Mahlum Architects has announced that John Edward Mahlum, a former partner of the firm, died on March 20 at age 85. John Mahlum was the son of Edward K. Mahlum, who established his architecture practice in Seattle in 1948.

The firm also has an office in Portland.

John Mahlum studied architecture at the University of Washington, earned a master’s degree from Columbia University, and served two years in the U.S. Army before returning to Seattle. In 1966, he joined his father’s firm, which later became Mahlum & Mahlum Architects, then Mahlum & Nordfors, and eventually Mahlum Architects.

“John led our firm with a gentle hand and unwavering vision,” Anne Schopf, Mahlum Architects’ director of design, stated in a press release. “My loyalty and commitment to Mahlum Architects are rooted in my deep respect for John, a man who embodied integrity, kindness, and purpose.”

Three significant projects John Mahlum worked on were the Eastside Campus for Group Health – now known as Kaier Permanente – in Seattle in 1977, the new Ballard High School for Seattle Public Schools in 1999, and the Suzzallo Library restoration for the University of Washington in 2002.

John Mahlum served as president of American Institute of Architects (AIA) Seattle in 1979 and became an AIA Fellow in 1983. He also served as a trustee of the Seattle Architectural Foundation, a member of the University of Washington Department of Architecture Professionals Advisory Council, and a trustee of the Nordic Heritage Museum.

John Mahlum retired in 1999, just shy of 10 years after the firm’s Portland office opened, Mahlum Architects spokesperson Erica Hildebrand stated in an email.

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At the beginning of a new year, uncertainty abounds. Projects in essential markets for architecture and engineering firms are plagued by question marks.

But industry leaders remain hopeful for what 2021 might bring. With multiple vaccines approved, returns of employees to offices could become possible in the near future.

When the pandemic first hit the U.S. hard in March 2020, opportunities became disconcerting, said Kurt Haapala, a Mahlum Architects partner. The firm primarily handles public work for health care providers, universities and K-12 schools.

Instantly, projections for 2020 and 2021 just vanished, Haapala said. Also, clients were unable to give estimates on when stalled projects would resume.

With work shifting from an office to homes, productivity decreased, Haapala said. There were people who suddenly didn’t have anything to do, he added. Employee wellness became one of the firm’s top priorities. Staffers were able to take home their comfortable chairs, extra monitors, keyboards and anything else needed to make remote work easier.

Although most existing projects continued moving ahead, Haapala said, getting clients’ attention became challenging. The health care industry became a front line, and universities and colleges froze projects because of financial losses. K-12 school officials became preoccupied with figuring out remote learning.

Mahlum switched to a conservative financial mindset and reduced some benefit spending.

“We started to look at the end of the year as a break-even strategy,” Haapala said. “We weren’t looking at profits on projects but rather keep the ship afloat and get through the year.”

The firm began to regularly update employees about its financial health.

“I think that bred confidence in the leadership and that we weren’t closing up shop,” Haapala said.

Haapala doesn’t think Mahlum is out of the woods yet. The firm will continue to be conservative financially. It’s also creating an interruption plan to become nimbler if another pandemic or crisis dramatically shifts workflow.

Al Barkouli, chairman and CEO of David Evans and Associates Inc., said the company is keeping a constant eye on its key markets – housing, transportation and municipal. If local agencies’ funding were to drop significantly, industrial engineering companies could experience economic shortfalls, he said.

The challenge of guiding the company in a pandemic so far, Barkouli said, is staying adaptive.

Hacker knows all about making adjustments, said Sarah Hacker, a principal with the architecture firm. It’s continually focusing on fundamentals in order to maintain operations and keep employees employed, she said.

The architecture firm moved into a new space in District Office, in the Central Eastside Industrial District, on March 9, 2020. A week later, employees began working from home.

When developing policies, the firm has taken a person-by-person approach and tried to be really flexible, Hacker said. A lot of policies try to be one-size-fits-all, but that doesn’t work right now, she added.

Construction was able to finish in 2020 on projects that had reached a certain point, but timelines did need to shift, Hacker said. However, one of the firm’s biggest markets is office space, and many such projects either stopped indefinitely or paused. But Hacker said she’s starting to see more paused projects begin to ramp up.

Throughout remote work, Hacker said employees have been communicating in ways that they haven’t before. One problem, she added, is that it can be hard to read the room and see how people are feeling over Zoom and emails.

A big plus, however, has been an increase in equity, Hacker said. Previously, she explained, groups would stand around a whiteboard while usually just one person sketched ideas. But in the digital environment more people have been able to contribute ideas.

