Page 44 —
COLORADO REAL ESTATE JOURNAL
— May 18-May 31, 2016
Laura Tobin
was named gen-
eral manager for the Denver
environment
office of
WSP|Parsons
Brinckerhoff,
a global engi-
neering and
professional
services firm.
In her new
role, Tobin
leads the
Denver envi-
ronment team, which provides
services in such areas as due
diligence, site investigation,
remediation, compliance and
industrial hygiene services.
Tobin has 16 years of expe-
rience managing and con-
ducting environmental due
diligence, site characterization
and remediation projects. Her
project experience involves
numerous business sectors,
including chemical, automo-
tive, and heavy equipment
manufacturing; oil and gas and
mining sites; and commercial
properties. She has worked
extensively at sites where soil
and groundwater have been
adversely affected by a variety
of contaminants, including vola-
tile and semivolatile organic
compounds, metals and petro-
leum hydrocarbons, with con-
tamination in unconsolidated
and bedrock aquifers.
A licensed professional geolo-
gist in six states, Tobin received
a Master of Science degree in
environmental science from the
University of Virginia and a
Bachelor of Science in geology
from the College of Charleston.
Additionally,
Eric Christensen
will manage the delivery of
client enterprise sustainability
services as the new general
manager of the sustainability
and energy practice of the envi-
ronment sector of the firm. The
S&E practice provides a range
of enterprisewide services,
including sustainability strategy,
greenhouse gas and resource
management, sustainable ener-
gy, and climate preparedness
for corporate,
industrial
and energy
clients.
Christensen
has more
than 20 years
of experience
providing
clients with
strategic
advisory
services related to managing
greenhouse gas emissions, sol-
id-waste generation and water
consumption. His areas of
expertise include sustainability,
GHG management, energy effi-
ciency, renewable energy and
sustainable building design. He
has supported over 50 organiza-
tions in developing GHG inven-
tories, setting reduction goals,
designing and implementing
GHG management plans, and
publicly reporting their efforts
through Carbon Disclosure
Project responses and sustain-
ability reports.
Christensen received a Master
of Science degree in building
systems engineering from the
University of Colorado Boul-
der and a bachelor’s degree in
environmental technology from
Stanford University.
s
Kephart,
an architectural
design and land planning firm,
recently promoted eight team
members to the newly created
position of associate principal.
In their new role, the next
generation of leaders will
assume more responsibilities
and further advance the firm’s
brand.
The associate principals are:
•
Adam
Kantor,
who
is part of the
land planning
team. He has
been with the
firm for four
years.
•
Chris
Rosepink,
the firm’s
IT manager
and a mem-
ber of the
team since
2007. He also
spearheaded
the firm’s
transition to
Revit and
established
standards for
providing
detailed con-
struction drawings.
•
David Beckner,
who is
committed to making an impact
on how all
people live
and devel-
oped a partic-
ular interest
in designing
affordable
homes, espe-
cially for the
aging popula-
tion.
•
Jake
Kozlowski,
currently leading
Who’s News
Laura Tobin
Adam Kantor
David Beckner
Chris Rosepink
Eric Christensen
by John Rebchook
Michael Schonbrun struggled
almost two decades ago to come
upwith a name for his luxury
senior housing company, which
he believedwould raise the bar
as far as architecture, design,
food, amenities and care.
“I spent a lot of time going
through dictionaries in English
as well as Italian, Latin and
Greek to come upwith a word
that suggests the wisdom and
respect of older people and
stuck out,” Schonbrun recalled.
One idea he quickly eliminat-
edwas to incorporate his sur-
name into his company, which
he launched after a diverse
career that includedworking
in the public sector, running
National Jewish Hospital, and
even a stint as a venture capital-
ist.
“Schonbrun is much too hard
of a name to pronounce,” he
said.
Then it dawned on him.
Some of his fondest memories
were of a camp in upstate New
York, where the Manhattan
native had spent eight weeks
each summer from age 5 to 17.
The campwas built around
Lake Balfour.
“It was a beautiful setting
surrounded by green covered
mountains, which we in Colo-
rado would call hills, andwas
really just peaceful and pleas-
ant,” he recalled.
And because his father and
grandfather, andmany of his
cousins, also had gone there, “it
had this intergenerational con-
nection,” he said.
Thus, Balfour Senior Living
was born.
He opened his first Balfour
senior living center in Lafay-
ette 17 years ago and one in
Riverfront Park in downtown
Denver. He recently announced
another one in Stapleton and is
in the early stages of opening
one in the college town of Ann
Arbor, Michigan.
Depending on the level of
care, the cost for a resident can
run from about $3,500 to $13,000
per month.
“It is expensive,” Schonbrun
said.
“But everything is included,”
he said.
