Volume 35 / Number 1
Summer 2010
Hoffman Skyline
First Look:
Volume 35 / Number 1
A Mammoth Move at a
Hoffman Project
Justin Paterson, Editor
David Stroup, Writer
Jason Harris, Design & Layout
Feedback welcomed:
503-221-8924 or
[email protected]
Published by Hoffman Corporation
for Hoffman Construction
Companies in the interest of staff,
personnel and friends.
Oregon Office
805 SW Broadway, Suite 2100
Portland, Oregon 97205
Washington Office
1505 Westlake Ave. N, Suite 500
Seattle, Washington 98109
Cover photo:
A view of the expansive light-filled
exhibition floor of the Evergreen
Space Museum taken from the
catwalk.
Cover photo by Eckert & Eckert
photography
Printed on Recycled
Paper using Soy-based Ink
recycled paper
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Skyline
Printed on recycled paper
It’s a stunning world’s first: Hoffman (with a team led
by Dave Garske and Rick Jenkins, and partners KPFF,
Carr Construction, Columbia Wire and Iron, Group
Mackenzie and Campbell Crane) mounted a Boeing
747 on top of the half-completed Evergreen Water
Park. Visitors to the park will be able to climb into the
plane and ride waterslides all the way down to pools
at the ground floor.
Su m m e r 20 10
Contents
Evergreen Space Museum: The Final Frontier Comes Home To Oregon... 4
OSU’s Kearney Hall: A Surprise Package For Construction Students........ 8
Fire Station 10: Building A Home For Neighborhood Heroes................. 12
Shilshole Marina: Come Sail Away........................................................... 16
CAWS Raises The Bar For Diversity.......................................................... 20
Final Four................................................................................................... 22
Kearney Hall
Fire Station 10
Evergreen Space Museum
Shilshole Bay Marina
Summer 2010
3
Evergreen
Space
Museum:
The Final
Frontier
Comes Home To
Oregon
It’s not every
day that you get
to build a new home
for a piece of history.
4
Skyline
The raised walkway that crosses the front of the museum affords a sweeping view of the artifacts on display on the main floor.
The new Evergreen Space Museum
in McMinnville was designed
with two goals in mind: creating
a regional visitor attraction and
providing a permanent home for
one of America’s space shuttles,
when the program is ended and
NASA releases the craft.
The goal has been to make the
Evergreen museum complex — now
featuring the Space and Aviation
galleries as well as other facilities,
and with more coming soon — into
a world-class visitor destination for
the entire West Coast.
Just when that will happen is up
to NASA, but the Space Museum
opened in 2008 as the latest
addition to the growing Evergreen
campus — already home to the
Aviation Museum, built by Hoffman
in 2001, which houses the largest
aircraft ever flown, the Spruce
Goose .
A Space-Age
Education for Kids
“It’s the largest space museum west
of the Mississippi,” said Evergreen
Museums Director of Operations
Philip Jaeger. “It tells the whole
story, it’s very complete. It’s not
broken up into little galleries.
“The space is so big, the transitions
are very smooth.”
Opposite: The Titan II exhibit
“We had 73 different teachers from
Oregon and Washington at a recent
teacher workshop”, said Evergreen
Director of Education Tyson Smith.
“Presenters from NASA Ames
Research Center came to talk with us
about what’s upcoming with NASA,
and we had presenters talking
about teaching.”
The huge space that Hoffman built
is shared by priceless exhibits and
students who come to do a lot more
than just look at the rockets and
satellites in the Evergreen collection.
“The mission is to inspire and
educate,” Jaeger said. “It opens
up our options for what we can
deliver.”
“They build and launch rockets,”
Smith said. “We do water-bottle
rockets, and they learn to budget —
to look at different resources that
they have available to them. They
love it and the teachers love it —
they have a lot of fun. They think
it’s fun, and the teachers think it’s
educational.”
Owners:
Evergreen International
Aviation
Design Team:
Scott/Edwards
Architecture
MCA Architects
(Interiors)
W/D/Y Consulting
Structural Engineers
WRG Design, Inc.
History, Brought
Down to Earth
Interface Engineering, Inc.
The building itself is a mirror image
of the Aviation Museum — which
means it presented some of the
same construction challenges. To
create a vast interior scaled for the
shuttle (and some towering current
exhibits), five 300-foot scissor trusses
were installed in three separate
Summer 2010
5
“It’s the
largest space
museum
west of the
Mississippi. It
tells the whole
story, it’s very
complete.”
Evergreen Museums
Director of Operations
Philip Jaeger
Students are greeted on the
museum’s opening day; youth
programs and classes are a big
part of the museum’s mission.
Exhibits
Include:
•Titan II Space
Launch Vehicle
•X-15 Rocketplane
•Mercury Capsule
•Gemini Replica
•SR-71A
•Redstone Rocket
•Vostock/Photon
Spacecraft
•Atlas S-3 Rocket
Engine
•SK-1 Spacesuit
•Berkut Spacesuit
•Lunar Module
Replica
•Lunakhod
•Skylab Airlock
Training Mockup
•X-58 Crew Return
Vehicle
sections; extensive pre-engineering
was required for the site-cast
precast panels, featuring seeded
two-inch aggregate and weighing
over 80,000 pounds apiece, that had
to be stacked four high with zero
tolerance.
