The Daily Journal of Commerce has opened the nomination period for its annual “Building Diversity” recognition program that celebrates and examines diversity, equity and inclusion within the local building industry. The 2023 virtual program will take place live on Thursday, March 30, and honor individuals, companies, agencies, and projects that have created value for their clients as well as the industries and communities they represent.

The core function of this program is to share the innovative initiatives and methods the honorees have used to overcome systemic barriers that affect numerous professionals in the building industry. Learn more about the event at /building-diversity/.

The 91��Ƶ is eager to hand out more of its “Building Diversity” awards and is inviting the community to nominate local leaders, organizations and projects that are advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in architecture, construction, engineering and related industries. To submit a free nomination, visit . The deadline is Friday, Feb. 10.

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An effort to align government policy on construction sites is gaining steam, with Prosper Portland‘s board voting last week to endorse a framework plan for the Construction Career Pathways Project.

The project, spearheaded by Metro, is an effort to increase participation in the construction industry by women and people of color.

Metro is developing what it calls a “tool kit,” including template language for diversity goals.

William Myers, a Prosper Portland board member, said the Hyatt Regency Portland at the Oregon Convention Center project showed the need for better coordination. That project involves Metro, Prosper Portland, TriMet and various city bureaus.

“We had conflicting policies that needed alignment,” he said at the Oct. 9 board meeting.

Myers noted the Construction Careers Pathway Project comes alongside other efforts to diversify the workforce.

“We’re starting to see the industry take over and course-correct a lot of these things,” he said.

Myers pointed to the positive jobsite culture training being conducted by the Pacific Northwest Carpenters Institute, as well as an effort being discussed that would provide child care to workers.

Raahi Reddy, Metro’s director of diversity, equity and inclusion, said the project is meant to provide a flexible framework.

“That’s up to each agency what the workforce agreement looks like,” she said.

Contractors will benefit from standardized language on workforce goals, said John Cárdenas, Prosper Portland’s construction, business and workforce equity project manager.

“The best reaction I can ever hear from a contractor or subcontractor is, ‘Oh, I’ve seen that before,’” Cárdenas said. “That familiarity breeds comfort, and that comfort gets us closer to achieving our goals.”

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It’s indisputable that women and people of color are underrepresented in the architecture, construction and engineering industries. However, regional government agency Metro is engaged in efforts to help change that by bringing on a number of minority-owned firms in important projects.

One notable example is the current to modernize the 30-year-old building’s public areas and establish a better visitor experience. A in 2017 to Colas Construction to serve as construction manager-general contractor; it was the largest public contract in Oregon ever earned by a minority-owned firm.

“We competed against some of the biggest teams in town,” Colas Construction CEO and President Andrew Colas said in reference to Hoffman Construction and Walsh Construction. “That in itself was an exciting win.”

Colas Construction is a family affair. The firm was founded in 1997 by Andrew’s father, Hermann Colas Jr., who moved to the United States from Haiti in 1969. Andrew’s sister Aneshka Colas-Dickson serves as vice president and chief financial officer, and their brother Alex Colas is a project manager.

Another minority-owned firm, Raimore Construction, is also involved in the Oregon Convention Center project. It’s primarily working on the exterior.

“We’ve been able to start breaking that glass ceiling,” Andrew Colas said. “There’s no reason there can’t be 100, 200 other firms like us.”

Two others are serving Metro. When Portland’5 Centers for the Arts sought a roof replacement for Hatfield Hall, a building that contains several theatre venues, general contractor Pacificmark Construction and roofing/waterproofing company Sterling-Pacific, both minority-owned businesses, earned the contracts.

Nancy Strening, a Portland’5 project manager, said the organization has been trying to find ways to get more minority-owned firms involved in its projects, and has recently been working with the National Association of Minority Contractors (NAMC) in this regard. Historically, one of the hiring challenges, she said, has been that Portland’5 has had to abide by government regulations to accept the lowest bidder.

Strening said there was an argument to be made that using minority-owned firms is still in the public interest, because having diverse perspectives on a project is always beneficial. The hiring process was very competitive, and the two firms that earned the contracts were the best choice, she said.

