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Oregon State University Gladys Valley Marine Studies Building
Photo by Josh Partee/Architectural Photographer
Submitting Company: Andersen Construction

Location: Newport
Cost: $52,008,777
Owner/Developer: Oregon State University
Architect: YGH Architects
Engineer: KPFF Consulting Engineers
General Contractor: Andersen Construction
Subcontractors: Alliant Systems, ARCHITextures, BHE Group, Brandsen Floors, Carlson, Center Pointe Signs, city of Newport, Columbia Concrete Sawing, Convergint Technologies, Corona Steel, Dallas Glass, Delta Fire, Emery & Sons, FEI Testing, Functional Surfacing, GRI, Interior Tech, Jafec USA, L&M Industrial Fabrication, NW Precast, Lango Hansen, Legend Custom Woodworking, Luma, Midgleys, Ness-Campbell, Northwest Engineering Services, Omega Morgan, OEG, National Networks, On Electric Group – Dormakaba, Otis, Overhead Door, PAE, PDCI, Quality Cleaning Services, Rexius, RX Concrete, Saxton Bradley, Sedia, Siemens, Skyline Sheet Metal, Superior Interiors, T Gerding Construction, Washington Crane & Hoist, WPI

It seemed like an impossible project to create a safe and sustainable ocean research facility on the wind-battered Oregon coast in the middle of a tsunami evacuation zone. The Gladys Valley Marine Studies Building stands as a testament to the many design, engineering and construction feats overcome by the project team.

The new 74,000-square-foot classroom and laboratory building is located on the Oregon State University Hatfield Marine Science Center campus in Newport. In addition to housing Marine Studies Initiative programs, the building provides headquarters for OSU’s nationally recognized Marine Mammal Institute and its marine genetics and genomics programs.

The Hatfield Marine Science Campus started the project with a conundrum. The ocean research taking place on campus necessitates its facilities to be located with direct access to the coast, but the impending Cascadia earthquake and tsunami present too great a public safety risk to build a new facility in this location. OSU was left with a decision about whether to build a structure unlike almost any built in the United States before or abandon the Hatfield campus altogether.

It took bringing together a world-class team at the start of the project to research and problem solve how to build safely in this location. It took visiting countries like Japan that are at the forefront of tsunami design, digitally modeling simulations of how a tsunami and its debris would impact the building’s structure, as well as using advanced techniques such as deep soil mixing to stabilize the ground under a building.

The building is designed and constructed to sustain a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and the ensuing tsunami. A 47-foot ramp leads from ground level to the roof of the three-story structure, which is designed to serve as a vertical evacuation site for more than 900 people. It is one of the first vertical evacuation sites in the United States.

The vertical evacuation solution also enables people with limited mobility to escape the area. An elevator is available 24/7 to take people to the top of the building. It is designed to operate on emergency power and will accommodate as many as 200 people in the 20-minute window between an earthquake and a tsunami.

The team used augers to pull out existing soil and replace it with cement grout. In the case of the Marine Studies Building, the augers went nearly 100 feet below ground and used approximately 27,380 cubic yards of grout.