PROJECT: Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact

LOCATION: University of Oregon, Eugene

SIZE:Ěý160,000 square feet

COST:Ěý$225 million (first-phase building)

CONSTRUCTION START: March 2018

CONSTRUCTION END: November 2020

CONTRACTOR:ĚýHoffman Construction

ARCHITECTS: Ennead Architects and Bora Architects

ENGINEERS: Affiliated Engineers Inc. (mechanical, electrical and plumbing); Northwest Engineering Service Inc. (MEP test and balance); Thornton Tomasetti (structural – lab buildings and bridge, façade engineering); KPFF (civil, garage, landscape, structural engineering); Notkin Wood Harbinger Alliance (systems infrastructure engineering); PBS Engineering and Environmental (hazardous materials/soils abatement); Systems West Engineers (energy modeling and commissioning); Kittelson & Associates (transportation engineering and planning)

OTHER TEAM MEMBERS: Jacobs Consultancy Inc. (laboratory planning); Shalleck Collaborative (audio/visual systems); Shen Milsom & Wilke of New York (acoustics/technology/security); Brightworks (sustainability consultant); PLACE (landscape architecture)

SIGNIFICANCE OF PROJECT: A grand opening for the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact took place in early December. The campus was designed to bring people together and encourage collaboration, integrating insights drawn from visits to leading research facilities. The signature characteristic is the inclusion of light-filled, double-height lab spaces that are truly unique in a wet-lab environment. They feature flexible open bench spaces that enable teams to do related work together, using cutting-edge equipment for rapid prototyping. The Knight Campus was made possible by a $500 million lead gift from Penny and Phil Knight and $70 million in state bonds. Gifts from other donors continue to help fulfill the vision. In addition to the building, the first phase includes elements such as property purchase and rehabilitation of the millrace. Dollars not used on building projects go into an endowment to directly support operations or faculty and equipment startup. The project team anticipates attaining a Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design gold rating. The Knight Campus offers a graduate internship program and a doctoral program in bioengineering, in partnership with Oregon State University. The internship program provides a career-focused accelerated master’s degree, with a nine-month hands-on internship; 90 percent of graduates launch careers in their fields within three months of graduating.

“Building Blocks” is a new 91ĘÓƵ feature that spotlights noteworthy projects either under construction or approaching the start of construction. To submit a project for consideration, please visit: djcoregon.com/building-blocks.

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The Portland Design Commission on Thursday got its first look at Welby, proposed as a 15-story, mixed-use building in the Pearl District. Mass timber would be used.

The project at 1325 N.W. Kearney St. comes from developer Killian Pacific, with a design by Bora Architects. It’s the latest iteration of a redevelopment proposal for a half-block site. In January 2018, the Design Commission approved a project known as Lovejoy Square for the same location, but it did not move forward to construction.

The new design calls for 12 floors of residential space above two floors of offices and ground-floor retail space. The Bureau of Development Services valued the project at $85 million.

Welby will meet its inclusionary housing obligations on site, said Michi Slick, director of development at Killian Pacific. Plans call for a mix of residences, including two- and three-bedroom units.

As proposed, the tower would stand 180 feet high, within the 250-foot height limit with bonuses, according to BDS. It would be Portland’s tallest mass-timber building.

Design commissioners and a representative of the Pearl District Neighborhood Association criticized the proposal during Thursday’s design advice hearing, saying it doesn’t fully fit the neighborhood.

“We don’t feel it’s very contextual,” said David Dysert, co-chairman of the PDNA’s Planning and Transportation Committee. “We just don’t feel it’s really fitting the site with the articulation of the facade.”

Dysert urged Bora to look to precedents in the Pearl District, namely Pearl West and Heartline. Those buildings, he said, were contextual “without pretending to be old buildings.”

The proposed facade facing Kearney Street would be “out of context,” Commissioner Zari Santner said.

Dysert and commissioners also raised concerns about Bora’s proposed use of cement panels.