In addition, the Space Museum
added a new twist in the form of a
40-foot-deep “missile pit” inside the
structure, designed to house what is
for now its biggest exhibit: a Titan II
Space Launch Vehicle.
“The biggest problem was the
water table,”Project Manager Dave
Garske said. In fact, it took eight
pumps to keep the pit free of water
while Hoffman dug it in the middle
of a typically rainy Oregon winter.
“There were 55 tie-backs that we
had to put in, 70 into 90 feet into
the soil,” said Superintendent Rick
Jenkins. Between the long-span
trusses and the deep pit, it was a
challenging job.
“There’s a lot of personal
satisfaction on a job like this,”
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Skyline
Jenkins said. “You don’t get to
do a structure like this very often,
and then after you build this cool
structure you get to stand up a Titan
rocket and hang up an X-15.”
The pit and Titan SRV are the
centerpiece of the museum; the
deep pit also includes a recreation of
a mission control facility; visitors can
follow a spiral stair to the bottom
to view the rocket up close and
personal.
“The entire exhibit radiates out
from it,” said Jaeger. Before
the construction of the new
museum, the missile was displayed
horizontally. “It didn’t do it justice
until we put it vertical. Part of the
exhibit’s architectural goals was
to put as many rockets vertical as
possible.”
Now, the Space Launch Vehicle
has a place of honor up front in
the museum, on the side facing
the highway, visible through an
expansive floor-to-ceiling glass wall.
An Exciting Space
with Exacting Specs
Other artifacts on display include
Gemini and Apollo capsules, an X-15
and a Sea King helicopter. Adding
the artifacts and working with the
company contracted to create the
displays and exhibits meant intense
coordination during the challenging
construction job.
MCA Architects designed the
interior space. Dan Gates said many
of the decisions were driven by the
input of Evergreen Aviation founder
Del Smith; the museums were
founded by his son, Captain Michael
King Smith. The design includes a
viewing bridge that runs along the
all-glass south wall.
“It gives a different vantage
point for some of the patrons to
see the artifacts from a different
perspective,” Gates said. He’s
pleased with the way the design
turned out: “Holistically it’s a pretty
spectacular space,” he said. “I think
it’s exciting, and I think it’s what Mr.
Smith wanted.”
The artifacts housed in the museum
are irreplaceable relics of the space
race, and housing them required
perfect museum-grade climate
control for the huge structure: The
temperature is 70 degrees plus
or minus two degrees, and the
humidity is 50 percent plus or minus
five percent.
It was tricky to achieve that in a
huge building with an enormous
south-facing glass wall. “We did a
lot of modeling of the HVAC system
to get it to work,” Garske said.
Creating perfect conditions inside
the hangar-size building required
massive ductwork and complex
computer controls.
become known as ‘Evergreen
signature stone,’ hand-set on the
tilt-up panels, as well as fine finishes
and wood throughout.
Some exhibits required additional
measures. The Mercury capsule, for
example, has to be protected from
ultraviolet light, so Hoffman built a
special room around it.
“The point of the facility was that
it blend in with its surroundings,”
said Evergreen spokesperson Nicole
Wahlberg. “And Hoffman was
good with that — creating a lodgelike building that fits in with the
area.” And with the huge glass wall
showing off its biggest exhibits, “it’s
definitely a highway stopper!”
Hoffman put in extensive work
to prepare the site for winter
construction, adding access roads
so that the company could work
through the winter without being
impacted by heavy rains. The
building is designed to match the
rest of the campus, and uses what’s
Above: View of the Titan II missile from the lawn outside of the museum.
Right: Natural light flowing through the floor-to-ceiling glass wall highlighting the exhibits.
Below: The 4.5 acre roof encloses a hangar-size space with museum-grade climate control.
By the
Numbers:
125 Feet high at the
roof’s peak
4.5 Acres of roof
6 Miles of conduit
3,000 Tons of
structural steel
10,000 Cubic yards of
concrete
3,426,805,161
golf balls could fit into
the Space Museum
“It gives a different vantage point for some of
the patrons to see the
artifacts from a different
perspective... Holistically
it’s a pretty spectacular
space. I think it’s exciting,
and I think it’s what Mr.
Smith wanted.”
Dan Gates,
MCA Architects
Summer 2010
7
A surprise package for construction students
OSU’s
Above: Kearney Hall
holds on to its history by
showcasing the original
renovated exterior of
Apperson Hall.
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Skyline
Kearney
“21st Century technology in a 19th
Century envelope” was the goal at
this complete renovation of OSU’s
historic 1900 Apperson Hall — and
the residents of the building feel the
project has hit its mark.
Students happily show off those added touches — such as
cut-outs in slabs to show off rebar, open ceilings showing
wiring and air ducts and windows that make plumbing
visible — to visitors. And they hang out and study in
student-oriented spaces like the atrium and student
lounge.
“It’s working out absolutely incredibly,” said Professor
Scott Ashford, director of the Kiewit Center for
Infrastructure and Transportation, based in the building
— now known as Kearney Hall. “The staff loves it, the
faculty loves it, and the students are using the space
exactly the way we wanted them to.”
