Hello - 

I want to know who the owners' project managers or representatives
were during the construction of the Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA and
of the Bard College Performing Arts Center (both Frank Gehry
projects).

Explanation: In case of the Performing Arts Center, the owner most
likely was Bard college. In case of the Disney Hall the owner may have
been the city of LA or some other municipal entity that was formed
temporarily for the duration of the construction project. I need to
know the name of the persons / firms acting as project managers / reps
for these owners during the construction phases. Ideally, I'd also
need to know how to contact them.

Thank you.

Marc.

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Request for Question Clarification by markj-ga on 02 Oct 2004 07:35 PDT

marcfest --

With regard to the Disney Center, I can give you sourced information
about the owner, the project manager for the owner, and contact
information for the construction project manager.

With regard to the Fisher Center at Bard, I have found no references
to a person at the college who acted as "project manager," which (to
me) is not surprising because it is small institution with little
bureaucracy.  However, I can give the name and contact information for
the college official whose duties generally include representing the
college on construction projects and who was quoted in at least one
contemporaneous press article about the Fisher Center project.

Would this information meet your needs?

markj-ga

---

Clarification of Question by marcfest-ga on 02 Oct 2004 11:14 PDT

Yes. This information will meet my needs.

marcfest --

Thanks for your clarification, and here's the information you are
looking for, taken one project at a time:

THE WALT DISNEY CENTER
The owner of the Walt Disney Center site is Los Angeles County, and
the agency acting as project manager for LA County was the Los Angeles
County Department of Public Works ("LADPW").  The individual in that
Department who supervised the project was Assistant Director Tom
Remillard, and the engineer who was primarily assigned to the project
was Barbara Cangas.  The Director of LADPW at the time was Harry
Stone.

Here are the sources for that information:

First, this article in "Civil Engineering Magazine" lists the owner
and project manager at the bottom of this linked Web page:
Civil Engineer Magazine: "Finished With A Flourish" (February 2004)
http://www.pubs.asce.org/ceonline/ceonline04/0304feat.html

I established and confirmed the names of the individuals involved in
the project in a couple of steps:

First, the article linked above was co-authored by Mr. Remillard and
Ms. Cangas, who are identified at the end of the article as an
Assistant Director and  a project manager, respectively, with LADPW.

Second, Mr. Remillard (along with Department Director Stone) was
singled out for commendation at the opening of the Disney Center:
County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky: Remarks at Groundbreaking (12/11/99)
http://zev.co.la.ca.us/scripts/disneyhall3.htm

Finally, Ms. Cangas was identified by the LA Times as "project
manager" for the Center in this quote about Frank Gehry's key
architect on the job:

""I couldn't imagine this job without him," says Barbara Cangas,
project manager for the L.A. County Department of Public Works, which
on some days has had five inspectors on site."
LA Times: CalendarLive: "Gehry's Go-To Guy" 
http://www.calendarlive.com/cl-ca-reynolds25may25,0,7573060.story


As for contact information, the LADPW apparently does not have an
online staff directory, and not surprisingly Remillard and Cangas do
not appear on the agency's organization chart of top management:
LADPW: Organization
http://ladpw.org/General/disp_orgchart.pdf

However, the Assistant Deputy Director of the agency to whom he most
recently reported is on that chart (David Howard, Project Management),
and Mr. Remillard is mentioned (along with Mr. Howard) in this undated
but apparently relatively recent posting on the LADPW site:
LADPW: Hollywood Bowl Project
http://ladpw.org/prg/aitw/Page_61.cfm

I have two suggestions for you regarding contacting Mr. Remillard. 
First, I have contact information for him that is current as of 1998,
and the email address, especially, stands a very good chance of being
current:

tremillard@dpw.co.la.ca.us
Tel: 626-458-4004
Mail:
Los Angeles County Department of Public Works
900 South Fremont Avenue
P.O. Box 1460
Alhambra, CA 91802-1460


Second, as a fallback, here is the website of the LADPW, where there
is generic contact information for the Department:
Los Angeles County Department of Public Works
http://ladpw.org/index.cfm

I have not found direct contact information for Barbara Cangas, but
she is also very likely to still be on the LACDPW staff and should be
reachable either through Mr. Remillard or by calling the Department.



RICHARD B. FISHER CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, BARD COLLEGE

I am confident that the owner of this site is Bard College, since the
new building is located on the existing campus, and I have found no
information that casts any doubt on this conclusion.

I am also confident that the Bard College officer who served as its
representative in overseeing the Fisher Center construction project
was James Brudvig, Vice President for Administration.  Here is a link
to Mr. Brudvig's listing on the college's short organization chart:
Bard College: Contacts
http://www.bard.edu/about/contacts/

That link also contains Mr. Brudvig's contact information, which is:
Tel: 845-758-7429
Email: brudvig@bard.edu
Mail:
Bard College
PO Box 5000
Annandale-on-Hudson, NY 12504-5000 


I have found relevant references to Mr. Brudvig in connection with
both the Fisher Center project and another recent construction
project.

Just prior to the opening of the Center, Brudwig was interviewed
(along with the college's musician/conductor/president Leon Botstein)
for an article in the local newspaper:

"College officials Primoff [public relations] and James Brudvig say
the students can't wait to get in, but more than just the dance and
theater majors will benefit. About two-thirds of the student body take
classes at some point in drama or dance. 'So everybody's doing a
little acting, a little dancing, even if you're a bio major,' says
Brudvig, vice president for administration. 'That's the way it's
working and that's what we like. It's liberal arts and the college is
serving a large number of students by doing this.'"
Hudson Valley Times Herald-Record: "A peek at Bard's new performing
arts center," bBy Terry Schommer (1/23/03)
http://www.th-record.com/archive/2003/01/23/bz23.htm

While it stands to reason that Mr. Brudwig (given his title) would be
the "point man" for the project, he is prominently listed as the
architect's "client contact" in connection with the construction of a
dormitory at Bard in 2002:
Ashokan Architecture and Planning: Village Dormitories
http://www.ashokanarchitecture.com/secondary/port_inst_villagedorms.htm

All in all, and especially in the absence of any contrary information,
I am confident that Mr. Brudwig is the man you are looking for.


Search Strategy:

I relied on an array of Google searches to find the information and to
establish to a reasonable degree of confidence that the information is
accurate and complete and that there is no inconsistent information
online.  Here are a few of the most productive searches:

"frank gehry" "site is OR was"
://www.google.com/search?num=30&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=%22frank+gehry+%22+%22walt+disney%22+%22site+is+OR+was+%22&btnG=Search

"frank gehry" "walt disney" "project manager for"
://www.google.com/search?num=30&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=%22frank+gehry+%22+%22walt+disney%22+%22project+manager+for%22&btnG=Search

"fisher center" bard brudvig
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&q=%22fisher+center%22+bard+brudvig


Based on your clarification, I am confident that this information is
what you are seeking.  If anything is unclear, please ask for
clarification before rating the answer.


markj-ga

Excellent research. Very helpful. Thank you !

marcfest --

Thanks for the compliment and the five stars.

markj-ga