ISSUE 72
INSIDE OUT
NEWSLETTER WINTER | 2019
BergerABAM: An innovative history and a bright future work, they also registered their own engineering firm, a sister company called Anderson and Anderson Consulting Engineers in 1952. Bolstered by the national expansion of the highway system, population growth, and their ideal factory location in Tacoma, the brothers managed to get their first contract, an alternative design for the Tacoma City Light Building in 1953. Several years later, they hired Halvard (Hal) Birkeland as a principal in the engineering firm in 1956, and two years later they hired Bob Mast. This paved the way for the now widely recognized name and acronym ABAM.
Changing the Industry
Let’s ask the beam. Art Anderson explaining the behavior of a prestressed concrete beam.
Over 66 years ago, BergerABAM started with two brothers from Tacoma, Washington, Art and Tom Anderson, who believed in an innovative material we now take for granted: prestressed concrete. Together, they pioneered and adapted precast, prestressed concrete for practical use in the American and Pacific Northwest market, transforming the nation’s construction industry. Today, their legacy is BergerABAM, a multidisciplinary engineering firm with nine offices in the United States, creating engineering solutions around the globe. As we move into 2019 with new opportunities for growth, we are looking back to see how far we have come.
Our Foundation In 1951, the Anderson brothers founded Concrete Engineering Company, later named Concrete Technology Corporation (CTC). Their mission was to manufacture precast, prestressed concrete, an idea still in its infancy in the American construction market. To bid on engineering
www.abam.com
The firm was founded on the idea of engineering highperformance structures, and ABAM worked diligently to develop high-efficiency structural elements that eventually found their way into common use. By the 1960s, the State of Washington adopted new standards for using prestressed concrete as new highway jobs were developing. Work began to pick up, and the team found success in new opportunities, such as logging road bridges, highways, pier construction, and buildings. Iconic projects from this era included Cheney Stadium in Tacoma, which Art and Tom took from design to completed construction in just 99 days using their concrete. They advanced to using prestressed concrete piles and slabs for piers, which were stronger than traditional wood and concrete piles and could support heavier loads. (continued on page 2)
To update your contact information, please email newsletter@abam.com EDITORS/CONTRIBUTORS Nora Bretaña, Danny Christian, Karen Harbaugh, Lauren Obermark, Jana Roy, Diann Scherer, and Kelsey Hilmes DESIGN AND PRODUCTION Ailoan Che and Kelsey Hilmes
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BergerABAM’s first prestressed concrete pier was Pier 28 at the Port of Seattle. The method was soon dubbed the “Puget Sound System of Pier Construction,” and ABAM began providing pier engineering services around the world. In 1962, the Seattle World’s Fair featured a showcase of futuristic technology and ideas. At the center of it all was the nation’s first full-scale commercial monorail system, which earned The iconic St. Joseph Medical Center still more international looks over Tacoma today. attention than the Space Needle. ABAM and CTC won the contract to detail and manufacture the girders, creating the first monorail system using prestressed concrete and the first use of curved prestressed beams. With the company’s growing success through this era, the company incorporated and an official board of directors was established.
Going Global The 1970s kicked off with an economic depression. With Washington struggling as a region for business, ABAM began to seek work around the U.S. and the world. The opportunity to provide guideways for the Disney World monorail in Orlando, Florida gave ABAM the national exposure they needed to grow.
oil prices. This turned out to be good news for ABAM, which was able to provide solutions to help the transportation and energy industries find creative ways to conserve fuel and maximize resources. Huge projects came in, requiring a period of hiring and expansion for ABAM. During this time, ABAM also discovered a new and unusual specialty that still holds significant importance today: underwater inspection. A dive team was established to inspect and help evaluate the waterfront structures ABAM had been engineering for years, which became particularly handy as ABAM’s offshore projects were booming. However, by 1985, oil prices dropped again and major clients began canceling projects. The company had no choice but to begin laying off staff. Executives froze their salaries and eventually even veteran employees were asked to leave. A few key jobs kept the company afloat until 1988, when Alex Popoff, president and chief executive officer (CEO), negotiated investment in ABAM by the Louis Berger Group, an international company with similar service offerings. First ABAM Engineers, took on the tag line “A member of the Berger Group” then rebranded as BERGER/ ABAM Engineers Inc. A new era had been born.
