Artie Nusbaum

Arthur Nusbaum, 92, a former president of one-time New York City contracting giant HRH Construction Corp., died on Feb. 8 in Sarasota, Fla. The cause was heart failure, says his family. His long construction career included project management roles on more than 100 buildings in the city and elsewhere—and one widely quoted run-in with then-developer Donald Trump. A degreed civil engineer, Nusbaum started at power-plant builder Burns & Roe but later took on superintendent, project-manager and consulting roles at Morse Diesel and Tishman construction firms as high-rise work boomed in New York City. He joined HRH in 1975, rising to president, with PM credits that included Citicorp Center, Worldwide Plaza and New York University’s Elmer Bobst library. With media reports pointing to HRH as a favored Trump contractor, Nusbaum also had key roles on Trump Tower and the Grand Hyatt hotel, among other projects. But the firm cut ties with Trump after the developer’s widely touted 1986 renovation of the city-owned Wollman ice skating rink in Central Park, which Nusbaum said HRH agreed to do for cost but whose work Trump never acknowledged. Nusbaum left HRH in 1988; in 2011, the firm collapsed in the wake of problem projects and legal battles with organized labor.