The Sage

The Sage, 1261 Crenshaw Road, Eugene

Much to Arbor South Architecture senior principal Dan Hill’s surprise, his firm’s design of The Sage – a sustainable demonstration home for the 2009 Lane County Home Builders Association Tour of Homes – has been a smash hit.(1) One of nineteen homes on the tour, The Sage is the lone example that truly attempts to alter the prevalent American paradigm for the detached, single-family residence.

Arbor South not only designed The Sage, the firm also acted as developer and general contractor (as Arbor South Construction, Inc.) for the speculative project. They sought and (comfortably) secured a LEED/Earth Advantage Platinum rating, making The Sage the first such home in Eugene and the highest-rated LEED Platinum single-family residence in Oregon.(2)

Living Room

As a demonstration project, The Sage pulls out all the stops and carries the price tag to show for it: the proposed sale price of $450,000 buys a modest 1,447 square feet of living space. The list of sustainable design features for The Sage includes:

• Passive solar water heating
• A 2.1 kilowatt photovoltaic system
• A super high-efficiency heat pump
• A heat recovery ventilator
• Double stud walls with sprayed foam insulation
• Low-flow faucets and dual-flush toilets
• Reclaimed lumber flooring and recycled cork floors
• Drought-resistant native plantings
• Landscape irrigation using collected rainwater

However, of all the green strategies pursued by Arbor South, it is its selection of the site for The Sage and the home’s relatively small size that are the most significant. The house is built on a tight, previously developed infill lot, located within short walking distance of basic community resources (public transit, commercial services, churches, and schools are all nearby). The essential modesty (price tag notwithstanding) of The Sage is its principal virtue.

Rainwater is collected for landscape irrigation purposes.

If we’re to wean our culture from its unsustainable penchant for keeping up with the Joneses, we’ll need to redefine what “keeping up” means. Conspicuous consumption and materialism unfortunately remain the benchmarks for many homeowners. This year’s Tour of Homes not only showcases The Sage but also several bloated McMansions greater than 5,000 sq. ft. in area. The biggest of the bunch (7,900 sq. ft.) features four full bathrooms plus four half baths. That’s eight – yes, eight – toilets in one single-family home! The annual Tour of Homes has enormous influence upon the tastes of Lane County home buyers. I’m hopeful that future Tours will feature more projects that, like The Sage, eschew bigness and ostentation. Education is the key.

The 2009 Tour of Homes continues through Sunday, August 2, 2009. If you haven’t already done so, make plans to visit The Sage, located at 1261 Crenshaw Road in Eugene.


(1) Over 1,000 visitors toured the house on Saturday, July 25 alone. In addition, The Register-Guard published a couple of feature articles about The Sage, and Eugene Magazine has likewise extolled the virtues of the project in its summer 2009 issue.

(2) Bill Randall, Arbor South’s other senior principal, produced a series of twenty short YouTube videos about The Sage. Each video offers a brief explanation about the sustainable features of the design. The key lesson conveyed in the series is that we can build any home to be much more sustainable with relatively little effort.

July AIA-SWO Chapter Meeting Recap

Civic Stadium, Eugene: the view from the right field deck, July 23, 2009

We had a fantastic turnout for our annual AIA-SWO picnic shared with the Construction Specifications Institute, the National Association of Women in Construction, the Associated General Contractors, and the American Society of Landscape Architects. This year, the setting was Civic Stadium in Eugene, where sixty-one AIA, CSI, NAWIC, AGC, and ASLA members experienced a wonderful summer evening enjoying America’s pastime, good food, beer on tap, and each other's company. The hometown Eugene Emeralds baseball team hosted its Northwest League rivals, the Boise Hawks.

Alas, the Ems would not win the day, suffering a tough 2-6 loss to Boise. Nevertheless, Civic Stadium provided a nostalgic backdrop for the picnic from the vantage of the right-field deck. A substantial appeal of baseball is the uniqueness of each baseball park, which is as true for the hundreds of minor-league stadiums as it is for the most-storied major league venues. Regardless of its myriad shortcomings (such as inadequate accommodations for the physically disabled) Civic Stadium charmingly evokes a purer, more innocent time when baseball was celebrated for its traditions and values, untainted by today’s outsized egos and salaries, and the rampant use of banned-substances in the major leagues. Sentimentality is baseball’s dominant currency, and with its long history, Civic Stadium has become as much an object for remembrance as the exploits of the many players who have taken to its field since 1938. It currently is the eighth oldest minor league baseball park in the United States.

