When architect Peter Baer considers submitting a project proposal these days, he knows he’ll be up against a lot of competition.

As the recession worsens, the pool of architecture firms chasing projects grows larger.

“In the last three to four months, the competition has increased dramatically,” said Baer, a principal at Pinnacle Architecture, a five-person firm in Bend.

If 50 architecture firms ask to look at a request for proposals for a project, for example, Baer said as many as 25 might submit proposals.

Mark Siemieniec, a principal with the three-person Portland firm MS-Architecture, said he’s seeing a lot more architects showing up at pre-proposal meetings.

A recent request for proposals for two fire stations for the Amity Fire District, for example, attracted queries from more than 60 architects and engineers.

“Firms are responding to projects outside the normal scope of things they look for,” said Paul Frankenburger, the fire district’s agent for the project. “They’re trying to keep themselves in business and they need work. Contractors are in the same boat.”

The fire station RFP calls for two facilities that will cost about $2.9 million total. Amy Columbo, spokesperson for Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects, said ZGF looked at the Amity Fire RFP and passed on it because it was not a good fit. She said the firm does not pursue projects based on their size alone, but on whether ZGF has the right portfolio, team and knowledge of the client.

At Hennebery Eddy Architects, which has about 25 employees, projects are more compelling if the firm has worked with the client before. Although Hennebery has designed fire stations for the city of Portland, it has not worked with the Amity Fire District, so the firm will not pursue the project, according to Debbie Rogers, marketing manager for Hennebery.

“We’re being even more strategic in our decision to pursue or not to pursue a project, because we know there are more proposals,” Rogers said.

For a small firm, one way to gain a competitive advantage is to join forces with a larger firm, as Pinnacle Architecture did when it proposed for a culinary arts school project with local firm Yost Grube Hall Architecture. Pinnacle’s previous experience with such projects, combined with the prestige and depth of experience at YGH, helped the team beat out one of the Northwest’s premier firms, Miller Hull Partnership of Seattle. Miller Hull in 2003 won the American Institute of Architects’ Firm Award.

To gain a competitive advantage over other firms, Baer said he must convince clients that his firm specializes in a certain type of project and can bring more personalized service.

He said that once the economy picks up, he’s optimistic that his firm will have a great chance at finding work, because there will be more work to go around.

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Just when Lori Luchak and needed a lift, United Streetcar arrived.

The recession and Oregon’s ailing recreational vehicle industry had punched a hole in Miles Fiberglass’ revenue stream, causing the company to lay off 35 people.

But the Southeast Portland manufacturer’s new contract with led Luchak, Miles Fiberglass’ president, to rehire 10 of the workers. Now, she is optimistic that her company can bounce back in dire economic times.

United Streetcar of Clackamas recently won a $26 million contract to build seven streetcars for the city of Tucson, Ariz., with an option to build six more. The company also will build six streetcars for Metro to be used in Portland.

The contracts represent a new business track for , which is the parent company of United Streetcar. But the potentially long-term revenue stream also could help a chain of local suppliers survive the recession.

Miles Fiberglass took a big hit in recent years, when the local RV industry suffered weak sales amid rising fuel costs. Nearly half of Miles Fiberglass’ sales were to the RV industry, and when that dropped off, it spelled trouble for Miles Fiberglass, Luchak said.

“The streetcar came at a good time for us and helped pick up the slack with the RVs,” Luchak said. She estimated that the streetcar work, which includes making front and rear shell pieces for the streetcars, will make up about 30 percent of the losses experienced after losing RV contracts.

At in Estacada, a contract from United Streetcar won’t make up for the heavy losses caused by the recession. However, according to the company president, Eric Sale, the new work will prevent him from laying off employees.

“We are certainly hit by the recession,” said Sale, who noted that the streetcar contract lessens the impact of the economic downturn. “Every bit of work out there becomes really critical.”

Northwest Technologies will be providing brackets and mounts that will help attach panels made by Miles Fiberglass to the streetcars. In addition to helping his company survive hard times, the United Streetcar contract will “bring companies together to work on a common project,” Sale said. “For (economic) health down the road, that’s going to be monumental.”

Other local companies that will benefit by supplying materials to United Streetcar are Columbia Body Manufacturing and Platt Electric Supply.

The streetcars will be made from about 70 percent U.S. parts, according to Chandra Brown, vice president of Oregon Iron Works. Wheel sets with gear boxes will come from Penn Machine Co. in Johnstown, Pa.; seats will be made by Recaro of Auburn Hills, Mich.; and Milwaukee Composites will supply floor material. The propulsion system – one of the most complicated systems in the streetcar – is made by the Czechoslovakian company Skoda.

Brown said the U.S. does not have a company that makes the specialized propulsion systems, although she said it’s likely that U.S. companies have the technology to do so.

