Kirby Nagelhout Construction has transformed from regional builder to major Northwest contractor, nearly doubling its annual volume to $300 million in 2024.

The company, celebrating 39 years in business, added more than 70 employees last year, bringing its workforce to over 200 professionals across offices in Bend, Portland and Pendleton. Last year also brought industry recognition for KNCC, which won the Building a Better Oregon Award for the Black Butte Ranch Lodge and two 91��Ƶ Top Projects Awards for the Black Butte project and the Sunrise Water Authority’s Administrative & Operations Facility.

KNCC is leading one of Oregon’s largest progressive design-build projects – the City of Bend Public Works Campus. The company also manages modernization projects at Bend and Ashland high schools, the latter a joint venture with Outlier Construction, and is constructing two new Deschutes Public Library facilities.

KNCC emphasizes community involvement through a dedicated committee organizing donations and volunteer opportunities. The company recently partnered with area contractors to establish a registered apprenticeship program supporting skilled trades development in underserved regions.
Sustainability remains central to KNCC’s mission, with seven LEED-certified employees and a portfolio that includes the country’s first certified net-zero school building in Hood River.

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Project name: Elementary School 29

Location: 7201 S.E. Kinnaman Road, Hillsboro

Start date: Summer 2021 (phase 1 sitework); March 2022 (phase 2)

Completion date: Fall 2023

Cost: $39.6 million (including planning/permitting, architectural design and construction)

Owner: Hillsboro School District

Project Manager: Cornerstone Management Group

General Contractors: Kirby Nagelhout Construction Co. (Phase 2 – building); The Saunders Co. (Phase 1 sitework)

Architect: DLR Group

Engineers: AKS Engineering

Other Associates/Consultants: Greenscape (landscape)

Project Archives:

Significance of Project and Project Description: Construction of a new elementary school, currently unnamed, is under way on 8 acres at the northeast corner of Southeast Kinnaman Road and Southeast Reed Drive in Hillsboro. The new two-story, 73,500-square-foot facility will have the capacity for 600 students.

Construction is taking place in two phases. The first phase (sitework) began in summer 2021 and was completed in December. It included excavation, grading, underground utilities, rock compaction and other earthwork. Work also involved adding curbs, ramps, sidewalks and retaining walls, and adding streetlights, sidewalks and driveways. The parent dropoff/parking lot and staff parking lot also were built, and well as the foundation and fencing for the lighted, synthetic turf field.

Phase 2 – construction of the building – began in March. The district said this is the third school to be built using the prototype design already completed at Brookwood and Atfalati Ridge elementary schools. Features include a rooftop solar array, STEAM lab, think tank and several group learning areas adjacent to the classrooms. The layout provides for natural daylighting. The new gymnasium and turf field will also be used as resources for community youth recreation. The school will be built to “immediate occupancy” standards, and also can serve as a shelter after a major seismic event.

The original plan was for the school to open in the fall, but enrollment projections indicated that Rosedale Elementary School could continue to serve as the home school for the student population in the area through the 2022-2023 school year. Naming of the new school is currently in process under task force oversight, after community surveys were conducted. The task force also will oversee the school’s mascot naming and development of school colors and logo. A boundary adjustment process will begin this fall and conclude by next spring.

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In Moro, a tiny city in northern Oregon, a 120-year-old historic building again has a cupola. The project to restore and add to the Sherman County Courthouse wrapped up last year. It now has gained recognition from Restore Oregon as one of its 12 .

The awards honor exceptional efforts to preserve, reuse and revitalize architecturally and culturally significant sites in Oregon. The winning projects will be feted during Restore Oregon’s Restoration Celebration gala on Nov. 1, from 5:30 to 9 p.m., at the Sentinel Hotel in downtown Portland.

Many of this year’s winners are in Portland, but the Sherman County Courthouse is in a much more rural setting. The building’s original cupola had been removed decades ago after being destroyed in a storm. Hennebery Eddy Architects designed the rehabilitation of the unreinforced building as well as a new building.

