Portland’s inclusionary housing rules have been in effect for nearly a year and the impacts are beginning to appear fully around the city – including historic districts.

The rules state that any project including 20 or more residential units must designate a portion of them as affordable, or pay a fee in lieu. Such projects must have at least 20 percent of units affordable to people making 80 percent of the median family income or 10 percent of units affordable to people making 60 percent of the median family income.

Many developers rushed to submit projects before Feb. 1, 2017, when the rules took effect. The submission rate of proposals has since dwindled.

One of the biggest issues is that designating a certain number of units to rent below market rate dramatically changes the financial dynamics. That impact can be especially profound within historic districts, where height and design guidelines are especially stringent.

“My understanding is that there has not been a land use review for a project that would trigger the inclusionary zoning rules,” said Brandon Spencer-Hartle, historic resources program manager for the city of Portland.

One team did come before the Historic Landmarks Commission in December seeking advice on a project that would trigger the inclusionary housing requirement: the Omni tower. As proposed, it would sit on the corner of Northwest Fifth Avenue and Glisan Street. The design presented to landmarks commissioners called for 13 stories. At approximately 135 feet tall, it would be significantly shorter than the 350-foot height maximum allowed within the district. However, during the hearing, landmarks commissioners said the height would be too tall given the context of the district.

“The building’s owner does not believe that a smaller building is financially feasible given the city’s current inclusionary housing rules,” Ankrom Moisan Architects designer Paul Jeffreys told the commission during the hearing.

The problem for the project is that the Historic Landmarks Commission is charged with ensuring districts’ character and context are maintained. That can often mean that while zoning rules may allow for a taller maximum height, it may not be found appropriate within a particular district.

“I don’t like that process, personally,” Jeffreys said. “The inclusionary zoning is a problem for every area. Historic districts carry a bit more risk. We are hearing a lot of area developers having problems all over the city.”

Another hurdle for the Omni tower is that it is proposed for an area that already has a significant amount of affordable housing. The number of existing affordable units in a particular area isn’t factored into inclusionary housing requirements.

“This district has stagnated,” Jeffreys said. “People are risk averse. We need market-rate apartments in this neighborhood.”

While landmarks commissioners were sympathetic to the developer’s dilemma, financial viability is outside of the commission’s purview.

During the Dec. 4 advice hearing, some landmarks commissioners wondered if the developer would be better off going through the review process with the intention of appealing a denial to the City Council.

“The City Council’s ear is tuned a little different,” Commissioner Matthew Roman said during the hearing. “They approach it a little different.”

However, that option has drawbacks.

“It’s more costly and we don’t want to do that,” Jeffreys said.

The overall problem for project teams is incorporating enough floors into buildings on small sites to accommodate the minimum number of affordable units and still achieve financial viability.

“My view (of) the quota is that it is too high,” Jeffreys said. “It puts too much of a burden on the project and the other options (taking off floors) are not financially helpful.”

Even developers whose overall goal is to provide affordable housing can find historic districts challenging to build in. A development at 1727 N.W. Hoyt St. aiming to provide 165 units for seniors and others making 60 percent of the area median income. But the proposal for a six-story building in the Alphabet Historic District drew a cool reception from landmarks commissioners.

“We are not like market-rate apartments where we can increase our rents to be able to cover the costs of the construction we need to do,” said Stephen McMurtrey, director of housing development for project developer Northwest Housing Alternatives. “We need the amount of units proposed to deliver much-needed affordable housing to an area of the city.”

While the city is looking at the issues caused by the inclusionary housing rules, one issue that was not considered was exempting historic districts.

“The intent after passage was to apply it broadly,” said Tyler Bump, senior economic planner for the city. “One unintended consequence was if we don’t have requirements (in historic districts), it could have motivated investment into those districts. The requirements also had to meet the state law.”

Spencer-Hartle pointed out that floor area ratio bonuses and tax incentives can help offset the costs associated with the requirements. Also, the city will examine options for keeping projects financially viable while the goal of increasing affordable housing is achieved, he added.

“The height limit is in front of council,” he said. “There are some real decisions to be made.”

A mixed-use project at the corner of Southwest Third Avenue and Ash Street was able to successfully use bonus floor area ratio and tax incentives to offset costs incurred by adding affordable units, prior to the new inclusionary rules taking effect, Spencer-Hartle added.

The city is aware of the struggles that area developers are experiencing, Bump said.

“We are sensitive to the private sector,” he said. “(The inclusionary housing policy) has been in effect for 10 months now. We are trying to find out how this works. We have ongoing conversations with area builders.”

