Puget Sound Chapter

February 9 Events

Posted: February 04, 2012

Register now for the conference and chapter meeting scheduled for Thursday, February 9. Visit the Events webpage for complete details.

ProSpec Announces Keynote Speakers

Posted: February 03, 2012

Sustainable Historic Renovation

Ever wonder how to incorporate sustainability with an historical renovation project? Wonder no more. The team of Mario Espinosa of Ankrom Moisan and Joe Vondrak with Pacific Crest Construction has a background of historic renovation projects for several clients, including McMenamins. They will share stories of the pitfalls and surprises involved in their collaboration and how they’ve incorporated sustainable practices in their projects.

As an architect, Mario Espinosa has been involved in the restoration of historic facilities for more than 30 years, ranging from upgraded hospitals and churches to lodging and distilleries. Mr. Espinosa has designed a great variety of facilities that have achieved financial independence, as well as their historic designations and tax benefit entitlements.

Mr Espinosa will present his views and experience in the areas of sustainable historic renovation and the realities of getting historic facilities approved by government construction organizations while maintaining a viable commercial use.

Mr Espinosa will share his approach and experience in coordinating his design efforts with the contracting, City permitting and consulting teams to attain more sustainable and realistic results as well as to provide for an environment of cooperation and understanding between the different players in the field of historic renovation.

As a general contractor, Joe Vondrak has been fortunate to have been able to guide his company through the world of historic building construction. With his experience, Mr Vondrak will share valuable lessons learned in the construction, care and the realities of renovating and converting existing buildings into useable and financially-fit facilities.

Mr Vondrak will address pivoting issues related to Historic preservation as follows:

• Construction Sustainable Practices
• Facility evaluation for best practical fit
• Case Studies
• Construction relations with consultants and City Officials

Mr Vondrak has managed construction of numerous venues and hotel facilities. Through this experience, he has developed an intimate understanding and appreciation for what it takes to maintain and re-live older buildings. Through his 32 years of construction experience he has become an expert on historical preservation and seismic upgrades of old buildings.

January 12 Events

Posted: December 28, 2011

Register now for the conference and chapter meeting scheduled for Thursday, January 12. Visit the Events webpage for complete details.

December 8 Events

Posted: November 23, 2011

Register now for the seminars and chapter meeting schedule for Thursday, December 8. Visit the Events webpage for complete details.

Washington State Floor Covering Association Event

Posted: October 26, 2011

The Market: NW Design Showcase of Interior Solutions

Date/Location: February 29, 2012 (Leap Day)/Lynnwood

Time: 9am – 5pm

Cost: Free admission and parking

Description: This trade show is open to designers, architects, builders, and everyone in the floor covering industry. There will be approximately 90 vendors exhibiting new floor and other interior finish products as well as demonstrations throughout the day.

For registration and further information, please visit our website: http://www.wsfca.org (425-885-0012 or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)).

2011-2012 Membership Roster is in the Mail!

Posted: September 15, 2011

What is that?" you ask.

John Jeffcott and other specifiers know what it is, and say the following: "The Membership Roster sits on my desk and I save old rosters just in case. I have already complained to Andrew that I had not received one, and thought maybe I had been skipped. In short, I use it all the time."

For those who are about to discover a brilliant resource: The Membership Roster is a book about 6 inches by 4 inches that is spiral bound. It includes a listing of our chapter in many different formats.

1. By last name - which helps you find Dave Killian's number if you knew he was the rep for North Clad and you wanted to talk to him. (Fee with membership.
2. By company name - which helps you find the guy at Window Tech Inc. you spoke with but you cannot remember his name. (Free with membership.
3. By CSI Division - which helps you find if there is a local rep for Unit skylights, but you don't know any reps names or company names. (Costs $14.50 per listing.)
4. By Manufacturers and Products - which helps you find if there is a local rep for Kalwall Corporation. (Yes: Jody Moore. I know this because she chooses to list in this section. Kalwall does not show up under the company list because her company is listed as DeaMor - she reps more than one product.) (Costs $28.00 per listing.)

