When I first moved to San Francisco from Jackson, WY in the fall of 1996 I went to a SEAONC meeting to generally network and be among fellow engineers. One of the guest speakers was Jon Magnusson from Skilling Ward Magnusson Barkshire in Seattle. Jon gave a short presentation on the Key Arena and Safeco Field projects and we spoke briefly afterwards. I've followed the company ever since and knew that when (if) I returned to Seattle that I wanted to work there.
Fast forward to the end of 2002: Joy and I were making our plans to move back to the west coast from NYC. I met with Jon in the West Village while he was in town for business and then interviewed officially next time I was in Seattle. And here I am...
Photo 1 is the first project that I did any work on at MKA (we updated our name soon after I joined). I did not do much design but was the main person on the CA (construction administration) phase. Trips to southern California during the rainy Seattle winters were nice. Photo 2 falls under the same category: not much design, did the CA, sunny trips. It's an upscale condo in ritzi La Jolla; I think the top penthouses went for $4+ million. For the Highline CC project I did the bulk of the gravity design. I missed out on a lot of the coordination aspects which was somewhat disappointing. It opened during the '05 winter quarter. Photo 4 is the Austin Marriott job, which is almost complete, where I did pretty much all of the design and had varying levels of involvement in the general coordination. LSE Parcel N was a HUGE project. About 70 stories and although there was lots of repetition it was still a large effort. They are in construction and just poured Level 32. Photo 6, the W Hotel, is just beginning construction. The architects are still working through much of the details as this is a highly aesthetic project. Mammoth Hillside, M Street and Ladd Tower kick of my role as project manager. M Street is about 60% complete with the shell and Ladd is on a fast pace, currently in the middle of DD phase. Mammoth is like a slug; a pretty and fun slug, but a slow moving slug none-the-less.