MIT Break-Even Mitigation Metric Study released
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology released a new study entitled “A Break-Even Hazard Mitigation Metric” which claims confirmation of recent efforts by Build with Strength, a coalition of the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association to educate the design and construction communities in Seattle about the importance of using durable and resilient construction materials.

 

Using what is known as the BEMP, or Break Even Mitigation Percent, MIT says it is now possible to estimate the cost of weather hazards, reporting the study found that a $10 million non-engineered wood building would accrue $500,000 in weather-related damages over 50 years, while a $10 million engineered concrete building would only face $165,000 worth of damages over the same time period.

 

This MIT research proves useful when it comes to Seattle’s low-to-mid-rise residential sector as residents in those structures are more vulnerable to weather-related hazards than other parts of the country.

 

Kevin Lawlor of Build With Strength says in a press release that, “The National Weather Service estimated that weather events caused $4.2 billion in property damage across the United States last year,” the results of which were lambasted all over the news, showing devastated local economies and communities and the number of weather-related damages is only “expected to increase.”

 

Renovations complete on UW Tacoma’s McDonald-Smith Building
The University of Washington-Tacoma completed renovations on the 120-year-old McDonald-Smith Building in time for the new academic year.

 

The McDonald-Smith Building received a new mechanical and electrical system, code-required structural upgrades, a new roof, and structural openings to tie the building into the neighboring Cherry Parkes building. Additionally, the project team renovated approximately 30,000 sq ft on floors one through three, all of which required historical examination from The Landmarks Preservation Commission.

 

The most aesthetic representation of the renovations may be the installation of more than 116 Wausau windows, which simulate double-hung, arched top, fixed windows.

 

“The single-pane wood windows were original to the building and were in poor shape, especially on the west side of the building,” says Bassetti Architects associate principal in a press release. “As the building owner, UW Tacoma, wanted something with more modern performance that met the historic requirements, but wasn’t an operable window. The Landmarks Commission was particularly concerned that the profiles of the new window frames matched the historic windows as closely as possible.”

 

Washington State Convention Center expansion delayed
With a design commission meeting rescheduled for Sept. 1 as of press time, the Washington State Convention Center expansion project is experiencing delays. Seattle Design Commission Director Michael Jenkins said on August 25 that several items needed to be completed before the proposed project could even be reviewed by the design commission, claiming the Seattle Department of Transportation and the department of construction and inspections needed “fundamental issues” to be “resolv[ed]” before approval.

 

Last week, the WSCC Public Facilities District announced Clark Construction and Lease Crutcher Lewis would head the $1.4 billion expansion project as general contractor/construction manager, replacing Skanska-Hunt after reportedly settling a termination lawsuit with the latter for nearly $8 million just last month.

 

The Washington State Convention Center expansion sits between Ninth and Boren Avenues, from Howell Street to Pine Street, and includes three sites with street vacation requests. Current drafts for the expansion have designs with and without street vacations granted, with the proposed vacation request for Olive Way being subterranean, though public use would resume after construction is complete.

 

EC Company wins Zero Injury Award
A leading Pacific Northwest electrical and construction company, EC Company, received the 2016 National Electrical Contractor Association (NECA) Zero Injury Award for its Advanced Technology Division. This award highlights companies which have gone a full calendar year without recordable incidents. The company also won a 2016 Safety Excellence Award for company-wide performance.

 

NECA’s Safety Excellence and Zero Injury Awards program puts the spotlight on companies that are setting the bar for safety and health programs and regularly have OSHA recordable injury and fatality rates at levels lower than the industry standard.

 

Meanwhile, as the highest award given by the association, The Safety Excellence Award acknowledges superior safety performance from within the industry with winners selected based on their comparison to Bureau of Labor Statistics data and electrical contractors.

 

DBIA announces 2016 National Design-Build Project/Team Award winners
Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA) announced the 21st annual Design-Build Project/Team Award Winners, recognizing the best in collaboration and integration in design-build project delivery. An expert panel evaluated the nationwide winners.

 

The Pacific Northwest region had several winners in various categories including: The Cornish Commons at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle won in the Education Facilities category with a design-build team of Howard S. Wright, a Balfour Beatty Company, that developed a state-of-the-art live/learn facility quickly when the college realized they were losing the lease on their existing housing facilities in 2013. Ankrom Moisan Architects was the architect on the project.

 

Oregon Department of State Lands Office in Salem, Ore., received recognition in the Federal, State, County, Municipal category with a project that renovated 13,000 sq ft of office space, including demolition, new finishes, and mechanical and electrical improvements and control upgrades for the entire building as the first design-build project from the Oregon Department of Administrative Services. Fortis Construction Inc. was the design builder on the project and Hennebery Eddy Architects was the architect.

 

U.S. Coast Guard Base, Ketchikan, Alaska, received an Industrial, Process and/or research award. The $28 million project upgraded its fast-response cutter homeport, including the design and construction of a 15,000-sq-ft shop and hazardous materials building, a 400 ft floating dock for the USCG’s new fast response cutters, construction of a seawall to accommodate 20-ft tide line fluctuations, the relocation of an existing dock, a strengthened crane operations area, the demolition of an existing building, and the relocation of a 180-ft breakwater and debris deflector.

 

DBIA also recognized the team behind the Spokane Central Service Center, a consolidated fleet maintenance and solid waste facility in Spokane, Wash., also in the Federal, State, County, Municipal category, for a project that developed a design-build approach to creating operational efficiency and savings within the project. Garco Construction and Bernardo Wills Architects, PC​ made up the design-build team.

 

A full list of winners can be found on the DBIA website.