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CONTENTS FEBRUARY 2022 | VOLUME 38 | NUMBER 2 | AKBIZMAG.COM

FE AT UR E S 10 FINANCE

Spreading the Wealth Helping minority- and women-owned businesses thrive

By Tracy Barbour

16 SMALL BUSINESS Silver Linings

Businesses thrive despite—and because of—COVID-19

By Amy Newman

22 FISHERIES

Fishing for an Economy Coastal Villages Region Fund leverages its quota to build Western Alaska

By Tasha Anderson

30 OIL & GAS

The Ups and Downs of Oil Global markets continue to jostle Alaska’s oil prices

By Isaac Stone Simonelli

82 ENVIRONMENTAL

Internal Sustainability Programs Good for the environment and the bottom line

26 TOURISM

Ballet in the Sky Aurora borealis attracts international tourists

Andy Romanoff | Alaska Heat Smart

By Isaac Stone Simonelli

Aurora Bear Photography

By Vanessa Orr

78 ENERGY

Warmer Is Cooler Building a heat pump community in Juneau

By Molly Rettig

QUICK READS 8 FROM THE EDITOR

90 INSIDE ALASKA BUSINESS

94 ALASKA TRENDS

90 ECONOMIC INDICATORS

92 RIGHT MOVES

96 OFF THE CUFF

4 | February 2022

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

CONTENTS FEBRUARY 2022 | VOLUME 38 | NUMBER 2 | AKBIZMAG.COM

SPECIAL SECTION: ARCHITECTURE & ENGINEERING Carter Damaska | Alaska Business Publishing

36 ENGINEER OF THE YEAR NOMINEES 40 PROJECT OF THE YEAR NOMINEES 52 BIG GREEN INVESTMENT

The value of planning and maintaining landscaping

By Peter Briggs

54 IT TAKES TWO

How architects and engineers blend their talents

By Rachael Kvapil

66 BRINGING IN THE GREEN

Biophilic design struggles to take root in the Last Frontier

By Isaac Stone Simonelli

72 CANNABIS COOL

HVAC needs for growing, processing, and selling marijuana

By Alexandra Kay

42 DOWNTOWN GLACIER

A new vision for an old building

By Scott Rhode

Shannon & Wilson

ABOUT THE COVER

62 BEFORE DISASTER STRIKES

How engineers prepare for the unknown

By Brad Joyal

At the corner of Fifth Avenue and F Street in downtown Anchorage, the old KeyBank building was never much to look at. That’s about to change thanks to a major renovation, the subject of this month’s cover article, “Downtown Glacier.” Elsewhere in this month’s Architecture & Engineering special section, the renovation is one example of how those distinct yet similar professions are stronger together, in “It Takes Two.” Outside of the section, engineers also contribute to “Internal Sustainability Programs” as surely as they plan “Before Disaster Strikes.” Likewise, “Warmer Is Cooler” about heat pumps in Juneau echoes some of the mechanical engineering detailed in “Cannabis Cool.” Don’t confuse indoor marijuana cultivation with “Bringing in the Green,” which is about biophilic design that, independently, some small businesses have discovered as a COVID-19 niche, as reported in “Silver Linings.” Whether flashy or unseen, the designed environment is all around.

Photo by Carter Damaska | Alaska Business Publishing

Alaska Business (ISSN 8756-4092) is published monthly by Alaska Business Publishing Co., Inc. 501 W. Northern Lights Boulevard, Suite 100, Anchorage, Alaska 99503-2577; Telephone: (907) 276-4373. © 2022 Alaska Business Publishing Co. All rights reserved. No part of this publication June be reproduced without written permission from the publisher. Alaska Business accepts no responsibility for unsolicited materials; they will not be returned unless accompanied by a stamped, self addressed envelope. One-year subscription is $39.95 and includes twelve issues (print + digital) and the annual Power List. Single issues of the Power List are $15 each. Single issues of Alaska Business are $4.99 each; $5.99 for the July & October issues. Send subscription orders and address changes to circulation@akbizmag.com.

To order back issues ($9.99 each including postage) visit simplecirc.com/back_issues/alaska-business.

6 | February 2022

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FROM THE EDITOR

I

’ve been thinking about holidays and events in February and my brain latched onto Groundhog Day as something with potential: notions of repetition, cycles, the drudgery and difficulty of recognizing something is wrong and fighting against the universe to somehow set it right. The pandemic has felt like a cosmic Groundhog Day, as every year we wake up hoping it’s “the year it’s over” and thus far we keep being surprised by another surge in cases.

But that’s not actually what the holiday is about. It’s a pretty simple celebration of spring and the end of winter. The movie Groundhog Day, while certainly not the first story to set an unfortunate protagonist in an endless cycle of repetition, is a Western cultural touchstone of that idea. It has far outgrown its eponymous holiday in its influence.

It’s always fascinating what works and what doesn’t in catching the interest of any given group, to see how ideas grow beyond their intended space. Alaska Business Publishing Co. is a member of the media, so naturally our success is connected to our ability to reach an audience, whether that’s our readers, our sources, or our advertisers. How one grabs attention is a big question in today’s media landscape, and it’s one that we discuss internally on a regular basis.

This is, in part, because one of our best-known (and infamous) covers wasn’t hailed for its quality but was instead the center of a controversy. Those unfamiliar with the magazine—and its at-the-time all-woman editorial team—questioned if our January 2017 cover (featuring World Trade Center Anchorage Executive Director Greg Wolf in a Rosie the Riverter pose) was antifeminist or just tone deaf.

“Well,” some might say, “your cover garnered national attention. All press is good press.”

But is it? For those outside of our circle of influence, who never had any association with our publication, it’s possible now that their only association is one of sexism. I can promise you that is never the impression we want to leave with our audience.

Frankly, by now the majority of those who were caught up in our cover controversy on a national level have probably forgotten that we’re a publication at all, or they assume that we’ve gone under, as many local news and media outlets have.

We haven’t, though, and we aren’t. Alaska Business Publishing Co. had a good year in 2021.

We had the kind of year that let us expand our editorial and production teams and reinvest in our employees. We had the kind of year that let us look at additional resources for upgraded photography, editorial projects, and community outreach.

While I don’t have any concrete research as to why we’re in the black, I think it comes down to two things: our strong network of partners and prioritizing promoting economic growth in Alaska over just scoring page views.

Thank you for building up Alaska with us. It is something to celebrate.

VOLUME 38, #2 EDITORIAL STAFF Managing Editor Tasha Anderson 907-257-2907 tanderson@akbizmag.com

Editor/Staff Writer Scott Rhode 907-257-2902 srhode@akbizmag.com

Social Media Carter Damaska 907-257-2910 enews@akbizmag.com

Editorial Assistant Emily Olsen 907-257-2914 emily@akbizmag.com

PRODUCTION STAFF Art Director Monica Sterchi-Lowman 907-257-2916 design@akbizmag.com

Design & Art Production Fulvia Lowe production@akbizmag.com

Website Manager Taylor Sanders webmanager@akbizmag.com

Photo Contributor Kerry Tasker

BUSINESS STAFF President Billie Martin VP & General Manager Jason Martin 907-257-2905 jason@akbizmag.com

VP Sales & Marketing Charles Bell 907-257-2909 cbell@akbizmag.com

Senior Account Manager Janis J. Plume 907-257-2917 janis@akbizmag.com

Senior Account Manager Christine Merki 907-257-2911 cmerki@akbizmag.com

Full-Charge Bookkeeper James Barnhill

Tasha Anderson Managing Editor, Alaska Business

907-257-2901 accounts@akbizmag.com

CONTACT

Press releases: press@akbizmag.com

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Alaska Business

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FINANCE

Spreading the Wealth Helping minority-

and women-owned businesses thrive

F

or thirteen years, Purrfect Purr Cat Hotel has offered pet sitting and boarding services for felines in Anchorage. Guest pets can indulge in a variety of activities, including socializing with other fur babies in a stimulating and safe environment. The facility provides the cats with constant observation, high-quality food, plenty of space to lounge and play, and even a trip to the vet if they get sick. “We provide everything; you just drop the cat off,” says owner Elaine Parry, a Navy veteran and former air traffic controller.

For Parry—who has always loved cats—operating Purrfect Purr Cat Hotel is a labor of love. But in 2020, the successful enterprise was threatened when the COVID-19 pandemic forced non-essential businesses to temporarily close. Purrfect Purr Cat Hotel was shuttered for two months, and it nearly devastated the business. To stay afloat, Parry applied for a loan from a local credit union, which proved to be extremely problematic. The problem

10 | February 2022

Sharon Carter | Elegant Light Studio

By Tracy Barbour

wasn’t a lack of creditworthiness on her part, according to Parry. She owned her own home, had ample retirement income, and even offered to collateralize the requested $45,000 loan with her rental property, a condominium worth $98,000 and owned free and clear. But her loan request with the credit union was unfruitful. “They really treated me poorly,” says Parry, a thirty-year Alaska resident. “They didn’t refuse the loan; they just drug it out, dropped me, and wouldn’t respond anymore… I had to file a complaint against them.”

Ultimately, Parr y was able to obtain a $37,000 Economic Injury Disaster Loan, which she used to pay her lease, employee, and other expenses. “Between that and my own personal funds, I managed to stay open,” she says.

Parry’s experience is an example of the challenges some minority business owners face while pursuing financing to launch, maintain, or grow their business. However, minority business

owners—which include women as a minority group due to their relative disadvantages—play a vital role in supporting the US economy. In 2019, almost 19 percent of all US employer businesses (1.1 million) were minorityowned and about 21 percent (1.2 million) of all businesses were owned by women, according to the US Census Bureau’s 2020 Annual Business Survey.

Businesses that are owned by women and other minority groups— including Blacks/African Americans, Asians, Hispanics, Alaska Natives, Native Americans, Native Hawaiians, and other Pacific Islanders—employ millions of workers and generate billions of dollars in annual payroll and receipts.

According to the survey, their 2019 annual receipts were $874.6 billion for Asian-owned businesses, $463.3 billion for Hispanic-owned companies, $133.7 billion for Black- or African Americanowned enterprises, $35.8 billion for American Indian and Alaska Nativeowned businesses, and $8.5 billion

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for Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander-owned businesses.

Despite their substantial economic impact, it is often more difficult for companies that are owned by minority groups to satisfy their business capital needs. That’s why it’s essential for minorities—and other socially and economically disadvantaged entities— to have access to sufficient funding and support through government-backed loans, traditional bank financing, and creative funding options.

Alaska. Northrim Bank, for example, is an active SBA-approved lender in the state. Northrim was honored as the 2020 SBA Alaska Lender of the Year by the SBA Alaska District Office.

“This award recognizes Northrim Bank’s commitment to providing financial assistance to Alaska’s small business owners, which resulted in the approval of seventeen SBA 7(a) loans totaling over $4 million during the federal fiscal year ending September 30, 2020,” an October 18 press release stated.

Northrim also provides SBA Express loans, which offer applicants an expedited, streamlined process.

Business owners can borrow up to $350,000 as either a term loan or line of credit that they can use for various business purposes. Because the SBA guarantees 50 percent of the loan amount to third-party lenders, this loan may be the best option for business owners who do not meet the lending criteria of traditional financial institutions or who are lacking in credit history.

SBA Loans and Other Funding Options The US Small Business Administration (SBA) is a primary facilitator of funding for minorities and other disadvantaged groups. The SBA provides loan guarantees that strengthen loan requests and makes it easier for business owners to gain funding approval.

These loans typically give borrowers the benefits of having a lower down payment, favorable interest rates, and longer repayment terms. Some of the primary SBA loan programs are: • 7(a) Loans: These are the most popular financing option offered by the SBA. 7(a) loans are available to all small business owners seeking up to $5 million in financing and come with long-term repayment plans and low interest rates. According to the SBA, 32 percent of 7(a) loans are provided to minority-owned businesses.

• Community Advantage Loans: Community Advantage Loans are designed to help businesses in “underserved markets,” meaning low-to-moderate income areas, rural regions, or veteran-owned business ventures. These loans can cover $50,000 to $250,000 in financing for an operation and come as term loans with fixed repayment plans and either fixed or variable interest rates.

• Microloans: SBA microloans offer up to $50,000 in business capital to qualifying owners, typically with a six-year repayment plan. While SBA microloans are technically available to all business owners, these funds are distributed nationwide through various nonprofits, many of which are geared toward supporting underprivileged businesses.

SBA loans are available from a variety of participating lenders throughout www.akbizmag.com

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“Over the past five years, the number of women-owned businesses increased 21 percent while all businesses increased only 9 percent, yet in 2018 the average loan size for women business owners was 31 percent lower than it was for male business owners.”

Greg Deal Alaska Region Bank President Wells Fargo

Northrim Bank is also a performance lender for Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) loans. BIA loans, which provide lenders with a 90-percent guarantee, can be utilized in many ways. The maximum loan size is $500,000 for individuals and up to $5 million for businesses.

To be eligible for a BIA loan, at least 51 percent of the business must be owned by a federally recognized tribe or Alaska Native group; a member of such a tribe or group; or an Indianowned corporation, partnership, or cooperative association. However, the management of the company is also a critical factor with the BIA program, says Allen Hippler, vice president of commercial lending at Northrim. “For BIA, if you have a married couple and one is Native and one is not, you don’t just automatically qualify—unless the spouse who is Native is heavily involved in the business. Both the ownership and management must be Native,” Hippler says.

Wells Fargo is also an active SBAapproved lender in Alaska. “As a leading SBA lender, and a national SBA Preferred Lender, Wells Fargo offers SBA 7(a) and 504 loans to creditworthy small business owners who may not be able to obtain a conventional loan or loan terms that meet their business needs,” says Wells Fargo Alaska Region Bank President Greg Deal.

SBA 504 loans, which are open to a variety of individuals, are intended to provide financing for the purchase of real estate, equipment, and other fixed assets. These loans are appropriate for longer-term financing for businesses with net worth below $15 million and an average net income below $5 million.

Terms are up to twenty-five years for commercial real estate and up to ten years for machinery or equipment.

The Loan Application Process Most lenders strive to take an unbiased approach to reviewing loan applications, whether from minorityowned businesses or otherwise. “We look at all businesses the same way,” says Hippler. “The only difference would be if we are able to apply a special program.”

In such cases, the lender will scrutinize the ownership and management of the business. With SBA and BIA loans, for instance, the bank 12 | February 2022

needs to know who owns exactly what and who manages the company. “And if the company changes ownership, it needs to make sure the new ownership and management qualify with SBA and BIA regulations,” Hippler says.

The key challenge many new businesses have—and the main consideration for lenders—is a lack of capitalization, but it’s crucial for business owners to have some money available to support their project.

“They need to able to show they have saved money to invest the business,” he says.

What can minority business owners do to better prepare themselves to secure capital? In general, Hippler says, they need a solid business plan, financial statements that make sense, and money saved for the capitalization of the project.

Deal emphasizes the importance of developing a strong credit application.

When preparing an application, entrepreneurs should consider these four factors: credit purpose, credit history, company finances, and accurate documentation. “When you apply for credit, the financial institution will want to know how you plan to use the money you borrow,” he explains. “Whether it’s for equipment or inventory, you should have a clear understanding of why you need credit.”

Before making a credit decision, the lender will pull reports to review the applicant’s personal and business credit history. Recent credit inquiries and interest-only mortgages may also affect a lender’s credit decision. “This information will help lenders determine whether you are a responsible borrower,” Deal says. “If you have a weaker personal or business credit report, take steps to improve it. For example, you may want to accelerate paying down your existing credit or set up automatic payments to reduce your risk of late payments.”

The company’s cash flow also plays a key role in the owner’s ability to get approved for credit. Lenders will look at how much revenue the business generates to ensure it can repay any additional debt. A lender may also request collateral that could come in many forms, such as business equipment or real estate. “Make sure your company’s financial data is

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accurate before submitting your credit application,” Deal says.

In addition, the loan application should be complete and error-free.

Before submitting it, the applicant should confirm the accuracy of key information about the business: • date of establishment • full annual earnings • name and address from the articles of incorporation • ownership information

Non-Loan Assistance In addition to loans, there are various other types of assistance that minority groups can take advantage of to support their business. The SBA, for instance, offers the 8(a) Business Development Program to give minority and underprivileged business owners a better chance at receiving federal contracts and funding. Unlike 7(a) loans, the 8(a) Business Development Program does not offer financing; rather, it provides a preferential status that gives owners an in-road to obtaining SBA loans and other federal aid they might otherwise have difficulty receiving. To qualify for the program,

the business needs to be majorityowned by an individual who is socially or economically disadvantaged, has a net worth of less than $250,000, and is involved in the day-to-day management of the business.

“Nationwide and globally, it has been utilized with great success by Native corporations,” Hippler says. “8(a) is a strong factor for minority- or womenowned businesses because it allows us to help with their financing, which can help get them projects more easily.”

As another non-loan option, Wells Fargo offers grants and mentoring to help various minority groups enhance their business. According to Deal, racially and ethnically diverse and women-owned businesses have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic compared to other small businesses. In an effort to foster an inclusive recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and other systemic challenges, Wells Fargo is expanding its resources for diverse and women-owned businesses. These efforts include funding from its Open for Business Fund, which is aimed at providing entrepreneurs with access

to experts that can help grow their businesses, and its Connect to More initiative that focuses on mentoring women-owned businesses.

Launched in July 2020, the Open for Business Fund provides grants to nonprofits that help small businesses stay open, maintain jobs, and recover from the economic effects of COVID-19.

It was created as a unique way for Wells Fargo to donate the gross processing fees generated from its participation in the SBA-administered Paycheck Protection Program in 2020. “We are one of the only major banks to donate all fees back, without subtracting costs or expenses,” Deal says.

The nonprofits selected to receive Open for Business Fund grants range from universities and local chambers of commerce to economic development funds that focus on small businesses hardest hit by COVID-19, including those owned by Black/African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans, women and others. Beyond providing much needed capital, the Open for Business Fund also empowers small businesses with technical assistance and long-term resiliency

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Parry’s difficult experience in getting a loan to keep her business afloat during the pandemic is an example of the challenges many minority business owners face while trying to secure financing.

Sharon Carter | Elegant Light Studio

programs. “The pandemic made it clear that capital is only part of the answer to an inclusive long-term recovery for the small business community,” Deal says.

“We believe there is growing need for entrepreneurs to have access to trusted experts who can help them solve business challenges, plan for the future, and grow.”

As of August 2021, Wells Fargo had distributed more than $305 million in Open for Business Fund grants to nonprofits that have enabled 148,000 small businesses to stay open, maintain jobs, and recover from the economic effects of COVID-19, according to Deal. More than 80 percent of those served are Black/African American, Hispanic, Native American, Asian, and other diverse small business owners.

“In Alaska, Wells Fargo awarded Open for Business Fund grants totaling $1.6 million to Spruce Root, Cook Inlet Lending Center, and Anchorage Community Land Trust to provide small businesses in underserved communities with greater access to low-cost capital and free training, technical assistance, and recovery resources,” he says.

The funds from Wells Fargo were used in a wide variety of ways. They supported Spruce Root's products and services for entrepreneurs including 14 | February 2022

recovery grants, microloans, and ongoing virtual workshops—such as “Path to Prosperity Master Class for the New Economy" and “Path to Prosperity Business Basics." Open for Business Funds helped Cook Inlet and Anchorage Community Land Trust expand the reach of the Set Up Shop program, an initiative that provides a pipeline of training, technical assistance, microlending, and real estate support to entrepreneurs in underserved communities of Anchorage. “There are very few nonessentials when starting up a business.” Deal says. “We see everything from technical assistance to acquiring assets and property as vital elements in the long-term success of small businesses, which is why the Open for Business Fund is focusing on these areas of support.”

In addition, Wells Fargo announced Connect to More in August 2021 to offer a new wave of support focused on mentoring 500 women-owned businesses. Deal explains, “Over the past five years, the number of womenowned businesses increased 21 percent while all businesses increased only 9 percent, yet in 2018 the average loan size for women business owners was 31 percent lower than it was for male business owners.”

Connect to More is an important step that Wells Fargo is taking to provide specialized resources and mentorship support for women to continue to empower them with the knowledge they need to make decisions for their businesses and their future. The program provides women business owners access to several resources—articles, videos, and worksheets—designed to guide them as they travel through the business cycle. It also gives them access to “Milestone Mapping Coaching Circles,” a twelve-week program in partnership with the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center, where women entrepreneurs gain access to a group of peers and a mentor to set milestones specific to their business and solve common business challenges.

Deal adds, “With traditionally less capital and fewer resources to endure a disruption as unexpected and prolonged as the pandemic, ‘staying open’ has taken on new meaning for the nearly 13 million women small business owners in the United States. At Wells Fargo, we recognize the value and importance of these women and their business endeavors, but know they need more to survive and thrive.”

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February 2022 | 15

Rachael Kvapil | Frosty Feet Running Company

SMALL BUSINESS

Silver Linings

Businesses thrive despite—and because of—COVID-19

By Amy Newman 16 | February 2022

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

T

he COVID-19 pandemic has been less than kind to small businesses.

The Alaska Small Business Development Center’s 2020 Annual Report, which surveyed 550 small business owners across the state, found that 60 percent of businesses experienced decreased revenue in 2020, between 25 percent and 95 percent lower compared to previous years. Fifty percent of businesses surveyed said adapting to COVID was the biggest challenge they faced in 2020.

Despite those challenges, business license applications soared during the pandemic. According to the Alaska Division of Corporations, Business and Professional Licensing, the state issued 25,309 businesses licenses in FY2021, a 79.8 percent increase from the 14,072 licenses it issued in FY2020.

Of course, the number of licenses issued doesn’t equal new businesses opening their doors during that period.

Some businesses that obtained licenses are still in the planning or construction phases. Others may have found the challenges of operating during a

pandemic too overwhelming and either postponed or scrapped plans to launch.

Others still shut their doors almost as quickly as they opened.

But there were bright spots, with some small businesses able to establish a foothold in their community and navigate their way to what qualifies as success during a pandemic.

Whether it was the ability to quickly pivot to a new service model, offering a niche product or service uniquely suited to pandemic life, or a combination of both, these businesses managed to succeed—not despite the pandemic, but in some way because of it.

Uprooting Delivery Models Shutdown orders for non-essential businesses and risk-tolerance levels of owners and customers meant many small businesses had to reevaluate and quickly change how they delivered goods and services.

Sierra Roland owns Twisted Root Market, a small organic grocery store in Wrangell. At the start of the pandemic, she offered residents of Wrangell, Petersburg, and Prince of Wales Island the option to submit wholesale orders

through her network of small suppliers, who weren’t initially affected by the same supply issues encountered by Wrangell’s larger grocery stores.

