May 04, 2022

Rice Fergus Miller

Fergus

Rice Fergus Miller announced the retirement of Dave Fergus, long-time principal and market leader for the firm's robust fire and emergency services market. Fergus will retire on June 1 2022. The Bremerton-based architecture, interiors, and planning firm has over 54 employees, over 20 of whom are working exclusively on the design and construction administration of fire stations, 9-1-1 call centers, and fleet and logistics facilities across Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. Fergus joined the firm in 1987, shortly after the founding by Steve Rice, who himself retired in December 2021. The two led the firm, then known as Rice Fergus Architects, until Mike Miller joined in 1990. The firm became known as Rice Fergus Miller and expanded from community projects and fire stations to include healthcare and senior living. Today, the firm works on fire services and civic projects, healthcare, hospitality, senior living, market-rate and affordable housing projects throughout the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Additionally, Rice Fergus Miller has become known as a leader in serving Coast Salish Tribes with culturally appropriate architecture, interior design, and planning services.

One of the projects Fergus is most proud of was the design of the Kitsap 9/11 Memorial. While not only honoring the 343 FDNY firefighters who perished that day, the memorial recognizes those who survived and those who saved the life of someone else at the cost of their own. As Fergus steps away four principals will continue to lead the firm: Greg Belding, Jennifer Fleming, Dean Kelly, and Gunnar Gladics. Gladics will take the reigns of fire and emergency services market.

PACE Engineers, Inc.

Greenhaw

Vehige

PACE Engineers, Inc. announced the addition of two new hires to its engineering group: Don Vehige and Kristal Greenhaw. Vehige is a principal planner with over 20 years of experience including subdivisions, master-planned communities, and mixed-use projects of various scales and levels of complexity. These efforts include streetscapes, parks and trail systems, and customized development standards. Greenhaw is a senior project manager with 28 years of experience specializing in land development, transportation engineering, highways, telecommunications, and stormwater design.

ScharrerAD

Brescia

ScharrerAD promoted Frank Brescia, AIA to principal. Brescia has 16 years of experience and has led many of ScharrerAD's transit and agency projects, including multiple Sound Transit early and final designs for Link Light Rail and Bus Rapid Transit stations. He is a LEED Accredited Professional and has also served NCARB on their Continuing Education Evaluation Work Group.

Weber Thompson

Schultz

Kataria

Wilson

Stout

Porter

Riibe

Castro

Weber Thompson has promoted seven staff members to new leadership positions in the firm. Brittany Porter AIA, CPHC, LEED GA and John Stout AIA, LEED AP BD+C have been promoted to senior associate. Laurie Wilson AIA, Tanya Kataria LEED AP, Erik Schultz AIA, Sam Castro RA, and Leslie Riibe have been promoted to associate.

Senior Associate Brittany Porter joined WT's Workplace Design Studio in 2018, bringing a wealth of highly sustainable experience, including managing the design and construction of one of Washington State's first multifamily Passive House buildings. She is a frequent speaker on sustainable design principles, a certified Passive House consultant, and a past Board Member for Passive House Northwest. Brittany is the Young Architects Regional Director for the AIA Northwest & Pacific Region, acting as liaison to the Committee on the Environment. Currently, she is working on Northlake Commons, a mass timber, lab-ready building pursuing LEED Gold certification.

Senior Associate John Stout is a core member of Weber Thompson's high rise design studio. He brings a passion for high rise design, advancement and technology to his skyline changing design work on projects such as Nexus, The Ivey and the Ayer. Stout serves on the board for the CTBUH and is highly active in mentoring programs at the University of Washington Department of Architecture.

Associate architect Laurie Wilson is a senior project manager in Weber Thompson's Affordable Housing Team, working to deliver mixed-use projects such as the Opportunity Center at Othello Square and the SCIDpda North Lot project on the historic Pacific Medical Center campus. Wilson is one of the first African-American women architects licensed in Washington State. She was a founder of the “Cities for All Project,” and has supported organizations including Africatown Community Land Trust, King Street Station Arts, The Black Farmer's Collective, as well as numerous planning and design boards.

