Jan 19, 1999

Hart Crowser broadens its base

SEATTLE -- Hart Crowser, a national environmental consulting and remediation design firm with headquarters in Seattle, has hired staff in remediation engineering and relocated one of its specialists in sediment toxicology. It is part of a concerted effort to add depth and strength to the company's services. But this is also a new era at the company for another reason: Founder Ron Hart has retired, and been bought out of the firm. Ron Crowser is now president and CEO. As for the new faces, Matt Schultz has joined the firm as a senior associate remediation engineer. Formerly of Foster Wheeler Environmental Corp., he most recently managed a multi-site remediation program for the U.S. Navy. In his first assignment at Hart Crowser, he managed remediation of a former steel yard brownfield in Ballard prior to its redevelopment as a Fred Meyer store. In the firm's Portland office, Taku Fuji, a sediment toxicologist, will perform sediment quality assessments and risk assessments at hazardous waste sites. Fuji previously worked in the Seattle office of Hart Crowser for about three years. Prior to that he worked as a risk assessor for the state of New Jersey's Division of Hazardous Site Mitigation. Chuck Whittlesey, Hart Crowser's principal in charge of industrial services in Seattle, said Schultz's hiring reflects the firm's desire to provide a broader selection of program managers -- partly in response to requests from the Navy. "It's more of a bolstering and qualitative increase," he said. Whittlesey added that the firm is doing well in all five of its core business areas. Services range from due diligence to remediation design and geotechnical surveys. "We're projecting a little over 20 percent growth in our company [this year]," said Whittlesey. "We are meeting those projections now." The firm's strongest business segment is industrial -- particularly brownfield redevelopment -- followed by ports and harbors, real estate development, federal projects and mining. Locally, the firm is working on the new major league ballpark and King Street Station in Seattle, the third runway at Sea-Tac Airport, Navy shipyards, the Starwood Hotel and Bellevue development projects.

Environmental Partners is certified

BELLEVUE -- Environmental Partners, Inc., an environmental consulting and engineering firm, has received certification as a small disadvantaged business from the U.S. Small Business Administration. The company has been operating for nine years and has offices in Bellevue, Fairfield, N.J. and Santa Ana, Calif.

Crown Jewel Mine gets Ecology water permit

CHESAW -- The state Department of Ecology last week approved a water-quality certification for the Crown Jewel Mine, a mammoth project proposed by Battle Mountain Gold Co. and Crown Resources. The open-pit mine would be located about three miles northeast of Chesaw, Okanogan County. It would operate 24 hours a day for about 10 years, including construction, operation and shutdown. Each day the mine would process about 3,000 tons of ore while employing about 144 people. Gold would be extracted with conventional milling and cyanide leaching. Ecology's water permit was issued pursuant to Section 401 of the federal Clean Water Act. It requires that an applicant for federal water-quality-related permits first receive certification from the state that the construction, operation, closure and reclamation of the project would meet the state's aquatic protection standards. In the case of the Crown Jewel Mine, the 401 certification is required before the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers can issue a permit to fill and/or excavate 3.76 acres of wetlands on the site. Battle Mountain Gold Co. has previously obtained permits governing air quality, water quality, fish habitat, surface reclamation, facility construction, zoning and public health. Still pending is a waste-discharge permit from Ecology and a surface mine reclamation permit from the state Department of Natural Resources.

Jan 15, 1999

Systems Interface

Systems Interface, a Bothell-based designer and manufacturer of industrial control systems, has added Antonio Giacobbe as sales engineer. Giacobbe formerly worked for Rockwell Automation's Seattle District office.

Jan 14, 1999

Seattle Symphony

Laurence E. Tucker was recently appointed general manager of the Seattle Symphony. Tucker formerly served as vice president and manager to Columbia Artists Management Inc. in New York. Tucker will assume his responsibilities on March 1.

