From mop tops to bell-bottoms, it was a period of contrast and transition.

It was a nation moving from doo-wop in the dance halls to acid rock in a muddy field. It was the British Invasion and the Tet Offensive. It was Selma and Stonewall and The Feminine Mystique. It was reaching for the stars and weeping for the fallen. It was the Cold War and the Long, Hot Summer. It was purple hearts and flaming draft cards, peace marches and race riots. It was muscle cars and flower power. It was altering minds and freeing selves. It was the audacity of youth and the power of change—a clarion call to revolution.

It was the 1960s.

Against this backdrop, a West Point graduate employed with the City of Portland recognized a need and a new engineering firm took root.

In the beginning

• Our Company

  • A seed is planted
    Tom Mackenzie, a respected plans examiner at the City of Portland, dips his toe in the water of private consultancy, putting his name in the phone book under the listing of engineer.

• Taking Stock

  • City of Portland population: 372,676
  • City of Seattle population: 557,087
  • A gallon of gas costs 25 cents

• In the News

  • Televised debate
    Presidential candidates John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon participate in the first televised presidential election debate. Viewers tend to state that Kennedy came across best while radio listeners favor Nixon.

• Local Happenings

  • Largest mall in the Northwest
    Lloyd Center opens, becoming one of the nation’s first shopping malls. The mall features 100 stores in an open-air configuration and is anchored by Meier & Frank, Lipman & Wolfe, J.C. Penney, and Woolworth. The mall’s name honors deceased California oil executive Ralph B. Lloyd.
  • Coliseum honors vets
    Construction finishes on Memorial Coliseum. The indoor arena is built by Hoffman Construction from a design by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. It is hailed as the largest multipurpose structure of its kind in the Pacific Northwest.

• Technological Breakthroughs

  • Operable laser invented
    A physicist and electrical engineer at Hughes Research Laboratory, Theodore Maiman, invents an operable laser that uses a pink ruby crystal encased in a flash tube and bookended by mirrors.
  • TIROS-1
    The United States launches the first successful weather satellite, TIROS-1, on April 1. The satellite was 19 inches tall and 42 inches in diameter. It houses two television cameras with two magnetic tape recorders and onboard batteries charged by solar cells. It remains operational for 78 days, sending back 22,952 images during that time.

Pop Culture

• Walk of Fame
  Actress Joanne Woodward receives the first star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
• Like a butterfly
  Fresh off his victory at the Olympics, heavyweight boxer Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali) wins his first professional bout.
• "Mother!"
  Alfred Hitchcock terrifies viewers with the release of classic horror film Psycho.
• Atticus Finch
  Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, is published. Characters and plot points in the groundbreaking story of injustice and racial inequality are loosely based on the author's childhood recollections.

A new focus

• Our Company

  • Leaving the City
    Tom Mackenzie leaves his job at the City of Portland to focus on his engineering consultancy full-time.

• In the News

  • Camelot comes to the White House
    John F. Kennedy takes office as the 35th President of the United States on January 20, the youngest man elected to the office. Five days later, he delivers the first live presidential news conference.
  • Peace Corps founded
    President Kennedy establishes the Peace Corps by executive order on March 1, delivering on the promise from his inaugural address. Kennedy’s brother-in-law Sargent Shriver was appointed its first director. Congress formally authorized the program on September 22. Within two years, more than 7,000 Peace Corps volunteers were serving in 44 nations.
  • Man enters space
    Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human in space on April 12.
  • Berlin Wall goes up
    Construction begins on the Berlin Wall in August. The wall is intended to clearly delineate East Germany and West Germany, dividing Western Europe from Eastern Europe.
  • Early days of Vietnam
    President Kennedy sends 18,000 U.S. military advisors to South Vietnam in November. In December, the first American helicopters arrive in Saigon bearing 400 U.S. personnel.

• In the Industry

  • Changing of the guard?
    The Metropolitan Museum of Art hosts a symposium: “Modern Architecture: Death or Metamorphosis”.

• Pop Culture

  • Barbie gets a boyfriend
    Mattel introduces the Ken doll as a fictional boyfriend to accompany the company’s Barbie doll, which was introduced two years earlier.

Designers reach for the sky

• Our Company

  • Company gets first digs
    Tom Mackenzie rents a small office in a building at 10th and Stark in Portland’s Central Eastside. Within six months he hires his first employee—a part-time secretary. He hires his first draftsmen at the end of the year.

