Building Congress Honors Leaders

Metropolitan Transportation Authority chairman Peter Kalikow, Skanska AB president and CEO Stuart Graham and New York New Visions were honored during the New York Building Congress 83rd Anniversary Leadership Awards luncheon May 20.

Kalikow and Graham were presented with New York Building Congress Leadership Awards in recognition of their careers as well as their major contributions to the expansion of New York City's mass transit system.

The Building Congress bestowed the 2003 George A. Fox Public Service Award to New York New Visions, a coalition of architecture, planning, and design organizations that came together in a pro-bono effort following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. By pooling resources and expertise, the group helped planned for the reconstruction of Lower Manhattan.

ACEC Pushing Legislation

The American Council of Engineering Companies of New York is seeking passage of a New York State corporate governance bill.

Designed to improve the vitality and competitiveness of New York's consulting engineering industry at no cost to taxpayers, the bill would amend New York's business corporation law to allow for the formation of design professional service corporations.

New York's business corporation law currently restricts ownership in professional corporations and professional limited liability corporations to licensed professionals. In a design professional service corporation, as defined in the corporate governance legislation, non-licensed professionals would be allowed a non-majority share (less than 25 percent) of ownership in the firm.

Among benefits of deregulated ownership are improved recruiting capabilities offering potential employees the benefit of ownership helps attract top talent, employee motivation by granting ownership opportunities to every member of a company and enhanced competitiveness when a company's recruiting abilities are improved.

Fox & Fowle Wins Award

The Northeast Sustainable Energy Association awarded Fox & Fowle the Northeast Green Building Award Honorable Mention in Places of Learning for the Black Rock Forest Center for Science and Education in Cornwall, N.Y.

The Northeast Green Building Awards is an annual competition recognizing outstanding achievements of high-performance architecture in the northeastern United States. The competition was open to built works - either new construction or renovations - completed after Jan. 1, 1998 and before Jan. 1, 2004 in the northeastern United States. Award categories include places to live, places of work, places of learning and student projects.

Reckson Wins Award

Reckson Associates Realty Corp. was recognized by the membership of the Association for a Better Long Island and the Commercial Industrial Brokers Society of Long Island at its annual real estate gala.

Reckson Associates received the "Developer of the Year" award for its development project for First Data Corporation at 1307 Walt Whitman Road in Melville, N.Y. Comprising 19.3 acres, 1307 Walt Whitman Road was acquired by Reckson Associates in 1997. At the time, the site was in a highly strategic location, yet underutilized. In 2000, Reckson embarked upon a single-tenant campaign, marketing the site as a unique build-to-suit opportunity in an effort to revitalize the local business sector.

In February 2003, First Data Corporation acquired the site from Reckson Associates and in June 2003, Reckson Associates broke ground for the development of a 3-story, 195,000-sq.-ft. regional headquarters facility for the company.

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