Don’t judge a building by its cover.

When renovation work for wraps up at the former Meier & Frank warehouse in the Pearl District, the exterior will look much like it did when the building opened in 1928.

The interior, though, will be filled with energy-saving, high-tech green features that could help the building qualify for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design platinum certification, said Keith Skille, associate principal and project manager with .

“It’s an old warehouse, and part of what we wanted to do is maintain the feel of the building on the outside, but we also designed it to be LEED platinum,” Skille said. “When we started designing it, it was one of the largest historic renovations in the country to go for LEED platinum.”

The warehouse, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was formerly part of the Meier & Frank furniture store later purchased by Macy’s.

bought the building in 2007 after it had sat empty for about a decade, and intended to upgrade it into a mixed-use office and retail space.

Gerding Edlen hired GBD to design the retrofit, but work was put on hold when the recession hit. Then Gerding Edlen secured Vestas as a tenant in August 2010.

GBD finished the plans for the site and in November started retrofitting the building with structural upgrades as part of the $24.4 million construction contract.

Gerding Edlen is still looking for a contractor for the interior work, added Paul Kisling, the company’s senior project manager.

Vestas has signed a 15-year lease for the property with an option to buy after five years, said Andrew Longeteig, a spokesman for the Danish wind turbine company, which has its American headquarters in Portland.

Right now, Vestas’ Portland operations are spread across four buildings. The company hopes to consolidate those operations into the 183,000-square-foot warehouse once work is finished, hopefully in spring 2012, he said.

“It will be in an exciting neighborhood and it will be great to have all our employees under one roof,” Longeteig said. “The fact that we’re reusing a building goes along with the theme of our company, which is sustainability and renewables.”

So far, Skanska workers have started working on the outside shell of the building and have begun adding new sheer walls to meet seismic standards, said Joe Schneider, project executive.

The company also will build a 23,000-square-foot wood-frame penthouse atop the four-story building. Work on that part of the structure should begin in late spring or summer, he said.

One of the more interesting features inside the building will be the energy-efficient, under-floor heating-and-cooling system. Workers will be able to open or shut vents at their desks and control temperature individually, Skille said.

“It’s like a salad spinner, with a grill on the floor that you can adjust at each work station,” he said. “By running it through the floor, you don’t have to add a bunch of ceiling ducts, you don’t have to spend a lot of money on sheet metal, and it’s easier to control.”

Skanska workers will install the system and raise the floor by 18 inches. The site will have one grating every 80 to 90 square feet or so, with higher density in conference rooms.

Another benefit of the system is that it preserves the warehouse’s original look, Skille said.

“It’s an old warehouse, and part of that is we wanted to maintain the feel of the building, so we didn’t want to bugger that up with a bunch of ducts,” Skille said. “Also, the windows in the building were fairly high up, and raising the floor makes them more accessible.”

Electrical and other systems will run through the floor, leaving the interior rooms with a fairly open and airy feel.

Gerding Edlen also is installing a large atrium with skylights at the center of the building at Vestas’ request, Kisling said.

“It adds a certain openness that their corporate culture wanted,” Kisling said.

Other environmentally friendly aspects will include LED lighting and natural light sources, a 160,000-gallon cistern that will collect rainwater for use in toilets and for landscaping, and photovoltaic cells on the roof that can provide 10 percent to 15 percent of the building’s energy needs, Skille said.

PV system details are not worked out yet, and Skille said he’s not sure if the group will buy it or arrange for a company to install it and sell the power to the building tenant.

“Hopefully we can get those locally, though, either way,” he said.

To encourage alternative transportation, GBD also designed a bicycle room that can accommodate between 75 and 80 bikes. The area also has showers and changing rooms for employees, he said.

“And we’re widening the sidewalks around the building, putting in trees, doing curb extensions and generally greening it up to make it more pedestrian friendly,” Skille said.

