By Brian Johnson

91��Ƶ Newswire

Mortenson Construction is part of a major push ramping up this fall to promote diversity in construction, an initiative inspired in part by the national reckoning following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Mortenson is a founding member of the Time for Change consortium, which aims to advance “diversity, equity and inclusion” in the industry and ensure that job sites are free of “harassment, hate or bigotry of any kind.”

The consortium boasts some of the biggest names in the U.S. construction industry. Besides Mortenson, founding members are Gilbane Building Co.; Redwood, California-based DPR Construction; New York-based Turner Construction Co.; St. Louis-based McCarthy Building Cos.; and Bethesda, Maryland-based Clark Construction Group.

Time for Change plans to launch its “Construction Inclusion Week” this fall. As part of the event, scheduled for Oct. 18-22, the group encourages all contractors to organize diversity-related activities and explore topics such as unconscious bias and job site culture.

Also up for discussion are themes that include “leadership commitment and accountability for diversity, equity and inclusion; supplier diversity; and community outreach,” according to the consortium.

Dan Johnson, president and CEO of Mortenson, said the group was formed last year after construction executives from across the country gathered to discuss an effort to attract young people to careers in building-related fields.

A seminal moment came after the CEO of Turner Construction pulled Johnson aside and said there was another topic he wanted to discuss.

“It was shortly after George Floyd’s murder,” Johnson said. “And the topic was, ‘What are we going to do as an industry to improve? How do we take the momentum that’s currently being created in society and apply it to our industry?”

Like most industries, construction “needs to advance in the areas of diversity, equity and inclusion,” Johnson added. “But I think construction in particular has some unique challenges in that area. And so, from that, we formed an alliance called Time for Change.”

Time for Change isn’t alone in calling for more diversity and inclusion in construction.

The Associated General Contractors of America went down a similar path with the recent launch of its  program, which aims to ensure that “every employee, from the CEO to the laborer, has the opportunity to feel valued, respected and heard.”

From the field to the boardroom, there’s a lot of work to be done.

According to AGC, people who identify as Black make up 12 percent of the total workforce, but only 6 percent of the construction labor pool. Women compose 47 percent of the overall workforce, but just 9 percent of construction workers, according to the AGC.

Asked how much progress he’s seeing in the building industry on the diversity front, Johnson said it depends on where you’re looking.

“If you walked in our lunch room, you would say, ‘You guys are making really good progress,’” he said. “If you walked into a senior leadership meeting, you’d say, ‘You guys really need to get going.’

“But our senior leadership looks like the people we hired 20 and 30 years ago. So I think the dilemma for Mortenson and a lot of firms is: ‘How do we diversify our leadership while still respecting the people that are growing up inside our industry and inside our company?’

“That’s a challenge we all face.”

Each day of Construction Inclusion Week offers a theme related to specific challenges and opportunities.

In Mortenson’s case, the main topic is supplier diversity. The firm has made a concerted effort to work with a diverse group of suppliers, including women- and minority-owned firms, Johnson said.

That applies to all of its projects, not just on public work, he said. Johnson added that it’s not enough to just have diversity outreach plans for big projects like U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, which come with equity goals.

“You can’t have that (one large project) and then not do it again until the next public project, because you won’t create the capacity in the industry,” Johnson added. “And it’s just the wrong thing to do.

“We need to have diversity on every project to build that capacity to allow those firms to be sustainable.”

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Years of planning and construction are on display in Portland Community College’s Oregon Manufacturing Innovation Training Center as it opens for classes this summer and credit offerings are planned to start this fall.

Mortenson Construction was the general contractor on the project. PCC chose a Progressive Design-Build Project delivery. Construction started in fall of 2019.

The training center is the educational arm of the nearby Oregon Manufacturing Innovation Center (OMIC) initiative  — a collaboration of industry, higher education and government that combines applied research and development and workforce training. PCC’s facility is traditionally known as the OMIC Training Center and is located at the college’s Columbia County Center (34001 NE Wagner Ct. in Scappoose).

