Sustainable Building Week is returning to the Portland-metro area in 2022. Beginning Oct. 10, experts and organizations representing sustainability – including architecture, design, construction, education and community planning – will lead and participate in a wide variety of events in person and/or online.

Six years ago, co-founders Terry Campbell and Webly Bowles saw the need for a collaborative space where industry professionals could connect to positively impact environmental sustainability in the region. Campbell and Bowles believed they could provide a platform for like-minded experts to learn about the work being done outside of their expertise, Campbell said.

Since its first year in 2018, Sustainable Building Week has hosted 108 events for an estimated 2,500 attendees. Collaborators design their own events, which differ each year. But themes often repeat, such as wildfire – this year one event will spotlight a film about living with the threat of wildfire.

Attendees can sign up for individual events, which will take place in the Portland area, virtually or in both formats. Admission for most events – primarily building tours or presentations – is free, with nominal fees charged for specialized training and select opportunities.

Bowles said she is most excited about the large number of events this year. Some include: a tour of zero-energy and “path to zero” homes led by Solar Oregon (Oct. 8-9; $25-$60); a tour of new homes showcasing sustainability, comfort and durability (Oct. 14-16; $25); a cluster of quick, informal presentations featuring sustainable schools (Oct. 12; free); and a panel discussion on reimagining schoolyards (Oct. 11).

To see a full list of events and register for them, visit .

“There’s a new heightened interest this year,” Campbell said. “The environmental issues we’re facing are not going away.”

This past spring, organizers launched a companion event called Sustainable Building Monthly: a series of short talks at 7 p.m. on the second Tuesday of each month in the PAE Living Building. Presentations introduce projects, and there are opportunities for networking.

“We’re very passionate about sustainability,” Bowles said. “There’s a lot of passion in Portland.”

Representatives of several disciplines return to Sustainable Building Week year after year. They include AIA Oregon, Oregon Green Schools, Portland Materials Transparency Collaborative, Solar Oregon, U.S. Green Building Council, the Portland chapter of American Society of Plumbing Engineers, Electrify Now, and ZERO Coalition.

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Professionals representing many firms within the building industry turned out for the Daily Journal of Commerce’s first Reader Rankings event on Wednesday. After thousands of businesses were nominated in more than 50 categories, those placing in the top three were recognized at the event at the Jupiter Hotel, in Portland‘s Central Eastside.

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that raises money for programs that teach children about sustainability and careers in construction and public safety. Families and their children get a chance to try out bulldozers, excavators and other heavy machinery at the event, which features dozens of booths manned by companies and agencies in both the public and private sectors. and a host of industry partners, Dozer Day has been held in Vancouver for years and recently began spreading out across the country. Now, the event is held in Vancouver, Yakima and Seattle, where it helps companies hire workers at the same time as it educates the next generation of skilled tradesmen and women. Check out this gallery of photos from this past weekend:

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The annual Minority Enterprise Week returns this week with a roster filled with educational sessions, an awards luncheon and panel discussions.

Organized by the Building Diversity Institute, MED Week brings together local businesses, government partners and advocacy groups to celebrate local minority businesses and their contributions to the local and regional economies.

MED Week 2017 opens Tuesday with two educational tracks, one dedicated to financing for small businesses and the other focused on growing small businesses. The day will wrap up with a reception that will offer networking opportunities.

Another round of MED Week events will be held Thursday. The day will start with the Diversity Practitioners Summit, which will be followed by an awards luncheon.

All MED Week events will be held at the Hilton Portland Downtown, 921 S.W. Sixth Ave., in Portland.

Registration for Sept. 26 events is $26. Registration for Sept. 28  only is $80. Registration to attend both days is $100.

For more additional registration and program information, visit the .

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The American Society of Architectural Illustrators is seeking entries from architecture students for a rendering art contest offering $1,750 in prizes.

Full-time students who are members of ASAI can submit up to five images – including formal presentation renderings, sketches, study projects, drawings, paintings or computer imagery. The entry deadline for the 30th annual Architecture in Perspective competition is Feb. 9.

Entries will be judged by a jury that includes senior ASAI members. The jury will select the finest work for awards honoring a cross section of architectural illustrations, including drawings, paintings and digital images.

