Five years after purchasing Portland’s oldest commercial building, John Russell is finally starting the process to renovate it.

The Hallock & McMillan Building, at 237 S.W. Naito Parkway, was constructed in 1857 – two years before Oregon became a state. It eventually was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. However, shortly after World War II, the building’s owners removed the historic cast iron facade. And in recent years, the building has lacked commercial use.

But Russell, founder of Russell Development Co., decided six months ago that the time was right to seek city approval for a revitalization project. That was when a prospective tenant declared its love for the Hallock & McMillan Building, offering to pay $50 per square foot to lease it. The problem was that Russell couldn’t refresh the 4,525-square-foot building within the prospective tenant’s time frame.

“It was a fabulous tenant – exactly what the building should have,” Russell said. “They were really excited about the value and the visibility of what that building would offer them. But they needed it in a certain time and because of all the review processes, we couldn’t deliver it. I said, ‘We need to get the ability to deliver that building for a tenant.’ ”

Russell believes he is six weeks away from getting land use approval and that he will be able to apply for a building permit soon after. He said that, in theory, the building could be available by July 1, 2016.

Right now, the Hallock & McMillan Building is occupied by Zena Zezza, a contemporary art enterprise. Russell and Sandra Percival, Zena Zezza’s director and curator, began talking about the space being used for a contemporary art project in spring 2014. By fall 2014, Russell had donated the space to Zena Zezza and the first exhibition had taken place.

“It’s been a phenomenal space to use as far as exhibitions and art,” Percival said. “John has been incredibly generous. And it’s always a great opportunity to give a building a life rather than having it sit dormant, where now it has another memory in it and another history as a contemporary art space.”

Russell plans to restore the Hallock & McMillan Building’s exterior “to precisely what it looked like,” before the historic cast iron facade was removed. The interior will retain original brick and wood floors.

One of the biggest challenges will be a seismic update.

“It’s a little bit complicated, but we have a dedicated owner who really wants to preserve the building and the historic nature,” said Robert J. Grummel, principal at Grummel Engineering LLC. “He’s putting in a lot more money than can be justified by rents to restore an old building. It’s just wonderful.”

The project is expected to add value to four adjoining buildings owned by Russell. He also believes that the Hallock & McMillan Building will provide a tenant the kind of space now popular in Portland.

“It’s the type of building that’s in the highest demand right now for high-tech tenants, startup tenants,” he said. “It’s got high ceilings, exposed brick walls. That’s what people want if they can find it.”

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While searching for a space to convert into a modern museum for mid-century automobiles, developers discovered a former Chrysler dealership visible from Interstate 5. The tilt-up concrete building also had an ideal layout to accommodate exhibits, said Tony Thacker, executive director of the World of Speed educational museum.

“For a building that wasn’t designed specifically for that purpose, it’s incredibly museum-friendly,” he said. “It already has an entrance or lobby area and it has a huge, open gallery space.”

However, converting that 85,000-square-foot building into a state-of-the-art museum space required some major changes. The $10 million renovation is eliminating all remnants of the car dealership so that up to 100 cars from the 1950s and 60s can be displayed. The challenge for the project team was determining how to display the cars and associated artifacts safely, and make the visitor experience stand out for car aficionados and greenhorns alike.

“We essentially had to take this concrete shoebox building and repurpose it into a mid-century, modern time capsule,” said Jean-Pierre Veillet, president, founder and creative director of Siteworks, the project’s design-build firm. “We had to work with a very simple structure and turn it into something more engaging.”

Siteworks started by removing three support columns from the building’s interior and replacing them with a 50,000-pound, 100-foot-long arched bow truss to support a new roof. Removal of the columns created a more open gallery space able to accommodate up to 3,000 people and provide additional space for cars.

Also, failing, leaky windows were replaced with roughly 12,000 square feet of double-paned, glazed ones. The ultraviolet, translucent glass will provide better natural light for exhibits, Veillet said.

“We tore out all the windows and replaced them with a mid-century, modern look that is very vertical,” he said. “It will engage people from the freeway.”

Other elements include a cantilevered canopy system that extrudes out from the entryway and environmental graphics around the exterior that replicate giant racing stripes, Veillet said.

