Otak‘s name comes from the initials of founders Nawzad Othman, Ralph Tahran and Greg Kurahashi. It quickly grew into a firm with a presence across the western United States and the Middle East, with a strong reputation for smart growth planning, sustainable design and development, and innovative transportation solutions.

Over the last 45 years, Otak has built upon its multidisciplinary expertise and its services include urban design, architecture, engineering, landscape architecture, planning and construction management. With each project, Otak shares its clients’ commitment to promoting socially and environmentally responsible participation in business opportunities.

As part of its sustainability efforts, Otak has been quantifying and offsetting the greenhouse gas emissions associated with its business operations. This includes working with the Bonneville Environmental Foundation to quantify and offset its carbon footprint. Otak’s team is experienced in guiding clients in their pursuit of LEED, Envision, Greenroads, WELL and Green Globes certifications.

Otak actively seeks to partner with minority business enterprises and certified firms in the communities where it works. The company recognizes that supporting MWESBs requires a strategic approach to building relationships, cultivating opportunities and providing mentorship. Otak provides mentorship opportunities to teaming partners and students exploring paths within the AEC industry.

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Women in engineering have always faced numerous hurdles their male counterparts do not.

Growing up in India, I was never allowed by my parents or family to have any doubts about pursuing the career that I wanted. When I opted to pursue civil engineering, a predominantly male-dominated field around the world, there was no hesitation in their support for me. It was great; and this acceptance was something I took for granted when I was a student. I never questioned what I wanted to do. But my experience is far from the norm.

Today, I am the deputy design manager for the Interstate Bridge Replacement (IBR) program, a $6 billion bistate project that will see the replacement of one of the most important interstate bridges on the West Coast. Getting to this point, however, took a lot of perseverance and determination.

As we celebrate Women’s History Month in March, it’s the perfect time to reflect upon the challenges facing women and women of color in the architecture, engineering, and construction industries, and how we might transform them into careers where women feel just as welcomed as their male counterparts.

The numbers don’t lie. The Society of Women Engineers estimates that as of 2016, just 13 percent of professional engineers in the U.S. were women and just 19 percent of undergraduate engineering students were women. Of the women who become engineers, 1 in 4 ultimately leave the field for other careers. My home country of India is doing a little better – 29.7 percent of engineering undergraduate students were women in 2018 – but there remains a long way to go to achieve equality in representation, regardless of the country.

After graduating from the University of Delaware with a master’s degree in civil engineering, I entered the professional world and experienced firsthand the perceptions about women that persist in this field. I faced doubts about my abilities and was told certain jobs – including leadership roles – were not meant for women. Unfortunately, these kinds of attitudes are not unique to engineering.

Fortunately, my first job at RK&K Engineering in Delaware blessed me with an opportunity to work with two outstanding managers and mentors who gave me the confidence to excel in designing transportation projects that really make a positive difference in peoples’ lives. They were very humble and valued doing the right thing – for employees, clients, and most importantly, the people and communities that our work impacts daily. They always emphasized that working with the public was an important responsibility. And there was never a situation where I couldn’t walk into their offices and ask questions.

It’s a good thing, too, because I was thrown into community engagement from the very beginning. Within a month of joining the firm, I was engaged in working group meetings in communities, where I quickly realized that transportation engineering was about much more than just geometry or design; it’s about how to best transform what the public wants into a concept that can be realized in the real world. I found that I loved that aspect of the work, something that continues to this day.

I joined the Oregon Department of Transportation in 2021 and took on a leadership role in the IBR program. In my role as deputy design manager, I find myself using all of those early lessons and experience to help guide this project into the National Environmental Policy Act phase.

Too often people say they feel their input into transportation projects is not important and that decisions have already been made for them. With the IBR program, we are working diligently to avoid that perception. Our program-wide commitment to equity means we absolutely want a project that reflects the desires and needs of all communities on both sides of the Columbia River. It’s not optional.

Centering equity also means we have women in a host of leadership roles throughout the program. The design, environmental, communications, permitting, and public affairs teams, among others, all have women in leadership roles.

But equity is not a one-and-done process. It’s a continual effort that requires being intentional about being inclusive of diverse voices, thoughts, and ideas. This is why both inside and outside of the IBR program I’m also busy working to ensure that the ranks of female engineers continue to grow with a support system in the Pacific Northwest and beyond.