“This is a small building,” said architect Kurt Schultz of
SERA, “but we tried to create spaces where students
could bump into each other and gather and talk offline,
outside the classroom.”
That means more than just attending classes. The building
combines sustainability, a classic 19th century exterior and
a modern, airy, daylit interior with special teaching features
that reveal the building’s bones and MEP systems.
“I’m a firm believer that student learn more from each
other — collectively — than from the faculty,” Ashford
said. “Kearney Hall is allowing them to do that.”
What is now Kearney started life as Mechanical Hall, a
two-story building, one of the first structures on OSU’s
Corvallis campus. It was designed by Edgar Lazarus, who
also created Crown Point Vista House at the mouth of
the Columbia River Gorge, and it shared many of that
building’s classic lines, with a granite and sandstone
façade and a pitched metal roof.
Above: Front entrance of newly dedicated Kearney Hall.
Below: Dramatic 3-story atrium utilizes recycled and reclaimed materials throughout.
Hall
Owners:
Oregon State University
Design Team:
SERA Architects
PAE Consulting Engineers
KPFF Consulting Engineers
Walker Macy
Peter Meijer Architect, LLC
Anderson Krygier, Inc.
LEED Gold
“The reused materials have
a big impact on people,”
Ashford said. “You can
stand in the atrium and
say ‘this is all reused from
the old building…’”
Professor Scott Ashford, Director of Kiewit
Center for Infrastructure and Transportation
Summer 2010
9
“We tried to create spaces
where students could
bump into each other and
gather and talk offline,
outside the classroom.”
Kurt Schulz, SERA Architects
Above: The bright, light-filled student lounge is a comfortable environment for studying and socializing.
In the 1920s they chopped off the
roof and added a third story in a
different style, made from stucco
over hollow clay tile — “which
seismically was like building out
of sugar cubes,” Schultz noted.
By 2004 it was badly in need of a
seismic upgrade, and the interior
needed some big changes.
“All the interior of the building
was very chopped up,” Schultz
said, “wood-frame construction
with sagging floors and aging
infrastructure.”
The University needed something
more modern, more flexible — and
seismically sound.
“We came up with the idea that
we were going to scoop out the
inside of the building, leave the
exterior walls in place, and rebuild
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Skyline
everything in the building,” Schultz
said. “Like putting a ship in a
bottle.”
A Teaching Moment
But that ambitious plan to upgrade
the historic structure wasn’t
enough, Schultz said: “We’d use
the inside of the building to teach
students about how buildings come
together.”
The building had been home to the
University’s engineering programs
for a hundred years; in its new
incarnation as Kearney it will house
OSU’s Construction Engineering
programs, with eight classrooms,
administrative offices and an
auditorium. The newly designed
structure would have a special
message for civil engineering
and construction engineering
management students.
“At about a dozen places around
the building,” Ashford said, “the
structural members and utilities are
exposed so that students see them
on a daily basis.”
That meant a special challenge
for Hoffman: everything had
to be literally textbook perfect.
Exposed structural members had
to be flawless, and wiring visible
in the open ceilings demanded
perfect arrays of straight lines and
90-degree turns.
“Students are aware and they see
that stuff every day,” Ashford said.
“They understand what goes into
one of these buildings.”
In a sense, what students really
get is two buildings — the classic
exterior and the modern interior.
“We had to retain the façade and
tear everything else out,” said
Project Manager Kevin Cady. “We
pulled off the roof and gutted the
structure.”
Temporary bracing was the only
thing holding the structure up while
the process was underway. Cady
noted that they were never sure
what they were going to encounter,
so they had to proceed cautiously.
Bracing the delicate historic
façade, building a completely new
structure within and then removing
the bracing was a complex threedimensional puzzle that the
Hoffman team solved with precise
planning and construction phasing.
That, Schultz said, was the one
part of the process that had him
on the edge of his seat. “It wasn’t
until the steel went back in that you
had a structure that would hold
together.”
The old Mechanical Hall, however,
hasn’t vanished completely; much
of the wood was re-milled and
reused in Kearney, as siding, stair
treads, paneling and benches.
“That is very cool,” Ashford said.
“People see that and it’s a real
‘wow’ for people coming into the
building.”
Even the marble dividers from the
old bathroom stalls were reused —
polished up and put into service as
marble countertops.
A Sustainable
Second Time Around
Careful and creative reuse of old
material was the first step in making
the renovation a green project that
received LEED Gold. The highly
visible sustainability becomes
another teaching tool.
“The reused materials have a big
impact on people,” Ashford said.
“You can stand in the atrium and
say ‘this is all reused from the old
building…’”
Schultz credited Hoffman with
finding savings that made the green
features affordable. More savings
generated during construction
made it possible to add all-new
windows — not originally in the
budget — gaining another LEED
point.
“All this stuff shows the students
that we take sustainability
seriously,” Ashford said, “and it
gives them ideas on how they can
make a difference in the future.”
Daylighting is an important part of
the green redesign. The new atrium
is a three-story-high, light-filled
space that Schultz calls “the heart of
the building.” It features suspended
art inspired by Oregon’s bridges,
and the glass-enclosed elevator
is decorated in motifs inspired by
engineering and architecture.
