Sparling Opens Portland Office / ABC Wins National Award / Slayden Awarded Contract in California

Sparling, an engineering and technology consulting firm based in Seattle, solidifies its presence in Portland with the recent opening of an office there.

Seattle-based Sparling Opens New Portland Office

Portland - Seattle-based specialty electrical engineering and technology consulting firm Sparling has opened an office in downtown Portland.

The new office, located in the 3400 U.S. Bancorp Tower, was established to help Sparling continue serving its many local clients and to generate new business opportunities throughout the Oregon marketplace.

Kimberly Krull, a Sparling associate, has been appointed general manager at the Portland office. Joining Krull in Portland is senior project manager Mark Engdall, PE, and senior project engineer Michael White. The team will continue its Portland work in the areas of healthcare, higher education, bio-tech/research, arts and culture, and others.

Sparling's most recent local projects include Sacred Heart Medical Center's Riverbend Campus in Springfield; Edith Green/Wendall Wyatt Federal Building modernization in Portland; St. Charles Medical Center in Bend; and Clackamas Community College's new arts building in Oregon City. Sparling also provided services on the recently completed Oregon Convention Center expansion and the new adidas Village campus.

Gray Purcell Finishes TI Work at Globe Lighting

Portland - Tigard general contractor Gray Purcell Inc. recently finished the 11,500-sq.-ft. tenant improvements for the $650,000 Globe Lighting showroom project at 12221 SE 82nd Avenue in Portland.

Gray Purcell built the 23,500-sq.-ft. commercial facility where the showroom is housed, a $995,900 project, over the course of five rainy months ending May 2003.

David's Bridal, the first tenant, took occupancy of 12,000 sq. ft. in June.

The structure features the use of M-Brick (an economical, brick-like product that is placed into tilt-up forms), and a 42-ft.high clock tower.

CIDA of Portland provided architectural design and structural design services for both the original construction and the tenant improvement projects.

Pacific Northwest ABC Wins National Growth Award

Tigard - Associated Builders and Contractors Pacific Northwest Chapter recently received the national ABC's highest honor for membership growth and development.

The Mullan Award is given annually to ABC chapters in each of 10 divisions that demonstrate the greatest growth in its membership base during the previous year. The Pacific Northwest Chapter won the honor for the 2003 year in Division 4. It was the third time in the past four years that the Chapter has received the Mullan Award.

Umpqua Bank Opens New Roseburg Training Facility

Roseburg - Umpqua Bank recently opened a $3,8 million, 20,371-sq.-ft. training facility in Roseburg to house its expanding university and training center for the ongoing education of its bank associates. Roseburg's R.E. Noah Company Inc. was the general contractor and Thompson Vaivoda and Associates Architects Inc. of Portland designed the building.

The Umpqua University and Support Center is home to the bank's internal university, as well as human resources, retail support, and the consumer and small business lending departments. The facility will also be used for public events such as seminars, social gatherings and shareholder meetings.

Building amenities include an outdoor garden, community area with 20-ft. windows and training center equipped with 10 new computers.

Water Reclamation Plant Contract Awarded to Slayden

Slayden Construction Inc. of Stayton, Ore., has been awarded a $51.5 million contract to expand a water reclamation plant in Truckee, Calif., just three miles from the Northstar ski area on the north shore of Lake Tahoe.

The general contractor began building the facility in January and will finish in August 2006. The project consists of several phases, the largest of which involves a $30 million biological nitrogen removal system. The system will remove all traces of nitrogen from the treated water and reduce the amount of salt entering Pyramid Lake, the Truckee River's terminus.

The expansion also will allow the Tahoe Truckee Sanitation Agency to process 9.6 million gallons a day compared to the 7.4 million gallons the plant currently can handle.

Peak construction employment is expected to reach 120 as Slayden Construction tackles an array of challenges - including weather and strict environmental regulations - that accompany the project. Crews are working at 6,000 ft. elevation at Donner Pass in the Sierra Nevada mountains. The projects involves extensive cold-weather concrete construction and involve the use of a wide variety of temporary environmental controls, including numerous heat exchangers for the concrete pours and tenting to protect the concrete from large snowfalls.