This holiday season, we’ve assembled an online gallery of our team’s artwork for you to enjoy. We hope these flashes of the Otak creative spirit inspire you during the holidays and into the new year!
Author: Otak Staff
Native American Heritage Month: Celebrating Culture and Preservation in AEC
As Native American Heritage Month comes to a close, Otak is aware that the land our practice areas often work on did not originally belong to us. Indigenous peoples across the United States and the regions we occupy existed long before the colonization of the Americas, and will continue to exist in perpetuity.
What started at the turn of the century as an effort to gain a day of recognition for the significant contributions the first Americans made to the establishment and growth of the U.S., has resulted in a whole month being designated for that purpose. Otak hopes to recognize not only the contributions of indigenous people to our current society, but also highlight our project work directly with tribes in regions where our offices exist.
As part of our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiative, and in an effort to show what Otak is doing to stand by it, we’d like to give recognition to a project with a client that aligns with our mission of designing with equity toward all community members regardless of background, race, ethnicity, or land origin.
This is why we’re turning the spotlight on the Dungeness River Railroad, with our client being the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe on the Northern Olympic Peninsula in Washington state.
Dungeness River Railroad Bridge: An Intersection of Cultural and Natural Restoration With Project Design
Inhabiting the area for more than 10,000 years, the S’Klallams possess a rich social and religious culture based on the abundant natural resources of the Northwest Coast. They moved from village to village in their traditional territory during the spring, summer, and fall for fishing and resource gathering, and settled into more permanent longhouses for the winter months. They are also craftspeople skilled in woodcarving and basket making, and they fashioned ceremonial masks, serving dishes and utensils, storage boxes from cedar, and woven mats, rope, and clothing from cedar bark.
But what was the project, and how are we serving their community while upholding their rich culture and history?
This project, titled the Dungeness River Railroad Trestle Replacement, is located on the Dungeness River at Railroad Bridge Park in Sequim, WA, and supports the Olympic Discovery Trail. The goal was to restore floodplain processes that had been constrained by the 585-foot-long railroad trestle and was accomplished by replacing the existing trestle with a river-worthy and salmon-friendly pedestrian bridge. Work included preparation of design alternatives, preliminary and final design of the preferred alternative, permitting, and preparation of a design report, technical specifications, quantities, costs, and bid documents.
The project’s goals were achieved with the S’Klallam tribe in mind since members living on the land use the river and surrounding areas to fish and keep their heritage alive to this day. The most important part of this, however, is the role the tribe played in the decision-making process for improvements. The tribe worked with us directly to be the agents of change and helped us understand their needs, so we were best able to serve them by preserving and improving their resources. Far from being passive acceptors of our work, the tribe worked with us to achieve an award-winning project courtesy of the ACEC Washington in Engineering Excellence.
Otak is reverent that we are able to work to preserve and improve land that the S’Klallam tribe calls home. Learn more about how our DEI initiatives are central to “Our Why,” and we’d like to thank the tribe for their trust in delivering this project.
How Equity Intersects with Sustainability in Design
Unquestionably, the reality of climate change is on the world’s doorstep. More severe storm events, widespread drought, and higher-than-average temperatures are just some of the impacts we are currently experiencing. As designers and engineers, it must be in our DNA to design using principles of resiliency, which can be defined as “the capacity of a system to deal with change and continue to develop.”1 It is also a responsibility to ensure that these solutions are equitable.
What is an Equitable Project?
Climate change has the largest burden on communities that are the most vulnerable, including physical, social, and economic risk factors. Otak believes in taking a truly integrated approach to our design and sees the value in aligning with the unique needs of all stakeholders to create memorable places for future generations.
Otak is also invested in the concept, as climate and community activist Majora Carter says, that “No one should have to leave their community to live in a better one.”
That investment includes identifying and learning from community experts, whose lived experiences can inform our design. Engaged communities, where everyone feels safe, valued, and empowered, are vital to creating a thriving society. Our internal investments in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion bolster our staff with skills that can carry over to our project work.
