Business Digest for Oct. 21, 2016

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R.A. Smith adds to team; employees earn engineer registrations

R.A. Smith National’s Laura Zavadil, Joseph Diekfuss, David Boldt and Andrew Axt have each attained their Wisconsin professional engineer registrations.

Laura Zavadil is a traffic engineer with five years of experience at R.A. Smith. Diekfuss is a structural engineer with eight years of experience. Boldt is a structural engineer with more than 10 years of experience and Axt is a civil engineer with more than three years of experience on WisDOT and local municipal projects.

• Katie Havener and Richard Gebhart have joined the Brookfield-based company as civil engineers.

Havener is in the land development services division, serving the private sector, and Gebhart is in the municipal services division. Havener and Gebhart both held co-op positions with the firm while earning their degrees.

411 East Wisconsin wins building of the year

Riverview Realty Partners recently announced that 411 East Wisconsin Center, a 30-story, Class A commercial office building in downtown Milwaukee, has won the Building Owners and Managers Association’s Outstanding Building of the Year 2016 Award in the Over 500,000 Square Foot Office Building category for the state of Wisconsin.

The TOBY Awards recognize quality in buildings and excellence in building management in the commercial real estate industry.

During the competition, all facets of a building’s operations are evaluated, including community impact, tenant relations, energy management, environmental and regulatory management, emergency preparedness and personnel training.

The 411 East Wisconsin Center recently completed major renovations that have positioned the building as a major competitor among the top Class A buildings in downtown Milwaukee.

An affiliate of Riverview Realty Partners, who are owners of the building, invested about $15 million in renovations to the building.

SMPS to host development panel

Featuring industry leaders from four different corners of the construction and development world, the Society for Marketing Professional Services – Wisconsin will host its ninth annual Fly With the Eagles panel to discuss insights on development initiatives in Wisconsin. The panelists lined up for the Nov. 17 event are:

• Marc Farha – executive vice president, ICON Venue Group;
• Tony Barth, PE –  Southeast Region systems planning chief, WisDOT;
• Karen Dettmer, PE – coordination manager, Milwaukee’s Department of Public Works; and
• Kelly Noel – director of construction management, Aurora Health Care.

The panel will provide updates on current and future construction projects in Wisconsin, give insight into consultant selection processes and share where their organizations are focusing resources and energy in 2017 and beyond. Kate Mullaney of HGA Architects and Engineers will moderate the panel.

The event will be held from 7:45 to 9:30 a.m. at Thunder Bay Grille, Fishing Room, N14 W24130 Tower Place, Pewaukee.