A sustainable yet practical approach to development of a new agriculture complex at Chemeketa Community College has produced a building expected to have net-zero energy use.

The anchor of the northern edge of an 8-acre campus in Salem is the 15,000-square-foot classroom building. FFA Architecture + Interiors designed the building, Lango Hansen Landscape Architects oversaw the exterior landscaping, and Swinerton Builders completed construction recently.

The project team had high sustainability goals. A mass-plywood-panel structure was chosen, along with a natural air ventilation system, and photovoltaic panels. Chemeketa Community College and FFA worked with Energy Trust of Oregon to help offset costs via the nonprofit’s Path to Net Zero program.

FFA Associate Partner Edward Running said when he starts work on a new project, he first sees what financial resources are available.

“The inability to make (a) better building has been cost,” he said.

With assistance from Energy Trust of Oregon, a 45-kilowatt solar array was placed on the roof of an exterior walkway along the building’s south side. The canopy not only ensures the photovoltaic panels receive sunlight, Running said, but also shades classrooms and puts less pressure on the ventilation system.

At first, even with those features, the building would have had an Energy Use Intensity (EUI) number too high to be net-zero. That number is calculated by dividing the building’s total energy consumed in one year by the total gross floor area. The new classroom building would’ve been around 20 EUI, Running said.

By the time the project team realized it wouldn’t achieve net-zero energy, it was a little late in the process; the contractor had been selected, and construction documents were completed. Now, 20 EUI would’ve been significantly lower than the state’s requirement that public buildings perform at least 20 percent better than the building code. But the team was “so close to net zero … the cost wasn’t too much more,” Running said.

Chemeketa Community College Technical Development Manager Isaac Talley then sought a grant from Portland General Electric to bridge the gap.

“There’s always the pursuit of the practical, best possible option but (a) need to balance that with what will work and the budget,” Talley said.

The college also looks at what would be the “best bang for the buck and maintaining the best functionality through the life of the building,” he added.

In February, when the project was nearing substantial completion, Talley received word that the team would receive a $158,000 grant from PGE. That would put a 91-kilowatt solar array on the classroom building’s roof, and achieve net-zero energy use.

The total cost to reach that goal was around $9 million, Running and Talley estimated. That included concrete floors, insulation, window systems, an efficient mechanical system, and the original solar array.

The key to this project, Running said, was “not trying to do every single sustainability strategy under the sun.” Instead, the team honed in on a few – one was natural ventilation inside the building, and another was solar energy production outside.

Outdoor features of the complex will include gardens and farm demonstration fields. Now the college can say it’s “harvesting from the ground and harvesting from the sun,” Running said.

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A 162-unit condominium project under construction in Portland’s Sullivan’s Gulch neighborhood is slated to be topped out with a final post-tensioned deck pour on Friday. Andersen Construction is building TwentyTwenty, designed by Hacker, at the corner of Northeast Multnomah Street and 21st Avenue for PHK Development.

Andersen is self-performing structural concrete work on the building, which rises seven stories above grade and has a two-and-a-half-story parking garage below grade, via subsidiary ASI Structures. Friday’s deck pour will be the 19th conducted on the project, which has presented a unique construction challenge due to the building’s shape. The seven residential floors are Z-shaped and atop a box-shaped parking garage, meaning none of the upper floors’ columns stack into the garage. As a result, the transfer deck was unusually large, with a thickness ranging from 19 to 42 inches and over 800 post-tension cables on the first-floor deck.

Along with completion of the building’s structural core, crews are finishing interior MEP work and prepping for cover on the first floor. Interior wall framing is finishing up to level three, glaziers are installing windows on the second floor, and plumbers are roughing in wet systems on the fifth floor.

According to Glenn Whitefield, Andersen Construction’s project superintendent, the biggest project challenge to date is being able to access the building from only one side. All material deliveries and concrete pours have to happen from Northeast 21st Avenue, which necessitates cautious sequencing and scheduling for deliveries.

