Thursday, June 28, 2012
Jim Duncan: recession will result in
‘stronger firms and better buildings’
By LYNN PORTER
Journal Staff Reporter
Jim Duncan, former CEO and chairman
of Sparling, has retired after 36 years.
During his tenure, the Seattle-based electrical engineering and technology consulting firm grew from 12 to 140 employees.
He was Sparling’s chief electrical engineer from 1990 through 2008, named president in 1991 and became the firm’s first
CEO in 2000, a position he held for six
years.
Over the years, Sparling expanded into
wired and wireless telecommunications,
as well as audiovisual and acoustical
consulting.
Eric Overton was named CEO in 2007 in
a planned transition, the firm said.
Duncan worked on a range of buildings,
from the Experience Music Project to electrical engineering and computer science
buildings at the University of Washington
to projects for the Sisters of Providence
Hospitals. He also led design teams for
work in Japan, Russia and Korea. Duncan
studied sustainable design in a number
of countries, and in 2000 partnered with
Seattle City Light and Washington State
University to design a solar PV demonstration project at Seattle Center.
Sparling said he also helped companies
collaborate with state agencies to improve
project delivery and contracting on state
projects.
He is a fellow of the American Council
of Engineering Companies and an honorary member of AIA Seattle and the AIA
Washington Council.
Born in Baltimore, he holds an electrical engineering degree from Clemson
University and a master’s in business
administration from Seattle University.
The Daily Journal of Commerce recently talked to Duncan about his career and
the future. Here are his answers, edited
for space:
Q: What is the most interesting
project you have worked on?
A: In 1982, David Miller of the Miller
Hull Partnership asked me to design
the electrical and technology systems
for a digital diagnostic imaging center
on Capitol Hill. This was the first MRI
and all-digital imaging center in the
Northwest. No more film.
The space was above a parking garage
— and the first generation of MRIs
was extremely sensitive to metal nearby.
When a car drove
underneath the MRI,
the images would
show dark areas that
looked like tumors.
With our design,
steel plates were
installed on the
garage ceiling and
within the MRI space,
so cars wouldn’t
alter the images.
Duncan
David also designed
the space with indirect lighting to create a soothing environment for patients.
This first-of-its-kind project was successful. Sparling designed practically
all the MRI and CAT imaging suites in
the Northwest for the next 10 years and
they continue to do so for a significant
number of health care facilities today.
Q: What do you see as the most lasting effect of the recession on your
industry?
A: Stronger firms and better buildings. The downward pressure on fees is
intense and owners are demanding more
for less, and more efficient design teams.
A&E firms are responding by becoming
better at integrated design and expanding their knowledge. The best are offering more innovation, deeper expertise
in particular markets and adding niche
services.
Q: What advancement in your field
will have the greatest impact?
A: Making buildings more energy efficient to reduce national energy consumption. Buildings account for roughly
40 percent of U.S. energy use, and they
use 60 percent of the power supplied
by the power grid. Two Seattle Living
Building Challenge projects are target-
ing net zero consumption of energy
and water.
In the electrical field, greater use of
day lighting, more efficient lighting like
LED, and sophisticated smart building
control systems are greatly reducing
energy consumption of buildings.
Q: You volunteer in the arts and
architecture. Why?
A: I have a love of beautiful and practical design and believe the arts inspire
design.
I cannot imagine life without the arts.
Exceptional buildings are not just spaces, but positive places that inspire. Some
examples are two Sparling projects with
LMN Architects: Benaroya Hall and
McCaw Hall. They welcome audiences
with dramatic glass-walled lobbies and
offer performance spaces that delight
and inspire.
Q: What’s the biggest change you’ve
seen in real estate development lately?
A: Buildings are now created based on
optimum energy modeling plus onsite
energy systems such as solar and geothermal.
With the city of Seattle’s new requirement for owners to disclose building
energy consumption to buyers, there’s
incentive to create energy efficiency
and lower operating costs. Research
also shows tenants choose more sustainable buildings.
More than 300 architects, engineers,
developers and Seattle officials have
traveled the world to study sustainable
design and development, helping to
make this region a sustainable design
leader.
I have gone on such tours. I just
returned from Barcelona, which has
redeveloped its waterfront with pedestrian walkways and bicycle paths,
beaches, parks and mixed-use neighborhoods. Another area called Poblenou,
transformed 115 blocks in an industrial
area into a vibrant, diverse, hip part
of the city with 10 universities, 45,000
jobs, thousands of residents and inno-
Article reprinted by permission of the Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce (www.djc.com)
vative district energy systems.
Q: If you weren’t an engineer,
what would you be?
I love being an engineer, working
beside the smart, creative, passionate
people at Sparling and Candela along
with the world’s finest architects,
engineers, owners and contractors.
But, I would also love to be a symphony conductor. It would be a joy to
bring people together to play beautiful music in harmony.
Q: What’s next?
A: I will continue to give back,
including to the arts, which inspire
and challenge me.
I am chair of the ArtsFund board
of trustees, on the Benaroya Hall
board, co-chair of the Center for
Wooden Boats capital campaign,
and am involved with Seattle Rotary,
United Way, Northwest Harvest,
Seattle Architecture Foundation and
Cleantech Open.
I also continue to improve and
author the National Electrical Code
and am exploring opportunities to
serve on corporate boards.
And I would like to see more of the
world with my wife, Gaylee.