What Does Equitable Design Mean at Otak?
From work with the National Park Service (NPS) where LEED silver is standard in their design, to the Portland Building where Minority and Women-Owned Business (MWBE) utilization exceeds expectation, our projects take shape with these values in mind in a variety of ways.
Particularly within the AEC industry, as the field becomes more gender-balanced and places an emphasis on sustainable elements such as daylighting, energy performance, and water use, the results quickly become tangible.
“Maintaining accessibility through universal design is a must for equitable experiences in project development… Implementing these strategies can be easy from the start, because we share common values with a client and can work towards a common goal.”
Aryn Phillips, architecture team designer
Equitable design is an essential component of environmental justice. For too long, sustainability and the design that accompanies it have placed heavy burdens on our most vulnerable populations. Poor communities, people of color, the disabled community, the elderly, and other populations have been harmed by a lack of progress in sustainability. Worse yet, our infrastructure often reflects past racist, classist, and ableist policy decisions. A look at current environmental and health crises in Mississippi, Detroit, and New York City exhibit the need to think about the intersections of design, policy, and justice.
History tells us that these communities were made vulnerable through intentional and targeted policies that benefited a few and burdened many. For example, the current crisis in Jackson, MS can be traced to white resistance to school integration in the 1970s. The choice to open segregated academies and the flight to outlying areas resulted in segregated communities, shrank the tax base, and crippled any investment in crumbling infrastructure.
Equitable design that is intentionally focused on outcomes for these and other vulnerable populations reflects an understanding of justice and how we can design and deliver projects that are transformative by design. Environmental justice necessarily centers communities and the expertise that resides there.
It is our job to translate that expertise into design that centers the needs of vulnerable populations.
References and resources:
- Resiliency definition: SRC+Applying+Resilience+final.pdf (stockholmresilience.org)
- FEMA: Building Alliances for Equitable Resilience (fema.gov)
- Majora Cater Group: Majoracartergroup.com
Otak’s Millicent Williams Wins DJC Women of Vision Award
As our industry becomes more dynamic and multi-faceted, the need has never been greater for those who shape the built environment to have unique perspectives and approaches to their work. It’s imperative for firms to not only recruit talent from a variety of backgrounds, but also to honor those who are recognized for their visionary qualities in the field.
This is the case for Millicent Williams, our Regional Director for our Oregon and Southwest Washington Public Sector practice, who we are proud to say has been recognized as a DJC Oregon’s Woman of Vision award for 2022.
The Meaning Behind the Honor
The accolade spurns multiple thoughts and feelings for Millicent, both tangible and intangible. What stuck out to her from the outset was the nature of the win—being recognized for inspiring others in the field. She says this comes with a sense of extreme legitimacy, “The things I say and do give women, especially women of color the belief they can work comfortably in and offer leadership in a largely male-dominated industry.”
There are real-world applications for this award as well. To her, it gives a relatable face to the work we do and reinforces that construction is not a man’s job, that infrastructure work in particular is not less sophisticated, and that a non-traditional background isn’t a deterrent to leadership in the field. In fact, she credits her traditional business education as her greatest asset, and knows she can make an impact with her perspective and existing knowledge about “the business of being in business.”
Learning the Ropes
When asked about formative ideas that helped guide her toward this achievement, she pointed directly to a textbook that she used while an undergrad at Florida A&M University’s School of Business and Industry called The Ropes to Skip and The Ropes to Know: a definitive work detailing what Millicent now calls her specialty—organizational systems and development. It instilled in her early on that successful enterprise is about people and navigating both the social and cultural aspects that go into getting any job done. It inspired her to get out of her own way, embrace assertiveness, work hard every day, be teachable, and uplift others in order to achieve desired outcomes. This is especially true for transportation and infrastructure, which she saw as a way to use her skills to influence the built environment in ways she previously thought had been impossible.
Things started to click as she got further and went higher in her career, “When I began to see cities function well as a result of my efforts, I got to then see the direct impact I could have on the industry. You can, in fact, do something about it if you see something that isn’t right, and people don’t always think they have that power.”