Employees are continuing work remotely, Hacker said, with an assumption that there will be a long transition period for them to return to the office. However, maintaining equity during the transition period could be challenging, she added, because people not in the office could feel disconnected or excluded. For example, attendees at a meeting could mostly be in person, but a few could be watching on a screen.

Once vaccines become more widely available, the industry could see another dramatic shift as workers return to offices.

“I think some different new normal will be emerging,” Barkouli said.

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As shutdowns triggered by the coronavirus pandemic drag on, building industry professionals are adapting to a new way of doing business by leaning on technology to foster communication with co-workers, build client bases and keep projects moving.

People working in the architecture and construction sectors, both of which have traditionally relied on the collaborative nature of face-to-face interaction, are utilizing various tools to continue working as well as discovering that productivity need not suffer as a result of social distancing.

“It’s pretty amazing how quickly we’ve all adapted to this new world,” said Abby Dacey, a principal with Mahlum Architects.

Dacey spoke April 30 during a of the 91��Ƶ’s regular Builder Breakfast panel discussion. Panelists also included Bart Ricketts, CEO of Lease Crutcher Lewis, and Scott Rose, a senior manager with R&C Management Group. Darien Loiselle, a shareholder and construction attorney with Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt, served as the discussion’s moderator.

Because Mahlum has offices in Portland and Seattle, its employees are already used to working together while at a distance, and the firm had a lot of necessary infrastructure for doing so already in place. Still, Dacey said, having 95 people working cooperatively from their homes is a far cry from doing so between two offices.

“Architecture is a hugely collaborative endeavor,” she said. “We’ve had to develop a number of workflows to keep us productive and to help us really stay creative.”

Mahlum has erred on the side of overcommunicating with staff. Meetings are held daily to maintain connections between team members, identify any technical issues and plan the day’s work. Because they typically do a lot of broad thinking using whiteboards or sticky notes, employees are using a program called Miro that mimics such brainstorming methods in a virtual setting. Architects are uploading hand drawings and sketches using apps like Genius Scan to share design concepts, and using sketching apps with vector manipulation capabilities or using older programs like Vectorworks to create and share layered drawings.

Lease Crutcher Lewis also has offices in both Portland and Seattle, and was using various digital methods to conduct business before the coronavirus outbreak. According to Ricketts, hashing out the details of a quote in a virtual meeting with subcontractors or trade partners is business as usual.

What’s different, he said, is using the same technology to secure new work, which his team is learning to do successfully without the benefit of in-person meetings.

“We’ve won three jobs via remote interview in the last four weeks,” he said. “That’s pretty cool; that’s something that I never thought we would be doing. We’re getting skilled at it and figuring out ways to be really engaging when you’re on a screen, or sharing a screen or explaining to an owner why you’re the best fit for a job.”

Part of the key to an effective virtual interview, Rose said, is working out the technology ahead of time so it doesn’t become an obstacle. Doing a dry run with somebody on another end is a good way to avoid potential snags.

“Make sure it’s working really well so that people get to see who you are,” he said.

Figuring out how to make human connections without shaking a hand or relying on typical social cues is key to securing new work and maintaining existing client relationships virtually, Dacey said. One partner at Mahlum held a virtual lounge with higher education clients; another colleague, who typically holds a monthly breakfast meeting with district representatives, recently sent her biscuit recipe to attendees for the virtual version of the meeting.

“We’re using technology in as many creative ways as we can just to stay connected with folks,” Dacey said.

For Mahlum, most of the innovations are coming out of projects in the beginning stages. A recent pre-proposal site walk-through was conducted virtually by a project manager walking around with a camera. For another project, the firm decided to not do pre-bid walk-throughs and instead make a point cloud scan of the site available to general contractors. Doing so, Dacey said, had the additional benefit of providing views of spaces not typically seen on a regular site walk-through.

All of the Lease Crutcher Lewis preconstruction collaboration is being done remotely. Meetings with clients and architects, sessions with engineers and trade partners – all are being conducted on a variety of virtual platforms. Remote work is changing how the firm administers its projects, and Ricketts anticipates that in the future it could be more acceptable for administrative work, and perhaps even some project engineering support services, to be conducted remotely.

“You may have less of a head count at the job site and have some of those services more centrally located or working remotely, and it’s something that we should probably consider,” he said.

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The Living Building Challenge is generally considered one of the top green building certification programs in terms of both prestige and rigor. In short, that’s why Mahlum Architects chose to follow that path for its new office in inner Southeast Portland.

