John\u00a0Kissinger\u00a0started his building career in the sandbox. He went on to help build such iconic Midwestern structures as the Wisconsin Center, the Quadracci Pavilion at the Milwaukee Art Museum, Chicago\u2019s McCormick Place West addition and the renovation of Lambeau Field.<\/p>\n
Kissinger is the president and CEO of GRAEF, a multidisciplinary engineering, planning and design firm that works with clients throughout the United States on public and private buildings.<\/p>\n
51ÁÔÆæ was a natural choice for Kissinger, a\u00a01979\u00a0graduate of the College of Engineering & Applied Science.\u00a0His mother was\u00a0librarian at the university,\u00a0and\u00a0all seven children in the Kissinger family\u00a0went to\u00a051ÁÔÆæ.\u00a0He knew from those early days playing with Tonka toys in his sandbox that he wanted to be a builder.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people don\u2019t know what they want to be when they go off to college, but I knew I wanted to be an engineer, a structural engineer.\u201d 51ÁÔÆæ was close to his family\u2019s east side home, and \u201cI knew they had a good engineering school,\u201d he said. \u201cIt seemed like a natural fit at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The faculty was outstanding, he recalled. \u201cThe education I received was top-notch and has helped me tremendously to be successful in my career.\u201d<\/p>\n
After completing his graduate degree at UW-Madison, he worked at several engineering firms, but was looking for a company where he could be involved in more varied projects. While he was working in Chicago, he saw an ad for a position at GRAEF and applied.<\/p>\n
He started out as a staff engineer and worked way up the ladder, enjoying the many different projects. \u201cIt was the work I wanted to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
At GRAEF, he added, he has also had the good fortune to work on, and often manage, large multidisciplinary teams.<\/p>\n
The Calatrava addition to the museum, designed by architect Santiago Calatrava,\u00a0remains his favorite project.<\/p>\n
\u201cWorking with Calatrava, creating a masterpiece in Milwaukee, was a highlight of my career,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u201cIt was a challenging project, but we got it done and it turned out great,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s a work of art.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Calatrava addition,\u00a0which\u00a0was\u00a0Time Magazine\u2019s No. 1 Design of 2001,\u00a0is celebrating its 20th<\/sup> anniversary this year. Kissinger is one of only 20 or so people who know how the iconic Burke Brise Soleil \u2013 the soaring wings that open and close over the museum \u2013 works.<\/p>\n \u201cI get a kick out of that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" John\u00a0Kissinger\u00a0started his building career in the sandbox. He went on to help build such iconic Midwestern structures as the Wisconsin Center, the Quadracci Pavilion at the Milwaukee Art Museum, Chicago\u2019s McCormick Place West addition and the renovation of Lambeau Field.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":835,"featured_media":94076,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[174],"tags":[],"section":[125,122],"display_categories":[115,116],"related-coverage":[],"uwmnews-feed":[149,150],"class_list":["post-94075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","section-alumni","section-campus-community","display_categories-top-story-secondary","display_categories-top-story-section","uwmnews-feed-engineering-applied-science","uwmnews-feed-engineering"],"yoast_head":"\n