The United Streetcar contract for composite floors from Milwaukee Composites represents the only work that Milwaukee Composites does for a U.S.-based light rail or streetcar company, according to Ryan Kober, sales manager with Milwaukee Composites. Kober said the United Streetcar contract will be a small fraction of the company’s $8 million in annual sales but it forms an alliance with a company that has growth potential.

“Every job is important,” said Kober. “We’re a transportation-focused business now.”
United Streetcar is Oregon Iron Works’ first attempt at producing streetcars.

Luchak said her company forged a relationship with Oregon Iron Works 10 years ago, when Miles Fiberglass provided materials for an Atlantis submarine.

Whether the new streetcar work will last until the economy turns around is still unknown, Luchak said. “It’s a bridge until when we can get the RV work back,” she said. The company is also providing blade repair technicians to Vestas Americas.

She said she thinks the alliance with United Streetcar will last for “decades.”

“We would like to grow right along with them,” she said.

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The final version of for the new "Oregon" sign in Old Town have been designed.

The revised proposal includes just "Oregon" text with chasing incandescent bulbs, with the bottom of the plaque widened, painted green and gold "Old Town — Portland" text.

Two painted signs on a water tank on the roof would be changed to include new gold neon 'O' letter signs facing both east and west.

The next Landmarks Commission hearing to discuss the change will be held on July 13th at 1:30 p.m., 1900 SW Fourth Ave., Room 2500A. Here's a link to our the Web page: http://www.portlandonline.com/bds/index.cfm?c=49229

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New renderings of the Oregon Sustainability Center in downtown Portland show a tower with a tree lined atrium, and the Portland streetcar running through the middle of the site.

An open house and presentation of the Oregon Sustainability Center Feasibility Study will be held Thursday from 5 to 7:30 p.m. It will be held at Portland State University's Shattuck Hall Annex, 1914 S.W. Park Ave.

Led by Gerding Edlen Develoment Co., the design team includes GBD Architects. And SERA Architects, working with Green Building Services, Interface Engineering and KPFF Consulting Engineers.

The building could incorporate a "living machine" that treats stormwater, as well as photovoltaics and shading devices. The building is being designed to meet Living Building Challenge standards. Its initial estimated cost is $98.4 million.

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The northwest corner of the Oregon Sustainability Center shows how the Portland streetcar will cut through the middle of the site. (Rendering courtesy of Portland Development Commission)

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Newly released renderings of the Oregon Sustainabilty Center show and indoor/outdoor space featuring streetcar access running through the inside of the building beneath a canopy of indoor trees. (Rendering courtesy of Portland Development Commission)

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To build the Omega Center for Sustainable Living, Skip Backus has gone to great lengths.
Backus, CEO of the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies, traveled several hundred miles, from upstate New York to a school demolition in Philadelphia, for just a few bathroom doors for the center.

What drives Backus is his passion for constructing a Living Building, a new green-building standard that no builder has achieved.

The 6,200-square-foot center, part of Omega Institute’s holistic learning campus in Rhinebeck, N.Y., is designed to meet the standards of the Living Building Challenge, a competition created by the Northwest-based Cascadia Region Green Building Council.

The Omega Center will have a grand opening July 16. Once a Living Building is completed, it must be up and running for a year before Cascadia will certify it as a Living Building.

In addition to being the CEO of the Omega Institute, Backus was the general contractor. BNIM Architects of Kansas City, Mo., was the architect.

Laura Lesniewski, project manager of the center with BNIM Architects, said the Living Building Challenge requires that all of a project’s wood be Forest Stewardship Council certified or salvaged. In addition, woods may not contain materials on the Living Building Challenge’s “red list,” such as toxic adhesives and laminates that contain formaldehyde, lead or neoprene. “We found the material requirements, by far, the most difficult thing to meet,” she said.

The next large challenge was creating a wastewater-treatment process that would treat water from the whole Omega Institute for Holistic Studies campus. The center has an approximately 55,000-gallon wastewater-treatment facility that uses plants in aerated lagoons to break down the fecal matter and convert the wastewater into water suitable for flushing toilets and irrigation. Rainwater collected at the building also will be used for irrigation and toilet flushing, she said.

“We wanted to take wastewater and by treating it, use that as a way to reconnect people to a natural process,” Backus said. The aerated lagoons will be in a greenhouse inside the building; similar lagoons to treat the wastewater will be outside the building.

He said the treatment areas will change the way people on the Omega Institute campus look at what happens to wastewater after they flush toilets, and how the system converts the wastewater to usable water. “What they see (in the wastewater treatment areas) is water that doesn’t stink and is not all brown and nasty, and they understand the process,” he said.

Backus said the building will use solar panels to meet all the energy needs.

Whether the Omega Center becomes the first Living Building is not Backus’ critical concern, he said.

He will seek LEED platinum certification for the building, but Backus said that certification is not a main motivator for building green. “At some point,” he said, “I hope we don’t need a certifying agency to have this level of logic and process.”