The project has an 80-foot right of way, a vestige of its former use as a rail yard. The applicant proposes a 6.5-foot vacation of Northwest 14th Avenue in the 900 block. A raised bike lane would be built.

The PDNA stated in a letter to the Design Commission that it supports the street vacation as long as the project team pays for the improvements.

Welby’s residential entrance should be better articulated, commissioners said. They also urged Bora to consider extending canopies on all sides to provide weather protection.

“We expect there to be a lot of pedestrians on 14th and Kearney, and I don’t know why we wouldn’t want to see more continuous awnings on bays,” Commissioner Brian McCarter said. “This really warrants considering more continuous rain protection.”

McCarter also urged designers to include more trees along Kearney Street.

The project team could decide to return for another design advice hearing, or seek design review.

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De La Salle North Catholic High School is set to move to property alongside St. Charles Church in Northeast Portland.

Backers plan to build the first new Catholic high school campus in Portland in more than 50 years at St. Charles, at 5310 N.E. 42nd Ave. Crews are scheduled to break ground on the project, expected to cost at least $21.6 million, on May 8 to allow the facility to open in August 2021.

Bora Architects is designing the project, and P&C Construction is serving as general contractor.

The project was spurred by the impending end of De La Salle’s lease at its current location, the former Kenton Elementary School property owned by Portland Public Schools. The Catholic school’s lease with PPS expires in June 2021.

The project team is essentially working backward from the delivery date the school needs. Bora and P&C have extensive experience designing and building education facilities, respectively.

Plans call for renovating the existing 30,000-square-foot school building at St. Charles and constructing 21,000 square feet of new space, including a common area, administrative offices, gymnasium and associated weight and locker rooms.

“The building has good bones,” school President Oscar Leong said. “It’s just a matter of coming in and working with the professionals.”

Phasing depends on fundraising, De La Salle and Bora officials said. The gym could be built in a second phase if not enough dollars are immediately available.

De La Salle has launched a major fundraising campaign that has raised 85 percent of its goal through major backers including Tim Boyle, president and CEO of Columbia Sportswear, and his wife, Mary; and Edward Maletis, owner of Portland Bottling Co., and his wife, Cyndy.

De La Salle has had something of a vagabond existence. The ex-Kenton facility is its second location. The basketball teams have practiced in several locations, including a Salvation Army gym.

“We need a place to call home,” Leong said.

Plans include creating high-tech science labs in the former St. Charles gym and a visual arts center. The existing parish building is not part of the project.

“It’s been an incredibly meaningful project for Bora to work on,” said Amy Donohue, a principal at the Portland-based firm.

Materials on the new building will be red brick and white metal paneling to maintain a cohesive appearance with the existing St. Charles building, Donohue said.

Bora has something of a secret weapon for the project in Nikolas Tucker, a De La Salle alum who is a junior architect at the firm. Tucker, 23, earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Columbia University in 2018. He worked for a couple of New York City firms before returning in 2019 to Bora, where he had interned for two years.

“It’s very rewarding to come full circle like this,” Tucker said. “It wasn’t something I was planning on, but I’m very happy for the serendipity.”

A central courtyard will serve as a meeting and social space for students.

“The dream is the gym, but the focal point and the heart of the school will be a courtyard,” Leong said. “In our current home, we have no soft spaces for students to hang out and be themselves.”

The project team has applied for permits from the city’s Bureau of Development Services, which has moved to remote work and a by-appointment-only model for permitting during the coronavirus pandemic.

“We will see if there’s any slowdown with permitting,” Donohue said. “We’re in the queue, but we’re all holding our breath right now.”

De La Salle currently has approximately 280 students. Capacity would increase to 350 at the new campus.

Leong said he hopes De La Salle North Catholic High School can become a community resource.

“We don’t want to be the best-kept secret,” he said. “We want to be able to celebrate with all of Portland.”

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The decade-long building boom’s effects on the construction workforce have been well chronicled, but effects also have reached elsewhere. Architecture firms are dealing with shortages of designers.

“(It’s) definitely an applicants’ market,” said Alan Osborne, vice president at Hennebery Eddy Architects in Portland.

