June 25, 2003

Design Detailings: EBDG cruises to win Quick & Dirty Race

Dan Thrush, Mark Ranson and Jason Bone of Elliott Bay Design Group raced to first place in the Quick and Dirty Boatbuilding Competition.

With $15 in materials and ample determination, Elliott Bay Design Group recently won the Seattle Pacific Maritime Festival Quick & Dirty Boatbuilding Competition on Lake Union.

The Seattle-based naval architecture firm built a 19-foot, 4-inch rowboat using 1/4-inch plywood and 2x4s. With only six hours to build the craft, the team's focus was on winning the racing portion of the event.

The Quick & Dirty Race was made up of three qualifying heats, with the winner of each heat competing in the final race. The EBDG team set a new course record of 1 hour, 45 minutes. Jensen Maritime Consultants came in second and Vic Franks Boat Co. was third.

ACEC design forum tackles principal issues

The American Council of Engineering Companies of Washington is sponsoring an eight-part continuing education curriculum for design firm principals and new/aspiring principals. The series runs Sept. 11 through April 20.

Registration begins Tuesday, and the cost is $1,500 for ACEC Washington member firms or $2,500 for non-members. The participation fee includes: a pre-class social at Gordon Biersch in Seattle; eight, four-hour sessions; resource materials; continental breakfasts; and a final session lunch. It also includes free meeting registration for the ACEC Washington Winter Meeting on Jan. 7.

The sessions include such topics as leadership/professional development; finance and accounting; ownership transfer planning; and contracts and liabilities. Participants are asked to commit to attend all sessions. Participants are eligible for four professional development hours per session, for a total of 32.

Make checks payable to ACEC Washington, and mail along with registration to: ACEC Washington, 700 112th Ave. N.E. Suite 207, Bellevue 98004. For additional information, call ACEC Washington (425) 453-6655. Deadline for registration is Aug. 8.

Rice Fergus designs college bookstore

Bremerton's Rice Fergus Miller Architecture & Planning will work with the state of Washington and Olympic College to design the college's bookstore renovation and expansion. Keith Smith of GGLO will design the bookstore interior.

The project will include adding 3,600 square feet to the display and customer service areas, and a "convenience store" will be added to the existing space. The Bremer Student Center entrance will also be renovated along with the project.

Rice Fergus Miller is an architectural and planning firm in downtown Bremerton.

Architecture a draw at Predock's TAM

Tacoma Art Museum, which in May celebrated the grand opening of its new $22 million, Antoine Predock-designed building, recently announced that it exceeded projections for both attendance and revenues for the first month.

As of June 3, 17,683 people came to see the opening exhibitions, 118 percent of what the organization projected, compared with only 2,567 people who attended in May 2002. Admission revenues were 132 percent of projections, as well. The museum store, in its first month of operation, took in more revenues than the store did all year in the previous building: $92,000 in May 2003 versus $84,000 for the entire year of 2002.

The museum credits the response to positive reviews of the architecture, how well the architecture supports the museum's mission to connect the community to art, and interest in the inaugural exhibitions.

AIA: After 4 bad years, construction to rebound

AIA chief economist Kermit Baker recently projected a commercial construction upturn next year, reversing a four-year slide.

Baker said the bad news is that the recovery is taking longer to materialize than most expected. The consensus is that nonresidential construction will be down about 5 percent this year, the fourth straight year of decline in nonresidential contracts. Cumulatively, the decline over this period is likely to total almost 25 percent.

The good news is that there is a firm consensus that the situation will improve next year. Overall, the AIA Consensus Construction Forecast Panel is projecting an average increase of over 4 percent in nonresidential construction, with a 6 percent gain in commercial activity and a 15 percent increase in the industrial construction market.

For the whole forecast, go to http://www.aia.org/ecomark/tw0606/0606kermit_consensus.htm.