November 24, 2004

Design Detailings: NW AIA chapter awards Dec. 10

The Northwest Washington chapter of the American Institute of Architects will recognize regional architecture on Dec. 4 at the Whatcom Museum of History and Art from 7:30 to 9 p.m.

Architects from Island, San Juan, Skagit and Whatcom counties submitted entries for the chapter's design awards.

Jurors were: Dale Stenning of Hoffman Construction; Marcia Wagoner, former executive director of the Seattle Design Commission; urban planner David Hewitt; and developer Bob Hall.

The event is free and open to the public. See projects online through Dec. 10 at http://www.nwaia.org.

Zimmer Gunsul gets LEED-CI certification

Architecture, planning and interior design firm Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership announced its Seattle office is one of the first to get the U.S. Green Building Council's new Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification for commercial interiors.

ZGF staff designed its 20,000-square-foot office, located on the 24th floor of the IDX Tower at 925 Fourth Ave.

The offices have ergonomic chairs and recycled carpet. Special plumbing fixtures cut water use by a fifth, and workstations use aluminum bases and FSC certified wood. Sensors turn off lights when they're not in use.

Parker heads tunneling group

Harvey Parker, a Seattle-based consulting civil engineer, was elected in Singapore to a three-year term as president of the International Tunneling Association, an organization with members from 53 nations that is based in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Parker is ITA's representative to the United Nations and ITA's spokesperson on sustainable development and tunnel security. He has consulted on major facilities for railroad, highway, water and waste, transit, hydroelectric, port, defense and mining in more than 15 countries.

Prior to starting a private consulting practice, he was senior vice president at Shannon & Wilson in Seattle, and president of their international subsidiary.

ECS Engineering marks 10th year

ECS Engineering announced the start of its 10th year of operation. David Bloxom started the electrical and control systems engineering company in Mill Creek, and it now has 20 staff in offices in Bothell and Wenatchee.

ECS recently finished projects for King County Transit, Seattle Public Utilities and the cities of Enumclaw, Moses Lake and Cottage Grove, Ore.

Nominations due for engineering awards

The Civil Engineering Research Foundation seeks nominations for its 2005 Charles Pankow Award for Innovation, which recognizes collaborations that take new approaches to design, materials use or research.

U.S. and international public, private, academic or government organizations are eligible to apply. Deadline is Jan. 14, 2005. The award will be presented at an ASCE event next April.

AISC offers free seismic seminar

The American Institute of Steel Construction offers a free online seminar to engineers on the 2002 AISC seismic provisions.

It covers new materials, compactness requirements, changes to special truss moment frames and other topics. Presenter Thomas A. Sabol is president of consulting structural engineering company Englekirk & Sabol of Los Angeles.

A processing fee for CEU certification is $25 for AISC members, or $50. For more information, see http://www.aisc.org/seminars.

IA Interior Architects

Associates Nancy Heywood and Kim Parsley of IA Interior Architects have recently achieved LEED accreditation. Parsley is involved in the SSA Auburn Teleservice Center, a project designed to LEED-silver standards. Chien Chen joined the Seattle office as a project manager.