President and CEO of Turner Construction Company to Oversee Construction of Institute’s “Green” Research Facilities

BEACON, NY and TROY, NY–(EMWNews – July 28, 2008) – Peter J. Davoren, President and

Chief Executive Officer of Turner Construction Company, has been named

chair of the Capital Facilities Working Group of the Beacon Institute for

Rivers and Estuaries. In this senior advisory role, Davoren will oversee

the design and construction of the Institute’s two major capital projects:

the Center for Advanced Environmental Research in Beacon and the Upper

Hudson Research Center at Troy.

Davoren joined Turner Construction Company in 1978 after graduating from

Pratt Institute’s School of Architecture with a bachelor of science degree.

He became senior vice president of the firm’s New York region in 2000 and

was named president of the Company in 2003. In 2004, he accepted the

additional role of chief executive officer.

Turner Construction Company completed more than $9 billion of construction

in 2007 and is the leading general builder in the U.S., ranking first or

second in the major segments of the building construction field. The 500

LEED APs on staff have gained the skills necessary to enable the company to

work on more than 300 “green” building projects. LEED (Leadership in Energy

and Environmental Design) is a third party certification program and the

nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of

high performance green buildings.

Turner Construction Company is involved with several prominent regional

projects including the Computational Center for Nanotechnology Innovation

at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, RPI’s unprecedented

Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC), the renovation of

Colonie Center in the Capital District and the new Yankee Stadium in the

Bronx.

“Peter Davoren and Turner Construction Company are synonymous with

excellence in the construction industry,” said John Cronin, Beacon

Institute Director and Chief Executive Officer. “We are honored by Peter’s

commitment of time and energy to the Institute’s mission. His leadership

and experience in sustainable building will ensure exceptional outcomes as

we move forward in the construction of Beacon Institute’s ‘green’ research

facilities in Beacon and Troy.”

“New York State’s economic vitality and quality of life are directly tied

to the health of the Hudson River,” said Davoren. “Beacon Institute’s

initiative to create a sensor network capable of real-time ecosystem

monitoring of the Hudson is both inspiring and compelling, and its

partnerships with IBM, Clarkson University, RPI and others certainly

command attention. The Institute’s planned research facilities in Beacon

and Troy will be instrumental to the technological innovation that is

driving New York State’s environmental progress and I am excited about the

prospect of overseeing the group that will bring these two new research

facilities to life.”

The Center for Advanced Environmental Research

Croxton Collaborative Architects, leaders in green building design, are

spearheading the planning and design for the Center for Advanced

Environmental Research (CAER) at Denning’s Point in Beacon. CAER is the

Institute’s flagship 30,000 square foot research facility for the

innovation and development of technologies for real-time observation and

monitoring of complex river systems. CAER initiatives will focus on

innovation and development in emerging technology, networking and data

analysis related to environmental sensors.

When completed, CAER will become the physical and virtual home for the

River and Estuary Observatory Network (REON), the first technology-based

monitoring and forecasting network for a major American river and estuary.

The Upper Hudson Research Center at Troy

Beacon Institute, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and the City of

Troy are collaborating to design and build the Upper Hudson Research Center

at Troy, a state-of-the-art, sustainable 11,000 square foot environmental

research facility that will launch new educational and research initiatives

to preserve river ecosystems. The facility will be located on an industrial

site on the Troy waterfront adjacent to the Poesten Kill. It is an

important development project in the City of Troy’s waterfront

revitalization plans and is located on the site of the former Rensselaer

Iron Works, which manufactured rivets and bar iron for the USS Monitor, the

ironclad warship from the Civil War era.

Construction of the facility will begin following completion of an

environmental cleanup of the property as part of New York State’s

Environmental Remediation Program.

About the Beacon Institute:

Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries, with offices in Beacon and Troy,

New York, is a not-for-profit environmental research organization engaging

scientists, engineers, educators and policy experts in collaborative work

focusing on real-time monitoring of river ecosystems. It aims to make the

Hudson Valley a global center for scientific and technological innovation

that advances research, education and public policy regarding rivers and

estuaries. www.bire.org