WSU team heading to China and Tibet

A team of Washington State University architecture, landscape architecture and interior design faculty and students are heading to China and Tibet in May to see how people there design, furnish and occupy their homes.

Led by Professor Nancy Blossom, director of the Interdisciplinary Design Institute at WSU Spokane, and architecture professor David Wang, the team will spend three weeks working with their counterparts from Xian University in China and Tibet.

The goal is to promote research that crosses academic disciplines and national boundaries, according to Blossom. The group will focus on how local materials and customs in architecture, landscaping and home interiors respond to the natural environment.

Blossom said there has been little research about materials, types of furniture and how Tibetans use their homes.

Freiheit & Ho designs Westlake tobacco store

Freiheit & Ho Architects designed the F.K. Kirsten Tobacconists store in Seattle. The 500-square-foot shop at 2200 Westlake Ave. has a walk-in humidor.

Rich colors used throughout the space evoke a “subtle sophistication” for cigar smokers, according to Freiheit & Ho. Gateway was the general contractor.

Flack and Kurtz office now at Union Square

The Seattle architecture firm Flack and Kurtz moved its office last weekend from 1417 Fourth Ave. to One Union Square, 600 University St., Suite 500.

The phone is (206) 342-9900 and fax is (206) 342-9901. The Web site is http://www.flackandkurtz.com.

United Tile store opens in Everett

United Tile opened a showroom and warehouse at 11520 Airport Road in Everett to serve architects, designers, floor covering dealers and homebuilders in the North Seattle area.

The 10,500-square-foot store sells tile and stone products.

The phone number is (425) 212-3295.

‘Architect’s Bible’ new edition is out

The 11th edition of Architectural Graphic Standards, also known as the “Architects’ Bible,” was recently released by publisher John Wiley & Sons and The American Institute of Architects.

The book covers design, from site excavation to structures to roofs. The commemorative, 75th anniversary edition has 8,000 illustrations, reference drawings, and constructible architectural details.

It also deals with sustainable design and materials, new structural technologies, and new building systems and materials. New chapters cover building information modeling and architectural research.

Cost is $250. For information, go to http://www.graphicstandards.com.

Galteland is CEO at Reid Middleton

Robert O. Galteland recently took the helm as president and CEO of Reid Middleton. Hugh Townsend, president and CEO of Reid Middleton since 1993, is now chairman of the board.

Galteland has been with Reid Middleton for 15 years and has led the company’s civil projects group since 1998. He has 20 years of engineering and management experience and has been responsible for the company’s largest client, the U.S. Navy, since 1996.

“New, capable, fresh leadership is healthy and beneficial, and will bring further success for our clients and company,” said Townsend.

The company works in transportation, aviation, waterfront, civil and structural design.

Taylor elected Fellow of Concrete Institute

Andrew W. Taylor, an associate at KPFF Consulting Engineers, has been elected a Fellow of the American Concrete Institute. Taylor has been involved in ACI for 19 years.

Taylor’s research on the modeling of earthquake damage to concrete structures has received national recognition, including the 2001 ACI Structural Research Award. The bridge design code includes his research on concrete box piers.

In his structural design practice, Taylor has promoted innovations in the seismic performance of concrete structures, including the design of eight seismically isolated concrete buildings.

LEED-CI platinum for Perkins + Will

Perkins+Will has been certified LEED-Commercial Interiors platinum for its new office at Second and University.

Perkins+Will replaced central air conditioning system with natural ventilation, replaced the central electric HVAC reheat system with efficient multi-zone perimeter heating, minimized partitioning and maximized ceiling height to provide daylight, and used low-emitting materials throughout the office.

In addition, 98 percent of construction waste was recycled.

Learn to network at Tuesday SMPS talk

“External Networking: How to Make an Impact on Your Firm and Career,” will be the subject of a Society of Marketing Professional Services meeting at 8 a.m. Tuesday, at Washington Athletic Club, 1325 Sixth Ave.

Jan Flesher, director of marketing for Coughlin Porter Lundeen, will talk about why networks are needed, how to create a network and effective networking strategies.

Flesher has 20 years of marketing experience and leads the strategic planning, branding, public and client relations programs for Coughlin Porter Lundeen.

Cost is $35 for members of the Society of Marketing Professional Services, $40 for member firms and $50 for non-members.

For information, call Carly Cyr at (425) 881-7506.

Two spots open on preservation board

Mayor Greg Nickels is looking for two members to serve on the Landmarks Preservation Board: one at-large position and one finance position.