For instance, I’m involved with professional organizations such as Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS) and the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE). I’ve taken on mentorship roles with these organizations, serving as a board member and co-chair of the mentoring program for WTS’ Portland chapter, and serving as chair of the diversity and inclusion committee for ITE International in 2021 and 2022. In this way I’m trying to do my small part to change how the civil engineering industry sees women and women of color.

Ultimately, if I had one piece of advice for women entering transportation engineering, I would say, “Do not let anyone convince you of what you can or cannot do.” Question your doubters and challenge their thinking. You’ll be standing up for yourself and proving them wrong, which is essential to growth and change.

Editor’s note:

The IBR program will host its fourth equity roundtable, “Women Paving the Way,” from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 23. Panelists, including Shilpa Mallem and other women leaders in transportation and infrastructure, will discuss how they navigate challenges and contribute to what has traditionally been a male-dominated field. This event will take place virtually via Zoom, with a live stream available on the IBR program’s YouTube channel (). The discussion will be followed by a Q and A session. Learn more at .

Shilpa Mallem is the deputy design manager for the Interstate Bridge Replacement Program. Contact her at shilpa.mallem@interstatebridge.org.

The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed in the preceding commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the Daily Journal of Commerce or its editors. Neither the author nor the 91��Ƶ guarantees the accuracy or completeness of any information published herein.

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PROJECT: The Columbia at the Waterfront

LOCATION: 1111 W. Columbia Way, Vancouver, Washington

COST: undisclosed

CONSTRUCTION START DATE: September 2019

CONSTRUCTION COMPLETION DATE: spring 2022

DEVELOPER: Jackson Square Properties

OWNER’S REPRESENTATIVE: Russell Square Consulting

GENERAL CONTRACTOR: Pence Construction

ARCHITECT: LRS Architects

STRUCTURAL ENGINEER: Kramer Gehlen & Associates

OTHER ASSOCIATES/CONSULTANTS: PBS Engineering and Environmental, Shapiro Didway

PROJECT SIGNIFICANCE: This seven-story, 300,000-square-foot, 248-unit apartment building is located at the nexus of downtown Vancouver, Washington, and its waterfront. In addition to unobstructed views of the Columbia River, the complex offers a rooftop infinity pool, a state-of-the-art fitness center, a resident lounge, a game room, a barbecue area, shuffleboard tables, a community pavilion, and private parking.

A high water table presented distinct engineering challenges. To ensure the foundation would not be affected by hydrostatic pressure, the construction team poured as much concrete as possible to add weight and mass to the structure in the shortest time possible. The idea was to ballast the building down before the seasonal increase of the river level. A mat footing design was used, which varies in depth from 36 inches to 60 inches. The transfer slab at Level 2 is 2 feet thick. The added weight ensured that the building did not become buoyant once the river level increased.

“We had to schedule various parts of construction around the Columbia River’s surface elevation to ensure the complex’s foundation was sound and secure,” LRS Architects senior designer Eeshoo Rehani said.

The Columbia features open-concept studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments. The building is pet friendly and features floor-to-ceiling windows and private outdoor space. Color palettes and materials mirror the surrounding area. Interiors have stainless-steel kitchen appliances, quartz countertops, wood-inspired flooring, washers and dryers, and shelved closet space.

The building has a U shape so that two-thirds of the apartments have waterfront views.

“The design goal was to incorporate as many waterfront views as possible while emphasizing a modernist architectural style that fits the Pacific Northwest aesthetic and uses the highest quality of interior and exterior materials,” LRS principal Greg Mitchell said.

“Building Blocks” spotlights noteworthy projects either under construction or approaching the start of construction. To submit a project for consideration, please visit: djcoregon.com/building-blocks.

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Two bills being floated during the 2017 Oregon legislative session could directly impact the engineering and architecture industries. Senate Bill 382 would raise the threshold at which public contracting agencies could use the qualifications-based selection (QBS) process. House Bill 2153 would create a voluntary registry for commercial interior designers and give them the ability to perform many duties that are now performed by engineers.

HB 2153 on Wednesday received a public hearing before the House Committee on Economic Development and Trade. The bill would essentially create Oregon’s first registry of interior designers. It would also allow registered commercial interior designers to create, supervise and carry out plans, drawings and specifications for parts of buildings other than structural systems or building envelopes.

Interior designers think the legislation is long overdue.