Now, Mahlum selected for its new home an existing warehouse that had been converted into office space. There was no chance for the project team to obtain full Living Building certification from the International Living Future Institute.

However, one of the challenge’s seven “petals” – materials – appeared to be within reach. That is where Mahlum chose to focus.

“Petal certification has been around since the beginning of the standard, but it’s allowed (the ILFI) to scale the program,” said Jay Hindmarsh, a Seattle-based Mahlum associate principal and head of the Living Building Challenge portion of the renovation, which covered a 7,500-square-foot office space. “The materials petal is insanely difficult, but for Mahlum it was a way for us to embrace our values around walking the talk. We’ve been advocating for our clients about better materials and lower-carbon materials, and we looked at each other and said our new space should be beautiful but also should be super healthy and have a low-carbon footprint.”

Mahlum’s new space is located in the Custom Blocks‘ south building, at 1380 S.E. Ninth Ave. The single-level building was at one time a metal stamping shop, but was gutted, renovated and seismically retrofitted.

“We were trying to find a place in Portland that would allow us to be near clients and the community,” Hindmarsh said. “The interesting thing about the space is that it had just fairly recently gotten a core and shell upgrade, but in a lot of ways there was a great historic shell there, and it was interesting to see a space where we could envision quantifying all materials we were bringing in.”

The space could not be retrofitted to achieve net-zero energy or water use. But that wasn’t a problem for either Mahlum.

“The most sustainable buildings are the ones that are already built,” Hindmarsh said, paraphrasing Carl Elefante, a past American Institute of Architects president. “Aside from cost issues, clearly we were going to be renovating a space. This concept of net-zero material impacts is where a renovation typology suits itself to the materials petal. We’re not touching the enclosure, so there was a chance for us to not focus on new construction type components and try to promote investment in local economy.”

Slightly more than 50 percent of the products came from within 500 kilometers of the site, with some of the biggest gains coming from sourcing wood salvaged from the existing building. Also, by working with Salvage Works, a Portland supplier of reclaimed wood products, the project team used lumber originally used to build Fort Vancouver to create wall cladding, display cases and more. Such accents complement the existing heavy timber in the former warehouse, as well as a host of Forest Stewardship Council-certified wood products sourced by another Portland firm, Sustainable Northwest Wood. The latter were mainly plywood and lumber used to frame the new space.

“There’s a threshold for salvage products and we vastly exceeded that,” Hindmarsh said. “This embraces the philosophy of not having superfluous materials. Materials should be true to themselves, especially with the Living Building Challenge. If you’re adding in and designing in things that need to be vetted you’re making things hard for yourself.”

Working under Living Building Challenge version 3.1, Mahlum staff vetted over 350 products and materials for red list compliance. One that fit the bill was EcoSmart drywall manufactured by USG, which is known for its popular Sheetrock brand.

“We had never used this one, as it has just come on the market,” Hindmarsh said. “But it lists a 20 percent reduction in carbon emissions for the drywall, and it’s also made in Rainier (Oregon), so it was win-win for all.”

Portland’s Quartertwenty crafted custom workstations to serve Mahlum’s 50-plus employees in the new office.

“We had to catalog all the pieces of wood and steel, the nuts and bolts, the coating on the steel, the weight,” Hindmarsh said. “And getting that done was a huge lift. We were able to get something that met all our design and ergonomic needs and ended up being LBC compliant.”

Finally, waste diversion is required for certification; debris can’t simply be carted to the landfill. In the end, however, the project team managed to recycle close to 95 percent of waste materials generated on site.

General contractor Perlo Construction finished the project last year. Mahlum moved in this past November, and petal certification was achieved on March 17.

It was a very valuable learning experience for the Mahlum team, Hindmarsh said.

“I think my recommendation would be do your homework and understand what it will take,” he said. “It is a great opportunity for architecture firms and design firms to really put their process in a petri dish and look at it and their materials library and reflect on their practices.”

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A two-year project to modernize and expand Grant High School is drawing to a close, with crews putting the finishing touches on the campus in preparation for the return of students later this month.

The $158 million project is the last to be completed under Portland Public Schools‘ 2012 construction bond, a $482 million capital measure that funded two previous high school modernization projects and multiple other improvements throughout the district.

The main school building and gymnasium were originally constructed in 1923, and multiple expansion wings and new structures were added to the ten-acre campus over the ensuing decades. After the demolition of five non-historic structures, the school now consists of two buildings – an expanded main building with added classroom space and new gymnasium, and a new visual arts center located in the original 1923 gymnasium building.

