Jean-Pierre Veillet elected in PNCA Board of Governors

Whoooohooooo!!! Congrats Jean-Pierre!!! All of us at Siteworks have eagerly anticipated for this moment to happen for you, and we're so happy & excited for your future as one of the Board of Governors at PNCA.
OW OW OW

CHEERS!


http://www.pnca.edu/

NPR: Think Out Loud w/ guest Jean-Pierre Veillet

Jean-Pierre, is a guest on NPR's 'Think Out Loud' radio talk show today!

We are so proud and excited to hear our Creative Director having a discussion about 'Apartments with No Parking.' Please tune in today and listen.

If you miss it, we will be sure provide a link to a podcast soon...
Apartments with No Parking

AIR DATE: Tuesday, September 18th 2012

More and more developers are putting up apartment buildings in Portland with no room for cars to park. There will be plenty of room for bikes, however. Developers and city planners say the lack of car parking will encourage residents to be car-free. But people who live in the neighborhoods where these buildings are going up are concerned that street parking will become even more challenging.
Do you live in a neighborhood where a new apartment building is being built? Are you concerned about how that will affect parking near where you live? Are you looking for a place to live? Does an apartment building without car parking appeal to you?
http://www.opb.org/thinkoutloud/shows/apartments-no-parking/

ARTIST LOFTS

"Artist Lofts function in unexpected places when a mixed use buildings original retail Dreams are no longer viable."

Siteworks transformed the ground level retail of the Enso Artist Lofts with good design and efficient construction processes.  This was accomplished by retaining existing entrances and store front creating a common gallery, and access to light and air by lowering the entry to a structural floor.  Siteworks maximized high cielings, and by introducing our industrial design and fabrication capabilities were efficiently partition the interiors of units. 

Siteworks not only provided creative solutions to an un-leasable commercial space.  Siteworks' team of Project Managers, Super Superintendents, Architects, and Designers delivered the project complete ahead of anticipated schedule.  

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Visit Enso's website: http://www.ensoapartments.com/

PNCA

PNCA's Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Center for Art and Design from PNCA - Pacific Northwest College on Vimeo.

PNCA’s new home will become a bustling new hub for creativity and entrepreneurship, reflecting the transformational power of art and design. The 134,000 square foot building will enable the College to shed expensive leased spaces and to grow the student body to 1,000 by 2018. PNCA’s Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Center for Art and Design will serve as the gateway to the transformation of the North Park Blocks, which also encompasses PNCA’s partner, the Museum of Contemporary Craft and ArtHouse, a spectacular new residence hall opening in 2013.

The Campaign for PNCA's Vision of the North Park Blocks

http://pnca.edu/about/giving/c/campaign

Transitions Professional Center

Transitions Professional Center is located in the LEED certified Ardea tower in the South Waterfront. Offices are constructed using modern green building practices, designed and built by Siteworks Design | Build. Salvaged wood materials and Yolo Paints create warmth and narrative in our new space. Energy efficiencies in lighting and HVAC are supported by the Oregon Energy Trust.

Below are Transitions interior spaces photographed by Scott Gerke.

New rules on funding could aid sustainable business
Portland Business Journal by Erik Siemers, Business Journal staff writer
Date: Friday, May 4, 2012 

New rules making it easier to use the Internet to attract equity investors could provide a new pathway to capital for the world of sustainable business.

But questions over when and how the “crowd funding” structure may be applied still hold equal weight to the excitement over its potential.

The JOBS Act — an acronym for Jumpstart Our Business Startups — signed into law last month by President Barack Obama will enable small businesses to use the Internet to raise up to $1 million in small investments from lots of people.

The funding mechanism has generated excitement in the world of sustainable business, where goals are often driven by a mission rather than profits, making it difficult to attract angel investors or venture capital.

“I think everyone can really benefit from this,” said Jenny Kassan, CEO of Oakland, Calif.-based Cutting Edge Capital, one of the earliest advocates of crowd funding who stood alongside Obama at the White House Rose Garden bill signing ceremony.