AIA-SWO, CSI, NAWIC, AGC, and ASLA members soak in the atmosphere at the old ballpark.

The 2009 season may be the last for the Emeralds at Civic Stadium. The word is that the team will relocate to the University of Oregon’s new PK Park in 2010. For many at our July picnic at Civic, it may have been a final opportunity to celebrate the rituals of the game in an irreplaceable structure resonant with its memories.

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Thanks again to our July 2009 program sponsor, Rubenstein’s, the Northwest’s leading source for commercial floor covering.

Rubenstein's has been actively engaged in the commercial floor covering industry for over 40 years. The company is one of the largest independent commercial floor covering dealers in the country. Rubenstein’s is a charter member of the Starnet® Worldwide Commercial Flooring Partnership, a member owned cooperative of the largest group of independent commercial floor covering dealers in the industry with over 160 member firms with 300 locations throughout North America.

D.A.M. Misbehaving

Denver Art Museum "self-destruction" (photo by Richard Bryant, AIA)

The following is a letter written by Corvallis architect Richard Bryant, AIA to Ned Cramer, editor-in-chief of Architect magazine. Dick returned recently from a trip to Denver, where he had the opportunity to visit the new addition to the Denver Art Museum (the Frederic C. Hamilton Building) designed by Studio Daniel Libeskind and Davis Partnership Architects. Completed less than three short years ago, Dick was astonished to find the Hamilton Building already requiring extensive repairs to its exterior envelope.(1) He was previously unaware that the iconic building was so flawed in its execution.

Ned,

After all of the hype in the architectural press, the new Denver Art Museum was high on my priority list of “must see” projects.

Much to my surprise, the building interior and exterior was awash in scaffolding, plastic sheets, construction equipment, water collection devices, and construction “re-workers”. This building has literally been tearing itself apart for several years.

After all of the adulation heaped on this building, it seems only reasonable for responsible architectural journals to also explore the flaws of a building when they appear.

I have always been a believer that the architectural press has one single purpose in life – to inform the profession and the public about architecture. To inform, the architectural press must explore and report on all of the important aspects of a building. Warts often accompany beauty and function. Just covering the design and ribbon-cutting ceremony does a disservice to the architectural profession, contractors, and the public.

Just think how helpful it would be if architects, contractors, and future building owners could see what technology and details actually failed on this building. Is this failed building not a prime teaching example that can be effectively used to help instruct students, licensed architects, and contractors alike? I believe the answer is clearly – yes!

Surely you must have a photographer in Denver who could take a few photographs from the sidewalk as the starting point for a report on what has happened to this building since it “opened” to the public and the elements.

Richard Bryant, AIA

The enclosure failures are pervasive (photo by Richard Bryant, AIA)

Why hasn’t news of the D.A.M.’s shortcomings circulated more widely in the architectural press? Shouldn’t the work of an architect who aspires to stardom be subject to more comprehensive scrutiny and analysis? As Ned Cramer himself wrote in 2006, Architect magazine prides itself for portraying architecture “from multiple perspectives, not just as a succession of high-profile projects, glowingly photographed and critiqued, but as a technical and creative process, and as a community.” Dick Bryant’s appeal is precisely consistent with Architect magazine’s editorial stance. Whether the magazine will bring more attention to the failures of prominent projects remains to be seen. Such a perspective has more conspicuously been absent in today’s architectural press.

Sadly for the Denver Art Museum, the legacy of Daniel Libeskind’s gratuitous and tortured geometries(2) may be an endless battle with the Mile High City’s weather.

The Frederic C. Hamilton Building by Studio Daniel Libeskind, pre-scaffolding, tarpaulins, and buckets (photo by Archipreneuer a.k.a. Adam Crain)

(1) According to Dick Bryant, the problems with the Denver Art Museum all seem to be related to the exterior skin: metal wall panels and the roofing system. It was hard for him to tell if the problems were the result of poor construction execution, or design errors, or a combination of both. There did appear to be serious expansion stress problems.

(2) I've never been a fan of Libeskind's work, primarily because he disingenuously rationalizes the use of the same formal language on his prominent projects. In other words, he will cite inspiration from disparate influences peculiar to each project and yet the end result is invariably the same: acutely angled, crystalline forms with linear windows rendered like randomly drawn lines on the exterior surfaces. Why is the aesthetic of the addition to the Denver Art Museum so similar to that of the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto or the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco? The answer: because that's what Libeskind does; it’s his signature look.

