With a career that spans 45 years and prominent projects around the nation, you’d think Robert J. Frasca, FAIA, would be ready to slow down. Instead, his weekly itinerary includes flights crisscrossing the country to collaborate on projects and lead interviews for new work. At 71, the principal and partner-in-charge of design at Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership, Frasca speaks as if he’s just hitting his stride.

“Architects don’t get very good until we get old. Working with people to create something important and bringing the values of good architecture to a place is what keeps me intellectually young. I’m going to work as long as I can,” says Frasca.

While he’s received many prestigious awards, including recently being named an Honored Citizen by the Architecture Foundation of Oregon, the instincts that serve Frasca best began at a young age.

In fifth grade, his father bought him equipment for a small darkroom and Frasca poured a lot of time into its planning and organization. Once the darkroom was complete, however, he realized that organizing the space was what he really enjoyed.

By high school it became evident that Frasca could draw well, but his lower middle-class Italian upbringing pushed him to find a pragmatic application for his talent.

“I knew I needed to gravitate toward a practical career, so I took the set of skills I had and looked around for a good fit,” says Frasca.

After receiving a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Michigan, and a Master of City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Frasca came to Portland in 1959 to start his career and found a city that was ideally suited to his professional growth.

“Portland was a very fertile environment for new ideas and the people had a great deal of pride in the city. Clients wanted to give something back to their community in terms of their buildings’ architecture and I found that nourishing,” says Frasca.

In the 1960s Frasca says that various rallying points awakened public awareness about the importance of conscientiously shaping Portland’s development and people decided that the city should become an extraordinary place. As part of this movement, ZGF did the initial phase of the waterfront masterplan that described the vision for the area. Many others have added to the plan and Frasca has watched it evolve through the decades.

“It’s gratifying to see what happens over time, but I can’t emotionally subsist on planning projects. I believe planning is important and I’m involved in a lot of it, but I get my greatest satisfaction from buildings,” Frasca says.

The part of the process he savors is when his concepts are transformed into reality.

“Ideas start like this,” he says holding a primitive sketch, “when no one else can see where it’s headed but I can. Then, three years later I watch it rise out of the ground. That’s what I find fulfilling,” explains Frasca.

He says Portland’s public sensibility and concern for how buildings affected the city allowed his firm to design projects that were admired in other places, which led to national and international projects.

In addition to its Portland location, ZGF currently has offices in Seattle, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

In the past 40 years, Frasca’s seen the industry grow from simply being a craft to a profession that has much more influence on culture.

“Instead of making quick, cheap buildings that everyone intended to tear down, people in more segments of society now recognize the importance of quality buildings and how they contribute to people’s experiences of them, rather than focusing solely on function,” he says.

Frasca says his favorite projects express what’s happening in the culture and climate at a particular point in time. The Convention Center, the Justice Center, and the Vollum Center at Oregon Health & Science University are the first buildings that come to mind when he thinks about this dynamic.

His work on the Robert Mondavi Wine and Food Institute at the University of California Davis is a current example. The university has one of the most renowned viticulture programs in the world and wine production is a significant industry in that part of California. The idea that wine and food are some of the great pleasures of life is the driving concept behind the project.

Frasca says the design responds to this by bringing together the landscape and architecture in a seamless way. The research building is designed around a courtyard with an edible garden at its center, and a five-acre vineyard in front of the complex helps establish a new gateway for the campus.

A teaching winery, research winery and brewery are included in the open complex, which allows passersby to see in and inspires curiosity. Another important issue in current culture is environmental responsibility, and the project incorporates sustainable measures.

“The complex embraces a series of things that have to do with what’s happening: place, purpose, function, climate and the human spirit,” says Frasca. “If you look at the lasting buildings throughout history, they address these same issues of their time. When buildings fall short of these goals, everyone suffers because the culture doesn’t grow.”

Frasca regards buildings as a way to heal and revitalize their surroundings by dignifying undignified buildings and transforming the environment in one intervention. His philosophy is that architecture should reflect the values of the people using the buildings and express what belongs there in artful ways.

“Architects are the hand maidens of society. The goals are established by others but when they are good goals, we find ways to memorialize them and create something important,” Frasca says.

His own designs include public and civic centers, urban design and academic projects, and corporate, healthcare and research facilities. Frasca would like his contribution to continue the tradition of great architecture in Portland that dates back more than 100 years with buildings by A.E. Doyle, Pietro Bellusci, John Storrs and Saul Zaik.

“I want to be remembered as a link in that chain,” says Frasca. “I’d like to leave behind something that inspires the public to have higher expectations for the privilege of building in Portland.”

Frasca wants the city to continue to grow thoughtfully. He’d like to see the freeway on the east bank of the river removed so that side of the Willamette can become vibrant. He believes a new performing arts center is another necessity. While Frasca notes that Portland State University has made great strides, he says it’s extremely important for the university to thrive as it promotes intellectual energy within the city.

Frasca asserts that Portland’s uniqueness will survive only if future generations and leadership approach its development with the same sensibilities that brought the city to this point.

“You’re not grand-fathered in forever. The price of maintaining excellence is eternal vigilance,” he says.

KJ Fields is a Portland freelance writer.

The post Robert Frasca is a key player in Portland's rich tradition of great architecture appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

In a time when corporate acquisitions are common as mom-and-pop businesses struggle to ride out steep economic cycles, finding a long-time family-owned business is rare. But the Chown family has weathered over a century of change to make Chown Hardware the multimillion-dollar national distribution business it is today.

Celebrating its 125th anniversary, Chown Hardware has distinguished itself as the oldest family-owned architectural hardware company in the nation. The fourth generation of Chowns (three brothers: Steve, Fred and David) took ownership of the company in 1986.

According to company President David Chown, the qualities that enabled the company to succeed over time were consistently high business ethics, a strong customer-service orientation and excellent employees.

“The common threads have been honesty, integrity and a desire to truly help our customers and serve the community,” he said.

Fred Chown, general sales manager and past president, emphasized the crucial role that employees play in the company both from a historical perspective and today.

“Our employees are included in the family,” said Fred Chown. “They reflect the same basic beliefs that we do and bring a quality of expertise that elevates us from our competitors.”

