When the Ancient Order of United Workmen Temple was demolished last fall, many preservationists lamented the loss of the building that had stood in downtown Portland since 1892.

Formerly located at 915 S.W. Second Ave., the six-story Temple building was the first of two unreinforced masonry structures to come down to accommodate the ambitious : a 20-story hotel and a 10-story office tower. The second structure, the 112-year-old Hotel Albion, has now been razed. It previously housed the Lotus Cardroom and Café from 1924 until its closure two years ago.

Neither building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Also, both were removed from the city of Portland’s Historic Resource Inventory at the request of the property owner in November 2015.

Initially, plans called for preservation of the Temple building and integration of it into the office tower portion of the project. But an extensive engineering study carried out by Ankrom Moisan Architects, KPFF Consulting Engineers and Turner Construction found that the cost of a retrofit would be greater than demolition and new construction.

While workers demolish the old and build the new, preservationists hope history won’t repeat itself.

“I could criticize what’s replacing those buildings,” Restore Oregon Executive Director Peggy Moretti said. “But the bottom line is the system here in Oregon for designating and protecting and incentivizing the restoration of important historic buildings is woefully lacking. We have a system that we could definitely be fixing.”

The good news for preservationists is that the Auditorium building, which is under separate ownership, will remain on the block. What that building opened in 1894, it featured a dance hall on its second level and a concert space with a balcony on the third. The building was converted into office space in the 1980s.

Next door, the Lotus Cardroom and Café had a long and colorful history as a local night spot. It apparently was the site of a 1927 bootlegging bust, and rumors are that there once was an upstairs brothel. The building regained popularity as a nightspot in the 1990s, when throngs of young people came to party and dance.

Moretti is eager to see changes that prevent losses of such spaces in the future.

“I think it requires careful planning and community engagement,” she said. “You can’t freeze a city in time, and we would not propose that. But we need to be able to make thoughtful decisions. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t recognize that Portland is special because of the historic fabric it has maintained.”

But strong demand for new office space in the central city has opened the door for this redevelopment effort. The project team includes Third and Taylor Development – a partnership between Arthur Mutal and Onder Development – as well as Ankrom Moisan Architects and general contractor Turner Construction.

Excavation and other below-grade work is taking place on the downtown block’s north half, where a 10-story office tower will rise. It will also have ground-floor retail space.

Developers even have the luxury of knowing the building will be fully occupied when it opens in 2020. According to several media reports, NW Natural has already signed a lease to occupy all 183,500 square feet of available office space.

Turner Construction crews are preparing to start pouring concrete for the foundation and the two below-grade stories of parking for the office building. A break in the site’s water supply led to a delay in demolition, but that was merely a hiccup, project manager Len Anderson told the 91��Ƶ.

Once demolition of the ex-Hotel Albion wraps up, excavation work for the 20-story hotel will be able to start on the south half of the block. The hotel will have a rooftop pool and bar along with a pair of restaurants.

The big question for many observers is whether similar redevelopment projects will follow. In the future, developers may have more options when working with historic buildings, said Brandon Spencer-Hartle, historic resources program manager for the city of Portland.

“We are looking to increase the incentives that would encourage a property owner to seek a (historic) designation,” he said.

Portland’s new 2035 Comprehensive Plan took effect last week. It includes new rules that allow for transfers of floor area ratio involving buildings on the city’s Historic Resource Inventory, which has not been updated since 1984.

Property owners of designated historic buildings could also sell that development capacity.

“The new regulations that went into effect Monday we hope will be more used by owners of existing landmarks and those who are looking at their development options,” Spencer-Hartle said.

Separately, a draft of a proposed city effort to update city code surrounding historic resource designations will be released to the public in September. Feedback will be sought.

The post When historic buildings couldn’t be saved appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

At nine or 10 stories – depending how you count the original mezzanine – the Woodlark Building was one of Portland’s early skyscrapers. When its ribbon was cut in 1912, “one of the most modern and complete buildings of its kind.”