Look for yours in the mail!

2011-2012 Membership Roster

Posted: September 08, 2011

New this year, the Puget Sound Chapter Membership Roster is availalbe in electronic, PDF, format. Download the PDF here. Look for the print version in the mail by the end of September.

Chapter Meeting: Emerging Technologies in HVAC

Posted: September 07, 2011

Thursday, September 8, 2011, 5:00-8:30 PM
Mirabella, 116 Fairview Ave N, Seattle WA 98109

Online registration for this meeting is closed. Walk-ins will be accommodated if space permits.

Welcome to our first program of the fall season. We are privileged to have our program presented by Brian Griffith, LEED AP, a Senior Sustainable Design Consultant with Affiliated Engineers Inc (AEI).  

Brian has spent the last 16 years working for mechanical engineering firms focusing on load calculations, energy modeling sustainable design projects and LEED assessing. He holds a leadership role within AEI’s West Coast Sustainable Design Group.

Brian recently participated as a consultant on the City of Seattle’s District Energy Pre-feasibility Study. His work includes residential and commercial projects often creating a component that is unique or first-of-its-kind for an area including; chilled beams in laboratories, daylighting designs, bio-fuel boilers, low-flow plumbing fixtures, green roofs, solar-thermal domestic water heating, photovoltaic arrangements, and radiant heating and cooling.  

Start our year off right by attending this meeting and bring someone from you office to share in the CSI experience. See you on September 8th.

Registration now open for the fall CDT and Advanced Certification exams

Posted: May 24, 2011

Register now to take a CSI exam and become:

• CDT - Certified Construction Documents Technologist
• CCCA - Certified Construction Contract Administrator
• CCS - Certified Construction Specifier
• CCPR - Certified Construction Product

Representative Exams will be offered Sept. 26-Oct. 8. The early registration deadline is July 26 and the final registration deadline is Aug. 26. Please note, the CDT exam will now be based on the CSI Project Delivery Practice Guide. The advanced exams will still be based on the PRM for this exam cycle.

Friends of the Chapter

Posted: February 10, 2011

We are introducing a new Friend of the Chapter program. We are asking any current members to donate $50. The donations will be used by the membership committee to support and increase the Puget Sound Chapter membership. Friends will be recognized at the general chapter meetings. Friends will also be listed in a newsletter article and on the website as a News item.

Become a Friend of the Chapter today. Complete the donation form below or mail a check to:
Puget Sound Chapter CSI
603 Stewart St Ste 610
Seattle WA 98101

Thank you!

The Price of Gold

Posted: November 19, 2010

By Sheldon Wolfe RA FCSI CCS CCCA CSC

One of my CSI hats is History of Fellows Chair for CSI's College of Fellows. As such, I search for background to create or update the biographies that are on the Fellows' website, at http://www.FCSInet.org. This often is a difficult task even with new Fellows, who either can't find the time, or are too bashful to write their own biographies. Getting information grows more difficult as time goes on, and becomes a real challenge for those Fellows who are no longer with us.

While my search generally moves along at a pace dictated by work at office and at home, some events, such as each year's elevation of new Fellows, notable achievements of a current Fellow, or the passing of a Fellow, inspire greater effort. One such incidence occurred in February of this year, when Joy Davis notified me that a collection of three CSI medals - for President, Past President, and Fellow - were being auctioned off on e-Bay.

Putting on my Sherlock Holmes hat, I tried to deduce who the medals had belonged to. The ad indicated that all of the medals were from 1985 or earlier, so I started with the list of past presidents. An obvious first step was to delete those whose presidency or Fellowship came after 1985; I then eliminated those who were not Fellows (there are a few), and, assuming that a living member would not sell those medals, limited my search to those Fellows who had passed away.

The result was a short list of twenty-two names. I was able to determine from the ad that the seller was in Missouri, but it wouldn’t necessarily follow that the original owner also was from Missouri, so I set that aside for the moment. However, because the advertised collection of medals did not include an Honorary Member's medal, I made a fatal mistake, and eliminated Honorary Members from the list, which was reduced to seven names.

