Two apartment projects are moving ahead after the Portland Design Commission issued its approval on Thursday.

Commissioners OK’d FFA Architecture and Interiors‘ design for the 125-unit Tess O’ Brien Apartments in Northwest Portland and TVA Architects‘ design for the 61-unit Jefferson 14 Apartments in Southwest Portland.

They also offered feedback on two planned projects during separate design advice hearings. The first was for initial designs by Behnisch Architkten and SRG Partnership to renovate and expand the Portland State University School of Business Administration building. The second featured discussion of YBA Architects‘ design for Front 17, a Northwest Portland mixed-use development that includes separate residential and office buildings with ground-floor retail space.

The commission voted 3-1 to approve the design of the Tess O’Brien Apartments, at 1950 N.W. Pettygrove St. and 1953 N.W. Overton St. Commissioner Tad Savinar cast the lone dissenting vote.

“I feel there is an opportunity missed,” he explained. “I don’t think it quite meets the mark for me.”

Plans for the $15 million project call for two six-story apartment buildings with a large courtyard in between that includes outdoor seating, stormwater planters and bike storage. Construction is scheduled to start this spring, said Marty Kehoe, the project’s developer and owner of Portland-based Kehoe Northwest Properties. A general contractor has not yet been hired, he said.

Thursday’s hearing was the fourth for the project, which has been criticized by design commissioners and neighboring residents. The FFA Architecture design team presented several design modifications based on feedback from the neighborhood and the Design Commission during a previous hearing last month. This included elevating the stoops with stairs leading to the ground-floor residential units, proposing a darker brown color on the stucco end walls and steel canopies instead of cloth awnings.

Kehoe told the commission that the project team worked extensively to ensure that city design guidelines would be met and address neighbors’ concerns that the six-story apartment buildings would be too tall.

“The buildings are blending in (with the neighborhood),” he said. “It’s obvious … We’ve responded to just about everything we could have done. We’d like your approval.”

Commissioners said they appreciated the changes to the design. The revised color scheme and sturdier metal canopies worked especially well, Commissioner David Keltner said.

“I just think it’s more coherent,” he said. “I’m ready to approve this project.”

Commissioners later unanimously approved the design of the Jefferson 14 Apartments, at 1450 S.W. Jefferson St. Construction is scheduled to start this summer or fall, according to Everett Custom Homes President Vic Remmers, the project developer. His company will construct it using in-house labor, he said.

Project plans call for a six-story building with an entry courtyard between the building and the east property line with stormwater planters and access to long-term bike parking. The minimalist facade features a board-formed concrete ground floor with upper floors clad in ribbed and smooth metal panels, TVA Architects principal Bob Thompson said.

“This is a very simple plan stacked vertically,” he said. “We’re trying to create rhythm with the elevations by basically creating shrouds around the windows.”

Commissioners said they liked the look, but several expressed concerns with plans to place the garbage and recycling access for the apartment building next to the main lobby. As a condition of approving the design, they asked TVA designers to move the trash door elsewhere.

Commission Chairman David Wark said that placing garbage access adjacent to the lobby devalued the building.

“It just seems like the wrong place to me,” he said. “I can’t support it up front.”

Commissioners responded overwhelmingly positively to the plans to renovate the existing 100,000-square-foot PSU business school building and construct a 29,700-square-foot addition on the north side. They praised the design team’s plans in collaboration with Portland-based landscape architecture firm Mayer/Reed to enhance a plaza in front of the building that will welcome pedestrian and bicycle traffic on Southwest Montgomery Street.

“I really can’t wait for the next visit to see how it comes to reality,” Wark said.

General contractor Skanska is scheduled to start construction on the project in August.

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The team proposing to construct near the east end of the Burnside Bridge a mixed-use development featuring two six-story buildings with a facade inspired by wrapping paper has applied to the Portland Bureau of Development Services for another design review hearing.

Phillip Chubb, an associate with FFA Architecture and Interiors, on Dec. 3 submitted the request to address modifications made to the Fair-Haired Dumbbell since a previous hearing before the Portland Design Commission. Ross Caron, a spokesman with the BDS, said no date has been set for the next hearing.