“The cupola is fiberglass, so we replicated it,” said Meg Matsushima, a Hennebery Eddy Architects associate. “We worked with a group out of Texas (Fiberglass Specialties Inc.) where one of their other businesses is building extreme chicken coops. They did a great job, and in the courthouse itself that’s the only seismic upgrade we needed to do since we were moving sheriff’s operations to the new addition.”

Kirby Nagelhout Construction was the general contractor for the project. Interface Engineering performed the MEP engineering, lighting design, fire and life safety and building technologies. Surprises popped up along the way to completion.

“In the basement, with the excavation, we found that it wasn’t fully excavated at first,” Matsushima said. “There were obstacles in the way, so trying to get footings for the cupola down to the basement was a challenge.”

The team was careful, Matsushima said, both in how it designed and where it placed the 15,000-square-foot addition so it would neither overshadow nor detract from the historic courthouse. In addition, local artists were sought to provide landscape photographs and paintings depicting Sherman County for use in decorating the golden-hued interior of both the courthouse and the addition.

“I think the DeMuro Award is a big deal in our office and our historic resources group,” Matsushima said. “It sets you apart in a different way in the architecture community. It’s nice these types of buildings are recognized, because a lot of the awards are just the big, fancy buildings, and these little jewels are just as important to the fabric of our culture.”

Other 2019 DeMuro Award winners include: the Almr Apartments and retail spaces in Portland; the Altsource headquarters in Portland; the Fairmount Apartments in Portland; Firehouse 17 (restoration and addition) in Portland; the Central Hotel in Burns; the M&N Building in Astoria; Lincoln Hall (renovation and addition) at Portland State University; the Silas Beeks House (restoration) in Forest Grove; The Redd on Salmon Street in Portland; the U.S. Customs House in Portland; and the Woodlark Hotel in Portland.

The Restoration Celebration will begin with a happy hour at 5:30 p.m. and follow with a three-course dinner and program. Learn more and buy tickets – $125 for Restore Oregon members; $150 for nonmembers – at .

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Designers of the new child development center at Portland Community College‘s Rock Creek campus, in Washington County, had to account for two very different groups: children and college students.

“It’s a fun, energizing, open and friendly space,” PCC project manager Zahava Jones said. “We wanted to see that and I think we accomplished that. It’s a simple, house-style design, but it still fits with the college atmosphere.”

The $7 million, bond-funded facility is now substantially completed. It features a single story of wood-framed construction atop a slab-on-grade foundation. The 7,800-square-foot building will be able to hold up to 88 children, in separate infant, toddler and preschool classroom areas.

Efforts to secure a third-party vendor to manage and operate the child care center are ongoing, Jones said, but added that Portland-based Fruit & Flower is one of the leading contenders.

Ground was broken in spring 2018, and officials expect the facility to open by the start of the 2019 fall semester. Child care will be reserved for parents enrolled at PCC, but may be opened to the public in the future.

Scott | Edwards Architecture designed the building, while Shapiro Didway handled design of the exterior grounds. Kirby Nagelhout Construction is the general contractor.

“The challenge I think for the design on this project was to create a building that’s appropriate for a college campus,” said Bob Smith, a project manager for Scott | Edwards Architecture. “With the exterior we used very durable materials, and we tried to blend it with the palette of the rest of the campus with its concrete and metal and wood accents.”

The goal for the interior was to create a “playful, enjoyable and exciting” environment, Smith said.

“We tried to do that with colors and accents,” he said. “But we’re recognizing that it still is a campus building, and it needs to be resilient and durable.”

The facility was designed to resemble a family residence. It features gable ends and a pitched roof, with large bay windows adorning the main hallway.

Composite siding, with a surface manufactured from rice husks, dominates the exterior. The siding is sustainable, but also durable and able to effectively absorb paint and other finishes.

