October 2, 2002

Design Detailings: Rice Fergus Miller wins 3 contracts

Rice Fergus Miller Architecture & Planning in Bremerton was recently awarded three fire service projects -- a fire station for the eastern Pierce County town of Carbonado; a new administration and classroom building for the Bellingham Fire Department; and remodeling of the headquarters station for Fire District No. 18 in Poulsbo.

Rice Fergus Miller has developed an expertise in fire and emergency services projects, assisting departments throughout western Washington.

DLR helps S.F. Housing Authority

DLR Group of Portland recently completed a comprehensive needs assessment for the San Francisco Housing Authority. The results were "a bigger success than we ever imagined," said Dan Sandall, principal at DLR Group’s Portland office and leader of the firm’s facility asset management evaluation studio.

In accordance with existing resident employment goals, the housing authority asked DLR to hire as many residents as possible to conduct the study. Thirty housing authority residents were hired, primarily to help conduct physical inspections of approximately 6,000 housing authority housing units on 44 properties totaling approximately 5.3 million square feet of space.

The assistants gathered quantitative data from housing authority properties, such as: numbers of doors, numbers of windows, total square footage of concrete patios -- all of which would be combined with professional condition assessment data to comprise complete study results. Administrative assistants helped set up DLR Group’s local office, assembled initial inspection packets, performed data entry, participated in quality control reviews, and printed final reports.

When complete, the assessment reports will be used to secure funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for neighborhood revitalization programs covering housing authority needs for the next five to 20 years. And the residents get to build a marketable skill set for future employment, which is a goal in the housing authority's program. The final report was submitted to HUD for review after four months from project initiation to completion.

DLR Group is an architecture, engineering, planning and interiors firm with 18 offices across the United States.

Security theme of ASCE conference

The American Society of Civil Engineers will host three conferences in one, from Nov. 3 to Nov. 7, in Washington, D.C. The conference will include the Civil Engineering Conference and Exposition, the Infrastructure Security Partnership and the First Annual Congress on Infrastructure Security for the Built Environment. The conferences will be held at the Washington, D.C. Convention Center.

The conference brings together government leaders with civil engineers and other professionals and experts in construction, facilities design, operations and security to exchange information about today's infrastructure security challenges.

Program presentations feature major government executives, a federal forum on professional, business, innovation and security issues, and critical discussions with anti-terrorism experts. There will also be nearly 200 technical sessions, tours of D.C.'s historic civil engineering landmarks, ASCE's 150th anniversary celebrations and hundreds of vendors and service providers to the civil engineering, construction and infrastructure security industries.

The event Web site is www.asce.org/conferences/annual02. For more information, call (703) 295-6024.