The Portland Art Museum‘s Rothko Pavilion is ready for its public debut after a decade of conception and planning, and nearly three years of construction.

The $116 million project’s centerpiece is the pavilion, a thoroughly modern, four-story glass box that bridges two 20th-century museum buildings.

Perhaps most emblematic of the project: Signs in the museum refer to the Mark building, built in 1970, as the North Wing, while the original Pietro Belluschi museum building, built in 1932, is now the South Wing.

It’s all one Portland Art Museum.

“Connectivity was really the core architectural mission of the project,” said Tim Eddy, principal at Hennebery Eddy Architects. The local firm partnered with Vinci Hamp Architects of Chicago to design the project.

The major design problem was how to combine the two existing buildings. The solution, the architects decided, would be a glazed box. They added two elevators and a central staircase, and several subtle step-downs to help navigate at least 11 grade changes between the Mark and Belluschi buildings.

The result is a landmark civic project for Portland.

Inside, natural light floods the Rothko Pavilion. Designers used fritted glass to both reduce glare and avoid bird strikes. Heating and cooling run through the floors. Sound deadening was used extensively, and the building has only the quiet hum of the ventilation system bringing in fresh air.

“It was not intended to be a focal third building,” Eddy said. “It was really intended to connect the existing buildings.”

The project adds about 100,000 square feet of new and renovated interior space. Curators have filled that space with new exhibits of Mark Rothko paintings, Pacific Northwest and Native American art, an entire floor dedicated to contemporary Black artists, and a series of immersive digital works.

The connections between buildings should make it easier for visitors to navigate to the various galleries, museum officials and designers said.

“Everyone gets to see more of the art,” said Phillip Hamp, principal at Vinci Hamp Architects.

Outside, a gold-ring sculpture made of gilded timber — “The Sun” by Swiss-American artist Ugo Rondinone — dominates the west side along Southwest 10th Avenue, with views of the West Hills. To the east, visitors can look toward the Hawthorne Bridge and Mount Hood.

The pavilion “creates a new, welcoming central front door to the museum,” said Brian Ferriso, the art museum’s director.

Museum officials raised $116 million for the project itself and $30 million more for an endowment.

Designers took transparency seriously. Pedestrians can look inside the museum, viewing art from a passageway or the sidewalks. Museumgoers can see the city outside the structure.

Outdoor terraces on the fourth floor provide views and resting spots, and space for events. On the ground floor, Providore Fine Foods has opened Coquelico, a café serving sandwiches, salads and pizza.

Vinci Hamp leaned on Hennebery Eddy’s local expertise with Portland’s design review and historic resource processes, Hamp said.

“One of the real benefits of hooking up with Hennebery is they knew this system,” Hamp said. “We had a head start, and they were able to run interference.”

Mortenson served as general contractor, handling unusual materials and a unique project site. KPFF was the structural engineer.

“This vision started over a decade ago and continued through COVID and tariffs and everything else,” said Carolyn Sizemore, Mortenson’s director for the Portland market. “This proves hard, complex things can be completed in Portland — and should be.”

The museum will open to the public on Nov. 20 with a schedule of events and free admission.

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The first step toward reopening O’Bryant Square — demolition of the current structure — is moving forward. Transportation Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty has signed off on an emergency procurement letter to move forward with demolition.

The O’Bryant Square Plaza and Garage first opened in 1972 and was named for Hugh Donaldson O’Bryant, Portland’s first mayor. The garage provided about 100 parking spaces during that time. In 2018, a retaining wall in the southwest corner of the garage was found to be structurally deficient. A portion of the deficient wall had been reused from a building on the site that was built around 1915. Leaks into the garage were also discovered.

These safety concerns prompted the closure of the garage and plaza above it in 2018. A fence has closed off O’Bryant Square to the public ever since.

With an agreement now in place, demolition is expected to start in early 2023 with estimated completion during summer 2023. This will include the removal of all hardscape and structures, filling the structure with dirt, and then covering the surface with a new layer of grass.