The renovated building will be able to accommodate up to 600 employees. Vestas has 400 employees in Portland now, and plans to hire another 100, at least, in the next five years, Longeteig said.

“It allows us room for growth, whereas our facilities now do not,” he said.

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A handful of construction companies were among the safety award winners at the Oregon Governor’s Occupational Safety and Health Conference this week.

The awards, which were given at a lunch ceremony today, honor annual achievements in the areas of workplace safety and health.

There were 17 total winners, including these in construction-related fields:

• in Clackamas for the association category
• of North Bend, in Tigard, and in Eugene for the employer category
• Anthony Barsotti of for the safety and health professional category
• Gary McQuown of and the tooling department of for the safety and health advocate category

The full list will be online at .

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The working group has finished work on a strategic document for green cluster development that it hopes will be adopted by the re-forming economic development agency.

The 66-page document (PDF), called the Greenprint, details methods to encourage business development in clean energy, clean technology, workforce development and sustainable forestry.

Recommended actions detailed in the Greenprint

1. Expand green project finance
2. Accelerate energy efficiency and clean energy
3. Commercialize green technologies
4. Cultivate the clean tech cluster
5. Cultivate a sustainable forestry and agriculture cluster
6. Develop a pipeline of green talent
7. Build support and communicate results

Ultimately, a decision about the Greenprint will go through the GGP’s new CEO. The agency is in the process of merging with the Portland-Vancouver Regional Partners Council; the first joint board meeting is scheduled for April 7.

The search for a CEO just started, and one probably won’t be selected for the next few months. But several members of the group were involved in the creation of the Greenprint and are interested in working with it, said Gillian Floren, interim CEO of GGP.

“The decision on whether to adopt it will really be in the purview of that new position,” Floren said. “But what’s been mapped out is likely to carry some weight.”

The agency will combine public and private efforts to address regional issues with jobs and business growth in Southwest Washington and Northwest Oregon.

The Greenprint dovetails into that, and streamlines several individual efforts into a more focused and efficient joint strategy for green sector development, said Erin Flynn, chairwoman of the Portland-Vancouver Regional Partners Council and urban development director for the Portland Development Commission.

“Because it’s regional in nature, we thought it best fit in the new regional organization,” Flynn said.

The green sector is a small part – about 1 percent – of the region’s overall economy, but it’s also growing fastest, she added.

According to the most recent available data, Oregon’s green sector added jobs seven times faster than all others – although that was in 2007, before the recession hit, Flynn said.

“We know Oregon has a larger green sector than any other state, and we have a larger share of our overall workforce in clean-tech jobs than any other state,” Flynn said. “I think this is the wave of the future and where we’ll be going more and more with the economy.”

The Greenprint focuses on seven actions to promote the region’s strengths in green and clean technology and energy sectors, said Liz Hopkins, program and operations manager with the Portland Sustainability Institute, which helped draft the document.

“We have a pretty good track record for clean energy and sustainability, but other regions across the country are also trying to develop those sectors and take hold of new businesses,” she said. “We’ve done a good job of getting solar manufacturing companies to come here, but if we don’t take actions now we might lose our competitive advantage in the future.”

If adopted, the plan would direct the new agency to look for ways to help finance green projects and smart growth through regional investment strategies and incentives. Part of that would be to work with the Oregon Investment Council to invest some state treasury money in local clean technology efforts, Hopkins said.

“We also need to focus on our workforce development, making sure people are trained for new green-sector jobs as they come along,” Hopkins said.

Portland State University and the Oregon Institute of Technology would likely both play a role in that effort, and both are involved with the plan, she added.

Other details of the Greenprint include creation of a central online resource point for businesses looking to commercialize green products and creation of a consortium of companies that could work together on larger environmental projects.

The group would also try to find ways to bring together members of each clean-tech cluster – with a focus on wind energy, solar energy, green development, transportation and smart grids.