It officially opens on Monday, Aug. 16, with a free, five-week series of “On-Ramp to Manufacturing” classes that are designed for people interested in working in advanced manufacturing.

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Upcoming bidding opportunities were announced at the NAMC-Oregon general meeting on Wednesday night. Project managers for Andersen Construction, Hoffman Construction, Mortenson Construction, Skanska and the Oregon Department of Transportation presented project overviews with anticipated bid dates.

Erin Storlie, an Andersen Construction project manager, announced that Benson High School‘s trade package five will be issued around mid-February. The package includes interiors, miscellaneous metals and railings.

The school modernization project is 230,000 square feet of renovation and 135,000 square feet of new construction. The renovations include the main classroom building built in 1916, the old gymnasium, the auditorium building, the foundry building, the radio building, and the library and health services building.

Andersen is seeking trade partners with COBID (Certification Office for Business Inclusion and Diversity) certification for the Benson High School project to either bid or develop partnerships with noncertified partners in order to achieve a minimum 18 percent MWESB participation goal.

Andersen Construction will release another bid package on Jan. 19 for Portland Community College‘s Metropolitan Workforce Training Center. Bids for package three, which includes steel supply, installation and excavation, are due Feb. 5.

Business equity goals for the project are: 20 percent COBID participation, 20 percent minority workforce, 20 percent apprenticeship workforce and 15 percent women workforce.

Stephanie Coyle, a Hoffman Construction project manager, announced that bid package six for work at Lincoln High School would be issued early next month. Phase two of the project includes flatwork, landscaping, and demolition of the old building to allow track and field construction.

Bids will be due in early March and awarded in the spring. The project’s equity plan calls for 18 percent or more of the contract to go to a COBID-certified business and 20 percent minimum to apprentices for minorities, women and disadvantaged individuals.

Jacob Erven, a Mortenson Construction project manager, announced that the Multnomah County Behavioral Health Resource Center project has a green light after a pandemic-related delay. The project includes a 4.5-story seismic upgrade and complete interior renovation. Bidding is open; construction is anticipated to start in April.

The project’s equity plan calls for 25 percent COBID participation, 20 percent apprentice participation, 25 percent minority apprentice participation and 14 percent female apprentice participation.

Daphne Patrick, small business outreach coordinator for the Hoffman-Skanska joint venture, discussed the 175,000-square-foot main terminal project at Portland International Airport. The main terminal will have a nine-acre roof prefabricated on site and then erected in 120-foot-by-220-foot sections weighing nearly one million pounds.

The project has a 20 percent MWESB participation goal and an 8.5 percent MBE goal for certified firms. Both Oregon COBID and Washington state-certified firms can bid because of the project’s location near the Columbia River.

Andrew Warren, small business programs manager at ODOT, discussed project work on Interstate 205. Improvements are being made to address congestion and traveler safety on a seven-mile stretch between Stafford Road and Oregon Route 213. The project will add a third lane in each direction as well as seismically upgrade the Abernethy Bridge and eight other bridges over I-205.

A northbound auxiliary lane is being built between the Oregon Route 224 Sunrise Expressway on-ramp and the Sunnyside Road/Sunnybrook Boulevard interchange exit ramp.

Also, design is under way to bring intersection and ramp safety improvements to the I-205 and Division Street interchange in Portland.

NAMC-Oregon is looking to host more meetings with trade partners soon.

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The Portland Design Commission voted 6-0 during a hearing on Thursday to approve plans for the Multnomah County Behavioral Health Resource Center, setting aside concerns from downtown business interests.

The project planned at 333 S.W. Park Ave. will combine a homeless shelter and transitional housing with services such as laundry, showers and restrooms.

Not all parties have welcomed the project, at a time when homelessness has become a top political issue and downtown businesses have had to deal with pandemic-related closures and destructive protests.