“It’s like living in a high-end
country club,” he said.
The interiors are so nice that
even some affluent people who
could afford it are intimidated.
“They say this is nicer than
any home they have ever lived
in. It’s probably not for them.”
Schonbrun never expected
his career path to lead him to
develop senior living centers as
nice as a Four Seasons hotel.
Yet it all came together that
way.
When working for the gov-
ernment, for example, he saw
centers with despicable living
standards and later he realized
at some level that he wanted
to build a brand that was the
antithesis of those senior slums.
Andwhen his father unex-
pectedly died, he moved his
“very fussy, NewYorkmother”
to senior centers and found
firsthand even top centers some-
what lacking.
Schonbrun grewup on the
Upper East Side of NewYork
City on 92nd Street, not too far
from the Solomon R. Guggen-
heimMuseum.
His father, Arnold, was a
prominent dentist.
“His patients included For-
tune 500 CEOs, members of
the UnitedNations, Broadway
stars. Angela Lanbsury was a
patient,” Schonburn said.
So were a number of Playboy
bunnies.
“I always tried to stop by his
office when they were being
treated,” he joked.
Many people thought he
would follow in his dad’s foot-
steps.
“I wanted to make it onmy
own, rather than slip into my
dad’s profession,” he said.
“And I have absolutely no
fine motor skills,” he added.
“Inmy hands, I would have
bungled all of the goodwill he
created.”
Instead, he attended Yale
University, where he obtained a
broad-based, liberal arts educa-
tion.
“I was a dilettante,” he
recalled. “I probably changed
mymajor four or five times. I
loved architecture, but had no
talent for it.”
He particularly recalls “capti-
vating” lectures on the history of
art in architecture fromProfes-
sor Vincent Scully.
“He would get a standing
ovation after every lecture,
which was not typical for cyni-
cal Yale students,” he said.
He also took a lot of English,
art history, design and other
architecture courses at Yale.
“It was a wonderful, diverse,
liberal arts education that Yale
let me do,” he said.
“I have no regrets, although
my grades could have been bet-
ter.”
He attended school during
the VietnamWar and after Yale
he attended another Ivy League
school – the University of Penn-
sylvania’s law school.
“I was one of those guys who
went to law school who never
thought I would be an actual
lawyer, practicing law,” he said.
“I went to law school because
at Yale they had this concept of a
philosopher king or philosopher
prince,” where you took on a
high view of law andwhat it
could accomplish for society.
“I got disabused of that notion
pretty quickly andwas a pretty
indifferent law student,” he said.
But what got him excitedwas
politics.
In his second year at law
school, he worked for George
McGovern’s presidential cam-
paign, focusing on health care
policies.
He was part of a feder-
ally funded research project to
explore ways to improve care
and drive down costs.
“It was kind of like what
Obamacare is trying to accom-
plish,” he said.
After his first year of law
school, he received his first taste
of life in theWest, when he
worked for legal aid in Boulder.
He loved it so much that he
thought of transferring to CU
law school, “but I never got my
act together.”
After law school, he worked
for John J. Gilligan, a Democrat
congressman and later the gov-
ernor of Ohio.
“I was with him for a year as
a Vista volunteer,” he said.
“We all thought he was going
to be elected president andwe
would follow him toWashing-
ton. I would have become his
George Stephanopolous. But it
was not to be.”
Once again, he focused on
health policy issue. As part of
his job, he toured some senior
housing projects that were real
eye-openers.
“In Ohio, I saw some really
lousy housing situations,”
whichmade an impression on
himwhen he founded Balfour
decades later.
“I knewwhat I didn’t want
to do.”
His wife at the time did not
enjoy living in Columbus, Ohio.
She had graduated from the
University of Denver andwant-
ed to return to Colorado.
He couldn’t be happier to
accommodate her.
In late 1974, theymoved to
Boulder, where he worked for a
nowdefunct think tank.
“Like everyone else, I loved
the quality of life, the skiing, the
outdoors,” he said.
But his love for the area tran-
scended those appeals.
“What I really liked is there is
no snob effect like you find in
NewYork and the East Coast,”
Schonburn said.
“People out here don’t care
what family you came from,
what your father did, or wheth-
er youwent to a fancy school,”
he said.
“I mean, if I had not gotten
into an Ivy League school, I
would have been considered a
failure bymy family. Out here,
they judge you on who you are
personally, your interests and
how hard youwork, not on
your pedigree.”
Also, he finds there is no
“caste” system in theWest that
was found in the East.
“My dad couldn't join certain
country clubs because we were
Jewish,” Schonburn said. “You
just didn’t find that kind of
thing out here.”
Once again, he focused on
public health care policies at the
think tank. His job demanded a
lot of travel across the country,
Profile
Michael Schonbrun
