John H. Kissinger, P.E., S.E., F.ASCE, chief executive officer of GRAEF, has been named a fellow by the ASCE Board of Direction.
Kissinger was the project lead on the development of O’Donnell Park in Milwaukee. This project consisted of a new park and large buildings on top of a new parking structure. GRAEF took over as the lead design professional for the project after significant design flaws were discovered during construction. In addition to finishing the project from an architectural and engineering standpoint, the firm evaluated the entire partially built parking structure and reinforced many elements. This included unique external posttensioning of concrete beams.
He was also lead structural engineer for the Wisconsin Center, a new $180 million (1995) convention facility in Milwaukee. This facility had a heavily loaded exhibit floor and loading dock on the third level, instead of at grade, and spanned over one of the busiest streets in Milwaukee.
After the Wisconsin Center, he was co-structural lead in a large team of 24 engineering and architectural firms that designed the McCormick Place West addition in Chicago. This project cost $850 million in the early 2000s and added 2 million square feet to the facility. It also included a raised exhibit floor and loading dock.
A significant achievement in his career was as overall engineering project manager for the Milwaukee Art Addition Museum. This project, led by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, achieved worldwide fame for its dazzling design. It featured a moveable “Brise Soleil” roof cover, large cantilevered concrete elements, and a stunning cable-stayed pedestrian bridge with a single mast built at a 45-degree angle.
The project added the 2003 Outstanding Civil Engineering Award from ASCE to Kissinger’s many other regional, national, and international awards. For his work he was named one of the Top 25 Newsmakers by Engineering News-Record magazine in 2002.
Kissinger was also the chief project executive for GRAEF on the redevelopment of football’s Lambeau Field in 2003. GRAEF teamed with Ellerbe Beckett and others to put a large addition to, and totally revamp, this historic NFL stadium. The result has been highly praised for upgrading the stadium to 21st-century standards while retaining its historic legacy.
Professionally, in addition to the Newsmakers award, Kissinger has received the Edmund Friedman Professional Recognition Award from ASCE (2021), only the third Wisconsin-based engineer to receive this prestigious national award. Among other local, regional, and national honors, he was given a Distinguished Achievement Award from the College of Engineering at the University of Wisconsin Madison in 2022.
Kissinger has been very active chairing several boards for civic, professional, and charitable organizations, and was proud of the mayoral proclamation of “John Kissinger Day” on June 11, 2015, from Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, as well as a mayoral proclamation in his hometown of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, in 2021.
