Dear Friends,
It has been a challenging year for our world. The health crisis has continued for much longer than anticipated and associated labor and supply chain shortages have made construction progress more difficult. Yet, as 2021 draws to a close, we at Clark Construction find we have an unusually profound sense of gratitude this holiday season.
This year brought out the best in all of us and taught us a great deal about the sense of commonality and solidarity, and the willingness to contribute, that frequently emerges during difficult times. We completed key projects that advanced the cause of sustainability. We launched initiatives that we feel will benefit the places we call home. And we shared a sense of collective achievement with our clients and trade partners.
A good definition of success is meaningful growth. For us, that meaning is founded in a commitment to our people, our community, our environment, and to building exceptional spaces. Inside the company, we continue to grow a strong and resilient team. This year we became an incorporated entity in order to dramatically expand our ownership opportunities, giving 40% of our employees a true stake in the company’s success.
In other news, our founder and CEO, Rachele Turnbull, was inducted into Oregon State’s Academy of Distinguished Engineers, honored for her outstanding and sustained contributions to her profession. Finally, Clark took home the Best of Bainbridge Award for Best Contractor of 2021.
So, we have a great deal for which to be proud as 2021 concludes and many reasons to give thanks. Here are a few highlights of this year’s work at Clark Construction:
- The reHOME Project is a new sustainability initiative arising out of collaboration with local partners. With this project Clark brings new meaning to the concepts of reclamation and material efficiency during the construction of affordable housing, lightening the load on landfills while reducing costs. Learn more
- Historic Fort Worden. This sensitive rehabilitation project — involving the restoration and useful purposing of an eight-acre section of a 1901-built fort in Port Townsend — received a lot of press, as well as an AIA Honor Award and LEED Silver certification from the USGBC. Neatly balancing the historical relevance of the fort with contemporary usage standards, the new Building 305, originally the fort’s quartermasters’ warehouse, is now poised to become an arts center for education, gallery shows, and residency programs, with studio space available for local artists. Learn more
- The Japanese-American Exclusion Memorial Departure Dock. An extension of the existing Bainbridge Island Japanese-American Exclusion Memorial, this project is a reimagining of the original departure point for Americans of Japanese heritage forced into Internment camps during World War II, the BIJAC memorial addition was built with material and hands-on support from Clark Construction. Learn more
- Loom House. This multiple award-winning project represents Clark at its most innovative. Recognized as one of the most sustainable homes on the planet, Loom received full Living Building Challenge 4.0 Certification from the Living Future Institute, and is the first residential remodel in the world to receive this certification. To date, it has won 4 prestigious awards: the FSC Leadership Award, the AIA National 2021 Award, a 2021 Architizer A+Award, and most recently an AIA Honor Award. It enjoyed a lot of press this year: it was written up in Dwell Magazine, with articles in Interior Design Magazine, Green Building & Design Magazine, online journal Dezeen, and the Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce following.
Significant Clark projects launched in 2021 include Port Townsend’s 7th Haven, a 43-unit affordable housing complex. A collaboration with Olympic Community Action Programs (OlyCAP), the complex intends to house 130 people, including 35-40 children from low and very low-income brackets. We also broke ground on Rivulet, a 78-unit apartment complex next to Clear Creek in Silverdale, and completed a diverse series of custom residences in the area.
Additionally, we’d like to offer a thank you to the Bainbridge community for its continued support. To enrich this community, we founded an initiative in 2021 to bring young people into the trades and inspire the next generation of craftspeople. Part of that initiative includes an annual scholarship fund and our summer internship program. Some of the organizations Clark has been proud to support this year include Housing Resources Bainbridge, Island Volunteer Caregivers, Bainbridge Parks Foundation, The International Living Future Institute, Bainbridge Island Youth Services, Bainbridge Schools Foundation, IslandWood, Helpline House, Rotary, Erase Racism, and Friends of the Farm.
As we move into this holiday season, we at Clark Construction are profoundly grateful to our communities and our many clients and trade-partners. Like all challenges, those we navigated this year, with your help, led to a profoundly satisfying sense of collective achievement. We look forward to the year to come… as we undertake new ecologically relevant, eminently livable, and visually engaging construction projects with the care and refinement that have become so closely associated with Clark Construction.
Happy Thanksgiving from the entire team here at Clark Construction.