When COVID reached Southeast, Roland had just learned she was pregnant, and she was unwilling to risk her health or that of her baby. Even though Twisted Root was classified as an essential business, she closed the store to in-person shopping and switched to online ordering only with curbside pick-up and shipping as delivery options.

There was only one catch.

“We did not have a website at all, and we had Facebook and Instagram just for posting our specials,” she says. “My husband became a website developer overnight. He took a day off work and said, ‘Okay, if this is what needs to happen, close the store for the day and let’s do it.’”

Within 48 hours the store had a website up and running, and a week later it had completely transitioned to online ordering.

“He definitely did it [the website] out of necessity; I don’t think I could pay him to do it again,” she says with a laugh.

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“I learned more about my patients, especially the teenagers, because they’re used to talking to their friends on Facetime and Zoom and they’d tell me things they would never tell me in person.

It’s a very comfortable way for parents and patients to express themselves when they’re at home in a relaxed setting.”

Dr. Elisa Rosie Owner Pacific Pediatrics

18 | February 2022

The transition to online ordering and the addition of shipping helped the store reach customers not just in Wrangell’s surrounding communities, Roland says, but people in the Lower 48 as well.

“It really brought our little shop to the forefront of Wrangell’s mind of somewhere to grocery shop,” Roland says of the changes she made to the store’s business model. “On a personal level, I believe it made us more tied to Wrangell and the Southeast community at large because we were able to meet people by offering online orders. We helped a lot of folks who couldn’t get items at their regular store because they had run out.”

Beyond changes to the delivery of goods in Southeast, the pandemic shook up delivery of services. Dr. Elisa Rosier, owner of Pacific Pediatrics in Ketchikan, had been hoping for exactly that.

“Prior to the pandemic, I had a vision of doing kind of a hybrid well-child check, where I would do telehealth for all of the things that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that doctors talk about at the various visits,” she explains. Changes to state licensing and insurance reimbursement requirements surrounding the provision of telehealth helped her put that longtime goal into practice.

“Parents would be in the comfort of their home and the child would be secure and playing, and we could really delve into all of their questions,” Rosier says. “And then, the child can come in with the parents and do the examination and everything that needed to be done in a more focused way.”

Rosier says she now sees most of her patients virtually, scheduling clinic appointments only for issues that can’t be resolved virtually or which she feels more comfortable doing in person, such as writing prescriptions. The switch, she says, was better than she’d imagined and has even helped her provide better care to her patients.

“Surprisingly, I was able to get most of the clinical problems totally resolved via telehealth, which was awesome,” she says. “And I learned more about my patients, especially the teenagers, because they’re used to talking to their friends on Facetime and Zoom and they’d tell me things they would never

tell me in person. It’s a very comfortable way for parents and patients to express themselves when they’re at home in a relaxed setting.”

A Green Connection It would be difficult to imagine a more surprising product to experience a glow-up during the pandemic than houseplants. According to a March 2021 Garden Center magazine survey of more than 250 independent garden centers across the country, that’s exactly what happened. Overall, 64 percent of respondents reported that in 2020 sales of houseplants increased 15 percent or more compared to 2019.

“It was one of those things that I don’t think people expected to have such an impact, but we’ve seen plant shops pop up all over the country at this time,” says Morgan Johnson, who opened Juneau Plant Studio in early 2020.

A recent college graduate, Johnson moved to Juneau for an internship with the City & Borough of Juneau and hosted several successful plant sale pop-ups during lunch breaks and First Friday events. When the pandemic ended the internship, she decided to try her hand at running a brick-and-mortar shop full-time.

Now business is blooming.

Part plant doctor, part plant life coach, many of Johnson’s customers are new plant owners and selfdescribed “black thumbs,” she says.

She guides customers to plants that will thrive under their home’s conditions, offers tips for the proper care and handling of their new housemates, and even diagnoses problems to help revive wilted or dying plants. Chatting with customers, she says, has revealed several reasons for the uptick in plant ownership.

“People are spending more time at home, so they’re wanting office plants to look nice in the background of their Zoom screen,” Johnson says. “People have said now that they’re home, they realized how much they liked the plants that were in their office.”

And after so many months of athome isolation, the greenery helps build a connection, whether it’s talking plants with her at the shop or over Zoom calls.

“At the beginning [of the pandemic], people were kind of alone, and going

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into a shop and getting to talk to somebody and talk about plants gives them a little bit of social connection,” Johnson explains. “And also, they tell me that people in their Zoom calls will talk to them about their plants, and that will give them something to connect over. It’s just been like a snowball effect, of people seeing other people’s plants and getting into them.”

A Focus on Health and Wellness Alaskans are known for being outdoor enthusiasts, and then the pandemic’s restrictions on indoor gatherings inspired even more people to head outdoors, both to escape the confines of their home and to safely socialize. Frosty Feet Running Company in Fairbanks, which pushed back its planned March 2020 opening to June 2020 after Governor Mike Dunleavy ordered all non-essential businesses closed, was perfectly poised to meet the upswell.

“There hasn’t been a specialty run store here aside from a multi-sport store that had shoes. That’s where I kind of got the concept,” says owner Stacy Fisk, who ran cross country and track and field in college and went on to coach her college team. In addition to offering shoes and other runningrelated gear, the store provides specialized services like gait analysis, footwear fittings, and coaching.

Because Fisk is an active, recognizable member of Fairbanks’ running community—she organizes several local events, including the HooDoo Half Marathon and the weekly Thursday night beer runs, both in collaboration with the HooDoo Brewing Company— she says she expected support from her fellow runners. What she didn’t expect was the number of non-runners, spurred on by a newfound desire to be outdoors, who would also form her customer base.

“Eighty percent of customers were non-runners,” she says. “It’s a whole new crowd of people at the beer runs; not just runners, but walkers and people who never thought they could get outside and do anything. Doctors’ offices were sending people to get fitted for the proper shoe. So there’s a new group of individuals who are just getting out, so the demand has been a lot higher than I thought.” www.akbizmag.com

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Wellness’ clients visit with the goal of either preventing COVID or minimizing the effects of having already had it, she says.

“People have two mindsets: they’re fearful of getting it, so they’re motivated to get healthy, or they already have that preventative mindset,” Tansky explains.

Because of the nature of the center’s therapies, social distancing requirements and indoor capacity restrictions caused minimal disruptions to the center’s ability to serve clients. “[The float therapy] is a single service; only one person goes in there at a time, and none of the staff has more than 15 minutes of contact unless it’s me or a nurse for wellness coaching,” Tansky says. The hyperbaric oxygen treatment and saunas are similarly socially distanced experiences.

The only pivot Tansky made to the business was her planned cooking and nutrition classes. The space wasn’t large enough to accommodate social distancing, so she instead used it to make pre-packaged snack boxes to sell to clients.

Best of a Bad Situation

Stacy Fisk opened Frosty Feet Running Company in June 2020. She’d been set to open the Fairbanks store in March 2020 until Governor Mike Dunleavy ordered all non-essential businesses closed to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

Rachael Kvapil | Frosty Feet Running Company

As the novel coronavirus sent more Alaskans outdoors, it also made them more cognizant of, and proactive about, protecting their health. Elevate Wellness Center, which offers “innovative and integrative wellness therapies,” was ready-made to meet those dual desires.

“I always knew this was what we always needed,” says owner and registered nurse Jodi Tansky, who opened the center in Fairbanks in 2020.

“I really thought that COVID and this pandemic was going to bring peoples’ 20 | February 2022

awareness of their whole health to the forefront, and my gut feeling was that people were going to need this more than ever.”

The center offers float therapy, or sensory deprivation tanks, as well as infrared sauna, hyperbaric oxygen treatment, and IV nutrition therapy, all of which Tansky says help patients “reduce stress, increase energy, and get better sleep” and “rebuild their immune system and become what we call immune resilient.” Two-thirds of Elevate

Even with the niche nature of their businesses and the ability to retain or grow their customer base with a pivot to COVID-friendly delivery models, these businesses aren’t immune to the challenges of operating during a pandemic. Tansky says staffing shortages keep her from extending the center’s hours, and Fisk continues to experience supply issues, although customers are more patient than she’d anticipated.

“They’re still willing to wait and still willing to pay me for something I don’t know when it will show up,” she says.

But if being able to meet the needs of customers played an important role in these small businesses' ability to find some modicum of success throughout the pandemic, so too did their ability to be flexible and transparent with customers.

“If you think you’re flexible, give yourself an extra 10 percent, and be brutally honest with your customers,” Roland says. “And then going above and beyond for your customers, especially to those who have been loyal to you, is really what set our business apart during all of this.”

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Alaska Business

February 2022 | 21

Fishing for an Economy

Coastal Villages Region Fund leverages its quota to build Western Alaska

I

n 2020, Coastal Villages Region Fund (CVRF) generated $91.6 million in gross revenue. Because CVRF is a nonprofit, it doesn’t qualify for Alaska Business’ Top 49ers list, but if it did, it would have placed in the mid-thirties on the list, between Usibelli Coal Mine and Watterson Construction.

While CVRF is a nonprofit organization, it does not accept any charitable donations. All of the organization’s revenue is generated through fisheries investment. “We operate a seafood company and all of the revenue comes in through the catching, processing, and sale of Alaska seafood,” says CVRF’s CEO Eric Deakin. It is one of six Western Alaska Community Development Quota (CDQ) Program groups.

According to NOAA Fisheries: “The Community Development Quota Program was established (i) to provide eligible western Alaska villages with the opportunity to participate and invest in fisheries in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area; (ii) to support economic development in western Alaska; (iii) to alleviate poverty and provide economic and social benefits for residents of western Alaska; and (iv) to achieve sustainable and diversified local economies in western Alaska.”

22 | February 2022

By Tasha Anderson Today, 10 percent of Alaska’s fisheries are set aside for CDQ groups.

As Deakin puts it, “We’re one of six groups that were set up to manage the monetization of that quota and the delivery of programs with it to a group of villages.” CVRF represents and provides benefits to twenty villages, ranging from Scammon Bay south to Platinum. “A separate group near us, the Yukon Delta Fisheries Development Association, manages that are on the Yukon itself,” Deakin specifies.

How are these groups supposed to make money, and how should they spend it once they do? Similar to the Alaska Native regional and village corporations created under ANCSA, the Western Alaska CDQ groups have needed to figure out how to best use their resources and meet their mission.

And like the ANCSA corporations, they’ve evolved since their formation to be better at both.

Generating Revenue In its early years, like many of the other CDQ groups trying to find their footing, CVRF partnered with established fishing companies, leasing its quota to them to fish. Over time, CVRF has shifted to owning and managing its own vessels and directly selling its catch.

“For the most part, all the CDQs have trended in the direction of at least owning minority interest in their partners, just to be able to make more money on the value chain,” Deakin says.

“In leasing, there’s a very small portion where it’s no risk, and a lot of the time you have guaranteed returns from a lease. But because of [having] no risk— you’re just leasing and not participating in the fishing, processing, or sales. It’s really not as profitable as it could be.”

CVRF ventured into ownership in 2006, purchasing crab boats and partnering with the original owner to manage them for about three years before CVRF took over operations and management. At that point, CVRF was responsible for the catch, the upkeep of the boats, staffing them, et cetera.

“The shipyard and boat maintenance can be pretty complex, and it gets very expensive,” Deakin says. “You have to have a lot of working capital to start that endeavor, or a big credit line, because boat repairs aren’t always cheap and you get surprises that come up that can be expensive.”

CVRF also took the leap into vessel ownership in the pollock and cod fisheries. “We were the first CDQ to manage our own at-sea pollock vessel,” he says. The group’s pollock boat is a

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Coastal Villages Region Fund

FISHERIES

340-foot at-sea catcher/processor, “and we usually catch, depending on the TAC [total allowable catch], around 40,000 metric tons of Pollock annually,” Deakin says. “It’s a sizeable operation.” CVRF also owns three cod longliners.

But the group isn’t stopping there.

“The last part of the fishery that we haven’t participated in is value added products,” Deakin says. “Probably in the next five years, we’ll be looking at some kind of partnership or wholly-owned value-added processing, like secondary processing where you make fish sticks or portioned fish that gets sold directly into market.” He says currently most of the fish that CVRF brings in is sold to wholesalers that do their own processing and take the fish to market.

Deakin says after acquiring the pollock boat and cod longliners, for about four years the organization focused on not just operating the boats but improving efficiencies, finding more customers, and optimizing the fishing vessels. But as those goals were met, he says CVRF was interested in targeting new investments.

In 2020, CVRF once again looked at the crab fishery, but with a different

angle. “We were at the cap of what we can own, so we really hadn’t looked at crab in a while,” Deakin says. “But crab is profitable for our region, so we talked to all of the tribes in our communities about owning quota themselves.”

He says most of the tribes were interested, and those who weren’t “initially as interested decided to jump on board not to be left out.” CVRF partnered with another CDQ group, Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation (BBEDC), to buy out the owner of BBEDC’s crab fleet, Mariner Companies.

In May 2021, CVRF announced the Community Quota Share program, in which each village in its area owns a portion of a Bering Sea opilio crab quota acquired from Mariner Companies. “In order to set that up, we helped [the villages] get a loan so they could get the money to buy the quota, and then we guaranteed the loan, to help lessen the risk since we had experience that they did not yet have,” Deakin says. As part of the program, CVRF and each village entered into a harvest contract in which each party gets 50 percent of

the ex-vessel value of the catch. The village gets half as owner, and “we get paid the other 50 percent to basically run the boats, catch [the crab], deal with the crew, all of that.”

Deakin credits BBEDC with laying the extensive groundwork necessary to launch the program. “We wouldn’t have been able to close a deal by the [end of 2020] without them having done this groundwork before.”

Deakin hopes that some of the villages will use this program as a launching off point. “Over the next nine to ten years, maybe they will take on boats and do some kind of other owned enterprise that’s owned by the tribe.”

Who Owns the Quota The benefit of ownership at any level is having more of an influence on the industry itself. “A lot of the CDQ companies want more ownership, more say, and more input in the fishery,” Deakin says. “All of our villages and all of the villages of all the CDQs participate in other ways in fisheries along the Bering Sea… so through owning bigger companies in Seattle, you can have a say to be more of a steward of the

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February 2022 | 23

resources than you would as just a passive participant.”

Deakin says one of the driving motivators behind the organization’s growth and investments is to be able to “Alaskanize” the fishery. “When it was rationalized and 10 percent was given (given for free, as they say) to Western Alaskans, to the CDQ groups, where was the other 90 percent given? It was given to industry, most of which was in Seattle,” Deakin says. “So you have non-Alaskans that own and manage the fishery, and they’ve done a great job. I mean, there’s a crab fishery here because a long time ago people from Seattle started going out and finding how to catch them and making markets for them where there weren’t markets before. So they earned that.”

He continues, “But at the same time, it was just given to them like it was given to us, and as these families retire, and a lot of them do, that quota and those boats need to be owned by Alaskans,

by CDQs, by Native corporations, even, but the resources needs to be in the hands of Western Alaskans, those that live in the region and have more than financial motivation to make sure the fishery stays healthy.”

Economic Impact CVRF earns profit for a purpose, and that is to build the community and economy in Western Alaska. The organization has a board of twenty, one elected from each community.

“Any board of twenty people should be pretty complicated, but everybody works for the common good and they look beyond their own needs to make sure the company’s doing the right thing,” Deakin says. “They’re very good advocates for the needs of their village.”

In addition to guidance from its board, CVRF also has some requirements as a CDQ on how it can invest the money it makes. “The main statutory restriction is to invest in Bering Sea fisheries… there’s an 80:20 limit of fisheries investments versus non-fisheries investments,” he explains.

However, program spending is much more open. “Program spending isn’t part of the 80:20 rule,” he says. “It’s pretty much all of your income that hasn’t been spent on investments and isn’t going into an investment fund or 24 | February 2022

for working capital. Every CDQ has a different plan on how much money is distributed every year and how they do it, and part of that would be because every region is different.”

“All of our villages and all of the villages of all the CDQs participate in other ways in fisheries along the Bering Sea… so through owning bigger companies in Seattle, you can have a say to be more of a steward of the resources than you would as just a passive participant.”

Eric Deakin, CEO, Coastal Villages Region Fund

One major difference between the regions is the amount of infrastructure investment that’s already been done, either by a CDQ, Native corporation, or other entity. Compared to some of the other regions, Deakin says the CVRF area has fewer roads and completed water projects, more housing problems, and a lack of mechanic shops and services, “so we’ve done programs that fill in the gaps.”

One such program was launched a year ago. CVRF partnered with American Honda Motor Company to open three Authorized Honda Service Centers in Eek, Scammon Bay, and Kipnuk.

“The subsistence lifestyle relies more on power sports vehicles than you think: people use four wheelers to get to berry picking, they use outboard motors to do subsistence fishing, they use snowmachines to do everything else—so when those things quit working, it matters.”

The major issue is that in the majority of the region’s communities, there is no shop or mechanic available to do repairs. “If the machine is new

enough, maybe you spend $800 round-trip to get it back to Anchorage to be fixed and then get it back,” Deakin says, but otherwise the cost of having the equipment repaired is prohibitive as well.

Specifically, there are a lot of Hondas in CVRF communities, in part because it participates in a program that helps subsidize those types of Honda vehicles. Called “People Propel,” the program helps residents purchase a variety of items, though “mostly it’s transportation,” Deakin says, “and we see, year to year, almost 150 to 200 Honda ATVs being bought through the program.”

CVRF approached Honda about solutions and were able to set up the first-of-their-kind service centers that are equipped with Honda-trained CVRF staff and original equipment manufacturer parts and tools.

In a press release about the launch of the service centers, Jacob Rivers, a mechanic/welder from Scammon Bay, said, “Honda has never had a program like this before, so we’re especially thrilled that they’re launching it to help support our communities.”

Deakin says the pandemic has slowed progress of the program. “We couldn’t really go out and be as proactive as we wanted to be about doing all of this,” he says. “We still handled some recalls and did some good things, but it hasn’t become what it can, yet.”

As CVRF looks forward, Deakin says it’s looking at yet another resource to build the region: its young people.

“Where we really need to focus, and where we were starting to focus, since right before COVID, was with the youth,” he says. As the pandemic started, CVRF launched Youth-toWork Maritime, a youth education and training program that aims to develop an interest in and skills for maritime careers. “We’d like to see more youth from the region (and more adults, too) get trained so they can deckhand, work their way up to first mate, so eventually we have captains from the region.”

Combining programs like these with additional quota ownership in the region is Deakin’s vision for more sustainable opportunities in Western Alaska. “It’s going to be a permanent benefit for all of our residents.”

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February 2022 | 25

Aurora Bear Photography

TOURISM

Ballet in the Sky

Aurora borealis attracts international tourists

By Isaac Stone Simonelli

T

he dazzling dance of the aurora borealis draws thousands of tourists from out of state to Fairbanks and the Far North every year.

While the pandemic has stifled the strategic development of international markets for the winter season in Alaska, there has been a surge in tourists from the Lower 48 seeking the exotic winter phenomenon while remaining in the United States.

“By far and away our greatest selling point that has enabled us to be so successful in our winter tourism has been the northern lights,” says Scott McCrea, the president and CEO of Explore Fairbanks.

Fairbanks has worked strategically to diversify its tourism market beyond the

26 | February 2022

typical summer months that define a lot of Alaska visitor industries, explains McCrea. The first major international tourism market Fairbanks tapped for the winter season was Japan more than fifteen years ago when Japan Airlines started direct chartered flights to the region. Explore Fairbanks worked closely with the Fairbanks International Airport and tour operators in Japan to secure the charters, which reached a peak of eighteen flights during the 2013/2014 winter season.

“That was really kind of our first big winter market, especially as it pertains to international visitation,” McCrea says.

Prior to the pandemic, the Interior was also seeing growth in the mainland China market.

“The Chinese market has an emerging middle class with increasing disposable income and a desire to come experience the aurora in Alaska,” says Sarah Leonard, the president and CEO of the Alaska Travel Industry Association.

“Germany is another key market for Alaska both in summer and winter,” she adds. “Through Travel Alaska’s cooperative marketing program, individual business can purchase ad space in digital and print media, which we are able to get into these international markets.”

McCrea points out that when working with foreign markets it's helpful to have personnel who speak the language and understand the culture. Explore

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Fairbanks produces marketing materials in Mandarin and Japanese. Additionally, it works with its tourism partners to do cultural training.

“Understanding cultural differences and being aware of how to make international guests comfortable is important,” Leonard says. “Tourism operators can focus on translations, transportation, having some familiar food on hand, as well as engage with local tourism offices like Explore Fairbanks and Visit Anchorage to use the tools they have on hand for business members.”

One of the challenges Interior Alaska faces in marketing itself as a premier northern lights destination is competition from Northern European regions. There’s a huge disparity in budget and marketing power as Fairbanks competes with other markets, such as Iceland, which is an entire country that pushes its northern lights tourism, McCrea explains.

However, travel restrictions since the onset of the pandemic have changed the demographics for tourists visiting Alaska. Diminished international travel has boosted Alaska tourism in some ways, as domestic travelers come from the Lower 48. This is a new trend that McCrea says he expects to continue after international travel returns to normal.

“We don't have the visitors from Japan coming. We don't have the visitors from China coming. But we're seeing Asian Americans, especially from the West Coast, who are coming here. We have tour companies that cater to that market,” McCrea says. “This year turned out much better than we anticipated with that domestic leisure market, most definitely in comparison to 2020 and, in some instances, even better than 2019.”

Away from Home, at Home Changes in demand due to the pandemic have been a boon to the more boutique aurora tourism outfits, such as Iniakuk Lake Wilderness Lodge and Aurora Bear Photography.

“It's actually stimulated business because we just happen to offer exclusive tours,” says John Gaedeke, the owner and operator of the Iniakuk Lake Wilderness Lodge. The lodge, located 200 miles north of Fairbanks and 60 www.akbizmag.com

miles north of the Arctic Circle, started as a hunting lodge that Gaedeke’s parents began building during their honeymoon in 1974.

“We haven't stopped working on the lodge for the past forty-five years, adding amenities and options for travelers and then really [promoting] wild, wild Alaska,” Gaedeke explains, noting that he’s transitioned the lodge to ecotourism while offering what he calls concierge guiding.

Frank Stelges moved from Germany to Alaska after seeing visitors stand in the cold desperately trying to photograph the northern lights.

Aurora Bear Photography

Gaedeke’s clientele are typically world travelers who are willing to pay extra for a premium, all-inclusive experience.