Portland Parks and Recreation will begin work in early 2023 to program the new space in the near term, while designing a permanent new park long-term. Portland Parks and Recreation and the Portland Parks Foundation are collaborating with the Center for Public Interest Design, along with the Harvard Loeb Fellowship, to convene a community outreach effort March 7-11. Portland Parks Foundation Executive Director Randy Gragg said the event will bring various stakeholders to think about how the park can best serve those around it.

The demolition is a chance to restart, Gragg added, stating that the park was designed for a particular era.

“In its early days, it was an important public space,” Gragg said. “Lots of things happened there.”

As Pioneer Courthouse Square was built, the energy at O’Bryant got sucked away, Gragg added.

The park will be programmed first by Portland Parks and Recreation and designed later. An architect is not selected for the project at this time.

“We are very pleased to see that Portland Parks is moving forward with demolition of O’Bryant Square in early January,” Tim Eddy, president of Hennebery Eddy Architects, stated in an email. “Hennebery Eddy’s office space has overlooked the Square since 1992 – we have seen the good and the not-so-good aspects of the Square for the past 30 years.”

In 2018, Hennebery Eddy convened a focus group of local property owners, architects, landscape architects, city officials and interested parties to chart a path toward reopening the square, in some form, as soon as possible.

“While we haven’t reviewed the demolition plans we are excited to hear that this is the direction the project is headed,” Eddy said. “In short, completing this work is essential to the health of downtown and it can’t happen soon enough.”

An agreement for demolition is expected soon with Northwest Infrastructure LLC (NWI). The estimated cost of the agreement is $4.5 million.

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The city of Bend has selected two firms to design and construct the new 26.5-acre Juniper Ridge Public Works Campus.

Kirby Nagelhout Construction and Hennebery Eddy Architects will work together on the project to bring together the city’s engineering and infrastructure planning, fleet, transportation and mobility, and utilities functions in one location. The campus will include administrative and employee support services, fleet maintenance and shop and warehouse facilities, vehicle wash and storage spaces, and other specialized areas.

The city chose progressive design-build project delivery, which allows all parties to collaborate from the beginning. The streamlined process between owner, designer and contractor results in faster project completion.

“It brings all of the experts – including the general contractor and their trade partners – it brings those experts on early in the process,” Hennebery Eddy associate principal Camilla Cok said.

Those parties look over the budget and more from the outset, helping manage risk. If needed, the architects can adjust the design. When it comes time to build, the team should know the costs, because people are providing confirmation along the way.

“Traditionally, you don’t get that expert input early on,” Cok said.

The city of Bend is bringing together onto one campus five departments that currently are spread apart. The goal is to create a regenerative design that is resilient and adaptable. There is also a strong desire of the city to create a strong work environment for employees, as well as a place that benefits the community.

“We’re really early in the project,” Cok said. “We wrapped up programming and we’re jumping into concept design.”

The team is looking at several buildings to house the departments, as well as a main headquarters building, vehicle storage, a fleet maintenance building, and more. Design will begin early next year. Construction will begin mid-2023.

The city of Bend wants to start moving into the facilities in 2025.

“We’re thrilled to be working with the city of Bend,” Cok said. “They established a climate action plan and a strategic energy management plan.”

The city worked to align the project goals with sustainability aspirations. Bend’s strategic energy management plan calls for new facilities to be designed for net zero energy use or be net zero ready. The team is looking into this as a possibility.

With “the progressive design build process, we’re all collocated in a shared space in Bend,” Cok said, adding that she can see the benefits of such an arrangement.

Both Kirby Nagelhout Construction and Hennebery Eddy Architects have offices in Bend as well as design-build project experience.

“We have a history of working with Kirby Nagelhout,” Cok said. “They are a great partner. Our first project experience was actually a more traditional design-bid-build project.”

That was the Harmony West Building for Clackamas Community College. The two companies also are working on a fire station project for the city of Boardman.