Due to the school’s classification as an Oregon Historic Site, maintaining its appearance and aesthetic was a top priority. The project team paid close attention to preserving details including masonry color, interior stained glass signage and intricate decorative terra cotta column work.

“It’s very important for us to preserve the existing building because it’s iconic,” said David Mayne, spokesman for the PPS bond program. “So we did that, and at the same time we’ve enhanced a number of things, including adding a whole new section to make the building wider.”

A two-story steel-framed addition extended the building west by roughly 50 feet and created a double-corridor space with three rows of programming, including new classrooms and a student commons area. The structural expansion also provides a new ADA-compliant connection with the remodeled auditorium, which was previously connected to the main building via ramps due to a change in grade between the buildings.

“We did a lot of brick repair and one of the things that happened when they built this in 1923 is that the mortar was stronger than the bricks,” said Jaime Hurd, PPS capital projects coordinator. “And it had been damaging them for the last 80 years. So we actually replaced all the bricks on this façade and we’ve been doing terra cotta repair, so it gives it that historic look and makes it much more weatherproof.”

A secure entry vestibule leads to a new three-story staircase intended to be the central hub of the school. The stairway serves to connect the entrance with the auditorium, student commons and a new basement maker space, and will also function as a learning stair as it descends the building’s lower level.

A southwest addition includes a new library, a gymnasium with capacity for 1,700 spectators, an auxiliary gym, wrestling room and weight room.  The complete restoration of the school’s auditorium, built as an expansion in 1927, also includes a new 165-seat black box theater, dance studio and student flex space.

On the exterior, crews are finished replacing both the masonry as well as windows styled to match the appearance of the original frames.

“These are all historic replacement historic windows and we’ve utilized the full height of the windows,” Hurd said. “The modernization really took everything right down to the (concrete) structure. There really wasn’t anything left here but the concrete, and then of course we built it back up and performed all the seismic upgrades and ADA upgrades.”

Mahlum Architects is the designer of the project, with Mayer/Reed Inc. taking on the landscape architecture. Further, the Andersen Colas Construction joint venture is the CM/GC contractor, and CBRE|Heery is serving as project manager.

The project is on course to be completed in time for the opening of school on Aug. 28, and a grand opening celebration is scheduled for Sept. 7.

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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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General contractor INLINE Commercial Construction is seeking subcontractors to help build a new gymnasium and a new modular classroom building for Mooberry Elementary School in Hillsboro.

The gymnasium will be built on the campus and be used for physical education classes and other activities. It will be constructed to “immediate occupancy” seismic standards, providing an emergency shelter resource to the community following a sizable earthquake.

The new modular building, meanwhile, will be constructed off-site and then assembled on the campus, at 1230 N.E. 10th Ave. The structure will include five individual classrooms and restrooms.

A number of smaller improvements also will be carried out as part of the project. They include seismic upgrades, installation of new roofing, installation of new air conditioning, replacement of a domestic water pipe, construction of a new playground with a synthetic surface, and safety and security improvements.

The project has a total budget of $6.77 million. Work is being paid for with money from a capital bond approved by voters in 2017. Mahlum Architects is the project’s designer.

Work is set to begin by June 2019, and be substantially completed in mid-August.

Bids for the “A” package are due by 10 a.m. on Jan. 29. All bids and questions about the project may be emailed to Kevin Redinger at kevinr@inline-cc.com.

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General contractor Skanska USA Building has been tabbed by the Lake Oswego School District to carry out construction of a new Lakeridge Junior High School. Now, the firm needs some help from subcontractors.

Voters passed a $187 million capital bond measure in 2017, and more of that money will go to the than any other project. Plans call for replacing two existing buildings with a single building stepping down from two stories to one. The new school will have 141,000 square feet of space and be able to accommodate up to 1,100 students.

Mahlum Architects‘ design calls for large windows and various roof forms. One-story wings will be clad in brick masonry, and the two-story portions will be clad in fiber cement board.

All people entering the school will pass through secure vestibules allowing visual inspections by staffers. A secure courtyard will be located in the middle of the building.

A large student commons will include the dining area, drama instruction area and library. Upstairs, paired learning studios will be used instead of traditional classrooms. Also, two gymnasiums will be built.

The entire building is designed as a seismic risk category IV structure with enhanced lateral bracing and passive survivability. The building envelope and backup systems will allow the school to be habitable without power.