“This was put together by a very broad group, including the Portland Development Commission, Metro, Nike, the Oregon Business Council and several others,” Hopkins said. “I think we talked to more than 150 organizations and businesses based in clean-energy space.”

For the plan to move forward, GCC, if it were to adopt the Greenprint, would need to recruit some of the state’s larger technology companies, Flynn added.

Some preliminary talks have already begun with SolarWorld, Vestas, Iberdrola and Intel, she said.

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Oregon construction companies had no workplace fatalities in 2010, according to .

It’s the first time in several years that the industry has had no on-the-job deaths over the course of a year, said Melanie Mesaros, a spokeswoman for Oregon OSHA, a division of the agency.

“This hasn’t happened in the last several years, although I’m not sure exactly when we last had no construction deaths,” Mesaros said. “We know there were fewer people working in that industry because of the economy, but we also want to give credit to employers and employees.”

There were six deaths in the construction sector in 2009, five in 2008, 12 in 2007 and five in 2006.

Across all work sectors covered by Oregon OSHA there were 17 deaths, which is an all-time low for the state and probably also tied to the lack of work, Mesaros said.

Of the deaths, four were in agriculture, forestry or fishing; three were in manufacturing; one was in retail trade, four were in transportation and warehousing; one was in information; one was in administration, support, waste management or remediation; and three were in state or local government.

There were 31 fatalities across all sectors in 2009, 45 in 2008, 35 in 2007 and 37 in 2006.

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TriMet plans to launch an all-volunteer Safety Education Advisory Committee this month with a goal of providing long-term advice for the agency’s safety projects and programs.

The decision to create the group was made after an independent safety review study in response to the fatal bus crash in April 2010 that killed two pedestrians, said Mary Fetsch, a spokeswoman for the agency.

The group’s first meeting will be held on March 15 from 3 to 4:30 p.m. at TriMet‘s office at 4012 S.E. 17^th Ave. It is open to the public, with more details available online at .

The panel will include representatives from the Oregon Department of Transportation, AAA Oregon-Idaho, Portland Bureau of Transportation, Clackamas County, Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue, the Hillsboro School District and some local businesses.

The agency also has hired a new Safety and Security Executive, Harry Saporta, in an elevated position that will report directly to Neil McFarlane, TriMet’s general manager.

Placing a high-ranking safety official in the agency was another recommendation from the safety review study, Fetsch said.

“We’ve done a comprehensive top-to-bottom review with an outside expert, and he had more than 100 recommendations,” Fetsch added.

Some other parts of the plan that the agency is initiating include a comprehensive review and changes to bus lines and stops and the start of an annual recertification program for bus drivers, which will cost $1.2 million and begin in mid-April, she said.

“Lots of changes have gone on, but we’re still interested in gathering more information on close calls and how you can use data to prevent further accidents,” Fetsch said.

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David Evans founded David Evans and Associates Inc. and its parent company, David Evans Enterprises Inc., in 1976. Evans plans to retire from his company’s board and become chairman emeritus on Monday, when Ken Wightman will take over as board chairman.

DEEI is an engineering, planning, architecture and consulting company that covers four core areas: transportation, energy, land development and water resources. It has 17 offices in seven states and employs more than 650 people.

91视频: How does this transition change your role with the company?

David Evans: Very little. As chairman I was in charge of the board of directors meetings, but the rest of my role with the company was part of a seven-year transition in leadership that was mostly complete.

91视频: How has the industry changed since you founded the company in the 1970s?

Evans: It’s not like a minor change. It’s monumental. When we started it was with a pencil, paper and a drawing board. We don’t have any of that anymore. We don’t have draftsmen now; we have computers.

The changes keep coming. I don’t know why we need an iPad. I don’t know why that matters, but none of that makes sense to us 70-year-olds.

It’s also a very cyclical industry. It depends on money. Right now, there’s very little money out there. It’s a hard time for our industry.