The development, designed by Kevin Cavenaugh of Portland-based Guerrilla Development, would be on Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and bordered by Burnside and Couch streets. Plans presented to the design commission in January called for a wood-frame building with ground-level retail and parking. The second through sixth floors were designed with heavy timber construction to give the new building the feel of an old warehouse.

Commissioners expressed several concerns with the proposal, including the inclusion of ground-level parking and how it could cause traffic congestion.

When Cavenaugh approached banks for a loan to complete the approximately $15 million speculative project earlier this year, lenders led him to believe he’d have an easier time getting funding if he included parking.

“It probably looks about the same as it did to the average passerby,” Cavenaugh said of the revised design. “But I think we addressed 100 percent of the commission’s concerns.”

Initial designs included 72 ground-level mechanized parking spaces, but commissioners worried about impacts of cars entering and exiting the parking area. Now that 40 percent of the space has been pre-leased, lenders seem less concerned about parking, Cavenaugh said.

“When you’re in architecture school, they teach you that form follows function,” he said. “Then you get to the real world and realize function follows parking, and it’s kind of a sock in the gut.”

Cavenaugh intends to present three modified design options to the commission – one with 36 parking spaces, one with 14 and one with none.

“The no-parking scheme has the best ground floor presence,” Cavenaugh said. “The submittal we’re offering has parking, but my hope is that the design review board and I can get at it and nibble away at the parking.”

The modified design moves the elevators inside the building so that they’re no longer visible from the street. Also, construction material for the wrapped facade now would allow the color and image to stay strong in the long term, Cavenaugh said. Initially, the plans called for color to be applied to metal sheeting in a process similar to painting a car. Cavenaugh said the new method, which he declined to expand upon, is a “better solution” that brings with it a 20-year warranty from the manufacturer.

“I feel great about it,” he said. “The building as it sits now is sexy as hell.”

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Plans for a new mixed-use development in the Burnside Bridgehead area last week gained unanimous approval from the Portland Design Commission.

Construction of the six-story building designed by Portland-based Myhre Group Architects and developed by Seattle office of Trinsic Residential Group could start as soon as March 2015, according to the project team. A general contractor has not yet been hired.

The development at 419 E. Burnside St. will have 153 residential units, three live-work units, ground-floor retail space, an eco-roof with shared and private rooftop terraces, below-grade parking for 50 motor vehicles and 240 long-term spots for bicycles. A ground-floor “bike lounge” will hold couches, lockers, bike repair tools and a foosball table. Also, an arcade over the sidewalk will run the length of Burnside Street; it was inspired by a 1932 photograph of a building with a prominent arcade that once stood on the project site.

The project was the only one to gain the commission’s approval during a meeting Thursday. Following a lengthy hearing for the Tess O’Brien Apartments in Northwest Portland, commissioners asked the FFA Architecture and Interiors design team to return on Dec. 18 with further revisions. Also, commissioners offered design advice for a new Hilton hotel in downtown Portland and a renovation of the former Oregon Casket Co. building in Old Town Chinatown.

Before approving the design for the 419 E. Burnside St. project, commissioners said they were pleased with revisions made since a previous hearing in September.

“This is the biggest jump I’ve ever seen with a project in a positive way,” Commissioner Ben Kaiser told the Myhre Group design team.

Commissioner David Wark praised the decision to include the ground-floor bike lounge.

“We haven’t seen that before,” he said. “This (project) has come light years. I think it’s sophisticated in many ways. (The arcade) does make a very unique first floor in our city.”

The idea behind the bike lounge is to perpetuate the message that the building is bike-friendly and supports car-free living, Myhre Group principal Bob Boileau said.

“You can’t call it a man cave; it’s a bike cave,” he said. “It’s going to be a visible area that we want to publicize.”

While commissioners reacted positively overall to the Myhre Group design, they expressed a few lingering reservations with FFA Architecture’s design for the Tess O’Brien Apartments. The design team returned Thursday with revisions in response to Design Commission feedback given at a hearing last month.

