VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 SPRING 2013 A SELLEN PUBLICATION
I am quality. I am safety. I am partnership. I am community.
I am Sellen.
Building community.
COVER IMAGE: Inside John Grade’s sculpture, Wawona, featured at the newly completed Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI) at Lake Union, Seattle.
Contents FEATURES
06 06 08 15
The Reinvention of First Hill A unique solution brings The Polyclinic a new home Solving the Turnover Puzzle Developing a more efficient transition to occupancy
DEPARTMENTS
02 04 10 12 15 16
Letter from Bob McCleskey Welcome to the first issue of Craft Noteworthy A round-up of project and company updates Meet the Expert Rich Olender, Sellen Superintendent Project Pictorial Inside MOHAI’s new home Client Spotlight Seattle Children’s designs a leaner ED process Building Community The future house of the future
/////////////////// welcome
Letter from
Bob McCleskey Welcome to the first issue of Craft, Sellen’s new magazine focused on partnerships, innovation, community and construction in the Pacific Northwest. At Sellen, we believe that building is a craft. Every day our laborers, carpenters, finishers, iron workers and operators craft the skyline with years of honed talent and skill. Each project we deliver is a testament to quality workmanship, pride in a job well done and old-fashioned hard work. Craft – we can’t think of a more fitting name for our new magazine. In this inaugural issue, we celebrate our deep client partnerships – partnerships founded in a common goal to create significant places. Places where patients heal and cures are found. Places that inspire and excite. Places that revel in history while looking toward the future. Inside, we take a look at the ever-evolving construction industry by examining innovative developments and the spirit of building at Sellen. We look at how new technologies and a partnership with the University of Washington are helping pave the way for a faster, more efficient transition to occupancy for owners. We interview key partners involved with the development of The Polyclinic’s new home – a unique project that brought life to an empty First Hill building. We say goodbye to a Sellen superintendent who has dedicated 33 years of his life to improving this company and building successful projects for our partners. This is just the starting point. We look forward to delivering dynamic and insightful construction industry information in future issues.
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 SPRING 2013
PUBLISHER Sellen Construction sellenmarketing@sellen.com EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Erin Hobson PRODUCTION Loretta Grande MANAGING EDITOR Amanda Schank CONTRIBUTORS / WRITERS Timothy Flynn Terri Scheumann Connor Davis WITH THANKS TO The Polyclinic Seattle Children’s Hospital Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI) University of Washington Habitat for Humanity Seattle-King County Bonewitz LLC CollinsWoerman HAL Real Estate Mithun SELLEN CONSTRUCTION 227 Westlake Avenue North Seattle, WA 98109 T: 206.682.7770 www.sellen.com www.sellensustainability.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bob McCleskey Chief Executive Officer Sellen Construction
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PAPER INFORMATION 100% Post Consumer Waste Recycled FSC Certified Green Seal Certified Green-e (Certified Renewable Energy) Acid Free Processed Chlorine Free
Where business begins.
Where art inspires. SAM OLYMPIC SCULPTURE PARK
UW FOSTER SCHOOL OF BUSINESS, PACCAR HALL
Where children heal. SEATTLE CHILDREN’S BELLEVUE CLINIC
Where cures happen.
Where all lives have equal value.
UW MEDICINE, SOUTH LAKE UNION PHASE 2
BILL & MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION CAMPUS
Where energy is saved. FEDERAL CENTER SOUTH REDEVELOPMENT
Why it matters. At Sellen, we’ve been building community for nearly 70 years. We have developed deep partnerships with the Northwest’s leading companies and built some of the most exciting and technically challenging projects in the region. Yet to us, it’s not the projects that are important. What matters more is what happens inside those facilities – places where our children heal, where research discoveries are made, where art inspires, and where business begins. Visit Sellen’s new website to learn more about why it matters.
www.sellen.com
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In brief: Updates & milestones A double topping out in Tacoma
Iconic fountain turned 50 When Seattle celebrated the Next 50 last year – a summer of festivities in honor of the 1962 World’s Fair – Sellen also celebrated our part in building one of the fair’s most beloved structures: the International Fountain. Two Japanese architects won the chance to design it through an international competition, and Sellen was hired as the general contractor. The fountain originally featured a 32-foot-diameter centerpiece created in the design of an open sunflower with seed-like nozzles that shot torrents of water up to 150 feet in the air. Underground machinery controlled the 117, 3-inch jets that sprayed water in colored lighting patterns set to carillon music. The spouting centerpiece was remodeled in 1995 to be more visitor-friendly with a smooth silver dome.