Contending with Perceptions and Realities
To Millicent, it’s clear as day that this industry is male-dominated, and even clearer that few people of color are able to achieve the same things with the resources they have access to. However, she credits her tenacious work-ethic and awareness of her transferable skills for elevating her to where she is today, “I was the type of person that shows up every day, that puts their head down and works, and most importantly generate quality results because of that work. That gave me access to opportunities.”
“People want to see themselves in the people they look up to, and this platform creates energy that allows people in the industry to see that”
Millicent Williams
In practice, she also rejects the idea that transportation and infrastructure is as simple as a bus arriving on time. She explains, “The finance and engineering departments for transit agencies are just as crucial to a bus being on schedule as the driver. I’m not often out in the field on projects, but my understanding of the whole system and how each piece works in tandem is what’s important.”
She uses this in-depth understanding to inspire others, to get people to fully see where they are and how they’re contributing, or even when they’re not contributing by being short-sighted, “That in and of itself can be transformative, and can change the way that people see not just infrastructure but government operations in general.”
Doing Generational Work
Millicent reflects that she has worked in the public sector for the majority of her career and that her roles were often assigned because of how she “showed up,” but notes that true passion for her work formed when she got into infrastructure, which led her to leadership roles within organizations like the Portland Bureau of Transportation. She explains, “I saw an opportunity to make impactful decisions in people’s lives and that infrastructure is generational work, meaning my actions could have an impact 100 years later.”
A prime example of this is her current work with the states of both Oregon and Washington on the Interstate Bridge Replacement Program, the bridge in question being the connection between the two via the I-5 highway.
As the lead facilitator for the most high-profile stakeholders on the project, her job of making sure everyone is on the same page is incredibly gratifying for two reasons. For one, she’s playing a direct role in the upgrade of a hundred-year-old bridge where everything needs to be taken into consideration, both in logistics and in politics. She gets to employ her skill in navigating those two spaces from explaining the technical aspects like budget, to the political intersections between the states and their goals. Second, it’s an opportunity to exude leadership under pressure, and to further her goal of creating generational wealth through infrastructure, “This is a once-in-a-lifetime project that incorporates different disciplines and backgrounds of all types. I get to bring the totality of my skills to bear in delivering the results everyone wants, everyone needs out of the project.”
The Ceremony and the Future
Millicent is greatly looking forward to the award ceremony taking place on October 26th in Portland, where she sees incredible value. To her, it’s a tremendous networking opportunity where new partnerships can be forged, and new thought leaders can emerge. The opportunity to recognize women from numerous other firms who will also be acknowledged will help “open eyes and open doors” to future generations, especially those of color, that they too can make an impact with a nontraditional background that can in fact be a strength and a point of pride. The “vision” aspect of this award is especially important here because it allows people of influence, power, and ability to help everyone see value, “The night itself serves the whole industry because it’s a chance not only to make space, but create a meaningful space where all are respected for their work.”
When asked why she thinks it’s important to highlight and recognize women’s stories, she pointed again to giving people the ability to see, “People want to see themselves in the people they look up to, and this platform creates energy that allows people in the industry to see that contributions can be made by those who don’t look like them in terms of gender.”
She wants to see more women in leadership and empower other women to see that success in this industry is possible. Without that, “It’s hard to see for yourself if you don’t see yourself.”
A Closing Message
Millicent puts two words to other women who are looking to break into the Transportation and Infrastructure industry—“Why not? Just because something isn’t in your background doesn’t mean it can’t be in your foreground, so even if you feel like you don’t tick all the boxes, apply yourself anyway—because why not?”
Otak is lucky to have a visionary like Millicent on our team. We look forward to reporting on more of her achievements, and extend our warmest congratulations to her and the other women being honored with this award. You can view the rest of the honorees courtesy of the DJC Oregon here.
