Larry Kilduff, who has headed construction, maintenance, physical plant and utilities operations at three Ivy League universities, has been appointed executive director of facilities at Johns Hopkins.

Kilduff will be responsible for planning, design and construction, and plant operations at the university's Homewood campus. He also will head design and construction at the Peabody Institute, the Applied Physics Laboratory, the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, continuing education and other facilities throughout the Baltimore-Washington area, and Hopkins campuses in China and Italy. He will participate in university decisions on real estate issues, including leases, purchases and development projects.

"Larry is a seasoned professional in university plant operations and brings a wealth of experience at institutions similar to Hopkins," said James T. McGill, senior vice president for finance and administration. "The university is very fortunate to have someone of his talent and experience joining us at a time when so much is happening here with capital projects and other areas of facilities management."

For nearly three years, Kilduff has been senior vice president of Trammell Crow Co., in charge of its operations at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was responsible for 12 million square feet of facilities and a construction and renovation program of more than $850 million. He reorganized the facilities program to improve service while reducing costs within a flatter, more decentralized, more customer-oriented management structure.

From 1987 until 1997, Kilduff worked at Columbia University, including three years as vice president in charge of facilities at both the Morningside Heights and health sciences campuses and a year as the university's interim executive vice president for administration. Prior to that, he spent 10 years at Harvard University, rising to director of all of its Cambridge, Mass., facilities.

"I really look forward to coming to Johns Hopkins, opening up good lines of communication with each of the schools and departments and focusing my attention on their needs," said Kilduff, who will arrive in late July or early August.

Kilduff said he was attracted to the challenge of managing the university's agenda of capital projects, including implementation of the just-completed master plan for Homewood and working with commercial developers on the proposed bookstore site at Charles and 33rd streets. He said the Hopkins job differs somewhat from his previous positions because of the university's commitment to "delivery of the education to a broader-based community."

"I find the off-campus centers like the ones in Montgomery County and Washington, D.C., really interesting," he said.

Kilduff succeeds Steven Campbell, who has been interim director of facilities since 1997. McGill and Kilduff praised Campbell for doing "yeoman work" during a period that included both a reorganization of the department and simultaneous management of three major building projects, the master planning process and now the Great Excavations open space improvement project.

"Steve came into the position in very trying circumstances and has improved the facilities operations since," McGill said. "Larry Kilduff and I share admiration for Steve's talents, and Larry will be working with Steve to define a new role that capitalizes on his special strengths and experiences."

"I look forward to supporting continued progress in Hopkins facilities operations under Larry's seasoned management," Campbell said.

Kilduff is a 1968 graduate of Merrimack College, where he majored in industrial management, and has done graduate work in business administration at Northeastern University.