Project name: Emler Swim School

Location: 9140 S.W. Hall Blvd., Beaverton

Start date: August 2021

Completion date: May 2022

Cost: not disclosed

Owner: Emler Swim School

General Contractor: Joseph Hughes Construction

Architect: Polkinghorn Group Architects, Austin, Texas

Engineer: DCI Engineers

Significance of Project and Project Description: This project was originally started in February 2020 but was abruptly shut down after demolition of the prior tenant because of COVID-19 mandates. The project was shuttered for more than 30 months while the team got back both physiologically and economically.

When the project restarted, DCI Engineers solved a strategic and potentially costly issue with supporting the 7,000-pound dehumidifier on the roof by providing a solution of amending the structure in place in lieu of tearing open half the roof.

Once work was fully under way, the project was plagued by many issues, including supply chain challenges, increased building costs and increased power needs. With combined efforts and help from PGE and Janz Construction, a project subcontractor, Joseph Hughes Construction was able to get the power supply crossings in quickly without impacting the active restaurants in the existing commercial center.

Based on demographic data, Emler Swim School felt there were not enough schools in the Portland area to serve the need for water safety and swim lessons for young children. They also cited Portland’s active outdoor community as another reason for their expansion in Oregon. This is their first of two swim schools in Oregon with 29 total centers operating in Kansas, Texas and Nevada. Joseph Hughes Construction has also started construction on the Tualatin swim school, with estimated completion in fall/winter 2023.

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When I&E Construction wanted to use nail-laminated timber to showcase the interior of its new headquarters in Wilsonville, crews got busy.

The panels were fabricated in a shop in Woodburn. What that meant in practice was workers grading and then firing nail guns into two-by-fours. Again and again. It took three workers 10 days.

“We went through 18, 19 boxes of nails,” said Jim Cleghorn, an I&E Construction superintendent.

The company is nearing completion of the renovation and expansion of its new headquarters slightly east of Interstate 5 at Wilsonville. The structure is 23,000 square feet, including a 4,500-square-foot roof deck. It was recently given a temporary certificate of occupancy.

I&E used hemlock fir from Parr Lumber instead of enduring long lead times for cross-laminated timber or another building material. The timber panels represent a design highlight for the makeover of the former Pioneer Pacific College office building.

“We figured that NLT would be something that could be shop-fabricated or fabricated on site, on a tight timeline,” said Ryan McTague, a Woodblock Architecture senior designer who was involved in the project’s design. “We did some renderings, and it looked great.”

The new location, 27375 S.W. Parkway Ave. in Wilsonville, was purchased from the college. Cleghorn declined to reveal the project’s cost.

I&E, a general contractor that works on multifamily and commercial projects, outgrew its former headquarters in the Clackamas area, Cleghorn said. That property was sold to Papé Machinery.

I&E wanted an architectural highlight to bring a unique element to the building. The construction company settled on using nail-laminated timber in consultation with project designer Woodblock Architecture and DCI Engineers. After the wood beams were trucked in, they were installed to form the roof deck and ceiling.

Cleghorn, who recently joined I&E from a small remodeling company, said working with nail-laminated timber was a new experience.

“Once I wrapped my head around it, it came together pretty well,” he said.

The toughest part was figuring out how to integrate skylights into the nail-laminated timber, McTague said.

“We had to get on site and figure out where all the panel joints are,” he said.

One manufacturer, StructureCraft Builders in Abbotsford, British Columbia, has phased out nail-laminated timber in favor of dowel-laminated timber – an all-wood product. Nail-laminated timber can still be produced for specific projects, according to StructureCraft’s website.

Overall, McTague said the material worked as designed and he’d be happy to use it in another project.

“I’d love to use it again as a structural finish material,” he said. “It gives the material a lot more texture. It looks nice.”

The headquarters project has charged ahead despite the coronavirus pandemic. During a recent site visit, workers were busy. They appeared to be observing social distancing, but none was wearing a mask. Shared equipment was being wiped down regularly, Cleghorn said.