Waterway Restoration: A Holistic Approach to Improving Fish Passages
Every year, millions of fish migrate between the ocean and their native habitat, navigating waterways across natural landscapes, farmland, and ever-expanding developed regions of highways, towns, and cities. Removal of barriers such as dams, culverts, and levees, has long been recognized as a necessary and viable means to improving fish passage, and good progress has been made in this regard. More importantly, though, waterway restoration as a whole has evolved over the past 20-30 years to encompass a broader approach.
Fish passage restoration is no longer confined to removing or replacing existing impediments. It is also about understanding watersheds and river basins as a whole and implementing solutions that improve the health of a complex ecosystem, improve the ability of fish to migrate and thrive, and ultimately improve multi-species preservation efforts.
Here in the Pacific Northwest, a real sense of urgency has also emerged as 27 West Coast Salmon runs are threatened, including Chinook Salmon whose survival is linked to the recovery of southern resident orca. In response, local agencies and tribes in Puget Sound have launched comprehensive fish restoration programs. Otak has been involved in a number of projects in Washington and the Columbia Basin and has been at the forefront of this shift to a more holistic approach to improving fish passages.
Barriers, Encroachment, and Water Quality
Today, rather than looking at only physical barriers like culverts and dams within a waterway, multidisciplinary firms like Otak take into consideration all of the other factors that impact healthy fish passages. “Twenty years ago, we had this concept of the four Hs: habitat, hydropower, hatcheries and harvest,” Jamie Bails, Otak Senior Environmental Scientist, states, “and while each of these things is important, we have come to understand it is barriers that are preventing fish from getting where they need to go.” But there is more to it, as Jamie further explains, “all of those things can’t be improved if we don’t fix the habitat. Correcting infrastructure like culverts and bridges will help, but ultimately it is the streams that will do the work when we get out of the way.”
What Jamie and the rest of the Water & Natural Resources team at Otak understand is that improving fish passage is not just about the physical barriers, it is also about encroachment on waterways and adjacent habitat. Water quality, sedimentation, and pollution are equally important and present real barriers to fish. Russ Gaston, Senior Vice President, Water & Natural Resources, has 33 years of experience studying and improving fish passages, working in both the public and private sector. He explains “for years, restoration projects focused mainly on removing physical barriers or helping fish pass through or around barriers. What we have seen though, is streams that had polluted water flowing into them did not achieve positive results after physical barriers were removed. Rather, they saw little to no improvement at all.”
For example, Russ and his team worked with Snohomish County for over 20 years to improve fish habitat and remove fish barriers in the French Creek watershed, but restoration of spawning salmon to the upper watershed remained impeded because the water-quality-barrier in the watershed had not been improved. They have since worked with the County and the farmers in the watershed, to restore stream buffers in the agricultural lands, and have developed options to improve water quality in the highly degraded lower reach of the watershed, which the County is evaluating and deciding on which option to move forward on.
Today, Russ says “we commonly focus on stormwater runoff and work to create a stable channel to keep bank erosion to natural rates, which are primary sources of pollutants in a stream. We also use the Benthic Index of Biotic Integrity (B-IBII) to project the health of the stream before and after the restoration is completed.” The work Otak did on the Miller Creek Daylighting project for the City of Burien, Port of Seattle, and the City of Sea-tac is an example of where the team has applied this process.
Multidisciplinary Project Teams
To fully understand what is happening within a waterway and what barriers—physical or otherwise—are having the greatest impact on fish passage, the entire watershed needs to be considered. And this requires expertise and perspective only possible through a multi-disciplinary approach. Optimally, project teams should include structural and civil engineers, geomorphologists, biologists, wetland ecologists, and landscape architects. Russ, who has been involved in a number of fish basin planning projects in Washington, points out that it is not just multiple disciplines weighing in on a project, it is integrated teams working together. “What I thought was an integrated team years ago, is nothing compared to what we do today. Engineers are no longer working in isolation, but are now working together with stream biologists, geomorphologists, landscape architects—all within one firm. This is a key advantage and influences the way we think about restoration,” Russ asserts.
