OCT.
12
DJC Oregon
Posted on October 12th, 2010 - 12:00 am
Sorority’s Service Station Renovation Under Way
Work on the June Key Delta Community Center is under way. A former service station at 5940 N. Albina St. is undergoing a major renovation to become a center that will provide neighborhood meeting space, exhibition space, a community garden and space for a youth mentoring program sponsored by the Portland Alumnae chapter of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority. Colas Construction Inc. is the general contractor and Mark Nye Architect is the designer of the Living Building Challenge project.
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JAN.
01
DJC Oregon
Posted on January 1st, 1970 - 12:00 am
First Projects Meet Living Building Challenge
Three buildings became the first in the world to achieve the goals of the Living Building Challenge this week, according to Eden Brukman, vice president of the International Living Building Institute.
To meet the Living Building Challenge, a building must produce all of its own energy and manage all of its own water on site, as well use nontoxic, locally-sourced materials. Considered the most stringent green building guide, buildings applying for the certification have to be in operation for a year before an audit is performed.
After operating for the past year, the Living Building Institute has awarded its first full certifications to the BNIM Architects-designed Omega Center for Sustainable Living in Rhinebeck, N.Y., and the Helluith + Bicknese Architects-designed Tyson Living Learning Center in Eureka, Mo. Another project, the Eco-Sense residence in Victoria, British Columbia, earned a partial certification for achieving four of six criteria required to meet the challenge.
“To see these projects achieve what are very stringent requirements is incredible and overwhelming,” Brukman said.
Portland currently has two projects under construction striving towards the Living Building Challenge, the June Key Delta Community Center built by Colas Construction, Inc. and The Commons, a residential project. Once those are completed, project builders and designers will have to monitor the performance of their projects for the next 12 months before receiving certification, Brukman said.
Also on the boards is Portland’s Oregon Sustainability Center, which could become the largest building to be certified under the Living Building Challenge, Brukman said. While the projects certified this week were less than 20,000 square feet, Oregon Sustainability Center architect Clark Brockman of SERA Architects said achieving the goals of the challenge with a 150,000-square-foot building will be much more difficult. Its size, however, could aid the project as well.
“We have heard from the teams who completed the challenge that there is tension between the materials Red List and the service radius from which you can source materials,” Brockman said. “Hopefully, the scale of the center is big enough to interest people in making a nontoxic version of their current building product or that people will want to start making their low toxic product here in Portland.”
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SEP.
24
DJC Oregon
Posted on September 24th, 2010 - 12:00 am
Q&A: PDC’s Newest and Youngest, Commissioner
POSTED: Friday, September 24, 2010 at 08:32 AM PT
BY: Nick Bjork
Tags: Aneshka Colas-Dickson, Portland Development Commission
Aneshka Colas-Dickson has been nominated by Mayor Sam Adams to fill the Portland Development Commission Board of Commissioners’ fifth commissioner seat. Once appointed, she will be the board’s youngest commissioner ever. The move came after former Commissioner Bertha Ferran’s term ended in June.
Colas-Dickson, 33, grew up in Northeast Portland and now resides in Northwest Portland. After receiving a degree from the University of Oregon she moved back to the city and started working for her family’s general contracting firm, Colas Construction.
DJC: What’s your day job?
Aneshka Colas-Dickson: I’m the vice president and chief financial officer of Colas Construction, which was started by my father in 1997. It’s a true family business. When the company first started my father financed all of the projects on his own, so we were focused primarily on the private side of things. Once the company started to grow we started to do some public work as well. The company then turned its attention back to private work until the economy started to go downhill and we focused back towards where the money is. So, as a company we have a very good understanding about how both the public and private sides work – as well as how they work together.
DJC: What do you bring to the table in this position?
Colas-Dickson: The first thing is a perspective from a younger generation, which is something that I believe will be very beneficial to this board. It’s a voice that is very important as we move forward.
The other thing I bring is a financial background. I received an accounting degree from the Lundquist College of Business at the University of Oregon. I’m very comfortable with how the financial side of projects work. I can read and understand pro-forma reports and most any other financial document that is put in front of me.
And the final thing would be my experience running a small business. A lot of what the PDC does is help small businesses grow, and that’s something that not only I have experience with, but I think is a very important part of improving the economy.
DJC: What’s one asset from your work at Colas that will translate well for this position?
Colas-Dickson: You would think it would be my background in construction, but it’s really the leadership that I bring to the table. While I’m the vice president at Colas, it’s truly a small business, and as you probably know, in a small business you have to be able to do any task that arises. Also, part of being a leader is making decisions that not everyone agrees with, which is something I am very well versed in. Not that I’m looking to make bad decisions. But looking at the larger perspective is something I think I’m really good at.
DJC: What’s your favorite part of Portland?
Colas-Dickson: Being a mom (of three) I spend a lot of time in the various parks around town. We like Irving City Park, but we also love trying out new parks that we haven’t been to before.
We also love eating out at all the places around town. We are big fans of Andina right now. I just love the Peruvian feeling, and the food is great. Or Pambiche – have you been to Pambiche? The food is incredible. And no, I don’t work for either of those places.
DJC: What’s your favorite building in Portland?
Colas-Dickson: I don’t have one favorite building, but I definitely find myself attracted to the older architecture of some of Portland’s downtown churches. I just think it’s a beautiful contrast from the modern architecture that you see around town these days, which I really like as well.