“That world has gotten smaller with COVID and restrictions and just common sense,” Gaedeke says, “so many people from the Lower 48 come up here, and it's really a foreign vacation to them.”

Even before the pandemic, Gaedeke’s primary market was the United States, though he saw clients from all over the world, including Papua New Guinea and Russia, land in Fairbanks on an international flight and then board a contracted ski-plane to make the hop out to his remote lodge.

Gaedeke says he was caught off guard by how many Scandinavians booked stays at the lodge, given that their home countries also offer aurora Alaska Business

viewing opportunities.

“They just say that there's no kind of space like Alaska,” Gaedeke says. “In Norway, Sweden, and Finland, you're always seeing houses. You're always on a road somewhere. If you take out a dog team or you cross country ski, you're hitting a trail within fifteen to twenty minutes. I can offer them a week on a dog team without crossing a road or seeing anyone.”

Access to the internet has allowed Iniakuk Lake Wilderness Lodge to gain traction in international markets. It allows tour operators to not worry about juggling time zones to set up phone calls since such communications can be handled just as easily through email.

“And then the same with the website,” Gaedeke says. “It just sits there and it's live and so that has made a huge difference for the business. A small operation like ours can really exist and not necessarily compete with the huge tourism operation but offer… another thing on the menu for travelers.”

He says that operations catering to larger groups of thirty to sixty people seem to have more of an appeal in the Asian markets, while his business does better internationally with the European market.

More Than Aurora The winter tourism markets in the Interior are built around the fact that Fairbanks has some of the best northern lights viewing in the world. “But you’ve got to have more than that,” McCrea says. “That led to development of a lot of winter products and tours.”

These include tours that offer dog mushing, ice fishing, and snow machining, as well as cultural opportunities, such as museums.

“It's kind of built around the northern lights, but we have all these supporting tours, activities, and events that can make the visitors' time in Interior Alaska as memorable as possible,” McCrea says.

The aurora viewing season is roughly defined as August 21 to April 21—a month before the autumn equinox until a month after the spring equinox.

Most nights during the season, Frank Stelges, the owner and operator of Aurora Bear, brings guests to his home, where they learn how to photograph the aurora. The 144-acre property sits February 2022 | 27

When the northern lights aren’t cooperating, Frank Stelges teaches guests how to photograph “light paintings” by whirling around burning steel wool.

Aurora Bear Photography

Daytime activities attract Scandinavian tourists, even though they have their own northern lights. In Alaska they find unmatched remoteness. “I can offer them a week on a dog team without crossing a road or seeing anyone,” says lodge owner John Gaedeke.

Iniakuk Lake Wilderness Lodge

on a high, north-facing ridge about 25 miles north of Fairbanks.

“We do the tours here in our private home,” says Stelges, who runs the business with his wife, Miriam. “So you sit with us and the four dogs we have on our sofa with a glass of wine in front of the fireplace and a huge panorama window, and then we talk about Alaska and, of course, photography.”

Stelges, who moved from Germany to Alaska five years ago on an investors visa, was inspired to open the 28 | February 2022

photography school after witnessing so many people standing around in the cold desperately trying to capture the magic of the northern lights on the two to three nights they were in town.

Before the pandemic, Stelges was used to hosting guests from New Zealand, India, Taiwan, China, and South America. “Now, with COVID, our main client is definitely guests from the Lower 48,” Stelges says.

Aurora Bear did lose an entire month of bookings in March 2020 due to the

pandemic, but since then, the small group nature—four to six clients—and responsible approach to COVID-safety protocols have allowed the business to thrive. “Last winter was actually really good, and also this winter,” Stelges says.

The tour itself starts with a fireside presentation about the science behind the northern lights to help people understand what they’re seeing dancing above them, Stelges explains. Then the conversation moves to photography, which has varying

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content based on the experience level of the photographers. Finally, everyone heads out into the cold to get handson tips as they capture the aurora.

Of course, the aurora—a natural phenomenon—doesn’t always show up.

In those cases, Stelges teaches people to shoot light painting, fireworks, or burning steel wool so that they can put their newly gained skills into practice for when the aurora does appear.

“As good of a destination as it is to see the northern lights, it is Mother Nature controlled—so that means there's no guarantee,” McCrea says. This makes night dog mushing and ice fishing trips even more attractive because, if the aurora doesn’t appear, there is still the opportunity to enjoy wild Alaska.

Explore Fairbanks does work hard to ensure guests have the best chances of seeing the northern lights. One of the most important recommendations is to stay at least three nights. “The science shows that that will increase the chance of seeing the northern lights by about 90 percent,” McCrea explains.

Additionally, visitors need to be prepared to stay up late, as much of the best viewing occurs deep into the night,

far away from city lights. Fairbanks offers a good jump-off point for viewings, whether that’s a 30-minute drive out of town or a plane ride to a remote lodge.

Global Exposure “It's becoming more and more of a bucket list thing that people want to experience,” McCrea says. “It's just that it's such a natural phenomenon that few places can offer.”

Stelges thinks that the growth of social media has played a role in popularizing the northern lights. He says that he has a surprisingly large number of Brazilians following his Instagram.

“Fairbanks is, of course, a great location with affordable hotels and a nice airport,” Stelges says.

Winter tourism generates 45 percent of direct visitor expenditures in Fairbanks, disproportionately higher than visitors spend during the summer, according to Explore Fairbanks.

The intentional, strategic diversification of tourism in the Interior from primarily a summer market to a year-round market required significant investments of resources in research, marketing, and

infrastructure development over a long period of time.

However, Gaedeke says that Alaska, as an entire state, is still not doing enough to push winter tourism.

“What we have here is an amazing thing,” Gaedeke says. “If any other state had this, they would be working a bit more to promote it.”

He said he’d like to see a more holistic approach to promoting the aurora, including pushes to limit light pollution that can hamper visitors’ experience of the light show.

While the aurora is the flashiest attraction for domestic and international tourists, Gaedeke explains that the remote, rugged nature of the state is what sets it apart as a destination. Value-added experiences during the day, from dog sledding to snow machining, can provide roundthe-clock entertainment and once-ina-life-time experiences for visitors.

“It seems strange to me that people come up and sleep all day just to get up at night and watch the aurora,” Gaedeke says. “I just tell people don't sleep—enjoy your day and your night.”

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February 2022 | 29

OIL & GAS

The Ups and Downs of Oil Global markets continue to jostle Alaska’s oil prices

By Isaac Stone Simonelli

O

il price responsiveness to the fundamental economic principles of supply and demand remains on full display as the pandemic drags on with new variants and subsequent market scares.

“At the onset of the pandemic, when governments around the world started implementing shutdowns and stay-athome orders, the demand for petroleum products just bottomed out,” says Nick Szymoniak, venture development lead for Alaska Gasline Development Corporation and a former consultant for the McKinley Research Group.

People stopped driving. People stopped flying. There was an unprecedented plummet in demand for petroleum.

“The demand dropped off and we had way too much supply, and at one point we had negative oil prices,” explains Kara Moriarty, the president and CEO of the Alaska Oil & Gas Association.

On April 20, 2020, prices for the benchmark grade of West Texas Intermediate crude oil dropped $55.90 to -$37.63 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was the first and only time a contract closed at a negative value, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

Even before the pandemic hit, there was already downward pressure on oil prices, with Saudi Arabia and Russia both stating that the countries would increase production, Szymoniak explains.

The changes in prices are mostly due to speculation and the balance of near-present supply and demand—even beyond the pandemic.

30 | February 2022

There is very little significant storage of oil—outside of the federal Strategic Petroleum Reserve—which results in product being pumped out of the ground and put in short-term storage before being sent directly to refineries and into the market.

Szymoniak says, “Without being able to warehouse product, like you might see in other markets, other commodities, the result was the price just absolutely fell out.”

And it doesn’t take wild swings in the amount of supply or demand to affect prices.

“If demand exceeds oil production even by marginal amounts, that'll have pretty significant upward pressure on price,” Szymoniak says. “[Production] is almost all fixed cost. So once you have a well that's producing, the incremental cost to continue production is pretty low.”

Echo of Recession The pandemic wasn’t the first time the bottom has dropped out on oil prices, but the way it did so was unprecedented. Oil prices in Alaska peaked in 2014 at more than $100 per barrel before crashing to near-record lows, triggering a statewide economic recession. That crisis was waning when the COVID-19 pandemic arrived.

“Late 2019/2020, things started to get a little active again,” says Neal Fried, an economist with the State of Alaska. “We all expected 2020 to be a good year.”

Instead, prices went “places that they had never been before” and activity dropped off, leading to significant layoffs in the oil and gas sector, Fried explains.

A couple of small fields were shut-in— though they’re back online now—both on the North Slope and Cook Inlet. “We had a period of time where there were absolutely no rigs running for the first time,” Moriarty says.

Production dropping off forced companies to be more efficient, she explains.

“Even though prices are up, the jobs haven't followed yet,” Moriarty says, “because we've learned how to be more efficient.” Industry-wide belt tightening has continued as long as capital markets are wary of financing oil projects, she adds.

Shocks to the petroleum sector ripple out to the government sector. For FY2021, state and local governments are estimated to collect more than $2 billion in revenue, royalties, and taxes based on the average price of $54 a barrel, Moriarty explains—significantly lower than the projection of $3 billion for FY2022.

“When prices crash, the state has less money,” Moriarty says. “In the height of COVID, we paid zero corporate income tax, which means we weren’t making money, but we still paid royalty production tax and property tax.”

Those alternative levies amount to a hedge for public sector treasuries.

“The state and local governments still received about $2 billion in FY2020.

Even in a year that the industry makes nothing,” she says.

Lagging Recovery Since the onset of the pandemic, oil prices have started to recover. Prices

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were fairly strong throughout 2021.

“The price recovery came from demand recovery,” Szymoniak says. “People started flying again, and other aspects of the economy also took off.”

Nonetheless, the oil and gas sector in Alaska has been slow to respond compared to the rest of the country, Fried explains. “The rest of the country has seen more drilling activity and just more oil industry activity than we have for the higher oil prices,” Fried says. “But that's pretty typical because we're very, very project based here.”

Unlike the Permian Basin in Texas or the Bakken Formation in North Dakota, Alaska projects take a lot more lead time and investment due to both their scale and remoteness.

“It takes planning. We don't just go out and drive some big trucks and drill holes in the ground,” Fried says. “We are beginning to see some uptick and activity now, but very little.”

In addition to the usual lag that Alaska experiences in the oil and gas industry, uncertainty around the federal leasing program and the court decision for the Willow Project have both caused delays in the recovery, Moriarty says.

Senator Lisa Murkowski, Senator Dan Sullivan, and Congressman Don Young all spoke out against the scrapping of essential permitting for the Willow Project, a multi-billion dollar expansion of ConocoPhillips’s oil and gas operations in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A).

“This District Court Order vacating key approvals and permits for Willow is just plain wrong,” Senator Murkowski said in an August news release. “In partnership with communities on the North Slope, ConocoPhillips Alaska has been responsibly producing oil from the NPR-A region for decades under the highest environmental standards and this proposed project will be no different. Although this is a setback for Willow, it is not the end. Even the Biden administration has come to understand what Alaskans have always known—that the Willow Project must move forward.”

Gasline Hopes Undimmed Unlike oil prices in Alaska, which are strongly dependent on the global market, natural gas prices in the Last Frontier exist in their own bubble—at least for now. This is primarily because

most of the gas comes from Cook Inlet for domestic utilities in a relatively static market.

“That's a captured resource, and that's not exported,” Fried says. “Most of that is being used for local consumption.

And it's very heavily regulated because it's used for utilities.”

The stable prices in the Last Frontier— mostly fluctuating with seasonal demand—remain despite Henry Hub natural gas prices swinging from more than $4 per million BTU in 2018 down to $1.63 in June of 2020 back up to more than $5.50 in October 2021.

“For the last almost ten years there's been no connection between the Cook Inlet natural gas market and the world natural gas market,” Szymoniak says.

The Alaska Gasline Development Corporation (AGDC) is working hard change that. Formed by the legislature in 2010 and acting since 2013 as an independent public corporation, AGDC has focused on an in-state pipeline to help unlock the vast gas resources on the North Slope and bring them to a global market.

Szymoniak explains that, because of the amount of infrastructure

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February 2022 | 31

“There's also a flip side for Alaskans… when the commodity price is higher, the products that we buy—whether that's your home heating oil, your fuel, your lights, your gasoline, your snowmachine, your fish, your boats, your airplanes—the price of that commodity goes up too.”

Kara Moriarty President and CEO Alaska Oil & Gas Association

32 | February 2022

needed to move natural gas off the North Slope, there needs to be a strong LNG export market established for the gas. Nonetheless, the project would also provide lower prices for natural gas to Alaska communities, including to city centers, such as Fairbanks and Anchorage.

Alaska has been eyeing a natural gas pipeline for decades, working especially hard to develop markets for the resources in Asia, but the economics have never quite penciled out.

Szymoniak says that’s changing. “It very much pencils now,” Szymoniak says, based on recent global gas prices.

“It's a highly economic project.”

Paying the Price While delays in developments in Alaska affect future prospects of jobs and revenue in the state, they play less of a direct role in current oil and gas prices.

“The big question is what's the supply gonna look like? What's OPEC going to do?” Fried says.

The role OPEC, Russia, and the Permian Basin have in setting oil prices is not an entirely new story, as they can all react quickly to changing markets and produce enough to move those markets.

“Today, as demand has picked up and supply hasn't been able to catch up, prices have gone up,” Moriarty says.

“As there was a little scare of the new variants and what that was going to mean to demand, people got a little shaky and prices went down.”

In December, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) pointed toward the uncertainty tied to COVIDvariants. The Omicron variant has introduced additional unpredictability into oil markets, and this uncertainty is reflected in the recent increase in oil price volatility.

“It is not yet clear how Omicron will affect oil markets and the broader economy. One of the most likely markets to be affected is jet fuel, and some flights have already been canceled because of the variant,” EIA stated on its website in December.

Nonetheless, EIA expects global oil demand to rise by 3.5 billion barrels per day in 2022.

In a move to combat the rising costs of gasoline as oil production

lags behind demand, the Biden administration in November authorized the release of 50 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve “to lower prices for Americans and address the mismatch between demand exiting the pandemic and supply.”

Gasoline prices averaged $3.39 per gallon in November, $1.29 higher than in November 2020—and the highest since September 2014.

The Biden administration’s move was met by sharp criticism from Congressman Young. “The release of this oil is a clear acknowledgment of the need to increase domestic supply.

So what I don’t understand is why this President thinks it is a better strategy to raid our coffers rather than put forth a real energy solution,” Young wrote in a news release.

“I am frustrated by the lack of common sense among this nation’s leadership,” he added. “The Chukchi and Beaufort Seas hold 27 billion barrels of oil, the 10-02 area of Arctic National Wildlife Refuge holds roughly 10.6 billion barrels, and the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska has 2.7 billion barrels and already has infrastructure in place to bring the oil to market!”

While high oil prices are a boon to the industry, its workers, and government treasuries, they also have a near-immediate negative impact for consumers.

“There's also a flip side for Alaskans,” Moriarty says, “when the commodity price is higher, the products that we buy—whether that's your home heating oil, your fuel, your lights, your gasoline, your snowmachine, your fish, your boats, your airplanes—the price of that commodity goes up too.”

Higher energy costs have a disproportionate impact on some rural communities in Alaska.

“I think it's always important to remember that Alaska has a lot of communities that don't have very much income and pay very high energy costs,” Szymoniak says. “So when oil prices go up, we need to kind of temper our celebration of the extra revenue, and make sure that those who have real hard problems paying for energy, when it gets cold like this, are considered.”

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

Elite-VB, LLC Back in Alaska with new carrier options

W

ith a corporate office in Kailua, Hawaii and new satellite location in Anchorage, Pamela Whitfield is no stranger to Alaska. Whitfield, the owner of Elite-VB, is a twenty-five-year voluntary benefits veteran who spent eight years establishing accounts with her team at a Midtown office. Previous clients include Native corporations, oil and gas companies, nonprofits, and government entities. Under her agency’s leadership, more than 25,000 new policies were written between 2013 and 2020 in more than 150 new Alaska accounts (for disability, accident, critical illness, life, and other employee-paid options).

“Enrollments were always designed for high participation, utilizing custom websites, videos, and more, taking the burden off of HR,” Whitfield says. “Best of all, as a broker, our services are at no cost to your organization.”

Offering the Best Carriers Elite-VB’s Anchorage office is armed with cutting-edge technology and new carrier options that make the old ones look obsolete. “It’s clear that representing one carrier isn’t putting the client’s best interests first,” Whitfield says. “Elite-VB believes in bringing the BEST carriers to the market based on your company’s specific needs and demographics. It just makes sense, and with premiums

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decreasing, wouldn’t your employees love better benefits at a lower cost?”

Besides, three in four employees consider voluntary benefits as a deciding factor for whether they work for and stay with an employer in 2022, according to Corestream’s “2021 State of Voluntary Benefits” report. Recruiting and retention are the most serious issue facing Alaska (and Hawaii) businesses. “No business is immune to this ‘great tsunami’ of workers leaving the workplace,” Whitfield says.

While Elite-VB has access to outstanding benefits counselors, virtual solutions make voluntary benefits more accessible and feasible to implement.

Whitfield feels virtual solutions that are effective—compelling, dynamic, and custom-designed—are the best way to communicate and enroll voluntary clients in 2022 and beyond. Elite-VB can evaluate an organization’s current program and ensure the benefits are relevant to employees’ needs, easy to process, and affordable. “I’ll make sure your employees get the best bang for their buck,” she says.

Making a Difference Whitfield is committed to making a difference in the lives of employees and the community. She previously served as president of the Alaska Association of Health Underwriters and garnered the 2016 BBB Torch Award for Ethics.

Alaska Business

During the pandemic, her proclivity for helping further intensified. In 2020, Elite-VB produced masks for the Alaska Native Hospital and the Pioneer Home and facilitated COVID-related training for human resources professionals.

Now Whitfield is helping Hawaii business owners, brokers, and unions implement COVID-compliant, virtual voluntary benefit programs as she did in Alaska in 2013. With new variants emerging, it’s even more critical for employers everywhere to take a fresh look at voluntary benefits. Whitfield admonishes: “COVID-19 changed everything. Do not go into 2022 with a voluntary benefits program that was designed in 2016. New carriers provide mental health and telemedicine, and it does not take more than an hour to see if your current program meets your employees’ needs—and contributes to your hiring and retention goals.”

For more information, contact: Elite-VB, LLC Pamela A. Whitfield, Owner 926 W. 11th Ave., #12 Anchorage, Alaska 99501 Cell: (425) 443-1669 Hawaii Office: (808) 762-8746 pamela@elite-vb.com elite-vb.com elite-vb-alaska.com February 2022 | 33

A RC H I T EC T U R E & E N G I N E E R I N G

Architecture & Engineering: ‘Reimagining the Possible’ A

t Alaska Business Publishing Co., we like architects and engineers. On a certain level it’s selfish: whenever we reach out to architecture and engineering firms and specialists in Alaska to be sources for our articles, there are always a handful who respond in a timely and organized way. Once we get them into an interview, they are happy to provide details about projects, explain terms and concepts, and share their expertise—and their super cool concept art.

And on another level… it’s also selfish, as they design the world around us, from the computers we work on to the office buildings and homes we live in and the bridges we drive over to get back and forth between the two. Sometimes the projects we report on seem far away—and certainly, 800 miles is nothing to sneeze at—but even those far-off pipelines and ice pads directly affect our lives through the economy they support.

So it is with a smile (and a highly engineered keyboard) that we are again using our February issue to celebrate architecture and engineering, both in this special section and in tangential content throughout.

Within the special section itself, we’re once again pleased to present short bios on the Engineer of the Year and the Engineering Excellence project of the year award nominees for Anchorage; the winners will be announced at the 2022 EWeek Banquet on Saturday, February 26.

We also have an incredible piece by guest author Peter Briggs, founder and owner of Corvus Design, a full-spectrum landscape architecture, planning, and industrial design firm that has the mission to “craft meaningful people-based places.”

The rest of the special section is rounded out with a look at HVAC needs for marijuana-based businesses, engineering for 100-year events (and unexpected trucks), planning for indoor green spaces, a look at the differences between architecture and engineering, and our cover story, which dives deep into the redesign of 601 W. Fifth Avenue, formerly the KeyBank Plaza.

Whether you’re reading this on a phone or holding a print magazine in your hand, take a second to appreciate the decades of architecture and engineering that have “reimagined the possible,” allowing us to live in a safer, more beautiful, and highly functional world.

34 | February 2022

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

Carter Damaska | Alaska Business Publishing

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February 2022 | 35

A RC H I T EC T U R E & E N G I N E E R I N G

PROUD SUBSIDIARY OF CALISTA CORPORATION

Wael M. Hassan

D

r. Wael M. Hassan is an associate professor of structural earthquake engineering at UAA. He obtained his PhD, MA, and post-doctorate at

University of California, Berkeley, and structural engineering BS/MS at Cairo University. He is a California-licensed Professional Civil/Structural Engineer.

His research interests are simulation and large-scale testing of structures, seismic assessment of existing construction, and performance-based seismic design (PBSD). His PhD was a part of a National Science Foundation project that led Los Angeles to issue a new law to enforce retrofitting its 1,500 non-ductile buildings. Hassan’s seismic assessment research and models were adopted as national standards.

He served as an invited lecturer at top schools, including University of Southern California, University of Tokyo, and University of British Columbia. He authored more than fifty

peer-reviewed papers and supervised numerous theses in earthquake engineering. Hassan taught a wide variety of courses at Berkeley, UC Irvine, UAA, Santa Clara University, and the American University in Cairo.

His industry experience is extensive; he established and led the US PBSD of skyscrapers practice at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, San Francisco, the designers of some world's tallest buildings. He served on many US code committees and co-led the field reconnaissance mission after the 2018 Anchorage Earthquake. He produced an extensive report receiving national attention, co-chaired a major conference sharing damage lessons, and developed a seismic risk mitigation strategic plan that was key in proposing seismic policy changes in Alaska.

Matt Leistico

M

att Leistico joined PDC Engineers (now RESPEC) in 2002 and has more than twenty-one years of experience in engineering, design, and construction throughout the state of Alaska. He is a region supervisor and an associate of the firm. Leistico is experienced in project management and facilities HVAC systems design as well as extensive special systems work, including facility fuel supplies, sprinkler system design, and HEMP (High Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse) shielding.