Flexibility was also integral to the company’s longevity in order to accommodate the changing times. When Francis Chown opened his hardware store on September 15, 1879, the light bulb had not yet been invented, there were no bridges across the Willamette River and Portland had a population of 17,600. At that time, Chown Hardware offered farming and timber implements for builders and home furnishings.

By the 1920s the company’s inventory shifted to major appliances and sporting goods. Then, with the rise of the manufacturing and construction industry, Chown Hardware became a supplier of doors, frames, windows, garage doors, industrial supplies and antiques.

In the late 1970s the company re-entered the retail business and added a commercial division providing locksmithing and hardware installation to business and industry.

Now, the company’s focus is on architectural hardware; commercial hardware and access control service and installation; and residential hardware and plumbing fixtures. The Chowns and their employees work primarily with general contractors, commercial and high-end residential builders, interior designers, plumbers, and facility and property managers.

The company’s commercial door hardware is featured in numerous notable Portland projects such as Lloyd Center, the Oregon Convention Center, Portland International Airport, the Hilton Hotel, the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, Intel and Nike, as well as schools throughout the region.

Noticing that the Puget Sound area was underserved in the high-end residential marketplace, the Chown brothers opened a second location in Bellevue, Wash., in 2001. Currently, the company has 70 employees and more than $18 million in sales.

Just as the company’s history highlights their ancestors’ willingness to take risks, the current generation is also trying new things to address the needs of their clients.

Today, heightened security is a prominent issue and Chown Hardware is expanding into electronic security, access control and monitoring systems.

“Our customers are interested in making sure their employees and students are safe,” explained Fred Chown.

David Chown said that in the past the company diversified into market sectors that were unrelated to its core competencies and they have learned from those ventures.

“When we broaden our offerings in areas closely related to what we do best, we maintain our expertise and bring more value to our customer base,” he said.

Contractors are also looking to their suppliers to take on larger roles and the Chowns have started providing doors (not just hardware) to meet these needs. They see the next step in this evolution as offering installation and on-site service for construction projects.

The eldest Chown brother, Steve, worked in the business for 20 years and is now semi-retired. After 18 years as president, Fred Chown said the cumulative stress of the responsibility led him to pass the baton to David, who was previously the company’s corporate controller and chief financial officer.

“The position needed someone with new ideas and fresh energy and David was the right person to do it,” said Fred Chown.

Because the brothers had always worked closely together in the decision-making process and maintaining operations, the transition has been very smooth.

As the pioneering Portland family reflects on their company’s success, their sights are set on the future.

“It’s fun to pause and celebrate our anniversary, but the challenge is to thrive and keep moving forward,” said David Chown.

KJ Fields is a Portland freelance writer.

The post Chowns celebrate 125th anniversary of hardware company appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

At sites around the city, metal giants transform the land and skyline. Wheel loaders, excavators, cranes and a host of other machines make meeting the challenges of today’s construction possible. And with the strength of the current construction market, the equipment industry is reaping rewards.

Many companies in the equipment industry started seeing gradual increases in the summer of 2003, but this year marked a significant upturn. Brad Anderson, regional manager at Sunbelt Rentals, said he’s optimistic about continued progress.

“It’s not like the high-tech boom,” said Anderson. “Construction projects are happening across the board from small tilt-ups and medium office remodels to large land developments, and they are planned all over the region rather than in one concentrated area.”

Rick Renfro, vice president at The Halton Co., said the market has been excellent. His company predicted a 25 percent up-tick in business this year, but it’s been much better than anticipated.

“This has been one of the most accelerated markets I’ve seen in 33 years,” said Renfro. “The dramatic increase in business compounded by the rise in steel and gasoline prices has made it a challenge to keep up with demand.”

The surprising growth left many equipment companies in this quandary, as businesses need to estimate the type and number of machines they’ll need well in advance of ordering them from the manufacturers. Greg Moen, owner of Moen Machinery, also said the manufacturer’s way of doing business has changed.

“Manufacturers are taking less risk in the amount of equipment they produce overall. Now they base their production on how many orders they receive. This makes supply tough because business picked up so much more than everyone expected,” said Moen.

Face-to-face personal contact remains the dominant marketing strategy in the industry, but equipment companies also advertise in trade publications and participate in trade associations and shows to heighten their visibility.

Tim Clevenger, director of corporate development at the Pap&#233 Group, said his company is also undertaking a long-term effort to communicate their brand message.

“We recently put every person in the company through an eight-hour intensive training session on customer satisfaction and we are providing on-going training,” said Clevenger. “We are also sponsoring events to increase name recognition.”

In addition, several companies are involved in local community service organizations as a way to give back to the community.

Although most companies are seeing a split in the amount of renting vs. buying of equipment, Todd Courtney, branch manager at Ingersoll-Rand Bobcat of Portland, said sales are on the rise. He points to the Job and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 as a major contributing factor to this dynamic. The act increases a business’s ability to accelerate depreciation on capital equipment purchases within the first year, and Courtney predicts continued sales as a result.

“With the economic growth and accelerated depreciation to offset gains, it’s a double incentive to buy. If a customer leases the equipment, the finance company gets that benefit instead,” said Courtney.

Another reason for increased sales is that contractors weren’t updating their equipment during the economic slowdown and now need to do so. Competitive interest rates also contribute to the high volume of sales.

Equipment rentals have been robust for many companies as well. Efrain Valdivia, district manager at Rental Service Corp., said his company’s rental business is going strong and he believes it will keep growing.

“Renting allows the customers to get exactly the right tool for the right job every time,” Valdivia said. “It’s also more appealing to customers once they become aware of the long-term costs associated with maintenance and ownership.”

Out-of-town contractors working in the area on specific jobs are creating another boost in rental numbers.

Recently, the equipment industry went through a period of consolidations and companies have differing opinions on the way these mergers and acquisitions affect the industry.

According to Pete Kosky, vice president at Star Rentals, the short-term impact was negative because some corporations didn’t understand the business and were often located in other parts of the world.

“They bought too much equipment and then we had a recession. Without understanding the industry, they lowered the prices too far. The biggest driving factor now is trying to get back to normal rental rates,” said Kosky.