Jordan Schnitzer, president of Harsch Investment Properties, wrote a letter dated Nov. 4 asking the city to prohibit “tents, ancillary items and street activity” outside the site. Schnitzer expressed concern about activity “that will negatively impact the surrounding business district, tenants and staff surrounding the site.”

Patricia Gardner, a local resident who said she represented neighboring property owners, said at Thursday’s hearing that the county had made little progress toward a “good neighbor” agreement.

Multnomah County project manager Brett Taute acknowledged the county had not initiated a good neighbor agreement for the downtown shelter, blaming pandemic-related delays. However, the county “remains committed” to reaching an agreement with neighbors, he added.

“We intend to continue that into next year,” he said.

The Design Commission is limited in its ability to regulate what happens outside of a site, Chairwoman Julie Livingston said.

Project plans call for adaptive reuse of a four-story structure that was completed in 1905. Carleton Hart Architecture is designing the project, and Mortensen Construction will serve as general contractor. The building will essentially be gutted, and a seismic retrofit will be done.

The county acquired the property from developer Tom Cody for $4.34 million in 2019. The county also purchased an adjacent parking lot for $1.5 million.

Thursday marked the third time design commissioners had considered the project. Corey Morris, a senior associate at Carleton Hart, responded to earlier criticism by folding two proposed accessory buildings into one.

Commissioners avoided discussing political issues outside of their purview, instead delving deeply into an extended discussion of landscaping.

Commissioner Brian McCarter, a ZGF Architects principal and landscape architect, pushed to amend a condition proposed in the staff report that “at least one evergreen huckleberry or highbush cranberry shall be planted in the stormwater planter for every two linear feet of stormwater planter, as measured along the sidewalk edges of the planter.”

McCarter successfully lobbied to require two highbush cranberry viburnum shrubs per planter space.

Some commissioners fretted that the planters would be put to use as benches or restrooms.

“The planters – they’re pretty much at urinal height,” Commissioner Don Vallaster said. “So either make it taller or make it shorter.”

None of the issues raised prevented a unanimous vote (Commissioner Jessica Molinar was absent).

With the viburnum coverage and planter height decided, Vallaster said he was satisfied.

“We’ve worked it pretty hard,” he said. “From my perspective, I’m willing to give it a rest and move on to the next project.”

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The pipeline of health care projects is beginning to slow as hospitals experience dramatically reduced revenues, industry officials said Tuesday.

Hospitals have seen significant drops in revenue-producing elective procedures, leading many health care groups to put building projects on hold, an architect and construction manager who work in health care said.

“Several of our clients have had to just put capital projects on hold because they’re faced with extreme downturns in revenue,” said Larry Parrett, a principal at NBBJ‘s Portland office.

Health care groups also face higher costs related to retrofitting existing facilities and providing personal protective equipment, he added. “We have seen quite a few our projects put on hold, particularly if they’re in the design phase,” Parrett said.

The comments came during a Builder Breakfast event held virtually Tuesday by the Daily Journal of Commerce. The discussion panel also included Trent Rehfeldt, health care market executive for Mortenson‘s Portland office, and Doug Nelson, PeaceHealth’s system vice president for planning and development.

Some health care projects are still moving forward. Parrett said NBBJ continues to respond to requests for proposals for new patient towers, ambulatory care centers and medical office buildings. Urban “micro-clinics” are increasingly popular, as are in-office health care clinics at major corporate campuses such as Amazon and Microsoft.

Mortenson Construction is pricing subcontractors for a wellness center at Reed’s Crossing, the South Hillsboro mega-development. Mortenson plans to break ground in December, with delivery scheduled 15 months later, in early 2022, Rehfeldt said.

“This project, because of our delivery system, never paused, never stopped, so we’re excited to deliver the Reed’s Crossing project for Hillsboro,” Rehfeldt said.

The wellness center will have two full stories and 108,000 square feet. The project combines a full medical clinic with a fitness facility, including an aquatic center, locker rooms, a childcare center and other amenities.

