RTKL Associates Inc., Baltimore, has been acquired by Dutch engineering and consulting company ARCADIS. Details of the acquisition were not disclosed. Science and technology are a significant market sector for RTKL, an architecture and planning firm whose major recent projects include labs for the USDA Agricultural Research Service, FDA, and Johns Hopkins Univ. ARCADIS says RTKL will operate as a subsidiary with existing management and staff in place. RTKL operates 10 offices and has aggressively sought international projects in the recent past, including work in Asia and the U.K.
JCJ Architecture, Hartford, Conn., has established a new Science and Technology Practice Group. Under the direction of David H. Barkin, AIA, formerly the principal of Barkin Associates, the group will plan and design scientific research and development facilities for clients in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and higher-education fields. The firm also operates offices in New York City and San Diego.
McCarthy Building Cos. Inc., St. Louis, has been selected as best in class in the Building Div. (greater than 1 million work hours) for its commitment to safety and health. The Willis/AGC Construction Safety Excellence Award is presented by the national Associated General Contractors, recognizing McCarthy’s 2006 lost-time incident rate of 0.21 and recordable incident rate of 1.54, compared with industry averages of 2.4 and 6.3, respectively.
Austin AECOM, Chicago, has hired Carmelo Torrisi as VP for the commercial and institutional division, with efforts focused on growing the frim’s Midwestern regional market. David Gatto has joined the company as director of construction/ Midwest region.
KlingStubbins, Philadelphia, has hired Allen L. Frakes, PE, as an engineering design principal. Frakes will focus on high-technology and mission-critical projects, including R&D labs and data centers.
Mestek Inc., Westfield, Mass., and Dadanco Pty., Adelaide, Australia, have announced a joint venture to produce and market active chilled beams, induction units, and induction diffusers for the North, Central, and South American markets. Dadanco has already marketed such systems in many countries throughout the world, including the U.K., Sweden, and India. The products are being produced in the U.S. in Mestek’s Wyalusing, Pa., manufacturing facility, with product deign and engineering support at Mestek’s Westfield, Mass., headquarters.
Matheson Tri-Gas Inc., Montgomery- ville, Pa., has been awarded two honors by the Compressed Gas Assn. (CGA). The Leonard Parker Pool Safety Award recognizes companies that have recorded the greatest improvement in safety performance during the past two years, based on total recordable case incidents rates as defined by OSHA. The CGA also gave Matheson its Environmental Recognition Award, due to the success of the firm’s Newark, Calif., facility in upgrading wastewater generation processes to eliminate off-site disposal of 10,000 to 12,000 gal of wastewater per week.
Lord, Aeck & Sargent Architecture, Atlanta, has announced that it will adopt The 2030 Challenge, an initiative calling for reduction in building energy use of at least 50% to avoid climate change. New buildings and major renovations are covered in this challenge to the building industry, which would require complete phase out of fossil-fuel, greenhouse-gas-emitting energy by buildings by 2030. LAS has created a Sustainability Initiative to evaluate the firm’s environmental impacts and create new benchmarks for improvement.
Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, Calif., has received the 2006 Frost & Sullivan Growth Strategy Leadership Award, given each year to a company that has demonstrated an exceptional growth strategy within its industry. Agilent provides core bioanalytical and electronic measurement solutions for various markets, including the life sciences industry. The award highlights Agilent’s production processes, performance properties, and successful collaborations with industry.
Loebl Schlossman & Hackl, Chicago, has hired Brandon Lipman, AIA, LEED AP, as design principal and Gary Bell, IIDA, as project director and interior designer. Lipman’s recent experience includes the Southern Illinois Univ.-Edwardsville School of Pharmacy.
Rudolf and Sletten General Contractors Inc., Redwood City, Calif., has promoted four project executives to VP/ operations. Doug Collins and Paul Moran will both be VP/operations in the firm’s Northern California regional office in Redwood City; Jonathan Foad, LEED AP, assumes the position of VP/operations in the Sacramento regional office in Roseville; and Gregory Palmer will have the position in the San Diego regional office.
AdvanceTEC LLC has been named one of the Commonwealth of Virginia’s top 50 fastest growing companies by the Virginia Chamber of Commerce. The firm is a design/build and process systems contractor for high-tech clients; recent science projects include the Brookhaven National Laboratories’ Center for Functional Nanomaterials and the Duke Univ. Center for Integrated Engineering, Medicine and Applied Sciences in the Pratt Engineering Building.
Wilson Architects, Boston, announces the promotion of three new associate principals: Matthew Ellsworth, AIA, LEED AP; Timothy Scarlett, AIA; and Samir Srouji, AIA, LEED AP. All were previously senior architects with the firm. In addition, Wilson has promoted Karin A. Varnik to associate, and has hired Adam Ferris as director of digital technology. The company specializes in the design of science research and teaching facilities for higher education, institutional, and pharmaceutical clients.
Skanska USA Building Inc., Parsippany, N.J., has announced a global initiative to strengthen its emphasis in the life sciences market. According to Philip Southerland, COO of the Philadelphia-based Skanska Life Sciences Group, the firm has recently opened two offices in Ireland to exclusively serve biotech and pharmaceutical clients, and has beefed up its process and project management resources.
Omniplan, the Dallas-based architecture, interiors, and planning firm, has promoted project manager Michelle Ray, AIA, LEED AP, to associate principal in its Phoenix office. Ray’s science building projects include the Univ. of Texas Southwestern Medical Center biomedical research facility in Dallas.
Einhorn Yaffee Prescott Architecture & Engineering, Albany, N.Y., has appointed a new director, Robert A. Kennedy, PE. Kennedy specializes in oversight of large, comprehensive energy-efficient and renewable-energy project designs.