Anderson agrees that the consolidations drove the market down at first, but he said that a merger allowed his company to go into the full line of rental equipment, greatly expanding its customer base.

Some professionals believe that the mergers were good because they increased the availability of equipment, parts and service resources to customers. Others see competition as a positive motivator and think that when the acquisitions eliminated the competition, some companies became complacent.

Valdivia noted that when original owners sold their companies, they signed non-competing clauses that are now expiring. Some of these owners are coming back into the market in niches neglected by the big companies and others are serving special geographic markets. He thinks it will be interesting to watch this dynamic play out during the next three years.

KJ Fields is a Portland freelance writer.

The post Heavy equipment companies experience improving market appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

At the southern edge of the Portland State University campus, a new building is welcoming students with desperately needed housing and some additional academic space. The epitome of a living and learning facility, this three-quarter-block complex also provides retail on the ground floor to serve students as well as the surrounding area.

The Broadway Housing project, situated at Southwest Broadway, College and Jackson streets, achieved a minor miracle in terms of schedule in order to open this fall. In addition, the facility attests to the success of an active community partnership of private, public and non-profit entities.

Aware of PSU’s tremendous demand for housing, Gerding/Edlen Development took the initiative to find land and pool it with PSU’s existing property. Gerding/Edlen Principal Tom Cody said their interest in assisting PSU was fueled by the fact that the school played a big role in the firm’s development and this type of work fits his company’s values.

“Over the years, we’ve made dedicated efforts to help Oregon’s educational facilities,” said Cody. “This project is a great example of how the private sector can help sustain and grow the educational institutions that are so important to the city and region.”

According to Cathy Dyck, interim vice president of finance and administration for PSU, providing housing is a crucial element in the university’s continued success.

“With our current budget crisis, we have to look at ways to bring revenue to the state,” said Dyck. “Tuition from international and non-resident students (as well as Oregon residents) is one way to generate funds, but these students need someplace to live.”

The housing that the university does have is typically rented at 98 percent year-round because students want to remain in the city over the summer. At 383 studio units, the facility won’t fulfill the current housing needs but Dyck said it’s a good start.

The partnership that made the facility possible included the Portland State University Foundation, a 501(c)(3) corporation, which owns the $47 million building. PSU directed the project’s program. The city of Portland issued revenue bonds to fund the facility and assisted with the permitting process.

After assembling the property, Gerding/Edlen devised the structure of the process and served as the project developer. The firm brought OTAK Architects and Hoffman Construction Co. on board immediately to collaborate in a type of modified design-build process, where the sole source responsibility rested with Gerding/Edlen rather than the contractor.

“Having everyone involved on the project from the beginning was critical in mitigating risk with such an expeditious timeframe. The facility’s success relied on this pooling of complimentary resources,” said Cody.

Given the extreme housing shortage, it was imperative that the project be available to students at the start of the 2004 school year. The nearly 220,000-square-foot project went from a clean sheet of paper in mid-December 2002 to turning dirt just four months later. The total construction time on the 10-story complex was only 17 months and the facility was ready for students on Sept. 18.

For a Type I Design Review, which includes a public process, the on-time completion of the building required an enormous effort. According to Dennis Haden, director of architecture at OTAK, the cooperation among all players was extraordinary.

“The city bureau really stepped up and assigned a project coordinator to guide the facility through permitting” said Haden. “Everyone understood the importance of getting it done right and on schedule, and the project reflects this intensive collaboration.”

Cade Laurence, project manager at Hoffman, said that meeting the timeframe demanded creative thinking during the process.

“From concept to delivery of construction in less than two years is incredibly fast,” said Laurence. “Without all the team members working really closely together on every issue from its inception, this project would not have been completed in time.”

One highly unusual feature of the construction was that the windows had to be installed before the brick and metal panels were placed on the exterior. This required the design team to do the detailing first so Hoffman’s crews could waterproof the building and finish the studios.

Students participated in the programming and as a result all the units have exposed concrete floors, which offers maintenance advantages as it won’t wear out. In the summer the concrete will help the units stay cooler and students can cover it with a rug during winter months. Sheetrock was applied to the ceilings to mitigate noise. Laurence noted that residential units usually have opposite features – exposed ceilings and finished floors – and this reversal gives the studios a unique atmosphere.

The studios are designed to meet students’ needs and include data connectivity, built-in microwaves, places to hang bikes and built-in areas for desks. Each floor has a resident assistant.

The initial program called for eight floors of housing with two floors of retail, but the university realized they could take advantage of the space to fulfill other needs and added classrooms and a 24-hour computer lab on the second floor.

Because there wasn’t much extraneous space with such a tight program, the designers tried to weave together the mixed-use aspects to keep the facility efficient.

Although balconies are the typical visual cue of an urban residential building, Haden said they were deemed not appropriate for the project. An exposed exterior stair, however, provides an outdoor place for students and serves as a fire exit.

Concerned about the mass of the building from a visual perspective, OTAK wanted to break down the building’s scale. The designers’ solution was to use the matte finish of the masonry and more reflective material of the metal to punctuate the exterior with negative space.

“This treatment creates the effect of a building within a building. It enlivens the exterior and keeps the eye moving across the facade,” said Haden.

As if achieving the fast-track schedule wasn’t challenge enough, the team made a concerted effort to maximize sustainable opportunities and built the complex to achieve a LEED Silver certification.

As an urban infill site adjacent to mass transit, the PSU Broadway Housing project immediately merits points for environmental responsibility. Atop the building, the team is installing the largest eco-roof in the city to mitigate stormwater runoff. The university plans to add a monitoring system to determine the amount of water that enters the storm drain, which will provide documentation on the effectiveness of eco-roofs.

Additional LEED objectives are met through low-flow plumbing fixtures such as dual-flush toilets, operable windows, and economizing controls in the mechanical and electrical systems. The project also used local, regional and recycled materials and achieved over 90 percent construction waste management.

KJ Fields is a Portland freelance writer.