Outside, the building isn’t
completely unchanged: The
renovation has restored a new
version of the original’s pitched
metal roof, just one story higher.
Now it conceals the rooftop HVAC
system, while restoring those classic
lines that recall the Vista House.
“We tried to tie it back to its historic
past,” Schultz said, with the classic
exterior and strikingly modern
interior: “There’s contrast — and
that sense of surprise.”
Top: The open ceiling shows off the
architecture of the building’s data
and HVAC.
Middle: Rebar was left exposed as a
teaching tool.
Bottom: The beautiful main
staircase was built with wood
reclaimed from the old structure.
Summer 2010
11
Building a Home for
Neighbor
Above: The complete project
shows the integration of
three tenants with diverse
needs into one building.
Right: Interior of Emergency
Operations Center
Far right: Installation art
outside main entrance of Fire
Station 10
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rhood Heroes
Fire Station 10
A fire station sits at the heart of a neighborhood — a
reassuring presence, and a promise that the residents
will be well taken care of. That’s why it was an honor for
Hoffman to help create this very special facility to house
firefighters and other essential services at a cornerstone
location between Seattle’s Chinatown, Pioneer Square
and Civic Center neighborhoods.
Fire Station #10 combines sophisticated features and
unusual design to meet the needs of three separate
tenants on a challenging, steeply-sloped city block. The
single full-block facility houses Seattle Fire Department’s
Station #10, the city’s Emergency Operations Center
(EOC) and 911 Call Center. Meeting the needs of all stakeholders took a delicate balancing act by Hoffman and the
Weinstein Architects / RossDrulisCusenbery design team.
“It really addresses our space needs,” said EOC
Coordinator Mark Howard. He noted that the design
and goal development process that led to the building
took into account their needs for more room and better
working conditions: “It was a necessity, and it worked
out great.”
The 911 call center also needed redundancy to
support its ability to operate as a “24/7” facility.
“Everything that we needed to support that was
included,” said Chief Susan Rosenthal.
The fire department’s need for a flat drive-through
vehicle bay on a sloping site necessitated a unique
design with an entrance on one street and an
exit on another; the fire station’s ‘public face’ is at
the intersection facing on 4th and Washington.
Sustainable features to obtain LEED Silver had to work
with the firefighters’ needs while also supporting the
need for the facility to operate on its own for three
days in an emergency.
The architects worked closely with the three
neighborhoods surrounding the station to make
sure the design was appropriate to all of the
surrounding communities.
Owner:
City of Seattle
Shiels Obletz Johnsen
(owner’s representative)
Design Team:
Weinstein A|U Architects
+ Urban Designers
RossDrulisCusenbery
Magnusson Klemencic
Associates
Auburn Mechanical
VECA Electric
LEED Silver
Summer 2010
13
“It comes off as a strong, straightforward statement,” architect Jon
Mihkels said. “Not a hodge-podge
of ideas.”
The 60,000 SF Fire Station #10
building was built to “essential
facility” standards. With 44 on-site
parking spaces, it houses the three
functions as well as state-of-theart communications technology,
including media production
facilities and space for training.
“It works very well,” he said. “From
an operations standpoint it works
great.”
“Working with
Hoffman during the
design phase was
key to making
it work out.”
Jon Mihkels, Project Architect
Three Tenants in
One Facility
The tenants say it meets every goal
and objective.
Below: The Emergency
Operations Center
boasts a vast integrated
computer network.
The former city Emergency
Operations Center was located
in the basement of a highrise building. Mark Howard,
Seattle Police Department’s EOC
coordinator, is pleased with the
new facility and what it offers
dispatchers.
The old EOC office could hold
about 40 people, while the new
one houses around 150, with room
to spare. It includes amenities like
a kitchenette, and easier access for
the city. It meets their need of being
able to operate for 72 hours “off
the grid” in the event of a power
failure in a city-wide emergency,
and the integration of sustainability
features (attaining LEED Silver)
supports the goal of prolonged
operation on its own power supply.
The city’s former 911 call center
was located in Seattle’s West
Precinct police station. Chief
Susan Rosenthal is the Seattle Fire
Department’s 911 dispatch chief;
she said the facility is working well
for the dispatchers.
The new call center in FS #10
features more reliable heating and
cooling than their old dispatch
center, and addresses particular
needs like specialized lighting
and acoustics: “Acoustics were
very important,” said Chief Susan
Rosenthal. “It needed to have a
good acoustical design on the
dispatch floor,” and the team
delivered.
The site and the fire department’s
needs required unique design
and construction solutions. The
property slopes some 50 feet
from corner to corner, and the fire
department required a flat, six-bay,
drive-through apparatus bay.
“When you look at it, there’s only
one way to lay it out,” said Project
Architect Jon Mihkels. The bay
connects similar grades across
the 4th Avenue South-South
Washington Street corner.
The result is a layout that allows fire
trucks to go in one door and out
the other, without having to back
fire engines into a bay – meeting
an important fire department goal.
While it added to the cost of the
construction of the apparatus bay,
Hoffman found creative ways of
delivering this priority for them.
14
Skyline
Working with the
Neighbors
A Sustainable
City Resource
According to Project Architect Jon
Mihkels, goals were set during
a series of structured weekly
meetings during a four-month
programming phase. All three
tenant groups had representatives
at the meetings.