The fountain has long served as a favorite gathering place. In fact, the final moments of the World’s Fair were commemorated by the sounds of a lone bagpiper playing softly aside the fountain. 4
craft magazine
Sellen has been hard at work at the MultiCare healthcare campus in Tacoma, adding two floors of pediatric rooms on top of the existing five floors at Milgard Pavilion, as well as remodeling the seven-floor Rainier Pavilion. HDR is the architect behind both projects. Milgard topped out on July 9, 2012, and is on track to finish in April 2013. The building is occupied, and crews have worked under stringent safety, infection control, and noise and dust mitigation protocols. Rainier topped out more recently on Jan. 14 and is scheduled to end in November 2013. It will house labor and delivery facilities, general medical units and private neonatal intensive care units. Other healthcare projects in the South Sound area that Sellen recently completed or is currently building include MultiCare’s Medical Park and Emergency Department in Covington; as well as a Medical Office Building in Bonney Lake and multiple renovations, remodels and upgrades for Franciscan Health System.
Open for business Sellen and the University of Washington have had a partnership that dates back to 1957 spanning to the recent completion of the second phase of the Foster School of Business, Dempsey Hall, pictured at right. Its construction involved the complete replacement of the long-standing Balmer Hall. The 75,000-square-foot Dempsey Hall is headquarters for the dean’s office, the MBA and undergraduate offices and career centers, and the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, as well as classrooms and numerous break-out rooms. Dempsey Hall ties directly into the adjacent Paccar Hall, the Bank of America Executive Center and Foster Library via an enclosed bridge and an open-air bridge. Sellen worked carefully to ensure no disruptions to the existing power and utilities. The project exceeded its initial LEED Silver goal to achieve LEED Gold. It opened to students in the fall of 2012.
“We have been hosting a lot more national conferences as a result of our new buildings, and we show off the new buildings as part of our badge of honor.” - Wendy Berry, Assistant to the Deans at UW Foster School of Business
Breaking ground to build it back up On Jan. 2, Sellen, Seneca Group, NBBJ Architects and Coughlin Porter Lundeen kicked off construction of Amazon’s Block 14 project by breaking ground at the intersection of 7th Avenue and Blanchard Street to begin underground utility relocations. Block 14 – named because the completed project will encompass the entirety of downtown Seattle’s block 14 – will be a 37-story office tower with a six-story meeting center and six stories of underground parking. It is the first of several office buildings that Amazon is planning on building in Seattle’s Denny Triangle area as part of its campus expansion. In June, Sellen will begin excavation and pile installation for Block 14.
BELOW: Dempsey Hall, the second phase of the UW’s School of Business
Innovating with SpeedPunch Near the end of a project, the punch list – a document that organizes all the tasks necessary for completion of a project – can often be a long and arduous process. But punch list inefficiencies may be a thing of the past, as Sellen continues to innovate and collaborate with the developer of a new smartphone/tablet application. SpeedPunch provides contractors, architects, owners, project managers and subcontractors with a universal punch list management platform that can be accessed on portable devices. Since early 2012, Sellen has used SpeedPunch on multiple projects. It allows teams to manage punch list items and more recently has been used by site-safety coordinators to identify safety concerns accurately and efficiently. On previous projects, it has yielded a nearly 70 percent time savings in the punch list phase when compared to using the traditional punch list method. Since Sellen began using the application, Sellen project engineers have collaborated with the developer to improve functionality and increase the already significant time savings. The most recent releases of the application have already incorporated positive changes recommended by Sellen, and it continues to improve. As use of SpeedPunch on Sellen projects continues, project engineers and foremen continue to expand their wish list of items and improvements.
Building the Wall of Hope The new 23,600-square-foot Swedish True Family Women’s Cancer Center, located on Swedish’s First Hill campus, opened to patients in May 2012. The center consolidates Swedish’s women’s cancer treatments into a single facility, creating a space that is capable of providing care coordination for numerous types of women’s cancer. The center was made possible entirely through philanthropic giving. More than 2,500 gifts were made in support of the center, exceeding its $10 million goal. This included a significant gift from Sellen and the naming opportunity for the Sellen Construction Education Center. The Education Center within the True Center empowers patients by providing brochures, books and Internet resources. An important part of the new space is the Wall of Hope (pictured). The Wall of Hope is constructed of commemorative wood tiles that carry inscriptions from donors that honor friends and families affected by cancer.
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The reinvention of First Hill Innovative solutions and a web of partner firms bring new life to Seattle’s corner of 7th and Madison in little more than a year. BY: AMANDA SCHANK
T
he building sat empty for two years. With its prominent façade rising above downtown, it was begging to become a gateway for something. Every builder, developer and designer in Seattle knew about it, but no one knew who would fill it. The Polyclinic knew who could, however. Finding itself with a growing healthcare group and a desire to consolidate, The Polyclinic needed a quick, effective and feasible real estate solution. The healthcare group pulled together a multi-faceted partnership structure of real estate, design and construction entities, and, as The Polyclinic’s Director of Facilities and Support Services Randal Brand would later say, the “seemingly impossible became possible.”
