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A prefabricated building enclosure system has been installed for the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) Ross Complex Technical Services Building under construction in Vancouver, Washington. Use of a progressive design-build project delivery method streamlined incorporation of prefabricated elements, reduced the construction timeline by two months, and saved more than $1 million in the overall budget.

The project team includes developer and design-builder Mortenson, Opsis Architecture, California-based DGA Architects, and contractor and fabricator Western Partitions Inc.

The new facility will help avoid both $25 million in upgrades to the buildings it is replacing and hundreds of thousands of dollars per year in lease costs, according to the BPA. The Technical Services Building will support maintenance, testing and repairs to maintain modern electronic transmission communications and controls. The project is scheduled for completion in summer 2023.

While prefabrication is not a new solution for efficiency in commercial construction, the use of prefabricated panels on a building exterior is still rare. It was chosen for the Technical Services Building via progressive design-build delivery. It prescribes that the design-builder is selected by the owner early in the project and primarily for its qualifications. As with all progressive design-build projects, the Technical Services Building is being delivered in two distinct phases: design development and pre-construction, and final design and construction.

As part of the pre-construction planning process, the design-build team members explored ways to maximize their respective strengths to provide the greatest value possible; the result was an early decision to use prefabrication. After evaluating seven types of enclosure systems, the team opted to leverage Western Partitions’ ability to fabricate façade panels at its facility less than 10 miles from the project site.

Each panel of the Ross Complex Technical Services Building project is unique. One set covers the first floor, and another set of two-story panels up to 42 feet tall encloses the upper floors of the three-story structure. Metal-stud frame assembly was used with fiber-cement panels and articulated metal panels with ribs. Only specific areas – such as under structural steel canopies and within them – were conventionally framed.