Story type: Promotional feature
Vehicle: PR outreach
Strategy: When you have an eye-witness to history, let them tell the story
By PHIL FAVORITE
For Jim Imbrie, the anniversary of the volcanic eruption of Mount St. Helens always brings back a flood of memories — some exciting, some downright harrowing.
On that fateful Sunday morning in May 1980, an 18-year-old Imbrie was with a climbing group on its way to the summit on nearby Mount Adams when the eruption occurred. Pictures show him and a partner gazing toward the erupting mountain just moments into after the initial blast.
At the time, Imbrie knew he was witnessing something very special. But the wonder of the moment turned to worry in a matter of minutes.
“We thought we were a safe enough distance away from the eruption,” Imbrie. “That’s why when you look at those pictures, you see that we weren’t running down the mountain or anything.
“But pretty soon some of the fallout hit us, and once it did, I was absolutely certain that I was going to die.”
Though initial news reports said there were no survivors, everybody on Mount Adams that morning lived to tell their version of the events. Looking back 40 years later, Imbrie said the eruption further stoked his budding curiosity about earth science and may have been the spark his started him down the path of becoming a geotechnical engineer.
This year, Imbrie is reflecting on another very special anniversary — the 20th of his founding of GeoPacfic Engineering, a Tigard-based geotechnical firm that provides consulting services to industrial, commercial, residential and municipal developers throughout Oregon and Southwest Washington.
Developers bring in experts from GeoPacific when they’re sizing up a piece of land for development. Geologists and engineers dig, measure and survey properties to discover and mitigate any seismic, slope or soil concerns before construction begins. By locating any trouble areas in advance of construction, GeoPacific helps developers save money and avoid headaches throughout the building process.
Since the year 2000, Imbrie and his team have navigated the economic ups and downs of the local building industry, earning a solid reputation among local contractors as a go-to, full-service geotechnical firm.
Now, with more than 7,400 completed jobs to its credit, the GeoPacific team stands ready to a handle whatever challenges arise in the coming years.
A landslide of experience
Imbrie, a Sunset High School graduate, started in the geotechnical business in the late 80s in Southern California, where landslide concerns forced local jurisdictions to enlist strict codes. He became a landslide expert working on earthwork operations at massive housing developments such as Mission Viejo and Rancho San Clemente. He also worked on high rises in Huntington Beach, and Hollywood.
When he returned to Oregon, he said he found a construction market lacking engineers and geologists that guide developers and contractors to more easily achieve the geotechnical requirements on their projects.
“The earthwork monitoring needed to improve, because most of the lots I was seeing, the fills were inadequate for supporting structures,” Imbrie said. “Soil is a very difficult material in that it is not as consistent or as well-known as other construction materials like steel and concrete.
“People were digging 10 feet to get through a bunch of bad material, costing thousands of dollars, and I figured there had to be a better way of doing things.”
Imbrie worked for two local geotechnical companies in the 1990s — mostly on bridges, commercial construction and residential construction — before launching GeoPacific Engineering in 2000. He currently shares company ownership with five other partners, having slowly built a team with an excellent balance in expertise between geology and engineering.
Imbrie said he thinks the ideal size for a local geotechnical firm is between 15 and 25 employees (GeoPacific currently has a team of 17). Bigger than that, he said, and clients can expect to work with more junior-level scientists who don’t have the experience and expertise than the group of seasoned experts who represent GeoPacific in the field.
His clients agree.
“Normally you wouldn’t have that kind of easy access to those kinds of engineers,” said Scott Newcombe, a project manager for Venture Properties — a single-family home developer that has been working with Imbrie since before the founding of GeoPacfic.
“It’s usually you call in and you get who you are going to get. But I know exactly whom I’m going to be working with. They know how I work and what I’m looking for, and they give me that. You don’t just get that with a much bigger company.”
Digging in
Newcombe said he works with the different experts from GeoPacific at every stage of land development.
Environmental science technicians start the process, inspecting a property and its history to identify any past contamination or fuel tanks on the site and reporting on necessary cleanup measures. Also, if there are any existing structures on the site, GeoPacific will test for the presence of lead, asbestos or any other matter needing mitigation.
