PROJECT: HOMMA HAUS Mount Tabor

LOCATION: 5115 E. Burnside St., Portland

SIZE:��24,000 square feet

COST:��$9 million

START DATE: November 2020

ANTICIPATED END DATE: November 2021

OWNER/DEVELOPER: HOMMA Inc.

ARCHITECT: Joe Karman

ENGINEER: JS Structural

CONTRACTOR:��Green Hammer

SIGNIFICANCE OF PROJECT: HOMMA HAUS Mount Tabor, a townhome project, is being built four miles from downtown Portland, near public transit. This is its first development in the Portland area for HOMMA, a Bay Area-based startup that strives to blend architecture with technology.

This development will include 18 two-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bathroom units. They will feature custom-designed automated lighting that adapts to environments (such as time-of-day, color temperature and brightness adjustments), HVAC remote monitoring and control, remotely accessible locks, and intelligent building access control. All will be managed through a connected mobile app. The firm’s goal is to create a home environment that supports any lifestyle. Interiors are designed with an open floor plan to maximize space utilization.

On the exterior, privacy will be maintained through unobtrusive fences and landscape greenery, while connectedness with the community will be provided through common garden areas that include seating and landscaping. The development also will include independent bike and personal storage.

HOMMA acquired the project’s half-acre parcel in 2019. Portland-based design-build contractor Green Hammer is building the development, and Pacific West Bank is providing construction financing. Learn more about the project by visiting www.hom.ma/homma-x.

“Building Blocks” is a 91��Ƶ feature that 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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PROJECT: Rose Villa, phase 3

LOCATION: Portland

COST:��$77 million

START: May 2020 (Madrona Grove and Schroeder Lofts); February 2021 (Trillium Townhomes)

ANTICIPATED COMPLETION: August 2022 (Madrona Grove and Schroeder Lofts)

OWNER: Rose Villa

OWNER’S REPRESENTATIVE: Klosh Group

ARCHITECT: Scott | Edwards Architecture (Madrona Grove and Schroeder Lofts)

CONTRACTOR:��Bremik Construction (Madrona Grove and Schroeder Lofts)

DESIGN-BUILD FIRM: Green Hammer (Trillium Townhomes)

SIGNIFICANCE OF PROJECT: Construction is under way for the third and final phase of the Rose Villa master campus. This $77 million project consists of three new structures, including Madrona Grove, a state-of-the-art, 24-hour, long-term-care building with new campus administrative spaces above. The project also includes two new independent living neighborhoods, Schroeder Lofts and Trillium Townhomes, which will surround a half-acre enclosed courtyard garden. Scott | Edwards Architecture, which worked on the Garden Grove and North Pocket independent living homes during Phase 2, is designing Madrona Grove and Schroeder Lofts in Phase 3. Madrona Grove will replace the existing 1960 long-term-care building. The new building will resemble a modern interpretation of a large, airy farmhouse and feature 32 private suites with floor-to-ceiling windows and easy access to outdoor space. Madrona Grove will feature a variety of common spaces, including open kitchens, sunrooms, a covered terrace with an outdoor fireplace, and direct access to the courtyard garden. Each of the first two floors will feature 16 individual rooms. Schroeder Lofts are inspired by the adaptive reuse urban street lofts found in the Pearl District. The four-story loft apartment building will be anchored by a child development center, with 35 apartments above street-level commons. The ground level will feature a clinic, a community room and the Treasure House resale shop. The building will step back at the fourth story, creating exterior terraces for each loft. Schroeder Lofts homes are 86 percent sold. Trillium Townhomes, a collaboration between Rose Villa and Green Hammer, will be a six-unit, zero-energy community built to Passive House standards. It will feature 18-foot ceilings, triple-pane and tilt-turn windows, sustainably harvested bamboo flooring, and ultra-energy-efficient lighting and appliances.

“Building Blocks” is a new 91��Ƶ feature that 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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For some businesses, a mission statement isn’t enough.

