News

JAMA is remembering the Northridge Earthquake, which took place 25 years ago today. As the costliest natural disaster of its time in SoCal, it has since shaped our practice, and our city. One of biggest lessons learned: the need for high performance seismic connections. JAMA, and the industry at large, has continually explored ways to improve life safety, decrease property loss and increase resilience through improvements to non-ductile steel moment frame connections. Like the rehabilitated and seismically upgraded Royce Hall at UCLA, our buildings are designed to take on the next “big one.”

JAMA’s efforts on the conceptual design of the Fifth Xiang Ya hospital in ChangSha, China, are becoming a reality. Construction on the 2,500+ bed facility began earlier this year and is moving at lightning speed. JAMA worked on the design with Payette’s Boston office, which features a series of mega-structures to accommodate outpatient services for 100,000 people daily in an “eco-hospital in the garden.” In total, the 5.6 million square foot project covers a nearly 30-acre site that blends with an adjacent public park. Construction is expected to be complete in 2020.

Congratulations to JAMA Senior Engineer James Lee for being selected as an incoming Board Member for the Asian American Architects / Engineers of Southern California Foundation (AAa/e) Foundation. His commitment and future efforts will help the organization raise funds for scholarships for students pursuing a career in architecture, engineering or construction. The AAa/e Foundation was created in 2004 as a branch of the Asian American Architects / Engineers Association of Southern California (www.aaaesc.org) to better support efforts to seek additional means of fundraising for our scholarships, and to better serve students.

What was originally planned as a lovely Fall camping trip IN Joshua Tree National Park turned into a lovely Fall camping trip OUTSIDE of the Park. The “campsite” was a bit primitive, but our hearty JAMA campers said it was a great time to hike, explore and bond over hot chocolate! The group headed to Joshua Tree National Park on Friday evening, but since the campsites inside the park were all full the group ended up setting up camp in nearby Sunfair – an interesting area just north/northwest of the park. The next two days offered plenty of sightseeing, bouldering and hiking inside the park. We’re just glad the group made it back……

JAMA’s team on the 60,000 square foot Kaiser Permanente Baldwin Park Medical Office Building (MOB) have a lot to be proud of. On November 9th the team joined KP administrators and other design team members including Frank Webb Architects and Pankow Builders for the project’s topping out. The completion of the facility’s structure was due in part to the use of ConXtech – a modular, prefabricated structural steel building system that has been refined for use across many of the Kaiser Permanente MOB’s in California.

With 70 employees, celebrating a JAMA-versary is a common occurrence around the office, but it’s always a special day when someone hits a milestone like 20 years. Dr. Hossain Ghaffari, Ph.D., a Project Manager at JAMA, did just that last month. When asked what’s been the special thing that’s kept him at the firm for all these years he replied “JAMA’s professional environment, where ethical and technical matters are highly respected and observed and yet employees feel they are part of an adopted family. The firm’s flexible hours are extremely convenient, allowing the employees to attend to any urgent family or personal matters. In my case I can keep up with my teaching passion as a part time faculty in local universities”. Hossain regularly works on peer reviews, commercial and education projects in both higher education and K-12 and is considered an expert on DSA-related projects.

JAMA has always been proud of our diversity, which shines particularly bright on Halloween. From PBS painter Bob Ross to Melania to Frida to zombie dolls to Bruno Mars, Aladdin Genie’s to the Brawny Man and even Captain America…we’ve got it all! In addition to costumes, the firm hosted a pumpkin carving contest as part of the monthly happy hour. Six teams vied for prizes and bragging rights and JAMA’s 2nd Floor neighbors MGAC captured 1st place for the second year in a row. It was almost a tie with JAMA’s Haunted Halloween Pumpkin Man, though, and a not-too-distant third place went to the Super Mario Pumpkin. Congrats to all!

ACE Mentoring’s “All Schools Day 2018” was held last Saturday and JAMA helped with not just 1 school…but 3! With the participation of Project Managers and Engineers three teams went for the win in a hot glue and popsicle stick building design competition. There were no awards in our groups, but there was a lot of fun.