One of the goals of the inclusionary housing policy is to promote a diversity of housing types throughout the city – including historic districts.

“We want to help these districts,” Spencer-Hartle said. “The question is: How do we get there?”

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The annual Portland Winter Light Festival will brighten the city Feb. 1-3. While the bulk of the displays will be set up at the traditional site near the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI), exhibits will be scattered among three other locations in Portland.

Local architects play a big role in creating many of the festival’s displays. This year, Fieldwork Design & Architecture, ZGF Architects, Walker Macy, Waterleaf Architecture, Interiors & Planning and the team of Holst Architecture and 2.ink Studio will be involved in a variety of exhibits. Two works are Flamethrower Chandelier by Ryan Ramage, and a 50-foot-tall steel, flame-shooting dragon by Ivan McLean.

Besides the main displays at OMSI, other works will be at the World Trade Center/PGE headquarters, Salmon Springs Fountain, North Park Blocks and Cathedral Park. Admittance is free.

Also, the Portland Spirit and Sternwheeler will provide free rides, and a variety of artists will deliver story readings and performances.

Learn more about the festival at .

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People interested in learning about the social consciousness of firms they are interested in joining or working with now have a new tool.

The , which is administered by the International Living Future Institute, is a voluntary disclosure program for a wide range of business aspects. Companies report information regarding workplace diversity, worker benefits, equity, local benefits, safety and stewardship.

Currently, Portland-based firms Bora Architects, Hennebery Eddy Architects, Ankrom Moisan Architects, Opsis Architecture and Yost Grube Hall Architecture are taking part in the program.

“When we conceived the program in 2014, we wanted to provide a third-party framework and tool to take a look at the HR policies,” Just program manager Francis Janes said. “We wanted to help companies deepen their engagement with their employees.”

Nationwide, approximately 500 companies have registered for the program. Around 70 have navigated the entire process and received a Just label, which is valid for two years. Companies pay the International Living Future Institute a processing fee ranging from $500 to $25,000, depending on the number of employees.

“Just was already associated with the construction industry,” Bora Architects interior designer Amy Running said. “It had the advantage being within our industry and sphere.”

Unlike the B-Corp movement, the Just program doesn’t give official certifications. Instead, each company seeking to participate submits information about its activities in each one of Just’s six categories. The group then takes that data and compiles it into a social justice label similar to a nutrition label used for food and beverage products. Each company can get a maximum of three squares in each area. The better a company rates in a particular area, the more squares it gets.

“Part of the goal of being part of this is to provide a road map of where we want to go,” said Pat Sanchez, associate principal and business manager at Opsis Architecture. “It helps tell us where we are and where we want to go.”

One of the biggest areas that many metro-area architecture firms seek improvement is gender diversity. Hennebery Eddy Architects and Ankrom Moisan Architects were the only local firms to get the maximum three-square rating in that particular area.

“If you are going to build a diverse and rich workforce, you have to be mindful every step of the way,” Hennebery Eddy Architects President Tim Eddy said. “You have to think about what each hire brings to the recipe of the company. That is a really big deal for us.”

The label serves as a tangible reminder for companies to make sure that policies discussed in boardrooms are put into action. YGH has taken part in the Just program since 2014 and was one of the first local firms to receive a label.

“This helps when we look at how we pay both genders and promote to ownership,” said Leslie Maynard, human resources director at YGH. “It helps to benchmark how you have been doing and where we want to go in the future. It is a good reminder to work toward your goals and not put them in a drawer.”

One of the biggest benefits provided by the Just program is allowing participants to measure goal pursuits in concrete ways. Also, companies can compare themselves to others within their industry.

“I think we will see dividends from being part of the program over the next few years,” Eddy said. “Clients are not looking at it yet. I can imagine that for some of our socially conscientious, cultural and public clients, it may become important to them. It will be more meaningful to prospective staff.”

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Oregon State University’s School of Civil and Construction Engineering has won a 2017 Women in Build Award. It was given by Build Magazine, a London-based publication that covers construction, engineering and architecture trends and events throughout the world.

The award honors the school’s efforts to help women come to forefront of a traditionally male-dominated field.

“(The award) is a reflection of the changing population of the school,” OSU Public Information Specialist Johanna Carson said. “The goal is to become a model of inclusive practices.”

Between 2013 and 2017, OSU increased its female graduate student population in the School of Civil and Construction Engineering (CCE) by 6.5 percent. Also, the number of women in the school’s faculty has increased threefold during that same four-year period.

