Harmsen merges with Fakkema firm

Harmsen & Associates of Monroe and Oak Harbor has merged with Fakkema & Kingma of Oak Harbor. Fakkema & Kingma will continue doing business under its own name from the Oak Harbor office. Harmsen & Associates will add its civil engineering, land use planning, and landscape architecture services to Fakkema & Kingma’s survey expertise.

Both firms will benefit from expanded geographical areas throughout the Puget Sound region. They will continue serving both the public and private sectors.

SAME to present 6 design awards

The Society of American Military Engineers will hold its 12th Annual Design Excellence Awards Banquet on Friday, April 18, at the Bell Harbor Conference Center. Awards will be presented to six firms.

The featured speaker is David L. Dye, chief operating officer at the Washington State Department of Transportation. Proceeds from the banquet provide scholarships for students pursuing careers in engineering or science.

For more information and to register, contact Bob Galteland at (425) 741-3800 or bgalteland@reidmiddleton.com.

New course on effective RFPs

The Design-Build Institute of America will offer a course in Seattle on April 17-18 called “Performance Requirements: The Key to Effective RFPs.”

DBIA has spent the last year working with owners and industry experts to prepare this course. This hands-on workshop will walk students through writing performance-based requirements. Working on a fictitious project, students will brainstorm with facilitators to determine functional/operational requirements, goals and restraints, and correlate goals to performance characteristics. To register for this and other DBIA programs, visit the Web site at dbia.org, and then click on professional development, then online registration.

Age 29 or under? Sit on a city board

Seattle boards and commissions have spots open for people aged 18-29. As part of the YMCA’s Get Engaged program, the city will appoint people in this age group to 13 of the city’s boards and commissions this fall.

The Get Engaged program aims to give young adults a voice and foster long-term citizen participation in government. Participants serve on boards and commissions that advise city government on a variety of issues including historical preservation, city planning and the arts.

If you are between the ages of 18-29, live in Seattle and are interested in applying to the Get Engaged program, or want more information, visit http://www.seattle.gov/mayor/boards.htm or contact Mona Grife, Metrocenter YMCA, at (206) 382-5005, or via e-mail at mgrife@seattleymca.org. The application deadline is April 28.

Degenkolb’s green design competiton

Degenkolb Engineers has donated $5,000 to Earth Island Institute, a San Francisco Bay Area non-profit designated by the winner of the firm’s 2008 Sustainability Challenge design competition.

This year’s award went to self-employed structural engineer Kate Stillwell for designing a handbag and hat made from recycled plastic bags. She made both items by fusing together 16 plastic bags to create a sheet of stiffer plastic, then molding the fused bags into shapes she finished with a zipper and handle. Stillwell’s design provides a second use for plastic bags, a product often criticized by environmental groups.

Degenkolb’s competition awards the prize money to a non-profit of the winner’s choosing. Last year, Degenkolb Engineers established a sustainability committee within its organization to help make the firm more green and to develop sustainable projects for its clients.

Historic Seattle looks at lighting

Historic Seattle is offering a class on mid-century lighting with Rejuvenation senior designer and historian Bo Sullivan from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, April 12 at Rejuvenation at 2910 First Ave. S.

Sullivan will lead a “shopping trip” through the pages of original Atomic Age lighting catalogues to see what people were buying for their ramblers and split-levels. You won’t meet Charles Eames, Herman Miller, or George Nelson on this excursion into the middlebrow (though their fingerprints might be evident), but you just might see your grandparents in a new light.

Sullivan specializes in American period lighting, hardware, millwork, and residential architecture from 1880-1960. Tickets are $8 for Historic Seattle members, $5 for students and $10 for everybody else. Register online at http://www.historicseattle.org or call (206) 622-6952.

Presentations topic of ACEC workshop

The American Council of Engineering Companies of Washington will host a workshop on improving presentation skills from 8 a.m. to noon on Tuesday, April 15, at the Coast Bellevue Hotel at 625 116th Ave. N.E. in Bellevue.

Workshop leader Karen Johnston of Johnston Training Group has a background in sales and a personal interest in teaching selling skills to services professionals. She is a frequent presenter at national conferences. Her firm provides training programs in business development skills, presentation skills and workplace communication.

Tickets cost $245 for ACEC Washington members. Non-member tickets cost $100 more. For information, call (425) 453-6655.

Photo exhibit of Seattle buildings

Photo by Christiana Tortuga [enlarge]

Seattle artist Christiana Tortuga’s photograph “New Frames Old” shows the First United Methodist Church wrapped in the silhouette of the Seattle Central Library.