Leistico has participated in and led numerous projects at various US

Department of Defense project sites throughout Alaska, including new construction and renovation of existing facilities. He has an excellent working relationship with the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and has a strong working knowledge of USACE design standards and project procedures. His work on military installations in Alaska touches every major installation, such as Clear Space Force Station, Fort Wainwright, Fort Greely, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, and Eielson Air Force Base. Additionally, Leistico is now involved in several projects with the US Coast Guard and its installation at Air Station Kodiak.

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A RC H I T EC T U R E & E N G I N E E R I N G

Engineer of the Year Nominees

36 | February 2022

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

projects: researched, analyzed, and recommended robust barrier systems along the Dalton Highway to protect the Trans Alaska Pipeline System from errant trucks; calibrated the Federal Highway Administration’s roadside analysis program for Alaska’s crash data and conditions; and led the effort to analyze and update the curve warning signs on Alaska’s major highways. In addition, she served as the consultant lead for the diagnostic team study for the future Port MacKenzie rail extension.

On top of her project work, Miranda presented at the 2021 Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) international conference and won “Best Paper” from ITE Western District. She volunteered for Smart Girls Rock 2019 and continues to volunteer for Girl Scouts, her church, and her children’s school.

Clear SFS Long Rang Discrimination Radar. Photo credit MDA.

J

essica Miranda has more than eighteen years of engineering experience, beginning as a student intern with Alaska State Parks. Upon receiving her BS in civil

engineering from UAA, she continued at State Parks for ten years, starting as a staff engineer-in-training and working up to project manager. Recognizing that her interests and talents lie in design rather than management, she moved on to a consultant coordinator and design role with Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, and later to the state Division of Oil and Gas as a technical engineer. For the past six years, Miranda has been a project engineer with Kinney Engineering.

Miranda is passionate about designing solutions that improve safety, as well as recreational and economic opportunities. She designed the recent Potter Marsh boardwalk, Glen Alps/Flattop overlook and additional parking, and Bird Creek Campground.

Additionally, she has worked on several unique transportation

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February 2022 | 37

A RC H I T EC T U R E & E N G I N E E R I N G

Jessica Miranda

N

ichelle Smith was raised in Anchorage and earned her BS in civil engineering from UAA and MBS in construction management

from Auburn University.

Smith started her career as an intern with the US Army Corps of Engineers.

She went on to become a project engineer working on projects in Alaska, California, and Arizona. She’s worked on many exciting and diverse projects, including renovation and new construction for airports, marine facilities, beach erosions and slope protection, border fencing, Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities, Veterans Administration hospitals, and FEMA emergency facilities. She currently works as a senior engineer with R&M Consultants.

In 2002, Smith was recognized by Black Engineer magazine as a ModernDay Technology Leader.

Smith recently served as the fulltime on-site field inspector for the

construction of the new Mertarvik townsite (relocation site for Newtok Village). The project included working with the contractor and the Department of Defense Military Innovative Readiness Training program. This new construction included thirteen homes, townsite roads, power plant with overhead distribution, sewage and water treatment plants, bulk fuel facility, landfill, a school, and quarry development.

Smith has remained active in the community since she was a teenager.

She is involved in numerous professional and volunteer organizations, most recently volunteering for Habitat for Humanity, Friends of the Library, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention-Alaska Chapter, WPLAK, and NAWIC.

Olga Stewart

O

lga Stewart was born and raised in rural western New York on a family dairy farm. She joined a newly-fashioned Integrated Business and Engineering program at Lehigh University, earning a business degree in 2005 and a materials science engineering degree in 2006.

38 | February 2022

Looking for adventure, she drove her untrustworthy Saab hatchback to Alaska in 2007 and fell into environmental engineering consulting, getting her PE in 2013. It has been a good fit.

Stewart works for Geosyntec Consultants on a variety of projects for several clients, spanning site characterization, remediation, environmental compliance, and spill prevention. She excels in utilizing data and data visualization to develop forward-thinking, strategic, risk-based remedial approaches for clients.

She highly values fieldwork and has developed innovative mobile solutions to better provide field teams with data at their fingertips for informed field decision-making. Stewart helped execute three large field projects between April and September: a PCBcleanup in Delta Junction, a heavy metals risk assessment on Ogliuga Island, and a fuel site characterization on Great Sitkin Island. Other notable

work includes a trichloroethene site in Aniak, several National Park Service and FAA fuel sites across Alaska, North Slope oil field sites, US Coast Guard Kodiak sites, and several Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation and US Army Corps of Engineers sites across the state.

Involvement in the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) has been an integral part of Stewart’s career. She joined SWE as a freshman at Lehigh, transferring to the Twin Tiers Section of SWE while working at Corning, and then transferring to the Greatland Section when she moved to Alaska. She has maintained a strong connection, serving as president from 2017 to 2020.

She has had great mentors over her career and tries to pay that forward with outreach to students, including via Dimond High’s Smart Girls Rock, Anchorage School District Gifted Mentor Program, and SWE’s High School Scholarship Program.

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

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A RC H I T EC T U R E & E N G I N E E R I N G

Nichelle Smith

Design that builds communities.

Bringing our clients’ visions for thriving, vibrant communities to life and helping make Alaska the best place to live, work and play.

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A RC H I T EC T U R E & E N G I N E E R I N G

Project of the Year Nominees

40 | February 2022

Ahtna Engineering Services Source and Incidental Contaminate CON/HTRW Remedial Action, Davis AFB Cantonment Area

A

htna Engineering Services successfully completed a Containerized Hazardous, Toxic, or Radioactive Waste removal action (RmA) and limited site investigation at Davis Air Force Base Cantonment Area FUDS during the 2019 and 2020 field seasons. The project was located on the remote western side of Adak Island within the Alaska Maritime Wildlife Refuge, and access was limited to only helicopters and boats. Boat access was constrained to roughly 30 feet of usable beach influenced by strong winds and rip tides. On-site conditions were very poor, with no available roads and extremely soft soil that would not support wheeled vehicles of any type.

The RmA included the removal of two above ground storage tanks (AST); 8.18 tons of drums and drum carcasses; 4,054 tons of soil contaminated by petroleum, oil, and lubricant (POL); 445 gallons of POL-liquid contents from drums and ASTs; 0.55 tons of broken lead-acid battery debris and lead-shielded cable; 11.1 tons of lead-contaminated soil; 21.6 tons of cadmium contaminated soil; 0.26 tons of electronics debris; 525 linear feet of pipeline; and two generators from the site. Ahtna successfully completed the work through careful planning efforts, gaining access using landing craft and helicopters and the extensive use of tracked heavy equipment and crane mats to minimize ground impacts. Though the COVID-19 pandemic struck just prior to the 2020 field season, Ahtna completed the work and demobilized successfully using a rigorous safety, testing, and monitoring program; remote camp; and limited vessel uses.

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A RC H I T EC T U R E & E N G I N E E R I N G

Reid Middleton F-35A Beddown at Eielson Air Force Base

R

RESPEC Moose Creek Water Expansion Project

eid Middleton provided structural engineering for the beddown of the new F-35A Lightning II aircraft at Eielson Air Force Base (AFB), near Fairbanks, creating a premier secure enclave and training range for the United States Air Force (USAF) with the highest concentration of combat-coded fifth-generation fighter aircraft in the United States. The 354th Fighter Wing operates and maintains these aircraft and is critical to the USAF Arctic Strategy of vigilance in the Arctic domain.

Reid Middleton was integral to six structures in the beddown operation: design of a sixteen-bay aircraft hangar/ weather shelter; renovation of the Weapons Load Training Building; renovation of a Logistics Support eight-bay hangar; and assembling Design-Build RFPs for a new sixteen-bay aircraft hangar/weather shelter, a new 8,000-square-foot Intelligence Office Building with high security requirements, and a new four-bay fuel truck shelter near the weather shelters.

During the design and planning process, Reid Middleton helped to identify that the specified “weather shelters” would not work in Alaska. For both F-35A hangars, the team was creative in meeting the weather shelter construction budget while providing the enclosure and conditioning needed in northern Alaska.

The 4.5-year timeline for design and construction of more than twenty new buildings, runways, and taxiways was aggressive and required creative contracting, inspired design, and cooperative construction. Reid Middleton strategically used materials, contractors, and suppliers to ensure that the created designs have the shortest timeline possible. The first aircraft were delivered to completed structures in April 2021, and the remaining fifty-two are joining them at Eielson AFB regularly. www.akbizmag.com

P

eople in Moose Creek, southeast of North Pole, faced a crisis: groundwater contamination.

Poly-fluoroalkyl substances, used for firefighting at airfields, had leaked from neighboring Eielson Air Force Base. When the contamination to local groundwater was discovered in 2014, the US Air Force (USAF) stepped in. They wanted to immediately rectify the problem.

USAF began treating 200 water systems by giving users granulated activated carbon filters. However, maintaining that treatment became unsustainable. USAF looked for an alternative and chose to extend the water system from the City of North Pole (CNP).

USAF approached CNP, committing to pay all costs, which amounts to $37 million. CNP requested planning and construction move quickly. They trusted RESPEC, working as PDC Engineers, to do the job, contacting us in fall 2018.

RESPEC moved quickly to design the expansion. We estimated the water demands of Moose Creek, evaluated CNP’s water system capacity, and reviewed land status. Then we designed well upgrades, a water treatment plant and pumphouse, a steel storage tank, and 18 miles of transmission and distribution mains. Next, RESPEC developed materials specifications and acquired permits. To advance, we earned approval from eight government agencies.

RESPEC went from concept to submittal to permitting in fifteen months. It normally takes three years. We helped USAF and CNP conclude the project by inspecting construction.

By 2022, people in Moose Creek will have clean water, thanks to a herculean effort from all involved.

Alaska Business

February 2022 | 41

A RC H I T EC T U R E & E N G I N E E R I N G

Downtown Glacier A new vision for an old building

By Scott Rhode

T

he KeyBank Plaza in downtown Anchorage is no more.

The magnitude 7.1 earthquake on November 30, 2018, killed it.

Oh, the nine-story building still stands at the corner of Fifth Avenue and F Street, but earthquake damage left it uninhabitable, so KeyBank has vacated as anchor tenant.

Now the building is known by its address as 601 W. Fifth.

Along with the new name, the building is getting a new look.

“The 601 building takes the precedent of the old structure and tries to retrofit it… inspired loosely by Alaska glaciers,” says Derrick Chang, general manager of 601 5th Avenue LLC. Based on that inspiration, the Seattle-based architecture firm Perkins&Will drew a design that strips the skin off the building, reinforces the skeleton, and puts a glazed covering on 33,000 square feet of new rentable space.

Slated for completion in summer 2022, the renovation resembles the shiny, oblique angles of 188 Northern Lights, also built and owned by Chang and his family through their development firm, Peach Investments. Whereas that ten-story office tower on top of a three-level parking garage cost about $40 million to build from scratch in 2008, the renovation of 601 W. Fifth has a price tag of at least $30 million, which pays for updated mechanical systems, floor-to-ceiling windows, and potential connections to the Egan Convention Center (more on that later).

However, Chang says unforeseen increases in the cost of freight, materials, and labor have driven the total closer to $35 million. In a way, tearing it all down might have been easier.

Just Like Starting Over The tower was originally built for Alaska Mutual Savings Bank in 1972, more than a decade before the Egan Center across F Street and the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts across Fifth Avenue. Even without the 2018 quake, the building was due for an upgrade.

Brad Hinthorne, managing principal for Perkins&Will, describes the ‘70s vintage design as “precast concrete with strip windows, kind of a V shape, [and a] blank wall facing the parking lot.” Not very attractive for new tenants.

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“We are trying to make this into an iconic signature class-A office building,” says Chang, “and I think the architecture, the shape, and also the orientation really speaks to that.” As the owner, Chang had to decide how much of the old building to keep and how much to scrap.

Hinthorne explains, “They look at the pros and cons of their asset and they say, ‘What if we left the skin the way it is and only did some repairs?’ and ‘What if we completely re-did it? If we re-did it, can we also add square footage?

Or can we not?’… And also how does it compare to the cost of starting over, rebuilding new?”

The decision is based largely on the condition of the existing structure, but that analysis was complicated by a lack of detail. Mike Fierro, associate principal with Reid Middleton and the structural engineer of record on 601 W. Fifth, found only nine sheets of structural blueprints from the original construction, compared to fortyfive sheets for the renovation. “When we’re going back and renovating those old buildings,” Fierro says, “it’s always difficult to figure out ‘Why did they do this?’ or ‘How would they do that?’”

The architect’s job is to walk the client through the options. Hinthorne says, “If you added it all up and looked at the price tag of doing all of those things, it’s less expensive than doing new and probably more valuable, at the end of the day, than just putting some BandAids on it.” Most clients would’ve done the bare minimum, Hinthorne believes, but Chang was convinced that a new skin on old bones would solve several problems at once for about the same cost.

“It’s a tough leap, right, to go from ‘Do we just renovate the building?’ to entirely new skin, new vision, new image, and a new presence,” Hinthorne says, adding, “Good for them.”

The “prow” splits below the second floor into a nearly horizontal beam (lower right), designed only to carry wind stresses, and the “Jenga Column” (lower left) which holds most of the weight. If it ever fails, the “belt trusses” (middle right) can redistribute the load.

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Seismic Shift Some no-brainers had to be fixed anyway. The building’s water service, for example, required a secondary line for firefighting, which had to be installed under F Street, according to LaQuita Chmielowski, senior land use planning manager with DOWL Engineering.

Chmielowski says DOWL was brought in to 601 W. Fifth early on because 44 | February 2022

CJ Hollwedel (left) and Neil Barghava (foreground right) of Neeser Construction stand by the opening where a multi-level bridge might someday connect to the neighboring Egan Convention Center.

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of land use planning, entitlements, and rights-of-way issues. The bulk of civil engineering, she says, involved coordinating between the state right of way on Fifth Avenue and the municipal right of way on F Street.

The renovation also allows for asbestos abatement, says Neil Bhargava, senior project manager for Neeser Construction. The general contractor started demolition in July 2020, chipping concrete panels off the steel columns. By November 2020, almost nothing was left but a framework of girders, slab floors, and the solid concrete wall on the west side that the entire structure ties into.

To be clear, plans for renovation predated the 2018 earthquake.

Engineers from Reid Middleton had been sketching options for building add-ons since May of that year. “The engineer they were talking to at the time said they should probably tear it down and start over, which in hindsight isn’t a bad idea,” Fierro says with a laugh.

The initial analysis concluded that a seismic upgrade was not necessary but would be a good idea. After the quake, though, it became essential. “The north

The double-height ninth floor thrusts toward the Chugach Mountains.

Rearranging mechanical systems allowed the design to literally raise the roof.

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tower was damaged,” Fierro says. “I went out and said, ‘Yeah, this shouldn’t be opened to the public.’”

Where the concrete cracked, some temporary strengthening was added, but Fierro says a full upgrade would have been too expensive. Therefore, he came up with what he calls a “clever approach” that had been tried on a previous building: steel bracing that pulls the structural load away from the west wall.

Hinthorne says, “In this case it was the perfect storm of, you know, there was some seismic improvements that were needed… the ability to add more square footage, the ability to make it a more high-performing building.” And it all worked out for the best.

Angling Up Renovations to existing high-rises are uncommon in Anchorage. In 2006, the fourteen-story McKay Building at East Fourth Avenue and Denali Street was transformed into the McKinley Tower Apartments, but the exterior was largely unchanged except for erasing its pink color scheme. If that was a major makeover, then 601 W. Fifth is a rebirth.

The most visible new feature is a ground-to-roof “prow” oriented southeast, overlooking Town Square Park and toward the Chugach Mountains. The geometry is dictated

by Chang’s desire to expand the old floorplan. “It’s rather inefficient, in terms of layout,” he says. “The core is sitting on the middle of the ‘L,’ and you have the floor extending on the east side and the south side… we’ve tried to backfill the remaining space by approaching more of a square shape.”

The new addition fills in the middle of the “L,” increasing the floor area from 8,000 square feet at ground level to roughly 11,000 square feet per floor, Chang explains. Consequently, the upper floors cantilever over the plaza below.

Fierro never worked on a nine-story building before, but he was involved in the expansion of the Consortium Library at UAA, where the third floor extends beyond the foundation (and where multi-story windows reveal the structural crossbeams).

The building shape is also a new one for Kirk Malanchuk, the project architect for Perkins&Will. “Structurally, it has 46 | February 2022

garnered its own amount of attention from the engineering community,” he says, “which I think is somewhat representative of the challenge of it.”

One huge challenge is that the foundation was not designed to hold a cantilever, like a diving board nine stories high. Thus, Neeser had to install a new foundation—with the building still on top of the old one.

“The underpinning we did,” Bhargava explains, “by drilling the holes in the concrete to support the existing footings, and then we dug the dirt below the concrete and then put the rebar and poured the concrete. So that was a tricky job.”

The beefed-up foundation takes the load from two angled columns that define the triangular face of the “prow.”

But not directly—the design has an additional complication.

For a more inviting entrance from Fifth Avenue, the south leg of the “prow” splits just below the second floor, transferring its load to two smaller columns, both more horizontal than vertical. Indeed, one of them is not designed to hold any weight from above; Fierro says it’s only there for “wind girt” to resist lateral stresses.

The other, shorter angled column does hold weight—up to 1.2 million pounds, Fierro says—but it’s in a more precarious position, parallel to a busy street. “If something happened to that column—if a drunk driver was able to get there and impact it—it could’ve potentially caused some collapse to the addition,” Fierro says, explaining why he calls that crucial piece of steel “The Jenga Column.”

“So I designed the building with the column and without it,” Fierro says.

“What I did was, I asked, begged, pleaded with the architects if I could put in something called belt trusses.”

Essentially, additional cross-braces around the second, third, and fourth floors create a box that can do the Jenga Column’s work, in a worstcase scenario. Fierro calls it “collapse prevention design.”

A builder with Neeser Construction prepares a sill for the glass curtain wall.

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Enter the Ice Cave The Jenga Column spanning the entrance at 601 W. Fifth is integral to the owner’s main aesthetic brief for the designers: make it look like an ice cave.

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To the right, the old basement; to the left, a newly excavated expansion, which has skylights to the plaza above. All rentable space.

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aesthetics of what they wanted it to look like—20/20 hindsight, it may have been easier [to tear down and build fresh],” Fierro says. “It may not have been less expensive, but it definitely would’ve been easier just to start over.”

The icy appearance relies on glass manufactured in Japan and assembled into panels in Thailand, but those materials got stuck in the international shipping slowdown. Until they arrived, Neeser kept the workflow going with plumbers installing bathrooms and fire sprinklers while exposed to the winter chill.

The glass is being installed from bottom to top, which presents a new problem. Chris “CJ” Hollwedel, site supervisor for Neeser Construction, says the building is about 30 or 40 feet taller than the company’s tallest man lift. Therefore, the curtain wall for the top floors is being hung from a swing stage suspended from a scaffold.

“Most of the time, once a client decides what they’re gonna do, you’re behind,” Hinthorne says, but he also credits Chang with having “very good taste and very good design sensibilities.”

Chang had worked with Perkins&Will

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on 188 Northern Lights, and he says he takes a very active role in the project.

The architects, too, remain handson. “The nature of architecture is that the drawings are there for one very important reason,” Malanchuk says, “but during construction we still need to be involved to see that vision through to the end, to work on the owner’s behalf to assist the contractor in getting there.”

Malanchuk visits Anchorage at least monthly, according to Bhargava.

“Whatever our ideas, we have to tell them, and then always they accept our ideas because we know how to build it,” Bhargava says with a chuckle.

All the Finishes When the builders achieve a “White Box Finish” this summer, the building will be “T.I. ready,” that is, each rentable floor is a blank slate for tenant improvements. Chang says no new anchor tenant is lined up to replace KeyBank, but he expects multiple law firms to return, as well as federal, state, or municipal agencies.

Hinthorne explains, “You design the lobby, and then you want the rest of the floors to be as flexible as possible to

accommodate whoever: multi-tenant, single tenant, big tenant, small tenant.

You want to keep the pool of potential tenants as big as you can.”

Whoever occupies the top floor must be a very special tenant. Not only is the floor area the widest (because of the cantilevered prow) but the ceiling is double height. Mechanical systems in the old penthouse have been relocated, allowing the ninth floor to rise to the full 20-foot height of the original roof.

The relocated mechanical systems include three new natural gas-fired boilers, a new air handling unit, and a rooftop exhaust fan. Because of the added interior volume, a larger air duct rises between the core elevators, wide enough for two or three John McClanes to shimmy through. The building also gets updated electrical circuits, switching gear, and LED lighting.

Every detail, from the shape and color of the wooden handrails on the stairs to the texture of the floor in the janitor’s closet, is dictated by the client’s and architect’s vision and executed by the builder. “Whenever we go and we look at the building, we feel proud of it, all the finishes and how our people did,”

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Future Connections That’s another thing: the additional square footage includes the basement.

The earth under the old plaza was hollowed out, and the lower level now

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says Neeser’s Bhargava.

Outside, the grounds are the domain of civil engineers. Chmielowski says DOWL’s landscape architect worked closely with Chang, Perkins&Will, and the Parks & Recreation Department to design replacement plantings that the city can easily maintain. “The final product is a great example of the city and developers working together to have site features that not only enhance the building but also brings a new vision to this area in downtown Anchorage,” she says.

DOWL also was responsible for grading the new plaza and sidewalk, angled just enough to shed stormwater with no more than a 2 percent slope, to meet accessibility requirements.

The outdoor surfaces—underneath the looming prow—are also heated by the building’s boiler, to melt snow, and the plaza has inlaid triangular skylights for the enlarged basement.

At Neeser Construction’s temporary office next door to 601 W. Fifth, various samples of all the materials necessary to make the building ready for tenants by summer 2022.

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extends all the way to the property line on F Street. What happens to that concrete wall in the future has yet to be decided.

Chang envisions a possible opening to connect to the basement meeting rooms in the Egan Center. Another option is an enclosed bridge over F Street into the neighboring building, right next to the skyway across Fifth Avenue to the Performing Arts Center.

“Most winter cities have skybridges, if not underground connections,” Chang says, “so we have done our share of infrastructure to prepare for future connections.” Sure enough, the new cross-bracing leaves an opening at one corner of the east wall of the mezzanine. “We just want to make sure all that infrastructure is done ahead of time… so when we are ready to jumpstart the huge plan, that can be done without disturbing the tenants in the building,” he adds.

Putting a bridge over a city street is a political matter for another time. What’s certain is that 601 W. Fifth is, all by itself, a new landmark on one of Anchorage’s main avenues.

