ORGANIZATIONS – DECEMBER 2016

Thomas Holmes has been named Mid-Atlantic Precast Association (MAPA) executive director, bringing more than 30 years in precast/prestressed concrete industry experience, primarily in vice president of marketing and general manager capacities. He will represent the precast/prestressed concrete industry in the Mid-Atlantic states liaising with construction managers, architects, transportation department officials, engineers, general contractors and academia.



Thomas Holmes

Holmes holds a degree in Marketing from Bowling Green University, Ohio; has received several awards for Distinguished Sales and Marketing; and, served on the MAPA and Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute boards. MAPA is one of 12 PCI regional affiliate organizations throughout the U.S. supporting members at the local level. They provide continuing education, precast design assistance and university support services.

Separately, the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute has announced the co-winners of the fifth annual Sidney Freedman Craftsmanship Award, recognizing PCI certified plants for excellence in manufacturing and craftsmanship of architectural precast and glass fiber-reinforced concrete (GFRC) structures or components. Forterra Structural Precast was recognized for cladding the new Payson Temple for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Payson, Utah; Gage Brothers for cladding the Sanford Medical Center Fargo (N.D.).

The PCI Architectural Precast Concrete Services and Manual Committee judges award entries on the precaster’s success in overcoming obstacles to production, solutions to formwork or finishing challenges, and quality of individual architectural precast/prestressed concrete or GFRC units. It will begin accepting 2017 Sidney Freedman Craftsmanship Award entries in May.

Separately, the PCI Student Education Committee announced two individual award recipients during its Fall 2016 Committee Days and Membership Conference: Professor Wael Zatar, dean of the College of Information Technology and Engineering at Marshall University in West Virginia, was named Distinguished Educator for 2016; and, Dr. Halil Sezen, professor in the department of civil, environmental and geodetic engineering at The Ohio State University, was chosen as Educator of the Year.

Also during the Chicago gathering, the PCI Journal Awards Committee honored Jay Holombo, Rick Snyder, Sri Sritharan and Justin Vander Werff with the Martin P. Korn Award for their September-October 2015 paper, “A Cost-Effective Integral Bridge System with Precast Concrete I-Girders for Seismic Application.” Named in honor of the first PCI executive director, the award recognizes the paper offering the greatest contribution to precast/prestressed concrete advancement in the area of design and research.

Oguzhan Bayrak, Todd A. Helwig and Hossein Yousefpour received the Robert J. Lyman Award for the September-October 2015 article “Construction Stresses in the World’s First Precast Concrete Network Arch Bridge.” The award goes to the paper contributing most in the area of plant production, site erection or general construction.

“The Legacy and Future of an American Icon: The Precast Prestressed Concrete Double Tee” in the July-August 2015 issue won the 2016 Charles C. Zollman Award, presented to David Nasser, George Nasser, Adam Sevenker and Maher Tadros.

The 2016 George D. Nasser Award, which recognizes authors 40 years of age or younger for outstanding papers on design, research, production or construction, went to Ann-Marie Cox, Jinwei Huang and Muhannad Suleiman for “Minimum Confinement Reinforcement for Prestressed Concrete Piles and a Rational Seismic Design Framework” in the January-February 2016 issue.

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Mahesh Ramanujam
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Rick Fedrizzi

The U.S. Green Building Council, Washington, D.C., has completed leadership transition with Mahesh Ramanujam succeeding President and CEO Rick Fedrizzi. “I am grateful for the opportunity to continually develop and enhance USGBC’s capabilities and performance to ensure we deliver the future our founders envisioned—transforming the way buildings and communities are designed, built and operated so they enable a healthy and prosperous environment,” says Ramanujam, who will continue as president of the Council’s LEED rating system administrator, Green Building Certification Inc. “Our work has had a tremendous impact on millions of people. USGBC is not just about buildings. It is about bold leadership to create business and community transformation while driving sustainability for all.”

“[Mahesh’s] strong business background, demonstrated track record and gift for inspiring the best in those around him make him the perfect CEO for USGBC at this time. His global vision and strategic approach give all of us great confidence that he will guide the organization to much success in the coming years,” adds Fedrizzi, who has shifted to the WELL Building Institute as chairman and chief executive officer.