In 2011, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake leveled much of Christchurch, New Zealand.

“Their downtown is dead,” said Jay Raskin, principal of , and an adviser of the . “It’s gone. It’s still empty and they’re trying to figure out how to build it back. Portland could very easily look like Christchurch.”

Scientists have predicted that a magnitude 8 or 9 earthquake will strike Western Oregon within the next 50 years. At particular risk are the state’s 5,000 to 10,000 unreinforced masonry buildings (approximately 1,700 are in Portland) that would likely collapse in such an event.

The HPLO recently released a report, “Resilient Masonry Buildings – Saving Lives, Livelihoods, and the Livability of Oregon’s Historic Downtowns,” that outlines strategies for preserving Oregon’s inventory of unreinforced masonry buildings constructed between 1846 and 1940. The report found that while the structures play a vital role in Oregon’s economy, demand is lacking for seismic upgrades.

HPLO Executive Director Peggy Moretti, said the total worth of unreinforced masonry buildings in Portland is approximately $350 million; for Oregon, it’s billions of dollars. Moretti said rehabilitating those buildings could provide a large amount of work for contractors.

“Then there is the cost of not doing something and this earthquake happens, and then you have all these communities whose downtown is gone,” she said. “All the businesses are out of business (and) all the people in the apartments have no place to live, no place to go to school. What is the economic impact of doing nothing?”

For the city of Jacksonville, a seismic event could topple an entire industry.

In 1966, the former boomtown became the first city in Oregon designated as a National Historic Landmark District. More than 100 buildings were placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Altogether, they represent a tourist attraction that could not be replaced if a major seismic event were to occur.

The most notable building is the former Jackson County Courthouse, which was built in 1884. Today, the building is vacant; however, Amy Stevenson, planning director for the city of Jacksonville, said it’s in the process of acquiring the building from the county. The city is hoping to revitalize the structure and three other historic properties.

A seismic upgrade at the courthouse would cost between $332,500 and $415,625, according to the HPLO report. Stevenson said the city will seek grants to pay for work that would be too costly otherwise.

That’s not an uncommon problem with unreinforced masonry buildings.

“You’re usually spending $25 to $40 per square foot just on seismic upgrades, let alone the initial renovation costs,” said Ross Plambeck, a former Portland Development Commission senior project manager who participated in one of four roundtables that preceded the HPLO report. “You get into all these issues about what you can charge per square foot (for seismic work) and usually you can’t charge enough.”

In its report, the HPLO suggests adopting a seismic rating system for unreinforced masonry buildings. Brandon Spencer-Hartle, field services manager for the HPLO, said that could be as simple as hanging a plaque on a building’s front door.

“The idea is that we need to build public demand for those buildings,” Spencer-Hartle said. “Everything boils down to economics, and one thing we heard is that there isn’t that much payback to invest in a seismic upgrade.”

Another idea is to extend best practices for dealing with unreinforced masonry buildings throughout the state.

For instance, Plambeck said the city of Portland is flexible enough to let building owners perform upgrades over a period of years. The HPLO, in its report, suggests that other municipalities also adopt a phased approach.

Plambeck said another issue is that no viable incentives exist to spur rehabilitation of unreinforced masonry buildings. Federal tax credits are too narrowly focused on large remodels, and Oregon’s property tax freeze system is outdated, he said.

The report recommends creating new state and local tax incentives, as well as a new insurance pool for historic structures. Moretti said this would be the focus of next year’s roundtables.

For now, she said the HPLO plans to present this year’s report to local and state legislators to see whether they can get the ball rolling. She also sees a poignant lesson in Christchurch.

“Their downtown commercial district is still closed – even the buildings that survived are surrounded by rubble,” Moretti said. “If you’re (constructing) a new building in the Pearl District, you should be concerned about your neighbor’s building that might fall around your building. Or, if those buildings are gone, you’ve just lost critical mass.”

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Peggy Moretti, the executive director of the , wants to preserve more than old buildings.

She also wants to preserve building industry professionals’ peace of mind.

They sometimes react negatively, she said, when they hear the words “historic preservation.” She hopes to change that today when developers, contractors, engineers, preservationists and others meet to discuss the fates of aging and unreinforced masonry buildings.

“We want people to know that the Historic Preservation League of Oregon is not a bunch of people who want things preserved in amber and are too attached to the sepia-toned past,” she said. “We want to be facilitators of solutions, not purveyors of ‘no.’ ”

When Moretti helps lead the group’s third annual preservation roundtable, she hopes the brainstorming produces real-world solutions that preserve the charm of the past without impeding the development of the future. Approximately 50 people will gather to discuss what can be done to protect vulnerable masonry buildings.

There are a lot of them in Oregon, and few could withstand a major earthquake, Moretti said. The Association Building, a masonry structure in downtown Woodburn, has remained an empty shell since it was nearly reduced to rubble during an earthquake on March 25, 1993.