Consulting engineers are a little different – we only get paid if there’s something to work on. If we run out of problems, we have to lay off people. That’s the most miserable part of this whole business.

We were 1,000 people (at our peak) and now we’re 600. That’s not much fun.

91视频: What are you most proud of from your time at the company?

Evans: I’m most proud of the incredible people we’ve been able to attract to this firm. These are people that are so much better in their skills than I ever was.

91视频: What would you say to young people considering this field?

Evans: It’s a lot stabler than others; civil engineers are always going to be needed. Our infrastructure is falling apart and somebody will always be needed to maintain it.

Consulting engineers are the ones that take on the problems that nobody else will. If I were talking to somebody in college I’d say focus on the environmental side – that’s become more and more important in everything we do.

91视频: Do you have any advice for people thinking about starting a business like yours?

Evans: Be ready to work hard. Success for a startup is hard work.

In 1976 I used to pick up (my business partner) at 5 a.m. and we’d work until 8 p.m. every day – not just Monday through Friday. It was hard work, but we loved it.

91视频: If you had your career to do over again, would you change anything?

Evans: I don’t think I could do much better. We made all the decisions we made thinking they were the right ones, and I think we did as well as we could.

91视频: Where do you see the business going in five or 10 years?

Evans: The transportation business is still our stock and trade. There’s money in it.

The bridge over I-5, the Columbia River Crossing – that will go on for at least five years. That’s a big project for us.

I think our firm will continue to slightly grow in that time – not huge growth, but some growth.

91视频: Anything else you’d like to say?

Evans: I don’t feel like this is a big event. It’s a much bigger move for Ken (Wightman) than it is for me.

Ken is much better at a lot of things that I’m not good at. He’s much more of a people person. I’m much more of a numbers person.

Ken Wightman, 66, has worked at David Evans and Associates Inc. and its parent company, David Evans Enterprises Inc., for almost 27 years. He will replace David Evans as chairman of DEEI on Monday, when Evans will retire from his company’s board and become chairman emeritus.

DEEI is an engineering, planning, architecture and consulting company that covers four core areas: transportation, energy, land development and water resources. It has 17 offices in seven states and employs more than 650 people.

91视频: Coming into this position, what do you think are the company’s biggest strengths?

Ken Wightman: Our ability to be nimble and adaptable in a very changing environment. I think that’s been something we’ve been fortunate in, even since the telecommunications bust in 2000. We used to be telecom focused, but after the bust we moved more into transportation and we’ve been doing very well in that area.

A sign of a thriving company is the ability to adapt to changes that they see in the environment.

91视频: Where do you see room for improvement?

Wightman: From a business perspective, I think we can expand on how we create opportunities for our clients. As a consulting company we need to find how we can add value to the client in everything we do. We need to be a trusted adviser.

I think it’s important to look at a project not just for the construction or engineering costs, but to look at a project in terms of life costs – how long will the structure last – so that the customer can get optimal value.

91视频: What have you learned from Evans while working with him?

Wightman: Dave’s whole philosophy is aimed at finding outstanding people and giving them support for what they do best.

Dave is an extremely honest, forthright, upright individual. He cares about the clients, but I think even more so about the people who work for him.

I think I learned a lot from him in terms of his core ideology.

The employees are invested in the company and are all partial owners. We also provide mentoring and support. These are things that we want to be focused on and continue to care about. And we also care about giving back to our community through a variety of projects.

91视频: Where do you see the company growing in coming years?

Wightman: I believe transportation is where we see our strengths right now.

I think water and energy are where we see our future. The energy transmission grid needs to be expanded and improved as we add biomass, solar and wind energy so we don’t have blackouts or brownouts.

We’ve also been working on some pilot solar farms with the Oregon Department of Transportation that I think are important for us.

91视频: How do you see the industry changing in coming years?

