When visitors arrive at Ankrom Moisan Architects’ space in 38 Davis, a mixed-use building being constructed in Old Town Chinatown, they won’t anywhere see a receptionist. Instead, guests will check in downstairs with the building security guard, who will use the Slack app to communicate with Ankrom Moisan personnel. Upstairs, newcomers will be greeted by a free-floating iPad-wielding office “ambassador.”

The setup is more “hospitality-like” and “less transactional.”

“It’s a way of inviting people into our culture,” executive vice president Karen Bowery said. “You step off the elevator right into our world. There’s not that barrier. They’re part of us and they’re engaged in our culture.”

It’s one of the ways Ankrom Moisan is rethinking the architecture office, for a move that is by accounts much anticipated by staff. And with so much brainpower at its disposal, the firm has employed a heavily collaborative process, according to Bowery and managing principal Murray Jenkins.

38 Davis is five heavy-timber stories over a concrete podium, with Ankrom occupying floors two and three, and 65 apartment units on four and five. The University of Oregon is a ground-level tenant. That improvement is being handled by Swinerton Builders; all other construction is being done by Andersen Construction.

The first four floors of the mixed-use building should open to phased occupation in mid-November, Andersen senior project manager Gene Archibek said.

Ankrom Moisan, Portland’s second-largest architecture firm (gross local receipts), with offices in Seattle, Portland and San Francisco, is set to join ZGF Architects as a design firm occupying a building of its own design. But the historically-minded 38 Davis is in many ways distinct from the glossy 12 West high-rise.

Being located in Portland’s cast-iron district, the building exterior features historic cast-iron columns and the design is intended to serve as a “gateway” to the district. The mix of occupants was also influential, Jenkins said.

“It’s a reasonably small building with a ton of uses,” he said. “We’re really trying to experiment with those mixed uses in places like our lobby space.”

A Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design v4 gold rating is being targeted for the building. It uses gray water reclamation, recycling shower water for use in the office toilets.

Currently crowded into the Willamette Oaks office building in South Portland, Ankrom has for two years thrown everything it has into 38 Davis and its own new, 58,000-square-foot space, according to Bowery and Jenkins. (Cardno Engineering is expected to take over the first and second floors of Ankrom’s old space.)

“We couldn’t be more excited about this,” Bowery said.

Relocating to a more urban setting was important the whole office, Jenkins said.

“That’s a serious deal for architects, and it was one of the big driving factors for moving our office downtown,” he said. “Our work is in cities, right? We make cities these livable, mixed-use, vibrant places, and we wanted our office to represent what we believe in and the work that we do.”

Jenkins called the Ankrom’s new space “raw” – highly polished concrete floors, exposed heavy timber and big, steel girders. But it’s also intended to be forward-thinking – Glumac, a project consultant, assisted with light fixtures with fans inside to form “rings of light.” The word “ergonomic” factored heavily into design. Monthslong beta tests of different workstations have been run out of the Willamette Oaks location.

“The design absolutely was more than usual,” Bowery said. “It was not the status quo as far as the way we run our projects. It was very much a design that represents the collective voice, instead of the voice of the few, so it’s been a bit cumbersome to manage, but ultimately, I think, successful.”

Currently, Ankrom Moisan’s “library” is stacked around various hallways. At the new space it will be consolidated into one area. Kitchens are being handled in the same way: While the South Waterfront space has seven kitchens, 38 Davis will have a single, large commercial one. Coffee will come from only one gathering place – a well-lit “forum” that in renderings features wine glasses hanging overhead.

Too many architects can equal headaches for a contractor in the same way too many chefs in the kitchen can ruin a broth. So, anticipating a flood of feedback for 38 Davis (aka Block 8L), the team of Ankrom Moisan, developer Gerding Edlen and Andersen Construction established a method for distilling a community-wide view for the builder that’s clear and consistent.

“We set up a system early on of funneling feedback through a conduit of two to three people,” Archibek said. “Because, yeah, with 200 architects, everybody’s going to have a view.”