Working closely together, integrated teams have a greater understanding of all the impediments to fish passage and where to focus restoration efforts. This level of data essentially provides a blueprint for identifying failing infrastructure and prioritizing projects. This in turn has the added benefit of not only improving fish passage and multi-species preservation across a region but can also save the various jurisdictions—cities, counties, the state—considerable expense.
Fish passage restoration is only a small piece of what teams like Otak’s Water & Natural Resources team can provide. For example, Otak has a surveying group that is experienced in collecting water resource information. “We are able to do everything in-house, which allows us to go beyond improving fish passages in isolation to really addressing stream restoration as a whole and improving an entire watershed,” Russ states.
Fish Passages and Stream Restoration
There are two typical approaches to designing and improving fish passage. One is an engineered hydraulic calculation with a specific focus on providing the right depth and velocity conditions in a system that targets specific fish species.
The other approach involves stream simulation, which takes into consideration the natural geomorphic processes and seeks to replicate how a stream might have evolved naturally, what is currently impacting channel evolution and how it might be impacted in the future. “Obviously, there are constraints to what we can do—existing roads, cities, and other development—but when we look at streams in this manner, it allows us to come up with solutions that will have a greater impact than improving specific sites in isolation,” Russ states.
With this approach, Otak has been working with cities, counties, and agencies to help them assess where they should be focusing their restoration efforts. “We bring a multi-disciplinary team to assess water quality, water flow, channel degradation, floodplain, and habitat values,” Russ explains. “We’re assessing fish habitats and the connectivity of wetlands, as well as existing infrastructure, regional stormwater management, and integrating our findings into cohesive designs and fish passage restoration planning,” he adds. Ultimately, with such comprehensive data, Otak’s teams are able to give recommendations based on real cost-benefit analyses and offer solutions that benefit the fish and other species on a broad scale. “This is an area where we have been extremely successful,” Russ asserts, “and the advances we are continuing to make in the industry are exciting.”
Lasting Resilience
It is not just firms like Otak that are embracing a comprehensive watershed approach to fish passage restoration. As the industry has evolved and best practices continue to improve with the integration of multi-disciplinary teams, government agencies are also looking at the bigger picture of coastal adaptation and seeking solutions that will not only improve fish passage and aid in multi-species preservation but will also benefit the region economically. Commercial and recreational fishing and tourism are all linked to fish preservation. Economics aside, the real benefit, as Russ points out, “is that we’re restoring natural processes, which holistically lifts the entire system, improves the resilience of the watershed, and benefits all aquatic and riparian life.”
Four Ways an Art + Science Approach Produces Better Results
More than 500 years ago, renaissance artist Leonardo DaVinci said “art is the queen of all sciences, communicating knowledge to all the generations of the world.” Just as DaVinci believed a person needs to study the science of art and the art of science to develop a complete mind, the marriage of art, structure, sustainability, and planning is essential to developing complete projects.
Communities built for the 21st century need a balanced approach, with input from multiple disciplines and solutions that are unique to the client and project area. In this age, projects are too complicated for either art or science alone. Here are four ways art + science = better results:
1. Planning and architecture are not afterthoughts
Most companies in our industry primarily emphasize either art (planning and architecture) or science (science and engineering). And in most A/E firms, engineers take the lead by managing projects, being the public face to clients, and running the company.
For the best results, clients need to be able to tap into the combined talent and backgrounds of architects, planners, engineers, scientists, and other team members. Planners and architects need to serve important roles on multidisciplinary projects.
2. Clients and communities are best served by a multidisciplinary approach
Very few challenges can be solved within the realm of one discipline. Try replacing a road without addressing water quality challenges, for example. The best project teams are balanced, with input from multiple disciplines creating solutions that are unique for the client and community. Whether designing the expansion of King County Metro’s bus transit bases to support the county’s booming bus ridership, developing an overlay district for Denver’s hot RiNo neighborhood, or designing a leading-edge, mixed-use, car-free building with a hotel and housing in Portland’s trendy Pearl District, clients and communities are served better when we bring different types of expertise to the table. A diversity of thought results in a stronger project and 21st century communities.