Geologists and engineers also supervise the digging of test pits that offer a broader look at the stability of the land — any lateral variation of the soil and the existence of pipes or underground power lines.
“We know if we can mitigate these issues up front, it can save us more money down the road,” Newcombe said.
Engineers from GeoPacific step in to survey the site for potential seismic and slope problems and advise on the construction plan from start to finish.
“They have really good engineers, and they all seem to have their specialties,” said David Mullens, development manager for Urban Development Group, a prominent Portland metro area developer.
“When I work on retaining walls, shoring and things like that, it’s always with Ben Anderson. And I don’t think there’s anybody better in the Northwest for that kind of service than Ben.
“Then, when we’re talking about doing site drilling and feasibility, Beth Rapp is out there in a rainstorm in the middle of winter getting muddy, drilling holes. She’s helped me find oil tank contamination that I wouldn’t have even drilled for because there was no indication we had any contamination. But in doing her studies, she’ll say, ‘Hey Dave, we hit some smelly stuff at 10 feet.’ It’s that heads up that I really appreciate.”
Imbrie himself is a rare breed — he is trained and licensed as both a geologist and engineer, meaning he can supervise the building process from beginning to end.
“He knows the local conditions inside and out,” Newcombe said. “I’ve been doing this for years and years and he’ll see things that I don’t see and explain it to me, and he’s always absolutely spot on.
“He’s onsite for basically every job we build and gives it the green light from a geotechnical standpoint.”
“With a bigger firm, you don’t often get the principle looking over the job from Day 1,” said Jeff Hargens, president of Northwest Earthmovers, a Sherwood-based excavator and building site-prep company.
GeoPacific’s clients not only appreciate the company’s expertise but also the personal touch that comes from years of working together.
“I like being able to talk to the boss every once in a while,” Mullens said. “And I like the fact that I’ve met everybody (from GeoPacific) that I deal with. I don’t deal with anybody on the phone that I haven’t met. Putting a face to a name is important. They have a really good team of people.”
Evolving with time
While local companies such as Lake Oswego-based Stone Bridge Homes NW have come to count on GeoPacific as a partner key to their success, national homebuilding companies such as Lennar have turned to GeoPacific for its local knowledge, expertise and attentive service when building in the Portland metro and Southwest Washington areas.
Also, local government agencies have come to trust GeoPacific thanks to the company’s longevity and track record of excellence. And more and more, commercial and multi-unit housing contractors such as SK Hoff Construction and R&H Construction are turning to GeoPacific before breaking ground on larger-scale developments.
Piccadilly Flats Apartments (1980 S.E. Morrison St., Portland) and the Cove Garden Apartments in Oregon City are just a few of the local projects that GeoPacific worked on in recent years.
“We’re always being told by contractors that we are so much more knowledgeable than the personnel that (our competitors) provide,” Imbrie said. “We’re just incredibly streamlined. Our people will get more done in a couple hours than those guys will get done all day.”
Lending expertise to help fellow contractors such as Northwest Earthmovers complete their job effectively is another valuable service GeoPacific provides.
“We can’t have any settlement after we’re done. It has to be rock solid,” Hargens said. “Northwest Earth Movers has been in business for 35 years, and we’ve had a long relationship with Jim’s firm. It works because together we can supply the developers with a good product.”
Imbrie said the collective knowledge, experience and emphasis on customer service is what sets GeoPacific apart from its competitors.
“I think we’re the optimum size,” Imbrie said. “Everybody in our company can get called to a site and get their hands dirty, so we don’t typically dress in suits for that reason.”
“I have a suit, but it’s pretty dusty. I’ll have to get it clean before I wear it again.”
Of course, when you’ve dodged fallout debris from a volcano eruption, a little dust and dirt isn’t going to scare you.
Post-script: “I loved Phil’s approach. Not only did he deliver great content that we could share with our clients, but the story and his outreach helped us secure a terrific feature in the Portland Tribune.” — Tana Jackson, operations manager, GeoPacific Engineering