The employment pool is suffering from a dearth of midcareer and, to a lesser extent, senior architects, hiring managers said. That’s an echo of the Great Recession that began in 2007 and drove workers away from the industry.

“Basically, there was a whole generation of architecture students who never started,” said Jon McGrew, a Hennebery Eddy associate principal.

Hennebery Eddy had a senior project architect position open for so long that the firm took advantage of a long-established program in Portland to borrow an architect from another firm. In this case, Bora Architects loaned a senior project architect to Hennebery Eddy for two months.

“You just can’t get enough people at that level,” Osborne said. “They’re very skilled at this point in their career, and there’s not enough of them to go around.”

Hennebery Eddy has hired more than a dozen architects in the past year, Osborne said.

Like others, Otak Inc. is struggling to find experienced architects.

“Right now we’ve been recruiting for more senior level, and I’m seeing more difficulty, obviously,” said Carol Forsberg, Otak’s talent acquisition partner.

TVA Architects is also looking for midcareer architects who can lead projects.

“There’s really just nobody in that 10- to 15-year (experience) range,” said Mandy Butler, a TVA principal who leads recruitment efforts for the 40-person firm.

TVA hires a new graduate only once every three to four years.

“There’s no shortage of brand-new graduates, and we get a tremendous number of applications from recent graduates,” Butler said.

Portland is a desirable market for architects, and there’s a substantial number willing to relocate from out of state, hiring managers said. As long as the project pipeline remains robust, firms will be hiring.

“What I’ve seen is a lot of people coming from outside this market,” including Boston and Seattle, Butler said. “They’re high quality, but sometimes the salary ask is out of alignment with where our market is at.”

The dearth of midcareer architects has pinched both sides of the divide, with younger architects playing more senior roles than usual, and older architects mentoring younger ones to accelerate their development, managers said.

Entry-level architects at major firms often do much of the actual design work. That fact and their more affordable starting salaries make them attractive to architectural firms.

“We do see quite a few firms recruiting,” said Karen O’Donnell Stein, spokeswoman for the Portland State University School of Architecture. The school expects to graduate approximately 44 undergraduate students and 27 graduate students in 2020.

“Our students are definitely in demand by architecture and design firms in the Portland area and beyond,” she added in an email. “Hiring personnel at firms frequently reach out to us when they have design jobs to fill, and our students have many opportunities to connect with professionals who participate in final reviews and other events.”

The University of Oregon holds a popular recruitment fair for architecture students and professional firms to meet. This year’s fair, on Feb. 20, has 41 firms signed up to visit with students in Eugene.

“We’ve been waiting for this strong, positive job market to end, and it hasn’t,” said Nancy Cheng, department head of the UO School of Architecture. “The outlook is very strong.”

Still, many firms are finding there are plenty of young architects looking for jobs.

“As far as entry level, I tend to see a lot of applicants,” Forsberg said.

Salaries for entry-level architects have increased, Osborne said.

“They’re on a steady climb, and that benefits us all,” he said.

SERA Architects has offices in Portland and Oakland, California. Both may soon present employment opportunities, said Valerie Williams-Hurwitz, director of human resources.

“We’re stable,” she said. “We expect to grow some in both offices.”

However, SERA respects the collegial atmosphere of the local design community.

“In Portland in particular we sort of have a gentlemen’s or gentlewomen’s agreement that we generally don’t poach from other firms,” Williams-Hurwitz said.

That said, SERA conducts open searches, and sometimes they result in an architect from another local firm being hired, she said.

Portland has the 10th-highest concentration of architects in the United States, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Among large cities, only Denver, Seattle and San Francisco have a higher concentration of architects. In 2018, the Portland-Hillsboro-Vancouver metro area employed 1,760 architects, at an average annual wage of $85,420.

Architecture firms are also beefing up their internship programs to lure young architects. SERA is working to put together a yearlong internship, which could provide participants experience in several different disciplines, Williams-Hurwitz said.