“It is legitimizing things that we are already doing,” said Carissa Mylin, an associate and interior designer at SERA Architects. “It’s creating a level of legitimacy about what interior designers are trained to do.”

The bill also would provide a public benefit, she added.

“There is no benchmark for the public to know who is trained,” she said. “There are a lot of things that go into an interior environment.”

Engineers are decidedly less enthusiastic about the bill.

“We will oppose that with everything we have got,” said Marshall Coba, lobbyist for the American Council of Engineering Companies of Oregon. “The bill is overreach.”

Senate Bill 382 would have an even larger impact on design professionals but is unlikely to become law in anything resembling its current form. The bill has been referred to the Business and Transportation Committee.

Currently, public projects worth $100,000 or more are eligible for use of QBS – direct selection of certain consultants (including architects and engineers) based on qualifications and not price. But SB 382 would increase the threshold to $500,000.

Most observers don’t believe a final bill would include such a drastic increase. However, any possible change has the attention of architects and engineers.

“What they introduced in SB 382 is a placeholder bill that can be amended,” Coba said. “We have been talking to (bill sponsors). We think the current law is good if understood.”

Under the QBS system, for projects worth from $100,000 to $250,000, public officials can narrow their search to a handful of qualified consultants. For projects worth more than $250,000, public officials can ask for the qualifications of any number of possible contractors. However, in both categories, bidders must be evaluated based strictly on their qualifications and not price.
The League of Oregon Cities (LOC) believes that changes to the current system are needed.

“LOC is not currently planning on raising the threshold for direct appointment of professional services to $500,000 (which is called for in the current bill),” said Tracy Rutten, intergovernmental relations associate at the LOC. “We are having ongoing conversations with the American Council of Engineering Companies to talk about inefficiencies that municipalities have experienced with current requirements for the use of qualification-based selection for professional services.”

Issues that municipalities are finding difficult to navigate include delays, negotiation strength and complexity of rules.

“The primary issues that they experience are delays,” Rutten said. “You don’t get pricing back for some time. If you aren’t able to come to agreement on price, then you have to go to the next consultant on the list and that is another delay. The delays are a big issue.”

Rutten said that the hope is that the LOC and ACEC can hash out solutions. If that happens, the bill may not even be pushed forward.

“Hopefully we can come to a solution that will work for both parties,” she said. “Whether there is need for statutory changes, we don’t know. We still have to find what the path to get there is.”

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Three years after engineering executive Omid Nabipoor left the Rose City, he decided to move back because, “well, it’s Portland,” he said.

After serving most of his 23 years with Interface Engineering as its president, Nabipoor departed for Los Angeles to become managing principal of Integral Group. But recently he joined Sazan Group as a managing principal in Portland.

“I discovered that Portland is such a special city as far as the level of architecture and engineering,” he said. “It’s just so fabulous for a city this size that I just felt like I wasn’t finished doing good things for my clients and I wasn’t finished with Portland.”

Nabipoor said he is looking forward to again focusing on the Northwest. Seattle-based Sazan Group opened a Portland office about a year and a half ago, he said.

“We have a very new office here and we hope to do good work,” he said. “I felt like I missed my clients and missed the people I used to work with for so many years. I felt like I needed to come back and help my clients accomplish their missions.”

Sazan Group is looking to use its Portland office to grow its business handling health care, commercial, institutional and education projects, company President Nader Dabestani said.

Dabestani added that he felt “incredibly fortunate” that Nabipoor chose to join the firm.

“He has great credentials with sustainable design for mechanical and electrical system and he will further enhance our capabilities,” Dabestani said.

Nabipoor will have more of a hands-on approach with Sazan Group, he said, partly because it’s a smaller firm, with about 70 employees.

“Sazan is a company where we feel our mission is to do what our clients need us to do with thoughtfulness and due attention, like having principals on the project,” he said. “It’s not like some firms where you see a principal at the beginning of the project and then don’t see them again. We have a bit of a different approach with that.”

When Nabipoor was at Interface, the focus was always on green building. He wants to ensure that it’s the same at Sazan Group. Sustainability and energy efficiency should be elements of all types of projects, he said.

“I feel we have to be mindful enough on every project to determine how we can lessen its impact on the environment,” he said. “The most environmental thing would be not to build anything. But we have to.

“I feel like there is a lot of mindfulness here. It’s more natural to do really sustainable work in a really sustainable city. You’re not fighting against the grain and people appreciate that value here, with a really good, deliberate approach.”