The 12-member Landmarks Preservation Board recommends landmarks to the City Council and reviews proposed alterations to landmark properties.

The board has two architects, two historians, one structural engineer, one representative each from the fields of real estate and finance, one member from the City Planning Commission and three members at-large.

Board meetings are held on the first and third Wednesdays of each month at 3:30 p.m.

Send a letter of interest and resume by Feb. 16. Electronic submissions are preferred. E-mail letter and resume to Rebecca.Hansen@seattle.gov.

Gehry’s tech expert speaks Jan. 25 at UW

Dennis R. Shelden, chief technology officer of Gehry Technologies, will speak at the University of Washington at 7 p.m. Jan. 25.

The lecture will look at how digital tools affect the way designers and construction professionals work. Shelden will talk about digital representation, and the architectural forms and construction methods used in Frank Gehry Partners and Gehry Technologies’ current projects. He will also discuss the potential for digital media to change project delivery.

Shelden is a founder and chief technology officer of Gehry Technologies, a building industry technology company formed in 2002 by the research and development team of Frank Gehry Partners.

The lecture, which is presented by University of Washington Department of Construction Management and College of Architecture and Urban Planning, will be at Kane Hall 210. For more information, go to http://www.caup.washington.edu/GehryEvent/.

Elliott Bay Design now in New Orleans

Elliott Bay Design Group, a Seattle naval architecture and marine engineering firm, has opened a regional office in New Orleans.

Michael Walker, a former vessel operator, and Sam Charters, a naval architect and marine engineer, will build a client base in the Gulf area.

“Our clients rely on us for ongoing support and advice, not just our more complex and sophisticated vessel design,” said John Waterhouse, president of EBDG. “Opening an office in the Gulf area is in large part a response to better serve our existing clients in addition to placing us closer to key markets.”

The company’s staff has grown from 43 employees in 2005, and is expected to reach 56 or more by the end of this year.

The new office will be at 1100 Poydras St., New Orleans, and the phone is (504) 529-1754.

Vancouver Hilton gets LEED certification

The Hilton Vancouver Washington has been certified under the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED rating system and is one of the country’s first sustainable hotels. The building has low-impact landscaping, reduced energy use and indoor air quality.

The hotel is owned by the city of Vancouver and managed by Beverly Hills-based Hilton Hotels Corp. The architect was Fletcher Farr Ayotte Architects.

It is located across from Esther Short Park and the Vancouver Farmers Market, which draws an average of 16,000 visitors each weekend to downtown Vancouver.

Architecture billings up 11% over 3 years

Billings at U.S. architecture firms increased 11 percent between 2002 and 2005 to reach $28.7 billion annually. The total construction value of projects that architecture firms directly designed approached $360 billion, accounting for almost 3 percent of overall U.S. gross domestic product.

The figures are from The American Institute of Architects Business of Architecture: 2006 AIA Firm Survey, which is conducted every three years. The study also revealed the profession is becoming more diverse and the number green design projects is growing.

The top five sectors served by architects in 2005 were health care, at 14.3 percent of firm billings; office, 11.7 percent; education (K-12), 11 percent; multifamily residential, 10.7 percent; and education (college/university, 7.7 percent.

“While the residential design category posted the strongest gains in share of firm activity during this period, the institutional market — led by the health care and education sectors — remains the largest source for architecture services,” said survey co-author, AIA chief economist Kermit Baker.

“State and local governments were the leading architecture clients, followed closely by developers/construction companies,” he said. “The most common project delivery method remains traditional design-bid-build, which accounts for nearly 60 percent of project activity at architecture firms.”

Port Townsend station wins a bronze award

The Port Townsend Fire Station recently won Fire Chief Magazine's annual Station Style Bronze Award for a new station.

This is the second consecutive year a Rice Fergus Miller Architecture & Planning project has earned the Bronze Award. Last year, Bremerton's headquarters station was the award winner.

Rice Fergus Miller's design team for the Port Townsend project included David Fergus, partner; Jonathan Wood, project architect; Howard Struve, construction administration; Bob Miller-Rhees, quality control; and Jamie Osterman, interior design.

Two artists talk about public art commissions

At 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 11, Seattle artists Alex Schweder and Jenny Heishman will discuss their studio practices at Henry Art Gallery Auditorium. They will cover topics such as translating conceptual themes from studio work into recent public art commissions.