Wightman: I think we’re going to have a pendulum shift and an easing of some regulations. I think that will be good because it will help reduce costs on projects and put people back to work.

I think we’re going to be doing more for productivity with fewer employees in the long run, as well. Clients are demanding more, and we want to make sure we’re doing things as efficiently as we can.

91视频: Any other comments?

Wightman: Dave has been probably one of the most preeminent engineering consultants in Portland over the last 35 years. It’s been such a pleasure to have worked with him and to be part of the growth of the company.

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Northeastern snow storms have caused ripples in construction employment numbers nationwide, including in Oregon.

Unemployment in February in the sector was 21.8 percent, which marked a slight decline from the 22.5 percent reported for January, according to and .

Numbers for the two months came out relatively recently, due to some reconfiguring of statistics gathered by the U.S. Labor Department, said Ken Simonson, chief economist for AGC.

In January, the sector hit a 14-year employment low, dropping to 5.455 million workers across the country. In February, the sector added 33,000 jobs to that overall, Simonson said.

“The numbers are kind of bouncing along the bottom,” Simonson said. “Some of that could be due to weather – because projects that might have been scheduled in January or February were put off for a little while because of cold or snow.”

The Labor Department statistics are gathered by looking at one pay period each month, typically around the week of the 12^th, he added.

Snow delays don’t seem to have hurt employment just in the region in which they happened, though. During weeks with big snowstorms in the Northeast, ripple effects appear to have carried over to Oregon, said John Killin, executive director of ABC‘s Pacific Northwest Chapter.

“In January I would see a bunch of members one week, and they’d be on the uptick saying things were good,” Killin said. “Then I’d see them the following week and they’d say things were bad – it was on this two-week ebb and flow that was kind of a mystery until we looked at Northeastern weather.”

What probably happened during the bad weeks is that snowfall shut down corporate offices and banks, which tend to make financial decisions and approve materials orders for construction companies on projects around the country, Killin said.

“So if an office shuts down on the East Coast, if they can’t get into work to approve things, then it ends up delaying things here,” Killin said.

Still, both Killin and Simonson said they think the numbers will finally start to slowly increase from the January low – especially as the weather around the country improves.

“It’s a little early to get excited,” Simonson said. “I think it’s fairly safe to say, though, that construction is close to bottoming out. I think we’ll start to see some positive numbers start to crop up soon.”

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A Congressional amendment about project labor agreements on federal contracts that was strongly supported by Associated Builders and Contractors Inc. failed to get attached to a bill in committee hearings this week, said John Killin, executive director of ABC‘s Pacific Northwest Chapter.

The amendment, part of the Government Neutrality in Contracting Act (), failed due to the lack of a majority vote in the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, Killin said.

It would have addressed an issue the group sees with President Obama’s Executive Order 13502, which encourages agencies to use the labor agreements on federal contracts worth more than $25 million.

ABC members have argued that the agreements, which they says favor unions, increase the costs of construction projects, Killin said.

“It forces anybody who wants to work on a given project to sign an agreement that doesn’t necessarily make sense for non-union contractors,” Killin said.

Some PLAs, for instance, require contractors to pay union hall dues, restrict use of certain employees and can create work rules that don’t always work for non-union companies, he said.

But while the amendment, which was sponsored by Rep. John Sullivan, R-Okla., failed to get a majority vote in the committee, the effort to find a new place to attach it will likely continue, Killin said.

“It’s an ongoing effort, I wouldn’t say it’s dead in the water,” Killin said. “ABC national is redoubling (its) efforts to make sure that we reconnect with anybody that was on the fence about it.”

The Oregon delegation voted straight along party lines, with Republicans for it and Democrats opposed, Killin added.

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Electric cars aren’t commonly seen on the state’s heavily trafficked freeways.

Nor are they commonly seen on busy downtown streets in environmentally conscious Portland.

Not yet, anyway.

But as gas prices rise and plug-in electric and electric hybrid cars become more affordable, many people believe they will become more commonplace.