Before the JOBS Act, soliciting equity capital online was forbidden under U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission rules. Companies were limited mostly to seeking out “accredited investors” — individuals with a net worth of at least $1 million — giving them just a tiny fraction of the population from which to solicit equity capital.

The JOBS Act, though, opens the field to an endless array of equity investors and could allow sustainably focused enterprises the ability to link-up with investors that believe in their mission.

“There are all kinds of people out there with all kinds of different motivations for investing,” said Kassan. “Some might be looking for the next Google. Some might be looking for a business in their community. Some might be looking for businesses that promote women’s equality. It opens up a huge new potential group of investors.”

Though the bill was signed into law, Kassan warns that it could take at least two years before it can really be applied.

The law requires companies to use an SEC-approved intermediary service to solicit investors online, and it could be a while before the SEC completes the rule-making process. That isn’t stopping advocates from thinking about the possibilities.

“We have a lot of entrepreneurial activity looking at things like energy, water, shelter, food that’s really improving the quality of life for our community,” said Tom Osdoba, the former director of the Center for Sustainable Business Practices at the University of Oregon’s Lundquist College of Business. “We now have the opportunity to let people in our own community have access to these investment opportunities they didn’t have before.”

The community-backed solar energy projects that have become popular in Portland, now reliant on tax investors, could become truly community owned under crowd funding, said Osdoba, who now runs the sustainability consulting firm TAO Strategies.

Developers of environmentally friendly real estate projects that struggle to attract bank loans could take their pitch directly to the community in which they want to build.

“All of a sudden people can put $20,000 and $50,000 into those kinds of investment projects they weren’t able to do before,” Osdoba said.

Jean-Pierre Veillet can certainly see the appeal.
The president of Portland-based Siteworks Design Build last year developed EcoFlats Northwest, a net-zero apartment complex that opened last year that had its own share of troubles attracting bank financing.

Though the concept is attractive, Veillet said he turned away the several offers he received from people interested in putting $5,000 or $10,000 into the project.

The reason? There was no easy way to manage multiple stakeholders.

“I quickly conceded that I had enough on my plate with the whole project,” he said. “I had already consolidated all these costs into one person. I couldn’t manage multiple investors.”

The challenge for sustainable industries in wading into a larger pool of investors comes is that their projects are often rooted in a set of beliefs. And those viewpoints may not intersect cleanly with those of the people from whom they’re attracting investment.

“How do you deal with micro investors and get everybody on board?” Veillet asked. “If somebody can put that together, it really does make a tremendous amount of sense.”

 http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/print-edition/2012/05/04/new-rules-on-funding-could-aid.html?s=print

Creating The Future of The Building Industry

Jean-Pierre Veillet, owner of design/build firm Siteworks, and his partner Doug Shapiro were inspired by the idea of creating a highly sustainable mixed-use building.  With a site chosen along Portland's North Williams bike corridor they needed design and cash resources to make their vision of a net-zero building a reality.  Energy Trust stepped in to provide that support, and the result is ecoFLATS, a highly sustainable 18 unit apartment building with ground-floor retail space.

"I saw the opportunity, when the economy slowed down, that we could change directions and take a new course," said Veillet.  "With more limited resources we could focus on what people really need - on what would benefit the greatest amount of people - and what popped up was the Path to Net Zero.  I thought, oh, this is perfect, this make sense."

The project team decided to focus its goal of achieving netzero energy use on the residential portion of the building.  Early design assistance from Energy Trust paid for an energy-focused eco-charrette to identify building goals and ensure all parties involved - from owners to architects to contractors - shared the zero-energy vision and collaborated throughout the design and construction process.

"Energy Trust made ecoFLATS possible," said Veillet.  "Their participation validated our project and streamlined the process by offering one central place to go for technical assistance, design advice and cash incentives."

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD: 'Creating The Future of The Building Industry' PDF