PROJECT: Lincoln City Police Department facility

LOCATION: 1503 S.E. East Devils Lake Road, Lincoln City

SIZE:��18,500 square feet

COST:��$10.5 million

CONSTRUCTION START DATE: 2018

CONSTRUCTION END DATE: 2020

OWNERS: city of Lincoln City and Lincoln City Police Department

OWNER’S REPRESENTATIVE: Klosh Group

ARCHITECT: FFA Architecture and Interiors

ENGINEERS: KPFF Consulting Engineers (structural, civil); Sazan Group (MEP)

CONTRACTOR:��Emerick Construction Co.

OTHER ASSOCIATES: Acoustic Design Studio

SIGNIFICANCE OF PROJECT: The Lincoln City Police Department formerly operated out of an old ambulance building on a heavily wooded and sloped site. In 2017, the city selected FFA Architecture and Interiors to design a new, 18,500-square-foot facility.

The project presented several challenges, beginning with the site. It’s steep and backs up to property designated for a future city park. Access points were limited, and there was difficulty separating the site’s public and secure zones. Also, the existing building housed dispatch operations and needed to remain in place during construction, so the buildable area of the site was limited.

After engaging in a robust programming effort with the police department and consultant MWL Architects, the FFA team engaged in a research phase. Members worked closely with City Council and police staff to identify goals for the project and key metrics for its success. The team also conducted in-depth research into the history and culture of Lincoln City, working with citizens to determine an “origin story” that would influence representation of the final project.

Structural and envelope materials were chosen for three reasons: labor savings, coastal environment, and security. During design, FFA team members were told by contractors in the Willamette Valley that there was a 40 percent premium to perform commercial-level construction at the coast. This was mainly driven by transportation costs for workers. This led FFA to choose systems – including cross-laminated timber and unit fiberglass windows – able to be prefabricated.

That same labor theme impacted the choice of exterior cladding. Masonry is typically used to address security concerns of a police station. This is specifically tied to the ballistic performance of the wall. FFA was able to show that a combination of concrete tile and solid CLT walls met the same requirements. The team members did this by mocking up a section of the wall and letting police staff take it to a shooting range for target practice. The concrete shingles echo the cedar shingles common at the coast but last longer in the harsh climate.

“Building Blocks” 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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A sustainable yet practical approach to development of a new agriculture complex at Chemeketa Community College has produced a building expected to have net-zero energy use.

The anchor of the northern edge of an 8-acre campus in Salem is the 15,000-square-foot classroom building. FFA Architecture + Interiors designed the building, Lango Hansen Landscape Architects oversaw the exterior landscaping, and Swinerton Builders completed construction recently.

The project team had high sustainability goals. A mass-plywood-panel structure was chosen, along with a natural air ventilation system, and photovoltaic panels. Chemeketa Community College and FFA worked with Energy Trust of Oregon to help offset costs via the nonprofit’s Path to Net Zero program.

FFA Associate Partner Edward Running said when he starts work on a new project, he first sees what financial resources are available.

“The inability to make (a) better building has been cost,” he said.

With assistance from Energy Trust of Oregon, a 45-kilowatt solar array was placed on the roof of an exterior walkway along the building’s south side. The canopy not only ensures the photovoltaic panels receive sunlight, Running said, but also shades classrooms and puts less pressure on the ventilation system.

At first, even with those features, the building would have had an Energy Use Intensity (EUI) number too high to be net-zero. That number is calculated by dividing the building’s total energy consumed in one year by the total gross floor area. The new classroom building would’ve been around 20 EUI, Running said.

By the time the project team realized it wouldn’t achieve net-zero energy, it was a little late in the process; the contractor had been selected, and construction documents were completed. Now, 20 EUI would’ve been significantly lower than the state’s requirement that public buildings perform at least 20 percent better than the building code. But the team was “so close to net zero … the cost wasn’t too much more,” Running said.

