March 15, 2000

Design Detailings: Transportation group talks about 'traffic calming'

The Puget Sound chapter of the Women's Transportation Seminar, an organization of traffic and transportation professionals, is holding a dinner discussion tonight about "traffic calming," or traffic and transportation designs that make cities more pedestrian friendly.

The speakers include: Karen Gonzalez; neighborhood programs manager for the city of Bellevue; Joe Giacobazzi, a consultant with KPG Inc., and Pat O'Neill of the city of University Place.

The event will be held at The College Club, 505 Madison St. in Seattle. It begins with a social hour at 5:30 p.m.; dinner will be held at 6:30 p.m. The cost is $25 for members and $35 for nonmembers.

For more information, contact Kimberly Morley, (425) 348-2307.

Public to get a look at City Hall design

The public will have its first opportunity to view at a model and floor plans of Seattle's new $66 million City Hall at a design workshop from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 16, in the City Council Chambers, 11th floor, Municipal Building.

Seattle Mayor Paul Schell will join lead architect Peter Bohlin in presenting the schematic concept for the new City Hall. Bohlin of Bohlin Cywinski Jackson and Bassetti Architects are designers of the new City Hall.

The schematic concept for the Civic Plaza will be presented in April. The final schematic for both projects is due in mid-May.

Another public design discussion, "Enlivening a Public Space Downtown," will be held from noon to 1:30 p.m. on Friday, March 24 in Council Chambers.

Update on DCLU changes

The Seattle Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Structural Engineers Association of Washington are holding a dinner meeting on Tuesday, March 21, to discuss changes at the Seattle Department of Design Construction and Land Use.

Craig Ladiser and Tom Kinsman of the DCLU will provide an update on the department's reorganization, changes in the permitting process, the introduction of technical experts at intake appointments, pre-application site inspections for site-development projects and internal technical audits to improve quality.

The meeting begins at 5:30 p.m. with a social hour, followed by dinner at 6:30 p.m. and a 7:30 p.m. business meeting. The discussion begins at 7:45 p.m. The event will be held at the Ballard Yankee Diner, 5300 24th Ave. N.W. The cost is $25 per person. To make reservations, call (206) 682-6026 or e-mail. The reservation deadline is noon on Friday, March 17.

CECW features winning project

The Consulting Engineers Council of Washington State is holding a luncheon on March 23 that will spotlight KPFF's Terminal 5 Project, an Engineering Excellence Award winner this year. The luncheon will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Rock Salt Steak House, 1232 Westlake Ave. N., in Seattle.

Registration is $15 for retired CECW life members or retired engineers, $20 for CECW members and $25 for nonmembers. To register, call the CECW at (206) 623-5936 by March 16. Reservations can also be made online.

Class on controlling building moisture

The University of Washington is offering a continuing professional education class on moisture control and indoor air quality. The class will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Wednesday, March 29. Registration will be held from 8 to 8:30 a.m. The presenter is Joseph Lstiburek from the Building Science Corp. in Westford, Mass.

The class will be held at the Mountaineers Building, Olympus Room, 300 Third Ave. W., Seattle. The cost is $300 per person, which includes tuition, handouts, refreshments and lunch. Members of the American of Institute of Architects will receive seven learning units. For more information, contact Lyn Firkins, (206) 685-8222.

SMPS luncheon on coaching skills

The Seattle chapter of the Society of Marketing Professional Services is holding a luncheon program, "Powerful Coaching Skills: Five Tools for Marketing and Communications Success," on Thursday, March 23, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.The program is led by Norma Reiss, president of Wisdom at Work and a certified master coach. The cost of the event is $30 for SMPS members, $35 for member firms and $40 for nonmembers. Registration is due by March 20.

For more information or to register, visit the SMPS Seattle web site, or contact Tosha Vandegrift of GeoEngineers at (425) 861-6000.

Sparling gets kudos from United Way

Sparling, a Seattle electrical engineering and technology consulting firm, recently was presented with the "Extra Mile Award," honoring record contributions to the United Way in 1999. The new award was created through a partnership between the Consulting Engineers Council of Washington and the United Way of Washington to recognize engineering firms that generate extraordinary support, both corporate and employee, for the charity.

Sparling raised more money for the United Way than any other firm. Employee and corporate contributions totaled more than $111,600 in 1999 -- a 126 percent increase from 1998 contributions.

According to Sparling CEO Jim Duncan, more than 60 percent of the firm's staff contributed to United Way. He said that the firm kicked off its campaign in 1999 with a Halloween party, during which several principals competed in a hula hoop contest to generate contributions.

"Apparently the sight of the company executives gyrating inside hoops ignited our employees' generosity," Duncan said.

New foster-care center opens

Designed by DKA, formerly Donald King Architects, the new headquarters for The Casey Family Program Seattle was recently dedicated.