Carleton Hart Architecture is set to become Oregon’s latest design firm to earn status as a certified B Corporation, tying its values to a third-party auditing process.

Principals with Carleton Hart Architecture and Waterleaf Architecture, which in 2016 became Oregon’s first architecture firm to earn B Corporation certification, said its advantages include marketing and client relations, employee recruitment and retention, and social accountability.

Carleton Hart, which has 37 employees, often works with public-sector and nonprofit clients on affordable housing projects and others that aim for a social good.

“It’s very important to demonstrate that we have a mission, that we have a set of beliefs that are in line with what our clients do,” Carleton Hart founding principal Brian Carleton said.

B Corporations are more common in other industries such as food and beverage. Well-known local B Corporations include New Seasons Market, Grand Central Bakery and Stumptown Coffee Roasters. Green Hammer, a Portland design-build firm, also became a certified B Corporation in 2017.

The B Corporation certification process uses a ratings system that awards points in categories such as governance, workers, community, environment and customers. In some ways, it’s not unlike Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for a company instead of a building.

“What we do architecturally and as citizens matters to us,” said Michelle Black, a Carleton Hart principal. “There’s something about making it formal, if you will.”

Carleton Hart is engaged in a variety of mission-driven projects, including the Multnomah County Behavioral Health Center – a downtown facility that will offer drop-in day services, shelter beds and transitional housing for the homeless. Another is the Cedar Grove Apartments affordable housing project in Beaverton.

Such projects require a workplace culture that lends itself to cohesive solutions driven by shared values, Carleton Hart’s principals said.

“We are often brought into projects and part of conversations that extend past just the physical architecture,” Black said. “It’s more than just how long is the design drawing set going to take, or what is the permit process. We are asking so much of each other. We’re looking at problem solving on a much greater scale often.”

Particularly with the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, professional services firms are expected to communicate their values to potential clients.

“This is an era where we need to lead with our values and market with our values first,” said Abigail Bokman, marketing manager for Waterleaf.

Becoming a B Corporation does not change a company’s legal organization. Waterleaf, for example, is a limited liability company, while Carleton Hart is organized as a professional corporation. In other words, B Corporation certification does not change a company’s for-profit status.

“They definitely aren’t shy with being profitable, but they have an emphasis on doing something good at the same time,” said Karen Lange, a Waterleaf associate partner.

For companies accustomed to privacy in their business operations, becoming a B Corporation requires a turn toward transparency. Among the scores that are posted publicly in the B Corporation directory are tallies for workers’ financial security and engagement and satisfaction.

“That’s one of the biggest differences, is you become more transparent as a private company,” Carleton said.

That may have benefits for recruitment and retention. At Waterleaf, which has 17 employees, the company’s B Corporation certification comes up in job interviews regularly. Prospective employees often ask about the firm’s social mission, Lange said.

B Lab, the organization that oversees B Corporation certifications, requires a minimum of 80 points to achieve certification. Carleton Hart .

Certification also links firms to a network of similar companies. There’s an online forum, B Hive, where executives can ask questions of their peers. There are also monthly lunch sessions, panel discussions, an annual regional conference and networking events. Portland has more than 100 certified B Corporations.

In the pandemic era, the B Hive has filled with helpful information on topics such as obtaining federal Paycheck Protection Program loans. Social and racial equity have also been at the forefront of the conversations.

“It’s become a very safe community to share and discuss some of these issues, which we’ve found very valuable,” Lange said.

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Not many zero-energy homes are available in the Portland market. But 11 more are on the way.

In Northeast Portland, design-build firms Green Hammer (construction services) and Birdsmouth Design Build (architectural services) are teaming up on a project being developed by Zach Parrish of Ono Development. Going Street Commons will include five single-family homes and three duplexes.

“Basically in every other case we’ve done there were major owner tenants or owners that were part of the process,” said Stephen Aiguier, founder and president of Green Hammer. “But this one is the first speculative that we’ve been a part of, and they are fundamentally different projects.”

In part, it’s a response to rising demand for highly energy-efficient homes.