Andersen began work on the project in September 2017, and completion is slated for July 2019. The stucco-clad building will contain studios and one- and two-bedroom units, and feature amenities including a fitness room, bike storage and workspace, a pet wash area and a ground-floor outdoor courtyard.

The project team includes Lango Hansen Landscape Architects, civil engineers Humber Design Group Inc., and civil engineers Kramer Gehlen & Associates Inc. The MEP design-build team includes Hunter-Davisson, IES Commercial & Industrial and Jackola Engineering & Architecture.

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A grand opening was held last week to celebrate completion of The Windward – a Lake Oswego mixed-use project. PHK Development‘s creation features three buildings with a combined 200 luxury apartments over 40,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space.

Lease Crutcher Lewis served as the general contractor on the project, which encompasses the 2.5-acre Wizer Block site in downtown Lake Oswego. The three buildings all contain four stories of luxury apartments over ground-floor commercial space and two below-grade parking garages, one each for residential and commercial tenants. The structures are all constructed of post-tensioned concrete and are steel-stud-framed.

The development features two public walkways, one connecting First and Second avenues and the other extending south to Evergreen Road. Residential amenities include a clubhouse with a kitchen and lounge space, an outdoor patio with a putting green, a bocce court and barbecue grills, a fitness space with a sauna and a spa, and a rooftop conservatory with patios, a catering kitchen, dining table and fireplace.

The project’s design team includes ZGF Architects, Ankrom Moisan Architects, and Lango Hansen Landscape Architects. The building is being managed by Greystar, and Commercial Realty Advisors NW is handling retail leasing.

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More than a year after work began on Field Office project in Northwest Portland, the two-building mixed-use is on pace for completion in the first quarter of 2018. Lease Crutcher Lewis is building the $100 million Hacker-designed project for developer project^.

Field Office will consist of two six-story steel-framed office buildings with ground-floor retail space, a large courtyard between the buildings, and a below-grade parking garage with 384 parking stalls. The project totals around 367,000 built square feet, and is being constructed on a 2.10-acre lot along Northwest Front Avenue between 15^th and 17^th avenues.

Framing of exterior walls has begun on the east building, as has interior MEP installation. Lease Crutcher Lewis is self-performing concrete work on the project, and the last deck pour is scheduled to take place next week. A tower crane over the west building came down earlier this month, and the remaining tower crane servicing the east building will be removed in October. Crews with General Sheet Metal began installing the metal panel façade on the west building this week.

Lango Hansen Landscape Architects worked with the developer on to bring to the site a sense of refuge from its industrial surroundings. The project was driven by landscape architecture, project^’s Jonathan Ledesma told the Portland Design Commission in 2015. The building’s design is intended to bring the outdoors inside, with covered balconies on every level, outdoor rooftop space, and lush landscaping in the public courtyard.

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Singer Properties and Jones Architecture are at work on a major renovation of Ten West, a five-story office and retail building in Portland’s West End.

The 110-year-old, 44,524-square-foot property at Southwest 10th Avenue and Washington Street was once known as the Mekka Building. Now named Ten West, it sold for $3.5 million in 2007, according to city records.

The quarter-block property, 1003-1017 S.W. Washington St., will be remodeled in accordance with its art deco motifs, said Alan Jones, principal architect at Jones Architecture.

“We’re restoring the stucco and the brick work, and putting in historically correct wood-framed windows,” he said.

Also, Portland’s Lango Hansen Landscape Architects has designed a new roof deck – an amenity desired by office tenants, Jones said.

An entrance on 10th Avenue will serve a basement space designed for use by a restaurant or a bar. A second entrance, on Washington Street, will serve office space in the upper four floors, which have long been vacant.

A seismic retrofit and upgrades to the building’s mechanical, plumbing and electrical systems are also part of the renovation.

