M.A. Mortenson Co Mort Mortenson and his 1987 Volvo are both icons at the Minneapolis firm M.A. “Mort” Mortenson Jr. says his favorite project in 48 years at the family construction firm was dismantling 300-plus Minuteman missile sites in South Dakota. But it’s probably a good thing the firm could not win more demolition jobs: Building things up has worked out much better for the 72-year-old entrepreneur and his Minneapolis-based M.A. Mortenson Co., which he has led for almost four decades as chairman. One of construction’s most technically savvy and prolific design-builders, Mortenson faces the future—even an economically uncertain one—with
David Richter is key half of top management team along with his father Irvin E. Richter in boosting Hill into a project management/claims megafirm altering landscapes around the world.
The experience of women who have charged into the "good ol’ boys"
universe of construction in the last quarter century has improved but still remains worlds apart from male peers in many aspects.
Since the 1920s, the family owned heavy contractor quietly toiled, but grew large, building lots of infrastructure in and around New York City. It took a more public stance decades later in rushing in to dig out and rebuild the devestated Ground Zero area of Manhattan after 9/11.
Twenty-five years after the first college-level program earned legitimacy through accreditation, construction education is feeling the highs and lows of maturity.