Portland-based LRS Architects next week will host a holiday-themed LEGO building contest for industry firms.

Each team in the inaugural Bricktastic LEGO Holiday Build-Off will assemble a portion of a cityscape with the plastic toy bricks at the firm’s Pearl District office. All LEGO sets used in the competition will then be donated to Doernbecher Children’s Hospital for holiday gifts.

The theme of the competition is urban holiday waterfront, and LRS Architects staffers prepared a special LEGO building code for participants, LRS marketing director Julie Olson said.

“We realized in order for it to come together as a cohesive landscape we would have to have some parameters,” she said. “We actually have a whole manual that was sent out to all the teams.”

Olson said LRS staffers came up with the contest as an engaging way to celebrate the holidays with industry peers and also support Doernbecher.

“We wanted to do something that was more community outreach, plus it would be fun,” she said. “Everybody gets excited about LEGOs; I don’t care how old you are. We had no shortage of people at LRS wanting to participate.”

About 25 LRS staffers signed on to compete, Olson said. Other firms participating in the competition include Bremik Construction, Interface Engineering, Nishkian Dean, Cardno WRG, PACE Engineers, R&H Construction, Perlo Construction and 3J Consulting Inc.

The contest entries will be judged Dec. 20, and prizes will be awarded in categories including tallest display, best holiday theme, children’s choice, people’s choice and best in show.

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Restore Oregon last week honored five preservation projects and named seven historic properties at risk of being lost. The 2014 DeMuro Award winners and properties on the 2015 list of Oregon’s Most Endangered Places were revealed during the nonprofit’s Restoration Celebration event in Portland.

The DeMuro Awards, named in honor of late Portland developer and preservationist Art DeMuro, recognize commercial, residential and public projects in Oregon that serve as extraordinary examples of historic preservation, adaptive reuse and community revitalization. This year’s winners include four projects in Portland: Fire Station No. 7, the Galleria Building, the Irvington Tennis Club and the Meier & Frank Delivery Depot. The Whiteside Theatre in Corvallis also received a DeMuro Award.

Developer Venerable Properties rehabilitated the decommissioned Fire Station No. 7, constructed in 1927, for office use while retaining its original character, including the fire pole. The project was designed by Emerick Architects and constructed by Bremik Construction.

The 104-year-old Galleria Building was restored by Bill Naito Co. and renovated to house a Target store. The project was designed by FFA Architecture and Interiors and constructed by Lease Crutcher Lewis.

An addition to the Irvington Tennis Club designed by Scott | Edwards Architecture to respect the original 102-year-old building and surrounding historic neighborhood also earned recognition. P & C Construction was the contractor.

Developer Gerding Edlen led a transformation of the 1927 Meier & Frank Delivery Depot in Portland’s Pearl District into Vestas‘ North American headquarters. The project was designed by GBD Architects and Ankrom Moisan Architects (interiors), and constructed by Skanska.

The Whiteside Theatre Foundation organized a restoration and structural rehab of the 1950s marquee on the downtown Corvallis building. The project architect was Andrew Pearson and Bob Grant Construction was the contractor.

Properties deemed Oregon’s Most Endangered Places are: the First Congregational Church in Portland, the Eastern Oregon University Grand Staircase in La Grande, the Gray Building in Portland, the Mildred Kanipe House in Oakland, the Shipley-Cook Barn in Lake Oswego, the Smith Barn in Cave Junction and the Wong Laundry Building in Portland.

Each property was nominated for inclusion on the list. A committee reviewed the nominations and compiled the list based on urgency of preservation, historic significance, community support and long-term viability. Listed properties will receive assistance from Restore Oregon.

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Bremik Construction has broken ground on an eight-story multifamily project in Southwest Portland.

Clay Street Associates in June applied to the Portland Bureau of Development Services for a permit to construct an $11.5 million apartment building. The city issued the permit on Friday.

The effort to build the Cameron Apartments, at 1500 S.W. 12th Ave., got under way last month when Bremik Construction demolished a single-story office building on the site.

Dean Lindstrom, a project executive with Bremik Construction, said the new building will be a combination of concrete and Hambro steel joists.

“The building is unique in that it’s a structural metal-stud building,” he said. “It will be a composite of concrete shear walls and metal studs.”

Lindstrom said site excavation began last week and that his company is planning to pour the concrete piers later this week if weather allows.

When completed, the apartment will have 83 units, Lindstrom said. They will be studios, one-bedroom units or two-bedroom units. The ground floor will hold a guest lobby; no parking is planned, he said.

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The design for a new fire station in east Multnomah County takes prominent cues from its rural setting.

“What we landed on in terms of design was the agricultural feel,” Hennebery Eddy Architects principal Michelle Vo said. “It made sense as something to guide the design.”

