2005 Penn State Alumni Fellow
The Department of Architectural Engineering is very pleased to announce that Joseph R. Borda ’67 was named a 2005 Penn State Alumni Fellow. He received the award at a ceremony held at the Nittany Lion Inn on Oct. 19, 2005. In April 2000, he was also a recipient of the Outstanding Engineering Alumnus Award of the College of Engineering.
Borda has demonstrated outstanding leadership ability throughout his career and is a highly successful entrepreneur.
In 1969, he founded Borda Engineers and Energy Consultants in Merchantville, NJ as a consulting engineering firm. Over the past 30 years, they have served a number of public and private clients including Camden County, the State of New Jersey, various school districts, and the Hillier Group. In addition to having expertise in various engineering disciplines (structural, HVAC, plumbing and electrical), they also offer architectural services, energy consulting, and construction management to a wide range of clients.
Borda has also excelled as a real estate developer in New Jersey and Florida. In 1986, he formed Gulf Landings Development Corporation to develop and manage the master planned community of Gulf Landings, the last waterfront community on the Gulf Coast in Pasco County, FL. In addition to developing multi-family residential property and single family homesites within the community, Gulf Landings Development Corporation has also been responsible for all infrastructure construction for the overall community, from roadway civil engineering to utility mains and tie-ins. The Prudential Lindrick Realty, Inc., a Prudential Real Estate franchise owned by Borda, provides marketing and sales expertise within the community. In addition, he owns and operates Lindrick Service Corporation, the utility providing water and wastewater services to the Gulf Landings area.
Borda is actively involved in all of his companies. An exceptional individual, he has used his architectural and engineering training as a base to become involved in all aspects of the
building industry, from site selection, through financing, design, and construction. His overview of the process and his personal involvements result in synergistic projects that are creatively financed, intelligently designed, and well constructed. On a more technical note, he pioneered the planning, testing and engineering design for load-bearing masonry lift wall systems for public housing in mid- to high-rise buildings in the late 1960's. Results from this research have been incorporated into current model building codes for load-bearing masonry design.
Outside of his successful business activities, Borda has been generous with his time and financial support of numerous charitable endeavors. He has achieved successful integration of low income housing into his luxury developments in Florida, and he builds low-income and senior citizen housing in New Jersey. He built a senior citizen facility for the Presbyterian Church on his own land, which he subsequently donated to the cause. He also planned low income, senior citizen housing project in Merchantville, NJ, the site of his home office.
Borda has a long-standing friendship with the AE department and has maintained an active role by serving regularly on the AE Senior Thesis jury. He has also demonstrated his strong commitment to the educational opportunities of our AE students by establishing the following undergraduate scholarships: the Vincent Pass Scholarship and the C. Herbert Wheeler Scholarship in honor of two of his former AE professors; and the Border/Fernsler Families Scholarship that are all awarded annually to deserving AE students. In addition, Borda and his wife have also established the Joseph and Marlene Borda Endowed Graduate Fellowship in AE. The first award of this fellowship is expected to be presented to a deserving AE graduate student in 2006.
The faculty and staff of the department of architectural engineering join in congratulating Joseph Borda on the prestigious and well-deserved honor of being named a 2005 Penn State Alumni Fellow.
The Alumni Fellow Award is the most prestigious award given by the Penn State Alumni Association. Administered in cooperation with Penn State’s academic colleges, the program provides recipients the opportunity to return to campus to share their knowledge and expertise with the University community. As leaders in their respective fields, Alumni Fellows provide a dimension to the academic curriculum not otherwise available in the traditional college classroom.