Plans for the Tess O’Brien Apartments call for two six-story buildings with a total of 126 residential units. A large courtyard proposed between the two buildings would contain outdoor seating areas, stormwater planters and bike storage.

Several commissioners criticized the design for using too many different materials on the facade, including brick, precast stone window headers and stucco sidewalls. Commissioner Jeff Simpson said he preferred a previous design that didn’t include stucco.

“The earlier version is a lot clearer,” he said.

After design review hearings for the Tess O’ Brien Apartments and 419 E. Burnside St. project commissioners offered design advice for the planned Hilton hotel and Oregon Casket Co. building renovation.

Atlanta-based HC Architecture is designing the Hilton Curio, a new 16-story, 300-room hotel on a half-block site at Southwest Second Avenue between Jefferson and Columbia streets. The planned amenities include a ground-floor market and restaurant, second-floor conference spaces and a rooftop restaurant and lounge with outdoor terraces.

Portland-based SERA Architects‘ design for a renovation to the 117-year-old Oregon Casket Co. building at 403 N.W. Fifth Ave. includes exterior alternations, a penthouse addition and new five-story wing north of the existing building. Mike Menashe of Oregon Casket LLC bought the property 13 years ago and plans to rename the finished product the Whidden & Lewis Building in honor of its original architects.

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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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After several meetings and design tweaks, Las Vegas-based Fore Property Co. on Thursday got the go-ahead from the Portland Design Commission to add 250 apartments to the northwest riverfront.

The commissioners voted 5-1 to approve SERA Architects‘ design for the Riverscape Lot 8 development. Commissioner Tad Savinar cast the lone dissenting vote.

The $40 million development of two six-story buildings will be constructed slightly east of Northwest Front Avenue, north of the Fremont Bridge, on what is now a vacant lot. Building A will be aligned with Front Avenue and have a mix of studios and one- and two-bedroom apartments. Building B will have the same mix, but be u-shaped with a north-facing central courtyard. Tenants of both buildings will have access to yoga, fitness and commons rooms in Building B and adjacent to its central courtyard.

Both buildings’ designs call for a series of tiered steps on the upper floors along the north edge, with the top three floors sequentially set back to create large, open terraces for those units.

In addition to 200 underground parking spaces for tenants, a street-like parking area between the two buildings will allow for two loading areas and six parallel parking spaces.

“That was the biggest change of all – to revise the street-level parking area to look like a street,” said Kurt Schultz, a SERA principal. “We also introduced street-level unit entry on all sides of the parking lot.”

There are two spaces for retail in Building A, including one for a boat rental business. During Thursday’s hearing, the commissioners asked Schultz if his firm had been able to secure river access for the boat rental company. Schultz said he hadn’t gotten permission from the sheriff’s office, but said he was hopeful he would be able to do so.

“It’s a sad state of affairs when a boat rental place can’t get into the water,” Commissioner Ben Kaiser said. “For some reason they won’t let people touch the Willamette (River) in Portland.”

The development completes a missing portion of the Greenway Trail along the river on the property’s north and east sides, including installation of trail lighting, landscaping and seating.

SERA had designed a rooftop movie-watching area for Building B, but was forced to ax those plans when the Bureau of Development Services determined that it would violate city code because it would be a “changing image sign.” Commission Chairwoman Guenevere Millius found that regrettable.

“I really wish I could watch a movie on that roof,” she said.

Savinar said his main reason for dissenting was that the two buildings were so similar in design.

“I think this is a lost opportunity,” he said. “I have a real difficulty when we have multiple buildings that look the same.”

All in all, the commissioners commended SERA on its effort to make what Millius called “increasingly finer-grain adjustments” that they had requested during several design advice meetings.

“You’ve taken it to a level beyond our expected response,” Commissioner Jeff Simpson said.

Tess O’Brien Apartments: changes needed

Also on Thursday, FFA Architecture and Interiors principal Troy Ainsworth and associate Karl Refi presented to the Portland Design Commission their plans for a multifamily development – the Tess O’Brien Apartments – in Northwest Portland.