The construction team has encountered some snags, but work has continued without serious interruption. Acquisition of certain materials has proved challenging, Cleghorn said.

“The glass, in particular – the lead time is just killing me,” he said.

Woodblock Architecture sought permits for the project in October. Final completion is on track for mid-June, Cleghorn said.

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Urban Development + Partners is moving forward with plans for a three-building mixed-use development that would anchor the north end of downtown Lake Oswego.

The Lake Oswego Redevelopment Agency‘s board last month voted to authorize negotiations with UD+P for a memorandum of understanding and a disposition and development agreement for the project, which is expected to cost more than $60 million.

The Portland developer plans to construct three buildings on a 1.07-acre site that was cobbled together by the city of Lake Oswego to bring new development. The city spent $6.8 million to assemble the parcels, which are for now mostly covered by surface parking lots.

A 51-room boutique hotel would occupy the westernmost parcel at B Avenue and First Street, and come from the same people behind the Atticus Hotel – a luxurious wine-country retreat in McMinnville. The Lake Oswego hotel is likely to be part of the Atticus brand, said Sarah Zahn, UD+P’s development director.

Architect Nathan Cooprider designed the McMinnville hotel and is on board to design its Lake Oswego counterpart. Plans call for a four-story, 45,000-square-foot building, Zahn said.

The middle parcel would have a four-story, 45-unit apartment building.

The third parcel would have 30,000 square feet of office space. It would rise as three main floors, with a small fourth floor opening onto a rooftop deck.

“At UD+P, our major focus is really urban infill – walkable, community-based development – and we feel like this location in downtown Lake Oswego is a good opportunity to continue that focus,” Zahn said.

Hacker is designing the office and residential structures. DCI Engineers is also working on the project.

UD+P has not selected a general contractor. The developer will invite handpicked contractors to participate in a selection process, Zahn said.

For the city of Lake Oswego, the plan would fulfill a long-held goal to anchor the north side of downtown and to complement The Windward and other new developments to the south. Lake Oswego officials refer to the UD+P project as North Anchor.

“We’re really looking at something to energize a compact shopping district,” said Sidaro Sin, redevelopment manager for the city.

Four-story buildings are appropriate for the existing scale of downtown, Sin said.

“The key thing here is kind of a balance between a development that works and also fits within the character of Lake Oswego,” he said.

Zahn expressed hope that the boutique hotel would work in concert with – a new four-story, mixed-use building from the Haladay family’s 10 Branch development company that includes a 10,000-square-foot event center and wedding venue.

“We feel like there’s demand in Lake Oswego for all of these uses,” she said.

UD+P is Lake Oswego’s latest business partner for North Anchor. A previous request for proposals led to the city selecting Sturgeon Development Partners; however, the firm withdrew from the project last year. Sturgeon Development Partners had planned a somewhat different project, with a larger, 132-room hotel, but no multifamily or office space.

“They weren’t able to secure all the financing that they needed at the time,” Sin said. “It was amicable.”

Vanessa Sturgeon, a principal and founder of Sturgeon Development Partners, said local politics in Lake Oswego, including demands by one city councilor for affordable housing, sank the project.

“It ended up spooking our investors,” she said. “The Lake Oswego political environment is what killed the deal.”

Lake Oswego then launched a second request for proposals in late 2019 that led to the connection with UD+P.

UD+P is confident it will be able to complete the project despite the economic upheaval wrought by the coronavirus pandemic, Zahn said.

“We have our own investment fund that we bring to bear on projects, so our horizon is a long-term horizon,” she said. “This gives us some more flexibility.”

UD+P is not obligated to buy the land right away, Zahn said.

“We can work with the city,” she said.

The city and developer are on track to execute a memorandum of understanding in June, and a disposition and development agreement in September, Zahn said.

“We would start construction next summer,” she said. “So hopefully, from a timing perspective, we’ll be at a good time for starting a project and financing a project.”