The external cladding is a limestone plaster formulation that comes with an alkali- and UV-resistant permanent finish.

“We approached this looking at the durability and quality of the materials for everything we selected,” Smith said.

Metal panels were used near the entrance to provide a waterfall effect in combination with an ADA-mandated wheelchair ramp.

Special attention was given to the outdoor play area.

“We tried to vary an outdoor learning environment and give the kids play on a variety of different surfaces,” said Carl Liebhardt, a landscape associate with Shapiro Didway. “There are seating areas for outdoor education and there are stepping services for motor skills play. We tried to allow the outdoor area to be a fluid environment for the kids to run around and play in.”

Honey locust trees will provide shade, and ginkgos, dogwoods and maples will serve as accents.

The outdoor play area was also carefully landscaped with sand and other native species along with a host of wooden play features carved from Oregon white oak.

The project team is aiming for Earth Advantage gold certification. Brightworks provided early energy modeling.

“We have a very robust envelope, and we’ve worked closely with PCC to design it as resilient as it can be,” Smith said. “We haven’t really done anything exceptional with over-insulating, but we made some upgrades along the way as part of the Earth Advantage transition.”

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General contractor Kirby Nagelhout Construction is seeking bids from subcontractors for work related to security upgrades at five schools within the Beaverton School District.

Bid package 3C includes: demolition, concrete work, new steel bollards, new entry storefront systems, new hollow metal door frames, door relocation, frames and hardware, new ADA operators, exterior siding, new access control systems, new walls, new ceilings, new paint and paint touch-up, HVAC renovations, new lighting, lighting relocation and raceways for new access control systems.

The work in this bid package will be performed at: Barnes Elementary School, McKay Elementary School, Sexton Mountain Elementary School, Mountain View Middle School and the International School of Beaverton.

This project is being paid for with money from a $680 million bond approved by voters in 2014.

A nonmandatory pre-bid meeting has been rescheduled for 3:30 p.m. on March 4 at Barnes Elementary School, at 13730 Walker Road in Beaverton. Bids are due by 2 p.m. on March 22. Prospective bidders can learn more by calling 971-708-9365 or emailing kellyf@kirbynagelhout.com.

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When voters within the Beaverton School District in 2014 approved a $680 million bond measure – the largest school bond in Oregon history – district officials knew they had a huge task in front of them. To simplify that effort, one of their first decisions was to use one design for four new elementary schools.

DLR Group worked with the school district and the city of Beaverton to create a suitable design. Emerio Design and other firms also contributed to the effort, and now Kirby Nagelhout Construction is serving as general contractor. Crews have already built three of the schools – Sato, Vose and Hazeldale – and are now working on the fourth.

William Walker Elementary School is rising at 2350 S.W. Cedar Hills Blvd., slightly west of Oregon Route 217. It will replace a building demolished last summer, and offer 87,200 square feet – enough to accommodate up to 750 students, according to the district – on two stories.

“This is the fourth and last of a prototype build,” Beaverton School District project manager Megan Finch said. “(The previous building) was pretty much the original 1950s structure. There weren’t any sort of standards with the buildings (then), and we have a lot of variety, which is sort of hard to manage. So, one of the good things about these protos is that the maintenance is way easier. When you have a problem in one building you can bet it’s going to pop up in the others, so you take care of the others before it happens.”

The bulk of the classroom space will be on the upper floor, allowing use of skylights and ceiling-to-floor windows to let in substantial daylight and increase energy efficiency. A highly efficient thermal wheel, also known as a rotary heat exchanger, is being employed for the HVAC system to reduce energy costs even more.

“They’re beautifully bright (classroom) spaces, which I think is really helpful for the students,” Finch said. “It helps improve test scores, it improves learning, and it makes the environment better to be in, in my opinion.”