Mortenson is serving as developer and design-builder with Ankrom Moisan Architecture.

Broadly, the pandemic has led to a number of design changes. PeaceHealth, like other health care groups, is reworking patient rooms, Nelson said.

“We want to transition to single-patient rooms,” he said. “PeaceHealth has a lot of shared patient rooms. We understand that’s not where health care is headed at all.”

Anne Talcott, health care industry group leader at Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt, served as moderator for Tuesday’s event.

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A homeless shelter and services center project planned in downtown Portland will have to wait a while longer to advance after the Design Commission found fault with the proposed design.

The current design of the Multnomah County Behavioral Health Resource Center falls short of public realm and context guidelines, design commissioners said during a hearing Thursday. They criticized a proposed fenced courtyard that would allow clients of the public facility to spend time outdoors in an off-street setting.

The county’s aim is for the facility, designed by Carleton Hart Architecture, to address a critical shortage of social services for the homeless. Drop-in day services such as laundry and showers will be combined with a shelter for people with mental and behavioral health issues as well as transitional housing.

The adaptive reuse project will involve a thorough renovation of a 115-year-old, four-story building at 333 S.W. Park Avenue. Multnomah County tapped Mortenson Construction to handle the work, which will include a seismic retrofit.

The county acquired the property from developer Tom Cody for $4.34 million in 2019. The county also purchased an adjacent parking lot for $1.5 million.

Corey Morris, a senior associate with Carleton Hart, said the plaza on the north side of the property would allow clients to “be outside without being hassled to move along.” Plans call for a number of environmentally sensitive aspects meant to reduce the building footprint and provide a positive atmosphere for users.

Commissioners were wary of the plaza design, which they said could create an inactive ground-floor frontage. That’s a particular concern at this location on the Park Blocks, where vacant O’Bryant Square, windowless facades on a CenturyLink building and the rear of the Union Bank Tower create a lifeless streetscape, commissioners said.

“It’s basically a non-pedestrian area – has been for years,” Commissioner Don Vallaster said. “All of the surrounding buildings are dead on the ground floor.”

Numerous commissioners questioned the plaza design.

“It is absolutely critical that every single project do a good job at that ground floor, and it’s tough with a program like this,” Chairwoman Julie Livingston added.

Commissioners asked several questions about the planned ground-floor operations in the building. The design includes spaces for users to bring in their personal items. Some individuals have everything they own in a shopping cart and will not leave it unattended outside, Morris said.

The plaza also includes two small storage buildings, creating another challenge for ground-floor activation.

“Accessory buildings should not take over an entire piece of property,” Commissioner Chandra Robinson said. “It’s not a great use of space.”

Morris asked commissioners not to take a vote on Thursday. He instead asked them and Bureau of Development Services officials if the land-use case could essentially be split in two. That would allow the building design to advance and a building permit application to be submitted. Then the more troublesome plaza portion could wait and be resubmitted as a separate land-use application.

“We have folks who would love to get off the street and into the building,” Morris said.

Commissioners and BDS staffers said they were amenable to that approach. Another hearing for the project is scheduled for Nov. 5.

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It’s no easy task to transform a 105-year-old building into a modern health center focused on providing services to the homeless.

It’s even harder to make it sustainable.

Yet the proposed Multnomah County Behavioral Health Center is on track to be rated Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) gold, according to members of the project team.

A number of trade-offs and compromises were made for the sake of functionality. The lowest-flow toilets, for example, were a no-go. The county’s experience with other homeless shelters was that clients would use the toilets to wash items, or flush items that would cause plumbing problems.

Carleton Hart Architecture and Multnomah County also wanted to use showerheads with timers to save water; however, the timers weren’t available in the lowest-flow showerheads. The timers won out, paired with strong air pressure.

Those examples underline the trade-offs architects and other team members routinely wrestle with in complex projects in which an environmental certification is being pursued.