The post Gerding/Edlen, PSU team to create needed space appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Portland is recognized nationwide for its sustainability, but the area’s green building leaders agree that this is no time to rest on our laurels. The following is a cursory look at industry professionals’ perspectives for a more sustainable Portland and their ideas of the ideal green building.&#160

Focusing on the quality of life here is a key to a sustainable Portland for Charles Dorn, associate and project architect at Thomas Hacker & Associates.

“We need to meet people’s needs rather than just produce commodities. A sustainable Portland would address how we measure our prosperity in terms of social equity and diversity,” said Dorn.

Dorn said Portland is a great example of a center for innovation but wants the city to use fewer raw materials and work toward a car-less society. He would like to see the integration of the natural and intellectual capital here and a shared knowledge base.

According to Bart Eberwein, director of business development at Hoffman Construction Co., Portland has a good foundation because the city was developed to preserve and maintain the natural beauty here.

“The Urban Growth Boundary helped us create a dense city and we’ve made it into a place that incorporates livability,” said Eberwein. “It’s incumbent upon us to honor the past by pushing the bar higher.”

Eberwein’s vision starts with cleaning up the Willamette so people can fish and swim in the river, and he’d like the city to expand its parks and continue to promote green buildings practices.

John Echlin, principal at SERA Architects, believes improvements in the city’s water and air quality are top priorities. He’s concerned about Portland’s high per capita cancer rates and wants to see the city reduce its ecological footprint. Echlin also wants to see a greater awareness of the true meaning of sustainability throughout the population.

“The economic side of sustainability must be addressed and we need to look at the poverty in Portland,” said Echlin. “We need to raise income and provide more affordable housing to help make life fair and equitable for all the people who live here.”

Andrew Beyer, vice president and general manager of Walsh Construction Oregon, agrees. He wants to expand the limited way people think of sustainability and create a balance here in terms of sustainable employment, educational funding, infrastructure and industrial base.

“We’ve become very short-sighted. Our decision-making process shouldn’t focus only on our own interests but also on multiple generations ahead. We need a sustainable economic and social base that serves the city into the future,” said Beyer.

In order to have a truly “green” city, Beyer said leadership will need to take action rather than just talk about change.&#160

For James Meyer, partner at OPSIS, a more sustainable Portland would transform green design into a standard, rather than an option. His vision of the city paints a holistic picture of activities from the conservation of resources for future generations and innovative land development to building social and economic diversity.

“I’d like us to get to a place where people would intuitively know the value of creating a restorative environment,” said Meyer. “It would become a part of our living and breathing that translates into our actions.”

Heinz Rudolph, principal at BOORA Architects, thinks a more sustainable future will involve a transition in the way our communities work.

“I’d like us to become a green society&#160that would serve as a model for the nation. This would include the services that are made available to people here as well as having green buildings,” Rudolph said.

Rudolph wants to see people’s individual living styles integrate sustainable practices and have the city generate energy savings and collect and reuse water on a broader scale.

Steve Brucker, senior project manager at Swinerton, believes that we need to leverage many of the qualities of sustainable construction for other uses and create an economy of scale.

“A lot of the sustainable features we have are isolated. We need to take these bits and pieces associated with individual elements and pool them together to create sustainable blocks not just sustainable buildings.”

He recognizes cost as an important part of the equation and is convinced that if we look at sustainable infrastructure from a holistic standpoint, we can mitigate much of the expense.

Sharing information is pivotal in Jim Charpentier’s vision. The vice president of business development at Skanska USA wants sustainability to become analogous to the way the industry treats safety.

“The way to get to a more sustainable Portland is to share all the information we have. If we find a greener way of doing things it should become common knowledge rather than a competitive advantage,” said Charpentier.

By making advancements and innovative ideas available to everyone, Charpentier believes that it will lower the price of creating green buildings and help us achieve more sustainable future.

The Ideal Green Building

Charpentier believes the ideal green building will result from the ideal process. The owner must be absolutely committed to creating something that meets the range of sustainable criteria and the full consultant team must work together during pre-construction to identify environmental impacts and meet the owner’s vision.

Meyer’s ideal green building would be restorative rather than reductive. He said it is extremely important that it be beautiful, adaptable, efficient, economically viable, responsive to place and provide something for the greater community.

According to Eberwein, the ideal green building will probably come out of the next generation. He said it will require a developer willing to take the risk, a contractor with internalized green values and a designer ready to expand on the concept of sustainability.

Beyer sees an adaptive reuse as the ideal. He said the building would be simple, energy efficient, incorporate natural and local materials and support the community by offering opportunities to learn about its sustainable aspects.

In Dorn’s ideal, the building would be interdependent on its surroundings and interact with the natural world. The building would play a role in the quality of people’s lives and be designed with an awareness of its larger impact on the community and industry.

Rudolph described the ideal like a tree working in perfect harmony. It should be a habitat where people are inspired, invigorated, comfortable and reassured by their environment. As buildings depend on budget restrictions, it should be holistically integrated to reduce costs.

Brucker said his ideal is not a single building but a full community. As a series of buildings, they should be wonderful spaces that don’t consume any energy and serve to educate others on the potential of sustainable design and construction.

Echlin likens the ideal to a Taos pueblo and the great cathedrals of Europe. He said these diverse examples collectively engage people and are designed to work with nature rather than against it. The ideal green building will incorporate these features and fit our current society.

KJ Fields is a Portland freelance writer.

The post Industry leaders share their ideas for a more sustainable city appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

