Northwest commercial real estate projects and professionals were honored recently, during the annual Night of Excellence Awards event. It took place at the Sentinel Hotel in downtown Portland on March 5, prior to size restrictions on gatherings to combat the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

Local chapters of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP), the Oregon-Washington Commercial Association of Brokers (ORWACAB), the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors (SIOR) and the Building Owners and Managers Association of Oregon (BOMA) hosted the event. Achievements from 2019 were recognized.

Awards included:

Office Development of the Year: 7 SE Stark, Portland, Harsch Investment Properties
Multifamily Development of the Year: Club at The Park, Vancouver, Washington, PacTrust
Hospitality Development of the Year: Hyatt Regency Portland, Mortenson
Industrial Development of the Year: Denney Road Commerce Center, Beaverton, Harsch Investment Properties
Office Redevelopment of the Year: Harrison Square, Portland, Mackenzie

Investment Broker of the Year: Nicholas Kucha, NKF
Office Broker of the Year: Trevor Kafoury, CBRE
Retail Broker of the Year: George Macoubray, Commercial Realty Advisors
Industrial Broker of the Year: Stuart Skaug, CBRE
Rookie Broker of the Year: Zac Nelsen, Niehaus Properties
Industrial Team of the Year: Steven Klein, Peter Stalick, Brendan Murphy, Kidder Mathews
Investment Team of the Year: Charles Safley, Paige Morgan, CBRE
Multifamily Team of the Year: Josh McDonald, Phil Oester, Joe Nydahl, CBRE
Office Team of the Year: Kristin Hammond, Ajay Malhotra, CBRE
Retail Team of the Year: George Diamond, Nicholas Diamond, Michelle Rozakis, Real Estate Investment Group
Property Manager of the Year: Emily Mandic, American Assets Trust
Bill Naito Award: Portland Meadows Racetrack, Jerry Matson, Colliers International; Sean Colletta, Prologis

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Portland architects gathered Friday night at Revolution Hall to honor the best in the business.

The American Institute of Architects Portland chapter’s annual awards event was at turns celebratory and downbeat. A local band, Soul Vax, kept the proceedings lighthearted, but if there was a theme to the evening, it was the architecture industry’s glaring lack of diversity.

Of all the licensed architects in Oregon, only four are African-American – all in Portland, one speaker noted.

Little progress has been made since civil-rights leader Whitney M. Young Jr. gave a keynote speech to the 1968 AIA National Convention in Portland, said Nkenge Harmon Johnson, president and CEO of the Urban League of Portland.

“If you were actively working to keep black people, to keep Native Americans, out of the profession, could the numbers be any worse?” she said. “I doubt it.”

Johnson urged architecture firms to do more to recruit African-American architects by lobbying alma maters to admit more diverse classes, and by recruiting from historically black colleges and universities.

Meanwhile, the award contenders were judged by a trio of Philadelphia architects: Karen Blanchard, Jeff Goldstein and Jason Smith. They were impressed by the quality of the submissions, which they said were better than those in any other city they had judged. They also noted a few local quirks, including the extensive use of wood in many designs and the proliferation of accessory dwelling units, or ADUs.

The winning projects were in Portland unless otherwise noted. The winners were:

President’s Award: Robert J. Frasca, founding partner, ZGF Architects

Young Architect Award: Jeff Guggenheim, Guggenheim Architecture + Design Studio

Emerging Professional Award: Dristi Manandhar, Carleton Hart Architecture

Honor Awards: Allied Works Architecture, National Music Centre of Canada (Calgary, Alberta, Canada); Waechter Architecture, Furioso Vineyards (Dundee)

Honor Award – Interior Project: ZGF Architects, Expensify Portland office

Honor Awards – Small Projects: Fieldwork Design and Architecture, Forest Park bridges; Fieldwork Design and Architecture, Day Wines (Dundee)