Chemeketa Community College Technical Development Manager Isaac Talley then sought a grant from Portland General Electric to bridge the gap.

“There’s always the pursuit of the practical, best possible option but (a) need to balance that with what will work and the budget,” Talley said.

The college also looks at what would be the “best bang for the buck and maintaining the best functionality through the life of the building,” he added.

In February, when the project was nearing substantial completion, Talley received word that the team would receive a $158,000 grant from PGE. That would put a 91-kilowatt solar array on the classroom building’s roof, and achieve net-zero energy use.

The total cost to reach that goal was around $9 million, Running and Talley estimated. That included concrete floors, insulation, window systems, an efficient mechanical system, and the original solar array.

The key to this project, Running said, was “not trying to do every single sustainability strategy under the sun.” Instead, the team honed in on a few – one was natural ventilation inside the building, and another was solar energy production outside.

Outdoor features of the complex will include gardens and farm demonstration fields. Now the college can say it’s “harvesting from the ground and harvesting from the sun,” Running said.

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One of the advantages of mass-timber construction in the Portland-metro area is that products aren’t far away. They can be produced at plants in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia, Canada. That has taken on even greater importance now, when deliveries of many materials are beginning to take longer.

P&C Construction knew that as it began to construct the Robert Libke Public Safety Building in Oregon City. Rick McMurry, chief safety officer for MHA Resource Co., parent of P&C Construction, said delayed arrivals of materials due to the COVID-19 pandemic haven’t yet impacted the anticipated completion date for the project. But the possibility of that happening is on team members’ minds.

“Once this (pandemic) rolled out, we’ve been checking in weekly with subcontractors about anything with a lead time,” said Will Somme, a P&C Construction project manager. “We’re like, ‘Guys, this is a public project. We have an avenue to get stored material paid for; let’s get it here.’ At some point it’s going to have an impact. We just don’t know when that’s going to happen.”

The Robert Libke Public Safety Building will be a single-level, 34,000-square-foot, multipurpose facility located on the Mt. Pleasant property that formerly held school buildings over more than 150 years. The ex-Mt. Pleasant Elementary School, at 1232 Linn Ave., was demolished to make way for the new building. It will house the Oregon City Police Department, municipal court space and emergency management operations.

The building is named for the late Reserve Officer Robert Libke, who in 2013 responded to a house fire, was shot by an occupant of the house, and then died the next day. A new outdoor plaza will feature a memorial wall made of bricks and a main entry window salvaged from the elementary school.

Designed by FFA Architecture & Interiors, the new building is being constructed entirely from mass timber, with cross-laminated timber panels for walls and ceilings, and glulam beams and columns holding everything up. The entire heavy-timber package was fabricated by British Columbia firm Structurlam. All structural elements were placed this past winter, prior to the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The facility is designed to seismic standards that call for immediate operations in the wake of a significant earthquake. Even interior shear walls meant to protect the building during seismic events are made from cross-laminated timber panels.

Engineers designed a roof structure with the entire diaphragm locked into the structural elements via a series of massive, six-inch, metal-plate drag struts, Somme said. KPFF Consulting Engineers is the structural engineer for the project.

Typically, on a wood structure locking the diaphragm together with angle brackets, drag struts and other measures is not needed, he added. But because this is a Category 4 building it was required.

Steel, buckling-restrained brace frames were considered and rejected on aesthetic grounds, Somme added.

“On a CLT structure you can incorporate those BRB frames,” he said. “But you don’t really want to because it takes away from the visualization of the interior of the building. You see the cross braces and you think, ‘Well, that’s a beautiful wall behind it.’ It was a challenge for our structural engineers.”

The building’s interior is designed to showcase the heavy timber, with CLT wall and ceiling panels left exposed along with ductwork.

The rectangular massing features a variety of cutouts that create courtyards with protected views and openness to ample natural light. Public areas, including the municipal court, will be separated from law enforcement-only spaces, including offices, conference rooms, evidence storage and more. All of these spaces will feature vaulted ceilings and natural light coming from a clerestory that parallels the main corridor running the length of the building.

