Ellis Island Makeover Guru John Belle Dies; Sweco Names Holland Chief
Eugene Grüter has joined Swedish design firm Sweco as president of its Netherlands-based unit. He succeeds Ton de Jong, who the firm says has left. Grüter is the former managing director of the operating company of Dutch engineer Royal BAM Group and had been business-line director of engineer Royal HaskoningDHV. Sweco says it has 14,500 global staff and revenue of about $2 billion.
Minneapolis contractor M.A. Mortenson Co. has named President Dan Johnson to the added role of CEO, effective on Jan. 1. He will succeed Tom Gunkel, who retires in December but will remain a board member. Johnson has been in his current role since 2015.
Building services firm Southland Industries, Dulles, Va., has named Brian Boutte to the newly created position of chief commercial officer. He is formerly a general manager in the digital energy unit of General Electric Co.
John Belle, 84, a founding partner of architect Beyer Blinder Belle who led several of its signature historical preservation projects, died on Sept. 8 in Remsenburg, N.Y., after an lllness, says the New York City firm’s website. Belle “was recognized for adeptly building consensus among disparate points of view on extremely challenging projects,” says the firm. These include the $425-million revamp of Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan and the $150-million overhaul of the abandoned Ellis Island immigration site in New York Harbor. “It was built more quickly than the time it took us to restore [the site],” he told ENR in 1990, terming it “the project of a lifetime.” His work earned three Presidential Design Awards, the top U.S. design prize for public architecture.
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