“I think what’s kind of exciting is there are 11 zero-ready condos for sale,” Aiguier said. “They are like the other zero-energy buildings that we’ve done – they’re super insulated, they’re super comfortable. But we get calls all the time from people who are moving to Portland and they say, ‘I’ve got an $800,000 budget and I want a zero-energy home; what do you got?’ And I’m like, ‘We’ve got nothing.’”

But Going Street Commons, at 4905 N.E. Going St., in the Cully neighborhood, is poised to become the largest zero-energy-ready subdivision in Portland.

“When I bought the property three years ago I was going to be the developer and be the architect and do it all, including affordable housing,” said Josh Salinger, founder and CEO of Birdsmouth Design Build. “I wanted to prove we can build zero energy with cost parity, and even affordable housing. I wanted to prove the critics wrong.”

Ultimately, Salinger said, the project scope was beyond his company’s capacity, and projected costs precluded affordable housing. Zoning restricted development to 11 units.

“If we were able to build four more homes there, we could have driven the costs of these down,” Salinger said. “Zoning was the biggest prohibition. It would have worked with (Residential Infill Project rules) in place; it would have made a huge difference.”

To simplify design and construction, each home – whether in single-family or duplex form – will have the same 1,758-square-foot floor plan with three bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms and flexible attic space on a third level.

The barn-style homes will have black-stained larch wood siding and feature energy-efficient appliances. Each home will have a private yard with access to a shared green space and community garden, while a 5,000-gallon rainwater storage tank will provide irrigation for landscaping.

Earth Advantage��platinum certification will be sought largely because the individual homes will not have pre-installed photovoltaic panels.

“We’re zero-ready on this one, so between the PV on the structures and then the other units we could get the whole community to zero energy,” Aiguier said. “But depending on your unit you could choose to add solar or allocate some of solar from the community space to your condo.”

When it comes to designing a zero-energy building, Salinger said, three key factors normally play a role: the site layout; surface area to volume ratio of the building; and the air barrier and building envelope.

“Maybe the most important thing is designing the air barrier in from the inception,” Salinger said. “Most of the energy losses in the home are lost to diffusion and leakage, so if we have a tight air barrier, which means very few penetrations, suddenly it has less risk of moisture damage, less mold, higher indoor air quality; you’re really controlling the air and it makes the buildings last longer and feel more comfortable.”

The surface area to volume ratio comes from a building’s shape. The most efficient shape in terms of heat loss is a sphere, which isn’t great for building design. A square is the next best bet, and for Going Street Commons, this concept was crossed with a Scandinavian aesthetic: a simple gable end design and long, flat walls and roofing.

“Boxes are not super compelling architecturally,” Salinger said. “But the Scandinavian vernacular has those gables, which turn those boxes into something compelling – and it’s something I think is beautiful. It has the low surface-to-volume ra

tio, and that’s how we came across that form and that vernacular.”

Going Street Commons’ building envelopes are an integral part of the design, along with four inches of EPS (expanded polystyrene) roof insulation and two inches of GPS (graphite polystyrene) foam-board foundation insulation, which exceeds code requirements. The rigid roofing insulation panels can even be removed from the building and reused elsewhere.

The flip side of the envelope is an efficient heating and cooling system. Each single unit – a combination of a heat pump and a heat recovery ventilator – is kept indoors with ductwork and venting set up to exit building walls instead of using a roof penetration.

One thing that really sets Going Street Commons apart is the use of a panelized wall system. The wall panels included stud walls, insulated sheathing, weather-resistant barrier and wooden battens upon which to mount exterior siding.

“Most of the battens were included with the wall panels,” Aiguier said. “The windows we actually just installed on-site; it was easier just putting them in right here. But our air barrier is super simple. There are no eaves on the building; it just wraps up and over. Transitioning from the walls to the ceiling can be a little bit complicated, so this makes air tightness super achievable.”

Green Hammer superintendent Greg Walton agreed and said the construction process has been relatively smooth.