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Project name: Multnomah County Library Operations Center

Location: 221 N.E. 122^nd Ave., Portland

Start date: July 2022

Completion date: Fall 2023

Cost: $62,528,627 ($37,500,529 for construction)

Owner: Multnomah County Library

Construction Manager/General Contractor: Fortis Construction

Architect: Hennebery Eddy Architects

Engineers: KPFF, Interface Engineering

Other Associates/Consultants: The Greenbusch Group (acoustics and AV), Code Unlimited (code consultant), PLACE Studio (landscape architecture), Lensa Consulting (LEED consultant), Biella Lighting (lighting consultant), Arris Consulting LLC (mechanical, plumbing, energy modeling), Knot Design (signage), JG Pierson (structural), Kittelson & Associates (traffic engineer, street lighting)

Significance of Project and Project Description: A ceremonial groundbreaking was held Wednesday for the Multnomah County Library Operations Center, located at the southwest corner of 122^nd Avenue and Glisan Street on the site of a former Safeway grocery store. The center will be at the heart of many library services, where new books and materials come into the library system, where many items placed on hold are sorted and transferred, and where specialized materials and services for outreach to new immigrant communities, schools, retirement communities, shelters and other settings are centered.

The 72,925-square-foot, two-story building will house Automated Materials Handling technology, getting library items to patrons efficiently while ultimately making staff available for more customer service. Additionally, the centralized location provides an opportunity to better serve the community through the library’s outreach programs in schools, child care centers, shelter and transitional housing, and other settings.

While most of the building will not be public-facing, Friends of the Library will run a year-round public retail space that will sell donated books and retired library materials. This is an opportunity to provide a new, affordable retail amenity for East Portland in an accessible location in coordination with Friends of the Library.

Hennebery Eddy Architects will lead design of the center and Fortis Construction is the general contractor. The building will provide a pathway to greater efficiency with sustainability at the core of the work. With plans for approximately 600 photovoltaic panels on the building’s rooftop that convert sunlight into electricity, the goal is to make this a net-zero energy building in addition to attaining LEED Gold certification.  In addition to the photovoltaic panels, the project is following guidance and strategies from Energy Trust of Oregon’s Path to Net Zero plan from initial design planning to construction document review to ensure Net Zero.

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Hennebery Eddy Architects is wrapping up a major survey of the Montana State Capitol building, in Helena, that will inform rehabilitation efforts for the 119-year-old building.

The Portland-based architecture firm’s Historic Resources Group led a thorough evaluation of the building’s condition. Their work involved laser surveys, rappelling and creating a historic building information model (HBIM).

Hennebery Eddy was called upon by Montana’s General Services Division to catalog the building’s condition largely because of concerns about the aging sandstone exterior and copper dome. The state has conducted some renovations over time, including interior work in the 1990s. The exterior structure has continued to deteriorate, however, leading to recognition that a more thorough update may be necessary.

“The state decided that rather than looking at all of these things in a piecemeal fashion, they wanted to get a comprehensive look at current conditions,” said Carin Carlson, an associate principal and historical architect for Hennebery Eddy. “So that’s what we’re doing.”

The firm plans to present renovation options at different budget levels to Montana officials within a few weeks, Carlson said. The cost is expected to be “significant,” she said. Tough decisions will have to be made, including how much sandstone to replace.

“Our goal is to provide viable options,” Carlson said. “We certainly want some work to start. We recognize it’s going to have to be phased. It’s a huge building.”

Construction of the original capitol, with a sandstone exterior, began in 1899 and was completed in 1902. Two granite wings were added in 1909, making the building 464 feet in length and encompassing 244,000 square feet. The capitol has three floors, a full basement and various mezzanine levels.

The building is on the National Register of Historic Places. The architecture is described in the 1981 National Register application as neoclassical, influenced by the American Renaissance movement and the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. The design by Helena architects Bell and Kent drew on the Minnesota and Rhode Island capitols.

Hennebery Eddy’s computer-generated HBIM includes information such as which windows are original and which are replacements, allowing Montana officials to evaluate materials throughout the building.

“The intention is we’ll be handing the state a tool they can use internally to manage projects and record maintenance activities – so it’s a living model,” Carlson said.

Workers with Ithaca, N.Y.-based Vertical Access rappelled from the dome to evaluate the copper structure. The dome needs major work, Carlson said.