2030 Award: Opsis Architecture, Oregon Zoo Education Center

Merit Awards: Opsis Architecture, University of Oregon Price Science Commons and Research Library (Eugene); PATH Architecture, Carbon12; Skylab Architecture, Sinbin; Hacker, Lents Commons; Hacker, Oregon Episcopal School

Merit Awards – Small Project: Waechter Architecture, Slender House; Webster Wilson Architect, Fowler Avenue ADU; Scott Mooney, Pinwheel ADU

Citation Awards: Holst Architecture, Rockwood Club (Boys & Girls Club); BORA Architects, OSU Cascades Tykeson Hall (Bend); Lever Architecture, FLEX; Mahlum Architects, Umpqua Community College Taphoytha Hall (Roseburg); Woofter Architecture and Sink Combs Dethlefs, PSU Peter Stott Center renovation and Viking Pavilion

Citation Awards – Small Project: Open Studio Collective, El Nido Residence; Beebe Skidmore, Stephens Street Residence

Citation Award – Unbuilt Project: Waechter Architecture, Society Hotel Bingen (Bingen, Washington)

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From his office at 1331 N.W. Lovejoy St., Walter Bowen can look out the window and see how his hometown has changed since he was growing up in Southeast Portland.

“People in Portland specifically didn’t want to live in a condominium; they wanted a house with a yard, and now people really like living in condos,” he said. “Of course, the rents have come up substantially, but the amenities have increased as well.”

Bowen’s first development was a 261-unit apartment complex on Barnes Road during the 1980s. Since then, he has developed more than $2 billion in projects that encompass mid- and high-rise office space, hotels and retail space. His projects include the Pearl West office building completed in April 2016 – the first building developed in Portland after the Great Recession – and the mixed-use Broadway Tower now under construction at Southwest Broadway and Columbia Street.

When a change in tax law impacted the apartment market in the late 1980s, Bowen branched out and founded Regent Assisted Living. Now called BPM Senior Living Company, it has grown to become one of the largest senior housing companies in the country and a leader in memory care.

“Looking into the future, I think we’re going to see a lot more 55-plus apartments and communities that offer a choice for people who don’t want to be around kids,” he said, noting the amenities often create the atmosphere of an extended-stay hotel without the hotel rates. “There are lots of things going on in the housing business other than just straight up-and-down apartments.”

Bowen, a 2016 91��Ƶ Newsmaker and recipient of several industry awards, has been a mentor for other local developers. He is a founding member of the American Senior Housing Association, a former member of the advisory board for the National Investment Center for Senior Housing and Care, and a former board member of the Assisted Living Federation of America.

In addition, he is a board member for Providence St. Vincent Medical Foundation and supports several organizations that include St. Mary’s Home for Boys, SEI Inc., the Maurice Lucas Foundation and OHSU cancer research.

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A personal and professional crossroads led Thuy Tu to an introspective period in 2013 that she calls a very transformative time in her life.

“It was just an interesting junction in my life and I soul searched,” she said. “I got to travel and took a lot of road trips with my Chihuahua, Uma. I read a lot and I did some deep meditation. That was a defining moment and what came out of it was my firm.”

Tu, who has more than 20 years of experience in transportation and transit planning, urban planning, capital improvement projects and environmental planning, started Thuy Tu Consulting LLC in 2015. Her services integrate project management, public involvement and government policy.

Tu’s personal experience of growing up near Southeast 82^nd Avenue proved invaluable as she served as a planning consultant for the Oregon Department of Transportation’s Avenue of Roses Project. Tu, who also speaks Vietnamese and is on the steering committee for the Jade District, helped refine the survey methodology and interview approach with local residents.

She also co-taught an urban design studio with University of Oregon students about how to transform the avenue’s transportation corridor. “The students’ work went viral and the community asked me to bring it before the City Council, so in July I led a town hall meeting for Mayor Wheeler and the City Council. The town hall was a very successful meeting, and perhaps that was because I brought everybody together and it was community led,” she said.

