PROJECT: Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact

LOCATION: University of Oregon, Eugene

SIZE:Ěý160,000 square feet

COST:Ěý$225 million (first-phase building)

CONSTRUCTION START: March 2018

CONSTRUCTION END: November 2020

CONTRACTOR:ĚýHoffman Construction

ARCHITECTS: Ennead Architects and Bora Architects

ENGINEERS: Affiliated Engineers Inc. (mechanical, electrical and plumbing); Northwest Engineering Service Inc. (MEP test and balance); Thornton Tomasetti (structural – lab buildings and bridge, façade engineering); KPFF (civil, garage, landscape, structural engineering); Notkin Wood Harbinger Alliance (systems infrastructure engineering); PBS Engineering and Environmental (hazardous materials/soils abatement); Systems West Engineers (energy modeling and commissioning); Kittelson & Associates (transportation engineering and planning)

OTHER TEAM MEMBERS: Jacobs Consultancy Inc. (laboratory planning); Shalleck Collaborative (audio/visual systems); Shen Milsom & Wilke of New York (acoustics/technology/security); Brightworks (sustainability consultant); PLACE (landscape architecture)

SIGNIFICANCE OF PROJECT: A grand opening for the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact took place in early December. The campus was designed to bring people together and encourage collaboration, integrating insights drawn from visits to leading research facilities. The signature characteristic is the inclusion of light-filled, double-height lab spaces that are truly unique in a wet-lab environment. They feature flexible open bench spaces that enable teams to do related work together, using cutting-edge equipment for rapid prototyping. The Knight Campus was made possible by a $500 million lead gift from Penny and Phil Knight and $70 million in state bonds. Gifts from other donors continue to help fulfill the vision. In addition to the building, the first phase includes elements such as property purchase and rehabilitation of the millrace. Dollars not used on building projects go into an endowment to directly support operations or faculty and equipment startup. The project team anticipates attaining a Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design gold rating. The Knight Campus offers a graduate internship program and a doctoral program in bioengineering, in partnership with Oregon State University. The internship program provides a career-focused accelerated master’s degree, with a nine-month hands-on internship; 90 percent of graduates launch careers in their fields within three months of graduating.

“Building Blocks” is a new 91ĘÓƵ 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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Hoffman Construction is seeking sub-bids for work on the Knight Campus for the Acceleration of Scientific Impact (KCASI) at the University of Oregon in Eugene.

Approximately $1 billion, including a $500 million donation from Phil and Penny Knight, is being invested in the KCASI. Development will the university’s existing science education complex along Franklin Boulevard. Three new state-of-the-art research facilities are designed to facilitate interdisciplinary research and collaboration.

When fully staffed, the campus within a campus will be home to around 300 employees, 250 graduate students, 150 undergraduate students, 150 postdoctoral scholars and 100 staff scientists.

Hoffman Construction is the construction manager-general contractorĚýfor the project. Bora Architects teamed with Ennead Architects of New York to design the first phase of work.

Construction is under way on the project’s $225 million first phase, which includes more than 160,000 square feet of new classroom and laboratory space. Completion of this phase is expected in 2020.

A pre-bid meeting, including discussion of the scope of work for Bid Package No. 6 has been set for 10 a.m. on Nov. 8, at the Knight Campus Annex, 1399 Franklin Blvd., Eugene. Attendance is not mandatory, but strongly encouraged by the contractor.

Bid Package No. 6 includes miscellaneous metals, cross-laminated timber, lab and architectural finishes.

Bids are due no later than 2 p.m. on Nov. 27. For more information, call 503-221-8811 or email Hoffman’s Daniel Johnston at daniel-johnston@hoffmancorp.com.

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The University of Oregon last week gave students, faculty and the public a first look at its proposed first building of the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact.

The first phase of the proposed $1.1 billion project is taking shape as a gleaming, $225 million structure that will sit on the Eugene campus’ north end, north of Franklin Boulevard. Nearly half of the cost is expected to be covered by a $500 million gift from Phil and Penny Knight.

“The mission of the Knight campus is very ambitious and speaks about the future,” said Todd Schliemann, design partner at New York-based Ennead Architects. “We wanted a building that was forward-looking and not retro.”

Ennead Architects is the project’s lead designer; however, Bora Architects is the architect of record. The Portland firm will handle technical drawings and participate in construction.

The glass building will have an L-shape, with two towers connected by a covered lounge. One of the building’s most prominent features will be a glass sky bridge over Franklin Boulevard connecting to the existing Lewis Integrative Science Building.

“Technically, all science buildings are interconnected,” said John O’Toole, a Bora Architects principal. “You could go over the road with the bridge or under with a tunnel.”

Because a tunnel would have to be very deep in order to avoid utility lines, a bridge became a more practical option.

“The campus itself is supposed to be a collaborative environment, so (students) need to go back and forth across Franklin,” said Mike Harwood, a UO associate vice president and university architect for campus planning and facilities management. “The bridge is an expression of our desire to reach the (Willamette) River.”

The building will have 160,000 square feet of space for researchers in life, physical and prevention sciences. The structure will also house management and communications offices for the Knight program and have mezzanines, meeting rooms and public spaces.

“Putting that amount of footage on the site was a challenge,” Schliemann said. “The site was long and narrow. We wanted the new building to be on same geometry as the rest of the campus so it wasn’t an isolated building. That is why we went with the L-shape. It worked out tremendously well.”