“Price and value aren’t always the same thing,” she said. “I think we are getting better results; I don’t think we are sacrificing anything.”

One of the main barriers to entry for minority-owned contractors, Strening said, is that many of the older, larger and more established firms (mostly white-owned), have entire teams of administrators able to secure subcontractors and bid on many projects. Nascent minority-owned firms might not have staff dedicated to outreach, and might not even know about some of the projects available.

Nevertheless, Metro’s efforts have been noticed by at least some members of Portland’s building industries.

“I would put them kind of at the top,” Andrew Colas said. “It’s been really important for us to have a strong partnership.”

Ray Leary, commissioner of the Metropolitan Exposition Recreation Commission (MERC), a division of Metro, said the agency does perhaps more than any other government entity in Oregon to increase opportunities. MERC’s job is to protect investment in the Expo Center, the Oregon Convention Center, and Portland’5, which he said is especially important right now.

With more conventions scheduled than ever before, Metro’s venues are a welcome mat to the rest of the world, Leary said, and there is a responsibility to utilize Portland’s diverse workforce when improving these spaces.

“Historically, the city of Portland does not have an enviable record in terms of opportunities,” he said. “I believe (Metro) will ultimately be the leadership in integrating people of color into the economic opportunities that our government manages and facilitates.”

Nate McCoy, executive director of NAMC-Oregon, said Metro has been making huge strides in the past few years. While he would like to see greater diversity in the agency’s leadership, he said the kind of projects they’ve been contracting for are what take minority-owned firms to the next level in terms of business and size.

NAMC-Oregon has partnered with Metro on many of its biggest contracts, and McCoy echoed Strening when commenting on the difficulty smaller firms have in marketing themselves to subcontractors. NAMC’s partnership with Metro has alleviated some of that, because NAMC-Oregon can brings its members directly into contact with the agency.

McCoy said the partnership with Metro has been strong, and the fruits of their labor have already begun to show.

“They’re willing to take risks and be bold about these concerns,” he said. “They’ve taken those steps to show that they’re listening and responding.”

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Rookie and veteran architects alike took to the stage Friday in front of a packed auditorium in Portland State University’s Shattuck Hall to discuss personal challenges related to diversity in architecture, and how the next generation may change the industry landscape, which has traditionally been dominated by white men.

The six-person panel event, organized by students of the university’s School of Architecture, was the last of “Fridays@4” – a series of discussions between students and industry professionals.

Leading the veteran charge on Friday was Bill Hart, co-founder of Carleton Hart Architecture. As he explained, there have been challenges in architecture related to race and gender since he got his start, with clients through the years questioning his skill level and professional success. He stressed the benefits of a diverse team, which provides varied perspectives and strategies.

“Firms don’t recognize that everyone can contribute to putting the project together,” he said. “What we need is to give folks an opportunity to try.”

Nicolai Kruger, who owns an eponymous studio in Portland, has 15 years of experience in architecture, most of it in Japan. She said the process of learning Japanese and teaching her colleagues English helped develop empathy for cultural differences, and led to a more cohesive environment.

Now an adjunct assistant professor at PSU, Kruger said she is encouraged by her students, the majority of whom are women. In a predominantly-male industry like architecture, new professionals should apply to more diverse firms to make a statement to the less-inclusive ones, she said.

“Architecture is traditionally kind of an old boys’ club, and Portland is kind of an old boys’ town,” Kruger said. “I think we need to put the old boys’ club on notice.”

Octavio Gutierrez, an associate at Mahlum Architects, said individuals with diverse backgrounds should advocate for the benefit their viewpoints bring, which many modern companies will value.

“Take your talent where the talent’s welcome,” he said.

Cosette Hardman, who earned a master’s degree from PSU last year, is currently nominated for a secretary position on the World Deaf Architecture Board of Directors. People with disabilities can be even further marginalized in the industry, she said, and accommodations for an employee’s needs can depend on a given company’s size and willingness.

“There’s always a lot of accessibility we need to have to get the job or even get the job interview,” Hardman said. “A significant obstacle will probably be the budget of the firms.”