A similar fate awaits many buildings if people fail to act, Moretti said.

“They’re just everywhere,” she said. “We need to get to the business of reinforcement.”

Examples of vulnerable structures in Oregon range from quaint, old apartment buildings in Northwest Portland to those occupying main streets of many small towns.

Today’s meeting is actually the fourth in a series about unreinforced masonry buildings in Oregon. Previous meetings have taken place in Jacksonville, Astoria and Pendleton. Jacksonville serves as a major example of the problem, Moretti said.

“There hardly wouldn’t be a Jacksonville without its masonry buildings,” she said.

The preservation roundtable is an annual meeting to address a particular, and sometimes controversial, topic of concern. This is the third such meeting.

The first two roundtables dealt with main street issues and appropriate infill for historic neighborhoods. As with those meetings, this one will result in a detailed report. Moretti said the report will be unveiled Oct. 25, when the league celebrates its 35th anniversary.

One of the issues sure to be on the table today is how old buildings can be used for new purposes. For example, Oregon has 31 masonry libraries donated to various communities by steel magnate and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie between 1901 and 1915. Only a few are still used as libraries because their communities long since outgrew them. Many are used for museum space and other purposes.

Moretti was an entrepreneur in the Bay Area before she moved to Oregon 10 years ago. She said she likes to see old buildings reused and made profitable.

“We’re all about adapted use without abandoning any of the charm of the buildings,” she said.

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The today announced five new members who will serve on its board of directors. In an effort to revitalize the 35-year-old nonprofit, three new seats were added to the board, which now has 12 members.

“The new folks are all influential people in Portland and around the state,” said HPLO Board President, Matthew Roman. “They’ve been in the trenches fighting for historic preservation issues for years, and in my opinion they’re visionaries. All of them have proven track records and can help us move forward with the next chapter of the preservation movement.”

The new board members are:

Hal Ayotte, recently retired founding partner of , whose projects range from Crater Lake Lodge to the White Stag Block

Liz Carter, preservation consultant with particular expertise on Oregon’s Settlement Era properties, and adjunct faculty at the University of Oregon in Eugene

Art DeMuro, principle of , which specializes in redevelopment of historic buildings, and former chair of the Portland Landmarks Commission

Roy Fox, chief human capital officer for , with a background in strategic planning, asset management, and risk management

Jeff Joslin, principal with , specializing in urban planning and land use, and former Portland city planner

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The Oregon City Commission this week unanimously approved a contract to move forward with plans to rehabilitate one of the oldest buildings in the state.

won the $65,000 contract to investigate the current condition of the city-owned Francis Ermatinger House, built in 1845, and prepare plans for the rehabilitation. The group expects to have all construction documents completed by the beginning of summer, according to Maya Foty of ARG.

The historic building was open to the public as a house museum but has been closed for more than a year due to its debilitating condition.

The Historic Preservation League of Oregon placed the building on its 2011 list of Oregon’s Most Endangered Places, and the structural defects to the house have forced the city to look at a substantial rehabilitation project to be able to restore public access to the building.

The money for the investigation and planning is coming from grants through the Historic Preservation League of Oregon, Oregon State Historic Preservation Office, National Trust for Historic Preservation, and from Oregon City’s general fund. The city also earned a Saving Oregon Treasures grant from OSHPO that will help cover hard costs for the first phase of construction, which city planner Christina Robertson-Gardiner says may begin this fall.

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To the preservation-minded, surface parking lots and new construction can be serious blights to the fabric of historic neighborhoods. And there are at least 500 such commercial properties in Oregon’s historic districts, according to the State Historic Preservation Office.

Through a series of roundtable discussions, the Historic Preservation League of Oregon has urged people to start talking about the “dos” and “do nots” when it comes to infill design.

With the support of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, HPLO is working to establish baseline standards for new construction and clear guidelines for the design of new infill projects. The roundtable brought together architects, historians, landmarks commissioners and property owners in The Dalles in June, Ashland in July, and will culminate in Portland today.

HPLO executive director Peggy Moretti said one of the objectives is to define what it really means to say that some infill is “compatible.” While most people would agree that new construction in a historic district should be “compatible” with the existing buildings, no clear principles translate that idea into construction standards.

Some components of compatibility brought up at the first two roundtables are scale, massing, materials, setback, and some other conceptual characteristics. On Oct. 13, HPLO will issue a final report laying out their findings.

If you want to go to the “Synthesis Session” tomorrow, go to the Architectural Heritage Center, 701 S.E. Grand Ave. by 8:45 a.m. The HPLO is currently expecting about 30 attendees but plans to have room for some walk-ins. The cost is $10.

If you can’t make it, but want to provide feedback or stay updated on HPLO event, more information can be found on .

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