Williams-Hurwitz and other SERA representatives last week attended a career fair at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. She said students who expect to graduate this spring are eager to land a position, but don’t seem to be lacking offers.

“We don’t usually have to offer beyond what we consider the market pay, but if we have to do other creative things, like a lot of architecture firms – whether it’s a signing bonus or relocation – we can do those things depending on the circumstances,” Williams-Hurwitz said.

Hennebery Eddy has also worked to strengthen its internship program, Osborne said. The firm recently hired a former intern – a Montana State University student who graduated in December.

“Our student intern program is more important than it’s ever been, so we work hard to get in top architects,” Osborne said.

The post Same old story, but another industry appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The Portland Design Commission on Thursday voted unanimously to approve plans for the Lincoln High School replacement project, which will transform a historic institution in the Central City. Commissioners showered praise on all aspects of the design, including its context, public realm elements, and quality and permanence.

Designed by Bora Architects and landscape architect Mayer/Reed, the replacement consists of a six-story, 102-foot-tall building providing 281,000 square feet of educational and support space, a new athletic track and field, and a teen/parent center.

During design advice sessions previously, commissioners asked for activation of the ground floor, and the design team responded. A walkway lined with stream-like pebbles will cut between the school building and the track on a north-south axis. On the side of the track and field, trees will be cut back to allow pedestrians to view any activities that might be taking place, further engaging the surrounding community with the school’s sports teams.

The new building itself will have red concrete panels meant to resemble the original building’s bricks, keeping a historic look for a very modern building. Large glass windows will enclose a staircase at the school’s northwest corner, at Southwest Salmon Street and 18th Avenue. This will give a transparent and active feel to the area, as people on the street step in unison with those climbing stairs inside the school.

“It’s masterfully done,” Commissioner Samuel Rodriguez said. “It really walks the line between what was and what is, and it’s a building of its time.”

The project will have an eco-roof, which is required by the city for buildings of this size. However, the surface area has been reduced from 60 percent to 28 percent. The design team compensated by providing more than 60,000 square feet of plantings at ground level to serve the same purpose. Commissioners said the green space is better used at ground level, and will add to the public realm, which is an important aspect of such a project.

The roof will instead feature maintenance machinery, which neighborhood residents previously stated would be a bit of an eyesore. Testimony from one resident led the Design Commission to delay a vote until the design team decided to go forward with a screen that will hide the rooftop mechanical units from public view.

With public attendees swayed in favor of the project, commissioners decided to vote whether to approve the land use application – and all six in attendance affirmed the design.

“Context and public realm are so well integrated in this proposal,” Commission Chairwoman Julie Livingston said. “It definitely is the best response for the kids.”

Ground will be broken on the project in February 2020, according to the design team.

Editor’s note: A previous version of this story erroneously described both the building’s exterior and its roof.

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A $245 million modernization of Lincoln High School in Portland is in the works, even though construction won’t technically start for nearly a year.

Hoffman Construction is seeking sub-bids for installation of aggregate piers, one of the first steps in carrying out site work for the project. The deadline for submissions is 2 p.m. Tuesday, July 2. There is no pre-bid meeting scheduled.

According to Portland Public Schools, design and permitting for the project will continue through fall 2019, with the first of two phases of construction planned to last from summer 2020 through summer 2022. This would see the construction of the new high school building on the west side of the campus. It will be crowned by a multi-story tower that will house the main entrance to the school and a host of academic programs.

The project is considered a full rebuild of the existing school, and students would move to the new facility in fall 2022. The project would continue until fall 2023, with construction of new athletic fields and demolition of the old school building.

Bora Architects is the designer for the Lincoln High project, while Hoffman Construction is working with the school district under a Construction Manager/General Contractor contract.

Primary features of the new school will include a new commons and outdoor plaza at the main entrance. Specialized classrooms for 2D and 3D fine arts and adjacent flex spaces are included, along with STEM labs and a maker space.

New athletic facilities will include a 1,700 seat main gym, auxiliary gym, weight room, wrestling/dance room, and a new track and field.