Designer Kayla Anderson of Salazar Architect said she is fortunate to work at a firm that values communication and is willing to listen to any issues an employee might experience because of gender or racial differences. That equality won’t be attainable until everyone in the industry begins thinking like this, she added.

“Until we decide that these issues are important, we’re never going to find a solution,” Anderson said. “We need to start advocating for everyone’s rights.”

Another unique perspective came from Dena Davani, an intern at C2K Architecture who grew up under a strict Iranian regime. Everyone wants change, and it could be achieved if citizens took action themselves, she said.

She said she believes the situation is the same in architecture. Regardless of one’s diverse challenges, Davani said he or she has a responsibility on a personal level to enact change.

“Inclusivity does exist; that’s why we’re here,” she said. “As an individual you have a lot of power to choose what you want to be involved in.”

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Registration is now open for Oregon Tradeswomen Inc.‘s 2018 Diversity in the Construction Trades Summit. The event will take place Nov. 8, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., at the East County Family Services Center, at 11826 N.E. Glisan St.

OTI and presentation partner Constructing Hope aim to stress that construction projects are a critical component in providing increased economic opportunities to all members of the community. The goal is to ensure that workers of all classes have equitable chances to secure work on public projects as well as increase their skills and leadership. The hope, OTI Communications Director Mary Ann Naylor said, is for the summit to ultimately lead to creation of state-certified MWESB contractors.

Individuals interested in attending can learn more and register by visiting: .

The cost is $100. Financial assistance is available; contact Emma Brennan at emma@tradeswomen.net to gain more details.

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(Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect the correct age of Nate McCoy, executive director of the National Association of Minority Contractors’ Oregon chapter)

A group of African-American design and architecture professionals shared their personal experiences in the industry Wednesday during a special panel discussion directed by local students.

Organized through Hacker and The CENTER, a Northeast Portland coalition-led hub for child and youth education, creativity and engagement, Vital Voices in the Built Environment brought together industry professionals, high school students and community members for a conversation on how to drive Portland development in a direction that encompasses all of the communities in the city.

“I’m an Oregon native for all 36 of my years,” said panel member Nate McCoy, executive director and operations manager of the National Association of Minority Contractors‘ Oregon chapter. “And for the last 30 years I’ve seen our city change and grow and modify and expand in so many ways, and it’s been perplexing.”

Joining McCoy on the panel were architect William Hart, a founding partner in Carleton Hart Architecture; Joy Alise Davis, CEO and founder of Design + Culture Lab; and Anyeley Hallova, a partner at development firm project^. Together, the quartet provided their takes on not only working in their respective industries, but the struggles involved in preservation of existing communities and cultures in the face of ongoing gentrification.

For McCoy, who grew up in Parkrose, in Northeast Portland, it meant carving out his own path into his desired field. He engineered a transfer to Benson High School, with its technical programs, and eventually realized he could go to college and achieve his goals. This was a revelation for a teenager who was constantly told that certain paths were closed to African-American students.

“For folks of color who sometimes feel voiceless, sometimes you have to take that faith if there is not that opportunity then you have to create it,” McCoy told the audience.

He earned a scholarship to the University of Oregon and eventually became senior construction coordinator for the Portland Housing Bureau. He helped oversee developments of the type he once depended upon, including North Portland’s New Columbia.

In Portland, gentrification of traditionally black districts has led to substantial cultural losses along Northeast Martin Luther King Boulevard and other thoroughfares.

One of the biggest challenges panelists are working to address is how to preserve and even re-grow that culture. Work with longtime property owners in the Albina area and others has been made more difficult by the distrust engendered by the burgeoning wealth and demographic changes that have happened there.

“Today, I’m still dealing with some of these community folks desperately trying to understand with all this zoning, where can we go to get developers and banks to come in and look at these areas,” Hart said.

Engaging these people in the discussions around future development, he added, is key to ensuring that local communities remain coherent.

“I think it starts with making sure early and often for folks who don’t have a chance to get to meetings, giving them a chance to weigh in,” he said. “We have to be grassroots with this work and really make sure folks know what resources are out there.