• In the News

  • John Glenn orbits the Earth
    John Glenn becomes the first American to circle the Earth, making three orbits in the Friendship 7 Mercury spacecraft. Glenn orbits the earth three times over the course of 4 hours 55 minutes. Despite technical glitches that force Glenn to fly parts of the final two orbits manually, the flight is deemed an enormous success and Glenn hailed as a hero.
  • Telstar 1
    NASA launches the Telstar 1 communications satellite on July 10. The satellite transmits the first live transatlantic telecast, as well as telephone and data signals. Bell Telephone Laboratories built the 34-inch diameter, multifaceted sphere with AT&T picking up the $6 million price tag. Telstar orbits the Earth for seven months.
  • Cuban Missile Crisis
    Cold War tensions spark the Cuban Missile Crisis when a U-2 flight over Cuba on October 14 reveals photographs of the installation of Soviet nuclear weapons. The ensuing standoff threatens the world with nuclear war. The crisis is resolved on October 28, when Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev orders the removal of Soviet missile bases in Cuba. It is later revealed that President Kennedy agreed to the corresponding removal of U.S. missiles from Turkey.

• Local Happenings

  • Seattle World’s Fair
    Facilities built for the fair include the Space Needle, the Monorail, and many Seattle Center buildings.
  • Columbus Day Storm
    On October 12 a storm termed the most savage in West Coast history damages 53,000 homes and kills 7 people in Washington and 35 in Oregon.
  • Japanese Garden
    5.5 acres, the site of the former Washington Park Zoo, are acquired for the Japanese Garden, a project to which Tom Mackenzie, Rick Saito, and their employees will later contribute their design and engineering expertise.

• In the Industry

  • AASHO establishes pavement standards
    The American Association of State Highway Officials completes a road test outside Ottawa, Illinois. Sections of pavement are subjected to specific traffic loads. The results form the basis for pavement standards for use on the interstate system and other highways across the nation.
  • Reinforced concrete allows designers to reach for the sky
    The twin towers at Marina City designed by Bertrand Goldberg are the first modern skyscraper to use reinforced concrete. The building reaches the then-record height of 588 feet.

Pop Culture

• Early seeds of Beatlemania
  The Beatles attain their first number one single on the British charts with "Love Me Do".
• Mona Lisa comes calling
  The Mona Lisa, one of Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous works of art, comes to the U.S. for the first time, hanging on display at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., in January.
• Wilt’s record
  NBA player Wilt Chamberlain scores 100 points in a single basketball game—a record that remains unbroken.

A nation in mourning

• Our Company

  • A professorial air
    Throughout the company's early years, Tom Mackenzie continues to work as an assistant professor at Portland State University. Several contacts from the university work part-time as summer employees throughout the early to mid-60s, including fellow instructor H. Chik Erzurumlu, who would later serve as founding dean of PSU's School of Engineering.

• In the News

  • Kennedy assassinated
    President Kennedy shot and killed in Dallas, Texas, by Lee Harvey Oswald on November 22. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn in as the nation’s 36th president. Oswald is killed on national television while in police custody by Jack Ruby two days later. Kennedy’s burial at Arlington National Cemetery is broadcast worldwide to millions of viewers.
  • Alcatraz closes
    On March 21, the federal penitentiary on Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco Bay closes by order of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. The remaining prisoners are transferred to other facilities.
  • “I Have a Dream”
    Martin Luther King, Jr., delivers his now-legendary “I Have a Dream” speech. Standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, he addresses a crowd of more than a quarter-million people during the March on Washington on August 28.

• Technological Breakthroughs

  • Touchtone telephone
    The Western Electric 1500 model touchtone telephone is introduced. The phone features 10 push buttons rather than the standard rotary dial. The first commercial service is available—for an extra charge—in Carnegie and Greensburg, Pennsylvania.

• In the Industry

  • Tube architecture
    Engineer Fazlur Khan revolutionizes structural system design with the concept of tube architecture—a structural system for skyscrapers of framed tubes of closely spaced interconnected exterior columns capable of resisting lateral forces in any direction by cantilevering from the foundation. X-bracing reduces lateral load on the building by transferring the load into the exterior columns. Fewer interior columns means increased usable floor space. Chicago’s DeWitt-Chestnut Apartment Building becomes the first structure to utilize the design. Later buildings include the John Hancock Center and the Sears Tower.