Currently, construction of William Walker is taking place in four main zones. In sector A, which will house special education classrooms and administrative space, interior metal-framed walls are in place and rough-in is in progress. Sector B includes the commons, cafeteria and gymnasium area; there, all the roof joists are in place and roof decking now covers the space. In sector C, crews are finishing erection of structural steel and installation of steel decking in preparation for the second-story concrete deck pour. Sector D, which will host mechanical and electrical rooms and other back-of-house functions, is roofed, framed and mostly roughed-in.

Also, massive concrete footings are being poured and additional formwork is being constructed for a 10,000-square-foot outdoor, covered play area.

The school district also is partnering with the Tualatin Hills Park & Recreation District on the project, due to the adjacent Cedar Hills Park. There, a new synthetic turf field and other amenities are being finished and will be made available to the school district. In return, the William Walker playground will be open to the public when school is not in session.

“And that’s really a thing for the whole community,” Finch said. “That park wasn’t really developed, and so they’ve put a bunch of improvements in there – bathrooms, (space for) different activities, volleyball, a splash pad and of course a synthetic turf field. It’s going to be quite an improvement.”

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There’s a plethora of school construction taking place right now in the Portland-metro area – much of it the result of votes cast in 2016 and 2017.

Meanwhile, the Beaverton School District is continuing to tackle projects being paid for with money from a $629 million bond approved by voters in 2014. A new middle school opened in 2016, and a new elementary school followed with the new Mountainside High School in 2017. Replacement buildings for Vose and Hazeldale elementary schools have also been completed. The William Walker Elementary School replacement is under construction and the Arts and Communication Magnet Academy replacement is in the design stage.

One of the district’s largest bond projects is a $27.5 million renovation and expansion of Five Oaks Middle School at 1600 N.W. 173rd Ave. There, general contractor Kirby Nagelhout Construction is in the midst of a multiphase project. Crews are able to work on the Bassetti Architects-designed project while the school operations take place.

“The new high school was the bulk of the bond,” said Jessica Pavelka, the district’s project manager for the Five Oaks Middle School renovation. “This is our biggest remodel.”

Crews from Kirby Nagelhout Construction and various subcontractors have started work on at least three of the phases, creating a delicate scheduling balance that requires constant tinkering to keep everything moving forward.

“The district has been very cooperative in allowing us, where we can, to jump ahead,” said Roy Moore, site superintendent for Kirby Nagelhout Construction. “And at the same time, where we want to advance they’ve had to tell us, ‘No, we can’t proceed there yet.’ If it stops in one area, we’re pushing forward in another area.”

Phases 2, 3 and 4A are in motion. Phases 2 and 3 both involve construction of expanded classroom space, while phase 4A covers the renovation of the school entrance and administration offices to make them more secure.

Phase 3 work started soon after Phase 2, with concrete and structural steel crews moving seamlessly from one phase to the next.

“We were able to get a jump on that because we had our concrete crews and steel erectors go right over and do the other phase,” Moore said. “So we’ve actually jumped ahead.”

Phase 4A demolition and plumbing work, meanwhile, is being done at the front of the school in preparation for the overhaul of the office and entryway.

Overall, workers will create or overhaul over 40 classrooms, and create four new science labs, a computer lab, special education amenities and a new counseling wing. Throughout the project, security and technology updates are paramount.

Phases 2 and 4A are set to wrap up this spring, while Phase 3 will then move forward at full speed.

“That’s part of summer work and that will allow us to get almost two months of a jump start into it,” Moore said. “The summer scope of work is monstrous and we have the least amount of time.”

Jumping ahead, the entire project is scheduled for completion by spring 2020.

“This is somewhat new for us to be doing work while occupied,” Pavelka said. “There are circumstances we’ve had to do that, but for the most part it’s been a summer blitz with most of our projects.”

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The longstanding shortage of skilled construction labor is forcing companies’ leaders to take more concrete action to remedy the situation.

