Park Fifth development in DTLA will break ground in April

Based on its intimate knowledge of the City of Los Angeles plan checking requirements, Portland-based architects, Ankrom Moisan brought in Terra-Petra environment engineers to work with the firm's in-house design team to help with design as well as consult on code-complaint systems for the Park Fifth project. The mixed-use development will replace parking lot near Pershing Square in Downtown Los Angeles and is scheduled to break ground in April. 

Read more about this exciting project on Urbaniz.LA.

The project is being designed by Portland-based Ankrom Moisan Architects, and will be

Terra-Petra going “underground” (aka below grade) in Denver and beyond…

at Haselden ConstructionWe are very excited about the new opportunities that have developed for Terra-Petra in the Denver area, as well as the state of Colorado, and other surrounding states including Wyoming, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma as of late. One of our key contacts that we met with is working for Haselden Construction out of Wyoming. The company is working on the final stages of a hospital building project in Laramie. Terra-Petra is looking to take on some potential future waterproofing design consulting projects with Haselden. We would also like to plan to work with Haselden in the Wyoming area and support them with more below grade waterproofing, as well as some environmental consulting needs in the near future.

It looks as though the “wild-west” area is booming again thanks to certain industries – particularly with regard to below grade waterproofing needs. There are also many construction sites that are subject to some sort of contamination issue due to the fact that Denver, for one, is growing very fast. Multi-unit housing complexes going up in droves to support (population) growth in this area. The oil, mining, and legal marijuana industries, in particular, are driving this kind of speedy growth.

To that end Denver appears to also have plenty of waterproofing requirements, but they also have their share of environmental concerns. However, the Denver area still does not have a tremendous amount of regulations in place with regard vapor barriers and mitigation systems (like there are in cities like in New York or Los Angeles). So owners/developers in the Denver, as well as in many of the surrounding (Rockies/Midwest) areas, are now in a rush (or will soon need to be in a rush) to put these specific measures in place for current/older and new buildings —and this will become more and more of a necessity in order to maintain the clean environmental conditions in the area(s). We all know that there are many environmentalists residing in places like Colorado, so the consensus is that it is just a matter of time before tighter measures and regulations are put into place and owner/developers will be required to go down certain mitigation paths to better conditions.

Terra-Petra is looking to be the “go-to” environmental engineering firm as the construction industry (in the “wild west” area) continues to catch on to a growing environmental protection concern where building and land development is concerned. Yes, there are plenty of big environmental engineering firms located in Denver including URS and AECOM. This indicates that there is a market for larger scale environmental projects now and on the horizon. It’s going to be another wild ride in the west!