Recent additions to the faculty include Assistant Professor of Structural Engineering Erica Fischer, Assistant Professor of Geomatics Jihye Park and Assistant Professor of Construction Engineering Management Yelda Turkan. Fischer’s research largely focuses on improving resilience and robustness of structural systems affected by natural and man-made hazards. Park brings expertise in advanced algorithms that are used to improve the performance of positioning and navigation systems under harsh environments. Turkan works on sensing automation, and information technology for construction engineering and management, infrastructure asset management and transportation.

“We were pleased to learn that CCE has been selected for this award, as it recognizes the hard work of our faculty and staff in recruiting and retaining a more diverse community,” the school’s head, Jason Weiss, stated via email.

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Rising temperatures are creating major headaches for engineers trying to figure out the best ways to address environmental impacts ranging from increasing severity of storms to persistent droughts.

“We live on a knife’s edge on the West Coast,” David Curtis, a longtime engineer and vice president of West Consultants, based in Folsom, California, told the Portland chapter of the Society of American Military Engineers (SAME) during its monthly luncheon earlier this month. “Atmospheric rivers have a profound effect. (California) gets five storms (annually) on average. If we get two (fewer), that is 20 percent less water; now you are in a drought.”

Those same atmospheric rivers provide much of the rain and snowpack in the Pacific Northwest. A warming atmosphere has a profound effect on the atmospheric rivers’ severity, according to Curtis. When temperatures increase, more water vapor ends up on the air. Once the atmospheric rivers reach West Coast mountains, an uplift can create enormous storms with devastating impacts. The changes also mean more precipitation falls as rain instead of snow.

Last year, a high-powered atmospheric river nearly triggered a catastrophe at Oroville Dam, north of Sacramento. The 770-foot dam is the tallest in the U.S. and helps supply water to nearly 20 million people.

“The main (spillway) is over 3,000 feet long from the top of the dam to the bottom,” Curtis said. “The emergency spillway is 1,700 feet wide. It is a massive structure.”

But a series of winter storms provided more runoff than the reservoir could hold. The problem was compounded when the main spillway used to release water and pressure from the reservoir developed a 35-foot-wide hole, forcing the dam operators to stop using it.

The dam’s auxiliary and emergency spillways were not designed to handle the amount of water that needed to be released. The resulting erosion in the auxiliary spillway threatened to damage the emergency spillway, which had never been used.

Had that erosion worsened, a catastrophic wall of water would have inundated cities downstream. That threat prompted evacuations by more than 180,000 people. A major catastrophe was averted when dam operators decided to continue using the damaged main spillway, along with the auxiliary and emergency spillways.

Nevertheless, between the evacuations and damage to the dam itself, the cost of the storms’ impact was more than $1.2 billion. This came despite highly accurate forecasts as to what to expect.

“They forecasted future information within four or five percent,” Curtis said. “That difference pushed it over the spillway and started the erosions.”

Such events are expected to become more common as the climate continues to warm, according to Curtis.

“The natural variability scale of the West Coast is really strong,” he said. “It is being compounded by the stuff we are doing to the atmosphere.”

The Oroville Dam case shows the importance of taking these issues into account when planning new projects or improving existing infrastructure, Curtis said. Despite the best forecasts and planning, people along the West Coast are going to have to learn to live with higher risks due to a warming atmosphere, he said.

“At the end of the day, it’s not an engineering question,” he said. “It is an economic risk question.”

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The U.S. State Department‘s Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations has added Allied Works Architecture to its list of vetted companies eligible to work on indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) projects.

Allied Works Architecture was one of 136 companies that last year applied to be added to the list. The Portland firm was among 16 chosen.

Not all State Department projects go through the IDIQ process, but many of its biggest and most intricate embassies, consulates and marine barracks are awarded to companies on the list. IDIQ contracts are most often used for on-call work such as architecture and engineering services.

“We would also be responsible for (designing) anything that they are looking for,” said Eric Spencer, director of development for Allied Works Architecture.

It is the first time that Allied Works Architecture has been included on the list. The firm will be on the list for the next five years, and then be eligible for renewal thereafter.

Allied Works Architecture has worked on other State Department projects that did not go through the intricate IDIQ process, including current work on an embassy in Mozambique. That embassy is a 360,000-square-foot structure expected to be completed in 2019.

“There is multiple phases,” Spencer said. “It is roughly a yearlong process. We are happy about it. It is a great honor.”

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New ideas are being proposed to incorporate a contributing structure in Portland’s Alphabet Historic District in a new development, and the Historic Landmarks Commission weighed in during a design advice hearing on Monday.