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A historic, three-story building near the Burnside Bridge‘s east end has a long history. It was constructed in 1912 as the Alco Apartments, joining the trend of offering ground-floor commercial spaces below workforce housing units.

The building’s name later was changed to the Vivian Apartments, and then it eventually closed slightly more than five years ago.

In 2016, the building at 110 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Two years later, it was purchased for $2.3 million by Kristinn Vilbergsson, founder and CEO of KEX Hostel – a business based in Reykjavik, Iceland. Vilbergsson announced his intention to transform the run-down building into the first KEX Hostel in North America. A restaurant, bar and rooftop patio bar also are planned.

Green Light Development is guiding the renovation, which is now in the final stages. In fact, R&H Construction already formally delivered the project; however, some scopes of work were transferred to the owners so distinctive finishes and décor could be added.

Of course, the project’s designer, Hennebery Eddy Architects, first had to address the building’s unreinforced masonry. DCI Engineers contributed to that portion of the work.

“It’s a full-on seismic upgrade,” said Tim Eddy, founding principal of Hennebery Eddy Architects. “The building didn’t have an elevator; it had one stair and we added a second means of egress. The building has a lot of charm, and the existing scale is indicative of many parts of Portland at the turn of the century and well into the ’20s, ’30s and ’40s. So from a historic perspective, it’s an important building.”

Over the past year, crews gutted the building’s interior in order to construct a new concrete core with a pair of elevators. This addition allowed a host of new glulam beams to be extended outward from the core and tied new into structural steel brace framing around the perimeter.

“The elevator core and other shear walls on the exterior and the brace frames establish the lateral system for the building,” Eddy said. “And those are connected into floor diaphragm and then at the roof, and that ties the building together.”

The project has essentially provided a new structure wrapped in a historic shell, said Evan Charpentier, a senior project manager with R&H Construction.

“We built a concrete box that goes all the way from the basement to the roof,” he said. “And there is a ton of timber to create some rigidity, and this gives you the structural core that everything can come off of. And these (steel) braces, perpendicular to one another, give you shear.”

The brace frames, Charpentier explained, sit on a solid concrete shear panel that starts in the basement. This panel was poured onto a massive footing containing a “very elaborate cage of iron,” he said. A rigid, perpendicular moment frame was created, and then repeated throughout the building to create significant rigidity that did not exist previously.

Plainly evident is the refreshment that transformed old apartments into vibrant guest rooms with bathrooms. However, a largely hidden but significant addition is a false ceiling on the ground floor to create roughly four feet of buffer between guest rooms and the bar/restaurant space below.

“It’s a complete acoustic separation between this public space and the rest of the hotel,” Charpentier said.

Because the building is listed on the national register, Eddy noted, its hallways, original entry and exterior features had to be preserved.

“It’s a combination of a contemporary program use and a historic building that really works well together,” he said. “That building is ready for its next 100 years.”

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A boutique ski hotel in Northern Idaho designed by Portland-based Skylab Architecture will break the mold of a classic luxury getaway, bringing snowy vacations into the contemporary era while retaining elements that shape the identity of the local skiing culture.

The design team’s working vision statement: “Seattle cool meets Idaho ski bum.”

Construction recently began on the 30-room hotel at Schweitzer Mountain Resort near Sandpoint, Idaho.

Internally, the building references old ski equipment and bright ski suits of the 20^th century, with materials like granite, basalt and Douglas fir honoring regional identity. But on the outside, cedar, metal and an abundance of glass will make the place thoroughly modern.

“What Skylab’s trying to do is interpret the regional history and culture of Schweitzer, and then kind of put a twist on it,” Skylab designer Jamin AAsum said. “It’s a modern aesthetic, it’s a modern take on a ski lodge.”

AAsum said the hotel is being designed to compete with other ski resorts in Idaho, such as those in Sun Valley, while also attracting a new generation of younger skiers. He said the hotel aims to “bring Seattle to Schweitzer” with its modern amenities and styling. It’s a “ski-in, ski-out” hotel, which means guests can hit the slopes right from their rooms.

