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A historic, three-story building near the Burnside Bridge‘s east end has a long history. It was constructed in 1912 as the Alco Apartments, joining the trend of offering ground-floor commercial spaces below workforce housing units.

The building’s name later was changed to the Vivian Apartments, and then it eventually closed slightly more than five years ago.

In 2016, the building at 110 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Two years later, it was purchased for $2.3 million by Kristinn Vilbergsson, founder and CEO of KEX Hostel 鈥� a business based in Reykjavik, Iceland. Vilbergsson announced his intention to transform the run-down building into the first KEX Hostel in North America. A restaurant, bar and rooftop patio bar also are planned.

Green Light Development is guiding the renovation, which is now in the final stages. In fact, R&H Construction already formally delivered the project; however, some scopes of work were transferred to the owners so distinctive finishes and d茅cor could be added.

Of course, the project’s designer, Hennebery Eddy Architects, first had to address the building’s unreinforced masonry. DCI Engineers contributed to that portion of the work.

鈥淚t’s a full-on seismic upgrade,鈥� said Tim Eddy, founding principal of Hennebery Eddy Architects. 鈥淭he building didn’t have an elevator; it had one stair and we added a second means of egress. The building has a lot of charm, and the existing scale is indicative of many parts of Portland at the turn of the century and well into the ’20s, ’30s and ’40s. So from a historic perspective, it’s an important building.鈥�

Over the past year, crews gutted the building’s interior in order to construct a new concrete core with a pair of elevators. This addition allowed a host of new glulam beams to be extended outward from the core and tied new into structural steel brace framing around the perimeter.

鈥淭he elevator core and other shear walls on the exterior and the brace frames establish the lateral system for the building,鈥� Eddy said. 鈥淎nd those are connected into floor diaphragm and then at the roof, and that ties the building together.鈥�

The project has essentially provided a new structure wrapped in a historic shell, said Evan Charpentier, a senior project manager with R&H Construction.

鈥淲e built a concrete box that goes all the way from the basement to the roof,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd there is a ton of timber to create some rigidity, and this gives you the structural core that everything can come off of. And these (steel) braces, perpendicular to one another, give you shear.鈥�

The brace frames, Charpentier explained, sit on a solid concrete shear panel that starts in the basement. This panel was poured onto a massive footing containing a 鈥渧ery elaborate cage of iron,鈥� he said. A rigid, perpendicular moment frame was created, and then repeated throughout the building to create significant rigidity that did not exist previously.

Plainly evident is the refreshment that transformed old apartments into vibrant guest rooms with bathrooms. However, a largely hidden but significant addition is a false ceiling on the ground floor to create roughly four feet of buffer between guest rooms and the bar/restaurant space below.

鈥淚t’s a complete acoustic separation between this public space and the rest of the hotel,鈥� Charpentier said.

Because the building is listed on the national register, Eddy noted, its hallways, original entry and exterior features had to be preserved.

鈥淚t’s a combination of a contemporary program use and a historic building that really works well together,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat building is ready for its next 100 years.鈥