The building incorporates green
roofs, natural light in the apparatus
bays and very efficient mechanical
and electrical systems. Plantings
at street level helped the building
achieve its LEED goals while also
contributing to the streetscape and
the surrounding neighborhoods.
Windows incorporate sunshades
to reduce glare and control solar
heating. There’s even a system that
reclaims water used testing hoses
and stores it for use in washing fire
engines.
“I think it was tremendously
successful in balancing all the
factors,” he said. That meant
balancing the needs of three
very different groups along with
rising costs. “With all the factors
our collaborative design and
construction process managed
to navigate through a number of
challenges.”
Successfully defining goals required
the project team to integrate the
cultures of firefighters and police
officers, who would be sharing the
building. The needs of the different
groups were not always aligned.
For example, the 911 call center
has to be a secure facility by police
standards; firefighters, however,
are used to simply taking off and
leaving their facilities empty on a
moment’s notice when they get a
call.
The building had to work with
the architectural style of the
neighboring communities. “We
intentionally chose to use masonry
at the people level,” Mihkels said,
“to be contextual with Pioneer
Square.” Other parts show what
he calls an “urban infrastructure”
design aesthetic, with metal panels
and exposed equipment. “It’s a very
purposeful building.”
The apparatus bay doors are up
front, at the public face on 4th and
Washington, “as an identifiable,
iconic element of the building.”
“We started in schematic design,”
Project Manager Bob Vincent said,
“working in preconstruction for
about a year prior to construction.
We were integral to the front-end
process.” The collaborative design
review and value engineering
during this phase was essential
to make the architect’s design
affordable.
Left: Fast-opening
bay doors in a style
reminiscent of fire
stations past embody
the combination of
sophistication and
utilitarianism at the
facility.
The inclusion of Hoffman as
general contractor/construction
manager at this stage allowed us
to make suggestions on design and
constructability to incorporate the
results of the goal-setting process
into the final documents.
“Working with Hoffman during the
design phase,” Mihkels said, “was
key to making it work out.”
Summer 2010
15
Come Sail Away
Shiver me timbers! Hoffman
brings new life to an aging
maritime gem in Seattle
In “Moby Dick,” Herman Melville described the lure
the sea exerts on men’s souls: “Posted like silent
sentinels all around the town, stand thousands upon
thousands of mortal men fixed in ocean reveries.
Some leaning against the piles; some seated upon
the pier-heads; some looking over the bulwarks of
ships from China; some high aloft in the rigging, as if
striving to get a still better seaward peep.”
Above: A community is
revitalized with a new
building and a renewed
focus to the water.
In Seattle, those who would “sail about a little
and see the watery part of the world” — or who
are merely drawn to stare longingly at the gently
swaying forest of masts and dream of rounder,
sharper horizons than are afforded by city living —
may well find their feet carrying them to Shilshole
Bay Marina.
But until recently time was running out for the venerable
moorage. Phase One of the Marina was started in the
1960s; additional docks were added over the years, but
decades went by without a major upgrade to bring it up to
date.
“The docks all needed work,” said Port of Seattle Project
Manager Anne Porter. “We could rehabilitate it piece by
piece, bring in new floats and drive new piles, but then we
would be stuck with the same configuration.”
”The beam of boats was much narrower in the 1960s,”
said Port Facilities and Maintenance Coordinator Cleone
Maines. Boats at the marina are docked in two-boat slips
they call ‘horseshoes.’ “People were buying boats that
were fatter and fatter, and we were having a real challenge
getting two boats in one horseshoe.”
Domes over the Trickling Filters capture odors
16
Skyline
“They were very
involved with what
they wanted... They all
really care about it.”
“The recreational boating industry
was changing,” Porter said —
instead of 20-foot boats people
wanted 30- or 40-foot craft. Time
and tide were passing Shilshole by.
Cleone Maines,
Port Facilities Maintenance Coordinator
Setting Sail
The job for which Hoffman was
hired was mammoth — but most
of it would not be visible, or at
least noticeable, to anyone but the
boaters who use the Marina. The
bulk of the job was the replacement
and upgrade of almost two dozen
docks to create newer, more
accessible, modern facilities.
The work was to be completed
while keeping the Marina open and
in operation, and Shilshole Bay is
home to hundreds of boat owners
who live on board their vessels.
“It’s work done in a ‘live’ marina,”
Hoffman Field Superintendent
Mike Welch said. “Infrastructure,
going through the parking lot —
while keeping the lot open for
parking — and building a new
marina building… all while keeping
people active to their boats. It’s very
complicated.”
“The infrastructure had to go in
first,” Porter said. That meant
trenches that would cut off the
mile-long Marina from the roadway
— so it was done in phases, blocking
one entrance at a time. “Each area
had to be completely restored
before moving on to the next.”
The infrastructure work started
a full year before work on the
docks. That would be the most
complex part. Every time Hoffman
worked on a dock it would have to
be temporarily emptied of boats.
Tenants ranged from owneroccupants calling the Marina home
to part-time owners whom the
Marina would have to locate.
“We had to notify people as far in
advance as possible,” Porter said.
