A Portland ordinance intended to minimize the spread of hazardous materials during residential building demolitions has been largely effective, according to a new city report analyzing the first 18 months of implementation.

Portland City Council in 2018 adopted updates to the building demolition code as a means to protect neighbors of structures undergoing demolition. Prior to passage of the residential demolition ordinance, the city had no regulations in place for containment of materials such as asbestos and lead-based paint. The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality was responsible for enforcing asbestos abatement rules, but lacked the resources to do so.

Stakeholders including contractors, the city’s Development Review Advisory Committee, neighborhood representatives, state agencies and city staff convened over the course of six months to craft the ordinance, which gained approval in February 2018 and took effect in July 2018.

The ordinance applies to residential buildings with up to four units, and includes garages and other accessory structures. Among its provisions are requirements that plastic sheeting be placed around demolition sites and in waste bins to prevent soil contamination and runoff, removal of exterior surfaces by hand rather than with mechanical equipment, use of water spray to contain dust and debris, and prohibition of mechanical demolition when wind speeds exceed 25 miles per hour.

In addition, the ordinance requires the Bureau of Development Services to expand the geographic reach of mailed and door-hung demolition notices, makes demolition permits susceptible to BDS staff review, requires contractors to submit demolition plans and materials surveys prior to starting work, and mandates three inspections over the course of a demolition – one each before, during and after the project. An interim administrative rule adopted earlier this month updated the policy to require two inspections during the demolition process.

From implementation in 2018 through the end of last year, the city accepted about 550 demolition permit applications that were subject to the new rules and took 47 enforcement actions for violations of the ordinance. After an initial correction notice, penalties for noncompliance start at $5,000 for the first offense, $10,000 for the second, and $15,000 each for subsequent violations. Through Dec. 31, 2019, the city issued 42 correction notices, two stop work orders and three first offense citations.

According to a BDS report presented to Portland City Council this week, the ordinance – the strongest of its kind nationwide, as stated in the report – has resulted in a reduction in both off-site demolition impacts and complaints to the bureau about dust from mechanical demolition activities.

City staff and stakeholders have identified several areas for improvement in the code, and are drafting updates to the rules, including requiring those performing demolition work to have lead-based paint certifications (regardless of whether that person is a contractor), and removing a requirement that somebody with certified asbestos accreditation be on-site during mechanical demolition. Revisions to the ordinance are being finalized by BDS staff and are slated for presentation to City Council next month.

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Northwest Infrastructure is demolishing the Dirty Duck building for general contractor Fortis Construction, who will be building the Blanchet House of Hospitality homeless shelter on the site. Michael Martin, right, an apprentice laborer with Northwest Infrastructure, sprays water to contain dust as a building at the corner of Northwest Third Avenue and Glisan Street is demolished today.

More photos after the jump.

Northwest Infrastructure employees Dontay Martin, left, a journeyman heavy equipment operator with Local 701, and Neil Meokie, a heavy equipment operator, remove a ceiling beam from the building.

A cloud of dust envelopes Northwest Infrastructure owner Michael Martin as he removes bricks from the building’s facade.

Antonio Gastulem, a journeyman laborer with Local 320 and employee of Northwest Infrastructure, removes a piece of rubble from the building.

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About 85 percent of the materials from the deconstruction will be reclaimed for reuse, according to Shane Endicott, executive director of The ReBuilding Center.

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Two old apartment buildings on the corner of Northeast Sixth Avenue and Couch Street are disappearing slowly. The vanishing act is the painstaking work of The ReBuilding Center, which provides deconstruction services as a sustainable alternative to demolition.

Developer Brad Fowler of acquired the buildings – one with four stories and one with two and a half – in 2006. He has since planned for the half-block between Couch and Davis streets to be transformed into a mixed-use development. But he didn’t want to sacrifice historic materials in the process.

While deconstruction does cost significantly more – up to 50 percent more, according to Fowler – than traditional demolition, the existing buildings’ character led to the decision in favor of the six-week-long deconstruction project.

J.D. Elder, president of , estimated that a traditional demolition would have removed the buildings safely in less than two weeks and would have cost about five times less. Materials would have been recycled rather than salvaged.

Fowler noted that the buildings were constructed in the early 1900s, and had systems and an envelope that were in disrepair. However, he added that many fixtures, trim work and even functional pocket doors with original stained finishes were worth saving.

“It was the right thing to do,” Fowler said. “Our feeling was that it would be a shame to waste all of the old-growth lumber (approximately 105 years old) that could be reclaimed.”

The tax benefit of deconstruction also can shrink a cost gap substantially, depending on the value of reclaimed and donated materials. They will be appraised at the end of the process, Fowler said.

“Given the size of the new project, our feeling is that, although it won’t be easy, we can absorb this difference – especially if the majority of materials can be reclaimed,” he said.

Fowler contacted Shane Endicott, executive director of , to begin deconstructing the combined 11,439 square feet. The team is working backward from the way the apartments were built, systematically removing materials from the roof to the foundation by hand. Salvaged items are then loaded onto custom racks, inventoried and either donated to community projects or transported to the reuse warehouse on North Mississippi Avenue, where visitors can browse through sinks, tubs, tile, lumber, doors, windows, trim and more.

