Burton S. Sperber was a “passionate and accomplished” magician, says the California landscape architecture firm he founded and ran for decades. But it was Sperber's vision and tough business skills, not magic, that built Valley Crest Landscape Cos., Calabasas, into the billion-dollar business it became before recession nipped its bottom line. Sperber, 82, died on Sept. 30 in Santa Monica, Calif., of complications from surgery, says the firm.With only a high school education and experience in his father's nursery, Sperber acquired a small landscape business in 1949 for $700 and was busy as post-WWII California boomed. Valley Crest helped its
Related Links: Hollands ARCADIS buys Pirnie To Create Water Mega-Player Arcadis Adds RTKL in Effort To Expand Buildings Work A Pause In the Bid War For U.K.s Scott Wilson After Tishman Acquisition, AECOM Buys Two More Firms With the Oct. 17 announcement that Dutch design giant ARCADIS NV will acquire London-based EC Harris LLP, yet another U.K.-based engineering consultant with broad global reach is set for new ownershipIn a deal expected to be completed in November, Arnhem-based ARCADIS would issue three million shares to EC Harris’ 180 partners and pay an additional cash amount, which was not disclosed.Avram Fisher, industry
BURCHAMU.S. Army Col. Margaret W. Burcham was selected on Sept. 18 to command the Corps of Engineers' Great Lakes and Ohio River Division, based in Cincinnati. She is the first woman to serve as a division commander and engineer on a full-term basis, says the Corps. Burcham will lead seven Corps districts in a 17-state region that includes 4,800 staffers and an annual operations and construction budget exceeding $2 billion. She formerly served as an Army division chief at the Pentagon and as a Corps district commander in Iraq, among other posts. Col. Janice Dombi was named temporary commander
Ben C. Maibach Jr., who joined Michigan contractor Barton Malow Co. as a laborer in 1938 and rose to become chairman of what, nearly 40 years later, is now a major U.S. building construction firm, died on Sept. 24 in Farmington Hills, Mich., at age 91.MAIBACHe died of cancer, says a spokeswoman.Maibach, who followed his carpenter-foreman father into the firm, was instrumental in creating its profit-sharing and pension plan in 1951 as a rising executive. It was a first for a U.S. contractor, says the firm.Maibach became president in 1960 and retired as chairman in the early 1980s but was
A. Clive Houlsby, a leading authority on cement grouting methods in dams and large structures who maintained a widely consulted internet site called Rockgrout, died on Sept. 24 in Sydney. He was 82.HOULSBYHoulsby suffered from cancer, says a colleague, U.S.-based engineer Jim Warner. A former dam safety chief of the Water Resources Commission in New South Wales, Australia, Houlsby became a global consultant and lecturer in the 1980s.In the 1970s, he advocated for what was then a controversial change in the water-cement ratio for structural grout. While critics deemed his recommendation as a “heresy,” Houlsby's formula is now standard practice,
Joseph Penzien, a University of California-Berkeley engineering professor who developed the world's first modern shake table in 1972 and pioneered groundbreaking earthquake engineering research and academics, died on Sept. 19 in Redwood City, Calif. He was 86.PENZIENPenzien, a 35-year teaching veteran at the school, was a key developer of its programs in structural dynamics and earthquake engineering, "which many considered to be the best in the world," according to a 2004 oral history conducted by Robert Reitherman, executive director of the Consortium of Universities for Research in Earthquake Engineering.An introduction by Berkeley professor Anil Chopra noted that while Penzien taught
In one of the largest acquisitions so far this year by a U.S. firm, Colorado-based CH2M Hill Cos. on Sept. 26 said that it has agreed to acquire U.K. global transportation engineer Halcrow Group Ltd. for $192 million in cash. The deal, which CH2M Hill says also includes the firm's outstanding debt and pension liability, could be valued at $356 million.The deal, set to close in November, would expand CH2M Hill's global footprint and engineering strength as well as improve cash flow for privately held Halcrow, which is struggling in some markets. Halcrow shareholders and the U.K.'s high court must
Etihad Rail Co. Emirates' rail network would carry 50 million cargo tons and 16 million passengers per year, according to its owner. Related Links: The Ten Most Noteworthy Rail Projects: Overview and Related Stories Project: Emirates Rail NetworkCost: $11 billion Construction period: 2012-2018 Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Rail Co., the government-owned company that is set to build an estimated $11-billion passenger and freight rail network across the United Arab Emirates (UAE), says it will award the project’s first construction contract before the end of the year.The company is set to select an unspecified number of contractors from at least 10 local
Photo courtesy of Thames Water CH2M Hill and Halcrow are prime contractor and sub, respectively, on the multi-billion-dollar Thames Tideway combined sewer tunnelling project in London. In one of the largest acquisitions so far this year for a U.S. firm, Colorado-based CH2M Hill Cos., said Sept. 26 that it has agreed to acquire London-based global transportation engineer Halcrow Group Ltd. for about $192 million in cash. The deal, which the Englewood, Colo.-based firm says also includes the U.K. firm's outstanding debt and pension liability, could be valued at more than $356 million.The transaction, set to close in November, would expand
Wall Street analysts are not taking kindly to recent moves by Tutor-Perini Corp., the Sylmar, Calif., contractor, that would allow its chairman and CEO, Ron Tutor, to sell off his shares, possibly to finance outside activities such as his investment stake in a Hollywood film studio, observers say. In a Sept. 13 federal filing, the firm's board agreed to allow Tutor to divest 100% of his shares as long as one buyer does not accumulate a 15% or higher ownership stake. He currently has a 25.2% stake, or 11.9 million shares.The filing says the board removed most restrictions on Tutor's