“The county has been very focused on we need this to work,” said Corey Morris, a Carleton Hart Architecture senior associate who is designing the project. “Let’s not compromise something (functional) for the sake of saying this is more sustainable.”

The Behavioral Health Center, which is still in the design phase, is meant to bridge the gap between homeless shelters and facilities such as the Unity Center for Behavioral Health, which provides acute care for patients in crisis.

“There hasn’t been anything sort of in between,” Morris said.

Multnomah County acquired the building at 333 S.W. Park Ave. in April 2019 from developer Tom Cody for $4.34 million. The county also purchased an adjacent parking lot for $1.5 million. In September 2019, the county’s Board of Commissioners approved plans for the project. The projected cost is $15 million to $20 million, including the property purchases.

The project will be subject to a Type III design review process before the Portland Design Commission. Mortenson Construction will be the general contractor.

The building presents a number of challenges that would be absent in ground-up construction.

“When you have this dilapidated existing building, how sustainable can you make it?” said Summer Fowler, president of ecoREAL Solutions, an environmental consultant on the project. “We focused on making it a super tight, super insulated envelope.”

With a tight envelope, air exchange becomes necessary. The building will have “way more ventilation than you would typically have,” Fowler said.

The building will have a 30-ton air handling unit providing 100 percent outdoor air.

Daylighting and photometric sensors will reduce the need for artificial light. In making design and equipment choices, the project team is trying to accommodate building users.

“It’s going to be a sensitive environment for people under high stress, or who have mental issues,” Fowler said.

EcoREAL Solutions has developed sheets that point contractors and others on the project team toward eco-friendly materials such as paints and finish materials low in volatile organic compounds and PVC-free furniture.

The project team studied but rejected installation of a solar array on the roof. The available area was too small and poorly oriented for solar, Morris said.

Instead, a green roof designed by NNA Landscape Architecture will be made solar ready in case an installation makes sense in the future.

The main floor and second floor are designed as a drop-in day center where users can shower, use restroom facilities, speak with staff and access additional services. The building will have 26 bathrooms and 17 showers.

The third floor’s group shelter space will be geared to serve users with persistent mental and behavioral health issues. The fourth floor will be dedicated to transitional housing.

A full seismic retrofit will take place to brace the building.

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With skilled workers in short supply, Portland Community College is preparing to open a new manufacturing training center in Scappoose.

The 31,000-square-foot Training Center of Excellence for Advanced Manufacturing will be constructed on a 17-acre parcel at the existing Oregon Manufacturing Innovation Center. A ground-breaking ceremony for the project is set for Jan. 29. General contractor Mortenson Construction is scheduled to finish work this fall.

“Manufacturing has come a long ways,” said Linda Degman, PCC director of planning and capital construction. “It’s all very high tech now, with clean spaces. The CNC (computer numerical control) machines are big and enclosed, and we’re teaching people how to work on computers and how to keep them up and running and calibrated. Those are the types of things they’re learning; not the dirty type of manufacturing that people envision.”

The project is a collaborative effort between PCC and partners from industry and other higher education institutions. Hennebery Eddy Architects designed the training center to hold CNC operations, welding, machine operations, industrial fabrication and mechatronics.

The facility will complement OMIC’s applied research and development division that focuses on metals manufacturing. Research and development projects are led by industry partners, university faculty members and student interns, which goes hand in hand with PCC’s apprenticeship training.

A progressive design-build process is being used to deliver the project. Concrete tilt panels will be used, as well as generous amounts of glazing.

“There’s lots of glass so you can see what’s happening in the building and see what’s happening on the manufacturing training floor,” Degman said. “So when people walk in they can see what’s happening in the building; that’s a big aspect of it.”

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It was at a national company meeting in Miami that Skanska USA Building‘s Steve Clem heard of a program to save the lives of opioid abusers in the construction industry.

A manager in the construction giant’s Boston office talked about opioid addiction and how it affects the construction industry in that city. He also explained naloxone, a potentially life-saving drug that can reverse opioid overdoes if properly administered.