Tu recently began teaching a course on community resiliency and earthquake engineering at the University of Portland, and she serves on Portland’s Urban Forestry Commission. She said she appreciates the opportunity to help influence change, noting, “I’m not passionate about one particular thing. I’m passionate about the integration of everything together.”

Tu, who also received a 2017 Building Diversity award from the 91��Ƶ, describes her life as a series of serendipitous events that have led her to a perfect fit in her career.

“The reward is being able to influence change with the wisdom, love and integrity that I learned during my introspective time,” she said. “The community can take hold of that and know that what I do isn’t just a job. It’s what I love to do.”

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Maurice Rahming came up through the trades. He started his apprenticeship in 1988, worked his way up to journeyman, and then went on to earn his commercial inspector’s license and additional certifications.

In 1998, he and his wife, Ali O’Neill, decided to go into business for themselves. The company initially focused on electrical contracting. But after partnering on projects with Walsh Construction to gain general contracting experience in 2011 and acquiring Howard Jacobs Masonry in 2014, the company expanded its reach into the construction sector.

The company has grown to more than 60 employees and its portfolio contains a long list of projects that are impressive for both complexity and an inclination toward public service. Those projects include the John Day fish ladders; a Veterans Administration facility in Walla Walla, Washington; a U.S. Forest Service laboratory in Corvallis Oregon; and Tilikum Crossing – Bridge of the People in Portland. The firm’s client list also includes Portland Community College, the city of Portland, TransCore and TriMet

“There was a series of projects that had us rethink how we do things,” Rahming said. “City of Portland and state jobs required certified payroll information, and it got us thinking about managing and tracking our people. We became better at cost projections and that made us more competitive, more precise in our project estimations. What some firms see as a problem, we actually turned into a benefit.”

The firm is also very invested in the community. They’re involved with Metropolitan Alliance for Workforce Equity (MAWE-Portland), Portland Youth Builders, the Asian-Pacific American Chamber of Commerce, Enhabit Portland, All Hands Raised, Oregon Tradeswomen and several other non-profit and professional development organizations.

They’ve won a 2015 City of Portland “Making A Difference” award and a 2017 Rose Community Development “Outstanding Business Partner” award. The firm’s activities in the region are directly applied to its business practices.

“Our approach is based on my experience,” Rahming said. “I came up through the industry and when I had an opportunity to enter the trades I saw it as my pathway out of poverty. That’s very powerful — to offer a way for people to escape poverty. I feel I have a responsibility to open that door for others. It isn’t just checking off a (MWESB) box; it’s about success for people.”

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Almost every enclosed structure requires electrical wiring and products. With that in mind, the building boom in the Pacific Northwest – and in the Portland area in particular – has afforded��ongoing opportunities for Mark Adams as a small, but active electrical contractor.

Adams, a former U.S. Navy Seabee (construction battalion), established his company in 2004 armed with deep experience as a licensed journeyman electrician. The business was beginning to find its footing just as Oregon’s building industry became mired in a recession. Unwilling to give up, Adams realized that by focusing on maintenance and renovation projects, he could keep his firm afloat.

The recession didn’t last, but the reputation for quality and dependability that Adams established did. In the years since the recession ended, his company has grown to 22 employees and has a long list of customers and repeat business.

Bread-and-butter projects like Walgreens, Wendy’s, Zoup!, Mod Pizza, several locations of Sonic and seven locations of Buffalo Wild Wings stand alongside more individualized projects, including a Department of Motor Vehicles location in Gresham; the Mount Hood Ear, Nose & Throat Clinic; and a New Seasons Market.

More recently, Adam’s company handled work for the Oregon Zoo Education Center, which he considers a pivotal project for his business. In addition to showcasing his company’s commitment to its clients – at one point a job foreman came in during his off time in order to be a part of a critical inspection that had to be rescheduled due to snow – the project also helped Adams and his crew expand their skills sets.