Anchorage Downtown Partnership (ADP) Executive Director Amanda Moser welcomes the renovation, saying, "The glacier-inspired facade is a delightful that tip to Alaska and our natural beauty while the upgrades and improvements bring the building and the feel of downtown into a more modern space.” Moser says ADP also anticipates further developments for Block 41, the city block that includes 601 W. Fifth at one end and the historic Fourth Avenue Theater at the other.

At one point, Peach Investments proposed a brand-new tower for the block, twenty-five stories high—easily the tallest building in Alaska. Chang says that project has been on the back burner for decades, but master planning continues for Block 41. “601 really jumpstarts this whole development,” he says. “We do see this being a pivot of the core.”

Will that mean more work in Alaska for Perkins&Will? Hinthorne says nothing is imminent, at least not on the scale of 601 W. Fifth. If Chang wants his firm to work on the next phases, though, he says he’s ready and willing.

50 | February 2022

Looking down between the two core elevators, a wider rising air duct is being installed to service the enlarged interior volume.

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Big Green Investment

The value of planning and maintaining landscaping

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building will never again look as good as it did at the ribbon cutting. In comparison, the ribbon cutting for a landscape marks the start of another five years or more to give it time to grow in and begin to mature. Then, depending on the maintenance it receives, a landscape will continue to evolve forever. As the adage goes, “The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The secondbest time is now.”

Landscapes are a long-term investment, and as such they can have high installation costs.

They also aren’t always optional.

Many jurisdictions in Alaska have specific landscape requirements for undeveloped and previously developed properties, including the Municipality of Anchorage, Fairbanks North Star Borough, City of Palmer, and City of Wasilla. These codes mandate the type and extent of landscape that needs to be installed, although they often leave it open (to various degrees) to how those requirements are met.

A stipulation within these codes is that the landscapes are maintained in compliance with their permitted conditions, and some of these jurisdictions require bonds to guarantee that plants establish successfully.

With significant recent increases in plant material costs and installation, this required landscape can represent a large investment. This also applies to the landscapes that an owner may choose to invest in without the code requirement.

Here are some tips to protect that investment.

• Purchase and install quality planting material. Industry standards set a quantitative basis for quality, including the American Standard for Nursery Stock. Poor quality 52 | February 2022

By Peter Briggs plant material is a bad investment and may cause future problems.

• Install as much high-quality planting soil as possible. Good soils provide moisture retention and nutrients for tree growth, and the larger the soil extends, the more likely that a tree will be healthy and remain structurally sound. For example, research supports that an 8-inch caliper tree benefits from 600 cubic feet of soil for vitality.

Many of our poorly performing landscapes can be attributed to poor or overly compacted soils.

• Select the correct species.

Whether to align with the space available, desired design, or for lower maintenance, use the right tree or shrub species in the right place. The wrong plant or the wrong location can create future problems as plants get larger, create maintenance requirements, or affect adjacent structures.

• Maintain the investment. Trees require ongoing maintenance, including pruning. Work with a certified arborist or spend the time to learn how to prune trees correctly.

With a good quality tree or shrub in good soils, with reasonable ongoing maintenance, vegetation will meet site goals and the community goals that are the intent behind landscape requirements.

No matter how basic it might be, every site should have a landscape maintenance plan and schedule, with someone to implement it.

Investment Dividends The value of trees and shrubs on sites is well-documented. Beyond their aesthetic and intrinsic ecological values—including air quality, stormwater control, and habitat—they can also

be strategic for land valuation. A site with existing trees and shrubs that are preserved for development can offset landscape costs for you or a future buyer.

The code valuation of existing trees typically emphasizes larger trees, so a strategy could be installing and maintaining trees in advance of development to let them mature to achieve minimum code sizes or count for more credit as larger trees.

Let’s look at two examples.

Within the Municipality of Anchorage, an existing spruce tree 10 feet in height or taller is equivalent to three new trees. A commercially installed code minimum sized 6-foot height evergreen tree has a value of around $800, so maintaining an evergreen tree in place offsets approximately $2,400 in costs. The same ratio and approximate costs apply for protecting deciduous trees 6-inch or greater in caliper (the diameter for a 6-inch caliper tree is the trunk circumference as measured 54 inches above the root crown).

Otherwise, code minimum is 2-inch caliper deciduous trees (the diameter for a 2-inch caliper tree is the trunk circumference as measured 6 inches above the root crown).

The City of Wasilla has a similar 3:1 ratio for these sizes of existing trees, but cost offsets are higher for the code minimum size for trees being 10-foot height or 2-inch caliper, whichever is larger.

While there is some risk related to future development needs, informed estimates for where landscape will be needed can take into account adjacent roads, zoning, and typical development patterns for where parking lots would be expected.

Provided that they are in good health,

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Time is Money Landscape plans are best when they look to the future twenty years or more. They provide the space and soil for trees to achieve their mature sizes. If a project requires a higher level of instant landscape appeal, this ideally occurs through planting larger shrub material or more dense perennial plantings. Providing denser shrub plantings is also an option, but this is ideally followed by removing shrubs as they grow into one another.

Dense tree planting should not be a part of instant landscape appeal due to their initial expense and difficulty in transplanting over time.

Whether required or desired, landscape improvements provide aesthetic improvement and are a component of development investments.

No different than financial investments, selecting the right landscape improvements and maintaining them for the long-term will maximize returns.

Changes Over Time Whether an owner has an interest in an aesthetic landscape or a responsibility to reflect a corporate image, landscapes can be renovated when needed. This may exist at the landscape contractor level to clean a site up, make some replacements, and do some pruning. Or it may require more intensive assessment and development of a work plan where a landscape architect and arborist would be of benefit.

Regardless, whenever a site may be influenced by code, a landscape architect can provide guidance on code compliance. For trees, arborists should also be consulted about potential hazards or assistance with aesthetic or health/structural pruning of a tree.

URBAN TREES REALLY NEED SOIL

S

treet trees are an excellent example of how important it is for a tree to have access to a large volume of good quality soil, protected from compaction.

Trees have traditionally suffered in any location where they are planted in areas where they are surrounded by pavement. Anchorage is no exception, with a poor track record for trees downtown: Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Avenues have a large number of locations where previous street tree locations have been filled in with concrete where the trees failed. These locations include some where great effort was expended on technical solutions intended to provide for good tree health. These areas likely failed due to the unintended consequences of maintenance around them (physical and chemical damage), lack of access to the volume of soils the trees needed, and insufficient long-term maintenance.

For recent renovations to Fourth Avenue between E and C Streets, street trees were included in the design. Building on some recent successes at the Dena’ina Convention Center and along E Street, these new trees will be protected from physical and chemical damage (with a raised concrete planter around them) have a large volume of soils available to each tree (provided within structural soil cells below the sidewalk), and data collected will guide maintenance, thanks to moisture sensors in key locations.

Peter Briggs is a landscape architect who believes in the business case for design (and writes about it at highestexpertise.com).

He's the founder of Corvus Design, a fullspectrum landscape architecture, planning, and design firm that has fifteen years of projects around Alaska and the Northwest.

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maintaining even a few trees on a site can contribute to cost effectively meeting code requirements, in addition to some “instant landscape.”

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601 W. 5th Ave

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Design

It Takes Two

How architects and engineers blend their talents

By Rachael Kvapil 54 | February 2022

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rchitects and engineers are two related professions that frequently get lumped together.

How many casual conversations have declared a building, roadway, transportation, or utility system an "architectural" or "engineering" feat, interchangeably? To some degree, both deserve credit; an architect and engineer likely worked together on any given project. However, these

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two fields approach a project from different perspectives and tackle specific problems to deliver a finished product with both style and substance.

The Professions Defined "Architects usually begin a project knowing they will have to take steps backward toward the middle ground," says Bruce Hopper, senior structural engineer for Stantec in Anchorage.

"Engineers begin knowing they will have to take steps forward toward that same middle ground."

Hopper describes architects as visionaries for the project who observe shapes and forms from the project environment and the culture of the end-users then creatively melds those ideas into an artistic solution.

Engineers, on the other hand, work in a world with numerical limits and a library of workable solutions. He says engineers' creativity becomes apparent as they stretch those workable solutions to meet the challenges of the architectural vision.

Those key differences start with their education. Giovanna Gambardella, senior architect and architectural service manager for Stantec, says architects are regulated by the Alaska State Board of Architects, Engineers, and Land Surveyors. To be licensed as a professional architect in Alaska, a candidate must pass the Architect Registration Examination (ARE), achieve professional experience hours through the Intern Development Program, and complete the Arctic Engineering or Northern Design class.

"There are additional certifications like LEED, WELL, and CDT," says Gambardella. "These are certifications that are tailored to various aspects of our industry and focus on certain areas of the profession. For instance, LEED certification was developed by the US Green Building Council and is recognized internationally. A LEED building means it's designed to be environmentally friendly and energy and resource efficient."

Engineers have their own path toward licensing. After acquiring a college degree from an accredited engineering program, candidates embark on four years of work experience under a registered engineer. A candidate must then pass the Principles and Practice of www.akbizmag.com

OVERCOMING CHALLENGES, are not obstacles but opportunities to show our strength and courage

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"If the question is 'How do I start?" or 'What are my options?' then ask an architect... If the question is more specific like 'How big should that beam, pipe, or wire be?' then ask an engineer."

Bruce Hopper Senior Structural Engineer Stantec

Engineering (PE) exam. Jason Thoma, senior mechanical engineer for Stantec in Fairbanks, says once an engineer passes the PE exam is passed, they are officially licensed by the state to practice in their field.

In some cases, engineers complete additional work experience hours and exams in their specific field. For instance, Hopper says that structural engineers acquire another two years of work experience and take the Structural Engineering exam after passing their PE exam. Lucas Schneller, senior electrical engineer for Stantec in Wasilla, adds that engineers must also complete a minimum of twenty-four professional development hours of continuing education every two years to maintain their license.

The two professions diverge further as architects and engineers specialize.

Architects can further be divided into commercial, residential, sustainable/ green design, industrial, conservation, landscape, and urban design architecture. When it comes to vertical construction, Thoma says you will generally find more building architects, who are concerned with the general

look and feel of the entire structure; interior design architects, who come up with color schemes and finishes for inside the structure; and landscape architects who craft the property around the building.

Though structural, mechanical, and electrical engineers are the most common in vertical construction, Hopper says it's not uncommon to have engineers specializing in acoustic and corrosion engineering join a project. Horizontal construction for bridges, roads, highways, railroads, airfields, and other structural projects that focus on transportation often requires additional engineering specialties such as civil, environmental, and geotechnical.

Working Together Someone once said, “An architect’s dream is an engineer’s nightmare.”

Probably an engineer.

“It can be a nightmare if the structural [engineer] is told to do a structural system designed by an architect.

That is often more challenging than a structural engineer designing the structure and having the architect

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have already been built, that requires a certain amount of demolition, excavation, shoring, stuff that you wouldn’t necessarily have to do to the same extent with new construction.”

But the columnless entry was nonnegotiable. “With the aesthetics they wanted, it created some really intense structural challenges,” Fierro says. “I just had to figure out how to hold it up.”

Even though he and Fierro come from different firms, Malanchuk had faith that the engineers would find a solution. “Working with Reid Middleton, they’re more than capable of taking this on,” he says, “but it’s not a building form that they could necessarily look back on past projects to completely help inform.”

In turn, Fierro says Malanchuk has been a good listener, and the overall vision will outlast the difficulties in executing it. “Ten years from now, nobody’s gonna remember that,” he says. “They’re gonna look and say, ‘Wow, that’s a really cool façade.’”

Working on a project through different firms allows both the architect and engineer more opportunities to work with others in their respective

fields but requires developing a rapport with a business entity that has its own processes, philosophies, and culture.

Having separate firms manage the architectural design and engineering of a project is about as common as having both handled by the same company.

Having architects and engineers under the same roof provides a shared business culture but risks losing another viewpoint on the project.

Regardless of the situation, architects and engineers agree that it takes good communication for both fields to work together successfully.

Stantec architects and engineers say their process is more integrated when a project is handled solely by their firm. Gambardella says architects and engineers work on projects together daily as a multi-disciplined team. Depending on the project's complexity, they communicate the initial plan for a project with a kickoff meeting, then have routine biweekly check-ins to ensure the scope, budget, and schedule are met and the various technical aspects of design are coordinated. Schneller says that engineers tend to come into the

Geotechnical Environmental Natural Resources Geophysics Seismic Permafrost Hydrogeology Construction Laboratory Testing GIS

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modify it,” says Michael Fierro, associate principal at Reid Middleton and the structural engineer of record on the renovation of 601 West Fifth, the former KeyBank building in downtown Anchorage.

For that project, the dream is a glacierthemed design plus more rentable square footage. Kirk Malanchuk, project architect with Perkins&Will in Seattle, came up with a design that enlarges the L-shaped building by widening the top floors, such that they overhang the plaza below.

“They didn’t want any columns out there,” Fierro says, “so I had to figure out how to get that load back into the existing foundations, which were not going to have the capacity to take the extra load. So we actually had to build up the existing foundations.”

Malanchuk acknowledges that building foundations underneath the nine-story tower is, of course, backward. “How do you do all of that when there’s already footings down there? When there’s already a stair that extends down to that level? If you’re starting to add footings that extend below parts of the building that

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601 W. 5th Ave – DESIGN

Top, a presentation slide shows, in blue, floor space added to 601 W. Fifth. Beyond the red line, the upper floors overhang the plaza below. Bottom, the former shape of the building; added elements (minus demolished elements in red); and highlighted in purple, the “Jenga Column” [see page 46].

Reid Middleton

601 W. 5th Ave –DESIGN RESULT

EXISTING 58 | February 2022

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DEMO(red) &Alaska ADDITION = $30 MILLION PROJECT Business www.akbizmag.com

Who Leads Whom?

Like two nations separated by a common language, architects and engineers share overlapping skill sets.

Hopper says professionals in both fields can visualize 3D geometry, communicate graphically, and possess skills related to consultation, investigation, and observation.

Schneller adds that both professions are involved in planning projects and working with stakeholders to determine the best solution.

"We both use input from the stakeholders, personal knowledge, and input from the team to develop a design that will meet the owner's needs, schedule, and budget," says Schneller.

In general, projects with architectural design are typically led by an architect, while projects conceptualized by a designer or engineer (roadways, utilities, airfields) are often led by an engineer. However, Schneller explains this assignment of leadership isn't a hard and fast rule; engineers can dream, too.

For example, Fierro worked on the skybridge over Providence Drive between the UAA Engineering and Health Sciences Nursing buildings,

which opened in 2015. He recalls the architecture firm told him, “‘To us this is just one long room that we’re gonna carpet. This is way out of our league.

You come up with the designs.’ I said OK. So we actually presented UAA with three different options… they loved that arched one.”

When it comes to large projects, Hopper believes project management should fall on someone who is not responsible for any technical aspect of design. He says the project management role demands so much attention that there is no time left for that person also to take on additional technical duties.

Of course, having a team that includes an architect and engineer increases project costs. Budget limitations may tempt a project owner to proceed without input from one profession or the other. Thoma says this is possible for projects with a limited scope.

"If it's very simple, like storage or an open-air parking area, you may just need an architect and maybe a structural engineer. If the building is going to need heat, ventilating, plumbing, and lighting, then you'll be better off getting

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discussion after the project owner has approved the schematic design to discuss what methods will allow them to construct the look and shape of the building as presented. These discussions go deep into systems the average user will never see, like electrical circuitry, the boiler room, and HVAC system.

Teams can also communicate using design platforms such as Revit, which allows all models to be linked so that designers can coordinate among each other and the client. Likewise, Stantec teams also use virtual reality to communicate design concepts, especially with those who don't speak the language of architecture and engineering every day.

Hopper says that architects and engineers eventually work together like the left hand working with the right hand, where each unconsciously knows what is expected for their portion of the project. On that note, Gambardella says the structure is not an obstacle to the aesthetic but a way to enhance it.

"It isn't about architect versus engineer," she says. "It's about the holistic approach."

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mechanical and electrical engineers to provide a solution," says Thoma.

Hopper says a good determination of what services a project owner needs starts with the questions they are asking.

"If the question is 'How do I start?" or 'What are my options?' then ask an architect," says Hopper. "If the question is more specific like 'How big should that beam, pipe, or wire be?' then ask an engineer."

But even that, Hopper says, is not the best way to get to a workable solution.

Every architect or engineer knows the boundaries of their design disciplines and is legally and ethically obligated to work within those limits. If a question is not related to their area of expertise, they will direct that person to someone else who can provide the answer.

Perhaps differentiating the two professions is something one doesn’t fully understand until they are taking on a construction project, but anyone can appreciate both through their daily experiences viewing the city skyline or spending time in buildings with a welcoming atmosphere. You can thank an architect for designing that. And an engineer for building it.

60 | February 2022

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Civil Engineering | Traffic Design | Roadway Design | Utility Design Traffic & Safety Analysis | Transportation Planning | GIS Services | Hydraulics & Hydrology

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The Homer Police Station is a 12,000-square-foot design-build facility where public art, views, and materials are integral to the building's architecture.

The facility tells the story of the people of Homer, making the police good neighbors in every sense of the word.

A RC H I T EC T U R E & E N G I N E E R I N G

Before Disaster Strikes

How engineers prepare Shannon & Wilson

for the unknown

By Brad Joyal

E

arthquakes, floods, volcanoes, tsunamis, wildfires, and landslides: Alaskans endure a volatile landscape of natural disasters.

Whenever these catastrophic events occur, engineers have already prepared for the worst. Whether it’s a dam, a road, an office building, or a hospital, all of the state’s infrastructure is designed to anticipate 10-year, 50-year, or even 100-year disasters in addition to humancaused damage that may occur during its lifetime.

Planning for the Long Term Beyond the minimum standards for any type of project, engineers implement more vigilant requirements and practices depending on a structure’s location and function.

“The first thing that engineers typically start looking at is to find the design criteria the engineer will base the entire project on,” says Mark Sams, senior engineer at PND Engineers.

“That’s a process the engineer needs to work out with the owner of the project at the beginning to kind of decide, ‘What is the design life of the project? What is the design life of the infrastructure?

Is this project a 10-year design life?

62 | February 2022

Are we looking at some sort of mining infrastructure with a design life of 10 years that the project is only there for 10 years and then the mine is going to close up and shut down, or is this a big, long-term infrastructure project that has a 100-year design life?’ That’s a big concern at the beginning of a project that really dictates the environmental loading on a facility.”

Once the owner and engineer identify the purpose and longevity of the structure, the next step is recognizing hazards that could complicate construction or present long-term challenges. The most common tool engineers turn to during this process is ASCE 7, the American Society of Civil Engineers’ publication that is released every six years and includes ASCE’s most widely used professional standards.

“Every time the ASCE is updated, it gets a lot thicker, and that’s because every so often there’s a major earthquake—as was the case when we had our [2018] Anchorage earthquake— that will affect earthquake design and seismic designs nationally,” says Sams.

“Every time there is a national disaster, there are commissions set up to study

what happened, what lessons were learned from damage that occurred, both for big infrastructure and small infrastructure.”

Codes Present the Framework While ASCE-7 is the standard for proper techniques, engineers operate in a framework defined by codes, specifically the International Building Code, the model formulated by the International Code Council and commonly used as the standard in most US jurisdictions.

“There are code requirements for ports and harbors, separate code requirements for fuel terminals and facilities, and separate code requirements for infrastructure,” says Kyle Brennan, vice president and Anchorage office manager for Shannon & Wilson. “Depending on what type of work we’re doing, they all have governing codes that determine how we look at hazards.”

The scope of a project determines the severity of the codes that must be implemented, but some aspects— especially safety—are non-negotiable.

“At a very basic level, the codes are mostly about protecting life safety,”

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

Not Just Natural Hazards Thanks to design codes and requirements, infrastructure commonly withstands most natural disasters. But not all damage is caused by earthquakes or tornados; what happens when structures clash with humans? For example, the Glenn Highway overpass at Eagle River survived decades of blizzards and earthquakes until March 2018, when an oversized semi failed to fit underneath the support beams.

A concrete girder that weathered every stress engineers had anticipated was, in the end, brought down by mismeasured cargo.

Engineers do consider human factors, but those rank low in terms of importance.

“It’s very project-specific,” explains Sams. “You have to look at it and say, ‘In the life of the structure, can you see somebody running a vehicle into this?’ www.akbizmag.com

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DESIGNING INFRASTRUCTURE THAT MAKES

A POSITIVE DIFFERENCE IN THE DAY-TO-DAY LIVES OF ALASKANS

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explains John Daley, a senior engineer at R&M Consultants. “If you just follow the code and you walk through it in kind of a stepwise manner, you’ll get a design that meets modern standards and all it’s really doing is trying to protect your life.

If the building you’re in was designed to a basic code, it shouldn’t fall over but it may be totaled in a major event. In an extreme seismic event, it may be sitting there leaned over 20 degrees and you can’t open the doors and the windows are all blown out, the foundation is cracked, everything on every shelf is gone, water mains are broken… The building may not be serviceable, but it protected your life.”

So codes are designed to ensure safety, but who makes sure the codes are followed?

“There’s this idea of the authority having jurisdiction. If you’re in the Municipality of Anchorage, it’s the building department and the municipality has code overview. And you’ll have to submit building plans and then they’ll review them and they’ll check all of these standards and see what you did and make you prove that you did them,” says Daley. “There are remote communities where there isn’t really [that process], but you’re still held to some standard. You’d want to identify the authority that has the jurisdiction, which could be the local building official or the state or somebody else.”

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If we check that box and it can happen, what’s the economic cost to design to withstand it and what’s the economic cost to design this so it meets code and it’s safe in the sense there’s no loss of life?”

Sams points out that designing structures to be literally foolproof can send engineers and property owners down an expensive rabbit hole— especially considering that humaninflicted damage is usually insignificant for structures built to withstand catastrophic events.

“A lot of times, the environmental loads that we look at on these big infrastructure projects—when we’re designing for these really big 50-year or 100-year design events—are so large that when you look at somebody running into the side of something at full speed, it’s not nearly as big as some of these major environmental loads,” says Sams. “When you’re designing a tsunami shelter, the load on something like that is so immense that a pick-up truck running down the road and smashing into it is smaller than a major tsunami.”

Experience Points the Way As much as design standards guide engineers to prepare for natural disasters, they also view real-life events as benchmarks. The November 2018 Anchorage magnitude 7.1 earthquake shook plenty of buildings and cracked multiple roadways, but it also indicated that the policies and standards practiced across the region can withstand major events when they do occur.