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The Society for College and University Planning will hold a 44th annual conference at the Oregon Convention Center July 18 through July 22. 

Susan Anderson, director of the City of Portland's Bureau of Planning & Sustainability will speak at Sunday's opening plenary session. Conference sessions and workshops include local, national and international speakers as well as local campus tours from Lewis & Clark and Reed Colleges and Pacific University to WSU and Clark College in Vancouver.  City tours include OHSU, PSU, the Pearl District and LEED Platinum buildings. 

For information, call 734-998-7832, or go to http://www.scup.org.

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Developers of a proposed Central Oregon eco-resort said Wednesday that state legislators have repeatedly rejected their offers to dramatically scale back the project.

Hassin Squires, a lobbyist working on behalf of the developers, Dutch Pacific Resources LLC, said she offered opponents of the $215 million Metolian resort a compromise to slash the original number of 450 homes and 180 hotel rooms in half, but legislators were not interested.

On Wednesday, the state House voted to table a bill to block resort developments in the Metolius Basin. The bill would create an Area of Critical Statewide Concern for the Metolius Basin, where the Metolian would be. That action followed a vote on Tuesday, in which the Legislature narrowly defeated the Area of Critical Statewide Concern.

House Rep. Brian Clem, D-Salem, who is against the Metolian project and wants to create the Area of Critical Statewide Concern, said the House will revote on the bill before it adjourns next month.

Squires said the developers have been willing to reduce the project to 210 lots with 85 rooms. Nevertheless, she said legislators were not willing to consider the scaled-back project proposal. Clem argued that the resorts’ proximity to the Metolius River is his major concern.

Developers said the resort, more than five miles from the Metolius, would not reduce the amount of water that feeds the river.

The developers, including Jim Kean of Portland and Shane Lundgren of Sisters, have argued that the eco-resort will not hurt the Metolius River. The resort, which would be located 25 miles west of Sisters, would use storm water and snow run-off for water consumption.

Lundgren said his development team offered legislators concessions to scale the Metolian back. Instead, he said, they faced opposition to a project that was unfairly criticized as damaging to the environment. He said arguments from the opposition have come from “old school environmentalists” who are not familiar with the type of development he is proposing.

Kean said the project is innovative. “We’re pioneering the idea of eco-tourism in Oregon,” said Kean. “We’ve developed something that is innovative and represents an exciting new product that would be a boost for the economy and fix the forest.”

The Metolian would have 500- to 600-square-foot cabins, along with “primitive camping shelters” and a hotel for overnight stays. Located on 640 acres in the Deschutes National Forest near Suttle Lake, the resort would have cabins that would be for rent and for sale.

Lundgren said the resort would be geared toward people interested in activities such as hiking, trail running, rock climbing, biking or forest stewardship in the summer, and cross-country skiing, ice-skating, snow-shoeing or downhill skiing in the winter.

The Land Conservation and Development Commission recommended that the Legislature create the Area of Critical Statewide Concern. Kean said the state has “interfered in an established land use process” to block his development. That sentiment is shared by House Speaker Dave Hunt, who said in a press release after Tuesday’s House vote that the issue should never have landed in the state Legislature. “I believe this bill usurps the land use process that Jefferson County adopted in approving these resorts,” said Hunt. He added that LCDC’s action to create the Area of Critical Statewide Concern “changes the (land use) rules in the middle of the game.”

Kean said if all goes well and the project is not blocked in the Legislature, the Metolian project could break ground next year.

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Although western Oregon gets plenty of rain, water conservation becomes increasingly important when summer arrives.

Hunter Industries of San Marcos, Calif., has used a patented technology to develop a multi-stream sprinkler that the company claims is able to use up to 30 percent less water than a conventional sprinkler.

John Wascher, a product manager with Hunter Industries, said the company’s sprinkler heads create efficiency through “distribution uniformity” – spreading the water evenly.

The MP Rotator sprinkler has individual grooves cut into each head, designed to release water different distances. In traditional sprinklers with one hole for water distribution, Wascher said, water is lost through misting, through overwatering or from being blown astray by winds. “The MP Rotator can combat wind because each stream has more energy,” he said.

“The MP Rotator system boosts efficiency up to 80 percent,” said Wascher, referring to the amount of water that is absorbed and not wasted. “The true magic behind the nozzle is how it delivers the water – at a much lower rate.”

The MP Rotator distributes on average about four-tenths of an inch of water per hour, compared with the industry average of about 1 to 1½ inches, Wascher said. The typical absorption rate of a lawn is about three-tenths of an inch per hour. Most lawns need approximately 1½ inches of water per week.

The company has six sprinkler head types with adjustable arcs that range from 90 to 360 degrees.

The systems can be used for turf or plants. Wascher said the company’s clients include the South Waterfront neighborhood, Tualatin Water District, the city of Boulder, Colo., and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

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