The firm sought design approval for two six-story apartment buildings, one facing Northwest Pettygrove Street and the other facing Northwest Overton Street, with a shared courtyard connecting them. The Pettygrove building would have 52 studios and the Overton building would have 74.

The buildings would be functionally independent of one another, but share access to the central courtyard. Additionally, tenants from both buildings would have access to the commons room in the Overton building and the fitness center in the Petttygrove building.

Refi explained that the firm intentionally designed the two buildings to look the same at the request of developer, Martin Kehoe. Savinar took issue with the plan.

“This district … is the most diverse in Portland,” he said. “It seems like you would want to continue this diversity in the design and actually play with it.”

Commissioner Ben Kaiser agreed, adding that because one building faces north and the other south, identical designs aren’t prudent in regard to heating and cooling.

The commissioners disapproved of several design factors, including substantial fiber cement lap siding, uncovered bicycle storage in the courtyard area, first-floor units facing streets, and the overall plainness of the shared center courtyard.

When going through the critique process, several commissioners pointed out that the architects’ presentation did not match the plans presented in the staff report.

“Seventy-five percent of the facade is HardiePlank (siding), and that needs to change,” Simpson said. “The drawing on the screen (of the courtyard area) is not in our packet, and I tend to think that’s deliberate, because there’s nothing in that drawing that we’d want to see.”

Ainsworth told the commission that the developer requested a vote during Thursday’s meeting. The commission voted unanimously to deny the staff report as written because of the many discrepancies between the presentation and the report.

Portland planner Tim Heron scheduled a second design review hearing, with the revised staff report, for Nov. 20.

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Six students from Portland State University’s Center for Real Estate last week presented their vision for a $53 million mixed-use development in the 1600 block of Northwest Thurman Street.

The students worked closely with Melvin Mark Companies and FFA Architecture and Interiors to come up with the design. Then they gave a presentation before attendees of a Building and Owners Management Association Business Briefing Breakfast at the Multnomah Athletic Club.

The proposal, in an area the students say people are calling “The Squish,” is heavily industrial, but may be in transition.

“We believe that what was happening in the Pearl a decade ago is happening in this area now,” presenter Jana Faro said. “This would be the jewel in the crown of what will exist in the northwest industrial district.”

The students, in their presentation titled “Polishing Up the North Pearl,” called for a building with creative office space, an outdoor central commons area and an area dubbed “The Outback” in which students proposed using prefabricated modular and changeable spaces for offices or retail.

“The prefab modular construction would be much more open and … placed in triangular shapes to echo the triangle building already on site,” Faro said. “They are much more open and could be used as flex space for office or retail tenants.”

The site is already home to a recently remodeled, 100-plus-year-old building that formerly was a tire warehouse, according to the students. A triangular building, the owners of which chose not to participate in the students’ project, also occupies the block.

“We asked them if they wanted to participate,” student Tom Remmers said. “They respectfully ignored us.”

Remmers, Faro and four other PSU students – Jovan Young, James Wang, Maddie McMonies and Jason West – participated in the workshop, producing an original development plan – including concept, market analysis, concept design, economic analysis, management plan and budget.

The property, which sits at the intersection of Thurman Street and 17th Avenue, is bordered on the north by railroad tracks and on the east by Interstate 405.

Senior Adjunct Lecturer Vernon Rifer, who taught the workshop, said that more than 2,200 housing units are under construction in the North Pearl area. With that influx of housing, developments like this one will be needed to add office and retail space, he said.

Following the presentation, panel judges Kali Bader, vice president of Rembold Properties; Christe White, founding partner of Radler White Parks & Alexander; and Joe Zody, senior associate at FFA Architecture and Interiors along with audience members asked questions about the students’ market analysis, where they would find construction loans and whether the area would be able to draw businesses.

“It’s close to downtown and costs less money per square foot (than renting downtown),” Remmers said. “It got a walk score of 83 and a bike score of 97.”

WalkScore.com helps people evaluate walkability and transportation in their neighborhoods via walk scores and bike scores between 0 and 100. A walk score between 80 and 90 indicates that an area is “very walkable” and is within walking distance for most daily errand destinations. A bike score between 90 and 100 indicates that an area is a “biker’s paradise” and is within biking distance for most daily errand destinations.

