Monthly e-Newsletter June 2009

A few years ago our relationship with James Allard of the Blue-C had started as he was working on his Sushi restaurant concept with a goal of having multiple locations across the Northwest. Our first project was the Fremont store and soon the others followed. The most recent project was at the Bellevue Square with a new addition for a second restaurant concept called Boom Noodle that has made a combination of two satisfying for any taste. Existing tenant improvement projects with multiple floors above them have unique challenges and this project was no exception. In the end, the final product was both pleasing and functional and a great contribution to northwest cuisine. Blue C Sushi provides great fresh sushi at five locations in the Puget Sound Region, including Bellevue Square, Fremont, The University District, Alderwood and Southcenter.

Abossein Engineering is pleased to announce the addition of James Michael PE to our staff. A graduate of Washington State University, James has over 30 years experience in industrial and institutional mechanical engineering. Having taken a wide variety of projects from conception to final construction, Mr. Michael has an extensive background of project design and management. His experience includes projects with the Army Corps of Engineers- Alaska; Department of Public Works, Fort Lewis, Washington; University of Washington; and major industries, such as refineries, petrochemical, and pulp and paper mills. Mr. Michael is a highly capable engineer, typically taking on project management for all of the design work including schematics, instrumentation, specifications, and equipment sizing, for process, plumbing, and HVAC. Like the rest of team Abossein, he has a proven track record of on target, on time, and within budget performance. James has served as construction site supervisor for projects ranging from chlorine gas handling systems, to waste-to-energy cogeneration facilities, to multiple effect evaporator plants; the installation and erection of NCG collection and incineration systems for pulp mills, and power boilers. His experience with technical supervision includes: recovery boiler furnace replacements, firing systems, and combustion air retrofits; as well as economizer replacements; deaerator, feed pumps and drives for power boilers. James has also managed subcontractor crews of various trades, such as boilermakers, pipe fitters, welders, ironworkers, electricians/instrument technicians, plumbers, sheet metal workers, and insulators. We are pleased to have James join our team, and know he will provide the excellent level of service you've come to expect from Team Abossein.

This is a significant shift using the most recent advancements in technology and also experience with over 2,500 LEED certified projects in the industry. Changes are in both categories, certification and rating system. The rating system has been designed according to the credit impact on the following categories for climate change, indoor environmental goals, resource depletion, human health criteria, etc. Each credit has been tabulated with points based on the impact on the different categories. Version 3 of LEED assigns more credits for piloting, innovation ideas, and regional credits. Especially, the regional credits will provide the LEED projects with additional, extra points. These are not new credits, just additional points. Each local chapter of USGBC has chosen six credits based on the ones that are considered most important for defined environmental areas. These credits have been tabulated based on the ZIP codes and are available online on the USGBC website. You can achieve up to four additional points from the six regional credits. LEED is now beginning to recognize environmental differences between project locations. Regional Priority Credits (RPC) will provide incentive for registered buildings to address local priorities that are most pertinent to its environment. The new system ranges from 40 points for Certified to 80+ for a platinum rating.

Question of the month (see next month's issue for the answer):

When is the last day to submit a project for certification under LEED 2.2?