News

We are excited to announce that the Barkowski Family has established the John Barkowski Memorial Scholarship. The scholarship will provide financial assistance to a graduating Westinghouse Paschen Scholar who will be furthering their education in a field of engineering. John took great pride in his work and was a leader to many during his time at F.H. Paschen. He was always committed to training and educating the next generation of builders. To continue John’s legacy of excellence and hard work, the Barkowski Family will grant a ...

On Friday, May 3, CPS students participating in the competitive Paschen Engineering Scholars Program from George Westinghouse College Prep (GWCP) participated in an educational tour of the Stickney Water Reclamation Plant in Cicero as part of their STEM discovery and training initiative. The scholars toured the Stickney Water Reclamation Plant (WRP), one of the largest wastewater treatment facilities in the world, serving residents in the central part of Chicago and 46 other communities. “It was bittersweet,” said F.H. Paschen Project ...

F.H. Paschen accepted the 2019 Infrastructure Construction Award from the Chicago Building Congress (CBC) for the Chicago Department of Transportation 41st Street Pedestrian Bridge.  The 1,470-foot pedestrian bridge spans over Lake Shore Drive and connects Chicago’s Bronzeville Neighborhood to the lakefront. The project’s construction consisted of the removal and reconstruction of pedestrian paths, bike trails and sidewalks, roadway lighting relocation, and furnishing and installing lighting on the bridge structure.  The cultural and community significance of the bridge was highlighted in the Chicago Tribune.  This ...

On National Rebuilding Day, April 27th, F.H. Paschen joined the Cook County Department of Capital Planning and Policy and Rebuilding Together to repair two homes in the Chicago Heights community.  Our construction crews spent the week leading up to National Rebuilding Day remodeling the two homes. Renovations included the installation of all new kitchen appliances, vinyl flooring, and accessibility upgrades. Paschen is a proud partner of Rebuilding Together in both the Chicagoland and Metro Washington, D.C. areas. [cq_vc_cqcarousel displaystyle="gallery" images="5226,5231,5230,5229,5228,5227" thumbstoshow="5"]

F.H. Paschen hosted its 4th Annual P.I.E. (Paschen: Innovations in Engineering) Series event at George Westinghouse College Prep School, where we introduced the Paschen Scholars program to a new set of interested candidates and discussed the field of engineering and how it applies to careers in construction.  Ryan Kinney of Westinghouse opened the event and Antonia Winfrey of Paschen gave an overview of the day. Joe Scarpelli gave a presentation on the history of F.H. Paschen and background on the ...

In partnership with Peoples Gas and the Special Olympics, F.H. Paschen participated in the 2019 Chicago Polar Plunge! Our team consisted of 16 Paschen employees who braved the chilly temperatures of Lake Michigan and plunged in support of Special Olympics Chicago.  We were fortunate to partner with Peoples Gas, one of the larger corporate sponsors for the Chicago Polar Plunge, who raised over $125,000 for the Special Olympics of Chicago!  The Paschen Plungers were glad to support the incredible organization.  [cq_vc_cqcarousel displaystyle="gallery" images="5177,5178,5179,5180,5181,5182,5183,5184" isresize2="yes" thumbwidth2="240" ...

On Tuesday, Jan. 22, a select group of CPS students from George Westinghouse College Prep (GWCP) participated in an educational tour of the Peoples Energy Training Center, which opened last summer. All participants in the competitive Paschen Scholars Program toured the facility and explored careers in the field of engineering. The 100,000-square-foot training center includes a mock gas city that delivers natural gas to 20 mock homes and businesses. Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas workers use this facility to ...

F.H. Paschen celebrated the opening of the North Terminal and the 95th Street Pedestrian Bridge of the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) 95th Street Red Line Station Improvement Project alongside joint venture partner Milhouse Engineering & Construction. A skilled, diverse workforce of over 1200 executed this work, including residents from the local community who will enjoy access to the improved station regularly. For the 95th Street Station Improvement, F.H. Paschen’s self-perform workforce exceeded all workforce goals and included a 73 percent minority ...

F.H. Paschen’s D.C. Team Organizes Annual Food Drive For the second consecutive year, F.H. Paschen staff are collecting food for those who are less fortunate in Northern Virginia. The donations will benefit Food for Others in Fairfax. The food bank primarily serves the elderly and families with children in the community. “We’re holding the food drive because we want to improve the community where we live and work not just through exceptional construction work, but also by giving back,” Anthony ...