“They’ve got the land, but they don’t have the resources to do anything with it.”

Hallova agreed, and said the widespread gentrification in Portland has left some property owners wary of trusting banks and developers.

“The trust issues, like you said, at this particular moment, if you want to get a property developed, you have to have a development partner,” she said. “We work with land owners all the time and that’s what they do. But in the African-American community, with all the broken trust that’s come before, I completely get why they don’t trust.”

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A community panel, “Vital Voices in the Built Environment,” will discuss the need for greater diversity and representation by people of color in the construction and architecture industries. The event is set for Wednesday, from 6-7 p.m., at The CENTER, at 3510 N. Vancouver Ave.

The panel will feature African-American leaders in the building industry: Nate McCoy, executive director of the National Association of Minority Contractors‘ Oregon chapter; Joy Alise Davis, CEO and founding partner of Design + Culture Lab; William F. Hart Jr., founding partner of Carleton Hart Architecture; and Anyeley Hallova, a partner at project^. The panel will be led by a group of students in a discussion about representation and the need for diversity in the building industry.

The audience will hear about the panelists’ own experiences in the building industry, how they can be agents of change and how far the industry has to go to achieve equitable design and public space for all communities in the Portland-metro area.

This event is open to the public. There is no admission charge. For more information, visit .

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Historically, architecture and engineering have primarily attracted white males. But even though more women and minorities are studying to enter the fields, they aren’t necessarily choosing to start such careers or stick with them.

According to the American Institute of Architects, 45 percent of architecture schools’ graduates are women, and 39 percent of architecture firms’ interns are women. But only 25 percent of professional architects are women, and just 17 percent of firms’ principals are women, the AIA reported.

The numbers are even more striking for the engineering profession. Though in the 1980s, on average, women accounted for just 5.8 percent of the industry’s workforce, even now they account for only 14 percent, according to a report by the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee.

Yet the professional traits of architecture and engineering that draw men also, by and large, draw women. A love of design, math and/or science often is cited. Early exposure to related fields can be crucial.

“My dad was a carpenter,” said Gabrielle Riley, an associate and architectural designer with ZGF Architects. “My dad was passionate about his work. I used to go to work with my dad a lot.”

Architecture gave the 27-year-old Tuskegee University graduate a way to combine her design skills with many of the activities she enjoyed sharing with her dad. But Riley knows now that she is a rarity in the field: Fewer than 2 percent of American architects are African-American.

“I was pretty naive about architecture and didn’t really know what I was getting into,” she said. “I just saw blueprints and I’m like, I want to draw these.”

According to some engineers and architects who work in the Portland area, their fields are sorely lacking role models resembling the overall diverse workforce in the U.S.

Riley has noticed a distinct lack of black women architects able to serve as mentors to her or others. Sofia Chavez Cruz, a junior studying architecture at Portland State University, said it seems to her that few women are practicing the profession.

“It’s important for women to be visible in the field,” she said, and added that the lack of women “makes it harder to be a minority in a field that heavily relies on mentors.”

The problem is that because the industry has few women and minorities, few are available to serve as advocates.

“People tend to mentor for people that are like them,” said Daniella Moreano Wahler, an associate at PAE Engineers. “It’s not that (white men) don’t want women (or minorities) around; it’s that they tend to mentor people who are like themselves. It’s human nature.”

That lack of mentorship can impact students’ decisions made even in high school.

“Where I went to high school, in the engineering class where I got interested in architecture, there were only men,” said Kyhetica Lattin, a PSU junior from Corvallis. “There was only one other girl and she dropped out.”

Students must rely largely on outreach efforts like the ACE mentor program, which aims to bring architecture and engineering professionals into public schools to promote careers in their fields. The American Institute of Architects also has several outreach programs.

Meanwhile, PSU’s Green Building Scholars program has a mentorship aspect intended to help students get a grasp of what to expect following graduation.

“We just started a mentorship program where we pair one student with a professional in the field here in Portland,” said Kalina Vander Poel, who in 2016 received a master’s in architecture from PSU.