The winner of the Student Award of Excellence will receive a $1,000 prize. The winning image will be displayed in an exhibition of the top contest illustrations that will travel around the U.S. and internationally. Three Student Awards of Merit, each with a $250 prize, will be awarded too.

Contest winners will be announced this spring, and the awards will be presented at ASAI’s annual conference on Oct. 14-18 in Toronto.

The cost to enter is $10 for the first image and $5 for each additional image. To enter, students who are not already members of ASAI must join when they submit images. Membership fees for students are $25.

More information about the contest is available at .

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The Daily Journal of Commerce has released the names of its 2015 Newsmakers.

The annual list recognizes individuals, companies and organizations that had an impact on, or played a significant role in, the region’s built environment during the past 12 months as well as those expected to have a significant impact during the coming year.

The 2015 Newsmakers will be honored during a luncheon awards presentation on Feb. 25, at the Sentinel Hotel in downtown Portland. Doors will open at 11 a.m., and the ceremony will take place from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Tickets are $55 with early-bird registration. The price will increase by $10 after Feb. 11. To learn more about the event more event information and to register, visit the 2015 Newsmakers event page.

Viewpoint Construction Software is a presenting sponsor.

The 2015 Newsmakers are:

• Andersen Construction

• Colas Construction

• BOMA Oregon

• City of Portland Bureau of Development Services

• The Confluence Project

• CrowdStreet

• Hoffman Construction

• Roberta Hunte (Portland State University)

• Deborah Kafoury (Multnomah County Board of Commissioners)

• Miller Nash Graham & Dunn LLP

• Tom Moyer (posthumous)

• Naito Development

• Omega Morgan

• Oregon Association of Minority Entrepreneurs

• Bing Sheldon (SERA Architects)

• Jill Sherman (Gerding Edlen)

• SRG Partnership

• Viewpoint Construction Software

• Vigor Industrial

• Ed Wortman and Sharon Wood Wortman

• Works Partnership Architecture

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You can’t keep the doors open for three decades unless you’re doing something right.

When DiLoreto Architecture hit its 30th anniversary this year, the firm celebrated with a night of dancing, food and fun for the employees, clients, friends and supporters who make it all possible. Chris DiLoreto, who co-founded the firm with his wife, Ann, attributes their success to a progressive approach to communication both within the firm and especially with clients.

“We have a process to problem solving,” Chris said. “Working in groups and workshops leads to clever solutions. Developing a relationship with not just the principals, but those who are affected with the decisions builds their team and leads to a greater dynamic in design ����Ǿ������.”

That approach helped the firm build relationships with clients that have led not only to satisfaction with final designs, but also repeats and referrals – a crucial element in building any business.

Chris met Ann at the University of Oregon when they were both students there. He earned a degree in architecture; hers was in social work.

Chris spent five years working at two architecture firms before deciding to open his own shop. Ann was fully supportive of the plan.

“My father was an engineer with his own firm, so I knew the risks,” she said. “We were actually very excited about it. (Chris) started in the basement (of our home), and our son, who was a toddler at the time, would yell, ‘Hi, Dad!’ down the vent. So that lasted about three weeks before he found a place to open the office.”

Ann has served as the office manager for the firm from the start.

“We have a real level of trust because we’re married, work well together and raise kids together, so my taking over the office duties and all the accounting was a natural extension of that partnership,” she said.

“She does the stuff (the design staff) isn’t good at so that we can do what we are good at,” Chris said.

While the firm is small compared to some, its projects have steadily grown in size and cost.

“We just finished a $12 million project,” Chris said. “We’ve done 60 church projects – each one different, each one challenging – and in every case, they were a bit skeptical going in, but came to embrace the designs. And now they love the finished buildings.”

His recent work on the New York Building in an industrial section of Portland has garnered recognition from peers and in regional publications.

Sustainability also is a strong element in the firm’s projects.

“We think about including (sustainability) in our designs from the beginning so that it almost becomes a necessary part of the project,” Chris said. “Taking existing ideas and working to promote them in a risk-averse building environment can be a challenge sometimes. Nontoxic finishes, non-petrochemical coatings – things like that – are not easy to introduce unless they’re really cost-effective. But if we’ve maintained a good relationship with the client, they’re much more interested in including those things in the project.