Skiers can seek refuge from the slopes at a 50-seat restaurant or in unique bar and lounge areas, and a terrace will provide outdoor gathering space on fair-weather days.

Guest rooms offer views of nearby Lake Pend Oreille, while common areas are oriented toward Schweitzer Mountain. At the opposite end of the building from the restaurant and bar is what AAsum called “the living room,” a place for families to relax and play games, and a rooftop space will contain a spa with hot tubs and an outdoor shower.

There are challenges to building on the side of a mountain, AAsum said. Construction crews can only access the site via a nine-mile-long road between the months of June and October. Due to the grade of the site, the 42-car below-grade parking garage is essentially being cut into the side of the hill.

Foundation work is currently under way at the project, which is being built by Spokane-based general contractor Walker Construction. The Spokane office of DCI Engineers is the project’s structural engineer, and Denver-based Dunn + Kiley is the landscape architect.

While the initial design is being built for skiing, AAsum said the ultimate goal will be to create a year-round, modern facility that can be used for summer activities as well.

“It’s a little rebellion,” he said. “It’s not quite the quiet ski hotel.”

Design Beyond Borders is a 91��Ƶ feature offering a look at the projects outside of Oregon being tackled by local architecture firms. To have your firm’s projects considered, contact 91��Ƶ architecture and engineering reporter Alex Visser at 503-802-7224 or avisser@djcOregon.com.

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A wave of protestations by neighboring residents on Thursday greeted the design team of a hotel planned in Portland’s Pearl District. That reception came during the team’s first advice hearing before the Portland Design Commission, which offered a number of criticisms on the initial proposal.

Minneapolis-based ESG Architecture & Design presented its plans for a 13-story, 131-foot-tall hotel, which would sit on a quarter block at the corner of Northwest 14th Avenue and Everett Street. Local firms make up the rest of the team, with DCI Engineers serving as structural engineer, Humber Design Group serving as civil engineer, and Mortenson Construction acting as owner, developer and general contractor.

The brand of the hotel has not yet been disclosed.

Plans call for a 105,000-square-foot building with 221 guest rooms, a fitness room on the top floor and a ground floor occupied by bar, lounge, market and meeting spaces. The entrance, lobby, lounge and only loading zone would be on Everett Street.

In taking cues from the Pearl District’s industrial past, a metal frame would wrap around the building’s exterior. It would also have metal panels, a healthy portion of glass windows, and smaller bits of metal and brick veneer.

The design was only partially responsible for the influx of Pearl District residents who came to voice their disapproval. Besides a few comments about the proposed dark color, opponents mostly took aim at the prospect of such a large building in the particular location, as well as possible traffic issues, because 14th Avenue essentially serves as an off-ramp for Interstate 405.

“Its appearance and proposed height overwhelm this corner of the south Pearl,” said Patricia Cliff, president of the Pearl Neighbors for Integrity in Design.

Cliff went on to say the area is gaining too many hotels, which are designed to maximize owners’ profits, and not serve the community’s interests.

Resident Glen Traeger similarly said the proposed building would be too dark and should better represent the neighborhood’s history. He also proposed conducting a traffic study to determine the potential ramifications of building a hotel in such a car-crowded area.

Commissioners for the most part did not address the points brought up by the public, but rather the design’s more nuanced elements – including the overall massing, the shape and the use of materials.

Much was made of a need for a setback in the building’s middle floors, to give more of a shape. Commissioners said the current design looks too much like a box. While a decrease in the upper massing was offered as a solution, there was also a suggestion by Commissioner Jessica Molinar to cave in the windows, which are currently flat against the exterior walls.

In the same vein, Commissioner Don Vallaster and others said the metal frame would be too flat and needs to be more distinguished. As designed, the building wouldn’t have the industrial look being pursued, they said, but it could if it were more protruded. The design team provided examples of other hotels with this aesthetic in locations outside of Portland.

