Daily Journal of Commerce, Portland articles from December 2007

Daily Journal of Commerce, Portland archives from December 2007

Commentary: Business Plan 2.0 takes Oregon beyond basics.
December 3, 2007... Byline: Steve Pratt Today at the Oregon Convention Center, business and political leaders from around the state will kick off the next five years of the Oregon Business Plan at the sixth Oregon Leadership Summit. We've accomplished a...

Washington fire station wins design honor.
December 3, 2007... Byline: DJC Staff Report A remodel of a Battle Ground, Wash., fire station was honored with a national design award. Karl Johansson of Johansson Architecture took a bronze award in the Fire Chief's 2007 Station Style Design Awards for the...

Oregon-based PIVOT Architecture promotes staff members.
December 3, 2007... Byline: DJC Staff Report PIVOT Architecture has promoted four employees to positions as associates with the firm. Joel Osburn is an architect of buildings and computer systems at PIVOT. Scott Clarke has worked with PIVOT since...

Portland office of WRG Design hires Hollenbach.
December 3, 2007... Byline: DJC Staff Report WRG Design has hired Brian Hollenbach as a civil senior project designer in its Portland office.

Portland-based Hennebery Eddy Architects hires Aulwes.
December 3, 2007... Byline: DJC Staff Report Hennebery Eddy Architects has hired Kathy Aulwes as a project designer. Aulwes has 11 years of commercial, institutional, restoration and educational design experience. She holds a Master of Architecture from...

Portland-based Hennebery Eddy Architects hires Sandstrom.
December 3, 2007... Byline: DJC Staff Report Hennebery Eddy Architects has hired Steve Sandstrom as a project designer. Sandstrom holds a degree in architecture from Washington State University. He has 10 years of design experience, including 5 years with...

Spokane, Wash.-based general contractor for Sauvie Island Bridge takes the show on the river.
December 3, 2007... Byline: Libby Tucker Come one, come all, the magnificent Max J. Kuney Co. will lift a 1,600-ton bridge and float it down the Willamette River suspended on steel towers 70 feet in the air. It sounds like a circus act, but the...

Salaries, competition rising for engineers in Oregon.
December 3, 2007... Byline: Alison Ryan Bigger presence at career fairs. Heavy participation in internship programs. National recruiting. Stock options. Flexible schedules. Engineers are in high demand, and Oregon firms are stepping up their efforts to find...

Officials look to fix the most dangerous street in Portland.
December 3, 2007... Byline: Tyler Graf For years, the city has called it the Avenue of Roses. Now it's just called dangerous. Northeast 82nd Avenue is the least pedestrian-friendly thoroughfare in Portland, according to a November city report. In the last...

Portland bridge expert to hold readings of new book.
December 3, 2007... Byline: Nathalie Weinstein Sharon Wood Wortman, author of The Portland Bridge Book, will hold three readings of her new book on bridge poetry this month. Walking Bridges Using Poetry as a Compass: Poems about Bridges Real and Imagined...

Portland-based David Evans & Associates picks Barkouli as new president, COO.
December 3, 2007... Byline: DJC Staff Report Al Barkouli has been named the new president and chief operating officer of David Evans & Associates. Barkouli joined the firm as an engineer-in-training in 1988 and eventually moved into a position leading...

Oregon Museum of Science and Industry pays off portion of 1991 construction loan.
December 3, 2007... Byline: DJC Staff Report The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry on Nov. 15 completed a $4.6 million payment against its 1991 construction loan from the state. The governor and the Legislature have so far committed $2.3 million from...

Office, dental condos catching Vancouver buyers.
December 3, 2007... Byline: DJC Staff Report The $8 million Pacific Crest Plaza Office Condominiums project in Vancouver, Wash., is still under construction, but brokers with NAI Norris, Beggs & Simpson say eight of the complex's 12 for-purchase condos have...

