75, was a 50-year member of the Operative Plasterers and Cement Masons Local 599 in Wauwatosa.

Dotted Line

Marquette Constructors LLC, Waukesha, won a $314.76 million contract to construct the Marquette Interchange core from 13th Street to the Milwaukee River in Milwaukee. Marquette Constructors also won a $44.83 million contract to construct the south leg of the Marquette Interchange reconstruction. ... McGann Construction Inc., Madison, will construct the new Westside Family Pet Clinic on Struck Street in Madison after winning a $1.65 million contract for the job. ... SPRINGLAKE, Chippewa Falls, won a $2.76 million contract for a wastewater-treatment plant project in Roberts. ... Zignego Co. Inc., Waukesha, landed a $1.28 million contract for street and utility improvements in West Allis. ... MSI General Corp., Oconomowoc, was selected by Sjoberg Tool & Manufacturing to design and build an addition to its Hartland facility. MSI was also selected to design and construct the new Sunrise Mobil Station on Howard and Howell avenues in Milwaukee. MSI also was selected to design and construct the 15,300-square-foot Delavan Crossings III retail building in Delavan, a 9,500-square-foot commercial building in Elkhorn, a church addition for Faith Builders International of Milwaukee, an 18,000-square-foot multitenant building in Ixonia and a 1,800-square-foot addition and remodeling of the Meade Medical Clinic of Watertown. ... Michels Corp., Brownsville, landed a $2.60 million contract to construct the Fox River Crossing in Green Bay. ...

Oscar J. Boldt Construction Co., Appleton, won a $3.54 million contract to construct the Mike Vann Park water reservoir and booster station in Ashwaubenon. ... Mainline Sewer & Water Inc., Wauwatosa, will construct a water-main extension on Four Mile Road in Caledonia after winning a $1.28 million contract for the job. ... Buteyn-Peterson Construction, Sheboygan, landed a $1.49 million contract to improve the Anchorage Basin Drainage in Oshkosh. ... Dorner Inc., Luxemburg, secured a $4.29 million contract to construct the Bellevue-Ledgeview water-transmission main route in Brown County. Dorner also won a $3.50 million contract to construct the Ledgeview- De Pere water-transmission main route in Brown County. ... Jossart Bros. Construction, De Pere, will construct the Howard water-transmission main route in Brown County after winning a $2.21 million contract for the job. ... PTS Contractors Inc., Green Bay, won a $3.90 million contract to construct the De Pere-Lawrence water-transmission main route in Brown County. ... Dorner-Joski Joint Venture, Luxemburg, landed a $6.62 million contract to construct the Rockwood-Manitowoc water-transmission main route in Brown County. ... Advance Construction Inc., Green Bay, won a $6.19 million contract to construct pumping and metering/pressure adjusting stations in Brown County. ... Pieper Electric Inc., Milwaukee, landed an $8.14 million contract to upgrade instrumentation and controls at the South Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant in Oak Creek. Pieper also won a $1.29 million contract to reconfigure airfield cabling at General Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee. ... KBK Services Inc., Ashland, will construct a new wastewater-treatment facility in Boyd after winning a $3.17 million contract for the job. ... Staab Construction Corp., Marshfield, secured a $9.51 million contract to upgrade the Reedsburg Wastewater Treatment Facility. ... T.V. John & Son Inc., Butler, won a $2.58 million contract to improve a filtration building and pumping stations in Waukesha. ... Raymond P. Cattell Inc., Madison, landed a $1.54 million contract to construct street improvements in Madison. ... Haas Sons Inc., Thorp, won a $1.09 million contract for citywide street and utility work in Eau Claire.