• Pop Culture

  • X-Men debut
    Marvel Comics releases the first-ever X-Men comic book.
  • The Feminine Mystique
    The publication of The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan breathes renewed life into the Women’s Movement in the U.S., spawning new women’s organizations throughout society.

"The times they are a-changin'..."

• Our Company

  • Continued growth
    Three years after departing his post at the City of Portland, Tom Mackenzie’s client roster continues to deepen. Early contacts come through his City Hall experience. Projects include numerous warehouse and manufacturing plant additions and new buildings. Early clients include Allen Fruit Co., Associated Chemists, Ray F. Becker, Bingham Construction Co., Dan Davis, Hugh Womack Construction, J.C. Milne Construction, Carl Schiewe, John Schrag, Standard Oil, and Teeples & Thatcher.

• In the News

  • Civil Rights Act
    Congress passes landmark act to ban segregation in public facilities and discrimination in employment and hiring.
  • War on Poverty
    LBJ declares “War on Poverty” in his first State of the Union address on January 8.
  • Caution against smoking
    U.S. Surgeon General Luther Leonidas Terry issues report that smoking may be hazardous to one’s health, the first such warning to come from an official government source.
  • Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
    After U.S. destroyers are attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin, Congress passes a resolution granting President Johnson broad war powers when dealing with attacks by North Vietnamese forces on America soldiers.

• Technological Breakthroughs

  • Acrylic paints
    Chemists develop acrylic paints. The paints dry more quickly and drip and blister less than their predecessors.
  • Carbon fiber developed
    Leslie Phillips, a British engineer, stretches synthetic fibers and heats them to blackness creating fibers with twice the strength at the same weight than steel.

• In the Industry

  • Reinforced concrete allows designers to reach for the sky
    The twin towers at Marina City designed by Bertrand Goldberg are the first modern skyscraper to use reinforced concrete. The building reaches the then-record height of 588 feet.

• Pop Culture

  • Beatlemania crosses the Atlantic
    Meet The Beatles!, the group’s first U.S. album, debuts. "I Want to Hold Your Hand" becomes their first #1 on the U.S. singles chart. The Beatles arrive in New York on February 7, to be greeted by 10,000 screaming fans. They appear on The Ed Sullivan Show two days later before embarking on a tour of the U.S. that helps make them the most popular musical group in the world. By April, they hold the top five positions on the Billboard Top 40.
  • Exceeding his authority
    Director Stanley Kubrick pokes fun at the Cold War in the comedy-thriller Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.
  • "A spoonful of sugar"
    Julie Andrews charms audiences in Mary Poppins.

Conflict rising

• Our Company

  • A helping hand
    Architect Richard Sundeleaf brings Tom Mackenzie’s engineering company aboard for work on the stately Portland Memorial Mausoleum, an 8-story burial facility built into the bluff above Oaks Bottom.

• In the News

  • Malcolm X dies
    On February 21, civil rights activist Malcolm X is fatally shot while speaking before a meeting of the Organization of Afro-American Unity in Manhattan’s Audubon Ballroom.
  • America fully engages in Vietnam conflict
    The first American combat troops begin fighting in South Vietnam in March. By April, 25,000 troops are stationed there. In July, President Johnson orders troop strength to be increased from 75,000 to 125,000 and doubles the number of men drafted per month.
  • Voting Rights Act
    Congress passes the Voting Rights Act on August 10, making literacy tests and similar requirements that tend to restrict black voting illegal.
  • A movement is dubbed
    Writer Michael Fallon uses the term “hippie” to describe the San Francisco counterculture in an article about the Blue Unicorn Coffeehouse.

• Pop Culture

  • Dylan goes electric
    Bob Dylan stuns concertgoers and angers folk purists when he breaks out an amped, electrical set at the Newport Folk Festival on July 25.
  • Stadium concerts are born
    The Beatles play the first stadium rock/pop concert at New York’s Shea Stadium.
  • Introducing Tom and Jerry
    The cartoon series Tom & Jerry about the escapades of a frustrated cat and wily mouse makes its broadcast premiere on CBS television.
  • Peanuts comes to TV
    CBS airs A Charlie Brown Christmas, the first Peanuts television special. It quickly becomes an annual holiday tradition.
  • "The hills are alive"
    Theatergoers flock to the cinema for eventual best picture-winner The Sound of Music.

Getting involved

• Our Company

  • Parry Center
    Tom Mackenzie and his staff draft a plot plan of the Parry Center and begin to design improvements for the facility at SE 34th and Powell. Tom serves as a board member for the Center for 12 years.