Commissioners also said the materials used would be too various and cluttered. They said there was too much color, and the aesthetics would clash when combined.

“It needs to be simplified,” Commissioner Samuel Rodriguez said. “I don’t have a problem with the material; it’s how you’re using (it), how you’re putting it all together.”

The Design Commission will schedule a follow-up hearing for the hotel project.

Also on Thursday:

Parking garage office addition approved

The Design Commission OK’d plans for a nine-story office building addition to an existing six-story parking garage being built in Lloyd. The 100 NE Multnomah Office Building will be built across Northeast Holladay Street from the Oregon Convention Center.

The project was designed by ZGF Architects for owner and developer Prosper Portland. Mortenson Construction will serve as the general contractor.

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The newest addition to the ever-growing Burnside bridgehead area is nearing completion. Yorke & Curtis is winding down work on Aura Burnside, a five-over-one mixed-use building with below-grade parking encompassing three-quarters of the block bounded by East Burnside Street and Northeast Couch Street, and Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Grand Avenue.

The building contains 157 studio, one- and two-bedroom apartment units over flex retail space along both the Burnside Street and Grand Avenue frontages. Common residential areas include a rooftop patio with a fire pit and grill, a second-floor club room with a kitchen and dining area, and a ground-floor lobby with a fireplace and seating area. A bicycle storage facility will also contain a repair stand and a wash area able to also be used for pets.

The building’s top three floors are nearly complete, the third floor is in the punch-list phase, and levels one and two are in finish stages. Crews are also finishing site work, including pouring sidewalks, patching asphalt, and installing planters and first-floor siding. A temporary certificate of occupancy is expected for the project next week, and substantial completion is expected by the end of the year.

The project was developed by the Seattle office of Dallas, Texas-based Trinsic Residential Group, and designed by Merryman Barnes Architects. DCI Engineers is handling structural engineering, and Harper Houf Peterson Righellis Inc. is performing civil and landscape engineering.

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The old Mariners Home, built in 1882 and vacant for more than 30 years, will again be a haven for travelers when it reopens in October.

The building of at the corner of Northwest Davis Street and Northwest Third Avenue in Portland’s Old Town Chinatown district will be renamed the and will offer hostel-style bunk beds as well as private rooms and suites.

The building has undergone massive renovation and seismic upgrades since reconstruction began more than a year ago, said Matt Siegel, owner of Building Blocks LLC. Siegel is one of four partners who are investing between $4 million and $5 million in the building. The partners, including Jessie Burke, Gabe Genauer and Jonathan Cohen, secured approximately $700,000 in loans from the Portland Development Commission and obtained the rest of the money from Lewis & Clark Bank.

Cohen, an engineer, designed a “top-notch system” with heat pumps that will “heat and cool and provide continuous fresh air into every room,” Siegel said.

Siegel’s company is in charge of construction with project management by Groundswell Development, Inc. The design was handled by Integrate Architecture, DCI Engineers and Blossom Igarashi Interior Design. All are based in Portland.

Shawn Uhlman, spokesman for the Portland Development Commission, said he toured the almost finished building last week and anticipates the project will transform the neighborhood.

“Hotel projects in Old Town Chinatown have been pretty rare things,” Uhlman said. “But it will have a steady stream of people outside the “8 to 5” window and that augments all of the positive momentum that seems to be occurring there right now. It’s a welcome addition and will be bringing tourists to that part of Portland – the oldest part of the city. They will come and bring their dollars and it will have a fantastic ripple effect.”

In addition, Uhlman said Siegel and his team have been extremely cooperative throughout the whole process.

“We have really enjoyed working with that team and they are to be commended,” he said.

A SHARED PASSION

The four-member team consists of Siegel, whose company specializes in historic preservation; “technical guru” Cohen; Genauer, with 27 years in real estate and construction; and Burke, “hospitality expert and community-organizing glue,” according to hotel literature.

One thing the four all have in common is their passion for the project, Siegel said, and they plan on running the hotel themselves. When asked how much experience they had in running a hotel, Siegel was blunt.