Giving back

The Wisconsin Underground Contractors Association and its Public Works Industry Improvement Program gave scholarship awards to University of Wisconsin-Whitewater business student Kristi Prokop, University of Minnesota civil engineering student Matt Olson, Bethel University business accounting student Valarie Gabrielse, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee architectural engineering student Michael Oszuscik, UW-Milwaukee architecture and urban planning student Thomas Szolwinski and Natalie Herb, who will attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison for a degree in accounting. … County Materials Corp., Marathon, donated nearly 2,700 units of regular block, more than 2,600 units of splitface block and nearly 500 other types of concrete block and mortar for a concession stand built adjacent to the new sports complex at Brown Deer High School.

By design

American Family Insurance needs an updated office building for its claims-processing division. Architect and engineer The Durrant Group Inc., Hartland, and general contractor Hunzinger Construction Co., Brookfield, plan to provide it. The construction team wants to kick off construction in late fall on a three-story building with below-grade parking at Busse Road and Interstate 94 in Pewaukee. The 75,000-square-foot building, which includes a 25,000-square-foot parking deck, will feature a concrete foundation, a precast concrete first-floor structure and structural steel framing and a composite floor system above the first floor. The building's envelope will include stone cladding and glass and aluminum curtain-wall systems. The project team, which plans to reach job completion in December 2006, is planning to put out multiple subcontractor bid packages in late fall.

Hot spot

Fiduciary Real Estate Development Inc. likes its chances with New Port Vista Condominiums. The Milwaukee developer and general contractor chose the 27-acre site at the intersection of Highway 32 and Sauk Road in Port Washington for its 168-condo development because the area offered a prime, up-and-coming location. Fiduciary, which is working off the designs of Eppstein Uhen Architects Inc., Milwaukee, is approaching the project in four phases, with 50, four- or six-family condos in the first phase and 118 in the following three phases. The project team is anchoring the development with a clubhouse (pictured) that includes a full kitchen, fitness center, outdoor pool, patio and all-weather whirlpool. Fiduciary kicked off construction in fall 2004, opened for occupancy this summer and plans to reach completion around 2010.

Peer Review

Lessons learned

Caldwell keeps teaching

“Teaching is my first love, and I guess that’s why I love this job so much.” Nancy Caldwell

Nancy Caldwell never stopped teaching.

It’s been 23 years since she stood in a classroom trying to keep the interest of high school English students, but to say she quit teaching when she quit the job would be to overlook the themes of her career since 1982.

She’s the executive director of the Madison Area Builders Association, but beneath the title, she’s a teacher. She likes watching her staff members grow in their positions to the point where they leave for bigger jobs. She shows a teacher’s pride when MABA members learn from their experiences with the association.

She remembers when Chuck Elliott of Elliott Construction Inc., Middleton, joined his first MABA committee. She watched as he became chairman of that committee, then a member of MABA’s board of directors and, ultimately, the president of the association. She was there when he became active with the Wisconsin Builders Association, and she was in the crowd of 600 when he gave his inauguration speech as president of WBA.

“It was the coolest feeling because I saw the growth, and, in some way, I was a part of encouraging that growth,” Caldwell said. “I got to see that happen. It’s the pride of encouraging people and helping them to be their very best.”

And it doesn’t matter if she’s standing at the front of a classroom or sitting at her association desk.

“Believe it or not, when you manage an association, you need a tremendous amount of the same skills as you do when you’re a teacher,” she said. “They’re skills learned in 10 years of teaching and dealing with diverse people. The principals are the same.”

Caldwell, a native of Springfield, Ill., got her first taste of teaching after graduating from Illinois State University in 1972. She took a job as an English teacher at nearby Normal Community High School.

By her second year, she was teaching students who had failed freshman English.

“It was one of the most rewarding classes I taught,” she said. “On the day I left, one student said that, ‘Anything I ever learned about writing, I learned from you.’ I didn’t live for the kudos, but it means a lot when it happens.”

Caldwell left Normal for Fond du Lac in 1975 when her husband took a job with a housing-component manufacturer. She worked at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and taught at Kewaskum High School and St. Mary’s Springs High School until moving to Madison in 1981.

She took an English teaching job at Edgewood High School, but a year later, she left.