And while most stakeholders agree that such vehicles are better for the environment and reduce demand for imported oil, that doesn’t mean that their drivers should get a free ride when it comes to paying for road maintenance, said state Rep. Terry Beyer, D-Springfield.

Beyer plans to introduce a bill, , later in the present legislative session that would remedy that situation. It would institute a vehicle road-use charge – basically a mileage tax – for electric cars and electric hybrids, starting in January 2014.

“Our transportation modes are changing, and we’re going to have to change our funding system for roads and highways to continue to keep them up,” Beyer said. “Obviously the mass of those vehicles isn’t very high right now, but I think we need to get something in place for when that mass does get high.”

Many people started buying the cars only in the past year or so, but by 2014 the Oregon Department of Transportation expects a lot more of them to be on roads, said James Whitty, manager of the Office of Innovative Partnerships and Alternative Funding.

“By 2014 they’ll be in the thousands, and we expect that number to double every year after that for a while,” Whitty said. “That’s what happened with earlier types of hybrid cars, like the Prius, when they launched.”

The bill would charge drivers of electric cars a 0.6-cent fee per mile for road use, a number based on a gasoline-powered car getting 50 miles per gallon, Beyer said.

Hybrid drivers would be eligible for refunds for any gas taxes they paid, she added.

The bill would direct ODOT to study the best ways to use technology to track and report mileage – and from past studies by the department in 2002 and 2003, the public has made it clear that they don’t want the state government to track them by GPS, Whitty said.

“Our conception is about creating an open-system architecture, so there’s not just one way to report mileage,” Whitty said. “Owners will be able to select and choose from several options. GPS will be an option, but it won’t be mandatory. We also hope we’ll get some private-sector involvement with technology and perhaps payment options.”

One of the problems with tracking miles by odometer is that drivers who travel across state borders – say from Portland to Vancouver, Wash. – would pay state fees for driving when they’re not in the state, he added.

GPS systems can account for that, but drivers don’t like them because of privacy issues. So the department would try to come up with other reporting methods for people who travel across state lines regularly, he said.

Studying the infrastructure and developing a system would probably cost somewhere between $2 million and $3 million, Whitty added.

“It’s technology, so it’s not always cheap, unfortunately,” Whitty said.

The bill has decent bipartisan support, said Beyer, who added that she is “somewhat optimistic” that it will pass.

John Christian, chairman of the Oregon Electric Vehicle Association, said his group isn’t particularly opposed to paying a tax. But members would like to see a higher rate of penetration on roadways before any taxes are implemented.

“We have a mixed feeling in our constituency,” Christian said. “Most people feel that while we need to pay our fair share of road use, we also feel it’s important to strongly encourage Oregonians to switch over to electric vehicles.”

The association would like to see electric cars make up somewhere between 10 percent and 20 percent of the cars on the road before a tax is implemented, he said.

“The bottom line is we want to make sure this doesn’t discourage people from buying electric vehicles,” Christian said.

Beyer said the bill would grandfather in all models purchased before 2014 so that their drivers wouldn’t have to pay the tax at all.

“In my mind this is the future of our system and we need to start being prepared,” she said. “I think it’s logical and it needs to happen, but there are a few little technicalities that we’ll have to work out.”

Beyer said the bill will be heard by the House Transportation and Economic Development Committee this week.

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Construction of a $9.3 million expansion to the iconic Maryhill Museum of Art in rural Goldendale, Wash., will present challenges more often associated with a project in the middle of a city than with one in the middle of a desert landscape in the Columbia Gorge.

That is because most of the space around the museum is reserved for visitor parking and public grounds – leaving little room for staging and increasing the difficulty of scheduling, said Bob Schommer, co-owner of , the prime contractor.

“The museum is an operating museum. It has parking lots and grounds, but those are for the public to use,” Schommer said. “To not disturb any of that we really do have to squeeze into a very small area.”