The ground floor is home to retailers Frances May, Animal Traffic, Chrome and Backtalk. Employees of firms involved with the project said they could not comment on the retailers’ future in the building, but added that they were not aware of any plans to end the retailers’ presence. Building owners Dick and Don Singer could not be reached for comment.

The property may be ripe for redevelopment. Downtown’s West End is flourishing with trendy shops and restaurants. Across 10th Avenue from Ten West in the Pittock Block are multiple retailers, including feminist clothing shop Wildfang. Powell’s City of Books, one of Portland’s most enduring tourist draws, is only two blocks away. Tasty n Alder, Heart Coffee Roasters and SuperBite also have found a home in the West End.

More development is coming. A skyscraper is on the drawing boards for Downtown Development Group’s property at Southwest 11th Avenue and Washington Street.

Central City office space remains a sought-after commodity, said Patricia Raicht, senior vice president for research at Jones Lang LaSalle.

Almost 1.5 million square feet of office space was delivered in the Portland market in 2016, and 85 percent was pre-leased or committed by the time of delivery, she said.

“While we added quite a bit of space, the demand for that space has been pretty strong,” Raicht said.

Tech firms including Puppet Labs, Act-On Software, New Relic and Google have invested in downtown Portland offices. But tech firms aren’t the only ones seeking modern, open-plan offices, Raicht said. Increasingly, legal, marketing and other professional services companies are looking for creative spaces that rival those made for tech firms.

In a recent JLL analysis of 2016 leases, creative spaces attracted prices 15 to 20 percent higher than comparable Class A spaces.

R&H Construction will be the general contractor for the Ten West project. Peter Andrews of Melvin Mark is the leasing agent.

Ten West

Location: 1003-1017 S.W. Washington St.

Size: 44,524 square feet

Owner: Singer Properties

Architect: Jones Architecture

General contractor: R&H Construction

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After more than three hours of discussion, the Portland Design Commission voted 3-2 to approve the design of a 16-story residential tower and an adjoining pocket park planned in the Pearl District – with some conditions.

Much of the discussion on Thursday centered on the 900-square-foot park, and the commission attached three conditions to its approval: sound attenuation in the park must be addressed, security plans should be established and it must be publicly accessible. Also, those conditions must be approved by city staff within one year and park construction must be complete no later than when a certificate of occupancy is issued for the tower.

Commission Chairman David Wark and commissioners Julie Livingston and Jessica Molinar voted to approve the project at Northwest Glisan Street and 14th Avenue, while commissioners Tad Savinar and Don Vallaster voted against it.

City planner Hillary Adam told commissioners that staff supported a request from the Ankrom Moisan Architects’ design team to reduce the number of loading areas to just one and reduce the width of bicycle and vehicle parking slightly.

Allowable building height in the area is 145 feet, Adam said, but staff recommended 174 feet. The increased height was made possible by transferring to the building 22,250 square feet of floor area from the proposed pocket park at the northeast corner of Northwest Glisan Street and 15th Avenue.

Plans call for the 240-unit tower including ground-level retail space, below-grade parking for 206 vehicles, a rooftop community room and upper-level terraces.

Isaac Johnson, senior associate at Ankrom Moisan Architects, told commissioners the project will be “a special place” with two design influences: the rows of buildings along Interstate 405 to the west of the site and the neighboring historic district.

Also, 46 of the 240 apartments will have affordable rates to reflect a recent resolution by the Portland City Council, he said.

The design team heeded the advice given at previous design advice meetings, Johnson said, and planned a strong pedestrian experience along Northwest 14th Avenue and a step-down to the historic district.

“The tower is a gateway element as you approach from the west,” he said.

Equitone, an architectural fiber cement material, will be used for the building’s facade, Johnson said, and concealed fasteners will be used for the first five levels.

According to a city staff report, the building exterior will also include fiberglass windows, an aluminum window wall, aluminum storefronts and glass railings on balconies.

Balconies were added to the corners on the east elevation, Johnson said, and at the top two floors.