Further, a new 500-seat auditorium, black box theatre, dedicated band and choir classrooms and associated practice rooms will be built, along with a dedicated career technical education space intended for computer science, product design, mass communications, culinary arts, and business management programs.

To find information on this project, or others like it, join the 91ĘÓƵ Project Center. It’s a searchable and trackable database of thousands of construction projects in the PacificĚýNorthwest. Discover projects ranging from civil transportation work to private multifamily housing, and gain access to all the contact information and project documents you will need to bid on the project. Sign up for a free trial today by contacting Sharlene Richard at 503-802-7252 orĚýSRichard@djcOregon.com.

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The Portland Design Commission on Thursday praised the architectural evolution of Portland Public Schools‘ replacement for Lincoln High School, saying it has advanced toward meeting city design guidelines.

The six-floor, 281,000-square-foot building would shift the school on its existing site to Southwest 18thĚýAvenue and Salmon Street. Much of the commission’s discussion focused on how the building would look from that key intersection and other public vantages.

The building design from Bora Architects features glass on the corner of 18thĚýand Salmon, with a sawtooth-shaped façade on upper floors. The glass is meant to create a lantern effect at night when viewed from Providence Park or the Multnomah Athletic Club. The façade would use a reddish-brown ribbed panel contrasted with a lighter-colored panel.

The building would have a large, boxy classroom bar at the north end and a gym at the south end, connected by a lower-slung structure. Canopies extend along the 18thĚýAvenue frontage.

“There’s been some changes to the project that have created an active and strong architectural expression,” BDS staffer Staci Monroe said.

Commissioners praised the overall architecture, although they pushed for minor changes of some aspects.

“It looks good,” Chairwoman Julie Livingston said. “You’ve made remarkable progress on the architecture since you were in (a previous meeting).”

A large mural would front the building as Main Street terminates at 18thĚýAvenue. Bora is working with Portland’s Regional Arts and Culture Council on the mural. The mural’s theme may reflect Tanner Creek and the Chinese gardens that once covered Goose Hollow, said Chris Linn, a Bora principal.

Commissioners seemed poised to bless two modifications, or exceptions, to design guidelines. One concerns the eco-roof, which is supposed to be 60 percent covered by foliage or related features. The Bora Architects design has 28 percent eco-roof coverage.

To compensate, the design team is proposing to install ground-level landscaped areas totaling 63,600 square feet. Ground cover is more environmentally friendly as a heat and carbon sink, and requires less maintenance, Linn said.

“I think we have a proposal that better meets the intent of the guidelines than putting planting on the roof,” he said.

PPS’ large site will enable the design to provide plenty of ground cover. Commissioners noted the eco-roof guideline was written with more densely built sites in mind.

Bora’s design also must contend with a competing requirement for schools to have rooftop solar panels (the existing Lincoln High has a 1-kilowatt solar array installed in 2005). Installing a green roof underneath the solar panels would pose obstacles, Linn said.

Commissioners seemed amenable to the exceptions.

“I’m OK on the (green roof) modification,” Commissioner Sam Rodriguez said. “I believe it is meeting the intent to some extent.”

Bora is also requesting an exception to bike parking standards. Linn said few students bike to the school, and more bike parking could be provided at a later date if necessary. No commissioner objected.

Lincoln High enrolled 1,698 students in October 2018, according to Portland Public Schools. Lincoln is one of three high school being rebuilt with dollars from a May 2017 bond. BDS valued the project at $124.5 million.

The meeting was the fourth time the Lincoln High proposal has been in front of the Design Commission. The project will return for a land-use review, possibly in August, Linn said.

Construction is scheduled to begin in summer 2020.

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The long-awaited renovation of Lincoln High School, in Portland’s Goose Hollow neighborhood, isn’t supposed to start until next year, but general contractor Hoffman Construction is already seeking subcontractors for the job.

