News

A fearless group of JAMA employees and friends headed out on a winter hike in January to enjoy LA’s beautiful weather and explore some of the parts unknown outside of the office. The outing explored the Old LA Zoo Hike, a just under 4-mile hike through a seldom-used part of Griffith Park in Los Angeles. With spectacular views of nearby Glendale and the San Gabriel mountains as well as up-close experiences with parts of LA’s original zoo enclosures, this outing offered a little something for everyone!

We’ve seen a lot of foot traffic in and out of the office these days, particular with swag in hand. Why – because it’s job fair season! JAMA actively seeks out inquisitive, motivated interns and employees from higher education institutions. This year JAMA engineers Adena Nik, Kurt Clandening, Greg Orozco and others have participated in job fairs at UC San Diego, UC Los Angeles, Cal Poly San Louis Obispo, Stanford, UC Berkeley and SEAOSC. We’re thrilled at the interest in our firm and the prospects for some great future employees. For people interested in a career at John A. Martin & Associates, see the Employment section of our website.

In early January Partner Jackie Vinkler served as a judge for ENR Magazine’s ‘Best of the Best’ awards program, which recognizes the nation’s best projects and project teams. The award process is the culmination of a nearly year-long effort put forth by dozens of industry judges and the ENR editorial team to identify the pinnacle of design and construction achievement in the entire U.S. among projects completed between May 2016 and May 2017. In addition to Jackie’s participation, JAMA’s University of Arizona Biomedical Sciences Partnership Building, located in Phoenix, was honored with a ‘Best of the Best’ award in the Higher Education/Research Project category. The project, which included efforts by Kurt Clandening, Greg Orozco, Michael Brown, Scott Willard and Art Padilla, was done in collaboration with Martin affiliate Martin, White & Griffis (MWG) of Arizona.

The commemorative last steel beam was put into place recently at the UofA Health Sciences Innovation Building (HSIB) project in Tucson, a world-class center designed to be the vanguard for inter-professional health education in the US. The $165 million facility broke ground in 2016, and is expected to be complete by Fall 2018. Designed by CO Architects with Tucson-based Swaim Architects, the 10-story, 220,000 square foot building is located on the west side of the Arizona Health Sciences Campus. The project is envisioned to foster collaboration among multidisciplinary teams of students and faculty in four colleges: medicine, nursing, pharmacy and public health. Classrooms can accommodate as many as 150 people in flexible “flipped classroom” format, which prioritizes group work over lectures. The building also includes a special events space that allows for more than 1,000 people. JAMA’s team includes Kurt Clandening, Greg Orozco, Scott Willard, Mike Brown and Art Padilla. Construction

JAMA always celebrates the holidays in a big way, but this year brought the competition (and cheer) to new levels. An in-office decorating contest started off the season and was an opportunity for staff to showcase their creativity, especially considering that the pending move to the other side of our building meant this was the last holiday celebrated in our current space. Marketing Director Evita Oseguera received an honorable mention, while Ryan Meier earned Most Creative for his “Office of Misfits.” Partner Barry Schindler’s office was lovingly decorated by Adena Nik, Jennifer Cheng, and Heryang Lee, and their work paid off as they took home honors for the Tackiest Office. Finally, the Best Decorated honor went to Partner Kal Benuska’s office, which was adorned by Jesse Plasmyer, David Sorier-Sammut, Matt Michnewich, and Mike Brown. JAMA also celebrated the spirit and fun of the holidays during our monthly Happy Hour celebration. Thirteen children of staff joined the party, helping

Since 2005 Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) has been working to improve research and treatment facilities and achieve the required seismic upgrades to meet OSHPD standards. JAMA was retained in 2012 by CHLA to outline scope and cost related to SB1953 requirements to remove acute care services from the two SPC-1 buildings (totaling approximately 410,000 square feet) on their Hospital campus. During this evaluation, JAMA recommended that the hospital consider evaluating the feasibility of retrofitting one of the buildings, the McAlister Building, via Voluntary Seismic Improvement (VSI), to achieve an SPC-2 rating and thus allow the building to retain acute care services until 2030. The Hospital agreed to this evaluation which resulted in retrofit plans that were more cost effective and less disruptive to operations of the hospital than to remove the acute care services. JAMA developed the construction documents and obtained OSHPD approval for construction, which started January 201

JAMA’s BIM Director Marcello Sgambelluri authored an article for AutoDesk on the future of Virtual Reality (VR) within the design industries. The article is a powerful acknowledgement of the changes coming to the design and construction industry, and JAMA’s capabilities in this technological arena. Through a dedicated VR station and Marcello’s assistance, teams use virtual environments and gaming technologies to visualize and explore designs in ways that they can more easily detect structural irregularities and design issues. The firm is also preparing for the next wave in exploiting VR’s potential: creating structures and products from scratch in VR. Doing so – without the use of 2D computer screens and tedious commands – would allow designers to create more organic shapes with a higher level of granular detail. Read more about JAMA’s process and the future of technology here.

JAMA staff are constantly evolving in terms of their professional and personal skills, including adding engineering credentials. This month several JAMA staff members passed important milestones, including Project Manager Ben Rogowski (right) passing his SE exam and David Dorier-Sammut (left) passing his CE exam. Additionally, Kent Kaewwaen, Greg Orozco and Shane Fitzgerald attended a DSA Academy Class on Structural Plan Review. The one-day course promotes consistency by teaching A/E/C professionals about submittal requirements for more complete submittals and an expedited review/ approval process.