On the exterior, metal panels will feature predominantly, along with curtain-wall storefronts.

For now, the scheduled completion date for the project is Aug. 21. That could change, however.

“The way (the pandemic is) going it might eventually, but for now it hasn’t,” McMurry said.

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A large earthquake is expected by some experts to shake the Pacific Northwest within the next 50 years or so. The new Beaverton Public Safety Center now under construction is being engineered to withstand such a quake and continue operating thereafter.

Ground was broken in September 2018 on the three-story, 72,000-square-foot building on a 3.5-acre site at the junction of Southwest Hall and Allen boulevards. The center is being built by general contractor Skanska USA Building to an “essential facility” standard that calls for immediate occupancy and safe operation following a seismic event. Designers settled on a structural approach combining steel, mass timber and concrete.

“We’re using steel primarily to get our longer spans and reduce the column spacing on the interior,” said John Pete, project architect for FFA Architecture and Interiors.

However, use of cross-laminated timber floor and ceiling panels allowed removal from the design of much of additional steel that otherwise would have been needed. A three-and-a-half-inch concrete deck will be poured atop the CLT.

“The CLT goes in first and actually is the formwork for the concrete to be poured in on top of it,” Pete said. “That provides a lot of our seismic performance and ties our BRB (buckling restrained brace) frames together and provides a lot of the seismic stability.”

While seismically effective, the hybrid approach also increases the complexity of project management, procurement and logistics.

“Anytime you’re interfacing different types of materials,” said Derek Bourque, project manager for Skanska USA Building, “whether it be steel and CLT, steel and CMU, the more materials you mix the more challenging it becomes, in our opinion and experience.”

Currently, ironworkers are erecting structural steel for the building’s second floor. Carpenters from Swinerton Builders have been hired to fly in and install the CLT panels because of their expertise with this methodology.

“Typically when we build a steel structure we go three or four floors and then start decking our way up,” Bourque said. “But on this project we have to go up floor by floor, because we would trap ourselves and not be able to fly the panels in if we framed the structure up. And then just flying 10,000-pound-plus panels 40 feet long and getting them in position and trying to thread them between columns, it’s tough.”

Other building areas – almost exclusively those not facing the public – will feature concrete tilt panels and CMU (concrete masonry unit) wall construction. A slab-on-grade foundation will have an HDPE (high-density polyethylene) liner to keep moisture out.

The building’s interior will hold open office space, holding cells, storage areas, an employee gym, and an open lobby with a stair featuring exposed structural steel and precast treads and landings.

Interior finishes will include exposed CLT ceilings, architecturally exposed structural steel, acoustical paneling, finish carpentry, polished concrete flooring, interior glazing and gypsum assemblies.

The exterior façade will primarily feature masonry veneer with recessed vertical patterns. An aluminum-framed storefront and curtainwall glazing assembly will greet the public with glass and vertical wood slats, while exterior areas featuring tilt panels will also have inset metal panels.

The building is designed to be the new home of not only the Beaverton Police Department, but also the city’s emergency operations management department. To preserve operations after a sizable earthquake, the building must remain upright and functional.

As such, the center will have a 330 kilowatt rooftop photovoltaic array and an emergency diesel generator with underground fuel storage. Also, a micro-grid energy management system is being implemented to coordinate and control various power sources.

The new center will be a vast improvement over the police department’s current digs near Griffith Park, police Capt. Eric Oathes said.

“We’re at the Griffith Building right now, and it’s just a really old building that’s been remodeled time after time,” said Oathes, who is serving as the city’s project manager. “We wanted the open office concept to be able to have free flow throughout the building and bring all the units back together, and especially bringing the emergency management offices into it. They’re (serving) an important role in this as well, so we wanted to make sure that in the event when an emergency comes up and we have to activate the EOC, that we have the room and the facility to be able to meet the needs of the community.”