“The recommendations have been that the dome should be either significantly repaired or the copper replaced in kind,” she said.

The original sandstone is wearing away – a common problem for buildings of the era.

“There’s just been this long-term, systemic problem with the sandstone,” Carlson said.

Carlson, who works out of Hennebery Eddy’s Portland office, is collaborating with staffers in the firm’s Bozeman, Montana, office – aka Comma-Q Studio. The firm has performed numerous historic preservation projects for government clients, including federal courthouses owned by the General Services Administration.

“It’s definitely a larger scale than a lot of the things we’ve worked on before,” Carlson said. “But in the end, they’re all historic buildings. They all have some of the same problems we’re looking for.”

Design Beyond Borders is a 91��Ƶ feature offering a look at the projects outside of Oregon being tackled by local architecture firms. To have your firm’s projects considered, contact the 91��Ƶ newsroom at 503-802-7222 or newsroom@djcOregon.com.

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Hennebery Eddy Architects has acquired Comma-Q Architecture of Bozeman, Montana. The latter will become Hennebery Eddy Architects’ Comma-Q Studio on Jan. 1, 2021.

Ben Lloyd, founder of Comma-Q, will become a principal and vice president of Hennebery Eddy and remain the leader of the Bozeman-based team. Comma-Q’s 11 staff members will join approximately 60 at Hennebery Eddy.

The transaction stems from Hennebery Eddy’s work in Montana. Tim Eddy, president and a founding principal, was raised in Montana and received a master’s degree in architecture from Montana State University. He eventually met Lloyd while serving on an advisory board for MSU’s School of Architecture.

“I have very strong ties to the state and the community,” Eddy said. “In spending time over there, I developed an interest in starting to work over there.”

The two firms worked together on MSU’s Jake Jabs College of Business building, and they continue to provide historic preservation services for the Montana State Capitol in Helena.

“We’ve been talking about this for years, and we’ve partnered on some important projects for both firms,” Eddy said.

Hennebery Eddy’s clients in the state include: Xanterra Travel Collection, the National Park Service, MSU and the state of Montana.

“That’s generated a lot of travel back and forth from Bozeman,” Eddy said. “If we can reduce that travel by having a team in Bozeman, we’ll serve our clients better, we’ll save them money, and we’ll reduce our carbon footprint as well.”

This is the first acquisition for Hennebery Eddy, and the firm isn’t looking for more, Eddy said.

The business transaction represents a bet on growth at a time when new projects are scarce. Eddy, however, is optimistic about prospects for Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and Idaho.

“This is a long-term thing; we see long-term opportunity in the Intermountain West,” he said. The deal “wasn’t really motivated by near-term economics, although I will say that Montana and the area around Bozeman is maturing and growing economically, and I see opportunity for us in the region.”

Though the pandemic changed how Hennebery Eddy operates, it also opened a window of opportunity.

“Remote work, and the success of remote work, has enhanced the feasibility of doing this at this time,” Eddy said.

A year after Eddy and the late Stephen Hennebery founded their firm in 1992, Lloyd founded Comma-Q. The Montana firm recently worked on an expansion of the Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport, a cross-laminated timber expansion of a Bozeman food co-op, the transformation of a former high school building into condominiums; and the Cannery District – a neighborhood revitalization effort – in Bozeman.

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Architects awoke Monday to a new world where many of the usual ways of doing business were no longer advisable or even possible.

Client meetings, conferences, site visits and even internal project team meetings and design critiques that were routine only days ago are now unthinkable.

Faced with the COVID-19 viral pandemic, many architecture firms moved abruptly to requiring almost all employees to work remotely. Hennebery Eddy Architects conducted a “stress test” Monday in which every employee worked remotely.

“This is uncharted territory, and it changes continually in terms of what we’re reacting to and so forth, but like a lot of other firms we’re doing more off-site, more remote work,” said Tim Eddy, president of the 70-employee firm.

The prospect of remote work poses particular challenges for architects. Many project teams work closely in groups and meet regularly. Brainstorming sessions and design critiques are frequent occurrences. Senior architects review the work of junior architects.

