WHO’s WHO @VCU: Meet Brian Ohlinger

“I essentially retired on a Friday and went to work here on a Monday, and about the only difference was I didn’t wear a uniform, and the building numbers had changed,” retired Army Col. Brian Ohlinger said of his transition to VCU from a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers career spanning three decades.

Joining the VCU community as associate vice president for facilities management, Ohlinger said he sought to continue in the same line of work he had performed in the Corps of Engineers. He supervises the planning and design of new buildings as well as the operation and upkeep of existing buildings on the Monroe Park and Medical Center campuses. Under his watch, VCU has completed $533 million worth of new construction projects, and another $350 million in projects, including the Monroe Park Campus Addition across Belvidere Street, are under way.

“It (VCU) was a perfect fit,” Ohlinger said. “It was continuing to do in the civilian community the same thing that I was doing in the military.”

That comfortable fit has translated into success for the university, Ohlinger’s colleagues said. Tim Lampe, director of the Stuart C. Siegel Center, director of athletic facilities and assistant athletic director has worked with Ohlinger since both men came to Richmond in 1997.

“He’s been very good for this university and he’s been great for us,” Lampe said. “He understands facilities (and) facilities management through and through. He’s been gifted with a lot of intelligence and common sense.”

Lampe said even though the Siegel Center has been open for seven years, he still talks with Ohlinger frequently about operations and projects. Ohlinger donated some maintenance equipment to the facility when it opened.

Ohlinger said he enjoys turning plans into places and watching the increase in pride at VCU.

“The favorite part of my job is taking the vision of the president and the Board of Visitors and being able to convert it into the actual brick and mortar of facilities that are envisioned,” Ohlinger said.

Two recent projects were cited for architecture awards: The Shafer Court Dining Center won American School & University magazine’s gold citation for interior design and Brandt Hall won Mid-Atlantic Construction magazine’s higher education project of the year.

He said the transformation of Broad Street fueled by VCU projects has been the most rewarding task he’s undertaken, and the university is looking for similar results with the Monroe Park Campus Addition.

“It’s not just us, we provide the nucleus for private developers to come in and complement and supplement what we’re doing,” Ohlinger said.

Lampe said the new look and feel of Broad Street gives people a good impression of the university and of downtown.

“For me running the Siegel Center, I have to be concerned with people’s impressions when they come down here. It has to be a positive impression,” Lampe said. “A lot of people pass by here every day, and when they see VCU what they see is on Broad Street. Every year when we do high school graduations, we get a new set of people here. Every year we hear the same comments – ‘Wow, I had no idea.’ ”

Ohlinger said he feels pride on campus has increased in the last few years.

“Of the time I’ve been here, there’s been a very significant change in being proud to say they go to VCU and they’re part of this university, and I think that’s great,” he said.

Despite the work he’s supervised on Broad Street, Ohlinger cites the Scott House at 909 W. Franklin St. as his favorite building on campus. He said it’s hard to pick a favorite from VCU’s 160 historic buildings. Upkeep of those older buildings is a major part of what Ohlinger and his 300 employees do, and he said the university faces the challenge of maintaining them despite an inconsistent flow of funds from the state.

“Franklin Street sort of defines the university’s character. It’s what makes us unique and different from other universities,” he said.

Ohlinger’s character shined when the Army entered his life.

“In 1969 my friends and neighbors invited me to join the Army. By that I mean I was drafted,” Ohlinger explained. Holding a bachelor’s degree from the State University of New York Brockport and with several years of experience in construction, the Wellsville, N.Y., native decided to enlist and go to Officer Candidates School where he could study to become an officer.

“I decided if I was going to go I’d rather be in a position of leadership,” Ohlinger said.

Ohlinger said the Army was a great organization to belong to, especially as he and his peers rebuilt after the Vietnam War.

“The biggest satisfaction was being a part of that truly rebuilding of the U.S. Army and the contributions I made to that,” Ohlinger said.

“They kept giving me great jobs,” he said, so he stayed with the Army through 20 moves. He worked at bases and Corps of Engineers’ districts across the country, including commanding the Detroit District where he operated and maintained the waterways of the upper Great Lakes. Ohlinger spend 13 years overseas, mostly in Germany.

Working toward former President Jimmy Carter’s vision of peace in the Middle East two decades before President Eugene P. Trani’s vision for Richmond, Ohlinger took part in the construction of two air force bases in Israel, which he called the most rewarding task he undertook while in uniform.

“Part of the Camp David Peace Accords in the late 70s was that Israel would move out of the Sinai and back within its original borders,” Ohlinger said. “They had two fighter air force bases that had been located in the Sinai. President Carter as part of the agreement agreed to replace those two bases within the borders of Israel and that mission was given to the Corps of Engineers. We couldn’t fail, because the whole Camp David Peace Accord agreement was based on it.”

He also spent time on the teaching side of academia, teaching in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps at the University of Mississippi for three years in the 70s.

“Interesting experience, but it was a lot of fun,” Ohlinger said. “We had about 25 graduates each year that went into the military. It was always satisfying to be part of that process.”

Following the Gulf War, many Kurds fled into northern Iraq’s mountains fearing reprisal from Saddam Hussein. Ohlinger spent three months helping Operation Provide Comfort shelter and reintegrate the refugees.

Donna Thornburg, director of staff operations for the Facilities Management Department, said she appreciates Ohlinger’s work ethic and expertise.

“I like working with Brian because he’s very direct, he’s a ‘What you see is what you get’ kind of guy,” she said. “He’s the university’s expert in terms of construction. He has vision and he will accomplish the task.”

Ohlinger has a granddaughter in her first year at VCU, and his younger son is a civilian firefighter at Fort Lee in Petersburg. When not at work meeting with projects teams and “fighting the crisis of the moment,” he enjoys golfing and is a watercolorist.

“In watercoloring I typically do Virginia scenes from across the state, landscape kind of watercolors,” Ohlinger said. Several adorn the walls of his office suite side by side with artwork of projects that have transformed VCU.