A Unique Real Estate Solution is Realized
A 95-year-old institution, The Polyclinic is a physician-owned, patient-focused healthcare group with nearly 200 providers. As the group grew it expanded geographically, eventually serving patients from 11 locations within Seattle’s First Hill neighborhood alone with more throughout the city. For years the organization had been working on a consolidation strategy and a quick solution was needed. A developer, Opus Northwest, began building the 205,000-squarefoot facility located on the corner of Madison Street and 7th Avenue in a healthy economy and completed it in 2009 in the midst of a recession. The Polyclinic took an initial interest in the building when Opus owned it, liking its size and location, but was dissuaded due to its lack of parking, Brand said. The organization explored other options, which included working with Sellen to analyze the feasibility of building a 130,000-square-foot facility in First Hill. But when Opus returned the Madison property to the bank to head off foreclosure in the fall of 2010, it came back into the picture.
The Polyclinic worked with Heartland, its real estate consultant, to approach multiple developers with an unusual, yet feasible, agreement: The Polyclinic would lease the entire building from the successful bidder, but only if certain contingencies were met. The most important being The Polyclinic needed approval from the City of Seattle to change the property’s type of use from office to medical; and the team needed to secure a long-term lease for the block directly south of the property to be used for parking. Heartland and The Polyclinic identified HAL Real Estate Investments as the best developer option. To approach HAL with the offer, Heartland involved the Urban Renaissance Group who orchestrated the deal and developed an effective partnership structure among the four firms. HAL President Dana Behar said the deal initially “seemed improbable.” “We were surprised,” Behar said. “It was a daring move for The Polyclinic to make a commitment of that size.” The Madison property went out to bid in October 2010. In November, HAL purchased it and within only 50 days the contingent lease was signed.
“You really have to recognize Sellen’s commitment to the partnering aspect of the project. The subcontractors had ownership and commitment to the project, and you could see that in the quality of the finished work.” - Randal Brand Director of Facilities and Support Services, The Polyclinic
Fulfilling Contingencies
With The Polyclinic’s leases on its other properties coming to an end and a solution in hand, spring of 2012 became the goal for occupancy. This left little more than a year for the team to fulfill the contingencies, design and construct a tenant improvement and parking garage, and move 129 providers. In addition, as a physicianowned organization, everything needed the approval of all 180 physicians, who were represented by a group of 20. “We were absolutely pulling for The Polyclinic and Heartland, though we still thought it was a tall order to accomplish in a small amount of time,” Behar said. “We are pleasantly surprised they were able to do it.” While the real estate deal was ongoing, The Polyclinic also began a qualifications-based process to bring on a designer and contractor. In November 2010, Sellen was brought on-board as the general contractor. Mithun, who had provided The Polyclinic with feasibility studies, was to design the parking garage and a new entry, and CollinsWoerman was to design the medical scope. Bonewitz LLC came on-board to represent The Polyclinic. In the three-month period following the lease signing, the team was able to secure the future parking lot property to the south of the building. The Polyclinic and Mithun began working with the City of Seattle to change the type of use and obtain Master Use Permits (MUP) for the properties. Sellen provided the team with preliminary cost feedback, allowing them to reach constructible design solutions with minimal changes. The MUP was achieved by its deadline at the end of June, and Brand said the City of Seattle really worked as a partner to help them meet that deadline with success.
Working with an A-Team
At this point, the spring 2012 deadline was less than a year away. Major design had been ongoing since March, and the team was slated to begin construction in August, allowing for a maximum construction duration of 10 months. With the tight schedule there was little room for uncertainty. “Mutual respect and trust seemed to be the mindset from the get-go,” said Sellen President Scott Redman. “This was a group of partners who really
valued what the other person brought to the table. There was no weak link on the team.” The Polyclinic’s Chief Operating Officer Anita Geving agreed. “The talent pool was phenomenal,” she said. “Everybody really had to have their A-game on in order to get this done, and I think we got that.” Strategies the team implemented to shorten the schedule while maintaining quality included prefabrication, physical and virtual mock-ups, and an electronic punch list application. The project was not without its challenges. The team had to manage unexpected contaminated soils on the parking garage site and structurally remove major elements of the building to add escalators – all without impacting the schedule.
“When you assemble the right talent who are all aligned, are trying to accomplish the same thing and have a clear goal in mind, anything is possible.” - Anita Geving COO, The Polyclinic
“Every day was a new adventure,” said Sellen Senior Project Manager Dave Scalzo. “I was really pleased to see everyone work together and find the solutions.”