Portland office of Interface Engineering promotes staff.
December 4, 2007... Byline: DJC Staff Interface Engineering has promoted Steve Dacus, Doug Smith and Dave Williams to its principal and partner team. In addition, Steve Kelly, Duane Monroe, Kenton Aikens, Mark Jackson, Scott Holum, Brian Butler, Andrew Lasse,...

Portland office of WRG Design hires Eckis.
December 4, 2007... Byline: DJC Staff WRG Design has hired Pam Eckis as an office manager in its Portland office.

Vancouver-based Columbia Credit Union promotes Peterson.
December 4, 2007... Byline: DJC Staff Columbia Credit Union has promoted Bergen Peterson to senior vice president of strategic planning and organizational development. Peterson previously worked as senior vice president and chief information officer of...

Resource Media appoints Portland-based Stoel Rives principal to its board.
December 4, 2007... Byline: DJC Staff Stoel Rives has announced that Barbara Brainard has been appointed a board member to Resource Media. Brainard is a principal at Stoel Rives and focuses her practice on employment litigation and employment law...

Oregon Travel Information Council elects Porter.
December 4, 2007... Byline: DJC Staff The Oregon Travel Information Council has elected David Porter to serve as chairman. Porter previously served as the council's secretary. He is currently serving his second 4-year term on the council as a public...

Span of Sellwood Bridge options on table.
December 4, 2007... Byline: Tyler Graf By next summer, Multnomah County will whittle to one the list of possible bridge types for a Sellwood Bridge replacement. Long in the works, plans to rebuild or drastically refurbish the aging bridge are slowly moving...

Technology meets community at new bank in Portland.
December 4, 2007... Byline: Nathalie Weinstein With its touch-activated plasma wall, video conferencing and new laptop computers, the new Umpqua Bank, in the John Ross condo tower on the South Waterfront, has the feel of a high-tech space station. Still,...

Not all Portland housing is in a slump.
December 4, 2007... Byline: Libby Tucker Portland's downtown condo market may be flat, but work in affordable and senior housing projects will continue to grow, says Walsh Construction Co. The general contractor, which has mostly shied away from building...

Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski picks Achterman to chair transport panel.
December 4, 2007... Byline: DJC Staff Gov. Ted Kulongoski on Monday picked lawyer Gail Achterman to chair the Oregon Transportation Commission. Achterman was an attorney with Stoel Rives for 20 years and is currently the director of the Institute for...

Business Union and Legislative Leaders Session donates $320K to Ore. children's charities.
December 4, 2007... Byline: DJC Staff The Business Union and Legislative Leaders Session will donate $320,000 to nine Oregon children's charities today at the Providence Child Center. The gift comes from 450 lawmakers and leaders from various...

Upcoming conventions in Portland worth $5M to economy.
December 4, 2007... Byline: DJC Staff The Portland Oregon Visitor's Association says its upcoming convention business will generate $5 million for the region. The Open Source Convention 2008, a high-tech conference held by O'Reilly Media Inc., will take...

Boise Paper workers honored in Portland.
December 4, 2007... Byline: DJC Staff Boise Paper employees Kathy Smith, Donna Parsons, Dave Nelson and Tony Haulk were honored at the 17th annual Western Pulp and Paper Workers Safety Conference Awards in Portland. Smith has worked for Boise's St. Helens...

Oregon's green builders, foresters struggle with market for certified lumber.
December 5, 2007... Byline: Libby Tucker Oregon's timber companies and its green builders have reached a stalemate. Large lumber companies say builder demand for certified sustainable wood isn't large enough to justify the cost of certification. And home...

For many Portland residents, tower sale staves off displacement.
December 5, 2007... Byline: Tyler Graf For some elderly people, the waning years are less golden and more gilded. Meeting housing needs with only a Social Security check is a struggle, so many elderly look to federally subsidized apartments - housing that's...

Oregon gets $500K in 2007 federal mining revenue.
December 5, 2007... Byline: DJC Staff Report The state of Oregon earned $558,122 during 2007 as part of its share of federal revenue collected by the Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service. 2007 marked the first full year that the...