Remmers said he believed the location – it’s near downtown, easily accessible by public transportation and in an area with ample parking – would draw potential tenants.

The students designed a one-level podium parking structure that would allow development of the property without removal of any of the existing 200 parking spaces.

“The buildings already have a loading dock feel with the first floor raised five or six feet off the ground,” Faro said. “We proposed excavating another six feet down and there you have a podium with parking underneath.”

Rifer said there are no plans to begin construction anytime soon, adding that projects like these typically require about three years to start after plans have been drawn up. But he said the students came up with an ambitious and interesting design for a space that, with the railroad and freeway nearby, presents a host of problems.

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Phil Rude has seen the Portland skyline change dramatically in the past 50 years.

Since moving to the city to take his first architecture job in 1964, the FFA Architecture and Interiors associate has been a part of that evolution. While the practice of architecture has changed many ways, there are constants that motivate Rude, 73, to continue to come into work at FFA once a week.

“It’s still a very honorable profession,” he said. “Within the office, there is a collegial environment. I think the mix of ages and experiences helps me to thrive. I enjoy the people, I enjoy the challenge and I think that I still make a contribution.”

Rude continues to prove his value to FFA through his extensive design experience and numerous industry connections he’s made over the years, principal Troy Ainsworth said.

“Fifty years of technical and design experience is irreplaceable,” he said. “That’s very special and it’s just great to have someone (on staff) with that much experience in the profession.”

Other Portland design professionals who’ve worked with Rude say his way with people is one of his greatest strengths. This extends to managing a project team, interacting with clients and mentoring the next generation of architects.

“Phil was always that management thread,” said Herb Giffin, a principal at GBJ Architecture and one of Rude’s former colleagues. “He’s always been a people person. He can go into a room and work it. He enjoyed it.”

After earning a bachelor’s degree in architectural engineering from Washington State University, Rude spent the early part of his career at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. The architecture firm no longer has a Portland office, but 50 years ago its office was one of the largest in town, he said.

Rude, 23 at that point, wasn’t the only young face in the office.

“Skidmore was a young place for young people,” he said. “We enjoyed it. We worked hard. We partied hard.”

In those days, a Portland architecture office looked a lot different from the way it does today, he said.

“We drafted by hand,” he said. “Everyone always wore white shirts and ties.”

Rude spent 24 years with SOM before the firm closed its Portland office. While there, he helped design various office towers, including the Standard Plaza and One Main Place buildings in downtown Portland. He also worked on Autzen Stadium at the University of Oregon in Eugene, the parking garage at the Portland International Airport and an expansion to the Branford Price Millar Library at Portland State University that features a curved facade to preserve a large tree.

After the stint at SOM, Rude worked for Yost Grube Hall Architecture for a dozen years, mostly on health care projects. He then spent a year at Hoffman Construction Co. before joining FFA.

These days, Rude helps out on various FFA projects, including many historic restorations. He often provides insight for renovations and tenant improvements in buildings that he helped design originally, Ainsworth said.

“He also brings knowledge of players on new projects,” he said. “They’re new to us, but old to him … He’s great for having that background.”

Rude’s extensive network is a huge asset, said Sue Johnson, FFA marketing director.

“Phil can pick up the phone and call anybody,” she said. “He knows everybody.”

Giffin worked with Rude at SOM for 10 years in the 1970s and ’80s. At the time, Giffin was a recent architecture school graduate who considered Rude a mentor. Rude later mentored Giffin’s daughter, Jody Giffin, when she worked at FFA.

“Phil Rude was such a Father Time that he mentored me and my daughter,” Giffin said. “He just knew all the ropes and everything (and) how to handle clients.”

John Weekes, a principal at Dull Olson Weekes-IBI Group Architects, also worked with Rude at SOM as a young architecture school graduate and considered him a mentor.

“He was just kind of a quiet, careful thinker,” Weekes said. “He was very supportive of me. He is someone I have enormous respect for.”

