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2001 Awards

January 17, 2002

ACEC Awards honor innovation and complexity

By SAM BENNETT
Journal Staff Reporter

AWARDS
click links below for more info on each project
National Platinum Award: Washington State Convention and Trade Center expansion
National Gold Award: Tolt Treatment Facility
National Gold Award: Northeast 90th Street Bridge
National Silver Award: Railroad sanding tower, Cicero, Ill.
State Gold Award: Space Needle renovation and extension
National Silver Award: US-93, Montana
State Gold Award: Habitat restoration at Commencement Bay
State Gold Award: Pier 66 passenger boarding gangway
State Gold Award: Novelty Bridge replacement
State Gold Award: NewHolly redevelopment
State Silver Award: Northeast Ring Road
State Silver Award: Pacific Avenue overcrossing, Everett
State Silver Award: City of Kent emergency generator project
State Silver Award: City of Snoqualmie G.I.S.
Engineering, according to Jon Magnusson, is a team sport. But when the World Trade Center towers collapsed, it seemed local and national media wanted Magnusson, the CEO of Skilling Ward Magnusson Barkshire, to speak for team.

At first, Magnusson wondered if they had the right guy. "I was in sixth grade when the engineering of the towers was done," he said. But Magnusson, with the help of Ron Klemencic, Skilling's president, fielded 85 requests from journalists in the initial days following the collapse, and returned every interview request within an hour.

When Peter Jennings asked whether a terrorist with an engineering background could have planned the event, Magnusson said he was "disgusted" by the thought. "Engineers dedicate their entire career to keeping people safe. It's all about public safety."

Magnusson's willingness to explain the intricacies of Trade Center's painful engineering scenario helped secure his nomination for the American Council of Engineering Companies of Washington Engineer of the Year Award for 2001.

"As an engineer, I've been blessed to have great partners and great teachers, such as John Skilling," he said at last week's awards banquet in Bellevue. "Engineering is a team sport -- it's not about the individual. Most successful firms cultivate that."

Jon is an outstanding, well-rounded individual, a creative engineer, a brilliant communicator, and a successful businessman," said Brian McIntyre, chief operating officer of Skilling Ward Magnusson Barkshire Inc. "Each of us is lucky if we can excel in one of those arenas; to have all three excellently represented in one individual is unheard of."

Skilling Ward Magnusson Barkshire also won the National Finalists Platinum Award for the Washington State Convention and Trade Center. The convention center project, along with projects by four other local firms -- Camp Dresser & McKee, Entranco, Kennedy Jenks Consultant and Skillings-Connolly -- will be judged in the national competition.

All finalists will receive national recognition at the Washington, D.C., ACEC event on March 12.

ACEC this year introduced a best in state, local-only competition track to parallel the traditional national track. The local track competition was less costly and less time consuming to enter, with the panel and notebook requirements significantly reduced. Only the national track projects will be judged for the March 12 event.

Judges for the competition were Alan Coburn of the Army Corps of Engineers, Seattle District; John Blincoe of SeaCon; Steve Arai of Arai/Jackson Architects; and Dan Lyons, a retired engineer. Coburn said there was "virtual unanimity" among judges on the National Track candidates.


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