Beaverton solar cell maker lands federal government contract.
December 5, 2007... Byline: DJC Staff Report The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded Beaverton-based Voxtel, an optoelectronic provider, $800,000 to fund research on new composite nanocrystal photovoltaic solar cells using environmentally friendly...

Chicago wants alleys retrofitted sustainably.
December 5, 2007... Byline: DJC Staff Report The city of Chicago has decided to retrofit its alleys with sustainable road-building materials as part of its Green Alley initiative. The alleys will be paved with permeable concrete or porous asphalt, which...

Mahlum Architects in Seattle promotes Hindmarsh.
December 5, 2007... Byline: DJC Staff Report Mahlum Architects has promoted Jay Hindmarsh to associate. Hindmarsh is an architectural designer and also helps recruit and hire architects for Mahlum's Seattle office. He is working on the renovation of Clark...

Oregon Lodging Association elects new members.
December 5, 2007... Byline: DJC Staff Report The Oregon Lodging Association has elected Chris Otto as chairman of its board of directors, Chuck Hinman as its vice chairman and Patrick McShane as its secretary-treasurer. Otto is the director of sales for...

WRG Design hires Yeh as an accounting manager in its Portland office.
December 5, 2007... Byline: DJC Staff Report WRG Design has hired Jenny Yeh as an accounting manager in its Portland office.

Al Lucas, founder of Control Contractors Inc., dies at 80.(Obituary)
December 5, 2007... Byline: Nathalie Weinstein Al Lucas, founder of Control Contractors Inc., died last Wednesday from complications following surgery. He was 80. Lucas entered the building automation and controls business in 1951. He worked for 24 years...

City of Portland's green grant meeting slated for next week.(Conference news)
December 5, 2007... Byline: DJC Staff Report The city of Portland's Office of Sustainable Development is accepting applications for funding from its Green Investment Fund. The Green Investment Fund, supported by the city and Energy Trust of Oregon, is a...

Portland Building, at long last, to be waterproof.
December 6, 2007... Byline: Alison Ryan The relentless rain that battered Portland on Monday caused problems - as it always does - at the Portland Building. The water pushed through the 20-odd leaks in the downtown building, creating...

Report: Commercial work not in danger of recession.
December 6, 2007... Byline: DJC Staff Report Commercial builders shouldn't fear a recession in 2008, a report issued Wednesday said. The report by FMI Research Services Group said nonresidential construction will increase in 2008, but at a slower rate...

Aequitas Capital Management invests $5.2M in Portland restaurant chain.
December 6, 2007... Byline: DJC Staff Report Aequitas Capital Management has committed $5.2 million in equity to Rose's Restaurant and Bakery to support the planned expansion of the Portland chain to 20 locations in the next five to six years. The money...

PPM Energy buys Klamath Falls plant for $290M.
December 6, 2007... Byline: DJC Staff Report PPM Energy said Wednesday it bought the Klamath Cogeneration Plant from the city of Klamath Falls for $290 million. The 506-megawatt combine-cycle combustion turbine plant is located in Southern Oregon near the...

Oregon-based Windermere hires new staff.
December 6, 2007... Byline: DJC Staff Report Windermere has hired Lauren Jacobs as a broker in its Lake Oswego office, Jeanne Andrus and Mary Stewart as brokers in its West Linn office and Paula Fordham as a broker in its Salem office. In addition, it has...

Columbia State Bank promotes Johnson.
December 6, 2007... Byline: DJC Staff Report Columbia State Bank has promoted Conrad Johnson to senior vice president and commercial lending center team leader in its Sunnybrook Commercial Lending Center. Johnson has 20 years of banking experience. He...

Allsteel hires Bowden as a business development manager for Northwest region.
December 6, 2007... Byline: DJC Staff Report Allsteel has hired Chris Bowden as a business development manager for the Northwest region. Bowden has 20 years of experience and has held sales positions with Bowden Group, Knoll and Teknion.