The Couch Street apartments is the largest single project The ReBuilding Center has taken on in the past seven years, said Endicott, who expects that 85 percent of materials from the deconstruction will be reclaimed for reuse.

“Doing this is definitely not the fastest way to get the buildings down, but it’s going to yield the most environmental benefits,” Endicott said. A poster near the work site displays the approximate benefits that the nail-by-nail, board-by-board removal will yield. According to The ReBuilding Center, because deconstruction was chosen instead of demolition, the project is saving the equivalent of 189 mature trees, 2,860 pounds of greenhouse gases from being released and 13,727 gallons of fresh, clean water from being used.

Despite a longer process and larger expense, Fowler was committed to making it work, Endicott said. The sustainable deconstruction is making way for contractor to start work this fall on eight live-work units, 62 market-rate apartments and 3,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space.

The modern exterior of the building will update the look of the Northeast Portland corner, and will feature a common rooftop deck, rooftop-mounted solar panels to assist in heating hot water and generous bicycle storage. Plus, the Vallaster and Corl Architects team incorporated turn-of-the-century recovered materials into the design.

“It’s a close enough equation where it really makes sense to look at it,” Fowler says of opting for deconstruction. “If you go by the site, you can see how much is being salvaged. It’s remarkable.”

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One of downtown Vancouver, Wash.’s most notable icons will be demolished to make way for a new $16 million mixed-use development.

The retro looking, walkup Burgerville location – the company’s second location ever – that sits along East Mill Plain Boulevard in downtown Vancouver will be demolished as early as October.

The decision to demolish the building came after Elie Kassab, owner of the Vancouver-based , purchased the site from the fast-food chain for $750,000. Using the parcel and a neighboring vacant lot the development firm owns, Kassab plans to construct two buildings – known as Prestige Place – that will have 11,000 square feet of ground floor retail under 92 market-rate apartment units.

Burgerville won’t be abandoning its roots, though.

In a letter to Burgerville guests, president and CEO Jeff Harvey said the company has had its headquarters in Vancouver for nearly 50 years, and that won’t be changing. He also stated that the company would be looking for a new downtown location for one of its restaurants.

“Burgerville has always been dedicated to healthy and thriving communities, and we believe that this new development will help bring a renaissance to downtown Vancouver and ultimately benefit the community’s residents, local businesses and Burgerville as well,” he said.

Burgerville officials will close the location for good in October, at which time the building will be demolished. Construction of the new buildings is expected to begin after the demolition, and a completion is slated for late 2011.

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Oregon State University civil engineers will create a simulated bridge failure that will mimic the one that caused the Interstate 35W failure in Minneapolis in 2007, OSU .

That failure killed 13 people and injured 145.

The OSU test will look at how the truss connecting plate failed. It’s designed to further investigate why many bridge failures are caused by connectors rather than girders and beams.

One of the researchers has set up a Web cam so folks can watch the simulation as it happens today at 11 a.m. Here’s the link:

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Oregon State University civil engineers will create a simulated bridge failure that will mimic the one that caused the Interstate 35W failure in Minneapolis in 2007, OSU .

That failure killed 13 people and injured 145.

The OSU test will look at how the truss connecting plate failed. It’s designed to further investigate why many bridge failures are caused by connectors rather than girders and beams.

One of the researchers has set up a Web cam so folks can watch the simulation as it happens today at 11 a.m. Here’s the link:

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The Portland Development Commission announced today it is seeking bids for the demolition of the former Oregon Mountain Community building on Block 8 in Old Town.

The PDC-owned building sits on the same block as the former Globe Hotel Building, which is the future home of the Oregon Oriental College of Medicine.

The building, located at 1 N.W. Couch St., was most recently home of Oregon Mountain Community, an outdoor retail store, before the company moved to the Hollywood District in 2004. Brad Malsin, principal with Beam Development, said the demolition will allow for the renovation of the Globe Hotel Building and will open the site for future redevelopment.

“We are exploring some options for the site, but it is too early to know exactly what we will do with it,” Malsin said.

SD Deacon, the general contractor on the Globe Hotel Building renovation, is expected to get to work on the building sometime next month.

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A downtown Portland music club may soon be torn down to make way for a center for the homeless.

The Satyricon, a music club famous for hosting early performances of famous bands such as Nirvana and Elliott Smith, plans to close its doors for good in October. The club had previously closed in 2003 and reopened in 2006.

The nonprofit MacDonald Center, which has purchased a building at 125 N.W. 6th Ave., plans to demolish it, according to Drina Simons, development director with the MacDonald Center. On the lot, the nonprofit plans to build a service center on the ground floor with studio apartments for low-income residents of Old Town above.

No demolition notices have been filed yet for the project, according to the city of Portland’s public notice website. The MacDonald Center is currently located in a building located next door to Satyricon at 605 N.W. Couch St.

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