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It had to come to this: a Builder’s Choice profile of “The Builder of Choice.”

Few firms in Portland emerged from the Great Recession positioned as well as Andersen Construction, which touts itself as “The Builder of Choice.” Founded here in 1950 by Andy Andersen, the company has worked itself up to four offices in the Pacific Northwest and 700 employees. It’s working at 26 active jobsites across the Pacific Northwest, with ground set to be broken on a number of high-profile projects. Andy’s grandson, Joel, last year was officially handed the corporate reins by his father, David.

Andersen currently is sixth on the 91��Ƶ’s A-List rankings according to gross local billings, but there’s speculation it could move up a few spots when new rankings are printed in July (the company ranked 118th nationally in Engineering News-Record’s latest list of Top Contractors, trailing only one other Portland firm, Hoffman Construction). Several of Andersen’s current projects feature emerging alternative delivery methods – such as design-build, construction manager-general contractor and integrated project delivery – as well as a sampling of the many building sectors Andersen is active in, including medical, mixed-use and senior living.

Knight Cancer Research Building

At the center of Oregon Health & Science University’s emerging Schnitzer Campus in the South Waterfront is the Knight Cancer Research Building, which will house 700 experimentalists, technicians, researchers and support staffers. Andersen is building the six-story, 338,000-square-foot tower in a joint partnership with McCarthy Building Company. OHSU is pursuing a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design gold rating for the project.

LOCA

Also known as the “Goat Blocks,” LOCA is a 500,000-square-foot mixed-use development in the fast-rising Central Eastside neighborhood. Three mid-rise buildings are spread across one superblock and an additional quarter-block. The buildings are wood-framed over concrete and range from four to six stories. They contain a combined 248 market-rate apartments, 100,000 square feet of retail space and 369 structured parking spaces. A big-box grocery store, a hardware store and a dozen smaller retail spaces are planned.

The Cosmopolitan

Work has nearly wrapped on the Cosmopolitan tower, Portland’s tallest residential building. Standing 28 stories, with a base covering an entire city block, the Cosmo contains 150 luxury condo units and is sandwiched between public parks to the north and south. The 343,560-square-foot post-tensioned concrete tower will include retail space on the first floor, three levels of above-grade parking (169 stalls) and a common floor.

Providence St. Vincent Medical Center renovation

Andersen is overseeing a highly-technical, eight-phase, 125,000-square foot renovation of Providence St. Vincent Medical Center’s 10-story main tower. The acute care hospital will remain fully occupied while it’s re-skinned and all electrical services are replaced. Floors six through nine will be completely remodeled. The remaining floors will receive minor remodels.

Block 8L

Ankrom Moisan Architects is moving its Portland headquarters into a historically-sympathetic mixed-use structure on Naito Parkway. The six-story, 141,362-square-foot building will have ground-level retail space, three floors of office space and two floors of apartments. Ankrom Moisan will occupy floors three and four. The project team is pursuing a LEED gold rating. It could be the first Portland project to receive the U.S. Green Building Council’s new LEED “v4” certification.

Touchmark

This large-scale retirement living development will feature 400,000 square feet of new construction on 14 acres of a wooded hillside in Portland’s West Hills. The grounds will contain 135 homes – 34 memory-care homes, 32 supportive living homes, 69 assisted living homes and three guesthouses. The campus’ three buildings include the five-story, 130-unit independent-living Clubhouse Lodge Apartment building, a neighboring 40,000-square-foot clubhouse and health and fitness center, and the six-story, 146-unit Terrace Memory Care facility.

Builder’s Choice is a 91��Ƶ feature offering a look at the projects being tackled by local architecture, engineering and construction firms. To have your firm’s projects considered, contact 91��Ƶ construction reporter Garrett Andrews at 503-802-7226 or garrett.andrews@djcOregon.com.