A heating, ventilation and air conditioning system is being installed, and LED lighting will appear around the building, Veillet said. After the project is completed, Siteworks will apply for Energy Trust of Oregon cash incentives tied to projected energy savings.

The building will have multiple technology features to make the museum more secure. The project team consulted with Las Vegas casino operators to create a security system that will keep an unobtrusive eye on vehicles and artifacts, Thacker said. Because of multiple redundancies, a would-be thief could cut a wire and another part of the system would back it up.

“We are confident that we have put together a system that will protect the safety of those cars,” Veillet said. “If you chopped off an arm on this system, it would grow another one.”

Also, a temperature-controlled archive room will be installed with a fire-suppression system designed to protect valuable artifacts, including old magazines, race suits, crash helmets and historic photographs, Thacker said.

Interactive features include a “moving wallpaper” system that will project images from eight different cameras onto a screen. That will allow World of Speed to show racecars moving across a 160-foot long screen. It also will be used for showing drive-in movies, because the space will allow up to 20 vehicles to enter the building from off-site. In addition, simulators will replicate the speed and physical sensation of what it is like to drive in a NASCAR race.

Several exhibits will be installed in the project’s final phase, Thacker said. One is a “Wall of Sound” exhibit explaining the relationship between cars and music; Chuck Berry and ZZ Top will be among the artists featured.

The museum is scheduled to open next spring, Thacker said.

World of Speed

Location: 27490 S.W. 95th Ave., Wilsonville

Owner: Marie Lamfrom Charitable Foundation

Architect/general contractor: Siteworks Design | Build

Engineer: Grummel Engineering LLC

Landscape architect: Place Studio LLC

Electrical contractor: Capitol Electric Co.

Project cost: $10 million

Construction start date: July 2013

Anticipated completion date: December 2014

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Bremik Construction recently completed an interior renovation of the 128-year-old Fechheimer & White Building on Southwest Naito Parkway for owner John Russell of Russell Development Company, Inc. The building’s floor plan was reorganized and offices were opened up to give the space an open feel. Portions of floors were removed to create light wells, and the building received a full seismic upgrade. Other partners on the project included Leeb Architects and Grummel Engineering.

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An 80,000-square-foot former auto dealership space in Wilsonville is getting some new wheels – racecars.

A nonprofit based in West Linn is planning to open a new racecar museum called World of Speed, at 27490 S.W. 95th Ave. A seismic upgrade and renovation are under way so that more than 100 classic racecars can be featured.

“It’s kind of like OMSI for automobiles,” World of Speed Executive Director Tony Thacker said, referring to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry.

The Marie Lamfrom Charitable Foundation, a nonprofit focused on children’s issues, is funding the project. Tim Parker, a Melvin Mark Brokerage Co. vice president, represented the foundation in its $7.15 million property purchase through an affiliated limited liability corporation. He said the group searched far and wide before settling on Wilsonville.

Specifically, the foundation needed a large amount of space along a major thoroughfare like Interstate 5 or Oregon Route 217. Officials searched for a year before learning that the owners of Town and Country Chrysler Jeep Dodge of Wilsonville were looking to unload their property.

Portland-based Siteworks Design | Build is overseeing the renovation project, and Grummel Engineering is performing seismic improvements.

Jean-Pierre Veillet, Siteworks’ president, founder and creative director, and his team visited West Coast car museums, like the LeMay Museum in Tacoma, Wash., for inspiration. He said the renovation will open up the building to lots of natural light, but won’t involve major changes. The design will play up stories about each car, he added.

In addition to hands-on car exhibits, the museum will feature a working service bay where members will be able to work on their own classic cars. A lounge for members is likely to include a bar, and Veillet said the group is looking to partner with cafes and retailers. Also, a drive-in theater and event space are envisioned, as are a variety of educational programs.

The project team is hoping to open World of Speed by summer 2014.

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The 60-foot-long arch rests on two basalt stone-clas piers created by Michael Byrne and is adorned with sculptured bronze salmon donated by local artist Rip Caswell. The public-private team responsible for the project includes general contractor Bremik Construction, Columbia Wire & Iron, the Troutdale Historical Society, Michael McCulloch AIA, Grummel Engineering and several subcontractors. The arch was paid for with money from private donations and the city of Troutdale. » Watch the video

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