Lincoln is one of three high schools being modernized or rebuilt with money from a Portland Public Schools bond approved by voters in 2017. Bora Architects‘ design calls for the complete reconfiguration and update of learning spaces with a “focus on indoor environmental quality, sustainability and historic preservation,” according to Portland Public Schools.

A pre-bid meeting for mechanical, electrical and plumbing contractors is scheduled for 10 a.m. on April 5, at Lincoln High School, at 1600 S.W. Salmon St. This work will include plumbing, HVAC, electrical, communications, and electronic safety and security. All bids are due by 2 p.m. on April 22.

Construction is planned in two phases, according to the district, and will begin in summer 2020. Expectations are for students to move into the new building at the beginning of the 2022 school year, and new athletic facilities to be ready at the beginning of the 2023 school year.

Documents for the first phase of work are available at www.hoffmancorp.com/subcontractors. Prospective bidders can learn more by calling 503-221-8811 or emailing bids@hoffmancorp.com.

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A new retail store will open tomorrow in the historic Meier & Frank Building in downtown Portland. Japanese retailer MUJI will debut the 11,000-square-foot flagship store, its first location in the Pacific Northwest, in a ground-floor space fronting Southwest Fifth Avenue.

The opening follows a three-month tenant improvement project by contractor R&H Construction, which was tasked with completing the build-out in time for a Black Friday opening. Crews worked long hours to meet that deadline.

“We shaved off a few weeks by working around the clock and expediting the schedule,” said Adam Rainey, R&H Construction director of business development; he oversaw the project from an executive level. “It was kind of the only way we were able to accomplish it.”

The space was designed by Super Potato, a Tokyo-based firm responsible for producing the store concept. Bora Architects served as the architect of record, adapting Super Potato’s concept package into a complete plan set.

“Bora did an amazing job tying the whole thing together to make it a permittable project,” Rainey said.

The design is intended to combine local elements with the retailer’s established aesthetic. The space features over 120 old-growth reclaimed timbers sourced from Pioneer Millworks, the bulk of which originated in Oregon. All of the reclaimed timber was uniquely graded by a structural grader, after which KPFF Consulting Engineers determined how best to attach the pieces to the slab and the ceilings in order to ensure that the pieces were structurally sound. Axiom Custom Products was charged with staining, cutting and installing the reclaimed timbers, in addition to handling the project’s fixture package.

MUJI joins Oregon State University as a tenant in space formerly occupied by Macy’s at the Meier & Frank Building. The project was a joint development between Chicago-based Sterling Bay and KBS Realty Advisors of Newport Beach, California. Turner Construction was the general contractor for the core and shell renovation, which encompassed the basement through fifth floors of the building and was designed by Bora Architects.

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Hoffman Construction is seeking sub-bids for work on the Knight Campus for the Acceleration of Scientific Impact (KCASI) at the University of Oregon in Eugene.

Approximately $1 billion, including a $500 million donation from Phil and Penny Knight, is being invested in the KCASI. Development will the university’s existing science education complex along Franklin Boulevard. Three new state-of-the-art research facilities are designed to facilitate interdisciplinary research and collaboration.

When fully staffed, the campus within a campus will be home to around 300 employees, 250 graduate students, 150 undergraduate students, 150 postdoctoral scholars and 100 staff scientists.

Hoffman Construction is the construction manager-general contractorĚýfor the project. Bora Architects teamed with Ennead Architects of New York to design the first phase of work.

Construction is under way on the project’s $225 million first phase, which includes more than 160,000 square feet of new classroom and laboratory space. Completion of this phase is expected in 2020.

A pre-bid meeting, including discussion of the scope of work for Bid Package No. 6 has been set for 10 a.m. on Nov. 8, at the Knight Campus Annex, 1399 Franklin Blvd., Eugene. Attendance is not mandatory, but strongly encouraged by the contractor.

Bid Package No. 6 includes miscellaneous metals, cross-laminated timber, lab and architectural finishes.

Bids are due no later than 2 p.m. on Nov. 27. For more information, call 503-221-8811 or email Hoffman’s Daniel Johnston at daniel-johnston@hoffmancorp.com.

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