“It takes a while for the construction industry to catch on to some things, but once they do, it builds a following.”

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A team of Portland-based SERA Architects‘ staffers has earned a special recognition award in an international design competition.

Participants in the 2014 Architecture at Zero competition were tasked with creating buildings that meet net-zero-energy targets set by the California Public Utilities Commission. Six SERA staffers in about a month designed a 60-unit, 69,500-square-foot affordable housing complex that generates more energy than it consumes on a site in Oakland, Calif.

The SERA design team volunteered time on lunch breaks, nights and weekends to complete the design of “Flourish,” which relies completely on the sun for energy production, said Jeffrey Maas, a SERA sustainable design analyst. SERA staffers teamed up with engineering firm Glumac to design the building that features extensive solar panels and solar thermal panels that heat water, along with various measures that reduce overall energy consumption, he said.

“A lot of us were interested in pushing the boundaries with housing,” he said. “We thought it would be fun to see how far we could go with energy conservation.”

This effort impressed the competition judges, who earlier this month honored it with one of three awards given to professional entries. Two awards went to student designs. The jury of design professionals praised the Flourish designers for their strong energy analysis, thoughtful balance of public and private space, and approach to indoor and outdoor retail spaces.

One of the most challenging parts of the design process, Maas said, was figuring out a way to include a series of courtyards on the constrained site. The curvy building design frames these outdoor spaces, he said.

“We designed places where we didn’t want the building and then we designed the apartments around those spaces,” he said.

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Commercial, industrial and residential construction workers statewide are invited to attend a safety conference that will highlight safe work best practices and offer education about rule updates.

Oregon’s Occupational Safety and Health Division, in cooperation with several partners, on Jan. 26-27, 2015, will host the 14th annual Mid-Oregon Construction Safety Summit at The Riverhouse Hotel and Convention Center in Bend.

The summit will provide opportunities to learn about industry safety standards for work including excavation, aerial boom and scissor lift operation, confined spaces, electrical power generation and natural gas.

Tuesday’s keynote speaker will be Kina Repp, who, 40 minutes into her first day of work at a fish processing plant in Alaska, had her left arm torn off by a moving conveyor belt. Repp’s presentation will address the importance of receiving proper training and following safety procedures.

Attendees in specific industries will have opportunities to receive continuing education credits. They may also complete the OSHA 10-hour certification for the construction industry. In addition, pesticide training will be offered; it can be applied toward a pesticide applicator license through the Department of Agriculture.

Registration is $75 per person for the Tuesday conference and $45 more for Monday’s pre-conference workshop.

For complete information on the summit, including instructions on how to register, visit .

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Portland-based LRS Architects next week will host a holiday-themed LEGO building contest for industry firms.

Each team in the inaugural Bricktastic LEGO Holiday Build-Off will assemble a portion of a cityscape with the plastic toy bricks at the firm’s Pearl District office. All LEGO sets used in the competition will then be donated to Doernbecher Children’s Hospital for holiday gifts.

The theme of the competition is urban holiday waterfront, and LRS Architects staffers prepared a special LEGO building code for participants, LRS marketing director Julie Olson said.

“We realized in order for it to come together as a cohesive landscape we would have to have some parameters,” she said. “We actually have a whole manual that was sent out to all the teams.”

Olson said LRS staffers came up with the contest as an engaging way to celebrate the holidays with industry peers and also support Doernbecher.

“We wanted to do something that was more community outreach, plus it would be fun,” she said. “Everybody gets excited about LEGOs; I don’t care how old you are. We had no shortage of people at LRS wanting to participate.”

About 25 LRS staffers signed on to compete, Olson said. Other firms participating in the competition include Bremik Construction, Interface Engineering, Nishkian Dean, Cardno WRG, PACE Engineers, R&H Construction, Perlo Construction and 3J Consulting Inc.

The contest entries will be judged Dec. 20, and prizes will be awarded in categories including tallest display, best holiday theme, children’s choice, people’s choice and best in show.

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