Happy Thanksgiving! This Holiday season, F.H. Paschen and Stalworth Underground partnered with St. James AME Church and local grocer, Pete’s Produce, to provide Thanksgiving dinner for 25 families living in the Chatham, West Chesterfield, Roseland, and Auburn Gresham communities. We have spent a considerable amount of time in those communities as we modernized the Chicago Transit Authority’s 95th Street Station. It’s important to us as an organization to serve and give back to the communities in which we have impacted ...

F.H. Paschen participated in the 2018 Associated Schools of Construction (ASC) Great Lakes Conference Heavy Civil Competition. Students from surrounding colleges estimated multiple heavy civil items for the Chicago Transit Authority Washington/Wabash Station in the Chicago Loop. The CTA elevated station was constructed in Jeweler’s Row between Madison and Washington to serve the CTA’s Brown, Green, Orange, Pink, and Purple lines. The project consolidated historic, but dated, Madison/Wabash and Randolph/Wabash stations into a single station. New station construction consisted of …

In partnership with Alderman Michelle A. Harris and Chicago’s 8th Ward, F.H. Paschen collected school supplies for students and teachers in Chicago’s Chatham neighborhood. The school supplies will be distributed at the ‘Back to School Parade & Jamboree’ tomorrow, September 8th, at Jesse Owens Park. The parade begins at the 8th Ward Office and proceeds along 87th and Jeffrey Streets to Jesse Owens Park. The free end-of-summer celebration includes book bags, school supplies, food, entertainment, and haircuts and hairdos for ...

Engineering News-Record (ENR) collected over 100 entries from 11 states for their annual Best Projects Awards. Of the 40 best projects chosen, F.H. Paschen won three. F.H. Paschen swept the Airports/Transit sector of the awards with Washington/Wabash CTA Station being selected as Best Project and American Airlines Stinger Gate L receiving the Award of Merit. In addition to those awards, Paschen collected the award for Best Project in the Small Project (Under $10 million) sector with our work completed at ...

In partnership with the Chicago White Sox, Chicago Park District, Chicago CRED, and KaBOOM!, we constructed the brand new Pullman Peace Park park in Chicago’s Pullman neighborhood. Our project management staff spent the week prepping the site for the festivities that took place on Friday, August 10th. We would like to thank our partners for inviting us to participate in this tremendous event that allowed the Pullman neighborhood to come together for the children of the community. For more information ...

Last week marked the end of this year’s summer internship program. Our interns were spread across the company, filling various roles in our Estimating, Building, Civil, and PPG divisions. Many of our interns had the opportunity to work on active job sites including 41st Street Pedestrian Bridge, 95th Street Terminal Improvement Project, O’Hare Runway 9C-27C Bid Package #1, American Airlines GEM Facility, and many more. Last Friday, our interns gave their final presentations on their summer internship experience. Interns from ...

F.H. Paschen is one of the first corporate partners of Chicago CRED (Create Real Economic Destiny), an organization dedicated to ending violence through preparing at-risk young men, including returning citizens, for job opportunities throughout Chicago. CRED believes the best solution for ending gun violence is recruiting men most likely to be at risk for shootings and transition them to jobs, thus relinquishing the need to earn money through illicit means. Today, Michael Reed, a CRED graduate, is a full-time employee ...

F.H. Paschen’s CTA Project Executive, Matt Moss, was on WGN Radio discussing the 95th Street Terminal Improvement Project. The Paschen Milhouse Joint Venture credits the Mayor’s Office, CTA President Dorval Carter Jr. and city officials for their leadership and cooperation on this transformative project. To listen to the interview, click here. More Versatility. More Paschen.

Peoples Gas hired McKissack & McKissack and FH Paschen, which partnered with Epstein, to design and build the new facility. The firms have committed a projected total spend of more than 50 percent with minority-, women- and veteran-owned businesses. They also have committed to hiring Chicago residents for at least 50 percent of the jobs during construction. The facility will reduce maintenance costs, improve the efficiency of customer responses, provide safer traffic flow for employees and include large meeting rooms ...

On July 9th, the 6 of the 17 Paschen Scholars began their summer portion of their internship with F.H. Paschen at Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). The internship offers real world STEM education at the collegiate level. The Paschen Engineering Scholars Program includes hands-on activities that allow the Scholars to develop technical skills, build problem-solving abilities and gain real world work experience. The summer program runs for two weeks, Monday through Thursday, and is paid for by F.H. Paschen as …

We recently celebrated the grand re-opening of the Buffalo Grove Park District Community Arts Center. F.H. Paschen was the general contractor on this $3.3 million dollar renovation. The project included: a renovation of the lobby, vestibule and multipurpose room. We also installed a new roof and a pitched seating in the 360-seat theater. The new building is LEED certified. “The Buffalo Grove Park District hired F.H. Paschen to be the lead contractors in renovating our Community Arts Center. The onsite ...