As with many professions, architecture was becoming more open to remote work before the COVID-19 outbreak. Yet abruptly and dramatically expanding that model is not what anyone had planned.

“Having some percentage of your staff work remotely,” Eddy said, “is very different than having your entire staff work remotely.”

Technological challenges add another hurdle: high-tech BIM models, for example, may be too much for home wireless Internet or computer equipment.

Remote work is “mostly doable, but not without challenges,” Eddy said. “We do a lot of work with historic preservation and so forth that requires visiting the site and reviewing the condition of materials and so forth, interiors and exteriors. You can’t do a site visit digitally.”

Lever Architecture is also requiring all employees to work from home unless there’s a “critical reason” someone cannot do so, principal Thomas Robinson said.

“We’re all working from home,” he said. “We were fortunate to be a little ahead of the curve in that everyone was set up on Zoom (a video conferencing app), and set up to work remotely, and that’s really been helpful. Our concern is really for our community as a whole, and that includes our employees and staff.”

“Clear, constant and consistent communication” will be the key to firm-wide remote work, Robinson said.

Architecture is driven by project schedules and their deadlines, leaving architects little wiggle room for delays.

“Everyone knows that a project schedule is foundational,” Eddy said.

Government regulators are being affected by the pandemic, likely delaying permit times.

Portland’s Bureau of Development Services has temporarily halted acceptance of most new building permits and closed its in-person permitting operations in response to the coronavirus outbreak. No new permit applications are being received except for projects related to health care, life safety, wireless facilities and essential city services.

Inspections can be requested via BDS‘ Interactive Voice Response phone line (503-823-7000, then press 1). BDS is requesting that if anyone at a site has exhibited signs of illness, the caller should wait at least 72 hours before scheduling an inspection.

BDS Director Rebecca Esau has directed inspectors responsible for facility permits to prioritize their work with large institutions, according to spokesman Ken Ray.

“Hospitals will be our first priority for reviewers,” he stated in an email. “We understand the extreme urgency of the need for hospitals to be ready for the expected surge, and we will be flexible and collaborative in working with them to get reviews and inspections done and avoid delays.”

The bureau’s procedures could change, Ray stated.

As pandemic-related closures drag on, architecture firms will have to adapt.

“The system as a whole is under stress,” Robinson said. “It’s not just the permitting system; it’s the entire world. Are there going to be issues? Probably. It’s how we handle those issues.”

Major industry events were canceled, including the International Mass Timber Conference and Design Week Portland. Mass Timber Conference personnel sent out an email reminding attendees to cancel hotel reservations and exhibitor decorations.

On Monday, Gov. Kate Brown announced that gatherings of more than 25 people would be banned beginning Tuesday for at least four weeks. She discouraged gatherings of more than 10 people.

The city of Portland postponed celebrations for the reopened Portland Building. A ground-breaking ceremony scheduled April 6 for a 224-unit affordable housing project in Gresham was postponed.

The coronavirus pandemic will also affect projects moving through design review. The Portland Design Commission‘s Thursday meeting has been postponed. Commissioners were to hold a design advice hearing for Analog, a seven-story, 130-unit multifamily development in Lloyd designed by Works Progress Architecture. Also “rescheduled TBD” is a design advice hearing for the Portland Housing Bureau‘s affordable housing project at 3000 S.E. Powell Blvd. The next Design Commission meeting is scheduled for April 2.

In time, architects’ ability to develop relationships with clients, developers and contractors may suffer. But some firms are introducing more flexibility with time off.

“Mackenzie is allowing employees to use unaccrued paid time off as they need to, and we’re also providing employees with alternatives to public transit for if they choose to come into the office, which is not required,” stated Josh McDowell, a Mackenzie principal and director of structural engineering.

SERA Architects has a policy committee of human relations and operations executives, and company leaders evaluating the situation.

“First, we’re ensuring that anyone who’s particularly at-risk, or caring for someone in the vulnerable community, is able to work from home,” spokesman Shelby Schroeder stated. “We’ve frozen all nonessential travel between our Oakland and Portland offices, and have suspended attendance at any remaining conferences through April. In the meantime, we’re relying on video conferencing whenever possible, and preparing all staff to be able to work remotely – if it comes to that.”

