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Another building on the rise in Portland will feature cross-laminated timber. The new headquarters for Harder Mechanical Contractors is being constructed in the Eliot neighborhood.

The two-story, 81,000-square-foot building was designed by Ankrom Moisan Architects. It’s being built at 2148 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., near the intersection with Thompson Street. The new building will replace Harder Mechanical’s former building on the same site. The new one will feature a structural steel frame with 56,000 square feet of cross-laminated timber (CLT) floors and a roof diaphragm with steel, buckling-restrained brace framing.

The project’s general contractor, Swinerton Mass Timber, self-performed installation of the CLT, carpentry and concrete work. Swinerton is already taking advantage of its new Timberlab facility, which opened in North Portland in January.

鈥淥ne of the cool things about this project is that we actually fabricated all of the glulam columns and beams at our shop just two miles (from) here, on Columbia Boulevard,鈥� said Sam Dicke, a business development representative for Swinerton Mass Timber. 鈥淪o, really just being able to have that proximity to the shop to bring material in was big.鈥�

Currently, Kraft Masonry crews are installing the dark gray brick that will dominate the building’s exterior, while Arrow Roofing & Sheet Metal is completing the roofing system. DR Johnson added rubber roofing membrane to the CLT panels bound for the roof prior to shipment.

鈥淪winerton took extra steps to protect the CLT, so when they came out, they had membrane already installed to protect it as soon as it was off the ground,鈥� said Caroline Hather, an associate with Ankrom Moisan Architects.

Other major subcontractors involved in the project include Cochran Electric, Viking Automatic Sprinkler Company and Primo Construction.

The building will have a square layout, with a main entrance on the west side fronting MLK Jr. Boulevard and an employee entrance on the east side. These entries will connect to a double-height corridor that hosts a grand staircase topped by skylights that effectively illuminate the middle of the building. Open walkways, meanwhile, will run north-south on the second level to provide circulation between two main wings of office and conference space.

Exposed mechanical systems will be featured throughout. Naturally, Harder Mechanical is performing the plumbing and HVAC work for the project.

鈥淚 think what’s nice about it, actually, is when you look through the building you see just a lot of those wood beams; it’s going to be really great,鈥� said Michael Strachan, marketing manager for Harder Mechanical. 鈥淎nd on top of that, it also gave us an opportunity with the CLT to expose a lot of the mechanical and plumbing and everything, so that also makes a lot of sense.鈥�

Swinerton Mass Timber Project Executive Andrew Georgesen pointed out that the building being constructed is much different than the one envisioned originally.

鈥淔or this job, specifically, it was a testament to the teamwork it took us and Ankrom to get to,鈥� Georgesen said. 鈥淲hen I came in it was about 50 percent (conceptual design), and the structural design was much different. It was kind of down to a more 鈥� glulam beam and car decking, but the owner really had a preference to use CLT.鈥�

The structure originally was to include concrete shear walls, which were later swapped out for steel brace framing, Hather said. This change, she added, came about in part via use of virtual reality technology to explore different options.

鈥淲e did the VR to take the client through,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd we also went to a steel brace frame at that point. Originally, we had the shear with concrete, and something that’s kind of less typical in CLT buildings is to have the brace framing.鈥�

The project team broke ground this past fall and began erecting structural elements toward the end of November. Installation of the CLT panels was completed early this year, and the building is now fully enclosed. Substantial completion is expected by mid-July.

The final result, Strachan said, is intended to not only give Harder Mechanical a new building with room to grow, but also one that fits within the historical context of MLK Jr. Boulevard and the surrounding neighborhood.

鈥淭he biggest thing on this building from a contextual standpoint besides the sizing of the windows was the material,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t had to incorporate masonry for a lot of reasons. There was a rustic feel. It’s an old material as we all know, but it let the building kind of settle here as if it’s been here a long time.鈥