91ÊÓƵ

Matthew Saddler gained appreciation for the versatility of trusses when he learned they will be incorporated into the 30-story Park Avenue West tower being constructed in downtown Portland.

“Trusses aren’t just for bridges,” he said. “You can use them in buildings.”

Saddler, 17, a senior at the ACE Academy for Architecture, Construction and Engineering, was one of more than 100 students who came from 18 high schools mostly in the Portland-metro area to attend Engineer Day on Tuesday. The event, part of National Engineers Week, was organized by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to inform students interested in the profession.

Park Avenue West developer TMT Development hosted the students at its downtown Portland office, near the high-rise construction site. Engineers from KPFF Consulting Engineers and Hoffman Construction discussed their contributions to the $175 million project, which is creating a building with 15 stories of apartments, 13 stories of offices and two stories of retail space.

The USACE sought to bring students to an active construction site to learn about the various types of engineers involved in such a project, said Alison Burcham, a USACE environmental engineer who organized the event.

“We have the program set up that way to give (students) as much exposure to different aspects of engineering as we can,” she said.

TMT was eager to highlight its project partnerships with Hoffman Construction and KPFF, which both have a strong presence in Portland, TMT CEO and President Vanessa Sturgeon said.

“Plus, this is a high-rise project, so there’s a lot of high-end engineering that goes into it,” she said. “It’s a really good opportunity for the kids to make a connection between what they’re studying and a practical application.”

Construction of Park Avenue West restarted last fall after stalling in 2008 during the recession. A recent snowstorm set work behind by a few days, but crews are expected to complete the last level of the underground parking garage next week, Sturgeon said. Workers also are building up the concrete core that will hold the elevators, she said.

Construction of the tower’s housing portion is scheduled to finish in 2015, with the office spaces to follow in 2016.

Engineering the ground floor of Park Avenue West for retail spaces that sit underneath a massive structure required creative problem solving, KPFF structural engineer Julie Hays told a group of students at Tuesday’s event. KPFF engineers devised a system of trusses to eliminate the need for columns, she said.

“No one wants columns in the loading docks, so we did a simple truss,” she said.

Park Avenue West will have six levels of below-grade parking in what will become Portland’s deepest parking garage, Hays said. Excavating 75 feet into the ground for the garage meant the concrete walls had to be reinforced to resist surrounding soil pressure, she said.

“We actually got down to bedrock,” she said. “As with water, the deeper you go the more pressure there is. It’s the same with soil. Each floor of the parking garage … abuts the soil. It holds the soil back.”

Saddler said he was impressed with the engineering work that went into the Park Avenue West project.

“All of it is kind of cool,” he said.

Tuesday’s event helped him learn more about potential jobs in engineering.

“I’m just trying to see what’s out there to do so I have more options,” he said.

Engineer Day participant Karisa Yee, 17, a junior at Benson Polytechnic High School in Portland, said she learned about the demands of an engineering career. She said she would like to work as a mechanical or civil engineer.

“At school, we have construction classes and welding class, so it kind of opened us up to look at different career options,” she said.

Spencer Livermore, 17, a junior at Gresham High School, said he attended Engineer Day to find out from professional engineers how they got into the field. He said he likes the diversity of careers available in engineering.

“I want to specialize in something,” he said. “Engineering is nice because you can specialize.”