News
The Cooperstown of Real Estate
October 20, 2010
| Some industry groups honor buildings, others laud individuals. The Massachusetts Building Congress has a different approach. It inducts into its Hall of Fame companies that have a long track record of contributions to the building industry, clients, and the community. Last week, sports journalist Jackie MacMullan hosted MBC?s annual gala and induction ceremony. |
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| We snapped Robert Brack and William Brack of Hall of Famer Barker Steel. They run New England?s largest fabricator of reinforced steel used for construction. The company, a fourth-generation family owned company, started business in 1922 in Watertown and is now affiliated with Harris Rebar and working on the new World Trade Center in NYC. MBC spokesman Mike Reilly says Barker has always been a stand-out corporate citizen. Robert founded the Joan H. Brack Charitable Foundation that has donated about $750k to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. He has also sponsored scholarships for UMass students. |
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| Representing newly minted Hall of Famer CBT Architects, we snapped Robert Brown, Richard Bertman, Margaret Deutsch,Phil Casey, and Ken Lewandowski. Mike Reilly says that CBT has been a pioneer in Boston for historic preservation and adaptive re-use. In fact, among its latest projects—with London-based Norman Foster + Partners—is the $350M expansion and renovation of the Museum of Fine Arts complex in the Fenway. It also designed Liberty Mutual's new Back Bay HQ and Atlantic Wharf for Boston Properties, which incorporates historic structures into a new office and retail complex at the waterfront. It's been active in the President?s Committee on Historic Preservation and the National Trust for Historic Preservation as well as the South Shore Habitat for Humanity. |
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| At the table for Shawmut Design & Construction, the evening?s third Hall of Fame company, were Guy Tlapa, Randy Catlin, Ryan Lynch, and Frank Hayes. One of their team, Jim Ansara, couldn't attend because he was in Haiti building a hospital. Apparently, that's not so unusual at Shawmut, an employee-owned company with offices in Boston, NYC, Providence, and New Haven. It's on lots of ?best of? lists like BBJ?s highest charitable volunteer-hours-per-employee and several ?best places to work? lists. Meanwhile, Mike Reilly says in Roxbury, where Shawmut was founded, it supports programs that help local youth get into the construction industry, such as YouthBuild. Of course, it's also busy putting up buildings like the vertical addition to the Tufts School of Dental Medicine, completed last year. |