As part of the Museum Place master plan covering three blocks in Portland’s West End, the block between Southwest 10th and 11th avenues and Jefferson Street is being transformed into an upscale condominium development. The project, known as the Jefferson Block, has drawn upon the talents of two design firms to set a new look for the neighborhood.
The Portland Development Commission organized an invited submittal process and Homer Williams and John Carroll joint ventured on their winning idea. Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects is the architect of record and Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership is collaborating with the team on the condominium project, which includes a 17-story tower.
“There were clearly stated higher expectations,” said Steve Poland, project manager at Ankrom Moisan. “The mayor wanted more modern architecture in the area and asked the team to reach beyond the industrial-style loft conversions prevalent in the Pearl.”
ZGF Partner-in-Charge of Design Greg Baldwin and Senior Designer Gene Sandoval designed the residential tower as a sleek, glassy, crystalline structure. Howard S. Wright Construction, who is the negotiating general contractor, decided to work with Benson Industries on the glass exterior, as Benson has developed a four-sided butt-glazing system that minimizes the visibility of the aluminum supports. The curtain wall offers 60 percent to 65 percent transparency to create an open, airy effect and maximizes the tremendous views for the tenants.
With an immense sheer volume, the designers broke down the building mass with four vertical elements. A wall with travertine cladding runs north to south making the mass seem narrower and, here, the planes of the building actually shift. On the east-west axis, a metal wall cuts through the building.
“These elements are an expression of the building’s structural components and accentuate the verticality of the tower,” said Sandoval. “Operable windows, sliding doors and shadow boxes will provide a mosaic of subtlety on the glass exterior – which is what this building is all about,” he explained.
ZGF designed the building’s exterior, lobby, outside courtyard and the reopening of Southwest Madison Street through the site as a pedestrian access way, which will align with the Portland Art Museum’s sculpture court.
The lobby will have a glass platform that will be illuminated at night as a counterpoint to the museum’s sculpture court.
According to Sandoval, the Madison Street walkway which opens the site will be known as “the garden,” as there will be a garden area near the lobby’s platform to create a level of intimacy for building residents, and there will be places for people to sit and relax.
The pedestrian passage allows the public to walk through the project to access the cultural district on Southwest Park and Broadway.
Retail space is provided in two different places, an 8,000-square-foot space on Southwest 10th Avenue between Jefferson and Madison streets and a 2,000-square-foot area on Southwest 11th Avenue and Jefferson Street.
The concept is to make Southwest 10th Avenue very active and animated, while Southwest 11th Avenue will present a calmer environment highlighted by landscaping. At night, the building will be lit from within by the residents, adding life to the neighborhood.
Ankrom Moisan is performing all interior planning and the technical design of the building. Jeff Hamilton, principal-in-charge, and Steve Poland are heading this effort. Because the firm has done four residential building designs for Carroll in the past seven years, the firm is highly attuned to Carroll’s residential requirements.
The project will hold 215 units. The smaller proportion of the units are designed as 18-foot-wide, very deep loft units. The larger number of units will have one- or two hard-walled bedrooms to meet the preferences of those who desire a more traditional layout. Units have stone counters, a choice of finishes, high-quality plumbing fixtures, ceramic tiles and hardwood engineered floors.
The city added an overlay to the project to receive a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification and Ankrom Moisan is using sustainable measures such as low-flow plumbing fixtures, Forest Stewardship Council certified wood, natural materials and recycled content wheatboard core for kitchen cabinets within the project.
The LEED requirements pushed the team to come up with very high-efficient mechanical systems. The design is a modified four-pipe system, which utilizes central chiller and boiler. Rather than have a compressor in each unit, there is only a fan coil system. In addition to cutting back on energy, this strategy makes it quieter in the individual units.
Right now, the team is working on a scheme to harvest rainwater for irrigation.
Inside the residential units, the window wall has 2 feet of opaque panels to help with acoustic buffering. This is followed by an impressive 15 feet of floor-to-ceiling glass with sliding window panels and a 3-foot opening section of glass.
The larger units are 60 feet wide, and the team will install 6-foot-wide corrugated aluminum shadow boxes behind the insulated glass walls in these units.
“These are finished and painted so they will blend with the aesthetics of the building, but they minimize heat gain and loss which is essential with so much glass on the exterior,” said Poland. “The panels will also provide a visual texture to the outside of the building when the sun shines.”
The building is L-shaped with the tower on the eastern part of the site. The west side has two low-rise wings with an intervening landscaped courtyard.
The north wing is composed of two-story townhouse units with their front porches facing the new pedestrian-friendly Madison Street. The garden area will accentuate a heritage Elm tree that will be retained on site as part of the development. The townhouses back onto a heavily landscaped courtyard. The south wing has several flats with an interior 14-foot volume that face the courtyard.
On top of the smaller retail space at the southwestern corner of the project sit two stories of loft units that share a common roof garden with a barbeque area.
Two levels of below-grade parking with 277 parking spaces lie beneath the 370,000 square feet of above-ground building area.
The project has been approved by the city’s Design Review committee and is nearly halfway through the construction documents phase.
The construction cost for the new Jefferson Block is approximately $51 million, and Poland is optimistic that development will break ground in May.