Oregon-based SRG Partnership Inc. hires Bonnie Bruce.
December 6, 2007... Byline: DJC Staff Report SRG Partnership Inc. has hired Bonnie Bruce as a senior associate of interior design. Bruce is a LEED-accredited interior designer with 28 years of experience in sustainable design in higher education, civic...

RSV Engineering hires Tanz.
December 6, 2007... Byline: DJC Staff Report RSV Engineering has hired Guy H. Tanz as a principal geologist and office manager in its Wilsonville office. Tanz has 18 years of experience in environmental science. He specializes in large flexible services...

Mahlum Architects promotes Erica Hildebrand to associate.
December 6, 2007... Byline: DJC staff Mahlum Architects has promoted Erica Hildebrand to associate. Hildebrand heads Mahlum's in-house graphic team in Seattle. She has been involved with the signs at the renovated Cleveland High School and production of...

Hanson Pipe & Precast promotes Sparks.
December 6, 2007... Byline: DJC Staff Report Hanson Pipe & Precast has promoted Ron Sparks to vice president and general manager for Oregon, Washington and Utah. Sparks was previously the Northwest area manager of Hanson's operations in Tacoma, Portland,...

WRG Design hires Danis as a civil designer in its Portland office.
December 6, 2007... Byline: DJC Staff Report WRG Design has hired Nick Danis as a civil designer in its Portland office.

Levies on new construction could skyrocket in Portland.
December 6, 2007... Byline: Libby Tucker Portland Parks & Recreation wants to more than double the fees it charges to build new homes and institute a levy on new commercial construction to pay for city parks. The city expects to add 70,295 residents by...

City of Portland's budget can't fix roads.
December 7, 2007... Byline: Tyler Graf The Portland Office of Transportation continues to face budgetary hurdles, a new city report says, preventing sufficient maintenance on increasingly congested streets. In its most recent report, the city auditor's...

Firsthand look at the Pacific Northwest storm's destruction shows work won't be finished soon.
December 7, 2007... Byline: Dan Carter Aside from the downed and splintered forests along Highway 30, the mudslides, the downed power lines and still swollen streams, I recall that the first piece of information that got my attention was when someone said...

Female builder seeks out minority construction workers.
December 7, 2007... Byline: Libby Tucker Despite the construction industry's efforts to recruit women and minorities, diversity is slim on commercial job sites. But a few business owners are blazing the trail for minority workers in construction. And Jeanne...

Oregon seminar will focus on implications of Measure 49 and status of litigation.
December 7, 2007... Byline: Tyler Graf In 2007, Oregon saw drastic changes to its land-use laws - from Measure 49 to revising how regional governments expand urban growth boundaries. And as the Legislature sits poised to renew funding for the Big Look task...

Federal Labor Department says construction growth will slow.
December 7, 2007... Byline: Daily Journal of Commerce Staff Report Construction output is projected to climb 1.4 percent per year over the next decade, down from 2 percent annually in the last decade, according to a report released Wednesday by the federal...

City of Hillsboro in Oregon talks sustainability at climate protection workshop on Monday.
December 7, 2007... Byline: Daily Journal of Commerce Staff Report The city of Hillsboro, the Oregon Environmental Council and ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability will hold the Oregon Local Climate Protection Workshop from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday at...

U.S. Green Building Council wants white papers for Greenbuild Conference '08.(Conference news)
December 7, 2007... Byline: Daily Journal of Commerce Staff Report The U.S. Green Building Council on Thursday issued a call for papers for educational sessions at the 2008 Greenbuild International Conference and Expo, which will be held November 19-21 in...

Fortis Construction hires Darin Meisenheimer as superintendent on the University of Oregon project.
December 7, 2007... Byline: Daily Journal of Commerce Staff Report Fortis Construction Inc. has hired Darin Meisenheimer as superintendent. Meisenheimer has 20 years of construction experience. He is the superintendent on the University of Oregon Miller...