• Local Happenings

  • New crossing
    Marquam Bridge opens in October. It was built by the State of Oregon for $13 million.
  • Vancouver’s new digs
    Vancouver City Hall constructed on 13th and “C” Street.

• In the News

  • Miranda v. Arizona
    The U.S. Supreme Court rules that law enforcement must inform suspects of their rights before questioning them.
  • Cowboy governs
    On November 8, voters in California elect Republican actor Ronald Reagan governor.

• Pop Culture

  • Beatles controversy
    John Lennon raises the ire of some when he declares in an interview with the London Evening Standard that The Beatles are “more popular than Jesus.” Lennon later apologizes at a press conference in Chicago saying, “I didn’t mean it as a lousy anti-religious thing.” In November, he meets Yoko Ono.
  • Seminal albums
    On May 16, Bob Dylan releases Blonde on Blonde the same day the Beach Boys release Pet Sounds. On August 5, The Beatles release Revolver.
  • "To boldly go..."
    Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek debuts on NBC in September with its first episode, “The Man Trap.”

Summer of Love

• Our Company

  • Digital migration begins
    While T-squares and parallel bars still rule the drafting table, the company takes its first step down the slippery slope of technology with the purchase of its first adding machine.

• In the News

  • Vietnam dissent
    On April 15, protestors numbering 400,000 march from Central Park to the United Nations to protest events in Vietnam. Speakers include Martin Luther King, Jr., Stokely Carmichael, and Dr. Benjamin Spock. By December, the number of U.S. troops in Vietnam reaches 486,000. American deaths reach 15,000.
  • Loving v. Virginia
    The U.S. Supreme Court declares all U.S. state laws prohibiting interracial marriage to be unconstitutional.

• Local Happenings

  • 737 takes flight
    The first Boeing 737-100 makes its debut test flight. The first 271 aircraft are assembled adjacent to Boeing Field as the Renton factory was at capacity building 707s and 727s.

• Technological Breakthroughs

  • First handheld calculator
    Jack Kilby leads a team from Texas Instruments to invent the first handheld calculator. The 45-ounce device uses an integrated circuit and can accept six-digit numbers and perform addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division functions. Results of up to 12 digits are output on a thermal printer.

• Pop Culture

  • Summer of Love
    San Francisco becomes the epicenter for the hippie revolution with tens of thousands of people converging in Haight-Ashbury. The subsequent melting pot of music, drugs, creative expression, politics, and free love, pushes the counterculture movement into general public awareness. The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band spends the summer atop the charts, earning the nickname “The Soundtrack of the Summer of Love.”
  • Music in Monterey
    The Monterey Pop Festival hosts three days of music at California’s Monterey County Fairgrounds, site of the Monterey Folk Festival and long-running Monterey Jazz Festival. The first widely promoted, heavily attended rock festival, it draws an estimated 55,000 attendees to hear acts including Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Janis Joplin, Otis Redding, and The Mamas & the Papas.
  • Bands go higher
    The Doors release self-titled debut album. Lead singer Jim Morrison later defies CBS censors on The Ed Sullivan Show by refusing to omit the word “higher” from the band’s performance of “Light My Fire.”
  • Battle of wills
    Paul Newman stages a one-man resistance to the rules of prison life in Cool Hand Luke while Dustin Hoffman succumbs to the wiles of Anne Bancroft in The Graduate.

Moving forward

• Our Company

  • The heir not-yet-apparent
    At the recommendation of a client, Tom Mackenzie hires a young architecture student, Rick Saito, as a drafter. Only later does he learn the client is related to Rick.
  • Incorporation
    With the filing of official papers of incorporation, Thomas R. Mackenzie, Consulting Engineer becomes Mackenzie Engineering, Incorporated. The company has expanded and now takes up a full wing of the building at 10th and Stark.
  • Running man
    Tom Mackenzie begins participating in age-group-competitive running. His training lays the groundwork for the company’s tradition of early morning runs.