“We had challenges on that job that we hadn’t seen before — new technologies and integrated systems that provide interactive experiences for people who visit. For us, it was a real opportunity for growth,” Adams said.

Adams and his staff are active in ways that benefit both the community and the trades.

The company donates money to the math department at Clackamas High School, the Area 1 Electrical JACT for its annual “Wire Off” event, and Veteran’s Assistance at the University of Oregon. Company employees also volunteered time to renovate a basement at Eastridge Church in Clackamas. In addition, Mark Adams Electric is a member of the Independent Electrical Contractors of Oregon and the Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee (JATC) Oregon.

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Melody and Brian Emerick founded their design firm with the goal of doing great work in the communities where they and their employees live, work and grow. Brian is a seventh-generation Oregonian and Emerick Architects claims “local is part of our DNA.”�� Of the firm’s staff of 15, 10 are women.

“To go for it and start the business, that was a big decision (for us),” Melody said. “We were young and I was nine months pregnant with our second child. We were still paying off our student loans and we were broke, but we just went for it.”

The firm has since worked on a portfolio of projects that help the city’s small business and property owners. For example, Emerick Architects worked with Civilis Consultants to help to find a new home for Korean-owned Living Color Beauty Supply when it was being displaced in 2008. They helped place the family-owned business in the Vanport Project, a public-private partnership that gave ownership opportunities to small local businesses, and assisted the family in creating a new look for the store.

With a focus on adaptive reuse, the firm cares deeply for Portland’s historical legacy, and has been a headline sponsor for the Architectural Heritage Center’s auctions for the last two years. Emerick Architects also supports Restore Oregon, the Architectural Foundation of Oregon and the John Yeon Center.

To foster the next generation of architects and remain involved in the current academic community, senior staff volunteers at design reviews at Portland State University and the University of Oregon throughout the year. Staff members also are involved with the ACE Mentor Program of America Inc., which helps mentor high school students and inspires them to pursue careers in design and construction. The firm is a frequent supporter of student architects, hosting the 2016 student symposium for PSU’s teen summer immersion program as well as the 2017 Wilson High art history class. This summer, the firm hosted at-risk youth from Hayhurst’s Summer Program.

The Emericks�� raised their two daughters while growing their business. Melody has given a presentation to the American Institute of Architects on what it’s like to balance family with being a woman and business leader in today’s profession.

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When Oliver Wendell Holmes said, “A young man knows the rules; an old man knows the exceptions,” he might well have had the construction industry in mind.�� It is nearly impossible for someone to walk onto a job site, point at anything and not have it subject to a rule, a law,or a code of some sort.

Code Unlimited LLC is a Beaverton-based consulting firm that focuses on identifying and simplifying how those myriad rules and laws and codes might affect a project.

Samir Mokashi, the founder and president of the firm, earned his undergraduate degree in Mumbai before moving to Oregon to pursue a master’s degree at the University of Oregon. He later moved to Portland in the middle of the Great Recession so that his wife could complete a doctorate in microbiology at Oregon Health and Science University.

Initially partnered with another firm from 2005, Mokashi broke away to establish Code Unlimited in 2011. Since then, the firm has flourished, growing to 20 employees and earning recognition as a minority-owned business that strives to promote diversity in its workforce. The firm currently includes several women in leadership roles—something outside the ordinary in the male-dominated construction, contracting and engineering communities that Code Unlimited and its staff serve.

In the past several years, Code Unlimited has worked on a wide variety of projects, offering the ability to quickly adjust to changing codes and multiple agencies for their clients. Major projects include Park Avenue West; the Oregon State University Student Experience Center; the Oregon Health and Science University Collaborative Life Sciences Building; the Priest Rapids Dam in Yakima, Washington; and ongoing consultations for SolarWorld in Hillsboro.

The firm also has worked on the Cornelius-Woodlark project, which involved the renovation of several buildings that were part of a hotel complex built in 1908.

“There were probably no set codes when it was built,” Mokashi said, “but now we can use alternative materials and methods that will meet modern code requirements and probably exceed them.”