There were some things Nabipoor liked about L.A., such as more ethnic and economic diversity. But extreme opulence was more evident than in Portland, he said, with some people ostensibly showing off their wealth.

Humility is a more important character trait than pride, he said.

“I think it’s a saying that humble pie is a nonfat, zero-calorie dessert that everyone should eat because it helps us focus on what we do and why we do it,” he said.

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SCJ Alliance, an engineering consulting firm with an office in Portland and based in Lacey, Wash., announced it has won a contract from the city to provide inspection services for the Portland Aerial Tram.

The Portland Tram and the Roosevelt Island TramwayCQ in New York City, for which SCJ has also done work, are the only two commuter aerial tramways in the U.S. The company also provided engineering for the gondola in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

With its selection as independent ropeway engineer for the Portland Tram, SCJ’s responsibilities include announced and unannounced inspections to ensure the tram is being operated and maintained properly.

Joel Deis, SCJ project manager, said this is the first time his company was awarded the contract and he appreciates the chance to work with the Oregon Health and Science University, which oversees daily operations of the tram. The city owns the tram, but OSHU provided most of the construction costs.

“OSHU dos a great job and they realize how important that equipment is,” he said. “They keep spares of everything except the cabins, which is pretty unusual.”

Deis said the five-year contract will require biannual inspections of the entire tramway system.

“We’ll do an unannounced inspection and then do an announced inspection where we really dig in and look at all the mechanical parts,” Deis said.

In addition to ropeway work, Deis said his company, with 70 employees, also does on engineering for telecommunications towers.

“They go hand in hand,” he said. “The work is very different but the math is similar.”

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David F. Evans, founder of David Evans and Associates, retired April 1 – 40 years to the day that he began his engineering career.

Evans started the engineering consulting firm with one associate, David Gould, and in the ensuing years the company has grown to 24 offices with 1,000 employees in eight states.

The firm has served more than 9,000 clients and generated more than $2.5 billion in revenue during Evans’ tenure, according to a statement from the company. As a consulting civil engineer and land surveyor, Evans has been licensed in Oregon, Washington, California, Hawaii and New York.

Signature projects in Portland include the Portland Convention Center, the Portland Performing Arts Center, the RiverPlace Hotel, management of the new Sellwood Bridge design and construction, and a major segment of TriMet’s light-rail Orange Line from Portland to Milwaukie.

In a statement, Evans said the firm’s philosophy is “finding outstanding people and giving them the freedom and support to do what they do best.”

Evans has been recognized locally and nationally as a leader in the engineering and construction industries, but plans to fully retire, said Valerie Evans, senior associate at the firm.

She said that David Evans and his wife of 57 years, Marcella, are looking forward to “enjoying the Santa Barbara sunshine and trips to the amazing wine country that surrounds us as well as visits from our three children and three granddaughters.”

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Interface Engineering can trace its roots back to 1969, when several firms in the suburban city of Milwaukie joined forces. The resulting company thrived for years, creating a name for itself in the region and attracting talented individuals like Rob Matteson and Andy Frichtl.

When it came time for the founders to retire, they decided to pass ownership to some of their longtime employees. Matteson and Frichtl bought out the founders and proceeded to bring changes to the firm to mesh with their personalities and the changing times.

“Shortly after, we moved to downtown Portland because that’s where most of our clients are,” said Frichtl, now a managing principal.

As a green movement began slowly building on projects here and there in Portland, Interface’s leaders took notice. The firm’s decision to invest time and money in learning about sustainability and offering it as a service to clients was driven not just by what was shaping up to be a new trend in design and construction.

“We started targeting sustainable projects because that’s what we were most passionate about,” Frichtl said.

That passion led to Interface becoming involved with the transformation of an old Portland ice house building into the Ecotrust Building, the first in the country to earn a gold rating in the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program.

Since then, Interface has grown to 200 employees and five offices, and is sought out around the globe for its expertise in sustainability and innovation on a range of project types.

“Sustainability has kind of carried us everywhere,” Frichtl said.

At its Hawaii office, for example, Interface is working with the University of Hawaii to come up with new net-zero water and waste standards for university projects. Closer to home, the firm’s work can be seen in TMT Development’s new Park Avenue West, both in the overall tower and in the area of tenant improvements.

Interface also has brought sustainability to other parts of the world through its work on U.S. Embassy buildings.