Few manufacturers, aside from concrete, are in the area, which means the company has to carefully plan out when materials will arrive to match up with installation dates, he added.

“It might be out in the sticks, but in some ways it really is like working in a metropolitan area because of the space and scheduling issues,” Schommer said.

Crews this week started digging for the 25,500-square-foot addition. Work is expected to wrap up in spring 2012 on the mostly underground structure, which will house storage space, a new exhibit hall and an educational area for visitors, Schommer said.

“They’ve wanted to build this addition for at least 15 years,” Schommer said. “They have about five times as much stuff as they can display.”

Right now, museum art not on display is spread out across several small rooms in the mansion. After the expansion is built, those collections will be consolidated into one place, and the smaller rooms will become available for more exhibits, said Colleen Schafroth, the museum’s executive director.

“The educational space is also much needed,” Schafroth said. “Currently we have to use gallery space for that, and it’s real difficult for visitors. With the new space we can also do messier workshops – with painting or clay.”

The new structure will include a large, rooftop deck overlooking the Columbia Gorge where the museum can host events or people can go to enjoy the view, she added.

“The idea is to create a plaza to enhance views of the gorge and to replace what is essentially a parking lot,” Schafroth said. “The other thing is we’ll be putting a new indoor-outdoor caf茅 there, and we hope to use the area for some outdoor art or painting workshops.”

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design silver certification will be pursued for the expansion, which was designed by . Energy efficient glass, passive solar energy and other typical green features will be used, as will an unusual heating and cooling system, Schommer said.

“It has in-floor radiant heat using water that actually comes from a spring on the property,” he said. “That actually creates quite efficient energy savings.”

Schommer & Sons has worked with the museum on a variety of smaller projects since the late 1990s, but this one is much bigger. Its contract for the expansion work is $6.6 million, Schommer said.

The company is employing some subcontractors from the Goldendale area and is also bringing in several subcontractors from Portland, he added. Approximately 40 workers will be involved at any given time.

The museum was built as a mansion by a man named Sam Hill, a wealthy railroad and utility baron in the early 1900s. The site was too remote to develop into a small Quaker town, as Hill initially planned, and so he turned it into a museum named after his wife, Mary Hill.

“He spent a lot of time in San Francisco and ended up meeting a lot of European royalty,” Schommer said. “And when he died he ended up with all sorts of Eastern European art and objects, which then ended up in the museum. And through the years, the museum has endured. It has a small but very dedicated following.”

Donors have contributed to a fundraising effort that began in 2007 for the expansion, called the Mary and Bruce Stevenson Wing. The museum has gathered approximately $8.9 million so far, Schafroth said.

“Overall we’ll need a total of $10 million to finish it the way we really want to, so our fundraising effort will continue,” she said. “But we felt it was important to get started with the construction now.”

The mansion is near a bluff overlooking the Columbia Gorge, on top of fractured basalt rock that can be difficult to excavate. Construction on the site must be planned carefully to protect the historic building and not disrupt the picturesque landscape, Schommer said.

“Some disturbance can’t be helped, but you have to make sure everything stays as natural looking as possible,” Schommer said. “We’re removing the basalt without blasting, but since it is rock it takes some significant equipment to do that mechanically.”

Workers are using a giant track-hoe excavator to remove the material and dig the 20-foot-deep structure, he added.

“We anticipate some drilling when we get into areas of rock that are harder – we’ll drill to relieve the pressure,” Schommer said.

Another challenge will be to create the rooftop deck, which will cantilever out over the gorge wall, Schommer said.

“That’s all cast-in-place concrete, and pouring it will be challenging,” he said. “It’s hard to access, and we’ll be pouring concrete almost into midair.”

The company plans to work on structural aspects through the fall, and add finishes in late fall and next winter, he said.

The site is scheduled to open sometime in April 2012, he added.

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