Previously, the lobby included a fitness room. Now it will have office work space with four-person pods and movable privacy screens. The change to an open office environment will provide a better pedestrian experience, Johnson said.

The two-story lobby entrance, off of Northwest Glisan Street opposite the park, will have raised canopies, he said.

Kurt Lango of Lango Hansen Landscape Architects told commissioners the small park will be lined with concrete pavers, both stone and wooden seating and possibly more trees.

A structural screen was proposed along Northwest 15th Avenue along the freeway, and more cobra head lighting poles were included in the design.

But commissioners expressed concerns that the decorative screen wouldn’t muffle noise sufficiently and that the park would attract illicit behavior.

Molinar said the site was inappropriate for a park while Livingston warned that it could become “a great place to sleep, camp and shoot up.”

“It would be a full-on green space and would provide a visual amenity, but the noise from the freeway is almost deafening,” Savinar said.

Vallaster said the neighborhood itself might eventually find a use for the park and that it could change over time.

“It’s a bit of an experiment and we won’t know until we have it in place,” he said.

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With approval from the Portland Design Commission, the $45 million renovation and expansion of Portland State University‘s Peter W. Stott Center can at last proceed.

Planning for the upgrade of the center at 930 S.W. Hall St. has dragged on for a decade, said Dan Zalkow, PSU associated vice president for planning and construction.

At a previous design review hearing, Zalkow called the existing center one of “the ugliest buildings on campus,” but the improvements are expected to change such opinions. The building’s west side will gain extensive maintenance, while the east portion will be reconstructed to hold a new multipurpose arena, Viking Pavilion, with 3,400 seats.

The project is being designed by Woofter Architecture and Denver-based Sink Combs Dethlefs Architects. When construction is complete, the Stott Center will include a café, a student lounge, classrooms with athletic uses and bike parking.

In the past, the building “turned its back” on the Park Blocks, architect Miles Woofter said, but the new design will include a small terrace below the glass-walled entrance that will be open and welcoming to the pedestrian green space.

But it was the terrace that elicited the most discussion at Thursday’s meeting. The terrace sits on a 7 percent grade, and the design includes a series of steps that descend parallel to the building with a brass railing on the outside.

Jane Hansen of Lango Hansen Landscape Architects told commissioners that in the terrace area, seating would be better than small shrubs. Seating is scattered throughout the terrace and along a long wall about 40 inches high slightly below the entrance. Hansen suggested having ivy climb the wall, but commissioners preferred the wall feature artwork or patterned brick.

“I like more patterned expressive brick if you could do it architecturally without any landscaping,” Commission Chairman David Wark said.

Commissioner Tad Savinar said the entrance should impress alumni.

“This doesn’t make people want to write checks,” he said of the design.

But commissioners agreed that art on the wall could make a big difference.

“This is a great space to sit and be outside, and a masonry wall with art would be lovely,” Commissioner Julie Livingston said.

Woofter said PSU has $300,000 allocated for art. He is working with the Oregon Arts Commission to that end.

Commissioner Don Vallaster said he would like to see adjustments to the railing because it presented a barrier, and Woofter said the railing could be shifted to the center of the stairs.

This was the third formal design review for the project. The latest design features more glass at the building’s corners, expanded student area and Viking green-colored spandrels.

The design was approved unanimously with conditions that designers work with city staff to determine how the masonry wall on the terrace would be treated, with either art or patterned brick.

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At the second design advice hearing for a proposed 15-story apartment building in the Pearl District, it became apparent that the project is likely to be approved when it comes back before the Portland Design Commission.

The project, designed by Ankrom Moisan Architects and owned by the Holland Partner Group, has gone through an intense design process since its previous hearing before the commission in January. Ankrom Moisan managing principal Isaac Johnson on Thursday showed commissioners many different designs that were considered to reflect their recommendations.

“We came in really early (with the first advice hearing) and I’m glad we did because it’s a much better product,” he said.