The Impossible Becomes Possible
The Polyclinic’s bold move and the team’s hard work paid off. Sellen worked with the City of Seattle to achieve a Temporary Certificate of Occupancy by floor, allowing physicians to move in and open for business in March 2012 while work was still ongoing. Sellen completed all construction by May 2012. With the help of 180 physician providers, 60 prime subcontractors, three real estate/development entities, two designers, a contractor, and an owner’s representative, The Polyclinic team had driven a nine-story tenant improvement and adjacent parking garage from an unconventional concept to a reality in just 18 months. “When you assemble the right talent who are all aligned, are trying to accomplish the same thing and have a clear goal in mind, anything is possible,” Geving said. “This really was ‘it takes a village.’ It was a phenomenal success, and we couldn’t have asked for a better outcome.” ■
18 months
TIME FROM BUILDING PURCHASE TO OCCUPANCY
235 days
OF CONSTRUCTION
191,000 SF
OF TENANT IMPROVEMENT
400
PARKING STALLS
$30.8 million
AMOUNT HAL PURCHASED THE BUILDING FOR, AT APPROXIMATELY 48 PERCENT OF ACTUAL DEVELOPMENT COSTS
$104,545
OF PROJECT SAVINGS FROM PREFABRICATING 721 DOORS
180
PHYSICIANS IN THE MADISON CENTER OPPOSITE PAGE: The existing façade, originally built in 2009. THIS PAGE: The Polyclinic’s new lobby.
craft magazine 7
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Solving the turnover puzzle How the UW is leveraging information collected during design and construction to optimize the transition to occupancy. BY: TIMOTHY FLYNN
T
he past several decades have brought rapid technological innovations and significant advancements in nearly every industry – and construction is no exception. For construction, the epicenter of these technologies lies in Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) and document digitization, which have been game changers in the way projects are delivered. They have helped firms increase productivity, reduce risk, shorten schedules, lessen costs and enhance collaboration. “Today’s buildings are complicated and complex,” said Eric Smith, director of Major Capital Projects at University of Washington (UW) and strong proponent of VDC and Building Information Modeling (BIM). “I can’t imagine building some of them without BIM; I don’t know how they would ever get done.” These VDC tools are transforming not only the way we construct a building but also the way facility representatives manage and maintain a building.
Transition to Occupancy
Upon a project’s completion, facilities management teams receive a wealth of operations and maintenance (O&M) information needed to properly maintain the building. Disconnected from the design and construction, they must digest the data, determine if it’s complete, collect missing information and reenter it into their facility management database. This lengthy process misses the opportunity for preventative maintenance and fails to efficiently take advantage of the information already collected throughout design and construction. Dr. Carrie Sturts Dossick, a researcher and UW professor in the Construction Management department, has been researching facility turnover processes MIN. SEC. with an aim to improve them. According to Dossick’s research team, collecting information and inputting it into UW’s computerized maintenance management system can take up to two years after a building is completed.
WARRANTY IMPORTANT INFORMATION Cea delluptatur, venderes doloris sae pel ipid magnati sint omnimus ciatios min est quae dollumquis volorerum nos coribus, ut abore, sitias cor rectem velenihil et ea ius, sinvelibus ilitas nis sequam qui conseque volor alitasi tiisintis quas et labo. Nem re coribus dolore am everciis et ut volorem. Beatemporis et et fugiam venimpelita dolest apiet aditio mint quia quid ut excerum fugit quiaspit qui consequiae non Ressinctus eos sit deniam imillaut earum duntem ius eturem ipsa isquamusanis volenimus cum et eaquam volor a cullabore cullore sciendam, ut harum fugit aut velitat audipsa picienet, nobitios diti nonem nobis esendel laccum am audi denditi sit aut quam hit pori dis is et reriae praerferum sum quo omnimet doluptas dolores eum erum, omniet laccatum re vel ide voluptaquid minis por sequi te nature, ullab ipissum ut undunt, suntibusci dolorem vellenihil ilici nonsedit est odit prates etur modit rerunt, od magname corporepudae arit, simus ut eossi quia. Ressinctus eos sit deniam imillaut earum duntem ius eturem ipsa isquamusanis volenimus cum et eaquam volor a cullabore cullore sciendam, ut harum fugit aut velitat audipsa picienet, nobitios diti nonem nobis esendel laccum am audi denditi sit aut quam hit pori dis is et reriae praerferum sum quo omnimet doluptas dolores eum erum, omniet laccatum re vel ide voluptaquid minis por sequi te nature, ullab ipissum ut undunt, suntibusci dolorem vellenihil ilici nonsedit est odit prates etur modit rerunt, od magname corporepudae arit, simus ut eossi quia. Cea delluptatur, venderes doloris sae pel ipid magnati sint omnimus ciatios min quae dollumquis volorerum nos coribus, ut abore, sitias cor rectem velenihil ius, sinvelibus ilitas nis sequam qui conseque volor alitasi tiisintis quas
MIN. SEC.
MIN. SEC. MIN. SEC.
MIN. SEC.
The Current Practice:
O&M MANUAL MIN. SEC.