“’We’re going to be moving your
home a half mile away and then
moving it back — and we might have
to do it again!’”
For Hoffman it meant constant
coordination and communication
with the boaters. In addition to the
‘live-aboard’ boaters, the Marina
hosts casual recreational boaters,
yacht club members and youth
groups that conduct sailing races.
“You had to have a dock completely
back in service,” Maines said, “before
you could even think about moving
on to the next phase.”
Crossing the Bar
The biggest challenge, however,
would come from working in the
water itself. Upgrading the docks
would mean removing 1,000
creosote-treated wood pilings.
“That was a wonderful benefit, to
get those out of the water,” Porter
said “It was quite spectacular — they
were covered with barnacles and
sea stars, and they had to be very
carefully pulled.”
Work in the water was limited
to a ‘fish window’ from August
to February to avoid impacting
marine life. Hoffman used floating
booms to prevent spills whenever
subcontractor ACC Hurlen was in
the water.
Driving new piles presented
another problem. A traditional piledriver would create shockwaves
that could hurt fish. For some piles
Hoffman used a ‘bubble curtain’
— a ring of bubbles around the
pile to break up and absorb the
shock. For others, it was possible to
install them with a vibratory driver,
which doesn’t generate fish-killing
shockwaves.
All of the work had to meet
special Coast Guard and OSHA
requirements. The careful work
paid off; the job was recognized
with an award from the Port of
Seattle for meting their “Zero
Injury” Resolution. “It’s real
impressive when you have the Port
of Seattle giving them an award
that they’ve only given three of
in total,” said Rod Mausshardt,
safety manager for the project.
“It’s impressive when you get that
kind of award – it’s not like they just
hand them out.”
Above: Sailing enthusiasts
enjoying the common
spaces available.
Owner:
Port of Seattle
Design Team:
Reid Middleton
PATH Engineers LLC
Mithun
Keen Engineering
Hultz BHU Cross
KPFF
Summer 2010
17
Seaview Avenue NW. The old, ‘60sera Marina office building was
a 40,000 SF, two-story brutalist
monstrosity that cost so much in
upkeep that they couldn’t earn any
revenue from it. Hoffman replaced
it with a sleek, modern building
with room for the Marina’s offices,
as well as commercial space that is
fast leasing out to businesses that
want to set up shop at Shilshole Bay.
“It’s the centerpiece and the heart
of the community out there,” Bryce
said. “The front porch is facing
“There were challenges,
but also a lot of opportunities. It’s an amazing
site with an amazing
view, and there’s a
built-in community —
when you create these
spaces, they will
be used.”
Shaun Bryce, Mithun Architects
Above: Installation of
crushed rock pier
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Skyline
The work actually slightly reduced
the number of slips at the Marina
— from 1,500 to about 1,400 —
but the “horseshoes” are bigger,
and the Marina can charge more
and accommodate larger boats,
boosting revenue.
always occupied it’s safer: “They all
really care about it.”
Rounding the Horn
The close coordination paid off with
the boaters and residents as well.
“They were very involved with what
they wanted,” Maines said.
“It was a complicated design
process,” said Shaun Bryce of
Mithun Architects. In addition to
the changes to the docks and the
new infrastructure, the Marina
needed a new “hub.”
“In a storm they’re always there
helping get sails tied down,” she
said, and because the Marina is
The most visible part of the work is
actually the smallest component:
the new main building just off
the water. We pulled the building
toward the street and put the plaza
on the water side, with a fountain
kids can play in, plus benches and
seating. There’s an amazing view.”
Just as Hoffman had to balance a
lot of stakeholders in upgrading
the docks, Mithun had their hands
full in pleasing all of the users of the
Marina with a new main building.
“It’s like any public project, there’s
a lot of stakeholders,” Bryce said.
“There were challenges, but also a
lot of opportunities. It’s an amazing
site with an amazing view, and
there’s a built-in community —
when you create these spaces, they
will be used.”
The new Marina building was
designed with sustainability in
mind. Bryce said in the first year
they only needed to turn on the
air conditioning twice. The design
provides natural ventilation, and
the large overhang on the ‘porch’
side affords more heat control in
summer, as well as cover during the
long rainy season.
“It’s all water-efficient
landscaping,” Bryce said, “and the
day-lighting throughout the project
was designed so that during the day
you wouldn’t need to turn on the
lights.”
Much of the old building was
recycled; a local company took
everything they could use — even
the old Marina sign — and hauled it
away at no cost to the Port. Even the
old floating docks were reused, and
some docks have shown up at other
Marinas in the area.
Now, it’s clear skies and following
seas for Shilshole Bay. The new,
more-marketable moorage space
will allow them to see a return on
the big investment the Port made in
the work. The new docks have the
flexibility and accessibility to serve
the Marina’s long-time residents,
as well as weekend boaters and
teenagers drawn through Seattle’s
streets and suburbs, over hills and
bridges, to the water’s edge and
maybe beyond.
Above: A beautiful sunset to enjoy while docked in the marina
Below: The busy main facility is used year round
Below: The Primary Clarifier
(in the foreground) capture
solids — ‘sludge’ and ‘scum.’
From there water goes to
the lagoons or the Trickling
Filters (on the right in the
distance), where biological
processes digest the
dissolved solids.