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Portland’s second-largest architecture firm offers clients a one-stop shop for architecture, branding, and interior and urban design. Ankrom Moisan Architects has grown so much in recent years, spokeswoman Sarah Bartlett said, that both its Portland and Seattle offices are preparing to move into larger spaces.

• The Seattle team – approximately 100 employees – will move in February 2016 from Pioneer Square to a space downtown. The Portland team – more than 200 employees – will relocate in June 2016 from a crowded, three-story waterfront building on Southwest Macadam Avenue to a mixed-use development on a historic cast-iron block in Old Town Chinatown, next to the iconic White Stag building.

• One project being designed by Ankrom Moisan is a large, two-tower, mixed-use development at Riverplace Parcel 3 with a heavy affordable housing component. One tower will be six stories with retail and grocery space at the bottom; the other will be 12 stories, including 10 designated for 204 affordable units. One level of below-grade parking will hold 173 spaces.

• Ankrom Moisan and developer Killian Pacific are working on the large “goat blocks” project in Southeast Portland. The mixed-use development will include hundreds of apartments, 97,000 square feet of retail space, 189 residential parking spaces and 246 retail parking spaces. Sections will be clad in orange metal panels, red and tan brick veneer and a mix of white stucco and charcoal cement board siding. Murals are planned for the project’s market terrace.

The project, now called “Tenth and Belmont,” previously was referred to as “Loca” by local media.

“It’s changed names several times,” Bartlett said last month. “But that happens a lot in the architecture world. It’s the same project with all the same specifics, but we’re just going with ‘Tenth and Belmont’ at the moment.”

• The firm has met with city officials to discuss plans for a full-block, 19-story-plus boutique hotel at Southwest Third Avenue and Taylor Street. It would displace two historic buildings, including one that houses the Lotus Cardroom and Cafe at 932 S.W. Third Ave. Designs submitted to Portland’s Bureau of Development Services call for 100,000 square feet of office space and up to 100 parking spaces.

With 49 registered architects, Ankrom Moisan is smaller only than ZGF Architects in the Portland market. Bartlett said that the firm, which already is quite active in California, hopes to expand next into San Francisco, and then possibly Los Angeles.

Builder’s Choice is a new 91��Ƶ feature offering a look at the projects being tackled by local architecture, engineering and construction firms. To have your firm’s projects considered, contact 91��Ƶ construction reporter Garrett Andrews at 503-802-7226 or garrett.andrews@djcOregon.com.

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The Portland Design Commission on Tuesday gave conditional approval for design of a building planned on Block 8L in Old Town Chinatown.

Construction of the Gerding Edlen project is scheduled to begin next week, according to Kara Fioravanti with the Portland Bureau of Development Services. When completed, the mixed-use building will house Ankrom Moisan Architects‘ Portland office.

The $37 million, six-story building will occupy three-quarters of the block at the corner of Northwest First Avenue and Davis Street.

The firm will occupy about 40,000 square feet of space on the third and fourth floors. The 141,000-square-foot building will also have approximately 4,800 square feet of ground-floor retail space, 20,000 square feet of office space on the second floor and 65 units of workforce housing on the fifth and sixth floors.

The L-shaped building will have a courtyard that wraps around the back. No vehicle parking spots are planned, but 109 long-term bike parking spaces and 12 short-term bike parking spaces are.

The commission approved an alternative bicycle parking design that does not meet city code. Code requires that each long-term bike space measure 2 feet by 6 feet, but the design commission approved an alternate design in which bikes in long-term parking will be wall-mounted on 27-inch hooks spaced 18 inches on center with a vertical 6-inch stagger.

A building was erected on the site in the 1880s to serve as the headquarters for Northern Pacific Railroad and Oregon Railway and Navigation Co. That building was demolished in the 1930s, and the site is currently used as a surface parking lot.

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Architectural models of a planned mixed-use building in Old Town Chinatown line the windowsill and clutter the table in a small conference room at Ankrom Moisan Architects‘ Portland office.