=
O&M MANUAL
Transition to Occupancy Upon project completion, facilities managers receive operations and maintenance (O&M) manuals containing detailed information regarding the building’s maintenance objects and systems.
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The Discovery Process Begins Facilities managers begin entering the information into their database and discover what information they still need to collect to properly maintain the building.
Collecting Further Information Facilities managers physically visit the building for an active O&M discovery process to track O&M MANUAL O&M MANUAL down theMANUAL information they were unable to obtain from the O&M manuals.
Updating the Database Facilities managers reenter the information collected in the field into their computerized facilities management database. O&M MANUAL
Information Gap At the UW, this process of information discovery and reentry can often take up to two years to complete. Research has found that the final information only represents approximately 70 percent of the information available.
For institutions like the University of Washington, which supports more than 50,000 people in 200 buildings and 22 million gross square feet, the potential to increase the efficiency of the hand-off between the construction team and facilities representatives is groundbreaking. Their research also found that the facilities teams only capture approximately 70 percent of the information available. This information gap not only captured the attention of the UW but also the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, leading the Corps to develop a Construction Operations Building information exchange program, commonly referred to as COBie. COBie provides standardized O&M content specifications, as well as how and when to capture the information. The data exchange standard simplifies the process of capturing vital O&M information for the owner by continuously collecting the data created during design, construction and commissioning in a single location. For large institutions like the UW, which supports more than 50,000 people in 200 buildings and 22 million gross square feet, the potential to increase the efficiency of the hand-off between the construction team and facilities representatives is groundbreaking.
A New Idea
In 2011, Smith approached Sellen, the general contractor and construction manager of UW’s Dempsey Hall, with the idea of using COBie framework for O&M information. Smith had learned of a pilot project being conducted by the Construction Owners Association of America, and Dempsey Hall was selected as a participant. “We already have a culture at the University used to thinking about innovation and enhancing collaboration around the campus,” Smith said. “This has been an excellent opportunity to explore that a little further and integrate some of the other work going on at the University.” The project was in the middle of construction, which presented both a challenge and opportunity for the team. “The UW believed that having the project already under construction would strengthen the involvement and commitment from the facilities staff,” Sellen’s VDC Director Graham Condit said. Dossick’s research team was vital to this process.
Fueled by Research
“Location-based hierarchy is already established in Revit, and because the understanding of space is a critical component of COBie and facilities management, using the Revit model to collect O&M information not only seemed efficient, it provided an added value to the UW,” Condit said. The Revit model was adjusted to include information for each of the maintenance objects, specified by the UW and Dossick’s research, and broken down by system and floor.
Dossick and her team of Ph.D. and graduate students began collecting facilities knowledge through surveys and interviews with facilities representatives. With this information, the research team became the voice of the facilities personnel for Dempsey Hall’s COBie implementation. Their research informed the construction team about what information should be collected and in what format. The findings also revealed that facilities representatives were interested in applying the sophisticated BIM used in construction toward facilities management. “BIM introduces the opportunity to get the information right up front,” Dossick said. “Not only to get the information, but get even more of it.”
The Future of COBie
The end result was a Revit O&M model that included more than 1,100 objects within Dempsey Hall. Efforts were focused on tracking larger maintenance items and life safety components. This new approach, termed BIM for Facilities Management, is focused on creating 3D models that provide value for the owner post-construction while optimizing the building’s performance immediately upon turnover. UW is planning to use COBie on the upcoming renovation of Fluke Hall. Fluke Hall is in early design, and UW, Sellen and the architect have begun planning for the integration of COBie requirements and maintenance objects into the construction documents. Smith hopes to use the Fluke Hall project to help make COBie a programmatic and organizationally based approach to the way all projects are delivered in the future. ■
The O&M 3D Model
By leveraging the findings of Dossick and her team, and evaluating the criteria in UW’s computerized maintenance system, Sellen developed shared parameters to be captured in a 3D Revit model. With the specified COBie exchange standard, this MIN. SEC. information could later be exported from the model and imported into UW databases. The spatial and geographical information would be integrated into the UW mapping database and the data pertaining to maintenance objects would be absorbed into the computerized maintenance system.
MIN. SEC.
MIN. SEC.
The COBie Pilot Project: The COBie framework helps eliminate the postoccupancy discovery process by determining what information is most meaningful to the facility representatives prior to turnover and standardizing it. Determining this information early in the project allows owners to leverage the data collected during design and construction to optimize the building’s turnover.
O&M MANUAL
O&M MANUAL
Setting Parameters Facilities managers and the construction team liaise during the design phase to determine the most important maintenance information to collect and in what format it should be collected.
Location-Based Hierarchy In addition to O&M manuals, COBie provides data that uses a location-based O&M hierarchy MANUAL to standardize turnover information to the facilities manager.
