Coughlin Porter Lundeen

Coughlin Porter Lundeen remains focused on building structure and site design. The commercial office market is strong for the firm, with particular emphasis on complex large-scale and campus-style developments. The firm offers services in structural, seismic and site civil engineering.

Site work began this year on Southport in Renton, a phased development consisting of a hotel, 386,000 square feet of residential and 750,000 square feet of commercial office space. Another significant site development, Port Blakely’s Issaquah Town Center, is just beginning design. Projects completed this year include the Opus Center @ Union Station, REI office campus expansion and 401 Elliott Avenue West. In the renovation market, the firm has completed the renovation of the downtown YMCA, the Seaboard Building and multiple projects in Pioneer Square (including the Collins, Florence, Washington Shoe, Terry/Denny, and Corona buildings). An emerging market for CPL is health care, with completion of the Overlake Hospital Expansion and work beginning on a five-year, phased project for Children’s Regional Hospital and Medical Center. Work continues to be strong in the K-12 market and in the residential, institutional and retail markets.

The staff has grown to 61 compared to 57 at this time last year. Billings for 1999 were $5.5 million and estimated billings for 2000 are $7 million.

“Our greatest challenge is to maintain document quality and responsiveness in an overheated market,” said marketing director Jill Jago. “We are responding to this challenge by informed project and client selection, by retaining and adding to a highly qualified staff and resisting unchecked growth. The challenge ahead will be to continue to diversify in a market that will inevitably shift in the next few years.”

The Endangered Species Act is affecting site development and projects by slowing down permitting, said Jago. “We see a trend toward higher density developments such as urban villages, high-density office and urban high-tech infill versus sprawl. The renovation market will remain strong, bolstered by the trend to convert old spaces into high-tech space, such as Williams Communications’ downtown facility. We will also see more ‘co-location’ facilities acting as server farms renting space to multiple companies. With an abundance of software packages and new, inexperienced staff entering the work force to fuel growth, there has been a negative trend in the checks and balances required to maintain quality construction documents.”