Senior associate Matt Janssen enthusiastically points out details on the models or refers to renderings and inspirational photos that coat the room’s bulletin board.

“It’s going to have that old warehouse feel,” he said. “You want to have an honest building, and we thought that structure fit with that concept.”

The $37 million project has particular significance for Janssen and other staffers working in Ankrom Moisan’s Portland office. When the six-story building on the corner of Northwest First Avenue and Davis Street is complete, it will become the firm’s new home.

Since determining that the site would suit the firm in its quest to leave Southwest Portland and move closer to downtown, Ankrom Moisan has worked with the project’s developer, Portland-based Gerding Edlen, on design. The architecture firm will occupy about 40,000 square feet on the third and fourth floors of the approximately 130,000-square-foot building. Plans also call for 16,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space, 20,000 additional square feet of office space on the second floor and 58 units of workforce housing on the fifth and sixth floors.

The Portland Development Commission since 2005 has owned the 29,100-square-foot Block 8L – next to the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine and the University of Oregon Portland campus – where the project will be built. Last fall, the city agency awarded Gerding Edlen first rights to acquire and redevelop the L-shaped property now a parking lot and dirt. The sale is being negotiated and likely will become final this fall, PDC senior project manager Eric Jacobson said.

Gerding Edlen Vice President Jill Sherman said the developer worked with Portland-based Works Partnership Architecture on initial design of the mixed-use project, but hired Ankrom Moisan to take over in May as part of an agreement for the firm to move into the building.

“When they approached us interested in the location, their interest was in being a tenant, but also an architect of a new building,” she said.

Creating a contemporary Old Town building that responds to the historic architecture that surrounds it has defined the design process so far, Janssen said.

“We started looking at something very modern because we’re architects,” he said. “Then we stepped back and we thought about it long and hard and we said, ‘This is a historic district.’ We wanted to be respectful of that, so we tried to make a building that fits into that vocabulary but still is understood as a building that was built today. That’s a really delicate balancing act that we’ve been trying to ride.”

The project’s design team has twice sought the advice of the Portland Historic Landmarks Commission, which will review the plans and potentially request modifications before granting city approval. Ankrom Moisan staffers have a third design advice request hearing with the commission scheduled for later this month; they plan to seek design approval in October.

One way that the project could acknowledge the neighborhood’s history will be through display of cast-iron rods from historic Old Town buildings that were demolished, Janssen said. The rods, part of a collection that the PDC has acquired over the years, would be incorporated into a plaza space on the part of the property that faces Northwest Naito Parkway and Governor Tom McCall Waterfront Park.

“One of the fun things about this site is we’ve got this enormous right-of-way on Naito. It’s almost like a gateway,” Janssen said. “We thought it would be fun to create an outdoor museum.”

The building will feature heavy timber construction on a concrete base to give it the appearance of a warehouse. The facade will invoke the feel of the historic district with tall windows and strong vertical lines, he said.

“Everything (in the district) is really vertical in nature, so we’re trying to pick up on that,” Janssen said.

Ankrom Moisan has occupied space on Southwest Macadam Avenue for more than 20 years. However, officials sought a location allowing easy commutes by bike or public transportation, Janssen said.

Firm staffers also are excited about working in a mixed-use building – one of the most common projects Ankrom Moisan designs, principal Murray Jenkins said.

“This was an opportunity to live what we’re doing,” he said.

General contractor R&H Construction is scheduled to start work on the project at the end this year and wrap up by early 2016. Ankrom Moisan plans to move into the space in January 2016. The firm currently has 185 employees in its Portland office. The new office space is designed to accommodate up to 250 employees, Jenkins said.

The Old Town office space will have a much more open floor plan aimed at encouraging collaboration, Janssen said. The stairs will be located on the perimeter instead of in the middle, and give staffers easy access to a central courtyard, he said.

“We want to have a lot more internal communication,” he said. “It frees up the plan on the inside of the building to be extremely open.”

Block 8L mixed-use building

Location: 60 N.W. Davis St.