“Absolutely none,” he said with a big grin.

The hotel will be staffed full-time around the clock, Siegel said, and he and his partners will depend on the expertise of consultant Mark Keller of Partnership Hospitality.

The building was once a place of refuge for sailors back in the late 1800s, and Siegel said he hopes to attract modern-day adventurers.

“We went back and forth on the name, but it was first used by the Seaman’s Friendship Society,” he said. “We want it to be welcome and open to adventurous travelers because that’s who came to Portland 150 years ago.”

Rates will range from $35 per night for a bunk bed to $135 a night for a private suite and bath. The hostel portion of the hotel will feature triple-level bunk. Hostel guests will have storage lockers, privacy curtains, reading lamps and electric outlets, Siegel said, and the hotel will have free Wi-Fi throughout.

“We will also have common space just for the hostel with couches, lockers, three bathrooms and a kitchenette,” he said.

Siegel gave a tour of the building last week, stepping around scores of workers as they nailed up drywall and took other final steps to bring the building to completion.

“We are in the finishing phase,” he said. “We’re finishing the drywall, with the carpenters and painters soon to follow.”

The hotel was originally three stories, but in 1891 the entire structure was raised for the addition of a new bottom floor that featured cast iron exterior detailing, Siegel said.

PRESERVING DETAILS

According to the Oregon Historical Society, the was originally a seamen’s bethel (chapel), kitchen, reading room and chaplain’s quarters in 1879 run by the Portland Seamen’s Friends Society to help improve the lot of sailors. In 1882, the society built the three-story building that became the Mariners’ Home, designed by prominent Portland architect Justus Krumbein. The society sold the structure in 1903.

Many historical artifacts were found in the hotel, which will be on display, and historic details will be preserved, Siegel said. Those details include cherry wood staircase banisters, door trim and wainscoting, and original stair treads. Old doors will be used as wall panels behind the reception desk, and the brick and stucco exterior will be fully preserved.

But the finished hotel also will have every modern convenience, including a newly installed elevator that goes all the way to the roof, Siegel said.

“The elevator shaft is a major part of the seismic upgrade and we have new concrete walls up to the roof,” he said. “We even made the concrete look old, using board forms, like they would have done 100 years ago.

The building uses “a ton of hardware” to pull it all the structural elements together, Siegel said.

“That allowed us to group the bathrooms around the center of the building and the rooms around the perimeter,” he said.

The smallest “standard” rooms are only about 10 by 12 feet, but have ceilings at least 10 feet high. Each will have custom-built queen size beds with under-bed storage and vintage-style lighting fixtures and communal bathrooms. The largest rooms, or suites, will have king-size beds, pull-out sofa beds and private bathrooms. All the rooms will feature original 8-foot-tall windows.

“The décor of the rooms is sparse and clean and very efficient,” Siegel said.

The ground floor of the building will have two entrances, one for the front desk and another for a café. The café, which will be open to the public, will serve coffee, tea and snacks during daytime hours and wine and beer at night.

The spacious lounging area between the front desk and the café will have a gas fireplace and leather couches, Siegel said.

“We want all our spaces to be comfortable at all times,” he said.

That extends to the roof, which has been reinforced to support any activity, Siegel said.

“We rebuilt the entire roof to support whatever we want to do,” he said. “We will put in a wooden deck, lots of plants, shaded areas, bench sheets and tables.”

Future activities on the roof could include movie nights, he said, and possibly music events. The roof will also support a large solar array and will have green roof elements.

“We are personally and emotionally invested, and will be on site quite a bit,” he said. “People will be able to start making reservations in about a month and a half.”

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Renovation work continues on an Old Town Chinatown building that is being converted to the Society Hotel, a 36-room boutique hotel and hostel. General contractor Building Blocks LLC is pouring footings for a concrete and steel elevator shaft running through the center of the building, which is being redeveloped by owner group KeyMar LLC. Additional footings will be poured for shear walls that will provide seismic stability for the 5-story unreinforced masonry building, and demolition continues on the building’s interior lath and plaster walls.