Weekes said he’s always been impressed with Rude’s project management skills.

“He was the guy who made sure we got done what was supposed to be done, and he was quiet about it,” Weekes said.

It was watching Rude in his element that inspired THA Architecture’s Stefee Knudsen to go into project management. She has adopted his understated, yet effective management style into her own work.

“It’s really about client relationships and taking care of your team,” she said.

Rude hired Knudsen for her first real architecture job at Yost Grube Hall and has served as a mentor throughout her career, she said.

“He’s been my most prominent mentor,” she said. “Very early on, he differed from the norm. Even though I was a very young intern, he took me on meetings with the client. He took care to make sure I was prepared without making me think about what he was doing.”

Knudsen admires his approach to architecture.

“He has a real ethic about him that’s about more than what you do at your desk,” she said. “It’s about how you treat people.”

The enjoyment of work as part of a team to achieve a common goal is one reason why Rude has no plans to retire from architecture completely.

“It’s nice to have your thumb still in (the industry),” he said. “You’re proud of what you’ve done. When it’s all said and done, you’re proud of what you’re part of.”

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When Scott | Edwards Architecture principal Peter Grimm started designing mid-century home renovations several years ago, he was immediately struck by the architectural style.

“A lot of that stuff is kind of cool again,” he said. “It’s an interesting aesthetic. It’s kind of fresh … The geometry is really serving the occupants.”

Homes in pockets of the Portland-metro area are now considered historic because they were built during the 1950s and ’60s in mid-century modern style. As the properties age, renewed appreciation for the style and demographic shifts in ownership are driving a surge in renovations. Commercial and public buildings from the era also are being renovated so that original architecture is preserved.

“It is a remarkable era, that post-war 1950s and ’60s,” Grimm said. “(Building owners) have high-quality space that is due for an update or a restoration.”

Mid-century buildings are younger than most historic properties, but Portland-area architects who’ve contributed to their renovations say they still need plenty of work. Insulation is either slim or nonexistent and single-pane windows often need to be replaced. Many properties have never had their interiors or mechanical systems upgraded. Some of the building materials were experimental and have begun to deteriorate; others, like composite asbestos panels, are now considered hazardous.

“These were the first use of these materials and some of them worked and some of them didn’t,” Hennebery Eddy Architects principal David Wark said. “Then it’s about finding an appropriate substitute material.”

The Portland-based firm’s work with mid-century buildings includes a renovation and a penthouse addition to The Reserve. The downtown Portland office building, formerly the Federal Reserve Building, was designed by renowned modernist architect Pietro Belluschi.

FFA Architecture and Interiors, meanwhile, has worked on upgrades of mid-century buildings for the National Park Service, associate partner Barbara Clement said. One, the Hoh Rain Forest Visitor Center in Olympic National Park in Washington, was built in the early 1960s during a building boom for the federal agency, she said.

“It’s a building that’s being treated as historic even though it’s considered mid-century modern,” she said.

Restoring the original building materials is much more important in renovations to older historic properties than mid-century modern structures, Clement said.

“It’s not about the material as much as the form of the architecture, preserving that modern character,” she said. “That’s been an interesting change of how we’re working as historic architects.”

Restore Oregon, a Portland-based organization that advocates for preservation, has spent a lot of time educating people about the historic value of mid-century properties, Executive Director Peggy Moretti said. It’s still rare for a mid-century modern building to be on the National Register of Historic Places, and Restore Oregon is encouraging more home and commercial building owners to get their properties listed, she said. A listing qualifies a building’s owner for federal tax credits that can help pay for a renovation that preserves historic character.

“Where we are as an organization is in that awareness mode of, first of all, think of your building as historic (and) then you can tap into historic tax credits,” she said.

More mid-century properties are receiving historic designations. About a year ago, the Oak Hills neighborhood in Beaverton was added to the national register as an excellent example of a 1960s master-planned community. In 2009, Portland’s Veterans Memorial Coliseum, completed in 1960, was saved from demolition and added to the register.