Multnomah County Rural Fire Protection District No. 10 a little over a year ago hired the Portland-based firm to design the replacement of Fire Station 76 near the intersection of Southeast 302nd Avenue and Dodge Park Boulevard in Gresham. Crews with Portland-based general contractor Bremik Construction last week started building the project estimated to cost between $4 million and $5 million.

Last fall, the fire station’s understated design – inspired by nearby barns, greenhouses and other agricultural structures – garnered an Unbuilt Citation Award from the American Institute of Architects’ Portland chapter.

The Hennebery Eddy design team took a minimalist approach to the 9,570-square-foot building in reverence to the natural beauty surrounding it, including views of Mount Hood, Vo said. This appealed to the AIA Portland Design Awards jury, she said.

“The jury did mention the super clean floor plan,” she said. “It’s just so simple. There are some really simple material choices and the opportunity to open up to Mount Hood.”

Fire district officials have long sought to replace the existing Fire Station 76 built in the 1960s, said Michael McKeel, chairman of the district’s board. The approximately 2,400-square-foot station is susceptible to mold, has a failing septic system and is inadequate to meet today’s standards for emergency response services, he said.

Because the existing station’s location is constrained, the district purchased a 5-acre site across the street to house the new station and training grounds, McKeel said. The project is scheduled to finish in spring 2015.

During initial design stages, Hennebery Eddy staffers took photos of agricultural buildings in the surrounding area for inspiration and shared them with fire district officials. The design scheme made perfect sense for the rural district, McKeel said.

“Farms need fire and emergency services too,” he said. “It needs to reflect the architecture of the area. We made it look like a lot of the barns out there.”

The station’s dual functions will be reflected in the design, Vo said. A corrugated-steel-clad, barn-like structure with bays will hold trucks and other firefighting equipment, and a shorter attached building will house firefighters’ living quarters, a board room and offices.

“We have the low living quarters that’s trying to recede into the landscape, but also bringing it to the public in a way that is inviting,” Vo said.

For the living quarters’ siding, Hennebery Eddy staffers chose to use reclaimed wood – from a Troutdale barn – that will be charred by Salem-based Barnwood Naturals via a Japanese technique. Fire district officials initially were taken aback by the approach, but quickly warmed up to the idea, McKeel said.

“When Hennebery Eddy ran that by us we said, ‘That’s kind of odd,’ ” he said. “Because it’s a fire station it’s kind of interesting because it’s treated with fire.”

Many of the design considerations also involved optimization of emergency response times, Vo said. The station will be oriented so that bays are closest to the nearest intersection and living quarters are closely connected to the garage so firefighters can quickly suit up and get on the road. When a call comes in, the kitchen stove will turn off automatically and red lights will turn on in the bunk rooms to give firefighters’ eyes time to adjust.

Scott Lewis, division chief with the Gresham Fire Department, which staffs the fire station, emphasized response times during the design process.

“It’s about getting the firefighters to the (equipment) and out the door quickly, so the flow of the building is key,” he said.

Fire Station 76 replacement

Location: Southeast 302nd Avenue and Dodge Park Boulevard, Gresham

Cost: $4 million to $5 million

Construction start date: August 2014

Anticipated completion date: spring 2015

Owner: Multnomah County Rural Fire Protection District No. 10

General contractor: Bremik Construction

Architect: Hennebery Eddy Architects

Landscape architect: Otten Landscape Architects

Engineers: Nishkian Dean, KPFF Consulting Engineers, Interface Engineering

Other associates: Architectural Cost Consultants, Barnwood Naturals

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Multnomah County Commissioner-elect Jules Bailey is spearheading an effort to create a county program that would provide cheap financing for energy-efficiency retrofits of commercial buildings.

Through the program, lenders would provide low-interest, long-term loans for various projects to increase energy efficiency in the built environment. Lenders would receive assurance of repayment because debt would be assessed by the county via borrowers’ property taxes, Bailey said. No support from taxpayers would be required, he said.

“There is capital, but builders are very risk averse,” he said. “This is a proven way to secure a funding mechanism in a way that doesn’t involve the public.”

The program would help owners defray costs – and provide a boost for the industry, Bremik Construction President Brent Parry said.

“Everything does get down to that first cost,” he said. “If people can find a way to defray that first cost or find another funding mechanism, that’s the way to do it.”

Details of the program are still being worked out, but Parry envisions developers bundling project pieces – such as an HVAC system replacement, a seismic upgrade or a rooftop solar array installation – into a separate, more affordable loan.

Bailey, who has been working with Portland Development Commission and county leaders for more than a year, intends to introduce the program this summer after he is sworn into office June 9.

“They’re champing at the bit,” he said of PDC officials who envision the program facilitating projects throughout Portland.

Bailey was part of the Oregon Legislature that in February passed House Bill 4041. It opened the door for counties to establish programs allowing third-party financing of retrofit projects in which loans come from private sources, but debt is attached to the borrower’s property tax rolls.