The building is scheduled for delivery in March 2020.

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Ground will be broken June 11 on a 15,000-square-foot academic building that will form the heart of a new agricultural complex at Chemeketa Community College‘s main campus in Salem.

FFA Architecture and Interiors designed the building to feature light-filled, double-height spaces at the center. There will be views of the outdoors through a large glass wall and an overhead door that will open to the south. Programming will include flexible learning and research areas as well as working spaces for students, staff and industry partners.

General contractor Swinerton Builders will oversee installation of cross-laminated timber floor panels and other mass-timber elements. A unique covered arcade will protect the building along its south façade with a large photovoltaic roof array as the sustainable centerpiece. Lango Hansen Landscape Architects is responsible for the exterior landscaping.

“Unlike a typical academic project, the surroundings are vital to the educational success of the complex, and will serve as a focal point to connect with partners throughout the public and professional community,” FFA senior associate and project manager Edward Running stated in an email.

There will be several outbuildings, including greenhouses, labs and an outdoor classroom pavilion. In addition, there will be a tree specimen meadow for studies as well as a botanical rainwater garden.��To the south, agricultural fields will host academic and research activities.

“Chemeketa has long been a leader in sustainable design, so it’s really fitting that the Agricultural Complex is being enrolled in the Energy Trust’s Path to Net Zero Program,” Running stated. “The buildings that frame the site actually interact with their environment a lot like plants interacting with the changing seasons. So, the learning environment extends way beyond walls of the classroom, deep into the eight-acre site.”

Designers have incorporated solar power, a high-performance envelope, daylighting, natural ventilation, high-efficiency utility systems, water reclamation, and use of local materials.

The building will sit at the corner of 45th Avenue and Fire Protection Way in Salem.

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Mortenson Construction is seeking bids from subcontractors for work connected with the renovation of Westridge Elementary School in Lake Oswego.

The Lake Oswego School District is seeking safety and security improvements, seismic upgrades, accessibility improvements, work to address deferred maintenance, and more.

Both the existing roof and water-damaged entry canopy will be replaced. All existing cedar siding will be replaced with metal siding. Failing clerestory windows will be replaced, while old masonry will be repointed or replaced. Also, the parking lot will gain a new layer of pavement.

Shear walls will be created by adding plywood to existing interior walls, and a secure vestibule will be created within the entry hall. Access control and alarms will be added at points of entry and exit.

Plumbing fixtures will be replaced in two restroom areas to meet accessibility requirements. The library will gain LED light fixtures as well as small reading rooms by removing a seismically unsound loft area and partial walls. Also, a storage room will be converted into a work room for teachers.

Two kindergarten classrooms will be transformed into maker space for use by all students, and a 1,820-square-foot addition with one new classroom and restrooms will be added to offset the loss of classroom space.

FFA Architecture and Interiors is handling design, and Mortenson is serving as construction manager/general contractor. Work will involve roof and envelope elements, mechanical and plumbing and electrical equipment, fire sprinklers, demolition, seismic upgrades, and architectural improvements. Construction is set to take place this summer.

Interested parties may obtain electronic copies of the RFP documents by emailing Michael Maximchuk at michael.maximchuk@mortenson.com, or view the documents by visiting Mortenson’s Portland office at 710 N.W. 14th Ave., Suite 300. Bids must be submitted to Maximchuk by 2 p.m. on March 18.

To find information on this project, or others like it, join the 91��Ƶ Project Center. It’s a searchable and trackable database of thousands of construction projects in the Pacific��Northwest. 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 or��SRichard@djcOregon.com.

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A partnership including Unico Properties has purchased the Galleria Building, a downtown Portland landmark that dates back to 1910, and a renovation project is now planned for the upper two floors.

Unico and its partners, who were not identified, bought the property from Bill Naito Company for $64.1 million, according to a deed recorded Dec. 13.