“That’s when I decided that 10 years of grading papers and working several hours each night was enough,” she said. “I loved teaching, but the paperwork finally got to me. I decided I wanted to branch out.”

So she took a job with PRC Realty Systems, a Virginia company that was helping the Greater Madison Board of Realtors set up a multiple-listing computer system. Her work training realtors on the system evolved into a job with the realtors. That job turned into a role as assistant executive vice president of the group in 1989.

Two years later, she saw an opening for executive director at MABA.

“I decided it would be a good fit for my interests and skills, and it would be the next step up,” she said. “I started in fall 1991, and that’s where I’ve stayed with the exception of 18 months around 1995.”

For those 18 months, Caldwell helped get the Wisconsin Assisted Living Association off the ground. Eventually, she switched to a role as executive director of the Realtors Association of South Central Wisconsin.

But when her old position at MABA opened up, Caldwell took the job. And that’s where she’s been ever since, helping the association reach its goals and watching her colleagues grow.

“It’s people grouping together to do things they can’t do alone,” she said. “That’s the gist of it.”

And it sounds a lot like her first job out of college.

“Teaching is my first love, and I guess that’s why I love this job so much,” she said.

- Chris Thompson

Off the clock

Pedal power

Some companies mark the occasion with an open house.

Greg Uhen (front), president of Eppstein Uhen Architects Inc., and Steve Holzhauer, principal in charge of Eppstein Uhen's Madison office, celebrate a successful tandem ride from Milwaukee to Madison on Aug. 19. Photos courtesy of Eppstein Uhen Architects Inc.

Others host dinner parties or send out press releases. Eppstein Uhen Architects Inc. took a more athletic approach in celebrating the opening of its new Madison office at 222 W. Washington Ave. The firm, along with several industry partners, sponsored an 83.6-mile bike ride on Aug. 19 from its Milwaukee office in the Third Ward to the Madison location.

“It came together in a couple of months,” said Rich Tennessen, vice president of Eppstein Uhen. “We thought 15 to 20 people would be great, but as word got out, we got a great turnout. Now, we want to make it an annual event.”

Eppstein Uhen’s Beyond Design Bike Tour drew between 75 and 80 riders from generals, subs, designers and engineers. And, perhaps more significantly, the firm used the event to raise $10,000 for WasteCap Wisconsin and the Bike Federation of Wisconsin.

“Except for the headwind, we were very pleased,” Tennessen said. “A lot of people stepped up to the plate and donated money and time.”

The tour kicked off at 6 a.m., and the riders enjoyed a police escort along Wisconsin Avenue to the Milwaukee County line. Along the way to Madison, the tour stopped and picked up new riders in Pewaukee, Ixonia, Lake Mills and Madison. Once the riders hit Madison, they looped around the Capitol, passed by the Madison offices of J.H. Findorff & Son Inc. and finished off at Eppstein Uhen’s new offices.

“The beauty of it was there were zero casualties, no accidents,” said Gino Carini, Findorff’s director of business development and one of the bike tour organizers.

Riders circle the Capitol in Madison as they complete their ride from Milwaukee. Photos courtesy of Eppstein Uhen Architects Inc.

“Nobody broke skin anywhere. I’ve raced for 20 years, and I was never in a charity ride where there were no mishaps.”

John Miceli, director of operations for Eppstein Uhen, didn’t really have a mishap. He did, however, get lost, if only for a brief time. That missed turn pushed him a quarter mile to half mile out of the way.

“That certainly wasn’t my downfall,” he said. “I underestimated the wind and the hills. I was riding a bike that was in between a racing and a mountain bike.”

The wide tires on the hybrid bike would’ve been great for an off-road tour. Unfortunately for Miceli, the Aug. 19 ride was pretty much on the road.

“But it wasn’t just the fat tire,” he said. “It’s that I wasn’t in good enough shape to be doing this. I was going to drive my own truck home instead of riding on the bus, but I wasn’t sure I had the strength in my leg to push the pedal.”

- Chris Thompson