“In a perfect world, if everything came out just how we wanted them, these buildings would go together in a day,” he said. “In this situation, the owner and developer worked directly with (the manufacturer) and we were a third party, so there were a lot of misses in general. But as a whole, it was really pretty seamless. There were little things that I attribute to a learning curve, but it went together pretty well.”

The building industry must do as much as it can to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Salinger said.

“We have a moral obligation to our children and the planet to pay attention to these things because our industry is so impactful to the climate,” he said. “And when you do these things you make a building of much higher quality.”

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An adaptive reuse project that combined a pair of Northwest Portland industrial buildings into a single creative office campus took top honors at the Portland Architecture Awards ceremony hosted by AIA Oregon last month.

earned LEVER Architecture an Honor Award for what judges described as a “rather sublime conception of how design might better relate to ecology in this century.” The project, completed earlier this year for Langley Investment Partners, involved stripping a pair of 1940s-era heavy-timber buildings down to their structural elements before rebuilding them into an open-office building with an industrial aesthetic respectful of the site’s heritage.

Old-growth timber posts, beams and joists were refurbished and left exposed, and mezzanines were installed in both buildings. New banks of clerestory windows provide natural daylighting. The buildings were clad in weathering steel and joined by a glass-enclosed breezeway that serves as a main entrance and reception area.

In their judging notes, Quebec-based competition jurors Cécile Combelle of Atelier Barda and Kiel Moe of McGill University lauded the building as an example of a design ethos that “… carefully considers and interprets what already exists in order to nudge and extend the life of our building environments.” The jury also included Kim Pariseau of Quebec-based Appareil Architecture.

Judges bestowed four Merit Awards, including two upon Hacker: one for a private residence in Bend, and another for Berwick Hall, a building that provides music rehearsal/performance space and offices for the Oregon Bach Festival on the University of Oregon campus in Eugene.

Merit Awards also went to Architecture Building Culture for Jarrett Street 12, a modular affordable housing project containing 12 for-sale units in North Portland, and Opsis Architecture for the Navigation Center shelter project in the Pearl District.

Citation Award winners included Silica by William/Kaven Architecture, the Oregon Conservation Center by LEVER Architecture, OHSU Center for Health and Healing – Building 2 by ZGF Architects, and Howard Residence by Architecture Building Culture. Works Progress Architecture‘s 7 SE Stark won a Citation Award as an unbuilt project.

In addition to the judged entries, two projects were honored for meeting or exceeding 2030 Challenge standards for carbon neutrality. Those honors were based on energy data from project submissions and with assistance from BetterBricks and the University of Oregon School of Architecture’s Energy Studies in Buildings Lab.

Tillamook Row, designed by Green Hammer director of design Erica Dunn, won a 2030 Award. Also, Hennebery Eddy Architects‘ Great Smoky Mountains Institute second campus in Townsend, Tennessee, won one for an unbuilt project.

Three design professionals were recognized for contributions to the community and the profession. John Reynolds, professor of architecture emeritus at the University of Oregon, was named the AIA Portland President’s Award winner; Carin Carlson, an associate with Hennebery Eddy Architects, was given the Young Architect Award; and Whitney Ranson, a designer with SRG Partnership, was honored with the Emerging Professional Award.

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In 2007, conceptualization began for a highly energy-efficient office building as part of a mixed-use development in Milwaukie. Around 12 years later, Northwest Housing Alternatives has a two-story headquarters on track for net-zero-energy certification.

The five-building campus was designed by MWA Architects and built by O’Neill/Walsh Community Builders. Three three-story, wood-framed buildings hold a total of 28 affordable housing units, and another building serves as an emergency shelter. All of those were designed and built to Earth Advantage platinum standards.

But the office building stands out for exceptional sustainability. Project team members discussed the effort on Wednesday during an event held as part of Portland’s second annual Sustainable Building Week. Crews broke ground in summer 2018 and finished roughly one year later. But design work dates back to 2013.

“The project started with net zero as the goal,” said Bill Lanning, a MWA Architects principal and lead designer for the project. “Early in the design it was going to be net-zero ready, but as we moved through design and funds were made available through grants we were able to add the solar.”