Commissioners spent about two hours discussing different aspects of the changes, but in the end indicated that the building was close to meeting their standards.

But problems still must be resolved. At the previous meeting, commissioners had urged the designers to “step down” the building on the east side in deference to the Northwest 13th Avenue Historic District nearby. The new design showed the building’s east side set back by 7 feet starting at the seventh floor.

Commission Chairman David Wark expressed concern about the setback and other aspects.

“I’m not sure that seven-foot setback is enough toward the historic district,” he said. “The composition is clearer on the tower, but on the lower section the percentage of glass needs to be bumped up. Something about it isn’t working yet, not that it couldn’t work.”

Later in the meeting Wark said other setbacks could possibly be reduced and the seventh-floor setback could be as much as 14 feet.

During the design process, Johnson said attempts were made to consider the traditional warehouse buildings on the edge of the Pearl District, but noted that other buildings in the neighborhood range from traditional to very modern.

“We don’t want a post-modern interpretation but to have a building that fits into the neighborhood,” he said. “The taller (portion of the) building to the west is by the freeway and steps down to the historic district to the east.”

Johnson said the new design presents a lighter skin material – one not finalized yet. While exploring possible skin types, fiber-reinforced concrete panels and brick were considered, he said.

Another change was the addition of bright yellow as a spot color on the rooftop and possibly other points on the building; however, it drew criticism. Wark read a letter from Commissioner Tad Savinar, who could not attend the meeting. The letter stated, in part, “Adding cutesy colors does not work in architecture.”

Also, a request was made for 30 additional feet of height to bring the building to 175 feet, city planner Staci Monroe said, but to allow it, commissioners would need to see “a great piece of architecture.”

But commissioners seemed pleased with one proposed change: transforming a 4,350-square-foot parking lot next to the building at Northwest Glisan Street and 15th Avenue into a small parklet with an artistic divider wall, benches, a bike-share station and possibly food carts.

Kurt Lango of Lango Hansen Landscape Architects, told commissioners that the Portland Bureau of Transportation showed interest in locating a bike share station at the park, and the Pearl District Neighborhood Association likes the idea.

“This seems like an important give-back to the neighborhood,” Commissioner Julie Livingston said.

The neighborhood doesn’t have many pocket parks, Lango said, and the addition of bike sharing could lead to other uses.

“It should be a site that evolves over time,” Commissioner Don Vallaster said. “I think the way you’ve done it with the wall and these different possibilities is great.”

The project, on the northern half of Block 98 at 1402-1430 N.W. Glisan St., will have approximately 240 residential units and 6,400 square feet of retail space. Three below-grade levels will provide 200 parking spots. The project has a floor area ratio (FAR) of 6:1 with the potential for 9:1, some of which could be transferred from the buildable part of the parking lot.

A rooftop balcony is also planned with a glassed-in common room and outdoor seating.

“I think it’s really close,” Commissioner Jeff Simpson said.

“I agree and think you’re almost there,” Livingston said. “And I won’t have any trouble approving the additional height.”

At the end of the meeting, Johnson asked whether he should schedule another advice hearing or come back for design review.

Livingston said he should go straight to review.

“I’ve heard enough discussion today and I would say you’re going to get there with no problem,” she said.

After the meeting, Johnson said the design review will probably be set for June.

In other action, the commission approved the design of a five-story, 16-unit apartment building proposed for a triangular lot at Southwest 20th Avenue and Market Street, with several conditions. The design review, continued from November, had been rescheduled three times because of the high volume of applications before the commission.

The designer for that Southwest Portland project is Urban Foundry Architects of Austin, Texas, and the owner is Scotia Market Street & Gaines of Salem. The building will vary in height because of the steeply sloped 16,000-square-foot site and have one level of partial below-grade parking for 19 spaces. Vehicle and pedestrian access will be from Southwest 20th Avenue. Also, 24 long-term bike spaces will be provided on site.

