Monthly e-Newsletter November 2009

The ground has just been broken for the A.L. Humphrey House building, and kudos are due to the team at Stickney, Murphy and Romine Architects, who pioneered this affordable housing project for the Plymouth Housing Group. Plymouth Housing Group is well regarded for their mission to provide safe, durable, affordable housing for people who might otherwise be homeless.

Humphrey House is certainly well built. It uses energy-efficient lighting fixtures throughout, high efficiency gas fired hydronic heating and domestic hot water systems, with individual thermostats, a drought tolerant sidewalk landscaping, “Energy Star” rated kitchen and laundry appliances, very well insulated exterior envelope, and low wattage down-lighting at alley exterior to increase safety and to minimize light pollution. This building meets the State of Washington Evergreen Sustainable Development Standard and Abossein provided the civil, mechanical, electrical, and fire safety engineering for this project.

The apartments are 250 sf, containing full kitchens, bathrooms, closets, windows, with outlets for data and voice lines. The apartments are intended to offer the residents everything one could expect in a standard, comfortable home environment. In addition to 84 studio apartments, A.L. Humphrey House will also offer a community space, a TV room, a computer room, a bike storage room, and support services for residents. The remainder of the first floor is available for retail space and a full service restaurant and will help supplement the cost of the building. The building‘s general contractor is Marpac Construction LLC, and it is expected to be available for occupancy in September, 2010.

Martin Selig expects to be earning Energy Star Certification on their South Tower, West Tower, and 4th and Vine buildings, soon after the completion of an audit performed by Abossein Engineering. To earn the Energy Star Certification, these properties, owned and managed by Martin Selig, need to prove that they are in the top 25 percentile of all similar buildings in their geographic location. A building in Phoenix, for example, would have different energy issues than a building in Detroit, New York, or Seattle.

And, it is not just the shell which is audited for certification. The buildings needed to prove, not simply energy savings across the performance period of the previous year, but also that comfort levels were sufficient to meet ASHRAE and ICEE requirements for indoor climate, heat and light.

Abossein conducted inspections, working with the building manager, and with Marleen Jensen in administration, reviewing the buildings’ performance records, and inspecting the buildings to find their relative level of energy efficiency and indoor climate provisions. These findings were also verified by independent survey of the tenants, who reported high satisfaction level with the buildings’ performance. This rating of comfort and energy savings held firm across a wide variety of tenants, including a broad mix of office and cubicle space.

Of the buildings, the South Tower was built in 1970, the 4th and Vine Building in 1975, and the West Tower in 1998. That they remain relatively energy efficient by today’s standards speaks to the quality of the original design and maintenance and upkeep on these prominent properties. This is just a beginning of this prominent Seattle developer’s effort to take the lead in energy conservation of some of the older buildings in their portfolio.

Josef Valenta is jovial, unassuming gentleman, and easily one of the most talented civil engineers in the region. He manages people and design problems with equal grace. Josef has worked with Abossein over the last seven years in concert with one of our clients, and for the last few years as our civil engineering project manager.

At his previous position, Josef was no simple project manager. He managed properties from concept to final walk through. Josef’s responsibilities included all aspects of civil engineering; as well as overseeing project sites; managing personnel, including all architects and engineers; managing contractors, including all phases of building; permitting; quality control; client relations; conflict resolution; and drawing supervision.

In addition, Josef has years of hands on experience with road and highway design and construction, including bridge girders, abutment walls, precast retaining walls, noise walls, and traffic barriers which were all in compliance with local, state, and federal standards, including WSDOT and FHWA. And, just in case that wasn’t enough, Josef is highly skilled in storm water quality and quantity control, including Low Impact Design. One of his most creative projects was a flood plain site with a brown field, which was designed to accommodate pedestrian trails and then the new wetlands were created alongside which fed into the Puyallup River.

Josef has a Master’s degree in Civil Engineering, is PE licensed across the nine western states, and is currently working on LEED 3.0 certification.

Last Month's Answer: Approximately 30 %.

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

By which year do incandescent lights become obsolete under the new proposed energy regulations?