Commissioners praised the project team’s plan to preserve the 90-year-old Buck-Prager Building as housing, but questioned whether two new buildings planned nearby would be complementary to the neighborhood.

The Buck-Prager Building, at 1727 N.W. Hoyt St., has sat mostly vacant since 2007. In 2014, developer Gerding Edlen sought to tear it down and construct an apartment building in its place. However, the Portland City Council struck down that proposal, siding with neighbors who contended that the former Women’s Hospital of Portland was too important to the historic district to allow demolition.

Now Northwest Housing Alternatives is planning a multifamily project in which the Buck-Prager Building would be renovated to hold 17 senior housing units. Also, a new four-story building to the south would hold 32 senior housing units, and a new six-story building to the north would hold 116 workforce housing units.

“I am really excited to see the applicants making a few moves,” Commission Vice Chairwoman Kristen Minor said.

Carleton Hart Architecture is designing the project.

“We are maintaining the historic structure, which is in the center of the site, so right off the bat that poses a lot of challenges to design around,” said Brendan Sanchez, an architect at Carleton Hart Architecture. “We are trying to enhance the building and the district.”

Project plans call for seismic upgrades to the Buck-Prager Building. Also, all of the units would be affordable for people making 60 percent of the area median income. To meet those goals in a financially feasible project, the project team says the six-story tower needs to be 66 feet.

“I am not sure this can be compatible,” Commissioner Matthew Roman said. “It may not be possible to get the number of units to make it work.”

Numerous residents testified against the project on Monday. Complaints ranged from excessive height to inadequate parking.

“I appreciate that this is a complicated project that we have brought forward,” said Stephen McMurtrey, housing development director with Northwest Housing Alternatives.

Despite the issues raised, designers still believe they can present a design able to gain the commission’s approval.

“I can’t say that I can outline exactly right now what we feel like the path forward looks like,” said Michelle Black, a project architect at Carleton Hart Architecture. “I do think we still have a path forward.”

No date is set yet for the project team’s next appearance before the commission.

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Robert Frasca, founding design partner of ZGF Architects, died Jan. 3 from complications of chronic lymphocytic leukemia. He was 84.

The longtime fixture in Portland’s architecture scene arrived here in 1959 after earning a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of Michigan and a master’s in city planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He began by taking part-time positions with Wolff and Zimmer Architects (a precursor to ZGF) and the City Planning Commission.

“Stewardship of resources is something that was naturally a way that Bob worked,” said Jan Willemse, managing partner at ZGF’s Portland office.

After spending 18 months traveling in Europe and Turkey via a fellowship from the University of Michigan, Frasca returned to Portland. Then he rejoined Norm Zimmer and along with Brooks Gunsul formed Zimmer Gunsul Frasca (ZGF) in 1966.

One of Frasca’s most revolutionary ideas stemmed in part from his experience in city planning. He would keep in mind the context of surrounding neighborhoods when designing buildings. At the time, most buildings were designed as isolated structures with little thought given to how they would interact with their surroundings.

“He always said things like how much he valued the existing context,” Willemse said. “He was always embracing and enhancing cities by doing an additive building. He looked at it as a bigger dance with the existing context.”

Frasca was instrumental in many projects that became major landmarks in Portland. He led designs of projects such as Tom McCall Waterfront Park, the Oregon Historical Society campus, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, the Oregon Convention Center and Portland International Airport.

“He liked doing buildings for institutional clients because they were built to last,” Willemse said. “The Vollum Institute, at OHSU, became a prototype for other projects. He considered it a catalytic starter.”

Educational design accounted for a large part of Frasca’s work, including buildings at the University of California-Berkeley, Cornell University, Duke University, Stanford University, Williams College, Emory University, the University of Michigan and Johns Hopkins University. He also sat on the University of Washington architecture commission for 27 years.

“(Educational projects) are the cultural backbone of an area,” Willemse said. “He felt those projects were 100-year projects that were serving society.”

The LDS Conference Center in Salt Lake City was one of Frasca’s more unusual projects. In order to keep the enormous project from dominating other landmarks in the city, he submerged all but approximately two stories of the building below ground. The project included seating for 21,000 people and a four-acre roof garden at a time those were uncommon.

“That building is larger than the Moda Center,” Willemse said. “He chose to make it unimposing and compatible with the surroundings. He made the building almost modest by scale.”

Frasca also designed embassies and consulates in Turkey, Bulgaria, the Philippines and South Africa.