Portland architect Peter Meijer pushed for the listing for the coliseum. He is president of the Oregon chapter of Docomomo, a growing organization that advocates for the preservation of buildings, sites and neighborhoods exhibiting modernism.

“Mid-century modern is in the mainstream now,” he said. “There are several generations of modern architects who were trained in the modernist movement. There is a real surge in affinity to that type of architecture.”

Today’s architects have a much easier time relating to a modernist’s building than a much older historic one, Meijer said.

“The spaces themselves lend themselves to current architecture, so that’s why you’re seeing a renewed interest (in renovations),” he said. “When you get mid-century modern where the lines are clean, the renovations are much more compatible.”

Grimm said he’s designing several mid-century home remodels in the Portland area. He expects more such work as aging homeowners sell the structures to young families.

The open floor plans and airiness of mid-century modern homes remain desirable, Grimm said. They’re also easier to expand than are houses from other eras, he said.

“I’ve done a couple additions where we were able to do some fun geometry,” he said. “It’s hard to add onto a Cape Cod or a colonial (home).”

Work with mid-century homes has enlightened Grimm.

“It’s so different to live and work in a mid-century building than a prewar building because they really released the structure,” he said. “For me as an architect, it’s a great lesson.”

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Erica Ceder, an associate with Portland-based FFA Architecture and Interiors, has learned that embracing the unknown is part of work with any historic building. Rehabilitation of a 120-year-old building on Southeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard is no exception.

“It’s definitely quirky,” Ceder said. “There have been several times where we’ve cut through what we thought was a brick wall and found steel and beams. Construction on these older buildings is 90 percent reacting to unforeseen conditions.”

R&H Construction crews this spring started work on a $2.3 million renovation of the Industrial Home building to house Seattle-based outdoor retailer Evo, some smaller retailers and creative office users.

FFA has been working since 2011 on plans to renovate the 26,000-square-foot building, first for Portland-based Venerable Properties and now for current owner and developer Edmonds, Wash.-based First Western Development Services. Seattle-based Heliotrope Architects designed the tenant improvement for Evo’s first Portland store, which is scheduled to open this fall.

The three-story Industrial Home building was constructed as a hay and seed facility. It was later occupied by the Salvation Army for 100 years and used as a retail store, a shelter and transitional housing. The Industrial Home name refers to a former men’s shelter where residents learned industrial trade skills.

After the Salvation Army moved out in 2010, Venerable Properties purchased the building with plans for a $7 million renovation. After the firm’s president, Art DeMuro, died in 2012, Venerable put the property up for sale. Then First Western Development Services purchased it this past fall.

FFA’s project design will preserve the building’s historic character, including the original brick and stucco facade with cast stone Salvation Army medallions, Ceder said. Windows that were installed in the 1970s will be replaced with ones that more closely match the originals.

Also, workers will perform a full seismic upgrade and replace all mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems. A new elevator and stair core and a small, second-floor roof deck will be added. Windows will be cut into the south-facing facade.

Evo will occupy portions of the building’s first and second floors and basement. Part of the second floor will be cut out to open up space for the retailer.

A mix between old and new is the goal, Evo founder and CEO Bryce Phillips said. Evo’s flagship store in Seattle occupies an older building called the Fremont Collective. It was renovated to accommodate Evo, two restaurants and an indoor skate park. Phillips said he’s hoping for a similar vibe in the Industrial Home building.

“We love the blend of that rich, soulful, historic building with the new, fresh life we can breathe into it,” he said. “One of the core elements of Evo is to give back. The fact that (the Industrial Home building) was a Salvation Army … it’s a really cool common thread.”

The Portland store will have many elements its Seattle counterpart does, Heliotrope Architects principal Mike Mora said.

“We don’t hide the cracks and wrinkles of the existing building,” he said. “We play off them.”

One of the challenges designing the Industrial Home renovation, Ceder said, is that it isn’t the first one for the building. An addition in the 1930s included an entire facade replacement.

“It’s a very strange building,” she said. “Since the face was put in in the ’30s, it doesn’t really relate to the inside.”