Below: Hoffman made certain each dock was fully functional and ready for use
before moving on the next one.
“Here
come
more
crowds,
pacing straight for the water,
and seemingly bound for a dive.
Strange! Nothing will content them
but the extremist limit of the land;
loitering under the shady lee of
yonder warehouses will not suffice.
No. They must get just as nigh the
water as they possibly can without
falling in. And there they stand —
miles of them —leagues.”
– Moby Dick
Summer 2010
19
CAWS Raises the Bar
for
Diversity
Workforce diversity is the next frontier
for the construction industry, as
contractors, unions and workforce
trainers join forces to direct the next
generation of builders — including
women and minorities — into the
building trades.
“This is one more opportunity to increase access to living
wage jobs,” workforce development organizer John
Gardner said. “The trades are a good avenue for that.”
Hoffman joined other general contractors to spearhead
diversity at the South Waterfront in Portland, OR.
Apprenticeship is the key to entry into the building
trades, so to improve access to construction jobs the
industry, unions and apprenticeship training groups
created Construction Apprenticeship and Workforce
Solutions, Inc. — CAWS.
Above: A strong focus has been put
on including women and minorities
into Hoffman projects in all aspects
of a project. Nicole Crain, a female
carpenter apprentice, shows her
enthusiasm to work as a tradesperson.
Left: An eager apprentice learns on
the job.
Former politician Jim Francesconi helped launch the
group as its first leader; in 2006 he passed the reins
to Jim Trapp, the founder of the Evening Trades
Apprenticeship Preparation (ETAP) program.
“We tried to get the word out that construction was a
viable career choice for a family-wage career,” he said.
“There are perceptions about the building trades,”
said Tom Peterson of the Port of Portland, a leading
participant in the program. “People aren’t pursuing
them, there’s an aging workforce, and you have to
change things with younger folks.
“Part of what you have is a cultural change in the
younger generation — kids aren’t pursuing this kind of
work, it’s being dropped from the high school curriculum.
But these are important skills, and it pays well.”
Gardner, who has been leading jobforce training with
Work Systems Incorporated (WSI) for years, took over
last year as the new director of CAWS. “We’ve had a
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Skyline
good year,” he said. “Even though
the industry is down we’ve got a
lot of optimism for getting women
and people of color into the
construction trades.”
Gardner is overseeing a new
partnership between CAWS
and WSI, a non-profit that
provides workforce development
services. Among other things,
CAWS is advising WSI on how
to take advantage of stimulus
package money — for example,
by identifying which trades will
be most in demand, and where
training dollars can best be spent.
“I think it’s important
to promote the building
trades in general, and,
while you’re doing that,
to make sure there’s
diversity in the
workforce.”
Tom Peterson, Port of Portland
A Model for
Diversity
The Port of Portland has signed off
as an early CAWS supporter, and
the $190 million Headquarters and
Parking Expansion was run as a
pilot CAWS-certified project, one
that was designed to help owners,
architects, subcontractors and
others embrace diversity as the
Portland way of doing business.
“It’s a pilot program fully supported
by Hoffman and Port of Portland,”
said Operations Manager Derrick
Benneville.
“I think it’s important to promote
the building trades in general,
and, while you’re doing that, to
make sure there’s diversity in the
workforce,” said Peterson. “You
have to promote it — and at the
same time you have to recognize
that it needs to be diverse.”
At the Airport, “CAWS has been the
referring and coordinating agency
for Hoffman to help Hoffman meet
their hiring goals,” Gardner said.
For example, a landscaper worked
on the project — but that’s an area
where there traditionally haven’t
been many opportunities for
apprentices.
“CAWS did the outreach, the
marketing and the connections,
helping that business do what it
needs to do to be recognized so
that they can get apprentices on the
job.”
“We had apprenticeship
appreciation lunches,” Benneville
added. “We brought them all in
and gave them pizza, and told
them we appreciate their work, and
asked if there are any concerns.”
In the end, Gardner said, they
won’t just be in compliance for
this project, they’ll be ready for
the next one: “They’ll be ready to
go — they’ll know how to connect
with the trades, how to connect
with the apprentices, and how to
target populations like women or
minorities.”
Exceeding the
Standard
The result of the work at the Airport
is that the program is having no
trouble meeting and exceeding its
goal of 15 percent apprenticeship.
Benneville said by the end of the
project they were well above that,
with over 40 percent of apprentices
women and minorities.
“I think the numbers have been
pretty good at the project,”
Peterson said.
Winning over subcontractors has
been easy as well: “I have never had
a subcontractor say ‘I don’t want
to do that,’” Benneville said. “They
would love to do that.”
The only problem is finding
sufficient apprentices — and that’s
where CAWS’ work with preapprenticeship programs comes in.
“CAWS has identified organizations
that are pre-apprenticeship
programs that are eligible to
receive support,” Gardner said. “By
doing that, the pre-apprenticeship
programs are agreeing to enroll the
candidates in our system, and we
can track and evaluate the services
to all of them.”
CAWS itself will work closely with
its industry members to stay abreast
of trends and needs in the trades;
they will know what specialties will
be needed three to five years out,
and can ask the pre-apprenticeship
programs to supply people for
those fields. “They will be informed
by the people who will be doing the
hiring,” Gardner said.
