There had not been a practicing architect as Architect of the Capitol for some 100 years when George M. White took the post in 1971. But during his 25-year term, the former American Institute of Architects' vice president also used his electrical engineering, business and law training to manage large congressional and other U.S. building projects as well as steer design and project management in new directions that were not always supported by industry or his Capitol Hill bosses. PHOTO: COURTESY OF AOC CAPITOL IDEA MAN White created the first master plan for the future U.S. Capitol complex. White died
Alexander A. “Sak” Sakhnovsky, a pioneer of test methods for curtain-wall stability, died of heart failure at age 84 on June 19 in Miami. SAKHNOVSKYWhile running a housing research laboratory at the University of Miami, Sakhnovsky was among the first to perform window testing, in 1954. A trained chemist, he was instrumental in developing, in the 1960s, the American Society for Testing Materials' static water- leakage test. It remains virtually unchanged today. Sakhnovsky bought the lab and launched Construction Research Laboratory Inc. (CRL), Medley, Fla., in 1968.CRL is considered the world's first and largest curtain-wall test facility, with 40 test
MCLAUGHLINTimothy L. “Timmy” McLaughlin was set to step down on June 30 as president of the national American Subcontractors Association Inc., but his term ended unexpectedly on June 9 when he suffered a fatal heart attack in Charleston, S.C. He was 62. Active in the Alexandria, Va.-based specialty contractors advocacy group for more than 20 years, McLaughlin was also general manager of Austin Construction Co. Inc., a site and utility contractor in Summerville, S.C. His successor at the 4,500-member ASA is Kerrick Whisenant, president-elect and pre-construction director of Cornerstone Detention Prod-ucts Inc., a Tanner, Ala., detention equipment and security electronics
DELLA ROCCA Michael Della Rocca, regional managing director in North America for U.K.-based Halcrow and president of its subsidiaries in Canada, the U.S. and Caribbean, is set to join AECOM in a similar role, also based in New York City. A company spokesman confirms the appointment but did not disclose his exact title and start date. AECOM announced internally on June 13 that Jim Jaska was named president of its newly combined Americas and government-services unit, effective on Oct. 1. He has led its government operations unit, which includes U.S. federal and global government-services work. Halcrow says Robert Ulrich, development
BENNETTJames P. “Jim” Bennett twice turned down invitations, dating back to 1973, to join Canada's PCL Construction Enterprises Inc. He finally came aboard 15 years later, in 1988, as vice president of its Denver building unit, eventually leading its U.S.-based operations in building and civil construction, which included the contractor's push overseas. A former president of two PCL units, Bennett died on June 9 in Georgetown, S.C., at age 74 of a massive stroke, says the firm. A former vice president of J.A. Jones Construction Co. and president and CEO of Rogers Construction Co., Bennett became PCL Construction building unit
Timothy L. “Timmy” McLaughlin was about to step down June 30 as this year’s president of the American Subcontractors Association Inc., (ASA), but his term came to a more abrupt end when he suffered a fatal heart attack on June 9 in Charleston, S.C. He was 62. MCLAUGHLIN McLaughlin, active in the Alexandria, Va.-based specialty contractors advovcacy group for more than 20 years, also was general manager of Austin Construction Co. Inc., a site and utility contractor in Summerville, S.C. Immediately succeeding him is Kerrick Whisenant, ASA president-elect, who was to have assumed the 4,500-member group’s top role on July
CLARKE KRÜGE Global design firm W.S. Atkins plc, London, has named German physicist and former construction executive Uwe Krüge as CEO. Effective on Aug. 1, he replaces Keith Clarke, who is retiring from the post. Clarke will remain sustainability director and play a role in Middle East business development. Krüge has been president of Cleantech Switzerland, a Swiss government export support group, and a senior adviser at Texas Pacific Group, an international private equity firm. He was also the CEO of Swiss high-tech firm Oerlikon Management AG but was replaced in 2009 after it recorded a 40% fall in sales.
Photo courtesy of Fluor Corp. Les McCraw led the contractor into new markets and pushed safety, the firm says. Leslie G. “Les” McCraw, who expanded Fluor Corp. into a global diversified powerhouse in the 1990s as chairman and CEO but whose forays were costly and prompted successors to shed non-core businesses, died on May 25 in Greenville, S.C., at age 75.He suffered from cancer since 1997, when he stepped down from the construction giant.McCraw rose quickly through the Fluor executive ranks after its purchase of Greenville-based Daniel Construction in 1977. He was named Daniel CEO and joined the Fluor board
DIETZLER Christopher Dietzler has joined Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC), McLean, Va., as a senior vice president. The change follows its May 17 acquisition of Patrick Energy Services Inc. (PES), Lisle, Ill., where he was president. That firm was a unit of Patrick Engineering, also in Lisle, which ranks at No. 191 on ENR's list of the Top 500 Design Firms. It became a stand-alone firm in 2007. Dietzler also was a vice president of the parent firm. PES, now part of SAIC's Energy, Environment & Infrastructure LLC subsidiary, provides energy, smart-grid, and transmission and distribution engineering. About 200 PES
FUSILLI Donald P. Fussilli Jr., who rose from assistant engineer to CEO at Michael Baker Corp., Pittsburgh, and then took a chief executive role at David Evans Marine Sciences Inc., died on May 17 in Adams Township, Pa., of complications related to brain cancer. He was 59. Fusilli, who also served as Michael Baker's general counsel, went on to lead the firm's energy group's expansion into Asia and South America in the 1990s. He became corporate president in 2000 and CEO in 2001, leading a company restructuring. Fusilli was named to head the David Evans Associates' subsidiary in 2008 and
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