• In the News

  • Tet Offensive begins
    Viet Cong launch Tet Offensive in January with a series of surprise attacks across South Vietnam, including attacks on the U.S. embassy in Saigon. Legendary newsman Walter Cronkite opines that the war is unwinnable reputedly sparking President Johnson to note, “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost middle America.”
  • LBJ half the way
    President Johnson shocks the divided nation when he announces during a speech on March 31 that he will not seek re-election, saying “I shall not seek, nor will I accept the nomination of my party for another term as your president.”
  • King killed
    Martin Luther King, Jr., is shot and killed while standing on hotel balcony in Memphis. Escaped convict James Earl Ray pleads guilty.
  • Paris Peace Talks
    Peace talks begin in Paris in efforts to prevent South Vietnam from falling to the Communist North. The U.S. troop presence reaches 541,000. Citing progress, President Johnson announces the ordered cessation of all air, naval, and artillery bombardment of North Vietnam, effective November 1.
  • Robert Kennedy shot
    Presidential candidate Robert Kennedy is shot by Sirhan Sirhan after delivering his victory speech for the California primary at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. He survives for, unconscious, for 26 hours before dying on June 6.

• Local Happenings

  • Reclaiming the Waterfront
    Portland’s Downtown Waterfront Plan recommends elimination of Harbor Drive and beautification of city parks along the downtown riverfront.
  • Seattle moves “Forward”
    In February, Seattle voters approve $40 million of “Forward Thrust” bonds to build the Kingdome, the aquarium, youth centers, and highways.

• Technological Breakthroughs

  • A mousy entrance
    Douglas Engelbart, of the Stanford research institute, unveils the computer mouse during a computer conference in San Francisco. He also presents his hypertext system, NLS.
  • HP 9100A
    Hewlett-Packard releases its first calculator, the HP 9100A. The programmable scientific calculator is the first to show the entire stack and use a CRT display.

• Pop Culture

  • Newport Pop Festival
    A crowd of more than 100,000 people turns out for the first Newport Pop Festival in Costa Mesa, California. Performers include Steppenwolf, Jefferson Airplane, Sonny & Cher, Tiny Tim, The Byrds, Iron Butterfly, The Grateful Dead, and the Animals.
  • Hot Wheels
    Mattel introduces Hot Wheels die cast toy cars. The first cars and trucks are manufactured to approximately 1:64 scale.
  • The future imagined
    Science fiction films dominate the box office with the theatrical release of 2001: A Space Odyssey and Planet of the Apes.

"One small step..."

• Our Company

  • Outgrowing the nest
    Mackenzie Engineering, Inc. (MEI) drafts plans to convert a house on SW Abernethy Street into the company’s new place of business. Oroweat, a key client of ‘60s and ‘70s, provides a delivery van for use as a moving truck to ferry furniture and supplies from the outgrown office to the newly renovated Abernethy house. One relic roll of drafting linen is mysteriously lost in transit.

• In the News

  • Lunar landing
    America lands on the Moon. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin step foot on the lunar surface on July 20. After 21 hours, they return to the Apollo 11 command module with 20.87 kilograms of samples and leave behind scientific instruments, an American flag, and a plaque reading: “Here Men From Planet Earth First Set Foot Upon the Moon. July 1969 AD. We Came in Peace for All Mankind.”
  • Court orders desegregation
    The Supreme Court orders the implementation of desegregation nationwide in its ruling on Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education.
  • Record-breaking rally
    Washington, D.C., plays host to the largest antiwar rally in U.S. history as more than half a million people march for peace. Speakers include George McGovern, Coretta Scott King, Dick Gregory, and Leonard Bernstein. Arlo Guthrie, Pete Seeger, John Denver, and the touring cast of Hair perform.
  • Returning home
    The first U.S. troop withdrawals from Vietnam begin on July 8. Less than three weeks later, President Nixon declares the Nixon Doctrine, stating that Asian allies are now expected to provide for their own defense.
  • Draft lottery
    First draft lottery since World War II held in New York City on December 1. The lottery determines the order of induction into the Army in 1970 for men born from 1944 to 1950.

• Local Happenings

  • 747 debuts
    The Boeing 747 jumbo jet makes its public debut, flying 191 people from Seattle to New York City.

• In the Industry

  • Legends pass on
    On July 5, Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus school of design, dies. On August 17, Miles van der Rohe, founder of the International School of design and coiner of the phrase “less is more” dies.

• Pop Culture

  • Beatles goodbye
    The Beatles perform their last public performance—an impromptu concert on the roof of Apple Records. Police bring a halt to the music.
  • Woodstock
    Nearly half a million people gather for three-day festival of music and peace at a 600-acre dairy farm in upstate New York. Thirty-two acts performed during the event, including Ravi Shankar, Arlo Guthrie, Joan Baez, Santana, The Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Janis Joplin, The Who, and Jimi Hendrix.
  • “Here's a story…”
    The Brady Bunch premieres on ABC.