Located in Seattle's Central District, the 15,000-square-foot, two-story Casey Family Program building brings family support services closer to many users of the organization's long-term foster care services. The building is steel framed with a masonry veneer of brick and concrete block in three colors.

The siting of the building is at the street edge. Gabled dormer roofs and lower parapets were used at the back of the building to reflect the scale of the large older homes across the street. The facility includes staff offices, community meeting rooms and a kitchen.

Turner Construction was the general contractor. Other team members include Taylor Engineering Consultants, civil engineering; Peterson Strehle Martinson, structural engineering; Path Engineers, mechanical and electrical engineering; and Nakano Associates, landscape architecture.

The Casey Family Program is a Seattle-based private foundation, established by Jim Casey, a Seattle native and founder of United Parcel Service.

New name for Donald King Architects

Donald King Architects has changed its name to DKA, signifying a new era for the 15-person professional design firm.

"The new name better reflects the wide range of services and people that make up the firm," said Donald King, who started out as a sole proprietor in Seattle in 1985. DKA's staff of 15 provides planning, architecture, interior design and design management services on a variety of projects, including commercial and retail, transportation, health care, housing, libraries and schools.

Facilities management contest seeks entries

Entries are being accepted for the 2000 Facilities Management Excellence (FAME) Awards competition, a 16-year-old program sponsored by the Association for Facilities Engineering Foundation.

Eligible participants are plant and facilities engineers and managers representing large and small industrial plants, hospitals, commercial office buildings, governmental installations and education facilities.

Entries should reflect staff involvement on a facilities project completed within the last three years. Judges base their decisions on the project's originality, efficiency of problem-solving method used, measurability of results achieved, contribution to corporate objectives and applicability of the solution to comparable facilities.

The nonrefundable entry fee is $65 per entry for AFE members and $80 per entry for non-members. Entries and fees must be postmarked by July 28 and received at AFE headquarters no later than July 31.

For more information, go to the Web site or contact Gabriella Jacobs at gjacobs@afe.org.

Chicago group seeks design for park

The Chicago Architecture Club is sponsoring its Burnham Prize Competition to solicit designs for Millennium Park, a park along Michigan Avenue that is being rebuilt by the city.

Entrants are asked to articulate what a current and future vision for the public space could be.

The contest is open to architects and architectural degree graduates under 40 years old who are residents of Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Michigan, Ohio or Wisconsin. The registration deadline is March 28, and the submission deadline is April 11. The winner will receive a three-month scholarship to the American Academy in Rome.

For more information or to register, contact: The Chicago Architecture Club, I-Space Gallery, 230 W. Superior St., Chicago, IL 60610, or go to the Web site.

PSU looking for urban planning instructors

The Urban and Regional Planning program at Portland State University would like to identify a pool of professionals who are qualified to teach in the graduate program. Applicants should send a resume, a list of courses that the applicant is qualified to teach and a description of teaching approaches to: Sy Adler, Director, School of Urban Studies and Planning, Portland State University, P.O. Box 751, Portland, OR 97207.

For more information, e-mail adlers@pdx.edu.

Shannon & Wilson cited for work on 'Big Dig'

Alexander Feldman, Gerard Buechel, Michael Kucker and Hollie Ellis of Shannon &Wilson with John McRae of Geokon Inc. have been awarded Best Paper at the 1999 Fifth International Symposium on Field Measurements in Geomechanics, held in Singapore.

The paper, "Instrumentation Program for Boston Red Line Subway Tunnel," discusses Shannon & Wilson's design and installation of a unique instrumentation program to monitor the structural integrity of the existing Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's Red Line Subway Tunnels. The project involves constructing six concrete immersed tube tunnel sections across Boston's Fort Point Channel. It is one component of the Massachusetts Highway Department's "Big Dig" -- an $11 billion project that will include 11 underground highway lanes, making it the nation's largest freeway project.

Shannon & Wilson is a subconsultant to Gannett Fleming on the project.

AIA awards 2000 Institute Honors

Five individuals and two organizations were honored by The American Institute of Architects as recipients of the 2000 Institute Honors for Collaborative Achievement for exceptional contributions to the design and architecture community.

The awards will be conferred in May at the 2000 AIA National Convention and Expo in Philadelphia. The recipients are: lighting designer William Lam, Cambridge, Mass.; acoustical designer Christopher Jaffe, Norwalk, Conn.; architecture professor and artist Douglas Cooper, Pittsburgh; researcher, planner, and consulting architect of judicial facilities projects F. Michael Wong, Beverly Hills, Calif.; pioneers in the field of color and architectural paints Donald Kaufman and Taffy Dahl, New York; the San Antonio Conservation Society, San Antonio; and the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, Geneva.

For more information about the 2000 AIA Awards program, call Robin Lee at (202) 626-7390.