The five-story, 194,737-square-foot Galleria occupies a full block in the West End. The building was originally an Olds, Wortman & King department store, and is now anchored by Target in an 89,000-square-foot space designed by FFA Architecture and Interiors.

Target opened in the building in 2013.

Currently, the Galleria’s top two floors are vacant.

“With 80,000 square feet of available office space on the upper two floors, we plan to make significant capital investments to convert the existing office space to creative office space, and bring a first-class tenant experience to the building with a new lobby and new common area amenities,” Brian Pearce, Unico’s senior vice president of real estate services, stated in a news release.

Urban Works Real Estate has listed for lease three ground-floor retail spaces totaling nearly 20,000 square feet at the building’s corner of Southwest Ninth Avenue and Morrison Street. A representative declined to comment Tuesday.

On Jan. 24, the new owners submitted to the Bureau of Development Services a request for design advice for a renovation including a new office penthouse and roof terraces. The owners also on Jan. 25 requested a complex zoning analysis of the property relating to a transfer of floor area ratio.

The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Editor’s note: this story has been updated to reflect the building’s correct sale price.

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Emerick Construction is seeking bids from subcontractors for work on a new police station in Lincoln City.

The new 18,000-square-foot law enforcement facility will be built with structural steel, cross-laminated timber, a precast concrete tile roof and wall cladding. Associated civil, landscaping and site improvements also are planned.

Other key members of the project team include FFA Architecture and Interiors and KPFF Consulting Engineers.

The city intends to use the new station mainly for office and administrative use, but there also will be storage space, a sally port for police vehicles and four temporary holding cells in which to hold criminal suspects prior to release or transport to the county jail in Newport.

Construction will take place on two tax lots totaling 4.26 acres adjacent to Lincoln City’s existing police station. Operations in that facility will continue unabated during construction of the new building.

The project cost started at $8 million, but eventually grew to $14.5 million. The City Council, however, agreed last spring to budget only $10.5 million for the project. Then the council was forced to come back in July to approve an additional $2 million in funding. Original plans called for a building holding more than 20,000 square feet, but substantial floor space was trimmed to save money.

A pre-bid meeting to discuss the project and view site conditions has been scheduled for 10 a.m. on Oct. 9, starting at City Hall, Room 301. Following that meeting, all bids for work must be submitted by 2 p.m. on Oct. 17.

The existing two-story police station is nearly 40 years old and has outdated technology. The building has been remodeled at least four times, but still has just 8,700 square feet of floor space. It also sits partly on a concrete pad and partly on concrete pilings. The new station will be much larger, of course, but also substantially more seismically reinforced. State law requires that all public safety facilities undergo seismic retrofits by 2022, which was just one impetus for the city to pursue the project at this time.

After the new station is built, the old station will remain unoccupied for the time being, because demolition was deemed too costly to perform immediately.

Questions about the project can be directed to Emerick Construction project manager Matt Winkler at: 503-777-5531 or mattw@emerick.com.

Bid documents are available to download at: .

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Skanska USA is seeking bids from subcontractors for work on Beaverton’s new Public Safety Center.

The 72,000-square-foot building is being constructed at 12500 S.W. Allen Blvd. to house the Beaverton Police Department and Emergency Management Division. The city expects this project on a corner property to be a catalyst for redevelopment of the surrounding neighborhood.

The design by FFA Architecture and Interiors anticipates growth of the city agency through at least 2050. The two-story building will have an open work environment.

Shiels Obletz Johnsen was hired by the city to provide management of entitlements, planning, design, construction and sustainability for the $35 million project. Construction is expected to wrap up by 2020.