Code Unlimited was listed as a top minority employer in 2016 and actively supports staff with flexible schedules, professional training and mentoring.

“We look for curious, intelligent people,” said Mokashi. “That naturally attracts diversity. I’ve found that if you build on good, it will grow well.”

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CIDA provides architectural and interior design, structural and civil engineering, land-use planning and property development services. With offices in Portland, Bend and Seattle, the firm’s portfolio includes general industrial, manufacturing, food processing, health care, and general office and retail establishment projects.

The firm prides itself on promoting women at all stages of professional development and, in contrast to general trends in the fields of architecture and engineering, the representation of women in its offices does not decline with increasing levels of responsibility and authority. The firm is 80-percent woman-owned, and of its total staff, 66 percent are women and 67 percent are principals, higher than industry statistics across the country.

While having a mostly female staff offers a wide range of benefits, it also can present some unique challenges. For example, 10 percent of its workforce recently was pregnant with delivery dates within seven weeks of each other.

“We understood that workload adjustments had to occur and made accommodations. However, we aren’t special because we adapted,” the firm stated. “The newborns are special – each having the potential to be future professionals leading their chosen fields.”

CIDA provides the necessary flexibility to allow employees to embrace work/life balance and is committed to training young professionals in healthy business practices. Its investment in the ongoing development of the industry has led to several successful businesses currently certified as MBE, DBE, WEB and/or EST that have roots at CIDA.

The firm prides itself on its family-like atmosphere, where employees give their all – to each other and to the firm’s clients.

“I have faith in (my employees), and they know I have faith in them,” Jennifer Beattie, the firm’s president, said. “I know they have CIDA’s back and our clients’ backs at all times, and we’re a family so I trust them like family.”

The firm is sponsoring an employee to participate in the Girls Inc. fundraiser Rappel for Her to “support strong, smart and bold girls in the Pacific Northwest.” Each year, the firm organizes food, hygiene and toy drives and helps coordinate a holiday food box preparation party. CIDA also provides ongoing services to organizations such as The Salvation Army, Morrison Child & Family Services, B’nai B’rith International and Chabad Education Center.

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Even though Big C Industries has only been involved in the building industry for a short time – the company opened its doors in November 2015 – it has managed to rack up an impressive list of steel fabrication projects.

Among those projects are more than few standout efforts for some big-name clients: Crane platforms for the Port of Portland, custom steel stairs for Nike and work for Portland State University, structural steel for Ilani Casino. The company’s largest current job is a $1.2 million chunk of work as a subcontractor on a Howard. S Wright-led project in downtown Portland.

Ronda Cross, co-owner and president of Big C Industries, entered the world of business with a decade of experience in steel fabrication, including five years as contract general supervisor. Her partner, Tom Ball, brings to the table 25 years of experience in shop fabrication. Their experience has proven to be a winning combination.

Big C Industries’ current roster of 24 employees is double what the partners had originally projected and the company holds a high rating from the Better Business Bureau. In addition to actively supporting diversity in the workplace, encouraging anyone who has the skill and desire to take on the rigors of steel work, Cross and Ball promote the trade at local high schools and donate steel for students to learn the trade.

Meanwhile, Cross has been singled out for several business-related awards, including being named one of the Daily Journal of Commerce’s Women of Vision in 2016.

“I attribute my success to how I feel when I walk into a room or onto a new job and feel like, as a woman, I have to prove myself to them,” Cross said. “It’s made me work harder.”

Her commitment is evident in all of Big C Industries’ work, a mindset that last year helped the company achieve one of its biggest successes. A project for Wilsonville Subaru was three months behind schedule when Big C Industries came on board. Through hard work and a group effort, the company’s team made quick work of completing steel fabrications to specifications. The effort helped the project get back on track in just a few weeks.

It’s that dedication to projects that Cross and Ball believe will help the company eventually reach its long-term goal.

“We want to be in every port,” Cross said.

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