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Hacker‘s design for the Field Office, a new kind of office environment that brings the natural environment into the workplace via green terraces at several levels, is close to getting approval from the Portland Design Commission.

The project planned at 2030 N.W. Front Ave. came before the commission for a final review last week; however, it was extended to Dec. 17. Plans call for two six-story steel buildings that flare away from each other with a large public plaza to the south furnished with native plants. The buildings, with a total of 270,000 square feet, will have a roof garden and “high parks” at several levels.

City planner Grace Jeffreys said the commission couldn’t vote at the Nov. 19 meeting whether to approve the project because a conflict concerning a planned bicyclist-pedestrian path still must be resolved.

According to city documents, the project site is a large, irregular parcel sandwiched between Northwest Front Avenue to the east, 17th Avenue to the west and the Union Pacific rail line to the south. A 12-foot-wide path would be located along the rail line in vacated areas of undeveloped Terminal Street.

“We still have issues regarding the bicycle-pedestrian path parallel to the rail line,” Jeffreys said. “Due to outstanding information, staff could not yet recommend approval.”

That outstanding information revolves around safety concerns of the Oregon Department of Transportation and also whether the parcel should be defined as a superblock, said Stefee Knudsen, senior associate and project manager at Hacker.

Defining the site as a superblock would affect traffic patterns, Knudsen said. A superblock is usually defined as one created when a street in the middle of two blocks is vacated, she said, but in this case the vacated street portions are at one end and not in the middle.

“So the project may not need to meet superblock requirements,” she said, “but it’s an open and active site that’s trying to bring together a lot of the uses that happen around it. I think we’ve potentially found some ways we can address ODOT‘s very legitimate safety concerns, and the city is reviewing those (superblock) requirements.”

The Field Office will bring the outdoors inside with landscaped terraces, a concept praised by design commissioners in previous hearings. Knudsen said the name also applies to the exterior skin that will create a “field” motif.

“We’ve had a lot more development of the exterior skin, which will have a dark metal chevron patterned panel and window systems at an irregular rhythm,” she said.

That effect will give emphasis to those green balconies, or “high parks,” Knudsen said.

“The exterior skin starts to create a field that highlights those high park features,” she said. “The whole building is about creating a new way of work, a more natural environment.”

At ground level the building will provide restaurants, retail space and 92 long-term bicycle parking spaces. Approximately 350 motor vehicle parking spaces will be built below grade.

The entire project was driven by landscape architecture, said Jonathan Ledesma, who is heading up the project for developer Project^. At a previous design review meeting, Ledesma said that Jane Hansen of Lango Hansen Landscape Architects played a major role in the design for the vacant lot near the Willamette River.

“We have the ability to do things architecturally that you could not do in the city center,” Ledesma said during a previous design review. “We are bringing in the experience of the landscape that creates a new way to work in the city.”

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Opponents of the Wizer Block development in Lake Oswego have lost their appeal to the Oregon Supreme Court.

Chief Justice Thomas A. Balmer on Thursday issued an order denying review of an appeal by two groups opposed to developer Patrick Kessi’s proposed four-story, 201-residential-unit project in downtown Lake Oswego – the first multifamily development there in more than 50 years.

Opponents who believe the $92 million project doesn’t adhere to Lake Oswego’s “village character” first took their fight to the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals. When that challenge failed, the Evergreen Neighborhood Association and Save Our Village went to the Oregon Court of Appeals. That appeal failed in August.

Demolition and erosion-control permits were issued last month to general contractor Lease Crutcher Lewis. A traffic control plan around the construction site is now in place.

ZGF Architects will be the project design architect, and work in partnership with Ankrom Moisan Architects, the architect of record. Landscape architecture will be performed by Lango Hansen Landscape Architects. Structural engineering will be done by Froelich Engineers and civil engineering will be handled by Harper Houf Peterson Righellis. GeoDesign will be in charge of geotechnical engineering; Interface Engineering will provide mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineering.

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