DeWitt exec leaves to build U.S. Embassy

Blake Christian heads up $82 million project in Germany

by Jill Henry

SBJ Reporter

jhenry@sbj.net

Blake Christian, vice president of business development and project management for DeWitt & Associates Inc., has left the firm to work on a new, $82.8 million U.S. Embassy office under construction in Berlin.

Christian, whose last day on the job was Nov. 5, has accepted a position as project manager with The Hensel Phelps International Group of Hensel Phelps Construction Co. Christian will work at Hensel Phelps' offices near Denver until the first of the year.

"I'll be scheduling, contract purchasing, procurement, writing contracts (and) beginning planning of the job," he said, adding that the project has just been bid and is now in the contract buy-out stage.

Christian, his wife and their three children anticipate moving to Germany in January and staying for the estimated three years it will take to build the embassy.

The C-shaped, six-level embassy office building is designed around a landscaped courtyard, which brings it to a total of 147,692 square feet. Construction is scheduled to begin in early 2005 with an estimated completion date of late 2007.

Christian said that his last days were spent "transitioning off some work at Springfield Underground and Springfield Public Schools, and a little bit at Discovery Center."

Jerry Hackleman, president of DeWitt & Associates, has no immediate plans to replace Christian. "Basically, we've been able to divide it up into three or four other people and not overload their workload," he said.

Ted Smith, DeWitt chairman and CEO, said that Christian's exit will have no effect on current projects. "We're still in business and have been in business for 45 years. People have come and gone, so we just pick up the slack and move ahead," Smith said.

Christian said he is excited about the new position and welcomes the challenges. "A lot of regulation and process (is) involved in how you do work with the federal government. That will be a little bit of a challenge there," he said.

DeWitt & Associates was founded in 1972, and was named one of Springfield Business Journal's Dynamic Dozen, the area's 12 fastest-growing companies, in 2004. Christian was one of SBJ's 40 Under 40 in 2003. He joined DeWitt in 1998.

Hensel Phelps Construction Co. was established in 1937 by Hensel Phelps as a small, local builder in Greeley, Colo. The company has offices in Santa Clara and Irvine, Calif.; Little Rock, Ark.; Chantilly, Va.; Orlando, Fla.; and Dallas, Texas.

Engineering News Record, a construction industry magazine, ranked Hensel Phelps as No. 9 among its top 50 domestic general building contractors, No. 15 in its top design-build firms, No. 19 among its top 400 contractors and No. 35 among its top 50 domestic heavy contractors for 2004. Hensel Phelps Construction's clients include Wal-Mart, Kodak, IBM, United Airlines and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.