That was a huge component, said Afton Walsh, project manager for O’Neill/Walsh Community Builders. PGE provided an especially important grant, Northwest Housing Alternatives Executive Director Trell Anderson added.

“With the grant we said, ‘How much solar can we do?’” Walsh said. “And what is needed for net zero?”

A 38-kilowatt solar array placed on the office building’s roof not only powers that structure but at full capacity is also able to feed power into the campus shelter building.

“There will never be any power going back into the grid,” Walsh said. “It will all be going back into … the shelter.”

In addition to the solar array, the office building’s envelope played an important role in energy performance.

“We tend to spend a lot of our love and effort on the envelope,” Walsh said.

Under-slab insulation was used, all sheeting was taped, and an additional air barrier was installed beneath the weather barrier. Meanwhile, the double-ventilated roof assembly features three inches of spray foam under the ceiling sheeting. This gives a final energy efficiency rating of R-69 – far higher than required by Oregon Specialty Code. Finally, vinyl triple glazing is used throughout the building.

Testing showed the building is exceptionally airtight.

“We did a lower door air test and it came out to .047 (cubic feet per minute) per square foot,” Walsh said. “We had to reach 0.1, and we basically cut that in half.”

Lanning and Walsh worked with Green Hammer on the project’s sustainable aspects. The design-build firm has net-zero-energy project experience, especially on the financial side.

“We talked about budgets and how to set the stage so we could be successful with net zero,” Lanning said. “Really, it was looking at how to simplify things as much as possible and focus on the envelope; that’s the first place to start.”

Design started with a passive house model to estimate energy usage. Then the same approach was used for mechanical systems via readily available equipment, including ductless heat pumps and high-efficiency water heaters.

But one of the biggest interior factors was use of a zonal ventilation system.

“The building is split into four zones for ventilation,” Lanning said. “And with that we used a cross-counter-flow heat recovery system. It isn’t readily used in the U.S. right now, and it has an efficiency of 84 percent, which is much higher than most (energy recovery ventilation) systems.”

Budget constraints led to decisions to forgo other options for ventilation, passive cooling and some automated mechanical systems.

Nevertheless, “constant communication” among team members helped advance the project, Walsh said.

“We were always verifying,” she said.

That paid off during construction of the office building, when an air gap raised questions.

“We had started framing and sheeting the roof, and that second gap didn’t make sense to us, so we went back to design team and asked” about it, Walsh said. “And they made changes that meant they were able to give a pretty good credit back to NHA to use on other features. This project was definitely a labor of love … a lot of hands touched it.”

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Portland design-build firm Green Hammer is continuing to gain recognition for its efforts relating to sustainability.

First, among certified B corporations worldwide, Green Hammer was named a “Best For the World” honoree both in the environment category and overall. This recognition was bestowed by B Lab, the international nonprofit that certifies B Corporations, which have pledged to improve their environmental practices, employee relationships, diversity, involvement in the community and more. At last count there were more than 3,000 B Corporations from 64 countries and representing 150 different industries.

Separately, Green Hammer was recognized by Fast Company as a 2019 Innovation by Design award winner for its work designing and building Tillamook Row, a zero-energy community in North Portland. This five-building development produces a net surplus of electricity through its 82 kilowatt solar array and efficient building designs.

Also, among 252 reporting 2030 Commitment signatories, Green Hammer was one of only 16 in the U.S. to achieve at least 70 percent predicted energy use intensity (pEUI) savings across their entire portfolio in 2018.

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As a forward-thinking design-build contractor, Green Hammer is accustomed to tackling projects that push the green envelope. Its latest fits the bill.

In Oak Grove, an unincorporated community in Clackamas County, Green Hammer is wrapping up construction on the Oaks at Rose Villa – a neighborhood of four triplexes. It’s designed to become the first senior living development in the Portland-metro area to receive net zero energy certification from the International Living Future Institute.