DJC: What attracted you to the construction industry? It can’t only be because it’s what your family did.
Colas-Dickson: I get this question all the time and I’m telling the complete truth when I say I would have followed whatever path my family went down. We are very tight knit and my dad always had a vision of making Colas a family-run business. If my dad would have started selling t-shirts that’s the business I would be in right now.
DJC: Well, you ended up in this industry. What’s your favorite part about it?
Colas-Dickson: My favorite part is most definitely leaving your mark behind. From start to finish there is so much that has to be done to complete a project. And to see it complete, and bring my kids by and show them what their family did, is a very special thing.
DJC: You obviously dress well. Can you compete with Commissioner (Steven) Straus and his bowties?
Colas-Dickson (laughing): I don’t know if I should answer this one. All I can say is that I’m fortunate to be the only female on this board so I don’t have to compete with his outfits.
DJC: Anything else you would like to add?
Colas-Dickson: I can’t stress enough that coming from a small business I’m going to work hard to make sure that my decisions, when appropriate, represent the feelings and ideas of small businesses in this city. I think small businesses play a very integral part in this city. And with all the good things that are going on here, our unemployment is still too high. If we can help maintain these businesses, they can help the unemployment (rate).
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MAR.
29
DJC Oregon
Posted on March 29th, 2010 - 12:00 am
June Key Delta House Moving Forward
POSTED: Monday, March 29, 2010 at 08:36 AM PT
BY: Nathalie Weinstein
Tags: Nye Architecture, Portland Development Commission
The June Key Delta House project has received $434,658 in loans and grants from the Portland Development Commission. (Rendering courtesy Portland Development Comission)
A project to convert a North Portland gas station into one of Portland’s first Living Buildings got a significant boost this morning with a loan and two grants from the Portland Development Commission totaling $434,658.
The PDC this morning announced that the June Key Delta House would receive a Commercial Property Redevelopment loan and Storefront Improvement and Community Livability grants to cover the estimated $900,000 construction cost.
The former gas station, located at 5940 N. Albina Avenue, was purchased by the Portland-chapter of predominantly African-American sorority Delta Sigma Theta in 1992 with the goal of turning it into a community center.
Mark Nye of Nye Architecture, who designed the project to meet the Living Building Challenge, has run into a number of funding hurdles for the project and is relieved that the community center could now begin construction as soon as April. But the project is still seeking a private partner to fund a solar array that would make the building eligible to meet the LBC.
“The PDC funding will cover everything but the solar array,” Nye said. “We’re now looking for a for-profit partner who can help us get (Business Energy Tax Credits) for the project’s solar array.”
General contractor Colas Construction Inc. is expected to begin construction on the project in late April.
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FEB.
17
DJC Oregon
Posted on February 17th, 2010 - 12:00 am
Contractors Envision A Rebuilt Haiti
POSTED: Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 02:47 PM PT
BY: Justin Carinci
Having grown up in Haiti, Hermann Colas Jr. wants to see the country rebuild after last month’s earthquake. As a builder, Colas knows he can help.
Although it’s hard to be in Oregon when there’s so much need in Haiti, Colas said, for now he can do more good here.
“If I was there, I could only be thinking about what I wanted to do, but I wouldn’t have the means or the materials to do so,” he said.
Colas, the owner of Colas Construction Inc., started a fund to help relief efforts. He turned to his fellow contractors for help.
Randy Williams, chief financial officer for R&H Construction, got to know Colas when their respective companies worked together on projects including the remodel of the Washington Square Nordstrom store. He heard about Colas’ family in Haiti and that country’s struggles.
“The earthquake in Haiti became personal,” Williams said. “A lot of times, you’ll have a disaster somewhere on the globe, but you’re not as connected to it.
“When the earthquake hit, I thought, ‘Oh my gosh. I hope his brothers are OK.’ ”
Colas and his son Andrew brought a personal appeal to Associated General Contractors members during the Oregon-Columbia chapter’s annual business meeting last month. The chapter’s charitable foundation had decided to offer a $7,000 match for any donations for Haiti.
“I told them, as far as I’m concerned, I made them all Haitians,” Colas said. “And they reacted with the same feeling of trouble I felt.”
Members donated $38,000, for a total of $45,000 with the match, foundation President Dale Campbell said. More money still is coming in. “Considering the state of the economy in Oregon, it’s kind of an overwhelming response,” Campbell said.
Half of the money goes to the Colas Foundation Fund, which supports Medical Teams International, Mercy Corps, Oxfam America, Partners in Health and Doctors Without Borders. The other half will go toward efforts to rebuild the country.
Ted Aadland, the incoming president of the AGC of America, is using Oregon’s success raising money for Haiti to challenge all 92 AGC local chapters. “We’re contractors, so what we’re looking at doing is the reconstruction of Haiti,” he said.
Although Haitians need food, water and other help immediately, they have longer-term needs as well. “But what always happens is that something happens somewhere else in the world and the spotlight shifts from Haiti,” Aadland said.
“We want to be there to help them get their homes, their schools, their hospitals back.”
Construction also can provide needed jobs for Haitians, said Larry Sitz, president of Emerick Construction Co. and a friend of Colas’. “We think we’ve got it tough here, but unemployment there is above 50 percent, and it was even before the earthquake,” Sitz said.
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