Frasca helped lead ZGF to the AIA Architecture Firm Award in 1991. Later in his career, he helped judge numerous AIA awards sitting on juries for the AIA National Honor Awards program, the AIA Committee on Design and the AIA Topaz Awards program.

Frasca is survived by his wife, Jeanne Giordano; children Andrea and Jason by his first marriage to Marilyn Buys (deceased in 2000); grandson Nicolas; sister Joyce Broderson; nephew David; and sister-in-law Lorraine Giordano.

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ZRZ Realty Company has chosen the first architectural team to work on its 33-acre Zidell Yards development in Portland’s South Waterfront District. The San Francisco office of Chicago-based SCB will design the Block 8 towers, with GBD Architects serving as the architect of record.

The towers, planned between the Barge Building and the Ross Island Bridge, could be as tall as 325 feet. The mixed-use structures will feature ground-floor retail space and residential units.

“We were certainly looking for team members that had high-rise experience,” ZRZ Realty Chief Operating Officer Thomas Henneberry said. “It really is a collaboration when you do buildings this large.”

SCB will serve as the design architect, while GBD Architects will handle local business such as construction documents.

The development team was looking for a complementary group of designers, Henneberry said.

“It has always been our plan to bring (on board) some national presence and … people from Portland that understand land use and the local process,” he said.

GBD Architects previously worked with landscape architect Place Studio on development of the master plan for the site. National firms Sasaki Associates and West 8 Urban Design & Landscape Architecture also helped develop that plan, which was released in 2016.

The master plan for the site calls for 15 to 20 buildings. They’re expected to provide 1.5 million square feet of office space and 250,000 square feet of retail, grocery and dining space. Also, 2,600 residential units, 200 hotel rooms, 5,500 parking stalls and several parks and other public spaces are planned.

The Block 8 towers represent the first phase of that development.

“We’re thrilled that we’ve been given an opportunity to further our work in the South Waterfront,” GBD Architects Director Phil Beyl stated in a press release. “Zidell Yards is not only the new chapter of South Waterfront; it’s a chance to connect this neighborhood to the city as a whole.”

Block 8 will be the first large-scale residential project proposal since inclusionary housing rules – requiring inclusion of affordable units or payment of a fee – took effect in February 2017. It’s unclear at this point how the rules will impact the project, according to Henneberry, because design is in an early stage – currently, massing is the focus. The exact timing of delivery for the first building has yet to be determined.

“We don’t intend to build both (towers) at once,” Henneberry said. “The westerly tower will be first and easterly in a second phase.”

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The Portland Japanese Garden added to its list of honors recently when Engineering News-Record (ENR) named the Cultural Crossing expansion its project of the year in the Northwest region.

ENR covers trends as well as construction, engineering and architecture efforts across the country. The organization selects specific projects in individual regions, focusing largely on engineering and construction excellence.

The Japanese Garden project, completed in April 2017, was honored for its attention to detail, craftsmanship and complexity.

“It feels pretty good,” said Chelsea McCann, a Walker Macy principal. “We are absolutely honored to be given the top honors for the region.”

Walker Macy focused on the landscaping as part of a team that included Japanese architecture firm Kengo Kuma & Associates and local architecture firm Hacker. KPFF provided engineering services for the project and Hoffman Construction was the contractor.

“It was a really collaborative project,” McCann said. “We had wonderfully supportive partners and are really happy with the way it turned out.”

ENR isn’t the only organization that has taken notice of the garden expansion. Since debuting in April, it has been honored by the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) with a people’s choice award and by the American Institute of Architects (AIA).

The AIA’s Portland chapter recognized the project with its top award in its built category. The judges called it a “serene, pilgrimage-like journey from the city to the forest, drawing each visitor into a fully immersive experience of the traditional arts and culture of Japan.”

“I think what really sets this (project) apart is that the idea was to expand beyond just being a beautiful garden,” McCann said. “They actually wanted to be able do training courses for Japanese garden design. It’s an expansion as a cultural offering.”

ENR praised the intricacies of a retaining wall as well as Kengo Kuma’s designs for buildings that included irregular geometries. Fitting all of the pieces together left virtually no margin for error. To add to that challenge, construction took place during one of Portland’s snowiest winters in years.

“It was tricky,” Hacker principal Jonah Cohen said. “Hoffman (Construction) did a herculean task.”

ENR praised the end result as “one of the most authentic Japanese gardens outside of Japan.”

“Collaborating with Kengo Kuma & Associates and garden curator Sadafumi Uchiyama was a great honor and invaluable experience for Hacker as well as for me personally,” Cohen said. “The project is a true Oregon treasure.”

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