Wentz Promotes Richardson, Koski

The Wentz Group, a San Carlos-based general contractor, has promoted Bracken Richardson to vice president, pre-construction, and Mike Koski to vice president, operations.

Richardson is now responsible for overseeing all pre-construction efforts, including projects managed by Wentz’s regional offices in Irvine and Sacramento. Richardson will also manage project estimating in Northern California.

Koski is responsible for operational profitability in Northern California and supporting the management of operations in Southern California.

Liu Joins Lem Construction

Oakland-based Lem Construction Inc. has appointed Erik Liu to vice president of operations. He succeeds Alan Holmberg, who was named company president earlier this year.

Liu was previously an associate attorney with the San Francisco office of Severson & Werson. He also has held the positions of vice president of Transworld Construction and deputy city attorney with the city and county of San Francisco, where he worked on contracts related to the development of the Moscone Expansion project—also known as Moscone West.

Fisher Named UCSB Design/Facilities Chief

UC Santa Barbara has appointed Marc Fisher as associate vice chancellor for campus design and facilities, a new position. Fisher previously served as UCLA campus architect and director of design for seven years.

The capital projects budget of UCSB’s design and construction division is currently $750 million. Several new buildings will be completed or in construction by 2007. Ground already has been broken on new buildings for engineering and the sciences, marine sciences, life sciences and intercollegiate athletics. They are to be completed in 2004.

Prior to joining UCLA, Fisher was vice president of Emmet L. Wemple and Associates, a landscape architecture firm based in Pasadena. Earlier in his career, he served as a project designer for Barton Myers Associates, Architects and Planners, in Los Angeles, and Fisher Gordon Architects in Washington, D.C.

SGPA Makes 6 Staff Changes

Kenneth Poole was promoted to associate at SGPA Architecture and Planning in San Francisco.
Additionally, San Diego-based SGPA hired Norman Sears as senior project manager, Gregory Enzweiller and Mickey Tubbiolo as senior draftspersons and Scott Fontis and Marie Chiu as job captains.

Fontis received a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Tennessee. Tubbiollo holds a Master of Architecture degree from the Newschool of Architecture in San Diego.

Chiu received a Masters in Civil Engineering from the University of Texas.

San José Appoints Transportation Director

Jim Helmer has been named director of the San José Department of Transportation. Helmer had been serving as acting director since last May.

The new transportation director was selected following an extensive nationwide recruitment. The city’s search firm interviewed 44 candidates from 14 states and Canada. Five finalists were interviewed.

Helmer, a registered civil engineer, spearheaded San José’s leadership in a number of regional partnerships to address traffic issues, helping to form the Highway 17-880 Smart Corridor Committee, and leading an expansion of the Intelligent Transportation Systems effort throughout San José and the Greater Bay Area.

PB Farradyne Adds 2 Engineers

Steven Bradley has been named a senior transportation engineer in the Los Angeles offce of PB Farradyne, a leader in the development and implementation of Intelligent Transportation Systems.
Matt Haynes has been named an ITS engineer in the San Francisco office.

Bradley previously was a transportation engineer in traffic operations for Caltrans in Northern California.

Prior to joining PB Farradyne, Haynes worked at the UC Berkeley Institute of Transportation Studies, where he played a major role in a two-year study assessing the benefits of ITS technologies in California. Haynes earned a Master of Science degree in transportation engineering from UC Berkeley.