New Era In the 1990s, Bob Wallace assumed the role as president and CEO, and the company was getting back on its feet. Bridge and highway projects for the Washington State Department of Transportation picked up, bridge work with Louis Berger blossomed, and port projects remained strong, particularly with the U.S. Navy, Port of Seattle, and SSA Marine. The new relationship with Louis Berger created more opportunities for BERGER/ABAM Engineers. New service offerings emerged, including a Public Works
Seismic issues also became a bigger concern in the Pacific Northwest during this time. When St. Joseph Hospital was ready for design, ABAM designed a “shock absorber” by putting the hospital on legs strengthened by diagonal bracing consisting of prestressed strands to create a “soft, self-centering story” that would absorb and displace most of the impact of an earthquake. Perhaps most importantly, ABAM’s work on waterfront projects, ports, and piers grew significantly in the 1970s, taking on work with the U.S. Navy, ARCO, Ports of Grays Harbor and Tacoma, among others.
Berger Connection By 1980, Bob Mast was the president of ABAM Engineers, and the global economy was slumping because of soaring
In addition to the Disney World Monorail, ABAM provided engineering services for the Space Mountain ride. (continued on page 3)
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“This is a the dawn of a new and exciting epoch for all involved, and BergerABAM is excited to be a part of this expanded team of capable professionals.” - Lee Marsh, BergerABAM President BergerABAM, was acquired by WSP, an international consulting company headquartered in Canada with more than 9,500 employees in the U.S. in 150 locations.
The Manzanillo International Terminal in Panama was one of several international ports ABAM completed in the 1990s.
and Transportation Department; hundreds of bridge design projects; international ports in Columbia, Panama, Vietnam, and the Persian Gulf; and work with the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard. In 2005, Bob handed over the reins to Arnie Rusten, who for nine years continued to grow the firm and expand geographically. Federal work grew to be a solid element of the firm’s client base with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Navy. Also, clients, such as Washington State Ferries, local agencies, and Berger-related opportunities grew substantially. During these years, two key acquisions, J.D. White in Vancouver, Washington, and Flores Lund Consultants in San Diego, California, helped expand the firm’s practice areas and geographic reach. The firm once again rebranded as BergerABAM, dropping the “Engineers” moniker to reflect the expanded practice base of land use planning, permitting, public involvement, environmental science, and landscape architecture.
We are excited that our strong reputations and combined portfolios will reinforce our position in the marketplace and will expand service offerings to our clients. This new chapter in the combined BergerABAM - Louis Berger - WSP story is ripe with opportunities for both our clients and our employees. With this amalgamation of skills, experience, and capabilities, we will be able to deliver world-class service to our broad base of clients from project inception, through planning, design, and construction on a scale that we, BergerABAM, has not yet provided. This is the dawn of a new and exciting epoch for all involved, and BergerABAM is excited to be a part of this expanded team of capable professionals. BergerABAM has come a long way from its original prestressed concrete roots. We sincerely thank all of those clients, collaborators, and colleagues for their support, engagement, and friendship.
In 2014, Lee Marsh succeeded Arnie Rusten as president and CEO. The firm continued to prosper and grow, delivering great projects for our clients over our entire range of service offerings. In the current hyper-competitive professional services landscape, it came time to form a closer relationship with Louis Berger and look toward the potential for an even larger partner.
Looking to the Future If there is one thing we have learned in 60 years, it is that change is inevitable and change creates better opportunities for learning, growth, and serving our clients. On 18 December 2018, Louis Berger, and therefore
The four founders of ABAM included Art Anderson, Tom Anderson, Hal Birkeland, and Bob Mast.