Crescent Village

The Inkwell Building, by Rowell Brokaw Architects (my photo)

The July meeting of the Eugene Chapter of the Cascadia Region Green Building Council(1) was a very well-attended tour of Crescent Village, the new urban village rising in northeast Eugene. Crescent Village is being developed and managed by Arlie & Company, with buildings designed by Rowell Brokaw Architects. Mark Young, AIA, LEED AP, and Austin Bailey of Rowell Brokaw, and Mark Miksis of Arlie & Company, led the tour.

A focus of the tour was the recently completed four-story Inkwell office building. The USGBC has certified the Inkwell as LEED Gold for its core and shell. The building features an open loop ground-coupled heat pump, on-site storm water management, water-efficient fixtures and landscaping, daylighting, low-VOC materials, FSC-certified wood products, construction waste management, and operable windows. Arlie & Company’s own offices occupy the top floors of the Inkwell. This space received LEED Platinum certification for commercial interiors. As with the Inkwell’s core and shell, the Arlie office interiors use extensive controls for daylighting and ventilation, and an array of products and finishes made from recycled materials, renewable resources, regionally sourced materials, FSC wood, and low-VOC products. Arlie is encouraging prospective tenants for the remainder of the Inkwell’s spaces to likewise pursue sustainable design strategies and LEED certification.

Arlie & Company's new LEED Platinum office in The Inkwell Building (my photo)

I was impressed by how well Rowell Brokaw’s design for the Arlie & Company office achieved the Platinum rating while also providing its occupants with a stylish and functional workspace. The sustainable strategies employed by the architects have not resulted in design moves that one would immediately associate with an overtly “green” project. The design of Arlie’s office is a mature, sophisticated demonstration of how it is possible to seamlessly and modestly implement ambitious goals for sustainability. Kudos to Arlie & Company for walking the walk by committing to green design, and props to Rowell Brokaw for raising the bar.

Crescent Village Town Center (photo courtesy Rowell Brokaw Architects)

The ongoing design of the Crescent Village development is guided by the principles of New Urbanism. Arlie’s stated goals for the development include:

• Designing a compact, well-planned village that utilizes land and resources efficiently and retains a sense of openness and livability.


• Using fewer and more efficient roads and utilities to preserve open space and conserve resources.


• Mixing housing, commercial, retail, and recreational uses to create a lively, socially diverse community in which residents and employees can take care of many daily activities within walking distance.


• Creating a pedestrian-friendly site design with integrated bus stops and bike racks to reduce reliance on automobiles and promote the use of mass transit, thus reducing traffic congestion and emissions.


• Designing and detailing buildings, streets, and open spaces at the human scale to enhance the pedestrian experience.

Crescent Village model by Rowell Brokaw Architects

Crescent Village is also a showcase for the City of Eugene’s efforts to encourage the development of mixed use centers consistent with its official growth management policy. The regional transportation master plan (TransPlan) identified dozens of potential mixed use centers or “nodes” throughout the Eugene and Springfield metro area, of which Crescent Village is one. The intent is that these centers will mature into quality neighborhoods that enjoy higher densities, a mix of activities, more transportation options, convenient shopping and services, and amenities. The City of Eugene’s 2000 Land Use Code Update included many changes directed at implementing the mixed-use, nodal development concept. It’s the City’s belief that mixed-use centers will reinforce rather than displace existing downtown areas by providing for complementary nodes of concentrated employment and retail activities.

Unfortunately, the City of Eugene’s efforts to revitalize the downtown have yet to bear fruit.(2) The irony of Crescent Village and the other future mixed-use centers is that each step they take toward realization may be further distancing our downtown from fulfilling its role as the civic, economic, cultural, and governmental heart of the city. The most common criticism of New Urbanist developments is that many are greenfield projects built on what was previously open space. This is true for Crescent Village. Its location on the outskirts of the Eugene urban area also begs the question of whether or not this “urban” village is simply another manifestation of sprawl cloaked in fashionable new garb.