Research to include the Industrial Home building in the East Portland Grand Avenue Historic District helped inform the design of the renovation, but some interesting surprises have arisen during construction, Ceder said. For instance, a wall was opened and plumbing was found with deteriorating, 1930s-era newspapers shoved inside.

Work also has exposed a painting of the Salvation Army logo on what used to be the building’s outer wall. This will be preserved as part of the Evo store, Ceder said.

“It’s kind of fitting for an outdoor action store because (the Salvation Army) motto is ‘blood and fire,’ ” she said.

Industrial Home building rehabilitation

Location: 200 S.E. Martin Luther King Blvd., Portland

Cost: $2.3 million

Construction start date: March 2014

Anticipated construction completion date: September 2014

Owner/developer: First Western Development Services

Architects: FFA Architecture and Interiors, Heliotrope Architects

Engineer: KPFF Consulting Engineers

General contractor: R&H Construction

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A chance meeting helped bring into perspective the work of FFA Architecture & Interiors associate partner Barbara Clement for the National Park Service in Southern Idaho.

While visiting the Minidoka National Historic Site to inform the Portland-based firm’s efforts to add amenities to the park, she met a man who lived there when it was a Japanese internment camp. The man, now in his 80s, and family members had traveled by car from Utah to see what remained of Minidoka.

He told Clement he was too young at the time to realize what the ramifications would be from his family and others of Japanese descent being forced to live there during World War II. But he picked up on the emotions of the adults surrounding him.

“He said there was always this foreboding, unsure tension among the grown-ups,” she recalled. “There was always this cloud looming because they didn’t know how long they’d be (at Minidoka).”

From 1942 to 1945, Minidoka housed almost 13,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans mostly from Oregon, Washington and Alaska. It was one of 10 isolated relocation centers in the western U.S. where nearly 120,000 people of Japanese descent were moved following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Many internees lost their homes, jobs and businesses while at the camps.

“It kind of hit home that we have to have some sort of support materials for people to make peace with these horrendous things that happened to them,” Clement said.

FFA and KPFF Consulting Engineers are working to improve the visitor experience at the 400-acre historic site, which currently has few educational resources and cannot accommodate full-time park staffers. The team is working on plans to renovate a farmhouse into park administrative offices, and restore and expand a former warehouse into a visitors’ center. Both projects are relatively small and together are estimated to cost only $2.8 million, but the impact will be huge, Clement said.

“As an architect, it’s really not glamorous and it’s really not about us,” she said. “It’s helping to support visitor services so we’re part of a larger cultural understanding. That’s what’s gratifying.”

The planned administrative offices and visitors’ center are part of an overall National Park Service effort to better accommodate former internees and their families who make pilgrimages to the site, Minidoka superintendent Judy Geniac said. The projects are slated to finish by 2017, and will allow the presence of full-time park staffers who can offer more educational tours to school and community groups. Minidoka also hosts an annual civil liberties symposium.

“We are seeing increased visitation,” Geniac said. “Even on the coldest winter days, there are people on the site.”

Along with providing more amenities, the National Park Service is working to restore site portions that were almost completely dismantled after Minidoka closed down. This includes reconstruction of a guard tower and a portion of a barrack block to help visitors get a sense of what it was like while in operation.

After the war, the more than 600 barracks and other buildings that made up the 33,000-acre camp were given away to residents of nearby communities for uses including residential, educational and utility. The National Park Service has recovered two of those buildings – a mess hall that had been repurposed into a canning kitchen and a barrack that had been used as an auto shop – and plans to restore them to reflect their original purpose.

It was especially important to the former internees that at least part of a barrack block be restored, said Carol Ash, Minidoka chief of interpretations and education.

“What is really exciting is most of the pilgrims that come are just so excited that the site is being recognized (and) that it has not been forgotten,” she said. “Any group could suffer this if the conditions were right, and that’s the story they want people to know.”

That’s the beauty of the efforts to restore Minidoka, Clement said.

“You think about what happened on this site and the enormous story for civil rights,” she said. “Minidoka and all those internment camps are part of a dark history. We’re now realizing as part of civil rights education we need to acknowledge (this happened).”

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