It adds up to a new way of working for architects.

“I think we’re going to have to get real good at it,” Eddy said. “All of these things that we think are difficult now – we’re going to have to get good at them.”

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Another hotel has been proposed for Portland’s Central City, on a quarter-block site in the Pearl District.

The Bureau of Development Services is set to host on March 10 a pre-application conference for discussion of a proposal for an 11-story hotel on a 0.23-acre parcel at 539 N.W. 10th Ave. The applicant is Andrew Smith of Hennebery Eddy Architects, which is working with Middleton, Wisconsin-based GBA Architecture | Design on the project. The developer is Raymond Management Company, a subsidiary of Madison, Wisconsin-based The Raymond Group. The project owner, according to BDS, is Kalberer Co.

Early plans submitted to the BDS call for approximately 150 to 160 hotel rooms. A single loading bay would be accessible from Northwest Hoyt Street. No off-street parking is proposed.

The property currently holds a single-story commercial building that hosts Really Big Video, a firm that offers event production and management as well as content development and related services.

Raymond Management Company in recent years has worked with high-profile hospitality clients, including Hilton and Marriott. The company has one property in the Portland market: a Hampton Inn and Suites at 354 N.W. Ninth Ave. – approximately three blocks from the proposed development site.

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With the additions of six airline gates and seven restaurants, the expansion of Portland International Airport‘s Concourse E is a big deal for travelers.

The 830-foot-long expansion, designed by Hennebery Eddy Architects and Denver-based Fentress Architects, is one project of many large ones within the Port of Portland’s huge PDX Next initiative. Others that will take place over the next several years include: remodels of concourses A and B, construction of larger security checkpoints, refurbishment of ticketing and baggage drop spaces, and the addition of rental car space. Work is expected to continue through at least 2024.

The $215 million Concourse E project is about five months from completion; it’s expected open in June. Skanska USA Building, the project’s general contractor, also is working with Hoffman Construction as a joint venture on the upcoming overhaul of the main terminal and security checkpoints, among other improvements.

The concourse expansion is taller than the existing section and has a lot more windows that will let in a lot of natural light. Three types of glazing with different opacity are being used.

In addition, the south side will feature a curtain wall system to maximize natural light and minimize heat gain inside. This feature and others are contributing to pursuit of a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design gold rating.

Right now, a host of craft workers are working on both the interior and exterior of the concourse extension. Carpenters, plasterers and laborers with Performance Contracting Inc. are framing the interior walls, ceilings and soffits, and also applying fireproofing. Meanwhile, plasterers and laborers with Professional Lath and Plaster are applying acoustic dampening material to the same walls prior to painting.

Electricians from Oregon Electric Group and O’Neill Electric are also busy with interior work, while flooring specialist Top End Terrazzo of Los Angeles is installing terrazzo tile.

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Portland philanthropist Arlene Schnitzer has donated $10 million to the Portland Art Museum. The money will go toward a campaign to fund construction of the Mark Rothko Pavilion and also enlarge the museum’s endowment.

The donation is the largest in the museum’s history and was announced Tuesday at an event attended by Gov. Kate Brown and U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Ore.

The Rothko Pavilion project, expected to cost $70 million to $75 million, would link the museum’s Mark and Belluschi buildings with a four-story glass box, and renovate and expand existing space. The design by Chicago’s Vinci | Hamp Architects and Portland’s Hennebery Eddy Architects���ɲ��� approved by the Portland Design Commission in March 2019.

Museum officials have embarked on a fundraising campaign to begin construction, although museum officials said it’s in a “quiet phase.” A public campaign is expected in 2021.

Schnitzer, a longtime philanthropist and arts patron, is the mother of Harsch Investment Properties President Jordan Schnitzer. Arlene Schnitzer serves as executive vice president of the real estate firm.

Also on Tuesday, Bonamici announced a $750,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities in support of the museum’s building plans and endowment.

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