Associate Tanya Kataria is a designer in WT's affordable housing team. She is a member of the Citizen's Housing Commission in the City of Edmonds, working on public policy that promote diverse, affordable housing options. More recently, she was admitted to AIA National Next To Lead program, a pilot leadership program that removes barriers to AIA Leadership positions for ethnically diverse women.

Associate Sam Castro is Weber Thompson's BIM Manager and a licensed architect. He leads the firm's Revit User Group and is engaged in local and wide-ranging BIM roundtables. He also consults on WT's IT and technology initiatives.

Associate Erik Schultz is a project architect in Weber Thompson's Workplaces Studio leading a mass timber, lab ready high rise through documentation. Outside of his projects Schultz is a member of WT's Revit group, presenting to the office, developing content, and providing overall consulting and BIM office Hours to the office. He is also a staunch advocate for Scrum and has presented to the office this alternative method for project delivery.

Associate Leslie Riibe is a senior graphic designer at Weber Thompson, a member of WT's might marketing team. She is the designer and gatekeeper of Weber Thompson's brand assets and consults with project team on building signage. Riibe has contributed to environmental graphics for a number of WT projects include Ascent, Marlowe, Watershed, and Northlake Commons. She is an active member of her Toastmasters group and frequently contributes her design talents to non-profits, including the Seattle Architecture Foundation, Passive House Northwest and the AIA Diversity Roundtable. In 2016 she added a certificate in User-Centered Design from the University of Washington to her educational experience.

Golden Hills Wind Farm

Avangrid Renewables, a subsidiary of AVANGRID, Inc. announced that it has achieved commercial operation at its 200 Megawatt Golden Hills wind farm in Sherman County, Oregon. The facility, which provides enough clean, renewable electricity to Puget Sound Energy to power over 60,000 homes annually, began operations on April 29. The project will help PSE meet its goals to reduce carbon dioxide emissions while providing additional capacity to serve customers, particularly during winter periods. The project is Avangrid Renewables' seventh wind project in Sherman County, 11th in Oregon, and 14th in the Pacific Northwest. The Power Purchase Agreement for the project was signed in May 2020 as part of PSE's commitment to the environment and deep decarbonization by investing in more wind energy. The addition of the Golden Hills wind project increases PSE's owned and contracted wind fleet to over 1,150 megawatts. The project is expected to deliver over $220 million in landowner payments and local taxes over its lifetime. Avangrid Renewables acquired the Golden Hills project in September 2017 from the original developer of the project, Orion Wind Resources, a joint venture between Orion Renewable Energy Group and Eolian. Avangrid Renewables is headquartered in Portland.

Paint Recycling Program

PaintCare released the first annual report for its Washington paint recycling program. The program, which is guided by the state's paint stewardship law (SHB 1652), officially launched on April 1, 2021. In its first nine months of operation, PaintCare collected 581,363 gallons of paint, diverting most of it out of landfills and putting it to beneficial use. Now, a year into collection, PaintCare estimates that Washingtonians have dropped off approximately 842,000 gallons of unwanted paint. The paint recycling program allows people to recycle unwanted paint at a network of 210 drop-off sites across the state. PaintCare is a nonprofit organization created by the paint industry through the American Coatings Association to manage leftover paint in states that have enacted paint stewardship laws. PaintCare also offers free on-location pickup to businesses, organizations and households with 100 gallons of paint or more to recycle. The paint stewardship law includes a small fee — called the PaintCare fee — on the sale of any new paint in the state, which funds all aspects of the program including paint collection, transportation, processing and public education. Information regarding drop-off sites and the type of products accepted is available at http://www.paintcare.org/.

City of Tacoma

The Tacoma Employees' Retirement System (TERS) is seeking applications for the resident member position on the TERS Board. Applications are due May 27. This is a three-year volunteer position, with an opportunity to be reappointed, for a Tacoma resident who is not employed by the city of Tacoma. TERS Board members are responsible for maintaining the financial health of the system and high quality service to its participants. A defined benefit plan providing retirement benefits to city of Tacoma employees, TERS serves about 3,000 active members and 3,000 deferred and retired members. Retirement benefits are funded by employer and member contributions, as well as investment earnings. Application forms, submission instructions and details on the TERS plan, are available at http://www.cityoftacoma.org/retirement/.