All 12 Craftsman-style residences are expected to produce as much energy as they consume. Both active and passive techniques – a large, south-facing solar array on the roof of a shared carport and triple-paned windows, for example – are being used to help achieve this.

Green Hammer architect and design team manager Erica Dunn believes the project has the potential to influence others in the future.

“It’s just about to open, which is really exciting,” she said. “It’s been a really great project and it’s been a lot of fun to work on it with (Rose Villa).”

Rose Villa is the owner and developer of the project, which is being integrated into a 22-acre senior living community featuring a wide range of stand-alone neighborhoods.

“I’ve been here 12 years,” Rose Villa CEO Vassar Byrd said. “And when I came on site it was slowly but surely crumbling at the edges. There was no place to go but up.”

The complex has since been transformed.

“We have a huge group involved in environmental stewardship,” Byrd said. “And this is a great opportunity to really play to the interests of both current and future elders. The idea of taking it one step further as a housing provider was great. It was like, ‘let’s go all the way to a zero-energy footprint.’”

The complex is designed around a central courtyard dominated by a towering heritage savannah oak. Each triplex – wood-framed and with metal roofing – has two ground-level units and one second-floor unit served by both staircase and elevator. Residences range from roughly 1,100 square feet to around 1,600 square feet. Each one is heated and cooled by just a single HVAC unit stashed above the bathroom entrance. Triple-paned glazing imported from Poland and a virtually airtight envelope help insulate the building and keep air quality high.

Byrd admitted that net-zero-energy certification likely added around $50,000 per unit to the final cost, but that didn’t deter prospective residents.

“It does come at a higher price because it’s not a standard yet,” she said. “I wasn’t sure people would put their money down, and as a nonprofit you have to prove the concept before loans are approved,” she said. “But we sold out and it only took about six months max. It was really amazing.”

And down the road, the cost savings generated by the energy efficiency is expected to continue to hold appeal.

“I think that often net zero energy is most appealing to owner-occupied buildings or buildings that owners hold onto,” Dunn said. “So they make a lot of sense for someone who can get dollars for construction but a harder time with operating costs. In senior living we’re seeing a lot of growth in that area, regardless, and I think the (baby) boomers in particular are a group coming out of the ’60s where living their values is really important to them even as they age into community living spaces.”

To earn net zero energy certification from the ILFI, occupants will monitor their energy usage over the next year and compare it with the energy produced by the solar array. If the numbers work out, the project will be certified sometime in 2020.

“We’ve set up a lot of monitoring, but the expectation is zero or very little energy cost,” Byrd said.

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Participants in the American Institute of Architects‘ program seek to achieve net zero energy use in their projects. How they accomplish it is up to them.

“They don’t tell you how to do it; they just say, ‘do it,’” said Erica Dunn, director of design for Portland-based Green Hammer.

The 2030 Commitment supports the , which was issued in 2006 to spur a global effort toward carbon neutral construction.

In 2018, Green Hammer became one of just 10 design firms in the United States to meet 2030 Commitment standards. More than 400 firms have signed on to participate in the program.

“It was surprising that there were so few firms meeting it,” Dunn said. “It was a nice confirmation that we are really pushing the envelope, that edge, in terms of sustainability.”

The 2030 Challenge ideal is that all future buildings and major renovations should be designed to meet an energy consumption standard of 70 percent below the regional or country average for the building type. Further, that standard will rise to 80 percent in 2020, 90 percent in 2025 and total carbon neutrality by 2030.

“It was a way to encourage firms to get on board with the 2030 Challenge, and also a means to start tracking what you’re doing,” Dunn said of participation in the 2030 Commitment program. “And if you’re tracking, it’s a way to improve upon it.”

Committed firms are then measured annually by their work. So firms achieving standards for 2018 are being judged on design work completed the previous year. Participants ensure consistent standards through use of the AIA’s 2030 Design Data Exchange, which creates standardized reporting and metrics and allows firms to measure their progress.