=
Information Import Upon project completion, the maintenance information collected during construction and the 3D Revit model is provided to the owner and the data is integrated directly into their existing facilities management software.
Instant Information With the instant import, accurate and complete maintenance information is available immediately at the time of turnover, eliminating the need for manual reentry and reducing the discovery process in the new building.
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/////////////////// meet the expert
Rich Olender Superintendent
Rich Olender has been a dedicated Sellen superintendent for more than 33 years. We sat down with him at the conclusion of his career to talk about his fondest memories, favorite projects and some words of wisdom for the next generation of Sellen field teams. BY: ERIN HOBSON PHOTOGRAPHY: LORETTA GRANDE
A
s I start my interview with Rich, “Smoke on the Water” blares over the loud speakers during a fire and life safety test at the nearly completed Federal Center South design-build project, the swan song of his 33-plus year career with Sellen. “The fire marshal is an old rocker,” he explains. “We’ve had some good music playing down here: Clapton, Doors, Creedence…” It’s easy to picture Rich at the beginning of his career with youthful eyes and shoulder-length hair pulled back into a ponytail. He began his career in construction during high school working summer jobs in upstate New York. While attending college to pursue an electrical engineering degree, he was promised an entry-level job in the calibration lab at National Cash Register. They were in research
and development to create the first PC-based cash register and didn’t have the funds for his postion. After running out of patience and money, Rich took a job as a carpenter and has worked in construction ever since. He may have lost the ponytail, but not his interest in technology or love of classic rock. In 1979, he was working for Bread Loaf Construction in Vermont. Newly married, he and his bride, Laura, took an extended vacation to the West Coast and looked up an aunt and uncle living near Seattle.
“The (people) who spend careers at Sellen turn into the best in the industry. I’ve seen the growth of really incredible talent.”
They happened to live next door to Art Nilson, a Sellen superintendent. Art toured him around Sellen’s Providence Heart Clinic project on Capitol Hill. Soon after, Rich signed up with the local carpenters union and came to work at Sellen.
Why Sellen?
“The reason I have stayed with Sellen is the people. Truly. I have always worked for people who have given me the autonomy and trust to get my job done. I’ve also formed lifelong bonds with the folks I work with. Tenny Stenerodden (general foreman) and I have worked together for 32 of my 33 years. Our kids are like cousins.”
Career Highlights
“Having Federal Center South as my last full-time job is pretty cool. It’s such a neat project and there were so many rewarding challenges. Looking back, I have to say I’m most proud of finishing all of my projects on time. I’ve completed 31 projects through final inspections. I’ve worked on all kinds of projects – it’s always been interesting!”
Then and Now
“I’ve always gravitated to technology. In the early days, we worked with pencils, carbon paper and a land-line phone. I started making schedules on a TRS 80 using x’s! The sophistication available now in the office and in the field is really remarkable.” ■ 10 craft magazine
Q&A Rewarding Moments...
“Working on the WaMu/Seattle Art Museum Tower was an exercise on how fast we can do things. We really had to analyze every inch of that building, and we came up with a lot of new ideas to increase efficiencies.”
On Tenny...
“He is a calming force for me. After 30-plus years working together, things don’t even need to be said. They’re just understood. I’m not sure how we’re going to live without each other!”
Parting Words...
“Embrace technology to help build bigger, better, faster and stronger, but keep the human touch. We’re really in the people business. I manage people all day – personal rapport and respect is important.”
What’s Next...
“My goal is to get 100 days of skiing in this winter. I’m also going to try to finish building the airplane in my garage and will be helping out a friend flying a local commuter plane.”
“There are many things Sellen can control on every project. These are the things our clients and subcontractor partners have come to depend on, and safety is at the top of that list.” - MIKE “SPANKY” THOMASON, CARPENTER FOREMAN
I am safety. At Sellen, we recognize that policies don’t ensure a safe work environment – people do. Our focus is on the human side of safety. We’ve worked hard to spread the message among our employees and subcontractors that safety is first in all we do. Every Sellen employee is empowered to take action to ensure that accidents do not happen. See something, say something.
Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI) Location: Lake Union, Seattle, WA Square Footage: 50,000 Architect: LMN Architects
Opened for Business: Dec. 29, 2012 Type of Project: Historical Renovation LEEDÂŽ Rating: Platinum
Originally completed in 1942, the beautifully restored Lake Union Armory provides MOHAI with nearly 10,000 square feet of new exhibit space. MOHAI estimates the annual attendance will be more than 100,000 in 2013, nearly a 70 percent increase from its old location near Montlake. As construction on the project began, MOHAI identified its most important goals, which included meeting the federal historic building rehabilitation requirements and maximizing the sustainability features of the building. The project team preserved many of the original elements on the renovation
of the 1940s naval armory, including the original hardwood floors. Sellen went to extreme lengths to see that the quality of the flooring was monitored and protected throughout the project. Nearing completion, the temporary protective flooring was removed, and the original flooring was refinished to optimal quality. Though it originally targeted LEED Silver, the project team pulled together to achieve a LEED Platinum rating. MOHAI is the first LEED Platinum museum in Seattle and one of only a handful of LEED Platinum museums in the country.
