Halcrow, a planning, design, and management consulting company based in the United Kingdom, acquired Han Padron Associates earlier this year. The maritime engineering specialist based in New York joins Halcrow's North American operations launched in 1997. HPA has five offices nationally and one in Oman.

Dornoch Holdings of Morristown, N.J., has formed the Dornoch Opportunity Fund to focus on acquiring and repositioning distressed residential and commercial properties in the metropolitan New York area.

AWISCO Corp., a distributor of compressed gases, welding, and industrial supplies based in Maspeth, N.Y., has acquired Action Industrial Distributors of West Milford, N.J.

New York-based Turner Construction is the first recipient of the Charter Member Award from the National Association of Minority Contractors. The company was also named this year to Training Magazine's Top 100 list of corporate employee training and development programs.

Cianbro Corp., a heavy industrial construction company with offices in Bloomfield, Conn., recently earned the Gold Level Safety Training and Evaluation Process Award from the Connecticut Associated Builders and Contractors Association.

Jeffrey Stern, a former executive with Skanska USA Building, has formed J. Stern Construction Group, a new construction management company based in Ronkonkoma, N.Y. The firm will provide a full range of construction management services and concentrate activities in the Long Island and New York City areas.

The Rochester, N.Y., office of Dewberry, a construction engineering firm, recently received a Project of the Year award from the Monroe County-Genesee Valley Branch of the American Public Works Association for its Chili Avenue Improvements job in Rochester.

The Chapman Studio of Summit, N.J., has merged with WESKetch Architecture of Millington, N.J. The combined staff of 30 provides architecture and planning services in the tri-state area.

Malcolm Pirnie, Inc., an engineering firm based in White Plains, N.Y., has won an Excellence in Environmental Engineering award in the integrated planning services category from the American Academy of Environmental Engineers. It recognized the firm's work on the Station 6 Groundwater Management project in South Jamaica, N.Y.