Imagine if the skill, acumen, and resources amply on display at Crescent Village could instead have been invested downtown. I'm intrigued by what might occur if a vital mixed-use center of similar scope rose within our city’s core in the form of infill, redevelopment, and reuse of underdeveloped properties. It’s disheartening to realize that the odds have been stacked against our downtown. A complex convergence of adverse circumstances (not the least of which have been past planning missteps) has served for many years as a significant obstacle to a true revitalization of downtown Eugene. Regardless, I am hopeful that as Eugene continues to grow, the diffuse urban fabric will once again gravitate toward the city’s core. When it does, we would be most fortunate to find developments that pay as much attention to design quality, sustainability, and compact planning as Crescent Village.

(1) The American Institute of Architects – Southwestern Oregon Chapter is fortunate to have an ongoing, collaborative relationship with the Eugene branch of the Cascadia Region Green Building Council (CRGBC). The council is one of three original chapters of the U.S. Green Building Council, serving Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and British Columbia (thereby being the only international chapter of the USGBC). The Eugene Branch is very active and effectively fills a niche for AIA architects and associates previously occupied by the AIA-SWO Committee on the Environment. CRGBC Branch meetings are an opportunity to learn and share information about green building and sustainable design, and foster interaction in the design community. Meetings are typically the second Tuesday of each month.

(2) The viability of both the WG Development (Sears pit) and Beam Development (Center Court Building) projects is in question.

A Taste of Wright

Willamette Valley chefs will team up with farmers, wineries, and brewers on August 2, 2009 to present A Taste of Wright, a culinary grazing extravaganza at the Gordon House. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Gordon House is the only residence designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in Oregon and the only Wright building in the Pacific Northwest open to the public. The Gordon House Conservancy oversees the continuing restoration and operation of the house as a public museum opened in March 2002. A Taste of Wright is the major annual fundraising event for the Conservancy.

The Gordon House (photo from the Conservancy website)

The Conservancy’s slogan is “Frank was a foodie”. Live music, dancing, and silent and live auctions will add to this festival that benefits the preservation of Wright’s legacy in Oregon. Of course, the Gordon House itself will be open for tours to guests of the event.

Families are invited, kids under 7 are free! Tell all of your friends and neighbors.

Tickets:
$30 per Person
$50 per Couple
$60 per Family
$250 for Your Group of 12!

To Purchase Tickets call (503) 874-6006.

The Gordon House is located at 879 W Main St (Cascade Hwy) next door to The Oregon Garden in Silverton.

Consensus Construction Forecast

As an AIA component president, I receive bi-weekly media coverage reports from the national Institute office. Below is a press release issued by the AIA Consensus Construction Forecast Panel. The Panel is conducted twice a year with the leading nonresidential construction forecasters in the United States including McGraw Hill Construction, Global Insight, Moody’s economy.com, Reed Business Information, the Portland Cement Association, and FMI. The purpose of the Consensus Construction Forecast Panel is to project business conditions in the construction industry over the coming 12 to 18 months. The Consensus Construction Forecast Panel has been conducted for 11 years.

The numbers project that the decline in construction spending will moderate through 2010. However, this only means that the rate at which things are worsening may slow down. The Panel is not predicting an upturn in construction activity through the end of 2010. This is not welcome news to many in the architectural profession who are already struggling to maintain the viability of their offices or keep their jobs. I’m not certain if the numbers are representative of projected construction activity in Oregon as the news release did not include details by individual states or regions.

I expressed optimism in my July President’s Message that the skills and knowledge we possess as architects will serve us well as the economy is being restructured. Our brains are wired in precisely the way necessary for visionary thinking at all scales and all levels of concern. We may be better prepared than most to quickly adapt to a new reality shaped by peak oil, global warming, health care reform, and the disappearance of easy credit. Certainly, this recession has been a wakeup call for the entire country. Ironically, it may have taken a banking system meltdown, bankruptcies at Chrysler and General Motors, and massive unemployment to finally prompt large scale and popularly supported moves toward transformation of the nation’s communities to be more compact, sustainable, and less automobile-reliant. Let’s take advantage of this opportunity and demonstrate leadership as this transformation unfolds.

Here is the press release:

Significant Downturn in Nonresidential Construction Activity Projected through 2010
Greatest drop in commercial and industrial sectors

Washington, D.C. – Feeling the effects of the struggling overall U.S. economy, nonresidential construction spending is expected to decrease by 16 percent in 2009 and drop by another almost 12 percent in 2010 in inflation adjusted terms. Commercial projects will see the most significant decrease in activity. In contrast, most institutional building categories are expected to see much more modest declines over this period. These are highlights from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) semi-annual Consensus Construction Forecast, a survey of the nation’s leading construction forecasters.

