At the 2010 “Excellence in Masonry Design Awards,” sponsored by the Masonry Institute of Washington, WJE was awarded the Honor Award (first place) in the Restoration category for our work on Savery Hall, on the University of Washington campus. The four-year project was completed in 2009 and included the complete rehabilitation of the building, inside and out.

SRG Partnership, Seattle, was the architect of record for the project. WJE was hired as the exterior envelope consultant. This was the second time WJE assisted SRG on a historic masonry rehabilitation project. The first was the Washington State Legislative Building, in Olympia. As with both projects, Pioneer Masonry Restoration Company was the masonry subcontractor. (more…)

The Exchange Building is a 24- story art-deco style structure in downtown Seattle. The building was constructed in 1929. It was intended to house the Seattle stock exchange, but as you can imagine, that didn’t happen. The building was adapted for office spaces with a limited amount of retail businesses. The architect was John Graham, perhaps the most prominent Seattle architect in the first part of the 20th century. In 1990 the building was designated a Seattle Historic Landmark.

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On Monday, August 31, the full-scale cladding mock-up was unveiled for the Everett Group Health recaldding project. The GC, Lease Crutcher Lewis, built the 20′ x 20′ mock-up to demonstrate the appearance of the fiber-cement and metal panels and the colors that we selected. (more…)

On Thursday, August 6, 2009, WJE performed a limited leakage investigation of The Cobb building, in downtown Seattle. Accompanying me on the building were Rita Ray and Dan Gach of WJE. Rita joined me in performing the inspection drops and Dan was our difficult access rigger. Our client for the project was Unico Properties, the property manager.

The 99-year old, 11-story Cobb building is the oldest and last surviving building from the original Howells and Stokes Metropolitan Center plan. The most recognizable feature of the facades are the very large terra cotta Indian head busts just below the cornice line. (more…)

On Wednesday, August 3, 2009, we completed the construction documents for the reclad of the Everett Group Health (EGH) building. This has been a project that began in 2007 with a summary investigation of the existing cladding. Along the way I presented a written feasibility study for several different cladding options. Construction is scheduled to begin in mid-September and concluded in Spring 2010. WJE’s client is CB Richard Ellis, who is Group Health’s representative. (more…)