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INSIDE/OUT Newsletter
New Vancouver Waterfront Park Opens After a Century Without Public Access The new Vancouver Waterfront Park officially opened to the public on 29 September 2018. The park is the main public amenity that is part of the Vancouver Waterfront master plan, which was crafted to reconnect the city of Vancouver to the Columbia River. The new 7.3-acre park creates public access to the river for the first time in more than a century. Built on a former industrial paper mill site, the $24 million project features plazas, an extended Vancouver Renaissance Trail, viewpoints, water feature, playground, and urban beach. The project also features the Grant Street Pier, a concrete, cable-stayed structure projecting almost 100 feet over the Columbia River that serves as the park’s focal point. As part of the City of Vancouver’s $1 billion, 32-acre waterfront revitalization program, the new waterfront park anchors the plan for multifamily and commercial growth in the Vancouver downtown area. The mixed-use master plan was completed in 2012; it included approximately 20 new city blocks of urban development and associated roadway and street networks. When fully implemented, the new plan will accommodate 3,500 new residents for the city and more than 1 million square feet of commercial and office space. The unique cable-stayed pier carries park visitors out over the Columbia River on a structure that has no in-water elements. The pier was designed by renowned public artist, Larry Kirkland, to leave visitors with an unforgettable image, but also to facilitate the project’s environmental stewardship and streamline the permitting process. The Columbia River is home to many Endangered Species Act listed aquatic species, and permit acquisition is always on the critical path for waterfront structures. To ease this process, BergerABAM engineered a cable-stayed system that requires no in-water piling. The absence of in-water piling was seen as a very favorable feature to the environmental regulators. Design of a pier that extends this far over a body of water without any in-water elements is an unprecedented effort to connect people to the magnificence of the Columbia River, while eliminating lasting environmental impacts to the river’s ecosystem. The structure only uses an abutment on one side of the structure, an unusual approach for a cable-stayed system, which resulted in a massive but mostly hidden foundation. The project team faced many challenges on this complex brownfield site because of its industrial legacy and its
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The new waterfront park, a part of a bigger revitalization plan, will open a new era of possibilities for the City of Vancouver.
half mile of shoreline that runs along a very swift and high-wave energy section of the Columbia River. These site conditions required extensive shoreline restoration, creative engineering solutions, and a robust environmental planning and permitting process. The project team worked closely with the City of Vancouver, developers of adjacent properties, and regulatory agencies to create a design that was feasible, permittable, constructible, and beautiful. This was the largest single project the City of Vancouver’s Parks and Recreation Department had undertaken. Engagement of the owner and other stakeholders was critical to the project’s success. Designs adapted, resources were shifted and added, contracts were phased, constructability was analyzed, and problems were solved during construction, all to provide the people of Vancouver with a park they have been waiting 100 years for. Ultimately, the Vancouver Waterfront Park was a community works project. It provides diversified recreation activities, restores ecological function, and brings a social vibrancy to the area. This reclaimed industrial site now serves as a bustling public-use space that has reconnected the Vancouver downtown to the scenic waterfront. The iconic nature of the design, brought to reality with technically excellent and fiscally efficient engineering, provides Vancouver with a new sense of civic identity and pride.
INSIDE/OUT Newsletter
We are pleased to welcome the following new team members to BergerABAM.
Steven Keith
Eufemio Jose Torres, Jr.
Federal Way Office
Federal Way Office
Steven Keith is an engineer-in-training for the Facilities Department. He earned his bachelor’s in civil engineering from Washington State University in Pullman. Before joining us, he worked for three years as a senior staff engineer in Irvine, California.
Eufemio Jose Torres, Jr. (Noli) is a project manager for the Facilities Department. He earned his bachelor’s from Adamson University. Noli has over 23 years of experience in structural engineering design of commercial, residential, office, manufacturing, industrial, and utility projects.
Aaron Jessmore
Samuel Roberts
Federal Way Office
Vancouver Office
Aaron Jessmore is an engineer-in-training for the Public Works and Transportation Department. He earned his bachelor’s in civil engineering and master’s in civil engineering (structural focus) from Michigan Technological University.
Samuel Roberts is an environmental planner for the Vancouver office. He earned his bachelor’s in urban and regional planning from Eastern Washington University and his master’s of urban and regional planning from Portland State University.
Prisciliano Peralta-Ramirez
Bridget Wojtala
Portland Office
Vancouver Office
Prisciliano Peralta-Ramirez (Persi) is a project engineer for the Portland office. He earned his bachelor’s in civil engineering from Portland State University. Persi is a civil transportation engineer with expertise in public works and transportation projects.
Bridget Wojtala is an environmental scientist for the Vancouver office. Bridget earned her bachelor’s in natural resources management from Grand Valley State University.
Vahid Jafari Azad Portland Office Vahid Jafari Azad is a senior engineer for the Portland office. He has a doctorate, master’s, and bachelor’s in civil engineering from the University of Tehran, Iran. Prior to joining BergerABAM, Vahid was a researcher for the Department of Civil and Construction Engineering from Oregon State University.
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