Rick Cotton pulled no punches when talking about the need to transform LaGuardia International Airport. Speaking to ENR last year while standing in the light-filled, glossy new Terminal B, he said, “LaGuardia had become the laughingstock of the city, nation and probably the world. It was subpar, out of date, and desperately needed to be replaced.”

As executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Cotton coordinated the unprecedented task of building $8 billion in new airport facilities while keeping passengers and planes moving. The public-private partnership utilized to build a new $4-billion Terminal B was the largest of its kind in the U.S.