“For some reason it just resonated with me,” said Clem, who serves as a senior vice president for project planning services and sustainability in Skanska’s Portland office.

He brought his concern about opioid overdoses to the SafeBuild Alliance, a nonprofit based in Gresham that provides construction safety education and training. Clem serves on SafeBuild’s board.

SafeBuild Alliance soon launched a program in partnership with the Oregon Health Authority, which provides kits for administering the medication but not the drug itself. Member companies are responsible for supplying the naloxone, administered as a nasal spray, at a cost of about $75 per two-pack. SafeBuild Alliance conducts training with construction workers and works with a Multnomah County physician to provide naloxone, which is also known by the brand names Narcan and Evzio.

Clem said he’s not aware of any local incidents of jobsite opioid overdoses. Nevertheless, Skanska has placed the antidote at jobsites since last summer.

It makes sense to get ahead of the problem, said Karen Blythe, executive director of the SafeBuild Alliance.

“There have been overdose situations I’ve heard of — not necessarily in the Portland area — but we know there’s an opioid epidemic here. So it’s just a matter of time, and we want people to be aware and know how to respond,” Blythe said.

Besides Skanska, other major contractors including Mortenson Construction and Howard S. Wright have participated in the opioid overdose training program.

Opioid addiction has hit the construction industry particularly hard as doctors overprescribed the medications for muscular-skeletal injuries and chronic pain, which are common among construction workers, said Cal Beyer, director of risk management for Lakeside Industries in Issaquah, Washington.

Prescriptions for opioids such as oxycodone and hydrocodone surged in the U.S. Abusers found the drugs could be crushed and snorted.

The drugs have been a key element in the “deaths of despair” that have lowered life spans around the nation, Beyer said. “Opioids made the existing issue with mental health and suicides a perfect storm,” he said.

The stigma around mental health issues extended to opioids, while illegal drugs still attracted far more public attention, Beyer said. More recently, awareness has improved, leading many doctors to tighten their opioid prescription practices and to more treatment and prevention programs.

SafeBuild launched its program earlier this year, and the plan is to make it an ongoing effort. “We have every intention of providing more training in 2020 and to raise more awareness,” Blythe said.

Training materials tell responders to first check for breathing and attempt to awaken the person who may be overdosing. After that, they’re instructed to call 911, begin chest compressions and then use naloxone if the victim has not responded.

Blythe compared naloxone to the automated external defibrillator units that many workplaces keep on hand in case of heart attacks.

“It’s part of their first aid, like they would use an AED,” she said. “It’s part of their first aid training.”

Responders won’t do any harm by using naloxone, even if the person is not overdosing, said Clem. “It’s another tool,” he said.

Naloxone’s shelf life is about 18 months. Skanska will donate any unused doses to clinics, allowing them to use it before it expires, Clem said.

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By Brian Johnson
91��Ƶ Newswires

Mauritz A. “Mort” Mortenson, a second-generation patriarch of one of Minnesota’s most successful and recognizable construction companies, is being remembered by friends and family as a humble and compassionate leader.

Mortenson, who died of cancer Saturday at 82, led Golden Valley, Minnesota-based M.A. Mortenson Co. for decades. Under his watch, the company blossomed from a 14-employee operation to a top-20 national builder and developer.

David Mortenson, Mort’s son and the company’s current chairman, said in a statement that his father “loved construction” and was determined to build a company that would “stand the test of time.”

“While my dad often said he could never have imagined the heights the company would reach, he knew our singular focus on growing our capabilities and capacities would lead us to special and unique places,” wrote David Mortenson, who succeeded his father as chairman in 2015. “His regular reminders to focus on being the best, rather than being the biggest, set a course for continuous improvement and unleased innovation and creativity.”

Tom Gunkel worked for M.A. Mortenson Co. for 35 years, including 16 as president and CEO. He remembers Mort Mortenson as a smart businessman, a quiet leader, and a source of wise counsel.