A generational lack of workers can be attributed to aftereffects of the Great Recession, when hundreds of thousands of them left the industry in response to a lack of steady work. Now, however, construction is booming in the Pacific Northwest and other markets, and the total number of workers still has not reached the figures seen over a decade ago.

“It is has always been a concern to find enough skilled trades workers,” Kirby Nagelhout Construction President Jeff Deswert said. “Recently, if you look at the average age of our tradespeople, it’s not sustainable right now. What we’ll see is due to the efforts toward technology and higher education and the results of the recession, where nobody was entering the trades then. We’re going to find ourselves in a real pickle in the times ahead, not that we’re not in a pickle now.”

Deswert and his Bend-based company are taking action. Together with Central Oregon contractor Sunwest Builders, Kirby Nagelhout Construction is spearheading a public-private partnership with Central Oregon Community College to offer a to prospective construction workers.

Operating much like pre-apprenticeship programs in the Portland-metro area, the COCC course offers students an introduction to construction – instruction of both technical skills and soft skills.

“It definitely started with the contractors coming to us,” said Rachel Knox, the continuing education program manager at COCC. “For a long time, we wanted to do something here in Central Oregon, but we really didn’t know where to start. So when it landed in my lap I made a commitment that we would start this fall. It’s not a perfect start, but we’re just getting going.”

The non-credit course started last month and will run for six weeks. Classes are held two nights a week in workshop space provided by the Bend college. The first 14 students are being taught the very basics of the industry, including how to read blueprints, carry out construction math, prevent injuries, use tools and communicate clearly. The basic expectations of the industry, such as punctuality, are laid out for students.

Deswert and Steve Buettner, owner of Sunwest Builders, are lead instructors for the course. They are joined by tradespeople from other partners, including Griffin Construction, Hayden Homes, Northwest Framing Systems, Miller Lumber, Skanska USA, the Central Oregon Builders Association and CS Construction.

These firms also helped set up the Central Oregon Community College Construction and Trades Scholarship Fund to support students pursuing a career in construction. The COBA was especially helpful, contributing $50,000 toward the cause, Knox said.

The program is based on National Center for Construction Education and Research curriculum, which is also used by Portland’s Northwest College of Construction for its apprenticeship programs.

“We’re trying to address the most painful skills gap first,” Knox said. “We’re starting at the absolute basics, and really there are so many pain points. Some of it is technical skill for sure, and some of it is the soft skills like how do we get them to ask (instructors) intelligent questions and build confidence.”

The program will be more refined by next year, Knox said.

“We’re just at the launch right now,” she said.

The industry’s workforce situation, Deswert said, is not just a product of the recession, but also the public education system’s long-standing devaluation of skilled trades. Deswert acquired in high school valuable welding skills that allowed him to find employment immediately after graduation. From there, he worked his way through the ranks to eventually become a company president. That path barely exists anymore, he said. Yet there are signs of change.

“We’re seeing that the high school levels are starting to put CTE programs back in place where they were really missing for the last couple of decades,” Deswert said. “The education community has heard our cry loud and clear and I think we’re seeing that.”

The COCC program, he added, is at least in part a response to that.

“We’re wanting to add on to what the school systems are coming back to,” he said. “It’s best for kids who learn hands-on, and the school systems are seeing that.”

The students are now approaching the end of the program, which had them construct two small structures in a college workshop space. The course’s classroom portion takes up a minority of students’ time.

“It has to be very hands-on,” Knox said. “If we’re in the classroom for more than about an hour and a half we’re going to lose these folks; they gravitate toward construction because they don’t want to be in the classroom.”

Another part of the issue, Knox added, is that it is really a community-wide discussion.

“We are talking to the high schools and their CTE programs, all the alternative programs, the GED programs,” she said. “And if I’m doing this, I’m holding a pipe and I don’t have a pipeline. So what we’re more interested in is how … we find ways to link up to other options in Central Oregon.”

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General contractor Kirby Nagelhout Construction is soliciting bids from subcontractors for a range of work on the campus in Bend.