Seattle artist Christiana Tortuga's has a photography exhibition called “Seattle Above: A Picture Taker's Eye on Her City,” until April 15 at the City Hall Lobby Gallery on the first floor, and in the Anne Focke Gallery, located on the L2 level of City Hall.

Inspired by the views of the city through the frame of a bus window, Tortuga photographs buildings from a variety of vantage points: parking garages, high rises and the streets below. Her “upshot” building portraits contrast the new and old in the city landscape.

Tortuga is an emerging artist who has shown her work at several exhibitions in Seattle and two gallery group shows in California. The show is sponsored by the city's Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs.

ACEC bootcamp for project managers

ACEC Washington is hosting an A/E/C project management bootcamp on April 29 and 30 at The Coast Bellevue Hotel. The seminar “compresses a lifetime of experience and insight into two days.” It will cover the techniques and strategies of today's most successful project managers and provide an approach firms can put into action right away.

Instructor Michael D'Alessandro has worked in the design and construction industry for more than 25 years. He was manager of projects and design-build initiatives with Parsons infrastructure and technology group. He also served as a member of the firm's quality council and led efforts to improve client satisfaction and design productivity.

Register by email at loy@acec-wa.org, online at http://www.acec-wa.org or by calling (425) 453-6655. Tickets cost $945 for those who register before March 29.

A TV show for teen 'engineers'

“Design Squad,” a PBS show featuring design challenges for aspiring teenage engineers, starts its second season April 2. The premiere episode has the students trying to create eco-friendly cardboard furniture for display at Ikea.

In 13 half-hour episodes, contestants build hockey net targets for a Boston Bruins player, design under-water prostheses for an amputee dancer, and develop and race gravity bikes. The show's grand prize is a $10,000 college scholarship provided by the Intel Foundation.

“Design Squad” is also offering kids at home a way to get in on the action: a Trash to Treasure contest invites kids to take everyday discarded or recycled materials and re-engineer them into functional products. Learn more at http://pbskids.org/

Explore NAAM with Historic Seattle

Historic Seattle invites members and the public to tour the Northwest African American Museum at the former Colman School from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on April 7 at 2300 S. Massachusetts St. The event is free and no tickets are needed.

Learn about the evolution of this project with Carver Gayton, the museum's executive director, and the challenges of saving and adapting a former school building to its new use with Rico Quirindongo, DKA project architect. Go to http://www.historicseattle.org or call (206) 622-6952 to request a 2008 program brochure and the January 2008 newsletter by mail.

Marketing expert puts on seminar

Marketing Associates of Spokane is hosting Sally A. Handley, president of Sally Handley Inc., a marketing consulting, training and staffing firm, on Thursday, April 10, for an all-day seminar. With more than 25 years experience, Handley is the recipient of the Society of Marketing Professional Services New York Chapter Marketing Achievement Award, and author of “Marketing Metrics Demystified: Methods for Measuring ROI and Evaluating Your Marketing Effort.”

Handley will target principals and partners of A/E/C companies in her first session on “Networking, Building Relationships, Retaining Client Loyalty” from 8 to 11:30 a.m.

From 12:30 to 3:30 p.m., Handley will gear her presentation, “Motivating Technical Staff to Market,” towards marketing staff. This seminar will discuss techniques that help technical staff to embrace marketing with confidence. Tickets cost $75 for members and $85 for non-members for one session, and $135 for member and $145 for non members for both sessions. Learn more at http://www.maspokane.org/

Conference on historic re-hab

The New Pathways Conference, on April 14 and 15, will explore how historic rehabilitation can comply with local building codes and green building rating systems and still meet the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation.

Conference sponsors include the Washington Association of Building Officials, the Washington State Building Code Council, the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation, city of Seattle, and the U.S. General Services Administration.

The first day will include presentations and panel discussions by industry leaders. Day 2 will be a half-day group exercise on evaluating a local historic building rehabilitation project. Participants will explore codes and standards, identify potential conflicting goals and attempt to resolve conflicts.

Conference registration is available at http://www.wabo.org/new_pathways__historic_preserva.htm For more information, contact Greg Griffith, Washington State Deputy Historic Preservation Officer, at (360) 586-3073, or by e-mail at greg.griffith@dahp.wa.gov.

Comments due on scenic byway ideas

A public meeting will be held from 5:30 to 8 p.m. on April 2 in the Commissioners Hearing Room at the Island County Administration Building at One N.E. Sixth St. in Coupeville. The Whidbey Scenic Isle Way steering committee will present logo options and gateway concepts for public comment.