Vander Poel is overseeing the program while Green Building Scholars program director Corey Griffin is on sabbatical in Ireland. The mentors discuss a variety of issues tied to life after graduation, she said.

“They just fire away with questions about good, healthy work-life balance,” she said. “They discuss what it is like to work in the profession here in Portland, what their experiences are as a young professional versus being a student. They try to bridge that gap between academia and being a new professional.”

Attracting and keeping women and minorities in Portland after graduation can be a challenge. The city may be known as a trendy place appealing to young people, but also as one predominantly white. Riley said she was eager to join ZGF here rather than another firm in a more ethnically diverse metro area such as Washington, D.C.

“It was the opportunity to work with the firm,” she said. “I knew Portland had a reputation as a white city, but I didn’t see it as a challenge. It was an opportunity to work with a good firm that opened their arms to me, so why let color get in the way of that?”

The top reasons cited by women in a 2016 AIA survey for leaving the profession were: better opportunities (49 percent), lack of advancement (24 percent) and low pay (20 percent). But some women are sticking around. Kathy Shaloo Berg, a partner at ZGF, said the architecture industry has made strides in the 20 years that she has been in it.

As more women enter upper levels of management, the transition for women newcomers should become smoother, Berg said.

“It’s tough,” she said. “We can solve the gender problem by hiring more equally for people coming out of school. We can’t fix the racial challenge we have because we aren’t getting the different groups into college in first place.”

Architecture and engineering firms are beginning to find ways to keep women, at least, in their respective fields. One big change that occurred in the past decade is improvement in family leave policies.

Federal law requires businesses to offer up to 12 weeks of unpaid family leave – to either women or men. Some companies have policies that offer even more time off.

Jennie Cambier, a senior associate at Opsis Architecture, took six months off when she had her first child and then four more months when she had her second child.

“I think one of the things Opsis is doing is recognizing that people need to have work-life balance and that there are demands outside of the office,” she said. “I feel pretty fortunate that the firm has responded to my needs.”

PAE Engineers recently made available six weeks of paid leave for any employee who has had a child or needs to take care of a sick family member.

“One of the key reasons was to help attract more women to stay within the industry,” said Shiloh Butterworth, director of employee experience at PAE Engineers. “We are trying to bring in a more diverse workforce. We can set up young women 10 to 15 years down the road to be successful in the industry.”

“That policy is very helpful,” said Wahler, who is expecting her first child in two months. “It helps retain engineers. It has to be gender-neutral. It helps send the message that family care isn’t just on women.”

While efforts are being made to increase diversity in the architecture and engineering industries, new issues will need to be addressed, said Nicki Pozos, a client development leader at HDR.

“In our hope for diversity, we can’t just trade out four white guys for some women,” she said. “It’s not enough to put a woman in a position and expect them to act like a man.”

True diversity means incorporating the different perspectives that people bring to a workplace, Pozos said. Awareness of the struggles experienced by minorities in the field also is important, she added.

“We had one black man here and he left,” she said. “It takes a certain kind of person to be that one guy. We have to get past our blindness to that fact.”

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Mayor Charlie Hales is relocating the Equitable Contracting & Purchasing Commission, the nascent board charged with helping increase minority participation in city projects.

In a letter to ECPC commissioners dated Wednesday, Hales discussed his reasons for moving the nine-member commission from the Office of Management and Finance (OMF) to the Office of Equity and Human Rights (OEHR).

“By moving the commission outside OMF, I hope to provide a broader lens through which ECPC commissioners can view the work of the city,” Hales wrote.

Dante James, head of the Office of Equity and Human Rights, will now chair the commission. He takes over from Bryant Enge, director of the Bureau of Internal Business Services and an employee of OMF head Fred Miller.

ECPC commissioners have complained that city employees and elected officials have been distant with the board since it first met in November. They said they haven’t been given requested data, and that Enge, due to his position at OMF, has been stuck in the middle for some issues.

Hales has responded by sending staffers to meetings. Hales himself attended last month’s ECPC meeting to receive suggestions for improvement.

Commissioner Marcela Alcantar called the relocation a “really, really good decision.” It could help ensure the continued existence of the ECPC after Hales leaves office at the end of the year, she said.