“They’re really interesting projects, very technical, but sustainability is a big thing for the (U.S. Department of State),” Frichtl said.

“We have our eye on a lot of different regions we want to move into,” he added. “We’re looking at anything sustainable.”

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Roger Lindgren, who teaches engineering at the Oregon Institute of Technology, has been named the winner of the Institute of Transportation Engineers’ Outstanding Educator Award for the group’s western district.

Lindgren has been a professor at OIT for the past 15 years. In addition to teach transportation and general engineering courses, he serves as the program director of the school’s recently established civil engineering graduate program.

He is an executive member of the National Institute for Transportation Communities and serves as advisor to the school’s Institute of Transportation Engineers’ student chapter. He previously served as director of the Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium.

The Institute of Transportation Engineers Outstanding Educator Award recognizes transportation professionals who exhibit outstanding creativity in teaching and are dedicated to helping students develop an interest in the transportation profession.  Lindgren is second recipient from Oregon to receive the award in the past 13 years.

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During a 24-year service in the military, Troy Kunas ensured that U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker ships were in top operating condition. He now uses the same process for buildings.

“You’ve got to look at a ship as nothing more than a building that stands by itself and moves between places,” said Kunas, who recently became commissioning director with Tigard-based Northwest Engineering Service Inc. “The only difference between a ship and a building is I have more headroom in a building than on a ship.”

Since retiring from the Coast Guard in 2003, Kunas has parlayed his military experience into a civilian career in building commissioning. This includes providing quality assurance through design, construction and occupancy of numerous public and private projects.

“Everything we had on a ship we have in a building,” he said. “The bottom line is commissioning is a process (of) determining a path to verify that everything works. It’s the same process that you’re doing.”

Prior to joining NWESI late last year, Kunas worked for more than a decade with design and engineering firm Heery International. He started as a commissioning agent, and later managed the firm’s Tacoma office before serving as a Portland-based operations officer for commissioning. He initially landed a position at Heery after connecting with the firm’s director of commissioning, a British navy veteran.

“I was able to speak the same language as him,” Kunas said.

Joe Helm, NWESI president, said he was also impressed by Kunas’ military career when the firm hired him to manage all of its commissioning and energy-related services in Oregon and Idaho. Building commissioning can trace its origins to the military, Helm said.

“The concept really started in the Navy with ships,” he said. “You don’t want to be 1,000 miles offshore and have something go wrong.”

Kunas said his experience in the Coast Guard has often been an advantage to his work in building commissioning. Among the most valuable experiences was work on a four-year project to replace the propulsion systems for Coast Guard icebreakers. He was also involved in commissioning construction in the late 1990s of the Coast Guard’s Healy icebreaker in New Orleans. When he retired from the Coast Guard, he was chief engineer on the Seattle-based Polar Star icebreaker.

“One of the big things I brought to the (building) commissioning world is I understand power generation and government work,” Kunas said. “I understand where the government was coming from and it made it easier to work with the federal government as a contractor.”

Another aspect of the military he’s translated into building commissioning is preparing for a worst-case scenario. It’s on his mind in providing guidance to building maintenance and operations staffers on ensuring a structure is as efficient as possible, but also what to do if part of the mechanical system fails.

“One of the things we do in the naval service is we have lots of drills,” Kunas said. “What to do in the case of a casualty to a piece of gear.”

After leaving the Coast Guard, he worked on a half-dozen federal government contracts at Heery International as well as power plant and aviation projects. Kunas’ current work at NWESI includes helping oversee various higher education and K-12 school projects as well as work for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Portland International Airport.

Along with his management responsibilities, Kunas said he’s been working to diversify the firm’s portfolio to include more project types. He also is seeking potential clients.

“I’ve been changing our philosophy about how do we go out and identify the type of work we pursue,” he said. “I’m more proactive. I’m about, ‘Let’s get out in front and get to know people.’ I’m a firm believer in becoming a trusted adviser to every client.”

Helm said this trait made Kunas an attractive candidate for the commissioning director position.

“A lot of engineers tend to be introverts and Troy is not an introvert,” he said. “He’s very good at interacting with potential clients.”

Kunas said commissioning work first on ships and then on buildings has always been a good fit for him. He thrives on the challenge of first finding a problem or inefficiency and then figuring out the root cause and how to fix it.

“I’ve always been inquisitive and never accept that that’s how it’s always been,” he said.

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