For Green Hammer, the major projects of 2017 that helped them achieve 2030 Commitment standards are the Tillamook Row multifamily project in the Eliot neighborhood of Northeast Portland and The Oaks at Rose Villa senior living community in Milwaukie. The former is the first net zero energy project of its type in the Portland area, while the latter is the first net zero energy senior living community of its type in the region.

Green Hammer also designs and builds single-family homes, and a number of those projects, Dunn said, also contributed to the firm’s achievement.

“Achieving (net) zero energy is no small feat,” said Han-Mei Chiang, president of the AIA’s Portland chapter. “Green Hammer and the other nine firms that achieved this significant milestone have helped prove that (net) zero energy buildings, the key to meeting the 2030 Commitment, are attainable in today’s marketplace.”

Dunn agreed.

“I would say it’s definitely a feather in our cap for getting it now, given that we got the Living Building certification for a 2015 design,” she said. “So that’s outside our portfolio right now, but coming off the completion of Tillamook Row, it’s been such a great project for us it’s nice to have this confirmation we’re on the right track.”

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Amid efforts at the federal level to repeal and roll back environmentally conscious regulations, some builders are continuing to strive to exceed them.

One is Green Hammer Inc. The design-build firm, based in the Pearl District, has built a portfolio of buildings with performance greater than required by current building codes for Oregon and beyond.

The firm’s latest project in this vein is Tillamook Row, a multifamily development at 20 N.E. Tillamook St., in Portland’s Eliot neighborhood. Crews are building 16 townhomes ranging from 750-square-foot studios to 1,320-square-foot, four-bedroom units.

Five structures will wrap around a central courtyard, and have roofs covered with photovoltaic panels. Combined, those panels will provide up to 82 kilowatts of energy per hour. The aim is for Tillamook Row to become the first net-zero-energy multifamily project in Portland to offer units for rent, Green Hammer design team manager Erica Dunn said.

Net zero certification is granted by the International Living Future Institute, a nonprofit that also oversees the Living Building Challenge. To gain certification, a structure (or group of structures) must produce more electricity over the course of a year than it consumes.

“I always say any building could be net zero if you just have a big enough place to put a solar array,” Green Hammer project manager Mike Liggett said. “You could have a really inefficient building with a big plot of land next to it with a solar array, but really, the trick is reducing the need for energy. That is first and foremost.”

For Tillamook Row, the solar energy component is just the beginning of that effort.

“A lot of reduction is in the design and the envelope,” Liggett said. “This has a super-insulated envelope that’s also airtight. And then we also use high-efficiency mechanical systems to ventilate the air and bring fresh, clean air into the units. Primarily by limiting the air infiltration you can get and provide a robust insulated layer, and that’s how we reduce the demand for energy.”

Even Energy Star appliances and LED lighting make a difference, he added.

Tillamook Row will have a 2,000-square-foot common house open to all tenants for shared meals, exercise and other gatherings. On-site parking will include electric vehicle charging stations, a storage building and an additional bike garage.

There will even be a trio of 1,200-gallon capacity cisterns that will collect rainwater to support maintenance of the central courtyard and landscaping.

“There’s enough water storage there to service the courtyard during the summer months and the dry season,” Liggett said. “Primarily it’s a gravity system, so it doesn’t require pumps or other such things that require energy.”

Plus, the Tillamook Row structures are being built to Passive House standards, which are meant to produce superior indoor air quality and greatly reduced heating and cooling needs. Typically, a house meeting those standards consumes around 70 percent less energy than a standard single-family home.

Green Hammer has already successfully completed a Living Building project in Southern Oregon. As such, the contractor generally chooses to use only building materials that would be acceptable within the Living Building Challenge, Liggett noted.

“We absolutely do use the healthiest materials we possibly can,” he said. “People don’t really think about their indoor air quality that much, but they should.”

Developer BCMC Properties is already growing its reputation for engaging in sustainable projects, and Tillamook Row is a huge step in that direction. Crews are quickly approaching the finish line for the project.

“We are getting close, although we’re at the point where we’re fine-tuning all the little bits and pieces,” Dunn said. “So we’re looking to be done by end of August, middle of September.”

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