obwnn: all together now: the other name for the Sears Tower is.....???
Newsgroups: alt.obituaries Subject: Richard Halpern, managed building of Sears Tower, dead at 78
http://www.suntimes.com/news/obituaries/6344708-418/richard-halpern-managed-building-of-sears-tower-dead-at-78.html Richard Halpern, managed building of Sears Tower, dead at 78 BY MAUREEN O'DONNELL Staff Reporter / [email protected] Last Modified: Jul 4, 2011 10:50PM Chicago skyline-shaper Richard Halpern, who managed the construction of the nation's tallest building and other major engineering projects around the globe during his 50-year career, died Sunday at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Mr. Halpern, 78, of Glencoe, had a hand in the new wing of the Art Institute of Chicago and the massive expansion at O'Hare Airport, and he played a key role in the look of the Willis Tower, according to the Sears Tower book from the Chicago Architecture Foundation. Architect Bruce Graham wanted the Sears Tower to be black, but in the 1970s, the only vendor supplying the anodized aluminum that could create the desired stygian finish was so expensive, it would have broken the budget. But when Mr. Halpern and Graham shopped around Italy for stone for the Tower's plaza, the aluminum manufacturer - concerned they might buy up granite to use on the exterior shell - "swiftly brought the aluminum price to within Sears' budget," according to the book, by Jay Pridmore. "Downbidding the aluminum was just one improvisation that Richard Halpern and his staff, including superintendent Ray Worley, engineered in the 3½ years it took to build Sears Tower," Pridmore wrote. "His most notable Chicago job was, of course, the Sears Tower," said Harold Schiff, Mr. Halpern's former partner at Schal Associates, the construction firm that built the Options Exchange. "He was probably the foremost construction manager, I would say, in the country. He led the United States, his company, [Schal] into Japan" for the first major postwar foray by an American building firm. Mr. Halpern was "brilliant, scrupulously honest, a wonderful marketer and a very, very good friend," Schiff said. In Chicago, "My father built the Stone Container building; the new modern wing at the Art Institute," said his daughter, Rebecca Halpern. He also worked on the expansion of Newark International Airport and on construction projects at Kansai International Airport near Osaka, Japan. He "provided leadership on over 200 million square feet of institutional, governmental and commercial projects in the United States, Europe, the Mideast and Asia," his family said in a statement. In addition to many world-class tall buildings, his family said his projects included: Navy Pier; McCormick Place; the Harold Washington Library; One Mag Mile; the Museum of Contemporary Art, and Chicago's Boeing headquarters. Most recently, he was a co-founder and chairman of the board at Rise, a Chicago and Anchorage-based firm that helps manage capital improvement and infrastructure programs. Its clients include Children's Memorial Hospital and the Wrigley Global Innovation Center on Goose Island. He earned his civil engineering degree at New York University and was an adjunct professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Mr. Halpern called Chicago "a mecca for fine architecture in America" when he and his wife, Madeline, made a donation that helped the university expand its architectural engineering and design offerings in 2008. "I think this architecture program will enable students at Northwestern to add to the quality of engineering and architecture throughout the United States and the world," he told Northwestern's McCormick Magazine. He was a longtime supporter of the Chicago Urban League and the Boy Scouts of America, and he promoted affirmative action in the building industry in the 1970s on the Sears Tower project, according to his family. In addition to his wife and his daughter Rebecca, Mr. Halpern also is survived by his children Daniel Halpern and Susan Halpern Winstead, and two grandchildren. A memorial service is being planned in Chicago this August. Copyright © 2011 - Sun-Times Media, LLC -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "World News Now Discussion List" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/wnndl?hl=en.