Moving forward, Gardner sees
CAWS fulfilling many roles: as
an advocacy organization, as a
facilitator of a ‘pipeline’ of youth
for apprenticeship and preapprenticeship programs, and
as a certifying organization that
would evaluate programs and
jobsites. “What would it mean to
be a CAWS-certified worksite,”
he asked, “and how can we create
value in that?
“It’s a quality standard, like LEED”
he said. “A high-quality standard
as it relates to hiring and training
practices for people in the trades…
and that’s a big umbrella.”
Summer 2010
21
Final
Four
A Sampler of Four Recently
Completed Hoffman Projects
The Casey in Portland, OR’s Pearl District represents a new frontier
in urban living with highly-sustainable, LEED Platinum condos on a
compact quarter-block site. The 16-story tower includes one level of
retail space and a four-level underground parking garage with 109 stalls.
GBD Architects’ design features 61 units that feature high end finishes,
fixtures and amenities.
The project site is hemmed in by two streets – one a transit line – and
three buildings on the same block. With no worker parking, no staging
or laydown space and buildings directly abutting the site, Hoffman
scheduled “just-in-time” deliveries of supplies to subcontractors in
15 minute blocks; materials arrived and went right where they were
needed. With work proceeding right above neighboring buildings,
and no room for scaffolding, Hoffman used “swing stages” – platforms
suspended from above – and closely coordinated their use among the
subcontractors who needed them. A tower crane footing was built on a
sidewalk – above a portion of the underground garage that extended all
the way to the curb, a difficult engineering feat.
Two buildings directly abutted the building we were demolishing to
make way for the new tower. One turned out to share a wall with that
building, and the other was found to be sitting on wooden pilings that
had long since rotted away. On one side Hoffman built a temporary wall
to protect the interior of the building until the new wall went up; we
were able to schedule that phase for a window when it was unoccupied.
On the other we added corbels to our foundation to support the building
that was sitting on rotted wood. Work continued on the site, and both
neighboring buildings were preserved.
The
Casey
LEED Platinum
Above and right:
The Casey Condominiums
22
Skyline
2121 Belmont
apartments
Distinctively Eastside but just minutes from downtown,
Portland’s inner Southeast is a neighborhood of narrow
streets, older homes and corner markets. It’s also yoga
studios, chic cafes and trendy boutiques, the sort of place
where a half-block stroll can take you out of, or right back
into, the bustle of a booming and fast-changing Portland.
The 2121 Belmont apartments provides a natural habitat for
the new urbanites attracted to this close-in community. With
four floors of living space and 124 units, the building opens
up the streetscape on Belmont with retail space and two
public plazas.
“We worked hard to make it work — the pushing and pulling
of the masses,” said Michael Cline, a principal at Ankrom
Moisan Associated Architects, “to create out space, where
if you’re traveling down Belmont you get the feeling it’s
multiple buildings.”
“It’s a ‘fabric building,’” he said, explaining “one that
modulates in and out, rather than having an object, a
monolith.” Hoffman built the structure using Parklex, a
relatively new material from Spain. The dark, richly-grained
resin-impregnated wood panels are slowly coming into more
common use, often on costly high-rise projects. It is attractive
like natural wood, but it’s highly resistant to rain, making it
suitable for exteriors in Portland’s wet climate.
The Ardea
Hoffman built one of the
city’s tallest buildings in
the South Waterfront area,
and the highly-sustainable
project has attained LEED Gold certification.
LEED Gold
The Ardea comprises a 31-story main tower with a five-story “sidecar”
building; both have retail space on the ground floor with condominiums
above totaling 587,000 SF, plus a three-and-a-half-floor parking garage
below street level. GBD Architects’ features dramatic curved facades, as
well as sustainable materials.
The parking lot was constructed using a top-down approach, to allow
the parking lot and the tower to be constructed simultaneously. At
325 feet in height the tower is tied for the position of seventh-highest
building in Portland. Through hard work and good planning Hoffman
was able to reduce the cycle from an eight-day cycle per floor for
concrete work to six days, cutting 50 days off the schedule.
Workforce diversity was a major focus during the project. Hoffman
conducted tours for Oregon Tradeswomen, Job Corps and Portland
Youth Builders, as well as individuals hoping to break into the trades. A
South Waterfront Job Fair drew participation from Job Corps and Youth
Builders as well as CAWS (Construction Apprenticeship and Workforce
Solutions, Inc.), ETAP (the Evening Trades Apprenticeship Program), and
local unions and subcontractors.
Summer 2010
23
Federal
Reserve Bank
The Federal Reserve Bank in Seattle had occupied the same
offices for 54 years when they hired Hoffman to create a
new, expanded, more secure facility. Designed by BOORA
Architects, the modern 10.8 acre site features state-of-the-art
operating systems, future expansion space and the capacity
to handle more growth in the future. The 95,000 SF building
houses some 100 employees, as well as a cash-handling
system in the vault employing robotic technologies for
storage and racking retrieval of currency. Hoffman developed
a way of using the specialized rack system to help support the
form for the pouring of the vault’s ceiling slab; the unique
work plan saved the bank both money and time.
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Skyline