Schweder is a 2006 recipient of the Rome Prize Fellowship in Architecture. His work includes architecture, installation and industrial design, and he has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, Parsons School of Design and the Netherlands Architecture Institute.

Jenny Heishman's sculptures and installations explore the boundaries between artificial and natural environments. A finalist for this year's Betty Bowen Award, Heishman recently received a 2006 Artist Trust Fellowship. She is represented by Howard House Gallery.

Cost is $5, and free for Henry members.

For more information, call (206) 543-2280 or go to http://www.henryart.org. The Henry is at 15th Avenue Northeast and Northeast 41st Street.

Hough Beck & Baird plan Boise park

Collaborating between Seattle and Boise offices, the landscape architecture firms Hough Beck & Baird and Beck & Baird recently finished master planning for the Eagle Island State Park in Idaho. Hough Beck & Baird is based in Seattle and Beck & Baird, which is the lead on the Eagle Island project, is in Boise.

The approximately $24 million, 546-acre park sits on an island in the Boise River. Proposed improvements include three man-made lakes, interconnecting water channels, campsites, a wetland interpretive center, ice rink, 500-700 seat amphitheater, a dog park and RV camping area.

Coffman and Affiliated gather food for needy

Coffman Engineers and Affiliated Engineers sponsored a food drive that began on Nov. 20 and ran through Dec. 15. Known as the Westlake Center Engineers' Challenge, the event concluded with Coffman Engineers and Affiliated Engineers collecting 5,851 pounds of food for NW Harvest.

Donations were based on pounds per active employee. Donations of food, or contributions of money to purchase food, were accepted. Each dollar counted as one pound of food.

Billings index jumps for commercial sector

After consecutive months of modest growth, the Architecture Billings Index saw a large jump in November to its second highest reading of the year, according to the American Institute of Architects. The commercial/industrial sector recorded its best mark of the decade and while still reporting weak billings, residential architecture firms posted the highest score in four months.

With an approximate nine- to 12-month lag time between architecture billings and construction spending, the ABI is a leading economic indicator of construction activity, and should translate into a high level of activity throughout 2007.

The AIA reported the November ABI rating was 57.5, up from 51.1 in October. Any score above 50 indicates an increase in billings. The West had the strongest billings index, with 60.7.

“The nonresidential construction sector continues to see a high level of demand for design services,” said AIA chief economist Kermit Baker. “Even though there has been some deceleration in growth the previous two months, an uptick in billings of this size is noteworthy in portending sustained construction activity in the months ahead.”

Lin's Vietnam memorial wins 25-year award

The American Institute of Architects announced Maya Lin's Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. has been selected to receive the 2007 AIA Twenty-five Year Award for architectural design that has stood the test of time.

The two-acre memorial, on the National Mall northeast of the Lincoln Memorial, was dedicated on Nov. 13, 1982. In 1981, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, the group that spearheaded the project, held a public design competition that garnered 1,421 entries — the largest design competition in our nation's history.

After two rounds of elimination, Lin's design was chosen, because “it clearly met the spirit and formal requirements of the program … its open nature would encourage access on all occasions, at all hours, without barriers and yet free the visitors from the noise and traffic of the surrounding city,” according to jurors.

The monument's most recognized feature is its black-granite, V-shaped Memorial Wall, with its west arm pointing to the Lincoln Memorial and its east extension reaching toward the Washington Monument. The concrete retaining walls that support the granite panels are each 246 feet long. Inscribed on the wall are the names of over 58,000 men and women who either died or were missing in action when the wall was constructed. The names are arranged chronologically by date of casualty.

RK Steward is AIA national president

RK Stewart, a principal at Gensler Architecture, Design & Planning, became the 83rd president of The American Institute of Architects on Dec. 8. He succeeds Katherine Schwennsen and will represent 80,000 AIA members.

Stewart helped form the AIA’s position on using sustainable design to reduce by at least 50 percent the amount of fossil fuels used to construct and operate buildings by 2010.

“Climate change, carbon emissions, greenhouse gases, green design — call it what you will, the need to change how we inhabit the planet to avoid catastrophic consequences is now widely accepted,” Stewart said.

Stewart was named an AIA Fellow in 2001. Additionally, he has been recognized by the industry with such awards as the Octavius Morgan Distinguished Service Award, the Preservation Design Award, the U.S. Institute of Theater Technology Award and the First Place award in the 18th Interiors Magazine Awards for Public Spaces & Entertainment.