CLOCKWISE, FROM TOP LEFT: MOHAI’s exterior; a MOHAI exhibit looking out onto the main gallery space; a view of Lake Union from an exhibit; the main gallery. 12 craft magazine
project pictorial //////////////
1937 -1942
CONSTRUCTION DURATION OF NAVAL RESERVE ARMORY
1942-1945
SERVED AS A NAVAL TRAINING SCHOOL DURING WORLD WAR II
20,000 +
PEOPLE ATTENDED MOHAI’S GRAND OPENING EVENTS
4 million +
HISTORICAL ARTIFACTS IN MOHAI’S COLLECTION
“We are excited to be in our new, historic location on Lake Union. The armory is a testament to Seattle’s past, and there is no better place to showcase its history – and to explore who we are as a community today. In the first month since our opening we have seen more than 30,000 visitors come through the doors to discover more about Seattle, and we know that number will continue to grow.” - Leonard Garfield, Executive Director, Museum of History & Industry
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ligh Spotn... o
MOHAI artist: John Grade For an artist known to cherish the destruction of his art as much as the creation, it should be no surprise that parts of John Grade’s new sculpture at MOHAI have been left unprotected to be transformed by the elements of the Pacific Northwest. Composed entirely of centuryold Douglas-fir salvaged from the sailing ship Wawona, launched in 1897, Grade’s sculpture, also named Wawona, is almost 64 feet high. It scales from below the building in Lake Union itself through an opening in the floor to continue through another opening in the roof. Wawona is meant to be interactive, whereby visitors can walk in it, as well as push and pull it, to watch as it sways like a boat on the water. Grade intended to replicate the hull of a ship or the interior of a hollowed-out old-growth tree. The 64-foot sculpture weighs nearly 11,000 pounds, contains 250 wooden panels and required 10,000 working hours to complete. It recently received a national Wood Design Award for wood design engineering. While preparing the museum for the sculpture, Sellen integrated the artist into planning sessions early in the process, working with Grade on his drawings and meticulously measuring the elaborate structural work and support connections necessary for the sculpture’s installation.
The 64-foot sculpture weighs nearly 11,000 pounds, contains 250 wooden panels and required 10,000 working hours to complete. 14 craft magazine
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ED designed to support process Craft sits down with Dr. Russ Migita, Seattle Children’s clinical director of emergency services, to learn how Children’s used lean techniques to optimize care in its new emergency department. BY: ERIN HOBSON PHOTOGRAPHY: LORETTA GRANDE
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eattle Children’s Hospital is seeing rapid growth; patient visits have climbed 33 percent between 2005 and 2010. With a need for new space, Children’s, Sellen and ZGF Architects have been building a 325,000-square-foot expansion at its main Seattle campus, which includes a new Emergency Department (ED) set to open in April 2013. Directed by a commitment to providing the best care and presented with an opportunity to design a new space, Children’s took a unique journey using lean techniques to develop ED processes that maximize value for patients while eliminating waste.
Designing the Process
The ED process at Children’s is guided by two principles: don’t make patients wait and maximize visibility. “It’s about finding a balance between visibility and accessibility,” said Dr. Russ Migita, clinical director of emergency services at Children’s. “The family should know what’s going on and who is handling their care with immediate access to them.” Children’s lean journey began approximately eight years ago and has been through three rounds of revisions, all resulting in a more mature understanding of the process that allowed the Children’s team to inform facility design. The team asked itself one question: What does ideal care – without compromising safety or quality – look like? The team was challenged to design this not once, but seven times. This iterative process helped push validation and test implementation. A keystone of the new process was ensuring the right staff was available
at the right times. The team could estimate the average number of arrivals, but there is no “average” day in an ED. They realized that decision making was a major constraint; the doctor was the bottleneck. By standardizing processes, staff would be able to move forward without having to wait. The decision maker would still be available for critical decision making, but the entire ED team could work as an extension of the prime decision maker.