The building will feature double-paned glass walls. The inner walls will be solid glass and sit 18 inches from the outer walls. The outer walls feature numerous white dots.

“The frit pattern will be hard to detect,” O’Toole said. “It will be a subtle pattern.”

During the summer, the outer wall will heat up, and hot air trapped between the panes of glass will rise and escape at the top of the structure.

“You save tremendous amount of money on the AC,” Schliemann said. “It is not mechanical, so they don’t have to maintain it. It can add depth to the façade and it eliminates glare inside (the building).”

The dots on the outer pane will be visible to people outside, but allow people inside to see beyond – much like some advertisements on bus and light-rail train windows. The added benefit is that is that it acts as a visual cue for birds to keep them from flying into the structure.

“It’s a tried-and-true technology,” Schliemann said. “Millions of birds fly into glass walls because they see the reflection of the sky. This bird-proofs the glass.”

The glass design also will allow light to flood open spaces inside. The interior design is intended to provide a collaborative atmosphere.

“I think the interior will be honest expression of the structure,” O’Toole said. “We are hoping to use mass timber and CLT (cross-laminated timber) for portions of the building.”

General contractor Hoffman Construction will begin demolition of several structures on the site in February 2018. Primary construction is expected to start next spring.

University officials are planning to open the building in 2020, and then begin tackling the rest of the new campus.

“This project is transformative in stretching the (existing university) campus from the historic core,” Harwood said. “This campus is the first step in seeing what that future will be.”

On the Boards is a 91ĘÓƵ feature offering a look at the projects in Oregon being tackled by local architecture firms. To have your firm’s projects considered, contact 91ĘÓƵ architecture and engineering reporter Kent Hohlfeld at 503-802-7224 or khohlfeld@djcOregon.com.

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Building trade unions in Oregon are optimistic they’ll soon come to terms with the University of Oregon and ensure work in the Eugene-Springfield area for at least a decade.

The Oregon Building Trades Council (OBTC) has been in talks with UO‘s lobbyist to secure a Project Labor Agreement (PLA) for work on the – a $1 billion research-based expansion of UO in Eugene.

The agreement could bring 1,300 jobs to Lane County and last 13 years, according to analysis by consultancy ECONorthwest.

“The University of Oregon is committed to prevailing wageĚýandĚýis working to enact a Project Labor Agreement,” a spokeswoman wrote to the 91ĘÓƵ. “At this time, such a PLA has not been completed and the specific scope of employees who would be covered or for how long is not fully known.”

UO stipulates in all its contracts that builders and related firms adhere to prevailing wage rules, according to the university.

The project was kick-started with a $500 million donation by the Phil and Penny Knight Foundation. In addition, the Oregon Legislature approved $50 million in matching funds during the 2017 session, with a commitment to approve $50 million more the next biennium.

Ground is scheduled to be broken on the Knight Campus this fall, with heavy work expected to start in March 2018 and finish in 2020. Hoffman Construction was named general contractor in January. Initial construction will focus on two 72,000-square-foot buildings to be connected to the north side of campus across Franklin Boulevard.

Due to state requirements, 15 percent of the project workforce must be apprentices, and Hoffman must maximize efforts to involve women and minority subcontractors.

With the project’s high-tech nature and the proximity of UO research facilities, crews will also have to work with extreme caution, said Tim Frew, OBTC executive secretary.

“This is pretty substantial for the Eugene-Springfield area,” said Frew, who lives in Eugene and commutes to Portland. “We feel pretty good about (the PLA), but yeah, nothing’s been signed yet.”

The OBTC had been in discussions with Oregon State University regarding a major hoped-for expansion of its OSU-Cascades campus in Bend. The plan is now on the back burner after a funding request was pared down considerably by the Legislature in its most recent session.

Regardless, there’s much higher education construction work ahead for the 21 trade unions and the approximately 25,000 construction workers represented by the OBTC. A majority of community colleges in Oregon were allotted money by the Legislature in its recent session for seismic retrofits, and many are planning their own construction projects.

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Bora Architects and partner Ennead Architects, based in New York City, will team up to design the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impacts at the University of Oregon in Eugene.

The facility will include 150,000 square feet of research space and a pedestrian bridge crossing Franklin Boulevard. Bora and Ennead will first tackle the development’s $200 million first phase.

“It’s definitely a big deal,” Bora Architects principal John O’Toole said. “We only have one office in Portland. We are excited about doing project like this in Oregon.”

The company had designed a similar facility at Stanford University, O’Toole said. Bora and Ennead became familiar with each other, he added, when they were working on different projects at the school.

“It’s a chance to create a new kind of facility,” he said. “It is the kind of project that we like to do.”

The Phil and Penny Knight Campus also is a project that Bora needed help with. That is when Ennead came into the picture.

“It’s not an uncommon thing to team up,” O’Toole said. “Companies often partner with a firm locally.”

Bora Architects will be the architect of record and oversee the project. Ennead Architects will be the design architect and handle much of the early stage duties.

“We will manage the project,” O’Toole said. “(Ennead architects) actually have a deeper rĂ©sumĂ© with premier universities. They will be responsible for shaping the project.”

The facility’s focus will be helping fast-track scientific discoveries and new innovations. The new space will give the university the ability to accelerate its scientific work. Direct construction of the center is expected to provide a nearly $100 boost in economic activity. When it’s up and running, stakeholders believe the facility will drive more than $80 million of activity annually.

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