Any sale of the property would then transfer the loan to the buyer, Bailey said.

“It gives the lender assurance and allows really cheap capital,” he said. “It is very attractive to building owners, who can upgrade their buildings.”

The program is modeled after California’s , which were introduced for residences in 2008. The default rate for PACE commercial projects is less than 1 percent, Bailey said.

The PDC has studied PACE and other states’ programs, agency spokesman Shawn Uhlman said.

“The PACE piece is part of a broader legislation that allowed the open market financing,” he said. “We’re interested in pursuing a role in that program. It certainly is intriguing.”

A similar residential retrofitting program, Clean Energy Works, started as a pilot program in Portland in 2009 and expanded statewide in 2010. The program, which allows homeowners to pay back low-interest loans on their utility bills, helped Portland-based Neil Kelly Co. increase its performance division from four employees to 70 during the deepest depths of the recession, said Tom Kelly, the company’s president and owner.

“That totally changed the dynamic,” he said. “A lot of growth happened in the recession, which was what those stimulus dollars were intended to do. We were one of those companies that created jobs.”

A program targeting commercial retrofits could provide a similar boost, Kelly said.

“Of course we are interested,” he said. “Small-scale commercial retrofitting is a huge opportunity.”

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A former bank branch in Southeast Portland is gaining a splash of bright color and an infusion of Latin American culture.

Portland-based Scott | Edwards Architecture‘s design for the Portland Mercado, a Latino-themed public market, calls for a bright orange, yellow, fuchsia and turquoise facade with murals painted above entrances.

The budget for the $2.4 million project was limited, and renovations to the Portland Development Commission-owned building on the corner of Southeast 72nd Avenue and Foster Road will be minimal. That left a colorful paint job as the best way to transform the building’s appearance and pay homage to Latin American culture, Scott | Edwards principal Lisa McClellan said.

“This needs to be an attractive place that people want to go to,” she said. “We really had to do something that attracts someone immediately, and our main tool kit was color.”

A microenterprise retail model developed by Portland-based nonprofit Hacienda Community Development Corp. will be used for the project. The Portland Mercado, when renovated, will serve as a small business incubator with space for about 18 vendors selling various Latin American foods and products. A portion of the property’s approximate 39,000 square feet will be transformed into a plaza for food carts, and the existing 6,000-square-foot building will become a public market with stalls, tables and storefronts.

“We have (designed) markets before – traditional supermarkets – but this is different,” McClellan said. “I think a lot of what we’re trying to do is provide this base shell and provide ways that it can be personalized.”

It’s the first time Hacienda CDC, which predominantly serves Latinos, has developed a project that isn’t affordable housing.

“We’re working with a population that has a really strong entrepreneurial spirit,” Hacienda CDC spokeswoman Jamie Melton said. “For us, we want to give them that platform to support their families.”

Also, the project will fill a void in the city, Melton said.

“Portland doesn’t really have a hub for culture and commerce like you would have in Latin America,” she said.

While designing the Portland Mercado, Scott | Edwards staffers took inspiration from other Portland buildings with a distinctive Latino flair. These included brightly colored Cuban restaurant Pambiche Cocina & Repostería Cubana in Northeast Portland and equally loud Mexican restaurant ¿Por Qué No? Taqueria in North and Southeast Portland.

Design team members with Latino heritage also brought personal insight to the project. One was Scott | Edwards staffer Roseva Alcerro Saa, who served as an intern while the Portland Mercado was designed. Saa, originally from Honduras, helped choose the colors for the facade. Her inspiration was simple.

“I’m Latin,” she said. “We use a lot of bright, bright colors.”

McClellan said she appreciated Saa taking the lead on the color scheme.

“I probably would have been too timid to do it, but it was the right move,” McClellan said.

Saa’s involvement in the design process also proved valuable when Scott | Edwards staffers shared project plans with potential Portland Mercado vendors. Saa used her knowledge of the project to clearly explain it in Spanish to vendors whose English was limited.

The renovation will involve removal of the ceiling to expose the trusses and bring a sense of openness to the central market hall. The building will otherwise remain unchanged.

“Inside, the vendors are going to be the ones that make the space alive,” Saa said.

Three large retail spaces will have storefronts that face the street and the market hall. Inside, vendors’ table space will be similar to a farmers market, though four 400-square-foot retail stalls will be more permanent.

Since the market stalls will be small, every inch is maximized. Overhead shelves, for example, will double as a place to post a sign.

“These little spaces need to be as flexible and dual-duty as possible,” McClellan said.

Market hall and food cart vendors will share a commissary kitchen space to prepare food. Their patrons will have access to an indoor dining hall in the building’s former bank vault.

“It’s not your traditional food cart pod,” McClellan said. “The really nice thing is you can bring your food inside and eat it.”

Construction is scheduled to start in early June and finish in December or January. Portland-based Bremik Construction is the contractor.

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