Designing the Facility
Once the process had been ironed out, Children’s invited not only administrators but also line workers, security, nurses, physicians and families to take part in testing design concepts. The team built a life-sized version of the space with cardboard and ran mock treatments while measuring travel distances. Believing all should get their hands dirty, everyone was asked to cut cardboard and move the walls, instilling a sense of ownership and investment. “We received so much valuable feedback,” Migita said. “We also had family members there to bring us back to what’s important.” The team pushed hard with the patients’ and families’ voices being the loudest. The new space can serve low or high acuity care and support a variety of team models. It encourages maximum visibility by eliminating long hallways and opening staff spaces. Migita said the new ED facility is only one step along Children’s lean journey. “Our goal is to keep things safe, but learn and change as we go,” he said. “Our ideal state is one where patients never wait and know exactly what is going on with their child’s care.” ■
Vision for the new ED • Better flow; shorter wait times • A safer environment with better teamwork • Family members able to stay with their loved ones • Faster access to medical support services • Attracting and retaining talent • A facility that supports an ideal model • Ready for disasters, emergencies and pandemics To help families maintain some of the rhythms of daily life during their child’s hospitalization, Children’s new building will feature lounges on Floors 6, 7 and 8 that will include kitchen facilities, food storage, seating for several people and computers. Surroundings that support the day-to-day activities of family life – such as staying connected to friends and family via computers or preparing a meal – promote the well-being of families.
“My job is to make it so that a provider in the ED only needs to concentrate on the care of the family and the patient – no one has to multitask. No one can keep a bunch of balls in the air.” - Dr. Russ Migita, Clinical Director of Emergency Services, Seattle Children’s Hospital
FROM TOP: Dr. Migita in Seattle Children’s Hospital’s current Emergency Department; Dr. Migita explains the lean design process Children’s undertook for creating a more efficient emergency room design.
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Back to the future What do the fictional Larson family from the 1962 World’s Fair, the current-day Mohammed family from Rainier Valley and Sellen Construction have in common? We take a trip back to the future to find out. BY: TERRI SCHEUMANN RENDERING: COURTESY OF MILLER|HULL PARTNERSHIP
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he Larsons, a fictional family of five, lived in the House of the Future at the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair Century 21 exhibit, sponsored by General Electric. The home, based on a vision of a future with limitless resources, was designed to show how technology would one day improve living conditions and make life more convenient. The house wowed visitors with its high-tech gadgets and predictions for the future, including an electronic home library and wall-sized televisions. Fast forward 50 years and meet the Mohammeds, a real-life family of five who will live in the “House of the Immediate Future.” This 1,400-square-foot home was originally constructed at the Seattle Center as part of the Next Fifty anniversary celebration of the World’s Fair. The team broke ground on April 22, 2012, and the House opened to the public for viewing on Sept. 1, 2012. Unlike the original House of the Future, which was demolished after the Fair, the 2012 house has a new life. When the Next Fifty celebration ended in October 2012, the four-bedroom house was dismantled. It will be reassembled in 2013 at a new affordable housing development in the Columbia City area, at which time the Mohammeds will take over as homeowners. Habitat for Humanity Seattle/South King County, Sellen, the Miller|Hull Partnership and the Next Fifty joined forces with 20 other volunteer groups to design and build 2012’s answer to the House of the Future. The House doesn’t feature bold predictions as 16 craft magazine
its counterpart did 50 years ago, nor does it have unlimited resources driving its design. The design is focused on today’s housing issues: sustainability and affordability. The home, valued around $215,000, has double-stud insulated walls, reclaimed materials and triple-paned windows. Sellen teamed up with other vendors to help Habitat build the home. “Sellen was a tremendous help in project planning and cutting (of lumber) and the logistics of getting down to the site for us,” said Matt Haight, assistant construction manager at Habitat. In coordination with Habitat’s volunteer assembly crew, Sellen stored and trucked materials to the jobsite, which were then transported in phases. Sellen also donated labor to pre-cut lumber and supplied the field engineering, drafting, labor and machinery to support the panelized wall sections. The walls are fully finished lightweight panels. This works well for Habitat’s future building projects, as the design allows walls to be brought into remote areas using pick-up trucks and can be erected by untrained volunteers. The design also allows homes to be built faster and made weather-tight quickly; the House of the Immediate Future took only five months to build. “This was one of those projects that truly gave us all great feelings of satisfaction,” said Kevin Peterson, Sellen superintendent and volunteer. “Habitat has such a remarkable reputation for the work they have done worldwide. We are proud to be able to help them with this project.” ■
House of the Future 1962 World’s Fair Predictions Versus Reality Prediction
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Reality
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Colored television projected onto large, wall-sized surfaces
Electronic home library
Cities covered by a glass dome
TV telephones that can connect people globally
Push-button electric sinks
Home computer for shopping and check-writing
Up to 92-inch 3D televisions with 3D, HD projectors
E-readers and electronic tablets
So far, these exist only in sci-fi entertainment
Mobile video phones, videoconferencing and webcams
Hands-free sinks with sensors
Cell phones and tablets with these capabilities and more
Information attributed to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer article, “The future isn’t what they thought it would be back in 1962,” dated April 17, 2002.
PHOTO: BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER
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Tim McKey Senior Superintendent Seattle Children’s Hospital, Building Hope: Cancer, Critical and Emergency Care Expansion