May 03, 2022

Standard Insurance

Malagamba

Portland-based Standard Insurance (The Standard) announced that Amy Malagamba has been named assistant vice president of marketing. In her new role, Malagamba will be responsible for corporate-wide marketing strategy and services including brand, sales enablement, creative services and marketing communications. Malagamba has more than 30 years of experience in corporate communications. She joined The Standard's corporate marketing and communications organization in 2013 and was promoted to second vice president of corporate communications in 2015. Prior to joining The Standard, Malagamba held leadership roles in communications, investor relations and marketing at firms including Tektronix and Mentor Graphics. The Standard, in business since 1906, is a family of companies dedicated to helping customers achieve financial well-being.

Clean Energy Fund

The Clean Energy Fund of the Washington state Department of Commerce has funded Qualco Energy to deploy a hydrogen generation solution from Modern Electron. The Qualco Energy renewable biogas project in Snohomish County leverages Modern Electron's cost-efficient and environmentally friendly method for producing clean hydrogen with no CO2 emissions. Qualco Energy, a partnership of the Tulalip Tribes, Northwest Chinook Recovery and the Werkhoven Dairy, will deploy Modern Electron's natural gas pyrolysis technology to produce clean hydrogen. By using cow manure in a digester instead of applying it directly to farm fields, Qualco helps to prevent the cow manure from being washed into streams and rivers. The biogas is also used to generate electricity used by the Snohomish County Public Utility District No. 1. The pilot plant will be implemented at a bio digestor site operated by Qualco Energy located at a dairy farm in Monroe.

Dept. of Commerce

Washington Department of Commerce Director Lisa Brown announced two new appointments to key leadership roles in the state agency. Veteran journalist Liz Rocca joins Commerce's executive leadership team as communications director, and Stephanie Bowman is Commerce's new maritime industry sector lead. Rocca joins Commerce from the King County Sheriff's Office, where she served as chief of staff and media relations manager. In addition to her role as a strategic and policy adviser, she managed all internal and external communications initiatives, and served as a liaison with the King County Council, Executive's Office and Office of Law Enforcement Oversight. Rocca was also a reporter and newsroom manager, including with Seattle television stations KIRO, KCPQ and KOMO. Bowman is responsible for developing and implementing state policies that support the sustainability and expansion of the maritime industry in Washington, and will work closely with maritime businesses, supporting international trade and shipping, Washington state export businesses, the commercial fishing industry and recreational boating. Bowman served for eight years as a commissioner for the Port of Seattle, where she led the effort to combine the marine cargo operations of the Ports of Seattle and Tacoma, resulting in formation of the NW Seaport Alliance. Prior to her elected public service, Bowman worked on federal port, international trade and transportation policy in Washington D.C., and for more than 15 years on regional and state economic development issues.

Sequoyah

Zemanek

Curre

Redmond-based electrical and technologies contractor Sequoyah promoted Kyle Curre to preconstruction manager and hired Zoey Zemanek as senior marketing and communications specialist. Curre, part of Sequoyah's team since 2012, began his career as a field supervisor. The company says his unique combination of practical field experience and conceptual thinking spurred his pursuit of a management career, and starting in estimating, he quickly found his passion in preconstruction, engineering and pre-planning. Zemanek is assisting the marketing team in project pursuits, as well as internal and external communication campaigns.

AGC of America

Associated General Contractors of America named Boise State University as one of its most successful student chapters of 2021. BSU's chapter won the Construction Management Skills Award for its effort to restore the historic “woodshed” at Schick-Ostolasa Farmstead. To go along with the award, the chapter received $2,000, as well as an additional $1,000 travel stipend to attend AGC's annual convention. Two other schools — University of Massachusetts Amherst and Kansas State University — also won awards.

AGC Southern District

SAK Builders, FPH Construction, Gino Campanoli Crane Service, Sound Glass Sales and Palmer Scholars joined the Associated General Contractors of Washington's Southern District in Tacoma.