E-Newsletters: Fall 2004
In This Issue:
Portland State Dorm Gets LEED™ Certification
Portland State University has grown from a two-year
college, founded in Vanport in 1946, to Oregon's largest
and only urban, public university with nearly 23,000
students. Their new student housing facility is named
in honor of Dr. Stephen E. Epler, the original head
and champion of Portland State University. The building
is 62,500 SF, and houses 130 student units, classrooms,
and academic office space.
In developing a new student housing facility for the university, the design team, headed by Mithûn (architects) of Seattle, with support from Interface Engineering, incorporated innovative, environmentally sound concepts in order to create a healthy living space for students choosing to live on- campus. The building has recently been LEED™ Certified by the US Green Building Council.
While the roots of Epler Hall reach back into the
university's early days, the design techniques employed
were innovative, forward thinking, and environmentally
conscious. The Interface Engineering team was selected
by Mithûn specifically for their award-winning
work on the Jean Vollum Natural Capital Center, the
first LEED™ Gold Certified building in the western
United States. The team was able to incorporate a
mix of sustainable, efficient, and productivity enhancing
systems into the project. According to Mithûn
principal Ronald van der Veen, AIA, the Euro-style
units were designed to be ultra-efficient, needing
little more than a light bulb and a computer to heat
them in all but the coldest weather.
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Free Passes to Greenbuild Expo in Portland!
 Interface
Engineering shows its "green" side at the
US Green Building Council's annual Greenbuild international
conference and expo in November, at the Oregon Convention
Center. Please visit us at Exhibit Booth #991 for your
free biodegradable golf tees on November 9-12 during
exhibit hours. Further information on the conference
and exhibits can be found at www.greenbuildexpo.org.
If you'd like a free pass to the expo (worth up to $300!),
please contact us
right. First come, first served on the free passes!
(Associate Principal Jerry Yudelson is serving as chair
of the Greenbuild conference this year).
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No Trash Talk, Please!
 As another way to improve its "sustainability profile," Interface Engineering has done away with trash cans at each workstation. What employees see under the desk is only a cardboard recycling box; trash cans are strategically located for non-recyclables, but employees have to walk down the hall to use them. "This helps send a message that we are serious about recycling aluminum cans, plastic bottles, cardboard and paper," said president Omid Nabipoor.
"We learned this from a couple of our sustainability minded clients, and we've implemented it ourselves with success." Interface has found that besides increasing our recycling rates, we have reduced waste such as plastic trash can liners used by our janitorial service. We worked in concert with the City of Portland Office of Sustainable Development and our hauler to assure that our building and janitorial services help us to meet our recycling goals.
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Is There a Doctor in the House?
 Now,
there are two new doctors at Interface. First, we are
pleased to welcome our new lighting team director, Zhonghu
Li, PhD, LC, who comes to us with more than 20 years
experience in lighting design, especially computer modeling
of realistic lighting situations. Dr. Li received his
PhD from the architecture program at Carnegie Mellon
University. Contact us.
Secondly, heading the fire protection/life safety
team is Dee Wong, PhD, FPE, a nationally recognized
expert on fire protection, with nearly two decades
of experience in computer modeling of fire and smoke
spread and control. Dr. Wong heads a newly revamped
four-person fire/life safety group that provides system
design, code consulting and forensics services. He
received his PhD at the University of Tennessee in
Engineering Science & Mechanics. Contact
us. Our expert services teams exist to help our
clients solve more difficult design and permitting
issues, and to add value beyond the normal mechanical
and electrical design.
Read an overview of our lighting design services...
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Defining the Value of Technology Consultant
Associate Principal Chrissy Olsen traveled to
Florida in September to speak before the Systimax Global
conference in Florida, addressing the value that can
be added by technology designers.
Our basic story is that by specifying a technology
system completely, we can get hard bids from contractors,
lower total project costs and create more predictable
results for IT departments in new or remodeled spaces.
Lower bids occur if the designers make it easier for
contractors to know exactly what systems are required
by a project. For technology design questions, contact
us.
Please click here to download Chrissy Olsen's presentation (PDF 550KB)...
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Whither Green Buildings?
Sustainability Director Jerry Yudelson recently published estimates for the future of the green building market, predicting more than a tripling of annual LEED™ project registrations by the end of 2007. The article can be found on Portland's Daily Journal of Commerce web site (see link, below). A longer version of this article will be published in the November issue of The Construction Specifier, a national magazine (www.constructionspecifier.com).
Please click here to read the current version of the article on djc-or.com...
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