The post Design, building team ready to meet challenges of the West End’s Jefferson Block appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Standing in the second story open courtyard and looking out over the northern view of the city, it’s hard to believe that a bustling grocery store is operating immediately below. Here, the west edge of the courtyard is lined with the front doors of two-story townhomes and on the east side a residential tower rises into the Portland skyline. This is Museum Place South.
At ground level, a new Safeway covers three sides of the block bounded by Southwest 10th and 11th avenues and Jefferson and Columbia streets. Windows allow pedestrians to peer inside at the store’s flowers, shoppers, and on the northeast corner of Jefferson Street, the Chinese deli’s food preparation. This visual connection to the store’s internal activity brings color and movement to the formerly quiet street fronts.
According to Andy Brown, project manager at Howard S. Wright Construction Co., the city’s design review guidelines required window areas facing the sidewalks all around the block, but this didn’t always offer passers-by an interesting perspective.
“In places where the windows were in front of Safeway’s elevator and the deli freezer, window display boxes were created instead. These will be used to showcase some of the Portland Art Museum’s collection,” explained Brown.
Safeway opened Oct. 8 and the new store was immediately filled with local residents, business people buying lunch and curious citizens who have watched the development progress. The 47,000-square-foot store is approximately 30 percent larger than the former Safeway that was situated across the street.
Like most big box grocery retailers, Safeway normally builds their stores quickly on a flat slab. The block parameters were 3,000 feet shy of a normal Safeway store, and with the townhouses, courtyard and residential tower located on its roof, the new West End Safeway had to be designed differently.
The design took advantage of the fact that 11th Avenue is 10 feet higher than 10th Avenue and a mezzanine was created. All back-of-house functions, such as produce preparation, refrigeration, storage, meat preparation and bakery activities occur on the mezzanine level. Because the mezzanine covers only part of the space, windows allow Safeway customers to look up into the bakery room. A 30-foot hood over the Chinese deli’s cooking area rises through the building seven stories high to vent out above the residential tower.
“We basically poured the slab a year ago, so we had to make sure everything was in the right place a full year before opening,” said Brown. “This is very unusual for a Safeway to be organized this way, so it took a lot of coordination to make sure everything would work well for them.”
Given the limited space on the site, Brown’s construction team also had to give extreme attention to coordination. A parking garage below Safeway extends out beneath the sidewalk, creating virtually no lay down area. Brown mentioned that subcontractors had to have just-in-time delivery, and there was room for only a few trailers on site.
One of the greatest challenges was interfacing the garage ramps with the Safeway loading dock. Safeway needed a 50-foot-long loading dock for trucks that cantilevers over the store. A smaller step dock uses the same dock entrance. The underground parking structure includes two levels with 220 total spaces. The top floor contains 110 spots for Safeway customers and the bottom has another 110 parking spaces for residents.
The configuration has the garage entrance and exit weave beneath the loading dock.
“We actually had to build a model to make sure it worked,” said Brown. “It was essential to ensure the right clearances before we got into construction.”
Safeway is working with the neighbors to work out a 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. delivery schedule to minimize impacts on the community rather than the store’s typical 24-hour delivery cycle.
Because the project is seeking LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification, several sustainable elements were incorporated. The Safeway has an employee shower and bicycle parking so staff can bike to work, and atop the residential tower, an Energy Star reflective roof was applied to reduce the heat island effect.
The six-story residential tower has 128 apartments with 28 of these designated for residents earning less than 50 percent of the area median family income. Within the tower, the one-story apartments range from 560 to 1,330 square feet and have 10-foot-high ceilings. In addition, there are six two-story units and two penthouse units at the corners of the tower.
Typically, each floor has 23 units. Every floor was designed with different colors and various kitchen configurations are available to residents. Windows at each end of the corridor bring natural light into the hallways and exposed columns give the hallways and apartments an urban feel.
A common room with a big-screen television and kitchen on the second floor is available for residents’ use. Just beyond, tenants can access the landscaped courtyard with its big lawn, curved landscaping, outdoor seating and barbeque area. This courtyard also serves as the “front lawn” for the 12 townhouses. On the east side of the townhomes, balconies look out over the trolley line below.
The development includes 200,073 square feet of building area and project financing came from FannieMae, U.S. Bank, the city of Portland, Portland Development Commission, GreenPark Financial and the Bernard I. Obletz Grantor Trust.
As Howard S. Wright puts the finishing touches on the tower, the new Safeway store is animated with shoppers and the 140 total rental units are filling fast.

The post Long-awaited residential and commercial project complete appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

For years, there’s been a buzz about a coming retail development off Interstate 5 at the Durham exit, but there hasn’t been much activity at the site. Despite appearances, the project called Bridgeport Village has been moving along behind the scenes, and the creators of this new project promise that it will be unlike any other retail development Oregon has seen.
Opus Northwest and Center Oak Properties created a joint venture to put the development together. According to Bruce Wood, senior director of real estate development at Opus, Bridgeport Village will be a “lifestyle center,” a concept that goes far beyond an assembly of retail shops.
“Bridgeport Village will be driven by synergies between high quality retailers and dominated by an entertainment theme with a state-of-the-art cinema,” said Wood. “This is also a mixed-use project, with restaurants and 50,000 square feet of allotted office space.”
Not an indoor mall, Bridgeport Village will situate the retail, restaurants and cinema in a meticulously planned outdoor environment, designed to invite people to stay beyond the shopping experience. Its developers’ intent is to create something that becomes an enhancement for the surrounding neighborhoods and draws people to the area for a variety of reasons.
But bringing many more people to an intersection already in need of congestion relief demanded solutions before the project could move forward. During the project’s first 18 months of development, Opus and Center Oak Properties worked with county, city and state officials to improve traffic patterns to and around the site.
The result is an $8.5 million private investment from Bridgeport Village developers that will minimize the impact of visitors to the center and alleviate traffic patterns for citizens who already use the Durham exit. This includes off-site road improvements and the addition of more than one mile of cycling and pedestrian sidewalks outside of the project.
The site is part of former Durham quarry, which was filled back in during the 1980s and, more recently, several parcels were sold to PacTrust. Washington County issued a Request for Proposals to developers to discover the highest and best use for the 30-acre site. Opus and Center Oak joint ventured to create their plan and were awarded the contract.
A project of this size and complexity, however, raised numerous questions and concerns and required countless discussions between stakeholders and the public. Although the county owns the land, the space has two-thirds of its surface area in Tualatin and one-third in Tigard. Given the impacts on the neighboring communities, the project has been a partnership between the county, developers and the cities of Tualatin, Tigard, Durham and Lake Oswego. The traffic issues included participation from other parties as well, such as the county’s road department and the Oregon Department of Transportation.
The developers are purchasing the site from the county and, as part of the purchase, there will be a revenue share with the county. According to Wood, this financial twist guarantees that the county will receive the highest dollar value for its land.
Now that the solutions to the traffic problems have been met and all land-use appeals resolved, Bridgeport Village is ready for construction. Roger Fricke and Mike Nichols from Opus Northwest Construction are leading the charge of site build out.
Bridgeport Village will be five main buildings on a grid located around a center gathering place with a hard landscape, with benches, water elements, a possible fireplace, and awnings and screenings for weather protection. Retail shops and restaurants will be at the ground level and offices will be on the second floor of some retail buildings. Some restaurants will have patio dining on the second floor overlooking the plaza.
The overall design promotes an urban feeling. Each building facade will be different and retail tenants can design their own storefronts.
“We want the center to look like it grew organically,” said Woods. “We looked at the architecture of downtown Portland and tried to replicate parts of it. Some buildings will be as tall as 40 feet to give it a sense of scale and place.”
Fred Bruning, president of Center Oak Properties, has worked on lifestyle centers elsewhere.
“It’s a style of shopping center designed to put people at ease the moment they enter the project, this will be an upscale, friendly environment where you will want to go just to hang out,” said Bruning.
Bruning described Bridgeport Village’s appearance like a charming European village and kiosks will be brought in from Europe that look like old European rail cars. Two-thirds of the parking will be in a structure, but some parking along the streets will be available as well.
The parking area will be leveraged by serving office tenants in the day and the theater patrons at night.
The theater marks the first opportunity that Regal Cinemas has had to design and build here. In its other metro-area locations, the company has acquired theaters or purchased something already designed. This new theater will have 20 screens and each cinema will have full stadium seating. A Presentation cinema will have a 70 mm screen and provide state-of-the-art movie technology. Patrons will even be able to get a glass of wine before going into the show.
One goal is to incorporate sustainable aspects into the project where feasible, and Green Building Services is assisting the team with the ideas for the overall project and green building measures individual retailers may choose to utilize.
With a very high-end mix of tenants such as Crate& Barrel, Wild Oats Market, Talbot’s, Hanna Anderssen, Coldwater Creek and PF Chang’s China Bistro, Wood said this will be a wonderful amenity for other area businesses.
Bruning said the project will bring in 1,500 contractor jobs and 1,500 permanent jobs to the area.
The Phase I construction is more than $100 million, plus $20 million that Regal Cinemas will put into its theater. PF Chang’s and other restaurants will be on ground leases, investing additional money as they create their own spaces. Wood said the first retail shops are slated to open in November 2004.
Phase II for the project consists of additional office and restaurant pads as future build out takes place.
“This was one of the most challenging sites in the metro area, but it’s now becoming one of the most upscale,” said Wood. “We are incredibly lucky to have such an amazing team of people working together to make this project a reality.”

