NoBagHolders Board

[StocksDiva]

$MSMY has always been a concerned with the environment and generated many discussions for Tim Algier and his friends as he was growing up in Los Angeles. An avid beach-goer and body surfer, there were many occasions that going into the ocean was banned by city officials due to municipal sewage overflows, especially after a rainstorm. Attending high school in the San Fernando Valley, we had days that were so smoggy that the football and swimming coaches had to shorten our workouts and sometimes take a day off. The discussions with his fellow students centered around “Why does this happen and what can we do about it?” There were even days where the city was on alert to stay inside.
As a student at the school of Architecture at USC in the early seventies in Los Angeles, the physical environment that we lived in became a much focused topic of review. Many theoretical questions were raised in the studio as to why we build structures, spaces and support facilities the way we do, and could it be improved upon? The earthquake of 1971 was centered in Sylmar in the East Valley, but even at USC downtown, it shook long and hard enough for the students to leave their dorm rooms and make it down to the streets and parking lots. Viewing film of the 12-story Olive View Hospital completely collapsed and hundreds of homes damaged redirected our studio discussions on design flaws.
Why are we building houses today with the same construction methods that my great-grandfather’s house was built with? Why wood studs and nails? Why plywood and plaster? Why wood and asphalt shingles? When an earthquake destroys a house, why do we re-build it the same way with the same methods and materials? Does that make any sense? Communities in Malibu and the surrounding Santa Monica and Foothill Mountains where forest fires occur on a yearly basis are perfect examples of a continuous cycle of “building the same way over and over again”.
Although we get very little rain in the LA basin, when it does rain, especially for consecutive days, all the streets with all their trash, leaves, animal waste and automobile oil residue gets washed into the concrete culverts and concrete lined LA River and then ends up in the ocean where we surf and swim. Why did we design it that way? When storm water is diverted to the sewage treatment facility, it cannot handle the increased volume of waste and it just overflows into the sea. That is a problem that requires a solution.
While employed at Fluor Daniel Engineering and Construction Corporation, Mr. Algier worked as an architect on many large industrial facilities such as oil refineries and nuclear power plants. All of these processing facilities had to meet all environmental regulations and there was an entire environmental business sector assigned and devoted to this cause, specifying and engineering wastewater treatment plants, bag houses, air quality treatment facilities, and solid waste dump sites. Mr. Algier was tasked to develop the design specifications for a building to house the plasma incineration chamber for the DOE’s Yucca Mountain Repository in Nevada. On a trip to MIT where the chamber was being developed, he met Richard Sohn who was investigating plasma incineration technologies for radioactive waste. Mr. Sohn’s team was evaluating the environmental impact of the technology and the facility requirements to house the incinerator.