Newsletter

The environment has always been a concern 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.

After trading their research documents, they realized that they were both architecture school graduates working in the environmental field with very similar goals.  Tim and Richard’s passions, work histories and skill sets overlapped and complemented each other’s. Mr. Algier decided that they could turn their experience and contacts into a U.S. based consulting business and they named the company “Centiuum”, which is a combination of the words “centrum” and “continuum” or “the beginning of the infinite”. They have been building the environmental business by teaming with new technology companies based in the U.S. who have patented solutions that can help solve the environmental challenges that industries face today worldwide.

Then while attending an AIA Convention, Tim Algier met Jerry Kammerer, who had been building homes with a new economical method in Florida, Mexico, Wyoming & Montana. Jerry had designed and engineered a new building system using lightweight steel tubing laminated together with closed-cell insulation. He had U.S. Patents on file for several of these exciting new technologies that fit perfectly into the Centiuum business model and our way of thinking.  His addition to the company completed the team, creating a synergistic focus toward the future in varied, yet related sustainable building arenas.

During the growth years, Mr. Algier focused on locating new U.S. developed technologies and entrepreneurs who were working on projects to help solve the environmental challenges that builders and manufacturers were facing. Most of the business focus has been on “clean technologies” for water supplies and wastewater remediation. It has now evolved into the business sectors headlined by sustainable building systems, wastewater remediation, and renewable energy technologies.  

We believe we are the right company to meet the needs of our time but flexible enough to grow and change as the world’s and our clients’ requirements change and evolve.

CEO: Timothy L. Algier (USA)

University of Southern California Graduate

Mr. Algier brings many years of experience in creating design solutions and managing projects as a professional architect in Southern California. A graduate of USC School of Architecture in 1975, he managed projects in the Architecture and Technology Divisions of Fluor Engineers and Constructors, a Fortune 50 global firm specializing in the design, build and operation of oil, gas, and nuclear process plants as well as environmental remediation of these facilities. While working on a project to design a facility to house the process of plasma incineration of spent fuel rods for the DOE at MIT, he met Richard Sohn in 1997 and they have been working on environmental technology solutions ever since.  In recent years Mr. Algier has also been involved in some creative architectural ventures like the redesign of an old theatre into an eclectic retro-style Casablanca theatre and restaurant combination with VIP facilities, a hi-tech chain of modern tailor shops and the design and remodel of an array of restaurants and shopping centers.

CTO: Jerry Kammerer (USA & Korea)     

Fort Lewis College, Colorado

Mr. Kammerer holds several technology patents in the manufactured building industry. After serving his country in the U.S. Navy, he came home and attended Fort Lewis College in Colorado on a full athletic scholarship. After graduating with a bachelors degree, he founded a home building company where he was one of earliest builders using the newest technologies available, including the Boland Truss. The Boland Truss served as a foundation and floor system in one step, which revolutionized home building by facilitating the constructing the foundation and floor systems by 33%. He remained on the cutting edge of the home building industry by continually incorporating the newest processes, like using panelized exterior walls which decreased building time. His buildings incorporated “the crawl space” as the heat and cooling Plenum and then he developed a new building system that incorporated insulated steel framing and polyurethane foam to create a super-strong and energy efficient homes that were durable and cost effective. In the last decade, Jerry began working with Toupes Technologies on the development and commercialization of a new process that he felt could produce state-of-the-art products, including Aqua Fuel. This process uses carbon to produce a new hybrid Hydrogen Gas or Super Clean Fuel that could provide power to his generators installed in his housing & commercial developments, and thereby making them energy self-sufficient.

U.S. Ambassador Lewis Lucke

University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

Ambassador Lewis Lucke most recently served as US Response Coordinator for the Haiti earthquake, leading the United States’ $1.0 billion to date relief and recovery program.

Ambassador Lucke recently returned to his international consulting business, Lewis Lucke, LLC, brokering US investment into developing countries in the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.

Previously, Mr. Lucke was nominated by President George W. Bush and served as US Ambassador to the Kingdom of Swaziland from July 2004 through July 2006.

Ambassador Lucke served for 27 years with the U.S. Agency for International Development. His prior position was that of first USAID Mission Director for Iraq, where he managed a $4.0 billion reconstruction and economic development program, USAID’s largest program ever and the largest reconstruction effort funded by the United States since the Marshall Plan.

Mr. Lucke is from Austin, Texas, married to Joy Willeford with three grown children. Mr. Lucke received a Bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and an MBA from Thunderbird School of Global Management in Arizona.

Mr. Lucke served in the U.S. Foreign Service since 1978 in ten countries: Mali, Senegal, Costa Rica, Tunisia, Bolivia, Jordan, Haiti, Brazil, Iraq and Swaziland. He had been USAID Mission Director in his last five posts of Bolivia, Jordan, Brazil, Haiti, and Iraq.

Mr. Lucke has received USAID’s two highest awards, the Administrator’s Distinguished Career Award in 2001, and the Agency’s award for Heroism in 2004. He was named a Distinguished Alumnus of 2003 from the Thunderbird School of Global Management. He received the Secretary of Defense’s Award for Exceptional Public Service in 2004.

Mr. Lucke is fluent in French and Spanish and has a working knowledge of Arabic. He is the author of “Waiting for Rain: Life and Development in Mali, West Africa” published in 1999.

Dr. Saum K. Nour, Ph.D.

BS Mechanical Engineering,

BS, MS, and Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering

Blog: http://greenerade.com/saums-blog/

PE Civil, PE Electrical, PE Mechanical, CPD, CIPE, CFPE, LEED AP Licensed Professional Engineer in 25 States

Dr. Nour has over 30 years of experience in the field of Engineering. His diversified work includes small building projects to large industrial facilities, for which he designed and specified a variety of equipment solutions and systems, performed construction support and multi-discipline coordination tasks. He also has done extensive work on commercial and residential projects where he has designed plumbing, HVAC, system ventilation, energy compliance forms, air quality control, and plumbing systems.

As a founder of ACE, his experience and practical approach to pragmatic design has made it one of the most efficient and dynamic consulting engineering firms in Southern California. Dr. Nour has customized programs and has automated all aspects of engineering design 
for higher rates of accuracy and efficiency.

Based on his extensive theoretical background, Nour has been able to innovate new designs where the UMC codes were required variance due to inadequacies of the governing codes. In addition, this background has given Dr. Nour the specialized ability to diagnose the California Energy Laws from theoretical to practical and construction views.

He is partnered with Jeff Elmassian of Greenuendo on a variety of water conservation projects including with the U.S. Forest Service and local Los Angeles schools.

LEED = Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design

PE = Professional Engineer

CIPE = Center for International Private Enterprise