The post Bridgeport Village to offer more than a regular shopping experience appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

With the multiple items contractors must attend to, there is little time for following all of the statutory and regulatory changes in construction. Fortunately, there are lawyers who specialize in construction law and make it their job to know exactly what’s changed and what the future holds.
Dick Alexander, an attorney and partner at Stoel Rives LLP, said there is a substantial amount of public work coming up on the federal, state and local levels. With $2.5 billion allotted for bridges and highway work, Alexander said contractors will need to thoroughly understand the public processes – in particular, the Construction Manager/General Contractor (CMGC) approach.
“The CMGC process allows contractors to participate in the design process which leads to fewer misunderstandings,” said Alexander, “but until recently, a very high number of projects and most of the money from CMGC work went to only a few firms.”
The Legislature threatened to pare back the CMGC process if it wasn’t spread around more, so there is good news for firms that want to become more involved in this approach but there also will be a learning curve.
Charles Schrader, an attorney and partner at Jordan Schrader, also pointed to the 2003 Oregon Transportation Investment Act’s significant impacts on public sector construction, especially at the state level. Advertised as generating 4,750 family-wage jobs in road construction and maintenance sustained annually over the next 10 years, this massive infusion of capital at the state level will significantly alter the way the Oregon Department of Transportation, and the contractors who deal with it, operate.
“ODOT itself is moving from its traditional role as a ‘full service’ agency to one that will devote considerable of its resources to management of outside consultants,” said Schrader. “The impact on its personnel (a number of key managers have left for the private sector) and ways of doing business will have long-range effects on Oregon’s public sector contracting at all levels for many years.”
According to Michael Scott, an attorney and partner of Scott Hookland, most of the 2003 legislative changes for contractors revolved around claims avoidance and licensing. Senate Bill 909 requires residential owners to follow a “right to cure” procedure. This essentially allows contractors to inspect the alleged defect and fix it, rather than discover a problem exists during litigation.
“Several recent changes impact existing bills regarding licensure,” said Scott. “House Bill 3218 addresses who should be licensed, and a new license class for developers is included in Senate Bill 906 that I think developers should check into.”
John (Tre) Kennedy, associate attorney at Preston Gates Ellis, said that insurance costs for the AEC industry are at an all-time high.
“Often, the expert nature of AEC claims requires lots of discovery, and there have been many with frivolous claims filed in recent years which pushes up costs for everyone,” Kennedy explained.
New measures are trying to stem the tide of litigation and make it harder to file claims without conducting prior investigation.
Under House Bill 2233, parties filing claims with the CCB now have to show that they first notified the actual contractor 30 days prior to filing the claim.
“There are a mushrooming number of claims, disputes and litigation related to water, dry rot and mold,” said Alexander. “Water-related claims are the new asbestos for contractors.”
Not only do the skyrocketing claims create additional hard costs for the contractor in legal fees, but there is also a dramatically detrimental affect on insurance costs for owners, designers and contractors. Alexander said it’s becoming very difficult for contractors to get liability insurance for condominium and multi-family projects, and insurance premiums are rising again.
“As contracts are drawn up, everyone must be much more rigorous about contractual obligations and make sure that the risks are properly and fairly allocated among the various parties,” said Alexander.
Scott said that SB 943 allows for the creation of traditional insurance alternatives, and the bill tasks the CCB with identifying this “alternative form of security.”
Schrader noted that the events of September 11th impacted insurance companies and, perhaps more importantly, their reinsurers, resulting in a shrinkage of insurance markets.
“When this is combined with the lingering effects of water intrusion and mold litigation, some contractors have literally been unable to secure insurance at any price,” said Schrader.
He also discussed changes on the regulatory front. Schrader pointed out that the CCB is becoming more aggressive in the enforcement of its rules against contractors who don’t pay their subcontractors, and has even initiated what are essentially debarment actions as a result of payment disputes.
“Of all the regulatory activities out there, this close oversight by the CCB of how contractors deal with their subcontractors is likely to have the biggest impact on the business of construction in the future,” said Schrader.
The consequences of failing to take agency involvement seriously in construction contractual relations in both the public and private sector can lead to non-compliant contractors paying significant fines, losing their licenses, or facing debarment.
All of these professionals advocated that contractors understand the changes and upcoming challenges and encouraged them to learn how current legislative and regulatory issues will impact their business now and in the future.

