April 27, 2005

Design Detailings: Conference on coastal disasters

A conference on coastal disasters takes place next month in Charleston, S.C., covering lessons learned from recent hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunamis.

Coastal engineers will look at recent events at the "Solutions to Coastal Disasters" conference May 8-11. Topics will include erosion, hurricane landfall wind speeds, federal funding issues, emergency protection, forecasting and reconstruction.

The event is presented by the American Society of Civil Engineers. NOAA Coastal Services Center Director Margaret A. Davidson is one of the featured speakers. For more information see http://www.asce.org//conferences/cd05/.

Landmark board opening in Ballard

The Mayor's Office is seeking applicants for the Ballard Avenue Landmark District Board. The seven-member board regulates proposed exterior changes to buildings, structures and public rights-of-way.

The post is for a Ballard historian or someone with an interest in the Ballard community. Applicants should send a resume and letter of interest by May 15 to: Heather McAuliffe, Coordinator, Ballard Avenue Landmark District Board, 700 Third Ave. in Seattle. For more information, call Heather McAuliffe at (206) 684-0229.

San Francisco college picks LMN Architects

City College of San Francisco recently picked LMN Architects of Seattle for a joint venture with the San Francisco firm Tom Eliot Fisch. Three other candidates were considered to design a performing arts complex on the largest of the City College's 12 campuses.

The complex will have a 75,000-square-foot performing arts center and a 97,000-square foot-classroom/lab. Design is set to start this spring.

Otak hired for several projects

Otak has been selected to design several new projects, including the Seattle flagship store for the Environmental Home Center and infrastructure projects in Kirkland.

Pentalink Architecture chose Otak as technical architect for a $38 million expansion of the Foss Home campus in Seattle's Greenwood neighborhood. There will be 123 apartments, 36 nursing units and 15 assisted-care units, a new dining facility, courtyard garden and a 240-stall underground parking structure.

The city of Kirkland selected Otak for two infrastructure projects set for construction this summer. Otak will do surveying and civil engineering for a public sanitary sewer for residences in the Rose Hill neighborhood, and provide a sanitary sewer casing for a line that crosses Interstate 405 just south of Northeast 116th Street and Slater Avenue. This encasement is required for a proposed widening of I-405 later this summer, part of the I-405 Congestion Relief and Bus Rapid Transit Nickel Project.

Otak is a planning, architecture, design and engineering firm headquartered in Lake Oswego, Ore.

Sparling CEO joins ArtsFund

Sparling chief executive officer Jim Duncan was recently appointed to the board of trustees of ArtsFund.

The nonprofit raises about $4 million each year for 60 nonprofit arts organizations in King and Pierce counties.

Sparling designs electrical engineering and telecommunications systems.