Congratulations to Vaniqua Lee of our Florida office on being recognized by the South Florida Chapter of the National Association of Black Women in Construction (NABWIC) as Woman of the Month for June 2018! The NABWIC was founded to increase the national awareness of African American women in the construction industry. The award is given to recognize the recipient’s dedication, commitment, and valuable contributions to enhancing economic opportunities through various programs. Vaniqua has been with Paschen for 6 years, serving ...

For most Falls Church residents, it’s just another humid mid-Spring day. But for 40-year resident Andy Parks, it’s special. He’s sitting on his porch enjoying the spring rain with his dog Summer for the first time since last August. It’s a moment made possible by F.H. Paschen staff volunteering with Rebuilding Together on Saturday, April 28. “You couldn’t put a price tag on that day,” Senior Estimator Anthony Edwards explained. Before that weekend, Andy lived mostly confined to the home ...

The Conrad Sulzer Regional Library was built by our Paschen family of contractors in 1985. Recently, we were privileged to renovate this historic Chicago Public Library. This interior renovation was completed in ten phases across three floors, in order to keep the building fully operational throughout construction. Project Engineer Sean Lewis stated, “The interior renovation was especially challenging due to the magnitude of the renovation scope and the library’s one and only requirement – keep the library 100% operational at ...

Following the passing of John “Johnny B.” Barkowski in 2017, the F.H. Paschen Safety Committee decided to create a safety award in his honor. This award is given to one Paschen/Stalworth Operations staff member who best exemplifies our Safety and Quality Control Approach, and carries on Johnny B’s passion for safety and success in everything we do. At our annual Spring Safety Picnic on May 23, 2018, the first Johnny B. Safety Award was presented to Jeremy Roach, Superintendent in …

On Thursday, May 31, F.H. Paschen  held its annual “Hard Hat Ceremony” and inducted six new scholars into the three-year Paschen Engineering Scholars Program. Past scholars have worked on Chicago infrastructure projects such as the CTA’s 95th Street Red Line Terminal Improvement Project and the new 41st Street Pedestrian Bridge over Lake Shore Drive. "At Paschen a key core value is for us to seek and provide opportunities for all. Our affiliation with GWCP provides Paschen with a way to ...

F.H. Paschen, along with our partners EXP and Burns & McDonnell, accepted the 2018 Infrastructure Construction Award from the Chicago Building Congress (CBC) for the Washington/Wabash Elevated Loop CTA Station. The iconic CTA Station was designed to become the gateway for Millennium Park and the Loop. This Design/Bid/Build project features a canopy with an architectural oscillating wave pattern, and has become a point of interest for travellers commuting through the Loop. This latest award joins the Association of Subcontractors and ...

Vice President Mark Barkowski traveled to Washington, D.C. to accept the second place award for the national American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) Safety Award. Paschen has successfully kept our EMR below .7 for over 4 years. In 2017, we were proud to announce that we had zero lost time incidents, with over 1 Million man hours of work. This prestigious award is largely due to our top-down, bottom-up approach to safety. Our safety committee meets weekly, and includes …

Maryland Washington Minority Companies Association, Inc. (MWMCA), an organization created to advance minority-owned firms, has named Paschen the “Most Inclusive Prime Contractor of the Year.” This honor underscores Paschen’s long-time commitment to community engagement, diversity and inclusion through their philosophy of creating real opportunities for all. “Inclusion is important in broad terms because it allows small businesses owners who have been historically disadvantaged opportunities, but on a more personal level it means women and men can feed their families,” MWMCA ...

F.H. Paschen delivered the new American Airlines L Stinger Concourse at O’Hare International Airport, the first gate capacity expansion in 25 years. “This project is a true testament of the successful collaboration between client, designer and contractor. The progressive spirit of the team made the project successful in so many ways,” said Frank Mullaghy, Vice President of Paschen’s Aviation Group. “Key performance indicators with respect to the budget, schedule, safety and quality were achieved through the commitment and experience of ...

The Paschen Scholars made their second visit to the 41st Street Pedestrian Bridge construction site. When the Scholars visited last, they met with our Project Manager and Project Engineer to review the plans and walk the site containing only our trailers. Since that time, steel has been erected, a temporary bridge was built and much progress has been made. The Scholars were given a tour of the site and were prepared with many questions for our Project Manager. The questions ...