Completion of the Integrate Architecture-designed project is slated for May 2015.

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Renovating the old Seaman’s Bethel building in Portland’s Old Town/Chinatown into a European-style hostel will start with the foundation and move all the way to the roof.

That process begins with removing a rubble foundation that has supported the long-vacant 12,000 square-foot, four-story building on Northwest Third Avenue and replacing it with a modern seismic, support system without losing the building’s historic nature.

A development group called KeyMar LLC is remaking the currently unreinforced building into the Society Hotel, a 39-room hostel that will include a ground-floor café and rooftop terrace.

“Seismic is the challenge,” said Matt Siegel, a KeyMar partner and the principal of Building Blocks LLC, which is the design-build contractor on the project. “We are wrapping our heads around the massive seismic upgrades that have to be done to bring it up to a place where it will last another 100 years.”

Massive footings will be poured into two corners of the building and a third seismic support – a concrete and steel elevator shaft – will run up through the center of the building.

Hundreds of metal straps will be tied into the building’s brick walls and ceilings, creating a system that will absorb the shock of a major earthquake, Siegel said.

As the seismic work proceeds, no alterations will be made visible from the exterior of the building except a fresh coat of paint, Siegel said. Instead of adding diagonal cross braces on windows, Building Blocks basically will build a building inside of a building, with eight-inch-thick concrete shear walls bracing the building from its footings all the way to the roof.

“We elected not to use the cross braces because it disrupts the historic look of the building,” Siegel said. “Instead, we will build new concrete walls inside of the old.”

Seismic work will represent about 20 percent of the total construction costs, said Jonathan Cohen, a partner in KeyMar. Cohen would not disclose total project costs because the design and some permits are still in process.

The project will involve significant energy upgrades that will allow the developers to apply for a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design gold designation, said Cohen, who also is a principal of Imagine Energy LLC, a Portland-based energy consulting and design firm.

KeyMar is looking to place the building on the National Historic Register, which could garner a 20 percent tax credit against improvement costs upon completion of the project, Cohen said.

With an eye toward earning a spot on the register, the project team worked with Heritage Consulting Group, a national firm with offices in Portland, to determine the historic use of the building and how the building would be preserved.

For example, KeyMar will preserve and maintain several aspects of the building, particularly those in the most public parts of the building, Cohen said. An aged handrail along the stairwell that currently does not meet code requirements will be kept in place and wrapped with a higher guard rail that meets code, Cohen said. Additionally, about three tons of Douglas fir wood stripped from the ceilings throughout the building will be remilled and reinstalled on the ground floor.

The National Park Service and the State Office of Historic Preservation approved the team’s submitted preservation plan, which will be monitored throughout the project. Placement on the registry would be made upon completion of the project, Cohen said.

Energy efficient systems will be installed throughout the building without causing significant changes to the building’s historic nature, including energy-efficient features, rooftop photovoltaic panels and a heat recovery ventilation system that recirculates air throughout the building, according to Cohen.

Laser-cut window inserts will be placed inside the building’s single-paned windows, sealing out air loss, Cohen said. The inserts will keep the windows intact for historic preservation, he said.

That process of creating energy efficiency without altering the historic aspects of the building is critical for the success of historic preservation, said Peggy Moretti, executive director of Restore Oregon, who has toured the future Society Hotel building and called the project “a good catalyst” for other projects that could follow in the Old Town area.

The building’s natural ventilation features and windows lend themselves to technology upgrades, Moretti said.

“There are lots of ways these ways buildings can be made very energy efficient,” she said. “There’s a lot of old technology, but you can build in energy efficiency without losing the historic nature of the building.”

Project: The Society Hotel

Address: 203-209 N.W. Third Ave., Portland

Construction start: November 2013

Completion: May 2015

Project owner: KeyMar LLC

Architect: Integrate Architecture

Engineer: DCI Engineers

General contractor: Building Blocks LLC

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