Next door is the equally illustrious Cornelius Hotel, which, over its 108-year life has served as an upscale hotel, a gay bathhouse and a fire-scarred vacant building.

Now, workers are fusing the two historical properties into a 150-room hotel for the ownership trio of Arthur Mutal, NBP Capital and Provenance Hotels.

“They want a nice hotel that also respects the unique history of the buildings,” said architect Christian Robert, principal at R&A Architecture, one of the architects employed for the project.

Owners kicked around a number of ideas for the past couple years, including various combinations of office, multifamily and hotel. They also purchased the nearby Sullivan Building and other adjoining parcels.

Robert said the design team had to “fight for every inch” to update the buildings and still abide by preservation guidelines. Certain materials and building technologies considered out of touch with the original historical era – including exposed brick in the lobby – were nixed in design development. To maximize space, the team created unique mezzanine and junior suites that employ the historic ceiling heights.

The project will have two restaurants – one for formal dining and a smaller tavern in the Cornelius building’s northern portion, the original entry lobby of the hotel.

Design-wise, there are a lot of cooks in the kitchen. Firms are under contract for room design and the design of the ground-level bar area that wasn’t included when the project went through permitting. And after the first construction permits were obtained (which took more than a year), R&A took over construction administration from the project’s initial architect, MCA Architects.

MCA has stayed on as architect of record.

“These are very old buildings,” MCA partner Dan Gates said. “There’s a million things about this project. It’s very complicated.”

Combining two buildings that have non-aligning floors is no easy task.

“None of the floors actually match up, so we solved it by providing a different stair length at each level,” Robert said.

Another major task is bringing Woodlark and Cornelius up to seismic code. The Woodlark is a concrete building. The Cornelius has some steel columns in the center, but is basically a wood-framed building with exterior walls made of unreinforced masonry (URM).

To achieve uniformity, the contractor, LCG Pence, is employing shotcrete with a fiberglass mesh to stabilize the URM from within. Other advantages include requiring less space to apply, and allowing the team to retain more of the historic URM.

In a way, tying two buildings together provides structural support, Robert said.

“It’s like you have two feet to stand on,” he said.

R&A project lead Richard Destin said it’s an honor to bring old artifacts back to life. And it’s exciting to work on a wood high-rise, he added, at a time when emerging mass timber products are de rigueur.

“Under current code, none of it would be allowed,” he said.

The Woodlark

Cost: $30 million

Architect: R&A Architecture

Architect of record: MCA Architects

Contractor: LCG Pence

Expected completion: spring 2018

The post Two historic downtown high-rises becoming one appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

A gas leak at a downtown construction project site early Thursday led to full or partial evacuation of five heavily-used office buildings.

A crew with NW Natural was able to locate the source of the leak and stanch the spread of natural gas without incident, said Lt. Rich Chatman of Portland Fire and Rescue. The 911 call went out at 7 a.m. and the situation was deemed “safe” at 9:40 a.m. Southwest Alder and Washington streets were closed from Broadway to Southwest 10th Avenue.

But LCG Pence principal Paul Schulz said the leak was caused by a subcontractor hired by the developer, Arthur Mutal, though LCG Pence did have an employee on site performing preconstruction work. Philip Arthur, managing principal of Arthur Mutal, declined to comment.

Heavy work for the $14 million project is scheduled to begin shortly, according Schulz.

Chatman said that once the leak occurred, everyone involved followed proper protocols. The incident came around a month after a contractor-caused gas leak led to multiple blasts on Northwest 23rd Avenue. Multiple buildings were damaged and several people were injured.

“We moved with the same mindset of protecting life safety, as quickly as we could,” Chatman said. “Granted, that situation was very real in our minds because of what happened. We as humans are obviously going to remember something like that.”

The post Gas leak causes evacuation of five downtown buildings appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.