The $5 million renovation and expansion of the Oregon Military Department facility is being split up into two phases. The work up for bid is phase one and will consist of interior renovations of three cadet dorms and adjacent office space.

Hennebery Eddy Architects has designed phase one improvements, including demolition of three existing male dormitory interiors and the framing and fire-rated construction of new interior spaces. Bidding will be for work involving (but not limited to) gypsum board assemblies, doors and hardware, acoustical ceilings, windows and wall penetrations.

Bids are due by 2 p.m. on Oct. 10. Questions about the project may be directed to Kirby Nagelhout Construction project manager Scott Jackson at 541-389-7119 or ScottJ@kirbynagelhout.com.

Phase two of the project will see construction of new campus buildings that will increase capacity to accommodate 84 additional cadets (60 men and 24 women) per class. Both phases are being paid for via $4.977 million of bond money approved by the 2015 Oregon Legislature.

The Oregon Youth Challenge Program is run by the Oregon National Guard. In essence, it’s a co-ed residential school operated on military academy lines with an emphasis on discipline and structure. Cadets stay for a five-month residential term and then are mentored for 12 months after leaving.

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Designing a building with children in mind demands a different touch than most commercial architecture projects.

It requires the careful use of color and light to create spaces that encourage learning and collaborative play. And in the case of Portland Community College’s new child development center on its Rock Creek campus, there also is a strong desire to connect the spaces inside with those outdoors.

“Lighting is a big thing,” said project lead Allyson Oar, an architect with Scott | Edwards Architecture. “We want children to feel connected, not just to the teacher and the inside, but to the outside as well.”

General contractor Kirby Nagelhout Construction Co. of Bend broke ground earlier this month on the 7,800-square-foot facility. It is a new ground-up building with a $7 million bond-funded budget intended to serve as many as 67 children of PCC students and staff. It will have three pre-kindergarten classrooms and an infant classroom, as well as a multi-purpose room that can be opened to the outside via a vertical door.

“We thought a lot about color and how it can help foster a soothing environment for children to learn in,” Oar said. “So, we’re using mostly blues and greens. We wanted to have a connection with this idea that children are connecting with the environment outside, so we felt that pastel blues and greens would give a more natural feeling and a calmer environment.”

To further this idea, nature-based play elements such as logs, sand and a rolling landscape are being used in the facility’s outdoor play area.

Another notable design aspect on the building’s exterior involves the use of standing seam metal and various woods to reflect the appearance of other buildings on the Rock Creek Campus. It also is being constructed to achieve Earth Advantage Certification (EAC) Gold for sustainability.

“It’s actually very similar, but a bit more affordable for clients to get the certification,” Oar said. “LEED can be time consuming and cumbersome for the design team and costly for the client, so some of the smaller certification systems can be more appealing. They push the contractors and designers to push for similar efficiencies at a lower cost.”

Zahava Jones, project manager for PCC, agreed.

“LEED has really been on the forefront, but now there are other programs that are great for smaller projects,” Jones said. “Energy is a big hog, so if you have good systems in place and use healthy materials and the siding is done appropriately to maximize the sunlight, it’s great that there are other programs out there that can help achieve the same goal.”

Jones noted the project will also include a rooftop solar array, but its size and composition have yet to be determined.

Many of the materials used in the project also required careful consideration, Oar said.

“It goes hand in hand with sustainability,” she said. “With little kids crawling around on the ground, we wanted floor surfaces that aren’t toxic; we wanted everything to be as natural and resilient as possible.”

That goal extended from the linoleum used to line the floors to making sure only paints containing no volatile organic compounds were used.

In the end, the project, which is scheduled for completion by spring 2019, is about improving the student experience, according to Jones.

“It’s just really important to know that this is a student service,” she said. “Our goal at PCC is to help students achieve success and give them the best chance to complete their degree or certificate program, so having this on campus will benefit the students greatly.”

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