“I think the overall performance of buildings and whatnot in the Anchorage area during that earthquake—yes, there was damage; yes, there was settlement—but there were very few wholesale failures of houses,” says Brennan. “The infrastructure, by all intents and purposes, held up pretty well. I think the performance we had in general was a really great testament to the ability of codes to protect life, health and safety because we didn’t have any major injuries and we didn’t have any death as a result of the earthquake.”

Brennan and his colleagues at Shannon & Wilson weren’t the only ones that were pleased with how the state’s infrastructure held up.

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“We had just finished the installation of the bridges on the Glenn/Muldoon Interchange right before that earthquake hit,” says DOWL Transportation Practice Area Leader Steve Noble. “When the bridge did get hit, it failed in the mechanisms it was supposed to fail and it stayed in service—it didn’t collapse down to the Glenn Highway. That always feels good and it reaffirms that the design standards we’re using are rigid enough and appropriate for the location we’re in.”

“If the building you’re in was designed to a basic code, it shouldn’t fall over... In an extreme seismic event, it may be sitting there leaned over 20 degrees and you can’t open the doors and the windows are all blown out… The building may not be serviceable, but it protected your life.”

John Daley, Senior Engineer, R&M Consultants

Noble has noticed some concerning trends, however, related to hydrology, such as large rainstorms or snow melting.

“You get these combinations of events where it can cause the slide that occurred across the highway in Cooper Landing… or the ones in Haines,” Noble says. “It’s usually water causing most of the disasters we face.

We get the big earthquakes now and then, and those are an expensive event, but upgrading our bridges and our culverts and our drainage systems to accommodate the design storms is where we see most of our more significant reconstruction needs for infrastructure.”

Another recent large water event that concerned Noble was the record washouts Girdwood

experienced at the end of October and beginning of November. Noble believes that event should alter the way engineers and builders view data and plan for the future.

“Some of those culverts were designed for a 30- or 50-year storm and we had a 100-year storm, or maybe we even raised the bar for what we think is a 100-year storm,” he says. “When it comes to hydrology, climate change is affecting and raising the bar on what we think are storm events across Alaska. It affects not only coastal areas where erosion is impacting communities, but it affects areas where we get very large rain events that previously were thought to be beyond a 100-year storm event.

And if we get two of those in 25 years, then clearly we have to reassess what we think is a 100-year storm event.

That was probably a 100-year-plus storm event in Girdwood that caused those washouts; they got 10 inches of rain in a very small amount of time.”

When considering past events and preparing for the future, Sams points out the importance of acknowledging Alaska’s historical data isn’t very old— which requires the state to consider other states’ history when mapping its own future.

“What we have, in a lot of places, is maybe 50 years [of data]. In some spots, maybe 100,” Sams says. “We’ve statistically projected what a 100year event is, and we’ve statistically projected what a 50-year event is, but we don’t have the historical data to see what 100 years might actually be, just because we haven’t had the time.

What we’ve done is develop the bestcase scenario with the data we’ve got, and it’s all based on statistical analysis and stuff that we’ve developed elsewhere in the United States based on the large pools of data we’ve got elsewhere.”

Faced with the unknown, engineers tend to design conservatively, with large margins for error. That way, they can be reasonably certain their structures will pass the inevitable test. “It’s nice,” Noble says, “to get those [magnitude] 6 and 7 earthquakes once in a while so, God forbid, if we ever get something larger, we’re confident that the structures and network we have in place are going to hold up.”

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

Committed to Growing Alaska’s Businesses & Communities

in 2022

Over the last few years, we’ve seen challenges woven into nearly every moment and we’ve rallied together alongside our communities to make sure that your way of life wasn’t completely upended.

When our community needed additional support to ensure everyone had reliable, high-speed internet connections, we set up public WiFi hotspots throughout the Mat-Su Borough. When our students’ education was at risk of being interrupted, we worked tirelessly to make sure they had the necessary resources. And when we weren’t able to gather physically for our annual Gaming Tournament, we worked with our community to begin holding it virtually so it’s bigger and more inclusive than ever.

As we ease into 2022 to see what opportunities and challenges may be in store, MTA will keep creating, keep adapting, keep innovating, keep building, keep growing, keep bringing Alaskans together and keep moving forward.

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Biophilic design struggles to take root in the Last Frontier

By Isaac Stone Simonelli

R

enowned for its majestic wilderness and awe-inspiring landscapes, Alaska faces extraordinary hurdles when it comes to bringing green spaces into its commercial buildings. Despite these barriers, biophilic elements are important for Alaska buildings.

“Plants or biophilic elements certainly have their place in every building type,” says Dana Nunn, the director of interior design at Bettisworth North. “How you implement those biophilic elements certainly depends on… climates, daylight, budget, ability to maintain something that's going to be good versus an eyesore that suddenly starts to undo the good of the biophilic imagery.”

Biophilic design originates from the work of psychoanalyst Erich Fromm, who defined biophilia as the “passionate love of life and of all that is alive.” The theory in design has evolved to focus on increasing building occupants’ direct and indirect connections to the natural environment.

The biophilic touches designed into a building's interior or exterior can play an important role in the health and well-

being of those who use the spaces, Nunn explains.

“Research [demonstrates] that they have a positive impact on stress levels, blood pressure, and heart rate,” Nunn says. “All of those things that make people better patients, better students, better employees, better providers in a healthcare situation,” Nunn says.

At least two published studies have also connected plants in the workplace to increased productivity.

The studies compared how well people completed “attention tasks” while surrounded by biophilic elements or in barren office spaces.

In both studies, those with access to plants or views of nature performed significantly better.

“Long story short, it's the fact that people want to feel that connection to earth, to nature,” says Sarah Lanners, the sales and design manager for Anchorage-based Green Connection.

“When you walk into a building, and there's plants there, you feel good.”

To get the biophilic benefits, features simply need to be within view, Nunn explains. This presents the option to not only bring plants inside but to open

up line of sight to the outside with large windows, as well as incorporate images, materials, and textures that work as biophilic elements within the building.

Mark Kimerer, a landscape architect with Bettisworth North, explains that part of his work is designing the areas outside of a building so that it can directly benefit those inside the building—which is even more important when dealing with the deep, cold winters in Alaska.

“We have a lot of our year where, traditionally, you would gravitate towards the interior of the building,” Kimerer explains.

In those situations, especially when snow blankets the landscape, it’s important to find creative ways to still connect people to what’s happening on the other side of a window. This can be done with dynamic lighting that changes color or casts different patterns on walls and the snow.

“It can really be a cool way to at least view the landscape, even as if it's from the inside,” Kimerer says. “Those views from the interior outside are always something that we try to work on.”

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Bringing In the Green

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“Interior plants really have taken off this year or during the pandemic. It started with houseplants, and now we're seeing people return back to work and kind of want the plants in their workspace as well.”

Sarah Lanners, Sales and Design Manager, Green Connection

Indoor Plantings While the outdoors has some limitations on what can be done beyond what is naturally growing in the state, indoor green spaces also have challenges. At the top of that list: cost.

Nunn says that for her clients in Alaska, “It's never penciled out to do a big, significant” planting feature, though there are some examples of successful green walls in Anchorage.

“We’ll often tour clients around installations here in town just so they can see the good and the bad,” Nunn says.

Assessing the costs of a large plant installation starts with addressing the underlying infrastructure that needs to be put in place. Then it’s necessary to factor in the costs of regular maintenance.

The most successful installations are planned for at the beginning of a project, rather than an addition later in construction, Nunn says. In these cases, plumbing will be put in to ensure that the plants have easy access to water and excess water is drained away before it becomes putrid.

Successful projects also have ensured that the plants have good exposure to daylight—not always an easy task in the Far North—and artificial lights that augment daylight during the wintertime.

The last key factor for making a significant indoor planting work is having a standing contract with a maintenance company. Without it, Nunn says, there is often a cycle of maintenance and negligence as employees focus on their primary work. “They just seem to wither away until someone gets fed up and makes it their pet project for a weekend, and www.akbizmag.com

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The plant palette available for outdoor landscaping in Alaska is extremely limited compared to much of the Lower 48, with only a couple types of maple trees and one oak that can survive. In general, Kimerer says that he relies on woody plants— trees and shrubs—that would not do well inside but are hardy enough for Alaska’s winters.

“We really are relegated to using things that we're confident will work for a client,” Kimerer says, “so, birch, spruce, and plants that belong here.”

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they overhaul it and it looks good for a while and then it doesn't again,” Nunn explains.

Another issue on whether a green wall or interior garden is a good fit for a building comes down to air quality.

“Plants clean the air, but their efficacy in an enclosed environment is largely misunderstood,” Nunn says. In fact, the planting medium—the soil—tends to incubate mold and other air quality challenges.

Kimerer points out that it’s not hard to find remnants of what were once ambitious indoor gardens in lobbies or the main entryways of some buildings in Alaska. “You'll see what probably used to be a pretty robust interior planting, and everything's gone,” Kimerer says.

Instead of being stacked with plants, there will be a bunch of potted plants sitting in planters.

Larger interior plantings are more realistic for behavioral health, rehab, and medical facilities, Kimerer says.

“You just have to kind of think about the equity of the space based on who might get exposed to it,” he explains.

To get biophilic benefits of reduced stress, blood pressure, and heart rate, features simply need to be within view, says Bettisworth North designer Dana Nunn.

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Tropical Alternatives Nunn says she often finds herself helping clients find alternative ways to integrate biophilic elements in a space.

“We're looking at views to the exterior, where we can do plants, or working with a client to identify contracts to bring in potted plants,” Nunn says. “Just a variety of other ways we can achieve the goals of biophilia without actually doing a large planting installation.”

Indoors, the plant palette in Alaska is much closer to what can be found in the Lower 48. Kimerer recalls being in a Mexican forest, looking around at the sub-canopy plants and recognizing many of them—plants he sees for sale in Lowe’s and decorating office buildings.

Nunn says she had a similar experience when she visited the Amazon in 2021.

“Most of those plants are coming from distant regions: China, Japan, all over the world, really,” Kimerer says.

“They're mostly warm climates.”

Kimerer and Nunn both point out that the amount of humidity the plants need to thrive must be considered when designing a space. Too much moisture inside a building during the winter can cause issues from the inside pressures pushing the moisture into the walls.

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A seating alcove with backlit imagery of Denali.

Patrick J. Endres

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

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Offices Come to Life Prior to the pandemic, Lanners says encouraging property owners to incorporate plants into their commercial spaces could sometimes be difficult.

This was, in part, due to having so much natural beauty in the state, she says.

Lanners says she was often asked, “Why would they put plants inside when we're surrounded by all this nature outside?” But, like so many things, the pandemic changed that.

“Interior plants really have taken off this year or during the pandemic. It started with houseplants, and now we're seeing people return back to work and kind of want the plants in their workspace as well,” Lanners says.

The new challenge is getting plants to Alaska, Lanners says, noting some planting containers are backordered until August 2022. The issue stems from global supply chain issues, as well as pandemic-related stressors on the production side in the United States.

“The availability of the plants became extremely limited. So now we have the demand, but not the product,” Lanners says.

Lanners explains that plants and biophilic design can play an important www.akbizmag.com

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Nonetheless, the top plants in Lanners’ palette for commercial spaces are Aglaonema, Dracaena, Sansevieria, ZZ plants (Zamioculcas), and pothos.

“These are great versatile plants that can be either statements or accents,” Lanners says. “Dracaenas come in all sorts of sizes and looks, so you really have a lot to play with.”

Lanners prefers low-maintenance plants. “Commercially, we keep it simple. We don't need someone to walk into an office and say, ‘Oh my gosh, I cannot believe you have this plant,’” Lanners says. “We don't want people to see stressed plants, so I like to stick with plants that are a little more sturdy.”

She adds that there’s no need to incorporate plants that are going to drop a hundred leaves when it gets cold out, noting that even indoor plants tend to react to changes in the seasons. “You don't want to have to think about it. You don't have to worry about it,” Lanners says. “We want plants in your place, and we want it to be carefree.”

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role in transitioning people back into office space, after they adjusted to working from home.

“We just went through two years of people realizing they could work from home,” Lanners says. “It's kind of important for managers, property managers, and property owners to understand they might need to invest a little more into their spaces, into their common lobbies and common areas.”

There are three primary factors when deciding where plants will go in a building: access to light, localized temperature of an area, and the surrounding uses of the space, Lanners says.

“For almost any project, we're trying to capture daylight and views,” Nunn explains. Those two objectives can often be obtained by incorporating large windows into a commercial space. The advantages that come with expansive glass must be balanced against heat gain and heat loss due to the lack of insulation.

“Then space planning comes into play, making sure that we're being a little bit more egalitarian in how we give that exposure to daylight,” Nunn says. “Maybe putting more general use functions around the perimeter where the windows are.”

Another issue with windows that’s less of a concern in the Lower 48 is privacy. During the winter months, much of regular business hours are in darkness, when passersby can easily see into well-lit rooms.

“Healthcare is a unique one where we have to consider what can you see from the outside, and privacy becomes a concern,” Nunn explains.

Both indoor and outdoor biophilic elements can be used to help create that privacy. The bottom line, though, is that designing spaces in the Last Frontier requires architects and their teams to be aware of the unique pressures of developing spaces in Alaska—and to offer clients creative solutions.

Even though Nunn has yet to have a client choose to invest in a large indoor planting centerpiece, she is clear that finding ways to incorporate biophilic elements into any space is vital.

“As a designer,” Nunn says, “I feel like we owe it to them to bring to light these opportunities.”

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At Cowork by RSD, Bettisworth North designed ample daylight, views to the exterior, and materials and patterns as biophilic elements.

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A meeting room at the new Ketchikan Public Library, designed by Bettisworth North. Large windows framed by natural materials bring the outdoors in.

Kevin Smith

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

H R M AT T E R S

PICK UP THE DARN PHONE Stephanie Haydn, Director Business Development People AK

W

ith all of the disruption and changes to how we communicate, it is more challenging than ever for teams to pick up the phone. The pandemic certainly put us on a fast track to remote work, cloud migration, chatting, and emailing.

However, there is still and always will be a need for conversations. Time and time again, I have asked a team member if they’ve responded to a client, and too often the answer is, “I emailed them last week.” I respond with, “So, have we confirmed a resolution or decision?” “I am not sure; they did not answer.” PICK UP THE DARN PHONE! Technology has glitches, emails get buried, and people infer tone and meaning in chats. Simply calling a client, a prospective employer, or a sales lead is polite and develops a deeper relationship.

It is a new year, there are new opportunities, and we are all maneuvering new techniques for creating meaningful relationships with our clients, candidates, and even coworkers. We continue to read headlines about unemployment alongside the lack of available talent.

There is truth to both. So to get the most out of the employees and clients you have, it is more important than ever to build meaningful relationships.

Relationships are built on trust that is developed over time. It is hard to build trust in an email or chat application.

Most of us need verbal communication that engages us emotionally to connect

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authentically.

Authentic communication and relationships build trust that results in loyalty. This is not industry-specific.

Loyal employees outperform, and loyal clients do not shop for the next deal. It is essential that managers check in on their teams, ask them how they are, or let them know you appreciate them and mean it. Let your tone convey your sincere desire to be supportive. If you call on a client, express a genuine desire to solve a need and spend time maintaining rapport.

Maintaining rapport requires not only occasional conversations but also consistent, meaningful, and routine check-ins.

Gallup studies human potential and behaviors. At the center of their work, you will find that creating authentic loyal teams will increase revenue and attract more talent.

Employees and clients alike are watching for new opportunities. We must engage them in meaningful ways and develop meaningful relationships grounded in trust. To do so, you should have “Stay Conversations.” Gallup defines the term: “Stay conversations are one-on-one conversations designed to learn more about the employee, including their passions and career goals, what they value in life, and what they need to be more successful in their role.”

This example is aimed at employee retention but is easily adjusted to address client retention. If we take the

time to have consistent conversations and listen to our teams and clients, they will tell us what we need to do to meet their needs. What you hear and learn will not be conveyed in a text or email.

Authentic conversations unveil as much in what is not spoken as in what is said.

A few final thoughts to consider: 1. Text is informal and should only be used when appropriate to the relationship 2. Business chat applications are for internal direction and tasking 3. Emails are transactional and suitable for confirmation of actions or commitments 4. When an email is on its third round of confirmations – call for clarity 5. If you did not receive a response, do not assume it was received – call for confirmation 6. When at all possible, resolve interpersonal conflicts in person

Stephanie Haydn, Business Development Director

For more information about People AK, please visit peopleak.com. For AES please visit akexec.com, for BMG please visit bmgak.com, or call 907-276-5707.

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A RC H I T EC T U R E & E N G I N E E R I N G

Cannabis Cool HVAC needs for growing,

processing, and selling marijuana

By Alexandra Kay

72 | February 2022

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

No Whiffs Allowed Alaska’s Alcohol & Marijuana Control Office requires a plan for odor control anywhere businesses allow onsite consumption.

The regulations state that “a marijuana consumption area that is indoors and

in which smoking is permitted must have a ventilation system that directs air from the marijuana consumption area to the outside of the building through a filtration system efficient to remove visible smoke, consistent with all applicable building codes and ordinances, and adequate to eliminate odor at the property line.”

To comply, businesses must invest in specialty heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems—but only if cannabis is grown or smoked there.

“Retail stores that do not have on-site grows or on-site consumption areas do not need any more HVAC systems than a normal retail store,” says Brandon Richardson, owner and CEO of The Electric Company, a Wasilla-based contractor specializing in cannabis grow facilities.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, some plans for on-site use have been postponed, so only a few retail locations in Alaska currently have onsite smoking.

In those places, Richardson says, “This will also require barriers between the retail side and the onsite consumption side to meet local laws.”

Where marijuana is grown, owners

“You’re growing a tropical plant in an arctic environment…

Tropical plants like warm and humid—but not too humid—and surprisingly enough they need cooling almost more than they need heating.”

Mark Frischkorn VP/Principal Mechanical Engineer RSA Engineering

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February 2022 | 73

A RC H I T EC T U R E & E N G I N E E R I N G

W

hen Alaskans voted to legalize the recreational use of marijuana in 2014, opponents of the ballot initiative relied on several lines of argument. They warned of trouble hiring employees who could pass drug tests, of intoxicated driving, of use by children, and of disappointing tax revenues. What nobody talked about, pro or con, was the smell.

As the cannabis industry has grown, the distinct skunky odor (primarily caused by the chemical myrcene) has become a familiar scent, even to Alaskans who’ve never been in the same room as a marijuana product.

Blame careless consumers allowing their private use to escape into the public space; the industry itself is subject to state and local regulations which, unlike the 2014 campaign, do take odor into consideration.

A RC H I T EC T U R E & E N G I N E E R I N G

must make sure the facility “does not emit an odor that is detectable by the public from outside the cultivation facility except as specifically allowed by a local government approval,” according to regulations.

Compared to a retail shop, for a grow operation “the design criteria and requirements are very different,” says Curtis Holeman, senior sales engineer at Long Building Technologies. “The grow wants to maximize crop and minimize energy use. A retail store is a retail store, but they’re not as stringent as they would be in a grow environment because there’s more to do there.”

Controlled Environment Odor aside, grow facilities have special air handling needs simply because regulating the climate is vital for healthy marijuana plants.

“You’re growing a tropical plant in an arctic environment,” says Mark Frischkorn, principal mechanical engineer and vice president of RSA Engineering; he’s designed about a dozen grow rooms. “Tropical plants like warm and humid—but not too

HVAC in cannabis cultivations must take away the water that the seedlings drink. A dehumidifier removes moisture to prevent mold that might damage the crop.

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humid—and surprisingly enough they need cooling almost more than they need heating.”

For the fiscal year ending June 2021, licensed growers in Alaska harvested twenty-one metric tons of cannabis, according to the industry website Leafly.com. The crop—whose wholesale value of $104 million outpaced that of hay, barley, potatoes, and every other agricultural commodity grown in Alaska combined—was raised almost entirely indoors under artificial lights.

Most cannabis in Alaska is produced in grow rooms using controlled environment agriculture (CEA). These are typically sealed rooms with few windows, where artificial light is used for optimal plant growth. CEA allows the grower to maintain the proper light, carbon dioxide, temperature, humidity, water, pH levels, and nutrients to produce year-round crops. Daytime temperature for plants is typically kept somewhere between 70 and 85 degrees. Humidity and airflow are also major considerations, but the precise formula is a matter of opinion among cultivators.

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A RC H I T EC T U R E & E N G I N E E R I N G

Marijuana plants need lots of light, which pumps in a lot of heat, which must be removed from the growing environment without harming the plant.

A RC H I T EC T U R E & E N G I N E E R I N G

Controlled environment agriculture in sealed rooms under artificial light allows the grower to maintain the proper light, carbon dioxide, temperature, humidity, water, pH levels, and nutrients to produce year-round crops. mrorange002 | iStock

“Air movement is also a key factor in a successful grow, as it helps regulate temperature by removing hot spots in the room as well as help stem growth with the constant air movement. This will help hold those heavy buds that will come later without having to tie your plants up.”

Brandon Richardson Owner/CEO The Electric Company

76 | February 2022

“Indoor grows need robust HVAC systems to keep the plants at the correct temperature and humidity levels for maximum yields,” says Richardson. “Air movement is also a key factor in a successful grow, as it helps regulate temperature by removing hot spots in the room as well as help stem growth with the constant air movement. This will help hold those heavy buds that will come later without having to tie your plants up.”

Marijuana plants need lots of light to grow, and that great amount of light translates into a lot of energy use and a lot of heat, which must be removed without harming the plant, Richardson explains. But because the plants also thrive in a carbon-dioxiderich environment—and because a high-dollar crop could potentially be subject to theft—growers don’t just throw open windows to let the heat from grow lamps out. Instead, they invest in professionally designed HVAC systems.

“We pour a lot more energy into cooling the building than we would an office building,” says Frischkorn.

Richardson’s advice: “Oversize your air handling units and AC systems. You don't want to be running your equipment constantly just to maintain your environment; it gets expensive!”

What Plants Crave Just as HVAC must cope with the heat of the grow lights, the air handling system must take away the water that marijuana plants drink. A dehumidifier removes moisture to prevent mold that could damage the crop or the building itself. As with temperature control, CEA isolates the grow space from outdoor air to keep contaminants out and CO2 in.

Extra carbon dioxide usually comes in bottled form, and grow rooms typically have sensors to check for CO2 levels and to vent the room if the concentration becomes too high. “We don’t do that too much in regular commercial office space,” Frischkorn says. Since workers don’t spend much time in the rooms, CO2 concentrations are higher than they would be if people were constantly in the space, as the plants thrive in that environment.