“It’s well overdue,” she said. “The ECPC should have been in existence long ago, so the fact that he took the leadership to do that, it’s very commendable. I know that important things like this take time.”

Alcantar, president of Alcantar and Associates, said James has impressed her.

“We need implementation, and there’s just nothing being done,” she said. “Leadership is key, and I think that’s what is missing right now.”

ECPC Commissioner Andrew McGough, Worksystems’ executive director, said the “jury’s still out.”

“I guess we’ll wait and see,” he said. “If it gives the commission a little bit more autonomy and a little bit more structure, that would be a good thing.”

There are nearly two dozen citizen oversight or advisory boards in Portland city government. As head of OEHR, James oversees only two other boards or commissions – the Human Rights Commission and the Portland Commission on Disability – fewer than Miller oversees.

Contract procurement is seen by social welfare activists as an important battleground for achieving economic and social equity for women and minorities. The ECPC has its roots in the city’s 2009 disparity study, which called for bringing together stakeholders to work on five programmatic areas: workforce training and hiring, DMWESB subcontracting, prequalification, prime contractor development, and professional and expert services.

The city on average awards each year more than 1,200 new contracts with a combined value of more than $200 million.

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Portland Mayor Charlie Hales on Thursday pledged his office’s “full support” to the city’s Equitable Contracting and Purchasing Commission and apologized for appearing distant at a meeting that showcased all the issues raised by progressive advocates.

It was the first time the mayor attended a meeting of the ECPC, and it came after months of talk by commissioners of feeling ignored.

“I’m not interested in having this appear to work; I’m interested in this actually working,” said Hales, who sat alongside commissioners and took notes. “I’m not interested in photo-ops or shelf studies. What should we do?”

Following Hales’ exit, to attend a different meeting, commissioners resumed airing their frustrations with his office.

“One thing we’ve been missing is the other side,” said Marcela Alcantar of Alcantar and Associates. “We can’t go too long. It becomes a rathole, and I think right now, we are in that rathole.”

The ECPC was formed by ordinance last year to increase the utilization of minority-owned and women-owned businesses in city contracting. In the months since, its nine members – a mix of community leaders and minority business owners – have complained of being stonewalled by City Council and city staff and not given requested data.

The commission voted “no confidence” in the City Council at a charged meeting in February. The matter was compounded when the city delayed release of the meeting video and omitted hostilities from the meeting minutes.

Hales’ office has responded by sending city personnel – including Office of Management and Finance Director Fred Miller and Chief of Staff Josh Alpert – to ECPC meetings.

Thursday’s meeting was held at the water bureau’s Interstate Maintenance Facility, the renovation of which was one of two projects in a pilot program testing so-called Community Benefits Agreements (CBAs) as a means of disbursing city contracts. The two projects (the other was the Kelly Butte Reservoir project) were hailed at the meeting for achieving much higher participation rates than the traditional low-bid procurement method.

“What I’m hearing from everyone here is there’s a disconnect in the process, and you cannot have equity with a disconnect,” said audience member Ranfis Giannettino Villatoro of the MRG Foundation. “I’m led to believe it’s deliberate.”

He said MRG supports CBAs.

A regular source of frustration for commissioners, notably Maurice Rahming of O’Neill Electric, is the way the city has handled a set-aside for DMWESBs for the upcoming renovation/seismic retrofit of the Portland Building. The council voted to allot 1 percent of the cost of the highly-technical design-build-relocate project. ECPC commissioners have questioned why the figure is 1 percent of rough construction costs (approximately $100 million) rather than the total project cost ($195 million).

Beyond that, Rahming has said repeatedly that he wants the conversation regarding minority participation in the Portland Building project to involve the “99 percent” rather than a 1 percent set-aside.

The request for proposals for the Portland Building project includes participation targets of 18 percent for minority-owned businesses and 9 percent for women-owned businesses. Those goals aren’t “aggressive” enough, according to Rahming.

“A CBA can produce 50 percent,” he said.

Three design-build teams submitted proposals for the Portland Building project; the city is expected to select one next month.

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