The scope of work open for bidding includes: cast-in-place and tilt-up concrete, site concrete, electrical, fire detection and alarm, access control and security, low-voltage communications, mechanical HVAC, fire protection, plumbing, cross-laminated timber, structural steel, miscellaneous steel, passenger elevators, masonry, gypsum assemblies and stud framing, door frames and hardware, glass and glazing, finish carpentry and architectural woodwork, bituminous roofing, roofing accessories and specialties, metal wall and roof panels, lockers, mobile storage shelving, site concrete and concrete paving, flooring and tile, painting and coatings, signage, metal-framed skylights, asphalt paving, folding panel partitions, toilet bath and laundry accessories, toilet compartments, bituminous damproofing, joint sealants, decorative fences and gates, security barriers and gates, landscaping and irrigation, building specialties, police specialties, and site furnishings and specialties.

All bids for structural concrete, site concrete and concrete floor finishes must be submitted either via email to: Francesca Gambetti at francesca@sojpdx.com, or via sealed envelope to: Shiels Obletz Johnsen, Attn: Francesca Gambetti, 1140 S.W. 11th Ave., Suite 500, Portland, OR 97205.

All other bids should be submitted either via email to: Derek Bourque at derek.bourque@skanska.com, or via sealed envelope to: Skanska, 222 S.W. Columbia St., Suite 300, Portland, OR 97201.

The deadline to submit a bid is noon on Friday, Oct. 5.

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Guerrilla Development‘s Fair-Haired Dumbbell has begun to attract a mix of hip retail shops and creative agencies drawn to the two colorful, connected buildings that were constructed in 2017.

Fifty percent of the 56,000 square feet of speculative office space is leased, Kevin Cavenaugh, principal of Guerrilla Development, stated in an email message.

The buildings opened for leasing amid strong competition in the Portland office market, and in particular the Central Eastside submarket, where developers are rushing to deliver projects.

Plastic Sunshine, a creative agency that offers brand, digital and activation services, has taken 2,000 square feet on the sixth floor of the north building.

TenPod, a co-working company, is taking the second floor of both buildings and will open in early June, Cavenaugh said. Fuzzco, another branding agency, also is an office tenant.

On the ground floor, Crema Coffee plans to open soon. And 11:11, a new retailer of modern office furnishings, is also working toward opening.

The sixth floor of the south building and the fourth floor of both buildings are taken by tenants that Cavenaugh could not yet disclose.

The Fair-Haired Dumbbell has attracted outsized attention in part due to the exterior mural of vibrant, abstract paint designed by Los Angeles artist James Jean. Cavenaugh also became the first developer in Oregon to use an innovative crowdfunding model to attract small investors.

Several of the office spaces are being built out to suit tenants.

“While the Dumbbell looks slow and empty now, we have crews in there building out the office spaces as fast as we can,” Cavenaugh stated. “Tenants are ready and I’m trying to keep up.”

Plastic Sunshine moved into its space in January after searching for something suitable in a newly constructed building, said Danica Wilson, co-founder of the agency. Most of the available office space in Portland was arriving via adaptive reuse, she said.

“Everything looked like it was in the old, dark, converted warehouse-y buildings,” she said.

Wilson was attracted to the lighter, modern look of the Fair-Haired Dumbbell.

“For us, the building looked really odd from the outside, but from the inside the building is beautiful and full of light, which is key to our creative inspiration,” she said.

The Fair-Haired Dumbbell’s seismic resiliency was another strong selling point, Wilson said.

The building has no vehicle parking. Wilson said that hasn’t been an issue because of street parking existing nearby, employees commuting by bicycle and easy access from the Portland Streetcar.

11:11 started with a successful pop-up at The Cleaners – the Ace Hotel‘s rentable space. Plans call for the new store at the Fair-Haired Dumbbell to softly open May 31, with a grand opening June 21.

Paloma Medina, the store’s proprietor, said she looked for seven or eight months before finding the right spot for 11:11 in the Fair-Haired Dumbbell. She drove by the building several times and grew to enjoy the colorful exterior.

“I really wanted to hate the building, but I kind of love it,” she said.

The building was built by Andersen Construction, with a design by FFA Architecture and Interiors.

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