The post Construction lawyers keep contractors, designers up-to-date on ever-changing construction laws appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Although Hillsboro is sometimes referred to as a suburb of Portland, it’s actually its own city with a history stretching back over a century and a half. Hillsboro has been the county seat of Washington County since 1860, and while the County Courthouse, Post Office and Tuality Hospital are all near Main Street, the downtown core has not been a viable area for some time.
That’s why, when the city of Hillsboro outgrew its space in the Public Services Building, it decided to create a new City Hall in the center of the city. The site required some demolition on three-quarters of a 400-by-400-foot block, but city officials are committed to maintaining downtown as the traditional seat of government and heart of the city.
As new information arose, the City Hall project grew. According to Marion Hemphill, director of capital planning and development, Metro’s 2040 plan designated the regional center of downtown Hillsboro as a node for development.
“We decided to redo our comprehensive master plan.” explained Hemphill. “That’s when we moved away from thinking of City Hall as a stand-alone to a mixed-use development.”
Around the same time, citizens helped create a Hillsboro Vision 2020, which showed that a central community gathering place was a priority. Citizens wanted a venue for concerts, fiestas, winter celebrations and other events.
Housing became part of the mixed-use project in order to keep downtown open after 5 p.m.
“We want to make it a real downtown with 18-hour activity,” said Hemphill. “There’s not enough synergy for business to stay open now but with residents in the core, little by little, businesses will stay open later and new businesses will come here,” Hemphill said.
The City Council was in favor of the mixed-use concept, but wanted private development entities to take on the retail and housing components. They issued a design competition and the team of Specht Development, GSL Properties, LRS Architects and Skanska USA were selected to partner with the city of Hillsboro on this groundbreaking project.
“Winning the design competition created excitement at the very beginning of the project,” said Trish Nixon, associate and project manager at LRS Architects. “There was high enthusiasm from every member of the team.”
The City Hall and Housing Project design contains a five-story City Hall building and a two-story plaza building oriented around two public plazas and a residential complex.
The City Hall building sits on a platform 9 feet above grade with parking at the ground level. The first floor of the City Hall is a two-story volume that contains a 250-seat auditorium. This auditorium is technologically connected to 3,500 square feet of conference rooms, allowing audio and video broadcasts from the auditorium to the smaller conference area. The conference area also can be divided into three individual spaces with partitions.
Washington County and the city plan to use the conference space for meetings, but there is no fixed seating so the space can serve public and private events as well. A catering kitchen on the first floor allows local restaurants to be contracted for events.
Hemphill was pleased that the meeting space will offer the potential to bring 300 to 400 people to local area restaurants.
“If an event is not catered, these people will need lunch and this large influx will promote the downtown restaurants,” Hemphill said. “The space creates revenue for both the city and private and commercial enterprise. Citizens expressed a desire for meeting space, too, and the community will be able to use the space at a very low cost or for free,” said Hemphill.
The City Hall building has space for retail on the second floor for a potential coffee shop or small restaurant.
The Plaza building is a two-story building connected to the City Hall building. This building’s prime retail space at the corner of First Avenue and Main Street and is targeted toward providing services to the public that will help energize the activities taking place in the adjacent plaza. City services will occupy the second floor of this building.
The central plaza, or North Plaza, is 24,354 square feet but may be expanded to 49,334 square feet for larger events of 5,000 or more people by incorporating the Main Street right-of-way between First and Second Avenues. This plaza includes a built-in amphitheater with stairs to the platform and seating for approximately 700 people. The amphitheater also provides the podium on which the City Hall building sits. A water feature, landscaping, benches and outdoor seating for retail establishments are planned in the design to enhance the plaza atmosphere when events are not taking place.
“The North Plaza is similar in scale to Pioneer Square,” explained Nixon. “It will also be used for a variety of community events, including a fairly large Hillsboro Farmer’s Market.”
The South Plaza totals 11,368 square feet and connects the City Hall and Plaza Building to the residential component.
At the corner of the project, GSL will develop, construct and operate residential buildings ranging from two to four stories. The city wanted a mix of market rate and affordable housing, so the one- and two-bedroom residential units will contain 27 market-rate apartments and 91 affordable units directed to those who earn not more 60 percent of median income. The ground floors of the residential buildings will offer 3,802 square feet of retail space and adequate parking will be provided.
“The team all focused on helping the city reach their goal of bringing citizens downtown,” said Nixon.
The city’s project criteria also required that the City Hall be submitted for at least a LEED Silver rating and Nixon said it was great to have a client interested in sustainability from the project’s inception.
Michael Jones, associate and LEED Accredited Professional at LRS Architects, said that the city further expressed a desire to achieve LEED Gold.
“If we achieve that, it will be the first City Hall to receive a Gold status,” Jones said. “We are also going through the Earth Advantage program at its Gold level.”
The site is in an urban, dense area which is near multiple modes of transportation such as the light rail and major bus lines. The city is adding showers and changing room for cyclists and alternative fueling stations for compressed natural gas vehicles. The city of Hillsboro made the decision to purchase compressed natural gas cars for city staff travel needs, which greatly reduced the need for parking.
The site is also a brown field redevelopment. Eight existing buildings on site were demolished, and Skanska worked hard to achieve a 90 percent recycling rate for the materials to date. According to Nixon, Skanska’s previous experience with LEED construction brought valuable ideas to the project.
The team gave preference to vendors that have recycling procedures, and inside the building, 5 percent of all materials have recycled content.
“We are also hoping to achieve the LEED point for 20 percent local and regional materials with 50 percent of these materials harvested locally,” said Jones.
Through the use of native plants and drip irrigation system the team reduced potable water by 50 percent, and water occupancy sensors in the building will save 30 percent more water than a normal building of the same size.
High efficiency HVAC systems, insulation, high-performance glazing and heat-recovery units in the bathrooms contribute to the building’s efficient design. Jones said that if the computer model is correct, the new City Hall will be 40 percent more efficient than code requires. The team is conducting both full commissioning and a third-party peer review of the engineering system.
The city is committed to buying furniture that is made of rapidly renewable materials and purchasing green power. The building also will include an educational component of its sustainable features for occupants and the public.
Project completion for the City Hall and housing is slated for spring of 2005.
By creating plazas, retail and housing around City Hall, Hemphill said they hope to spark private redevelopment in downtown and ultimately set the stage for an active 18-hour city center.

The post Hillsboro’s City Hall and housing project to bring new life to downtown appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.