On May 1st, we joined U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski, RTA’s President Kirk Dillard, Metra CEO/Executive Director Jim Derwinski, and well over 100 Metra employees at the groundbreaking on the Rock Island Rehab Shop Expansion. The facility will serve multiple functions, including job training, rehab, and maintenance of the Rock Island Line train cars. Additions to the facility include a newly enclosed Diesel Shop, which will allow work to continue through the inclement weather. The storage building will be fully enclosed ...

F.H. Paschen celebrated the completion of the first phase of the CTA 95th Street Red Line Station Improvement Project alongside joint venture partner Milhouse Engineering & Construction. A skilled, diverse workforce of over 1200 executed this work, including residents from the local community who will enjoy access to the improved station regularly.   “We lead by example. A diverse workforce is ingrained in the history and culture of Paschen, and for each project we build a diverse workforce represents the ...

When John Joseph Barkowski (Johnny B) passed away on September 28, 2017, he left behind a legacy that will be long remembered. A legacy that included a commitment to quality, safety, and production that led his company, F.H. Paschen, to become a leader in the area of safety in construction. But Johnny’s legacy goes much further than that. He’s remembered as a man of great integrity, who lifted up those around him with his knowledge and enthusiasm. From employees to ...

F.H. Paschen hosted its 3rd Annual P.I.E. (Paschen: Innovations in Engineering) Series event at George Westinghouse College Prep School, where they introduced the Paschen Scholars program to a new set of interested candidates and discussed the field of engineering and how it applies to careers in construction. Ryan Kinney of Westinghouse opened the event and Antonia Winfrey of Paschen gave an overview of the day. Joe Scarpelli gave a presentation on the history of F.H. Paschen and background on the ...

We are proud to have been named the Chicago Department of Transportation's Transit Contractor of the Year for the third year in a row. The award, presented at the Illinois Road & Transportation Builders Association Awards ceremony, was presented to the project team for the CDOT Washington/Wabash Loop Elevated CTA Station. The Washington/Wabash station replaced two adjacent, century-old stations with a new station that features a sleek and modern design, and a signature platform canopy that serves as a gateway to ...

by Shawn Phillips BIM Director Las Vegas is never a quiet place, and despite recent events, nothing can suppress the “Vegas Strong!” spirit of this oasis in the desert. Recently, Autodesk (the maker of Autocad and other BIM software) rolled into town, bringing with it over ten thousand of the smartest techies, contractors, vendors, architects, and engineers on the planet. The annual event is a compilation of classes, presentations, networking opportunities, tours, showcases, and social gatherings. Shawn Phillips (BIM Director) …

On November 30th, F.H. Paschen received an Appreciation Award for our support of the Chicago Public Schools Trade Apprenticeship Pipeline (T.A.P.) Program, which encourages and assists recent CPS graduates to get involved and pursue careers in the trades. The award was unexpected, but gratefully accepted by our very own Chuck Freiheit. The event was supported by SodexoMAGIC—a facilities management company led by Earvin "Magic" Johnson, who attended the ceremony that evening; and sponsored by the Construction Industry Service Corporation (CISCO). ...

F.H. Paschen participated for the first time in the Oak Brook Heart Walk for the American Heart Association (AHA) on September 23. In our first year of participation, we organized six teams with over 50 walkers, which included Paschen employees, family members, and even pets. As a result of our efforts, we raised over $14,500 to support the AHA and their mission. Paschen is a proud sponsor of the AHA’s Hard Hats with Heart, the Association’s nationwide movement to end heart ...

Westinghouse College Prep School held the first of eight Community Days on September 20, and F.H. Paschen was on hand to kick off the celebration. Project Superintendents Martin Alderden Jr. and Neil Barkowski, and Surveyor Manager Michael Karcz led an informative and hands-on demonstration on surveying for the school’s Civil Engineering students (including our Paschen Scholars). Amanda Change, PLTW Engineering Teacher, commented, “Today's event was wonderful! Thanks so much to Mike, Neil, and Marty for their sharing their expertise and enthusiasm ...

F.H. Paschen, in conjunction with Hard Hats with Heart, is participating in the American Heart Association’s (AHA) Heart Walk for the first time this fall. Hard Hats with Heart is a construction industry focused group dedicated to supporting AHA’s life-saving mission, which includes raising awareness and money to fund research projects and other educational programs. Paschen Vice President Anthony Izzi, who serves on the Steering Committee for the Chicago Chapter of Hard Hats with Heart, said “This is a very ...