WRG Design in Portland hires Michele Boer.
December 7, 2007... Byline: Daily Journal of Commerce Staff Report WRG Design has hired Michele Boer as a receptionist in its Portland office.

Cary Kopczynski & Co. promotes Satish Jain to senior engineer and seismic design lead.
December 7, 2007... Byline: Daily Journal of Commerce Staff Report Cary Kopczynski & Co. has promoted Satish Jain to senior engineer and seismic design lead. In addition, it has hired Michael J. Park as a design engineer and Amanda Bliss as an administrative...

Oregon's CMD hires Julie Ma as account coordinator.
December 7, 2007... Byline: Daily Journal of Commerce Staff Report CMD has hired Julie Ma as an account coordinator for its public relations department. Ma will develop press material and maintain media relationships. She previously interned as an account...

Commentary: Writing it doesn't always make it right.
December 7, 2007... Byline: Rich Meneghello Probably 80 to 90 percent of a manager's day consists of communicating in some form or other. Obviously things like training, orientation, performance evaluations and the like are forms of communication. But...

CH2M Hill hires Metz.
December 10, 2007... Byline: DJC Staff Report CH2M Hill has hired Steve Metz as a railway design expert. Metz has 20 years of experience managing and engineering railway projects. He worked on TriMet's westside, airport, interstate and I-205 light-rail...

Portland-based Ecos Consulting hires Livingston.
December 10, 2007... Byline: DJC Staff Report Ecos Consulting has hired Jonathan Livingston as vice president of product and service innovation. Livingston has 20 years of experience in innovation management, including research, evaluation and deployment...

Oregon-based Rowell Brokaw Architects hires Harris.
December 10, 2007... Byline: DJC Staff Report Rowell Brokaw Architects has hired Barbara Harris as a marketing director. Harris holds a Master of Art Administration from the University of Oregon. She is working with the firm on new marketing strategies....

Rowell Brokaw Architects hires Talbot.
December 10, 2007... Byline: DJC Staff Report Rowell Brokaw Architects has hired Gena Talbot as an administrative assistant. Talbot assists with administrative duties and hospitality needs at the firm. She also owns her own photography business, which...

Installation of Sauvie Island Bridge span delayed.
December 10, 2007... Byline: Dan Carter Weather and technical delays have stalled the timeline for floating a new, 365-foot-long span for the Sauvie Island Bridge down the Willamette River and Multnomah Channel. The 1,600-ton steel arch was loaded onto a...

Design panel approves two projects for downtown Portland.
December 10, 2007... Byline: Alison Ryan The Portland Design Commission last week unanimously approved designs for two downtown projects. TVA Architects' designs for Park Avenue West, a 33-story tower retail, office and condominium project planned for the...

Kruse Way's leasing loss is Beaverton's gain.
December 10, 2007... Byline: DJC Staff Report Motorola has leased 16,875 square feet of flex/industrial space at the Jay Street Buildings in Beaverton, NAI Norris, Beggs & Simpson said Friday. Motorola leased the space for Tut Systems Inc., a software...

North Plains bridge remains restricted as officials wait for waters to recede.
December 10, 2007... Byline: Nathalie Weinstein A 10-ton weight limit placed last week on the remains on the Meacham Bridge in North Plains will remain in effect while Washington County officials wait for storm waters to recede. Until the water goes down,...

Oregon construction agency tackles industry education program.
December 10, 2007... Byline: Libby Tucker Building industry reforms passed by the 2007 Legislature could become a burden for the Construction Contractors Board, the agency that regulates construction. Faced with a legislative mandate to craft a continuing...

Oregon Department of Transportation wraps up mileage-fee pilot program.
December 10, 2007... Byline: Tyler Graf The state gas tax is living on borrowed time. At least that's what the Oregon Department of Transportation believes, as it begins looking toward the future with its much-touted mileage fee alternative to the gas tax...