I was tempted to put in a bid, but decided it would be better if an officer of the College of Fellows did the bidding, and started a conversation with Jim Robertson, College of Fellows Chancellor, Bob Kenworthy, COF Bursar, and Dick Robinson, COF Chancellor. We agreed that Bob would submit bids on behalf of the College of Fellows, and that, rather than raise interest by bidding early, he would not place a bid until just before the auction ended.

I sent an e-mail to the seller, asking whose medals they were, and was told that they belonged to Robert Vansant. (Vansant was an Honorary Member, but for some unknown reason, that medal was not included in the collection offered for sale.) The seller's response was especially interesting to me, as Robert Vansant is one of the names I remembered from my early days as an architect. He wrote a monthly article titled “Vansant’s Law” in A/E Concepts in Wood Design, which was always interesting and educational. As I recall, each month's article discussed a limited subject and how it was presented in specifications or drawings.

Robert Vansant is an example of one meaning of FCSI - “future continued service to the Institute.” He didn’t hang it up after becoming a Fellow, but went on to serve as Institute President, and wrote many articles to help others better understand legal concepts related to construction. In addition to A/E Concepts in Wood Design, his articles also appeared in the Construction Specifier, Consulting Engineer, the AWPA Reporter, and Water and Wastes Engineering.

An engineer and attorney at Black & Veatch in Kansas City, Vansant was a charter member of the Kansas City Chapter, which was formed in 1959. He became a Fellow of the Institute in 1970, served as president in 1973-74, received CSI President's Plaques in 1971 and 1972, and was made an Honorary Member in 1986, the year after his death.

Robert Vansant and Glen Ablanalp were instrumental in establishing the Engineers Joint Contract Documents Committee (EJCDC). Vansant also worked with the American Water Works Association, and served as chair of the AWWA Standards Council, and he received the National Society of Professional Engineers' PEPP Award in 1987.

Meanwhile, back at the auction, we saw a sudden flurry of bidding as the deadline approached. As it turned out, one of the bidders was our own Dennis J. Hall, who had seen the medals on e-Bay and didn't want them to be lost to CSI, but he said he had bid as much as he was going to, and dropped out of the bidding. Bob Kenworthy submitted the final bid just before the deadline, winning the auction. Afterward, he contacted the seller to ask about the missing Honorary Member's medal; alas, it seems to have disappeared. Bob mounted the rescued medals in a display case, which was exhibited at the CSI booth in Philadelphia. The medals have since been donated to the Institute, and will soon be on display at CSI's main office, in Alexandria, Virginia.

One of the many interesting things about this treasure hunt was learning what metals are used for CSI medals. What are those metals? Silver for Fellows, copper for presidents, bronze for former presidents, and gold for distinguished or honorary members. However, as former Institute president Gilman Hu said, "A medal awarded to you is only worth the honor that goes with it. A medal purchased isn't worth the metal it was made from."

© 2010, Sheldon Wolfe

Follow me at http://swconstructivethoughts.blogspot.com/, http://twitter.com/swolfearch

Applications Now Being Accepted

Posted: November 04, 2010

The Academic Affairs Committee is now accepting application for the annual Student Sponsorship Program. Complete the linked online application form by November 11 in order to be considered.

November 11 Seminars and Chapter Meeting

Posted: November 02, 2010

Registration for the November 11, 2010, seminars and chapter meetings is now available. For complete details and to register visit http://www.psccsi.org/events-listing/.

October 14 Seminar Presentation

Posted: October 20, 2010

Bryan Welsh, the founder and president of Welsh Commissioning Group, Inc. (WCG), a commissioning services firm located in the Seattle area presented an educational seminar titled LEED and Commissioning on October 14. If you would like more information about this presentation, download the presentation slides.

Mount Rainier CSI Cruise to Alaska

Posted: October 12, 2010

The first Mt. Rainier Chapter get together on the high seas, Sunday, May 15th, to Sunday, May 22nd, 2011.

Download the informational flyer.