“While there are some indications that the overall economy is beginning to recover, nonresidential construction activity typically lags behind the rest of the economy,” said AIA Chief Economist, Kermit Baker, PhD, Hon. AIA. “Commercial facilities such as hotels, retail establishments and offices will feel the decline most dramatically. The institutional market will fare much better as stimulus funding becomes available for education, healthcare and government facilities.”

Market Segment Consensus Growth Forecasts

“This nonresidential downturn is shaping up to be the deepest decline in nonresidential activity in over a generation.” Baker added. “However, we’re beginning to see some moderation in the trends in design billings at architecture firms, so we hopefully are nearing the bottom of this cycle.”

Contact: Scott Frank
202-626-7467
sfrank@aia.org

President’s Message – July 2009

As I write this, signs of economic recovery in Oregon remain faint. The employment reports are lousy: Oregon holds the dubious distinction of having the second highest unemployment rate in the nation after Michigan. Nevertheless, I am guardedly optimistic for the future of our state and our profession. The deep recession is compelling us to rethink how we do things as a society and awakening us to a new paradigm, where profligate consumption is replaced by prudent conservation. A greater urgency is also building toward real action on issues such as global warming and healthcare reform. While this action may occasionally be stymied by fiscal realities (particularly at the state level), it’s clear to most that it is inevitable.

I’m optimistic because our communities will increasingly seek creative and visionary thinking. As architects, we possess education and training that have honed creativity and problem-solving skills. We are, almost by definition, futurists. We should embrace the idea that our profession is eminently suited to help restructure and revolutionize how humanity exists on this planet. We should actively assume the role of leaders, both at the level of the AIA and as individuals, to effect positive change. As architects, we have the opportunity to positively impact the lives of many others through the projects we design.

The recession has been difficult for many of our member firms. Thinking positively again, I’d like to believe that AIA-SWO architects and interns have found a silver lining of motivation and opportunity within this depressed economy, rather than disappointment alone. This is where the AIA can play a part. We’re doing what we can to be a credible voice on issues of importance to the built environment. We’re advocates for legislative changes that favor sustainability, such as mandates for rigorous energy standards and compact growth. We’re also a resource for professional development, offering continuing education opportunities that better prepare us for the challenges ahead. During a time like this, the value of AIA membership may be most evident.

Whether economic recovery for Oregon is around the corner or not, architects will be in the center of the discussion about how it might take shape. Look forward to capitalizing upon your unique knowledge and skill set, because it will be in demand.

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The remainder of my message this month is comprised of several news items, beginning with a sad note as we acknowledge the passing of one of our professional colleagues:

J. Dean Morris (1931-2009)
Longtime Eugene resident and architect J. Dean Morris died on June 30, 2009 at the age of 78 after a prolonged struggle with cancer.

Dean founded Morris & Redden Architects with Jim Redden in 1965. Notable projects that Dean helped to design include TCI Cable, Cascade Fabrication, Springfield Country Club, Kahneeta Village Resort, Little Creek Heights Condominiums in Newport, and numerous homes at Sunriver. Prior to retiring in 2000, Dean and Jim expanded the partnership to become Morris, Redden, Affolter and West. The firm carries on today as Affolter, West & Jones Architects Planners AIA, pc.

As reported in The Register-Guard, Dean was born March 31, 1931 in Shamrock, Texas, to Henry and Florence Middleton Morris. He married Bebe Clark on November 24, 1950, in Eugene. He attended Eugene High School and received a bachelor of architecture degree from the University of Oregon’s School of Architecture and Allied Arts. He served in the U.S. Army and worked for the Corps of Engineers.

A celebration of life in Dean’s honor will be held at 11:00 AM on July 20, at First Landmark Baptist Church in Springfield.

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Green Town at da Vinci Days
The results of “Visions for Dixon Creek” design charrette (conducted on June 27 at Belle Vallee Cellars in Corvallis) will be presented at the annual da Vinci Days festival in Corvallis, July 17-19, 2009. The exhibit will be part of “Green Town,” located on the lower campus area of Oregon State University. Green Town will showcase businesses and organizations that incorporate sustainability into their products, services, and practices.