3. All disciplines are equally valued and appreciated
In many large A/E firms, each discipline operates as its own business. Some clients might partner with a firm for years, never learning how the company could help tackle their challenges in other areas. When a client issues a request for proposals, companies need to form teams that contain the best subject matter experts from across all practice areas and a project manager who can get the job done right, no matter their area of expertise. What’s critical is that the entire team collaborates to deliver the best service possible to our clients.
4. Employees can bring art and science in their own lives
Employees who are driven by their individual passions to ask questions, find the answers, and leverage their collective passions are more likely to improve their communities and the world.
Take Zaq Dohallow, for example, an architectural designer driven by a passion for science. He interpolates raw data to inform the design process, and he integrates incentives to promote sustainable design measures. As one of Otak’s sustainability champions, he is also our go-to person for green tech systems to improve building performance.
And then there’s Ann Nguyen, who views landscape architecture and planning as a compilation of environmental design, policy, and science. As an urban planner and gifted sketch artist, Ann applies her art and science approach to her public outreach for the City of Denver Santa Fe Streetscape; Food Bridge International Marketplace and Center for Asian Pacific American Women; the Cleworth Architectural Legacy Project; and other organizations.
When Otak’s founders conceived of the company in 1981, they looked at the region’s planning, landscape architecture, and engineering firms and imagined a firm that was integrated and collaborative—an approach that’s art + science. Want to learn how Otak is living out our founders’ art + science approach by serving our clients well? Contact us to find out more.
At the Nexus of Inclusion and Innovation
Believing that diversity fosters innovation and strengthens our skills, at Otak, we’re working to build a culture of equity and inclusion. Our professionals come from diverse backgrounds, and we regularly collaborate across the disciplines of planning, architecture, landscape architecture, civil engineering, structural engineering, project and construction management, natural resource sciences, and other areas of expertise. This interdisciplinary dynamic embraces equity, inclusion, and valuing each other’s unique perspectives. We continue to explore how to foster this aspect of our culture even more and to a greater level of depth throughout all our offices and teams.
In October, Otak leadership participated in a workshop, hosted by the Medici Group of New York, to learn more about how diversity can directly contribute to innovative ideas and our success in business.
Our thought leaders from Medici, Sharang Biswas and Juliana Echeverri, facilitated interesting discussions and group exercises, helping us experience first-hand the magic that can happen when diversity and inclusion overlap with innovation and strategy as shown in their signature approach graphic to the right.
Participants broke into five small teams organized to include people of diverse disciplines, backgrounds, interests, ages, genders, geographic locations, and technical expertise. Each person shared information about themselves in short phrases and key words, writing on a large piece of paper in the form of a mind map. Then team members asked each other questions to gain a better understanding of each person’s story. The next step got participants’ ideas flowing—each team was asked to randomly pick two items on the mind map and come up with a new business-related idea or concept. The last step was to repeat the same exercise, but to brainstorm new ideas that were specific to a strategic goal of the company.
The Medici Group, founded by Frans Johansson, author of The Medici Effect (Harvard Business Press), a foundational book on innovation, and The Click Moment (Penguin Portfolio), helps companies activate diversity into an innovative edge by breaking down silos and leveraging diverse talents. Just as the Medici family catalyzed the Renaissance by bringing together people from different disciplines, cultures, and backgrounds, the Medici Group inspires the Renaissance of today.
Who were the Medicis?
The Medicis gained prominence in Italy in the early 15th century as wool merchants and bankers whose businesses were extremely profitable. They were leaders in business, politics, religion (three popes were Medicis), and the arts. Together with other prominent families, the Medicis inspired the Renaissance by funding creators from a wide range of disciplines—scientists, sculptors, poets, philosophers, financiers, painters, architects, and others, who converged on the city of Florence, where they learned from one another, broke down barriers, and forged a new world based on new ideas.