Additionally, because of those state odor regulations, any air that is vented out must be run through filters to remove the pungent cannabis smell.

“Any exhaust air we pull out has to go through a carbon filter so the odor doesn’t go into the neighborhood,” says Frischkorn.

Another consideration for cultivation facilities is the potential for a financially devastating crop failure. As insurance, most growers split the crop into

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A RC H I T EC T U R E & E N G I N E E R I N G

different rooms—at least two, but typically four or five, Frischkorn says— so if something happens in one room (disease, pest, or equipment failure), they can contain it and avoid affecting all the crops. This means more HVAC units. “I have to put in three instead of one because they have three selfcontained rooms instead of one,” says Frischkorn. But that’s not unique to the cannabis industry, he adds: “We do that in other businesses up here because of the weather, though, put in multiple systems in case something breaks down.”

Odor is also a concern for marijuana processing locations, according to Frischkorn. To extract cannabis oil, the buds are processed with machines using CO2 or butane as solvents, the same general process to extract any essential oil. Processing workers tend to spend more time inside the building than cultivators, so sensors make sure the CO2 or butane levels are safe. The ventilation system also filters any air dumped outside to scrub out the smell.

“Long [Building Technologies] designs and provides the control systems that are installed for the HVAC systems to ensure the systems are controlled and operate as designed and per specifications,” says Holeman.

Things like thermostats, valves, and sensors that measure pressure and humidity and CO2 and outside air temperature are all controlled by Long Building Technologies systems.

“Our control systems… are an integral component to these facilities where they’re growing crops,” Holeman says.

That’s an aspect of the burgeoning cannabis industry that also went unmentioned during the 2014 campaign: that marijuana growers and sellers would pass their prosperity around to mechanical engineers and HVAC installers.

At the time, supporters of legalizing the drug promised tax revenues of up to $10 million or even $15 million; opponents cautioned that the real amount would be a disappointing fraction. In fact, taxes on marijuana added about $24.2 million to the state’s budget in 2020, and sales in Alaska are expected to grow to about $284 million by 2024.

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Alaska Business

February 2022 | 77

ENERGY

Warmer Is Cooler Building a heat pump

community in Juneau

By Molly Rettig

C

Andy Romanoff | Alaska Heat Smart

athy Muse doesn’t like using Craiglist that much, but there was something she really wanted to get rid of: her oil tank and all the oil inside it. So she went online and posted it.

“It’s half price if you can pump it!”

Thanks to her new air source heat pump, she didn’t need it anymore. Ditching her oil tank and Toyo stove was a long-awaited milestone for Muse, a Juneau resident who raised four kids in Alaska’s capital city and now has grandchildren there.

78 | February 2022

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

“It’s so nice to be off oil,” she says.

Muse and her husband are one of nearly eighty households who are installing air source heat pumps this fall and winter as part of “Thermalize Juneau,” a local program based on the popular Solarize campaigns that have popped up around Alaska and the Lower 48. It works by organizing local homeowners who are interested in clean energy and leveraging their buying power to obtain discounts. In addition to discounts, the program offers technical assistance to demystify the process of installing a new and unfamiliar technology, which, for people like Muse, was even more valuable.

“A heat pump is something I looked into three or four years ago, but I just didn’t know how to do it, or even what it was exactly,” she says.

Air source heat pumps absorb heat from the outside air and use a small amount of electricity to move that heat inside a building. They have tons of potential in a place like Southeast Alaska, which has a mild climate and affordable electricity, and have become very popular over the past decade. But, for the majority of interested homeowners, changing from a tried-and-true technology like oil was daunting.

That’s why Thermalize Juneau started in 2020. The program streamlines the entire process for consumers, from providing free home energy assessments to coordinating electricians and HVAC contractors needed to add a heat pump to a home’s heating mix.

“The goal was to build a bridge between the consumer seeking access to local renewable energy and contractors who could bring that into the home,” says Andy Romanoff, executive director of Alaska Heat Smart, the local nonprofit that leads the Thermalize program.

The result? More than 160 home assessments, up to eighty new heat pump installations, and two dozen home energy efficiency retrofits to make that heat go even further. The innovative approach shows what can be accomplished when a community works together toward a common goal—because Thermalize isn’t just about helping homeowners save www.akbizmag.com

Diane DeSloover (left) rents a Mendenhall Valley home to her daughter, Meghan (right). The house is one of nearly eighty participating in the Thermalize Juneau program to install heat pumps.

Andy Romanoff | Alaska Heat Smart

money but about making Juneau a leader in clean energy and a model for other communities to follow.

Twin Motivations: Energy and Climate In 2018, the city and borough of Juneau adopted a goal to be 80 percent renewable by 2045, in both the heating and transportation sectors. While other Alaska cities have created similar climate action plans, Juneau’s is the most ambitious (Anchorage targets 80 percent renewables by 2050; Fairbanks is just starting to hammer out goals).

For the small coastal town, heat pumps seemed like the best way to get there. They already had momentum thanks to the local utility, Alaska Electric Light and Power, which had been promoting heat pumps since the late ‘90s as an alternative to electric resistance heat. Because a heat pump is two to three times more efficient, they Alaska Business

decrease the load on the electricity grid and free up more kilowatts for things like electric vehicles.

Since 2016, the local nonprofit Renewable Juneau has given heat pumps a boost as well. Through the Juneau Carbon Offset Fund, the group sells carbon offsets to individuals and businesses and uses this money to install free heat pumps in lowerincome residences. Since 2019, they have swapped out twenty-five oilburning heating appliances with clean heat pumps.

Thanks to these and other efforts, heat pump installations have been steadily rising. Before the Thermalize program even started, there were roughly 1,000 systems in Juneau already. To take it to the next level, a group of private and public entities started Alaska Heat Smart, a nonprofit dedicated to growing renewable energy in Juneau, with an eye toward the 2045 goal.

February 2022 | 79

Nick Nelson installs the outdoor unit of an air source heat pump in a Juneau home. Heat pumps work by absorbing heat from the outside air and using a small amount of electricity to move that heat into a building.

Andy Romanoff | Alaska Heat Smart

“Space heating for homes is 20 percent of our carbon use in Juneau.

If we can tackle that, it’s going to move the needle on climate change,” Romanoff says.

The Numbers Technology has come a long way in the past decade. Unlike oldergeneration heat pumps, most newer models can continue to extract heat from the outdoor air down to -13°. On the occasional sub-zero day in Juneau, a heat pump can still help keep the house warm, even if it’s not operating as efficiently (at the lowest temperatures, supplemental heat may be needed, and the program encourages homeowners to keep their backup system). Heat pumps can also supply air conditioning in the summer by simply pushing a button on the remote.

The economics in Juneau favor heat pumps as well, as most homes are heated with electric resistance or fuel oil, both of which are expensive. Romanoff used to heat his 1,700-square-foot 80 | February 2022

home with oil. On a cold winter day, he would burn about three gallons of oil, which at the time cost $9. Two years ago, he installed a heat pump.

“My most expensive day so far this winter, it cost $4.81 to heat my house,” he says. “Overall, my home’s heating bills have been cut by 50 percent.”

This translates into attractive payback periods. According to the free assessments included with the Thermalize campaign, most homes can expect to pay off a heat pump in five to seven years through energy savings. There is a wide range, of course—a small, energy efficient home with an oil boiler would take longer to pay back the investment than an old, leaky house using electric resistance baseboards. For the sake of Thermalize, anything under ten years was considered a good candidate for a heat pump, Romanoff says.

The final selling point for heat pumps in Juneau: the local utility generates all its electricity with hydro. Because heat pumps use electricity to gather

“free” thermal energy from the air, they are only as clean as the electricity they use. In Fairbanks, for example, where the grid is powered by coal and diesel, a heat pump would still rely on these sources, albeit more efficiently. For anyone motivated by their carbon footprint, this is a big factor in installing a heat pump.

“If you want to get off oil, you’re truly getting off oil,” Romanoff says.

Why do people do it?

Romanoff loves his lower heating bills, but he has a larger agenda in promoting heat pumps in his community.

“I don’t want to lose our winters,” he says.

On average, Juneau’s winters are getting warmer. It’s raining more and snowing less. The city is updating its landslide maps to account for more extreme weather events.

He’s not the only one motivated by climate. In a survey for Thermalize, participants listed their top three goals as lowering heating bills, reducing fossil fuel use, and helping meet Juneau’s renewable energy goal.

Michael Penn and his wife Iris Korhonen-Penn have taken several steps to reduce their carbon footprint over the past few years. They swapped out their oil stove for a pellet stove, and both purchased electric vehicles.

When they installed a heat pump in October, they cut their household’s final tie with oil.

“We’ve gone whole hog here,” Penn says.

So far, they like their new heater.

While some heat pumps are tied to a distribution system, the model used in the Thermalize program is just a simple space heater. It keeps the downstairs comfortable, Penn says. When the upstairs gets cold, they turn on the electric baseboards in the bedrooms.

While he would have gotten a heat pump anyway, the Thermalize program helped smooth out the entire process.

“It was nice talking to the engineer, having someone at least confirm your feelings that this is the way to go,” he says.

Because so many homes participated, they each received a $400 rebate on their heat pump. Penn decided to donate his to the Juneau Carbon Offset Fund to help other homes get heat pumps too.

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Expanding the Demographic A big part of the Thermalize campaign is planting the seed for new technologies, says Jamie Hansen, CEO of Information Insights in Fairbanks. Hansen initiated and helped lead “Solarize Fairbanks” the past two years, which mobilized 138 homes and businesses in the Interior to invest in solar. Just like solar panels, she says, heat pumps will advertise themselves.

“People say, ‘Oh my friend has a heat pump. I understand how it works.

I was in his house when it was 0° and it was warm inside.’ People often need that physical understanding and proof before investing in a new technology,” she says.

Another big goal is to spread the technology to a wider demographic.

Most Thermalize participants have higher than average incomes— households with the upfront capital to invest in money-saving technologies.

Meanwhile, lower-income families tend to live in less efficient housing and face higher energy burdens.

Part of Thermalize Juneau is figuring out how to target these lower- and middle-income homes, through low-interest loans, on-bill financing, or other mechanisms.

Information Insights and the Cold Climate Housing Research Center, part of the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory, are analyzing the pilot project to figure out its economic impact and how to make it more equitable in the future. Through Department of Energy funding, researchers will produce a guide for other communities to follow.

For now, the benefits of the campaign are already becoming clear: there are more air source heat pumps, more residents who understand them, and more contractors who know how to work on them. Along the Gastineau Channel in Juneau, there is a heat pump community.

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Molly Rettig is the communications lead for the Cold Climate Housing Research Center, part of the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory. She is author of the book, Finding True North: First-Hand Stories of the Booms that Built Modern Alaska, published by the University of Alaska Press.

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Alaska Business

February 2022 | 81

E N V I R O N M E N TA L

Internal Sustainability Programs

Good for the environment and the bottom line

By Vanessa Orr

82 | February 2022

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

A

Peterson explains, “When a client calls me and says, ‘We want to do something in the sustainability space,’ my question to them is, why? Is it based on your shareholders? Is it based on your customer? Or is it based on your community perception?” The answers range from the personal values of a small business owner to a global corporation’s need to abide by international standards.

Pioneering Sustainable Technology Alaska Airlines has been at the forefront of efforts to improve sustainability for more than two decades, and the company takes this commitment very seriously—so much so, in fact, that in January 2020, it rolled out a five-year

plan to become the most fuel-efficient US airline and to cut emissions on all ground support equipment by half.

“We’ve always been proud to be a green airline; sustainability is part of our DNA, and it’s probably in no small part due to the fact that we operate in the most pristine place in the world,” says Pasha Saleh, head of corporate development. “We want to take care of the places where we fly.”

Alaska Airlines was one of the first airlines to work with sustainable airline fuels, and a grassroots effort by airline employees established an in-flight recycling program in the early 2000s.

“That group, known as the Green Team, preceded our sustainability team,” says Tim Thompson, external affairs manager.

Alaska Airlines

s companies look for ways to become better environmental stewards, many consider developing internal sustainability programs that allow them to set sustainability goals, create a plan of action, and measure the success of their efforts. With buy-in from employees and a willingness to create partnerships and recruit outside expertise when needed, it is possible to not only improve an organization’s environmental footprint but its bottom line as well.

“If your shareholders and stakeholders aren’t winning and you can’t make a profit, then that’s not sustainable,” says Lisa Peterson, owner of Aftan Engineering, a Pennsylvania-based consulting firm.

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Alaska Business

February 2022 | 83

As part of its sustainability plan, UAF students started the Nanook Grown program to grow food for themselves and to donate to the community.

UAF

84 | February 2022

Twenty-five years ago, Alaska Airlines pioneered Required Navigation Performance (RNP), a method of air navigation that was designed to provide planes with a safer approach through Juneau’s mountainous terrain.

“In addition to dramatically improving safety, an added benefit of RNP is that it helped us establish the most efficient path between A and B, resulting in fewer track miles, fewer emissions, and shorter flight times,” says Saleh, comparing it to a car’s GPS system. “It was developed by one of our pilots who was also an aerospace engineer, and though we were the first to use it, it is now the de facto standard for air navigation worldwide.

It was a major milestone in creating more sustainable flights.”

When the pandemic began in 2020, the airline took the opportunity to look for even more ways to increase sustainability.

“When COVID hit, it resulted in air traffic levels not seen since the 1950s,” explains Saleh. “We used this time as an opportunity to rethink all of our processes so that, when traffic

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returned, we could operate in a way that further mitigated our climate impact. Our board of directors decided to make environmental sustainability a top strategic priority for the whole company, to both guide our choices and drive our values,” he adds.

Alaska Airlines developed a five-point sustainability plan that includes ways to shrink its environmental impact: operational efficiency, fleet renewal, increasing the use of sustainable aviation fuel, exploring novel propulsion alternatives, and purchasing high quality carbon offsets.

“We are evaluating every last process to make sure that whoever who comes in contact with an airplane produces the least environmental impact,” says Saleh. “For example, is the pilot starting the auxiliary power unit at the last minute when at the gate? This may seem a small thing, but it can add up to significant results over time when you consider that we operate over 1,000 flights per day.”

Investing in the Future Alaska Airlines is also renewing its

fleet with an order of 120 new 737 MAX aircraft, which are 22 percent more efficient than the 737 NGs they are replacing on a seat-by-seat basis.

The airline is also looking to increase the use of sustainable aviation fuel, which creates 80 percent fewer CO2 emissions than traditional jet fuels by refining biological feedstocks ranging from grease and manure to wood mill waste or forestry residue.

In December, a United Airlines jet completed the first flight powered by 100 percent SAF, in this case made from sugar and corn.

“SAF is the industry’s big hope; unfortunately, the demand for this fuel far exceeds the supply,” says Saleh.

“That is why we are exploring novel propulsion options like battery and hydrogen fuel cell-electric power.”

While this type of propulsion is currently out of reach for narrowbody airliners, research to scale up the capabilities of the current allelectric two-seaters is proceeding at a feverish pace. “The technology to make narrow-body planes zeroemission is beyond the horizon at the moment,” says Saleh, “but I believe

that within a decade we’ll have the technology for electric flight with aircraft comparable in size to those in the current regional fleet operating on shorter stage lengths.”

In fact, Alaska Airlines has contributed a 76-seat De Havilland plane to ZeroAvia, a start-up company that is already using hydrogen fuel cells to fly a six-seater plane, with plans to scale up to the larger aircraft.

“When it’s operational, it won’t burn any fossil fuel and it won’t produce any waste,” says Saleh. “It seems like science fiction, but it’s happening.”

Thompson says that commitment to the sustainability program has been overwhelmingly positive from employees, and customers appreciate the efforts that the airline is making to reduce its environmental impact.

In addition to in-house support, the airline launched an investment arm, Alaska Star Ventures, to invest in funds focused on environmentally sustainable technology, including electric powered airplanes and, for ground support, de-icing drones that prevent over-spraying of the chemical.

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February 2022 | 85

The airline has also partnered with Airspace Intelligence Flyways, a Silicon Valley startup that has created groundbreaking software that assists flight dispatchers in determining what path to take.

“It’s like Google maps: it takes into account where every other plane is in the air and designs the optimum route given all traffic, weather, and airspace considerations,” says Saleh.

“Right now, we are the only airline using this technology, and since we started in March 2020, it has optimized 28,000 flights, saved 15.5 million pounds of fuel, and avoided 24,500 tons of CO2 emissions by finding smarter routes.”

Students Taking the Lead In an academic setting, the bottom line is less of a concern than in the airline business. In fact, students at UAF are willing to pay more for sustainability. In 2009, students voted to approve a $20 fee each semester that would help the university finance several sustainability initiatives. An Office of Sustainability was established on campus in 2010.

“The students wanted to see the school doing more in terms of sustainability, so they voted to have an extra fee created that they would control,” explains Christi Kemper, sustainability coordinator at the UAF Center for Student Engagement.

“Not a single part of this would work without UAF students; they not only supply the funding but they have a volunteer student board that approves how the money is spent, and the students do most of the work as well.”

Since the fund was established, students have selected and invested in more than ninety-five sustainability projects at UAF. These include a solar array on the student recreation center, refillable water bottle stations across campus that have now been adopted as a UAF design standard, the purchase of an electric shuttle to be used in the summer, and more.

“The students also established a computer shut-down program, which they initially funded as a trial. It saved so much money that UAF adopted it permanently,” says Kemper.

In addition to the fee, student efforts were originally funded through some outside sources. As these funds dwindled, they switched from being project-driven to a more programdriven approach.

“Students completely run the recycling program at UAF, picking up waste, getting it sorted, and taking it to where it can be recycled,” says Kemper. “They also purchased a glass pulverizer so we can take care of our own glass on campus, which we recycle for use in construction projects or to give to local artists to use in their work.”

The students also created a Green Bikes program to discourage the use of motorized transportation when possible and to provide transportation to people who can’t otherwise afford it. They created a Free Store, where people can find second-hand items, and an Upcycle Annex, a DIY space and repair café where anyone can borrow tools and supplies for repairing items.

“Our Nanook Grown program teaches students how to grow their own food for free in the summers as

The Curiosity Factor

By Janis Plume Senior Account Manager

I

firmly believe that the readers of Alaska Business have what I call the “Curiosity Factor.” Our readers— regular and occasional—are drawn to our magazine with both broad and specific interests. We deliver compelling and engaging stories about Alaska as a whole and about targeted industries and people, because the reality is that “business reporting” is both a specific angle and touches on almost every aspect of daily, modern life.. Every issue has something for every reader to pull readers into our pages. Curiosity takes over.

Curiosity is a significant factor for our April issue when we publish the Alaska Corporate 100, ranking businesses based on the number of Alaskans they employ.

Often our readers are surprised by the ranked list, both by employers that have more and those that have fewer workers than they anticipated. From year to year, they want to know who the pack leaders are who’s moving up the list.? The Corporate 100 annual rankings give our readers a unique look at employment in Alaska that, as of today, isn’t available anywhere else.

The Curiosity Factor has significant benefits for advertisers as well.

Advertising in this widely-read issue is an excellent medium to showcase your business with an ad placed within the context of the Corporate 100 content.

Every business person wants their company’s brand, products, and services to be associated with businesses keeping Alaskans employed, and advertising in –S P ONSO R E D

86 | February 2022

April’s Alaska Business magazine can effectively get your company noticed.

The ad space reservation deadline for the April 2022 issue of Alaska Business is February 21.

Contact your account manager if you’re curious about advertising your business in April’s Corporate 100 issue. We’ll help you get your company noticed by a readership that is not only curious but actively makes business decisions daily.

Are you curious yet?

Janis Plume 907-257-2917 janis@akbizmag.com

Christine Merki 907-257-2911 cmerki@akbizmag.com

Charles Bell 907-257-2909 cbell@akbizmag.com

CO NTE NT–

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

a way to provide more food security,” says Kemper. “We also work with the botanical garden on campus to grow food to donate to the community; we provided 5,500 pounds of food in the first year, and about the same in the second year.” She adds that the program also hosts farm-totable dinners and short-term food security workshops.

UAF also runs the Wood Center Food Pantry and sponsors Swipe Out Hunger, in which students donate their extra meal plan cash at the end of the semester to be distributed to those who need it. “ The population of people that are younger than about 25 to 30 years old are the strongest proponents of the sustainability movement,” says Peterson, “so universities are faced with a grassroots, bottomup push: What can we do to save our planet for our kids and the next generation?”

Elements of the sustainability plan, such as running the Wood Center Food Pantry, would not work without a buy-in from students themselves, according to UAF Sustainability Coordinator Christi Kemper.

UAF

Send in the Consultants Following the lead of its students, in 2014 UAF hired The Brendle Group, a Colorado-based consulting

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Alaska Business

February 2022 | 87

UAF students donated 5,500 pounds of food from their Nanook Grown gardens in each of the first two years of the program, in addition to hosting farm-to-table dinners.

UAF

88 | February 2022

firm, to create a sustainability plan focused on thirteen strategies that, over the course of ten years, is estimated to result in $3.2 million in cost savings while reducing significant amounts of greenhouse gas emissions, energy and water use, and other resources.

Goals include the reduction of 8,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalent, savings of 10,000 megawatt hours of electricity, savings of 58,000 pounds of steam, savings of 12,0000 gallons of potable water, the reduction of 647,000 miles of personal vehicle use, and the reduction of 120 tons of waste.

Consultants can assess quantifiable standards which can be audited to demonstrate the organization is delivering on its promises.

However, Peterson says, “Finding people who have this as their niche offering—kinda rare.”

Nationally known consulting firms service large corporations, but smaller businesses would have to shop around for an engineering or environmental adviser to guide them.

Even mom-and-pop shops have an interest in sustainability programs, according to Peterson. “I find that it sticks better if you focus on the local,” she says. “While it’s a noble cause to take up the whole world… break it down, start small.”

That approach is working so far for UAF. “Ever y thing here is so student- driven, and it ’s the primar y reason we’ve been successful,” says Kemper. “It ’s impor tant to make sure that you have individuals who are really invested in sustainabilit y and that you have buy-in from others.

“One person may want to start a project or program, but if others don’t buy-in, it’s hard to make it work,” she adds. “You also have to be really flexible as projects and people change along the way.”

Peterson agrees. “If it’s a fleeting fad—‘Oh, it sounds like it might be cool, but as soon as the cool factor is over, we’re moving on and I’m not talking to my employees anymore’— it’s not going to stick.” The key to a sustainability program, it turns out, is the sustainability of the program itself.