Cost: $37 million

Anticipated construction start date: late 2014

Anticipated construction completion date: early 2016

Site owner: Portland Development Commission

Developer: Gerding Edlen

Architects: Ankrom Moisan Architects, Works Partnership Architecture

Landscape architect: Lango Hansen Landscape Architects

Structural engineer: DCI Engineers

General contractor: R&H Construction

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Early concepts for a large mixed-use development in Old Town Chinatown call for blending past and present.

“A big focus is compatibility with the existing historic buildings in the district,” said Jill Sherman, a vice president at Gerding Edlen. “We’re not trying to match them or copy them, but do something that … stands alone so it’s compatible but clearly (is) a modern, contemporary building – and reads as such.”

Gerding Edlen and Works Partnership Architecture recently requested design advice from the Historic Landmarks Commission for a $19.8 million development planned for the L-shaped block that wraps around the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine. In November 2013, Gerding Edlen announced that the Portland Development Commission had awarded it the rights to acquire and redevelop the vacant property.

The developer’s proposed six-story building would include 102 residential units, nearly 51,000 square feet of office space and approximately 4,600 square feet of retail space. To inject a touch of modernism, the building would incorporate architectural themes in the Skidmore/Old Town Historic District.

While the windows, doors, porches and other features would be built to the size and scale of those in historic buildings nearby, their articulation would be varied. For instance, the window openings would be set in a somewhat irregular pattern, while the traditional off-white brick facade would be sloped slightly at varying angles as it ascends to the roofline.

Also, deep cuts in the building would be included to break up massing and help generate a rhythm and interest in the facade. As envisioned, the development would create a multiuse alleyway between the new building and OCOM’s building at 75 N.W. Couch St. to encourage pedestrian activity.

And while commercial workspace would be oriented toward Northwest Naito Parkway, the residential units would be oriented toward the alleyway in an effort to play up the pedestrian experience there – a significant challenge for the project, and indeed the somewhat blighted neighborhood.

“It’s just really important to bring market-rate residential units to the district,” Sherman said. “One of the things I think will help is having more people there, more of the time – more eyes on the street, more people taking ownership of the neighborhood. That will contribute to addressing some of the things that people who live and work there are trying to figure out how to improve.”

Sherman said Gerding Edlen is still looking at options for debt and equity project partners, and working with Apex Real Estate Partners to secure preleases of office space. Conversations with several interested parties are in progress.

Sherman said the project, if it were to move forward, would be the first new market-rate construction in the neighborhood in more than two decades.

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The Portland Development Commission has issued an of an L-shaped property adjacent to the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine building in Old Town Chinatown.

Block 8L is a 29,100-square-foot parking lot/vacant parcel that touches Northwest Naito Parkway, First Avenue, and Davis and Couch streets. The city agency purchased the property in 2005 for approximately $4.9 million.

In 2010, the PDC demolished a building on the southeast corner of the site and began helping OCOM and Beam Development with an approximately $16 million redevelopment of the Globe Hotel, on the block’s southwest corner. OCOM established its headquarters there in 2012.

The remaining three-quarter-block property is zoned central commercial and able to accommodate most uses. The floor area ratio is four to one and the maximum height is 75 feet. The PDC uses the northern half of the block for parking and in the last fiscal year yielded $195,997 in net operating income.

The site contains some environmental contamination: Approximately 3,400 tons of soil would need to be removed, among other remediation. The PDC has estimated the incremental environmental costs with developing the property at $680,000. The site’s appraised market value is $2.36 million.

The site is located in the Skidmore/Old Town Historic District, as well as the Central City Plan District and River District subdistrict. Alternative financing for development may be available through the PDC’s Commercial Property Redevelopment Loan Program, or an EB-5 program.

Statements of interest are due by Sept. 30 at 5 p.m. People can contact the PDC’s Eric Jacobson, at 503-823-3306 or at jacobsone@pdc.us, to learn more.

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