January-February e-Newsletter 2010

ACCO Engineered Systems is celebrating their 75th year in business this year, and we at Abossein have forged a unique collaborative partnership to support each other’s business goals. ACCO is an employee owned company, and a pioneer in what they call “single source responsibility” – meaning that the same project manager stays with a project from inception throughout the warranty period. They are proud of a strict adherence to all project requirements, quality demands and schedules.

We have found that Danny Dallum, our primary contact at ACCO, embodies those values, being a very customer oriented, extremely thorough, hands on general manager. He has produced efficient, effective solutions for his clients over the years and he has a loyal following of clients in the Northwest and a dedicated and productive staff.

We are pleased to have worked in concert with ACCO on many engineering projects from conception to successful completion. A few of these projects include: Kimberly-Clark; The Tacoma Art Museum; Campus Point Professional Park; Bellgrove Professional Offices; Lake Washington School District; and The City of Tacoma Administration Building. Our mutual respect and complimentary skill sets continue to provide our customers with exceptional value and long term viable solutions.

The Best Care Merits the Best Facility - Panorama Convalescent and Rehabilitation Center

Originally built in 1965, the Panorama Convalescent and Rehabilitation Center has been an essential part of the greater Panorama Residence, the Pacific Northwest's largest Continuing Care Retirement Community. The Panorama C & R Center provides superb medical care and health restoration for the residents of the community. Panorama is a non-profit corporation that was established over 42 years ago, with a 140-acre campus, which features over 867 different residences.

So when their C & R facility needed to be replaced, Panorama secured feedback from residents, as well as doctors, nurses, and other related health care professionals. Design of this state of the art facility began in late 2007. Rafael Urena and John Lindstrom of Ambia were the architects, Abossein Engineering assisted in mechanical and electrical design, and Granville Brinkman of New Care Consulting was the construction manager.

Construction of Phase I began in July of 2008. It was necessary to build in two phases, as the center needed to remain operational during construction. Phase I includes construction of the 2 story, 67,000 sq ft resident unit wing adjacent to the existing facility. This wing houses all of the resident rooms and dining rooms. With completion of this wing, the residents could be transferred to the new facility and the old facility could be demolished to allow for Phase II construction. The Phase II wing is a 2 story, 26,000 sq ft building which will house all of the offices, physical therapy rooms and staff support areas. Construction of Phase II begins in March of this year. The construction team is led by Rushforth Construction, the general contractor, along with their highly qualified subcontractors.

Solar Heating and Photovoltaic Systems

Washington State and The Federal Government are offering incentives that can cover as much as 60% of a commercial solar energy installation. As energy costs rise, solar energy becomes not only a wise environmental decision, but a wise economic decision as well.

Solar energy systems fall into two broad categories: passive solar, such as hot water energy, and photovoltaic solar energy.

Solar hot water systems for domestic hot water, hydronic heating or swimming pools are usually comprised of: solar collectors; a pump or gravity based design to move the water into the tank system, or into the collectors; a series of tanks, including a holding tank, an additional heating tank to bring the water from solar temperature to 120 degrees, and a drain back tank to prevent over heating or freezing; and sometimes a gas or solar electrical unit to power the heated tank. More conventional systems utilize anti-freeze in lieu of drain down for freeze protection if needed.

Photovoltaic energy systems may seem counter intuitive, but even in our cloudy northwest climate, there is enough light generated to create a successful solar energy system. Such systems include a series of solar collectors, wiring, DC/AC inverter and utilizing a building meter which allows deductive counting for selling back any excess energy to the utility company. Germany, which has a climate almost identical to ours, is the world leader in solar energy powered buildings. In designing photovoltaic energy systems, one needs to consider safety measures. For example, in most buildings there is a single source of electricity to be deactivated in order for electricians to rewire or install new features. However, an electrical solar system is always active, and special precautions need to be taken to allow for electrical alterations and installations.

And, with any green energy source, the first and biggest payback is conservation. Along with federal and state incentives, the actual return on investment may be as low as 3-5 years.

Last Month's Answer: Natural gas is more economical at $12.54/Mil-Btu versus oil at $22.37/Mil-BTU

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

What impact does the water availability have on the size and type of construction for a building? What will be the significance of fire sprinklers in relation to those two factors?