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

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INSIDE ALASKA BUSINESS ConocoPhillips Alaska The Greater Mooses Tooth #2 drill site in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska achieved first oil on December 12, according to ConocoPhillips. The milestone arrives three years after first oil from Greater Mooses Tooth #1, eight miles to the northeast.

Peak production is estimated at approximately 30,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, for a development cost of about $1.4 billion. alaska.conocophillips.com

Oil Search | Santos A pair of Southern Hemisphere oil companies with interests in the Far North are joining forces.

Shareholders of Papua New Guinea-based Oil Search approved a merger with Australian firm Santos. The $6.1 billion deal gives Santos 61.5 percent control of the combined company. Oil Search acquired the Pikka project on the North Slope in 2018 and has since taken up residence in the former BP headquarters in Midtown Anchorage. Oil Search expects to begin producing from Pikka in 2025, and Santos has previously expressed support for the project. oilsearch.com | santos.com

GCI After bringing fifth-generation (5G) wireless coverage to Alaska’s most populous area, GCI next plans to expand service to the state’s richest industrial zone. A 5G network for the Prudhoe Bay area would enable WiFi-like data capacity at cellphone range, enhancing the remote monitoring and control

of the sprawling oil fields. GCI activated its first 5G service in April 2020, covering Anchorage, and more sites are coming for the Matanuska-Susitna Borough. The telecom company expects 5G to be operational on the North Slope by the end of 2022. gci.com

BSNC Bering Straits Native Corporation (BSNC) acquired Central Environmental Inc. (CEI) and its four subsidiaries: Central Recycling Services, C.I. Contractors, Environmental Management Inc., and Concrete Coring Services.

CEI is an Alaska-based, full-service integrated, general construction, demolition, utilities, and environmental company founded in 1984 by Stuart Jacques, who continues as CEI’s president. BSNC President and CEO Gail R. Schubert says, “We determined that CEI’s impressive capabilities and projects align well with BSNC’s growing portfolio of companies.” beringstraits.com

Doyon Foundation Episodes of the PBS cartoon series Molly of Denali are being translated into Native languages spoken in Interior Alaska, where the show is set. The Doyon Foundation’s language revitalization program arranged for a new cast to record dialog in Gwich’in (also called Dinjii Zhuh K’yaa) at the KUAC public radio studio in Fairbanks.

Their voices are being added to the episodes “King Run” and “Grandpa’s Drum.” A second cast is dubbing the episodes “Have Canoe

Will Travel” and “Main Game” into Koyukon (or Denaakk’e). The series, produced by WGBH in Boston, is now in its second season. doyonfoundation.com

Astra Space The Alaska Aerospace Corporation’s first commercial customer at the Pacific Spaceport Complex on Kodiak Island finally achieved orbit.

California-based Astra Space sent up its 43-foot, two-stage Launch Vehicle 0007 in November, carrying a test payload for the US Space Force. Three previous attempts to reach orbit fell short. That milestone achieved, Astra Space CEO Chris Kemp says the company intends to radically scale up its pace, building and launching one rocket per week by the end of 2022 and expanding launch sites beyond Kodiak. astra.com

The Roaming Root Cellar For the first time, the state Division of Agriculture’s “Golden Carrot” award goes to a small business. The Roaming Root Cellar, a specialty food store in Fairbanks, wins the 2021 prize for commitment to Alaska Grown produce. Shop owner Erica Moeller opened the business in 2020, selling local vegetables and other products from a bus. By 2021, she opened a storefront. “By selling only Alaska Grown produce,” she says, “we provide a year-round platform for our producers and consumers to connect.” Since 2017, the award has gone to Fred Meyer, Carrs|Safeway, and Walmart stores in Palmer and Wasilla. roamingrootak.com

ECONOMIC INDIC ATOR S ANS Crude Oil Production 511,846 barrels 2% change from previous month

ANS West Coast Crude Oil Prices $80.13 per barrel 13% change from previous month

Statewide Employment 350,800 Labor Force 6% Unemployment

1/2/22 Source: Alaska Department of Natural Resources

12/31/21 Source: Alaska Department of Natural Resources

11/1/21. Adjusted seasonally.

Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics

90 | February 2022

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

RIGHT MOVES TOTE Maritime Alaska  TOTE Maritime Alaska has a new President. The shipping company promoted Alex Hofeling from his previous position as vice president Hofeling and general manager.

Hofeling, a veteran of the US Coast Guard, holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Washington and a master’s in business administration from Seattle University. He joined TOTE Maritime Alaska in 2013 and became VP/GM in 2019. As TOTE Maritime Alaska president working out of the Tacoma office, Hofeling’s responsibilities encompass the entirety of commercial and operational activities for the Alaska market.

BSNC  The new face of Bering Straits Native Corporation (BSNC) is Miriam Aarons, promoted from senior director of media and marketing to Aarons Vice President of Corporate Communications. In her new role, Aarons will continue to lead and grow BSNC’s communications and marketing initiatives.

Aarons is Inupiaq and an enrolled tribal member of the Native Village of Unalakleet and a BSNC shareholder. She started working for the corporation in 2012. Aarons earned a bachelor’s degree in political science with a concentration in international relations from Columbia University.

Lynden Logistics  Lynden Logistics, known until last September as Lynden International, promoted some top executives, including

one at its Anchorage branch.

Dennis Mitchell has been named Senior Vice President of Freight Operations, directing transportation Mitchell services focused on the key markets of Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. Prior to this, Mitchell’s title was senior vice president, international. Mitchell has been with Lynden for twenty-seven years after owning his own customs brokerage firm in Anchorage from 1986 to 1994. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and supply chain management from the University of Alaska and is a licensed customs broker.

FEDC  The senior project manager for Fairbanks Economic Development Corporation (FEDC) is being promoted to President and CEO. The board Stewart of directors chose Jomo Stewart as the successor for James “Jim” Dodson, who has served as CEO since 2005. Stewart is a twenty-five-year resident of Fairbanks and a graduate of UAF with a degree in political science. He has served as chief of staff for two state legislators and as an aide to legislative committees. More recently, as general manager of the Interior Gas Utility, Stewart negotiated the $352.5 million deal to finance the Interior Energy Project and unite Interior Gas Utility and Fairbanks Natural Gas under community control.

Kinney Engineering Kinney Engineering is adding two more member/owners to the five currently

leading the firm.  Phoebe Bredlie originally joined Kinney in 2016 and has managed the Fairbanks office.

A graduate of UAF, Bredlie has Bredlie more than twenty years of experience, including the planning, design, and construction of transportation and site projects in the Fairbanks area and across the state.  Will Webb joined Kinney in 2015 and has eighteen years of traffic and transportation engineering experience throughout Alaska. Webb Webb was raised in Alaska and earned both his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and master of engineering degrees from the University of Idaho.

Coffman Engineers  An employee of Coffman Engineers achieved her Professional Civil Engineering licenses in Alaska and California. Mary Dempsey Dempsey graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in chemical engineering and holds a Project Management Professional certification.

Before joining Coffman in 2020, Dempsey worked in civil land development in Washington, planning neighborhoods and stormwater systems. At Coffman, Dempsey leads industrial projects in the project management department.

R&M Consultants  Carl Hall recently joined R&M Consultants as a Senior Project Engineer in the firm’s Site Development Group. Hall

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Keeping Alaska Open for Business 92 | February 2022

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is responsible for overseeing and performing analysis and design tasks related to site development projects. Hall has more than twenty-five Hall years of experience, including the Whittier Tunnel Surface and Drainage Improvements project and water and sewer systems on Midway Atoll. Hall has a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Utah and is a professional civil engineer licensed in Alaska. In his free time, Hall enjoys camping and bear hunting.

Cornerstone General Contractors  Cornerstone General Contractors is adding a new Senior Project Manager. Todd Petrie brings two decades of experience as a field Petrie engineer, scheduler, estimator, superintendent, and project manager. He helped complete the Anton Anderson Tunnel to Whittier, Concourse C at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, and most recently a liquified natural gas plant in Louisiana. A native of Maryland, Petrie received his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from UAF. He says he is extremely happy to be back in Alaska and is looking forward to four-wheeling, fishing, and hunting with his wife and children.

CVRF  Coastal Villages Region Fund (CVRF) appointed Rhonda Lamp as the new Human Resources Director.

In this position, Lamp focuses Lamp on creating processes that streamline hiring and support professional growth. Originally from Mississippi, Lamp fell in love with living in Alaska when she

attended the University of Alaska. She has more than three decades of experience in human resources. CVRF is funded by harnessing the Bering Sea fishing rights through Community Development Quotas from twenty Western Alaska villages, making it effectively the largest Alaskanowned seafood company.

Ampersand  Matanuska Telephone Association’s tech subsidiary, Ampersand, is bringing a former Alaskan back as its new Vice President of Operations.

McCrea EJ McCrea joins Ampersand from his previous position at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, where he led teams responsible for planning, launching, and maintaining technology initiatives supporting $600 million in projects across five hospital campuses and 300 medical clinics. While his previous work was out of state, it led McCrea to know he wanted to return to Alaska, to “return to family and the community,” after having previously lived here for nearly two decades. In his new position, McCrea is responsible for managing all facets of client service delivery and developing evolving client service and client engagement strategies.

Great Alaskan Holidays  Great Alaskan Holidays, Alaska’s largest RV rental, sales, and service business headquartered in Anchorage, promoted Brenda Sims to Sims Parts Manager within the company’s Parts and Service Department.

Sims has been with Great Alaskan Holidays for several years as a member of its vehicle maintenance technician team. Sims graduated from UAA with an associate degree in automotive technology. As

the new parts manager, Sims is directly responsible for inventory control of the company’s entire stock of RV parts and accessories.

National Park Service  The National Park Service (NPS) in Alaska has a new Regional Director. The agency named Sarah Creachbaum, a 22-year Creachbaum NPS veteran, to oversee operations for fifteen national parks, preserves, monuments, and national historical parks. Creachbaum comes to the role from Olympic National Park in Washington, where she has served as the park’s superintendent since 2012.

She begins her new role on January 16, moving to Alaska with her husband Bob and border collie Jimmy. “I first fell in love with Alaska on a trip to Denali as a young adult and became deeply interested in the state’s issues while serving as the NPS Alaska desk officer in Washington, D.C. in 2005,” Creachbaum says. Creachbaum received a bachelor of fine arts degree from the University of Arizona and a master of landscape architecture from Utah State University.

Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority  Steve Williams is the new Chief Executive Officer of the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority. The board of Williams trustees promoted him from the position of Chief Operating Officer, a role he has held for eight years. Williams replaces Mike Abbott, who announced his retirement as CEO in 2021. Williams oversees both the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority and the Trust Land Office.

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www.nac.aero / Alaska Business

February 2022 | 93

ALASKA TRENDS

A

drug notorious for making its users lazy and idle has been busy, busy, busy building a new industry in Alaska. In less than a decade since voters legalized recreational use of marijuana, cannabis has grown into the state’s most valuable cash crop. Per capita, Alaska has the most retail shops of any state where the drug is legal. Pretty impressive for a market that was entirely the domain of illicit dealers before 2016.

Alaska’s libertarian streak gets the credit for passing the legalization initiative in a politically conservative electorate, and that same tendency could also explain the proliferation of marijuana businesses. Cutting red tape and streamlining government regulation works for other industries, so cannabis benefits from the same light touch.

Which is not to say that cannabis isn’t strictly regulated. This month’s article “Cannabis Cool” explains how the air quality regulations alone require the support of HVAC engineers and installers, extending the ripples of the blazing industry to other economic sectors. Anyone willing to play by the rules—and navigate the financial complications of dealing in a federally banned substance—can claim a share of the marijuana profits.

This edition of Alaska Trends is a snapshot of marijuana today. How might that compare in a few years, after the industry has matured?

SOURCES: Alaska Alcohol & Marijuana Control Office: commerce.alaska.gov/web/amco/OtherMarijuanaResources.aspx Alaska Department of Revenue: tax.alaska.gov/programs/programs/reports/AnnualData.aspx?60000

8,381 6,746 0 0

343,271 291,035 11,263 1,857

125,345 42,146 0 0

289,319 239,463 8,840 1,099

2020

2020 2019 2018 2017

2019

Number of Clones

2017

Immature/ Year Bud/Flower Failed Trim

2018

OUNCES OF MARIJUANA TAXED OVER TIME BY PRODUCT

$91,900 OF REVENUE was collected by the State of Alaska for distribution to 26 local governments in FY2022

WHOLESALE PRICES 257 APPROVED PRODUCTS are registered with Alcohol & Marijuana Control Office for retail sales.

114 114 19 8 3

CONCENTRATES EDIBLES INHALABLES TOPICALS OILS & BUTTERS

94 | February 2022

are based on the THC percentage present in indoor testing.

Wholesale Price of Cannabis Flower per pound

30% THC: $4,000 25% THC: $3,500 20% THC: $3,000 > 20% THC: > $3,000 Source: MJBizDaily, updated December 17, 2021

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

STATE TAX RATES

6 LICENSE TYPES

are paid by the marijuana cultivation facility in cash.

Types of licensees

149 131 112 37 12 4

RETAIL STORES STANDARD CULTIVATORS LIMITED CULTIVATORS PRODUCT MANUFACTURERS CONCENTRATE MANUFACTURERS TESTING FACILITIES

$50/OZ. $25/OZ. $15/OZ. $1/EACH

MATURE BUD/FLOWER IMMATURE/ABNORMAL BUD TRIM CLONES

26,000,000

24,000,000

STATE TAX REVENUE & PENALTIES OVER TIME

22,000,000

20,000,000

18,000,000

16,000,000

14,000,000

12,000,000

10,000,000

8,000,000

2020

2019

2018

4,000,000

2017

6,000,000

2,000,000

2020 2019 2018 2017

Tax

Penalties

$23,864,759 $18,807,335 $10,763,728 $1,748,642

$348,537 $275,207 $37,629 $855

20 20

19 20

18 20

20

17

0

41 CITIES with ActiveOperating Licenses

Payers of license fees per location

96 ANCHORAGE 61 WASILLA 60 FAIRBANKS 25 PALMER 20 JUNEAU 18 SOLDOTNA 17 HOUSTON 16 KENAI 14 KETCHIKAN 13 NORTH POLE 10 HOMER, SITKA, TALKEETNA 8 NIKISKI www.akbizmag.com

7 KASILOF, WILLOW 6 BIG LAKE, SEWARD 5 STERLING 4 KODIAK, NOME 3 HAINES, SUTTON, VALDEZ 2 BETHEL, DILLINGHAM, KOTZEBUE, NINILCHIK, PETERSBURG, SKAGWAY, WRANGELL 1 ANCHOR POINT, BIRD CREEK, COOPER LANDING, CRAIG, DENALI NATIONAL PARK, GIRDWOOD, HEALY, MEADOW LAKES, NAUKATI, UTQIAGVIK Alaska Business

February 2022 | 95

AT A GLANCE

What book is currently on your nightstand?

Code Name: Lise: The True Story of the Woman Who Became WWII's Most Highly Decorated Spy by Larry Loftis and My Early Life by Winston Churchill.

What’s the last movie you watched on an airplane?

[The HBO crime series] Mare of Easttown.

What’s your favorite local restaurant?

Denali Brewpub. That is a restaurant we frequently visit when we’re in Talkeetna, and we just enjoy the ambiance and the food.

Dead or alive, who would you like to see perform live in concert?

I would’ve liked to have seen Frank Sinatra. I think that would’ve been a wonderful concert.

Have you ever had a supernatural experience?

Image © Kerry Tasker

I believe in it, but I can’t say that I’ve ever really had one.

96 | February 2022

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

OFF THE CUFF

Sandra Blinstrubas S

kiers on Anchorage’s cross-country trails

AB: What vacation spot is on your bucket list?

Blinstrubas: I want to go to South Africa, but I know the dilemmas with travel today. Tuscany would be another one.

might unknowingly cross paths with a

telecommunications pioneer. Sandra Blinstrubas has been President of Microcom since the mid-‘80s, when the oil price crash ended her career as a state contractor and she met Chuck Schumann, who founded the company in 1984. At that time, hundreds of villages lacked local phone service, long-distance calling was an ordeal, and network TV was recorded in Seattle and the tapes were flown north for delayed broadcast. Microcom brought satellite links to the Last Frontier—and linked Blinstrubas and Schumann as a married couple. Their son now also works at Microcom, managing its broadband business.

Some grad school friends invited Blinstrubas, originally from Connecticut, to move to Alaska. says. Her master’s degree in environmental science from Yale hardly prepared her for the technology industry (but, she says, “I was lucky enough to learn along the way”), so she manages administration and operation of the company.

In summer, she and her husband sail their boat, See Forever (named for a ski trail in Telluride, Colorado), on Resurrection Bay every weekend.

In winter, she skis at the couple’s cabin in Talkeetna or on Anchorage’s urban trails.

Alaska Business: What’s the first thing you do when you get home after a long day at work?

Sandra Blinstrubas: It’s my time to be creative. I like to cook, so I begin immersing myself in the kitchen and coming up with a meal that hopefully everybody will like.

www.akbizmag.com

AB: What charity or cause are you passionate about?

Blinstrubas: One of our favorites is [Alaska] Seeds of Change, which really focuses on youth empowerment.

And one of our flagship charities was the [Downtown Soup Kitchen] Hope Center, and occasionally we send several volunteers for the day to work at the Hope Center and serve lunch to 400 people that need lunch…

We also like to support the Alaska Sealife Center.

AB: Is there anything you’re superstitious about?

Blinstrubas: We don’t like to count our chickens before they’re hatched. We’re usually not mentioning if something is going to be successful; we don’t like to talk about it until something actually happens.

“Apparently I was looking for adventure,” she

AB: What’s the most daring thing you’ve ever done?

Blinstrubas: Besides moving to Alaska by myself, I’d have to say a night dive I did one year in Kona, a long time ago. Definitely didn’t expect myself to have a panic attack. I felt claustrophobic, but I was able to accomplish the dive. Once I was able to get below water, I was fine… I’m not sure I’ll do that again.

AB: What’s your greatest extravagance?

Blinstrubas: The boat is extravagant, I’d have to say. But it would probably be travel. I like to spend time exploring. I think it’s a luxury… In 2018, we went to Tanzania and did an African safari through the Serengeti. To me, that was the ultimate extravagance. It was amazing, and I’d love to go back.

AB: If you could domesticate a wild animal, what animal would it be?

Blinstrubas: My goodness! I’d have to say it would be a lynx. Sleek and stealthy, has a beautiful coat. I like felines.

AB: What’s your best attribute and worst attribute?

Blinstrubas: I think my best attribute is, as a business owner, I want people to be successful. I believe that my worst attribute would be wanting their success more than they do.

AB: Other than your current career, if you were a kid today, what would your dream job be?

Blinstrubas: Being a doctor.

I really feel that you could help a lot of people, and I really feel that that is probably one of the most important jobs that’s out there.

Alaska Business

February 2022 | 97

ADVERTISERS INDEX 3-Tier Alaska Civil Engineering & Surveying............................................... 73 3tieralaska.com Airport Equipment Rentals....................... 99 airpor tequipmentrentals.com Alaska Communications Systems.............. 3 acsalaska.com

First National Bank Alaska.......................... 5 fnbalaska.com

Pacific Pile & Marine................................. 91 pacificpile.com

Fountainhead Development.................... 47 fountainheadhotels.com

Parker, Smith & Feek....................................7 psfinc.com

Great Originals Inc................................... 19 greatoriginals.com

Alaska Mergers & Acquisitions, LLC......... 29

HDR Inc..................................................... 56 hdrinc.com

Altman, Rogers & Co................................ 17 altrogco.com

JAG Alaska................................................ 84 jagalaska.com

American Heart Association.................... 23 goredforwomen.org

Kiewit Infrastructure West Co.................. 55 kiewit.com

Anchorage Sand & Gravel........................ 48 anchsand.com

Kinney Engineering, LLC.......................... 61 kinneyeng.com

ASRC Construction................................... 69 asrcconstruction.com

Leonardo DRS........................................... 89 LeonardoDRS .com/Alaska

BDS Architects (Bezek Durst Seiser)........ 51 bdsak.com

Lynden.................................................... 100 lynden.com

People AK.................................................. 71 peopleak.com PND Engineers Inc.................................... 67 pendengineers.com R & M Consultants Inc.............................. 63 rmconsult.com RESPEC (formerly PDC Eng)..................... 37 respec.com Shannon & Wilson.................................... 57 shannonwilson.com SmithCo Side Dump Trailers.................... 21 sidedump.com

Bettisworth North..................................... 39 bet tiswor thnor th.com

Material Flow & Conveyor Systems, Inc.....49 materialflow.com

Society for Marketing Professional Services Alaska.......................................... 77 smpsalaska.org

Builders Choice........................................ 81 www.builderschoice.us.com.

Matson Inc.................................................11 matson.com

Span Alaska Transportation LLC............... 59 spanalaska.com

Central Environmental Inc....................... 85 cei-alaska.com

Michael Baker International..................... 74 mbakerintl.com

STANTEC................................................... 77 stantec.com

Coffman Engineers................................... 69 coffman.com

MTA - Matanuska Telephone Association..... 65 mtasolutions.com

T. Rowe Price............................................ 25 alaska529plan.com

Conrad-Houston Insurance Agency....... 17 chialaska.com

Nenana Heating Services, Inc.................. 81 nenanaheatingservicesinc.com

Construction Machinery Industrial............ 2 cmiak.com

New Horizons Telecom, Inc..................... 60 nhtiusa.com

Cook Inlet Tug & Barge Inc...................... 63 cookinlet tug.com

Nortech Environmental & Engineering.... 87 nor techengr.com

Credit Union 1........................................... 15 cu1.org

Northern Air Cargo.............................92, 93 nac.aero

Design Alaska............................................ 55 designalaska.com

Oxford Assaying & Refining Inc.................. 9 oxfordmetals.com

World Trade Center Anchorage............... 45 wtcak.org

Elite-VB..................................................... 33 elite-vb.com

Pacific Dataport........................................ 31 pacificdatapor t.com/oneweb

Yukon Equipment Inc............................... 35 yukoneq.com

+ Careers

Umialik Insurance Company.................... 75 umialik.com University of Alaska-Fairbanks eCampus................................................... 13 ecampus.uaf.edu Westmark Hotels - HAP Alaska................ 29 westmarkhotels.com

The Alaska Business Career Center Alaska’s newest job board - A career planning portal for industry professionals fueled by Alaska’s industry leaders.

Sign up today. akbizmag.com/e-newsletter 98 | February 2022

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