Jan 13, 1999

Journal staff

Over the past year, LMN Architects was been awarded several large projects across the country in the areas of urban design, performing arts, public assembly, sports and education. In Springfield, Missouri, LMN is leading urban design and planning for a 200-acre Civic Park Master Plan located at the city's center. The project will revitalize an abandoned industrial area, combining local history with recreation, art and education facilities. The project will involve the adaptive reuse of railroad yards and related industrial buildings, sites for a major exhibit center and ice rink, water features, trails and other enduring attractions such as a botanical garden and interpretive center. LMN is also working with the city of Flagstaff, Arizona and the government of the surrounding county to explore alternatives to the sprawling pattern of development that has recently dominated that high-growth community. LMN urban designers devised prototype plans for residential and mixed use infill, reflecting the context of older Flagstaff neighborhoods and showing that increased density can be accommodated in sensitive ways. Locally, LMN heads an interdisciplinary team for the Downtown Tacoma Plan and program, which involves economic revitalization, housing infill and connections to a future transit system. Over the next eight months, the firm will work with the City of Tacoma to provide advice on policies, projects, guidelines, investments, use of taxation tools, a development authority and parking strategies. In Colorado, LMN Architects in association with The Davis Partnership was selected for two higher education performing arts facilities. This team will provide full design services for Adams State College in Alamosa for an arts school renovation and expansion, and a new building for the drama department. The project will include a 250-seat theatre, black box studio theatre, art gallery and associated support spaces for painting, drawing and sculpture. For Front Range Community College in Westminster, a renovation and addition project similarly involves a performance hall, art studios, classrooms and offices. The Duluth Entertainment Convention Center in Duluth, Minnesota chose LMN in association with The Stanius Johnson Architects for an expansion project consisting of a ballroom, meeting rooms, prefunction lobby areas and associated support spaces. Located on the Lake Superior waterfront, this 65,000-square-foot project will involve close coordination with the Duluth Waterfront Review Design Committee, the Duluth Planning Department and Duluth's Traffic Engineering Department to design a facility addresses the harbor and helps to revitalize lakeshore activities and development. In the area of sports facilities, LMN is providing options for the renovation of the 1930s gymnasium and 1970s field house at Lakeside School in Seattle, Washington. The study entails programming, evaluating existing conditions and conceptual design options for building improvements. The project will accommodate high school physical education and athletic programs for 440 students. LMN has also been selected by the University of Washington to program and design Phase II of its Electrical Engineering/Computer Science and Engineering Building. The project will provide 157,000 square feet of space to be used for research and teaching laboratories, as well as faculty and staff offices. Building spaces and systems will be flexible to adapt easily to changing technology and program needs. The building will create an identity for the two departments and provide an edge to the traditional neo-gothic campus core.

Hart Crowser

Catherine Steen has joined the Anchorage office of Hart Crowser as an associate compliance specialist. Prior to joining the firm, she worked for EMCON Alaska, where she was responsible for facility compliance, environmental auditing, hazardous materials management and historical research projects. William Waite has been hired in the Anchorage office as hazardous building materials specialist. His experience includes the closure of over 100 fuel storage tanks across Alaska. Currently, Waite is providing hazardous building materials survey, management and design services for the major renovations at the Anchorage International Airport.

Coffman

Jim Low has joined Coffman Engineers as senior engineer and will be working to establish a new communications division. He has 19 years of experience as a communications consultant and industrial engineer. Sarah Robson has joined the firm as a structural engineer. Her current projects include a new anchor retail facility at the Flatiron Crossing Mall in Broomfield, Colo., and River Park Square Retail Center in Spokane. Tina Dos Santos has joined the mechanical department at Coffman. Her past experience includes production for clients such as Boeing and the Chief Leschi School in Puyallup. She is currently working on projects for Microsoft and AT&T.

Kopczynski

John Tessem has been promoted to principal at Cary Kopczynski & Co. of Bellevue. He is currently managing the structural design of the 31-story Westlake Tower residential building; the 11-story Metropolitan Park North office building, also in downtown Seattle; and the 19-story Bellevue Technology Tower office building in downtown Bellevue; and the eight-story Avalon Hotel in Portland. Bill Ulmonen has been promoted to associate. Ulmonen, who is CAD manager for the firm, has been with CKC for the last 13 years, and has worked on the Nike World Campus parking structure in Beaverton, Ore., The Grove Hotel and Bank of America Centre in Boise, and the Rose Garden parking structures in Portland. He is currently working on Metropolitan Park North, Juniper Springs Lodge in Mammoth, Calif., and First and Broad, a mixed-use project also in downtown Seattle. Bart Needham has joined CKC as a senior project manager, and is now at work on the structural design of Sunrise Lodge, a condominium in Mammoth, Calif.; Metropolitan Park North in Seattle; and Gateway Place, an office park development in Mountlake Terrace.

RCA/Huitt-Zollars

Richard Larson has joined the Seattle office of RCA/Huitt-Zollars, (formerly Richard Carothers Associates) as vice president for transportation engineering. He spent 30 years as regional administrator for the south central division of the Washington Department of Transportation. Richard Petit has joined the firm as aviation specialist and returns to the Northwest from Dallas where he was deputy executive director of planning and development for the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Joseph O'Leary returned to the Seattle office of RCA/Huitt-Zollars as project manager after three years as director of engineering and airport operations at the Port of Bremerton. He will be directing marketing efforts toward regional airports and managing transportation projects. Tiffany Halperin has joined the firm as a landscape architect after graduating from Arizona State University and working with the Arizona Department of Transportation and the city of Tempe planning office.

Fisher & Sons

Warren Brehmer has joined Fisher & Sons of Burlington as project superintendent for a new 200,000-square-foot engineered wood products plant for Pacific Woodtech, and Joey Baker has been hired a clerk-of-the-works for the project. Susan Luvera-Chiabai has been promoted to marketing administrator with the firm. She was previously with Prescott and Colliers International. Beth Greatorex has replaced Luvera-Chiabai as contracts administrator.