The theme of this year’s da Vinci Days festival is water. Accordingly, the charrette examined the natural features associated with the Dixon Creek area between NW 10th Street through to NW 5th Street and how they interact with a multitude of land uses and transportation issues. The charrette participants produced several visions of how a more sustainable future in Corvallis might develop around this diverse and representative site.

Saturday at da Vinci Days will also feature “Green Views,” a series of short presentations packed with information to inspire and educate. At 1:40 PM, the charrette facilitators (Chick Gerke, Kristen Anderson, Tony Noble, and Lori Stephens) will formally present the results of the “Visions for Dixon Creek” exercise to the public.

AIA-SWO volunteers are needed to help staff the exhibit during the three-day run of the festival. If you’re interested in helping out, please contact Chick Gerke, AIA, at (541) 757-0554 or by e-mail at chick@crgarchitect.com.

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2009 Peoples’ Choice Awards
Each year, AIA/SWO sponsors the People’s Choice Awards, showcasing the design work of our membership. This program spotlights design excellence and demonstrates to the public what the architecture and landscape architecture professions provide to enhance the built environment. The public is asked to vote for their favorite designs in several categories during the Eugene Celebration (September 4-6, 2009). The votes will be counted and winners announced at the September Chapter Meeting. The winners will also be announced in the AIA/SWO Register-Guard Insert to be published later in September.

The benefits of participating in the Peoples’ Choice program include:

• The public is provided with the opportunity to view your firm’s individual projects.


• The picture and written description of the individual category winners are published in the AIA/SWO Register Guard Insert. A full-color version of the Register Guard Insert will also be posted on the Register Guard website for three additional months (through 12/31/09).


• Boards will be displayed at Oveissi & Co. during the Eugene Celebration and at the Midtown Arts Center the week following. AIA/SWO is also pursuing other opportunities to display the boards throughout the end of 2009 at different locations in Eugene and Corvallis.


• The picture and written description of all the winners will be posted on the AIA/SWO website.


• The winners will be celebrated at the September AIA/SWO Chapter meeting and dinner.

Sometime later this month, we will publish the eligibility rules and entrance requirements on the AIA-SWO website and with the online program registration materials that will be broadcast to the AIA-SWO and ASLA memberships. Start making your plans now to submit your projects for the 2009 Peoples’ Choice Awards!

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2009 Design Awards
I reported previously that AIA-SWO is producing a juried Design Awards program for the first time since 2005. We’re partnering with AIA-Southern Oregon (as we did back in 2005), pooling our resources and assembling the best possible body of work for consideration by a jury of distinguished practitioners. Robert Hull, FAIA (The Miller/Hull Partnership, Seattle) and Laura Hartman, AIA (Fernau & Hartman, Berkeley) have agreed to be jurors, and we’re seeking a third, equally noteworthy designer to join them. The submission deadline for the Design Awards will be sometime early in October, with the Awards Banquet scheduled for Saturday, October 10, 2009. Look for more details soon!

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Our July Program: An Evening at Civic Stadium
This month’s chapter meeting carries on our tradition of a joint social event each July with the Willamette Valley Chapter of the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) and the Eugene chapter of the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC). Join us on the evening of Thursday, July 23 (note the special meeting date) for an evening at Civic Stadium to watch the Eugene Emeralds take on the Boise Hawks. The program includes a pre-game barbeque on the right field deck (parallel to Willamette Street) featuring chicken breast sandwiches, salmon patties, hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, baked beans, whole kernel corn, seedless watermelon, soft drinks and domestic beer. We’ll announce the pricing, which includes both the barbeque and admission to the grandstand, with the meeting invitation about 10 days before the game.

The 2009 season may be the last for the Emeralds at Civic Stadium. If you wax nostalgic for the charms of this old-fashioned facility, don’t miss this opportunity to enjoy the company of your professional colleagues and their families, good food, a warm summer evening, and America’s pastime all at once!

July Program Sponsor
I’m pleased to announce that our July 2009 program sponsor is Rubenstein’s, the Northwest’s leading source for commercial floor covering.

Rubenstein's has been actively engaged in the commercial floor covering industry for over 40 years. The company is one of the largest independent commercial floor covering dealers in the country. Rubenstein’s is a charter member of the Starnet® Worldwide Commercial Flooring Partnership, a member owned cooperative of the largest group of independent commercial floor covering dealers in the industry with over 160 member firms with 300 locations throughout North America.

Randy Nishimura, AIA

2009 President, AIA-Southwestern Oregon