Design pushes envelope, Portland Design Commission pushes it back.
December 10, 2007... Byline: Alison Ryan Myhre Group Architects has a bold plan for the six-story apartment project the firm is designing between Northwest Lovejoy and Marshall streets and 14th and 15th avenues - but it's one that doesn't really deliver, the...

Five feet at a time, Portland's 'Big Pipe' effort continues.
December 11, 2007... Byline: Libby Tucker Talk about boring. Five feet at a time, 60 feet a day, six days a week, Kiewit-Bilfinger Berger digs along the Willamette River to lay the east-side Big Pipe. But workers on the 5.5-mile $464 million combined...

Green affordable builders learn as they go.
December 11, 2007... Byline: Alison Ryan On five acres in Northeast Portland, school is in session. No classrooms. No desks. No textbooks. Just a building team that's figuring out how to create an affordable green housing project in an on-the-job learning lab....

Poetry crosses bridges, real and imagined.
December 11, 2007... Byline: Nathalie Weinstein Some of the biggest events in Sharon Wood Wortman's life happened on bridges. When she was 39, she crossed a bridge into downtown Portland for the first time, having grown up in Lents with a grandmother who...

Construction spending down in October.
December 11, 2007... Byline: DJC Staff Construction spending fell 0.8 percent in October and 0.6 percent year-to-date, according to most-recent figures from the U.S. Census Bureau. Private residential construction was down 2 percent in October, while...

Wednesday forum to preview 2008 Oregon economy.
December 11, 2007... Byline: DJC Staff Economist John Mitchell will discuss the 2008 economic outlook from 7:30 a.m. to 8:45 a.m. Wednesday at the December Portland Business Alliance forum at the Governor Hotel. Mitchell is a principal at M&H Economic...

Metro rolls out more money for Nature in Neighborhoods program.
December 11, 2007... Byline: DJC Staff Metro's Nature in Neighborhoods initiative is accepting pre-applications for community restoration and enhancement grants, Metro said Monday. A total of $250,000 is available for projects that connect citizens with...

MulvannyG2 wins national contract for clothing shops.
December 11, 2007... Byline: DJC Staff MulvannyG2 Architecture, a Bellevue, Wash.-based firm with offices in Portland, has been awarded a contract for multiple store projects for Coldwater Creek, a women's apparel chain headquartered in Sandpoint, Idaho. ...

Commentary: Taxpayers have till year's end to protect data.
December 11, 2007... Byline: David L. Canary In last month's column, I advised property taxpayers that, if they believed their properties were over-assessed, they had until Dec. 31 to file an appeal with the county board of property tax appeals or the...

Columbia River Economic Development Council elects Devery.
December 11, 2007... Byline: DJC Staff The Columbia River Economic Development Council has elected Helen Devery to its board of directors. Devery manages the planning team at JD White.

Northwest Mutual Financial Network promotes Schierer, hires staff.
December 11, 2007... Byline: DJC staff Northwest Mutual Financial Network has promoted Monika Schierer to office manager for the Pawlowski Financial Group. In addition, it has hired financial representatives William Barton, Issac Pflaum and Andrew Pfaendler to...

Portland architecture firms announce hirings.
December 11, 2007... Byline: DJC staff Rowell Brokaw Architects has hired Kaarin Knudson as a designer. Knudson is working on Crescent Village Town Center, a mixed-use development in Eugene, and Crane Church in Eastern Oregon. She previously worked as...

Portland-based Events Northwest hires Lucich.
December 11, 2007... Byline: DJC Staff Events Northwest has hired Andy Lucich as its public relations manager. Lucich previously worked as a media contact for California Polytechnic State University's Athletic Department. He is a graduate of the...

As Portland's FAR bonuses fatten towers, development critics get louder.
December 12, 2007... Byline: Tyler Graf If Ken Nichols had any say in the matter, the city's standards for floor-area-ratio bonuses would be more stringent, based on higher standards, with perhaps fewer financial benefits to developers. But he doesn't, the...