“He was the second father in my life,” Gunkel said in an interview Monday. “I spent my life working with him. I’m a better man and a better person because of it.”

In particular, Gunkel said, Mort Mortenson connected with his employees on a personal level and made a difference in their lives. He was always available to hear their concerns and offer support.

Gunkel, who retired in late 2016, recalls Mortenson’s readiness to help when a particularly challenging project put Gunkel and his team under a lot of stress.

“He reached out during a pivotal moment and just listened to what was going on. What did I need? What did our team need? And he delivered it,” Gunkel said.

A U.S. Navy veteran, Mort Mortenson carried on the business tradition started by his father, also named Mort, who founded the company in 1954. The younger Mortenson joined the family business in 1960. At the time, M.A. Mortenson had only three other employees.

In his early years, Mortenson learned the ropes as an estimator and project manager. After succeeding his father as president in 1969, Mortenson oversaw a period of rapid growth and expansion.

A turning point came in 1974, when the company completed its first out-of-state project — a Ford dealership in Grand Forks, North Dakota, David Mortenson noted. In the early 1980s, Mort Mortenson further stretched the company’s geographic reach, setting his sights on an opportunity in Hawaii.

Mortenson successfully completed the Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu.

The project “signaled his confidence in our growing ability to go almost anywhere and undertake increasingly complex projects,” David Mortenson wrote. “Shortly after, we opened offices in Denver and Seattle and a strategy of geographic expansion was set.”

Mort Mortenson took a strong interest in the nuts-and-bolts details of construction. He enjoyed going on site visits and getting a boots-on-the-ground perspective.

“Dad’s favorite days at work were spent walking a job site with a superintendent, talking about the details of managing the enormous complexity and risk of the construction process. He never took just a 30-minute project tour,” David Mortenson wrote.

He loved construction and did his part to make the industry better, the company said.

Mortenson’s contributions include his work in the mid-1990s to establish the Center for Construction Innovation, a collaboration of owners, designers and suppliers dedicated to “painting a vision of a new future for our industry,” David Mortenson wrote.

That effort led to, among other things, the adoption of technology to drive innovation and a strong commitment to safety.

“I was determined that we wouldn’t be hauled along by an industry bent on self-destruction,” Mort Mortenson said in a 2015 interview.

In 2010, Mortenson received the Associated General Contractors of Minnesota’s Lifetime Achievement Award, which recognizes “pioneers and legends” in the industry, said Tim Worke, AGC-Minnesota’s CEO.

“It was duly awarded and well-received by the industry when he was honored with that,” Worke said.

Today, Mortenson has 7,500 employees and operations in Chicago, Denver, Fargo, Iowa City, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Portland, San Antonio, Seattle and Washington, D.C. The company had $4.6 billion in 2018 revenue.

Despite his business and industry accomplishments, Mortenson stayed grounded and was devoted to his family and community, Gunkel said. Along with his wife of 55 years, Alice, he supported youth, hospitals, and student scholarship programs.

David Mortenson worked with his father for 20 years, but his “most enduring memories … will be of him as a father, a husband, a son and a brother,” he wrote.

“As boys growing up, family dinner was an anchor, 6 o’clock sharp every night, followed by a backyard game of baseball before he settled into his nightly routine of estimating an unrolled set of plans. He was present and engaged and we shared his love of college basketball, golf and weekends at the lake.”

Mort loved his family and had a “tremendous ability to connect with people” both inside and outside of the organization, according to Gunkel.

“When you talked to him and he spent time with you, he was 100% focused on you and nothing else,” Gunkel said. “And you felt that. He was a great business leader. He was a great man, a great mentor and just a good person.”

Mort Mortenson is survived by his wife and their four sons: David, Mark, Christopher, and Mathias, and their families. His funeral will be held at 10:30 a.m. Nov. 23 at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 1200 Marquette Ave. in Minneapolis.

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