The signs will be installed along state Route 20 and state Route 525 on Whidbey Island and the gateway monuments will be constructed in Clinton, Keystone and in the vicinity of Deception Pass State Park. Otak is the design firm working on the project.

Island County was awarded a federal grant for the work. The construction budget for each gateway location is approximately $25,000.

Ankrom Moisan display in Seattle

Photo by Kirsten Force [enlarge]

Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects has a window display at AIA Seattle on First Avenue.

Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects has a display in the First Avenue window of the Seattle AIA office for the month of March. The display features several AMAA designs on hanging, organic shapes that twist and turn.

Sprinkled in with the projects are black and white portraits of AMAA architects and designers with their projects.

The window display was designed and installed by AMAA’s graphic design department with the goal of increasing awareness of the Seattle office of Ankrom Moisan, which opened in the spring of 2006.

Anderson-LeLievre wins garden award

A design team including Seattle’s Anderson-LeLievre Landscape Design and 4D Architects of Kirkland won several awards for its display garden at the 2008 Northwest Flower & Garden Show. The team, working under the sponsorship of the Washington State Nursery & Landscape Association and the Partnership for Water Conservation, took home the Founder’s Cup, which is the “Best in Show” award. It also won Sunset’s Western Living Award and a Gold Medal for garden design from the independent garden show judges.

Set on a sunny promontory, the garden featured low-water-use plants suitable for Northwest gardens, a simple sleeping cottage and a unique roof water-capture system designed and built by Mike Davis of Pathways to Ponds.

ACEC event on using Web tools

ACEC Washington is hosting a breakfast on using Web-based information management for multi-stakeholder project teams. The breakfast is from 7 to 9 a.m. on Wednesday, April 2 at the Coast Bellevue Hotel at 625 116th Ave. N.E.

Lecturer Nimish Desai is vice president of EA Engineering, Science and Technology and leads the firm’s Pacific Business Unit from Bellevue. Tickets cost $30 for ACEC Washington members registering by March 26 and $35 for late registration. Non-member tickets cost $10 more. Register by email at loy@acec-wa.org, online at http://www.acec-wa.org or by calling (425) 453-6655.

Regeneration ‘08 coming up soon

The American Institute of Architects Seattle, the American Society of Interior Designers’ state chapter, and the International Interior Design Association's Northern Pacific Chapter will host the Re-Generation 2008 conference on Monday, April 7 and Tuesday, April 8 at the Mountaineers Club at 300 Third Ave. W.

Conference events include workshops, presentations and panel discussions on sustainability issues facing designers. Educational sessions will explore biomimicry, adaptive planning for climate change and the latest sustainable materials, and include book signing by authors and presenters such as Ed Begley Jr., Jay Inslee, Penny Bonda, Kathleen O’Brien and Kira Gould.

The full conference costs $175 for members, $240 for non-members and $90 for students. Discounted tickets are available for attending certain events. For more information and to register, go to: http://www.aiaseattle.org

Marvista school to get replaced

Rendering by TCF Architecture [enlarge]

The new Marvista Elementary will have classrooms divided into four clusters, with a library and office to the south and an activities wing to the north.

Highline School District is replacing Marvista Elementary School with a new school at the same location, 19800 Marine View Drive S.W. in Normandy Park. The new school is designed by TCF Architecture and sited along Fourth Avenue, across from a city park.

The school and park will form a neighborhood and community center, with a goal of encouraging pedestrian activity in the neighborhood.

Classrooms will be divided into four clusters and are book-ended by the library and office to the south and an activities wing to the north. The 66,000-square-foot facility is designed to exceed the Washington Sustainable Schools Protocol.

The school will go to bid in early April for a contractor and will begin construction in July. Anticipated construction cost is about $22 million.

Tour a house by Paul Hayden Kirk

Historic Seattle is offering a tour of a house designed in 1961 by Northwest architect Paul Hayden Kirk for Langdon and Anne Simons. The tour is from 1 to 4 p.m. on Sunday, April 6, and the exact location will be given upon registration.

The Medina house was renovated in 1998 for the second owners by architect Jim Olson, who apprenticed under Kirk. New work included turning an interior courtyard into indoor space, replacing worn windows and doors, and kitchen and bathroom remodels. Tickets cost $10 for students, $15 for Historic Seattle Members and $20 for everybody else. Go to http://www.historicseattle.org/ for more information and to register.