Preconstruction activity has already started, and portable classroom buildings are now on site, allowing total vacation of the west campus building and construction of the new building.

Bids for the first package of work must be submitted by 2 p.m. on Jan. 8, 2019. Bids for remaining scopes of work will be sought in April 2019.

Prospective bidders can learn more by sending emails to miles.colyer@skanska.com.

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Construction work is in full swing on the last major project funded by Portland Public Schools‘ 2012 School Building Improvement Bond. A joint venture team of Andersen/Colas Construction is performing a Mahlum Architects-designed upgrade of Grant High School that will modernize and expand the school’s space while maintaining the historic look of the school, which was originally built in 1923.

Crews began work on the approximately $150 million project after the school year ended last June, and have since completed the mass demolition portion of the job – the razing of five non-historic expansions that were not part of the original structure. Interior demolition and abatement is ongoing and about 80 percent complete.

Construction of a new gymnasium has begun; excavation for the two-story structure is complete, and crews are starting to put down the rock pad for the gym’s foundation. The main floor of the new gymnasium is at a level below grade so that the structure fits in with the existing context of the neighborhood without towering over other structures.

Some temporary shoring has been completed, and crews are excavating for new courtyards. Excavation of foundations will continue until next January/February, with installation of structural steel set to begin at that time.

Unlike the previously-completed bond-funded renovations of Franklin and Roosevelt high schools and as a result of community input, the auditorium at Grant will remain in use as an auditorium. Murals and interior décor in the auditorium are being maintained, and the contractors and Heery International, the project manager, are working with the State Historic Preservation Office to maintain historically significant elements.

The construction team is targeting a dry-in date of fall 2018, which will include the new gymnasium and an addition to the building’s west side. Completion is slated for July 2019, and students will return to the campus – which will have a capacity for 200 more students – that fall.

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Among the many issues that come up in educational facility projects, bathroom design typically hasn’t been one. It is now.

“It is a sensitive issue,” Soderstrom Architects principal Henry Fitzgibbon said. “We have been bogged down on this issue on a number of projects. We spend four or five meetings on this subject alone.”

In an effort to meet privacy concerns, legal requirements and a growing desire to avoid singling out transgender students, architects are designing bathrooms to be gender-inclusive instead of gender-specific. While the issue largely is one for high school and university projects, it’s now even popping up for elementary school projects.

The most popular design method to accommodate changing needs is to create a series of toilets each surrounded by floor-to-ceiling walls. That is often combined with communal sinks.

“In the past, with the traditional designs, nobody even asked questions about the restrooms,” Fitzgibbon said.

Dealing with the conflict between building codes and project goals is one of the toughest aspects of building gender-inclusive facilities. Most municipal codes specify a required number of restroom facilities and require them to be gender-specific. Meanwhile, state governments and clients are pushing toward facilities that are gender-neutral.

“It really needs to be incorporated into the building codes,” Fitzgibbon said. “Right now, it puts the issue on the building official’s desk.”

Portland has been at the forefront of changing bathroom design. A renovation at Grant High School will result in all of its restrooms being gender-inclusive. They won’t have a traditional single door leading to a room with stalls. Instead, students will be able to move in and out through two entrances/exits. A series of toilets will be individually surrounded by floor-to-ceiling walls. Communal sinks will be attached to walls in rows.

“It will be more of a pass-through design,” Grant High School Principal Carol Campbell said. “It’s more like your own private little restroom.”

The design required a special consideration from the city of Portland that allowed the school to circumvent bathroom facility requirements. Rather than modify or change existing code, the city interpreted Mahlum Architects‘ design of small rooms as meeting the code in providing separate facilities.

“We worked with code officials,” said Alyssa Leeviraphan, Mahlum Architects project manager for the Grant High School renovation. “Their response was that if you meet these requirements, you are meeting the code.”

The interpretation that Portland used to allow the Grant High project to move forward could be used by others moving forward.

“A lot of code officials are looking to other municipalities as to how to get gender-inclusive bathrooms,” Mahlum Architects principal JoAnn Wilcox said.

A major component of bathroom design is the increasing desire to make sure transgender students are not segregated. That played into the decision to make all of the Grant High School bathrooms gender-inclusive rather than a mix including some gender-specific.

It also helps respond to court decisions regarding concerns that certain students could be singled out.

“The conversations were about not creating an ‘other’ place,” Campbell said. “We didn’t want it to feel like there was a room designated for ‘other’ people. We wanted to make sure that there is no identifying way that people are singled out as ‘other.’ That was the main driving force.”

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