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Two and a half years ago, officials gathered on property near the Hawthorne Bridge‘s west end to ceremoniously break ground on the Multnomah County Central Courthouse project. Then major work began in spring 2017.

These days, crews are building at a rapid pace. As many as 350 tradespeople are on the site daily, at either the 17-story courthouse or the adjacent Jefferson Station building. Hoffman Construction is the construction manager/general contractor for the estimated $324.5 million project, which is being funded jointly by the county and the state. SRG Partnership is the lead architectural firm.

Structural steel and concrete work has wrapped up in the L-shaped tower, but most other trades remain on site. Electrical, plumbing and HVAC work is continuing in the two-story entrance lobby, and drywall is being installed. Also, extensive electrical work is required in lower-floor courtrooms and other court-related spaces ranging from jury waiting rooms to defendant holding cells. The 44 new courtrooms will be spread through the lower floors, while district attorneys’ offices and other spaces will take up the remainder of the 460,000-square-foot building.

A host of features, many passive ones, are being incorporated to boost energy efficiency. The project team is targeting a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design gold rating, with the possibility of stretching for platinum, Hoffman project manager Justin Paterson said.

Generous glazing will be used on the building’s east and south sides to take advantage of daylight. Also, a large rooftop solar array will both power the building and offset energy costs for the Hawthorne Bridge.

Underneath the building’s concrete floors, however, a radiant hydronic loop system will absorb natural light and the heat that comes with it, and then redistribute that heat throughout the building. A high-performance building envelope, meanwhile, will reduce heat leakage and associated energy use.

The top three floors remain open to the elements as rough-in proceeds and the curtain wall system is built. Professional Lath and Plaster crews are handling interior and exterior metal framing on the top floors, while Elemental Energy crews are installing the tracking for the solar array atop a steel structure designed to give maintenance crews easy access to individual panels.

Meanwhile, crews are also gutting the interior of the Jefferson Station building, one of the first in Portland to use reinforced concrete. That building is now down to its shell and a dirt floor as preparations are made to install new steel shoring in the walls and begin interior improvements. The building will house high-traffic courtrooms such as those for small claims and traffic infractions.

The project team expects work to finish in approximately another year. Officials plan to open the new courthouse to the public in spring 2020.