Combining eight different programs with varying needs was the challenge that faced a Soderstrom Architects team when designing the Linn-Benton Community College Healthcare Occupations Center in Lebanon, Oregon.

The new $18 million, 42,000-square-foot facility will house nursing, medical, dental and occupational therapy assistants. It also will have diagnostic imaging, phlebotomy, pharmacy technician and polysomnographic technology programs as well as a library. Prior to constructing the building, the programs were scattered between six buildings on two different campuses.

“We are really designing a next generation facility for them,” said Marlene Gillis, the Soderstrom Architects principal in charge of the project.

She said that finding ways to accommodate the specific needs of such a variety of programs was a challenge.

“It really kind of felt like nine different buildings in one,” Gillis said. “We had to talk about a holistic approach. “

Modernizing an aging campus was a major goal of the school’s administration.

“The college was aging a bit,” said Lou Tarnay, Linn-Benton Community College bond program manager. “The consolidation seemed the next logical next step.”

One of the biggest challenges that designers had to take into account was where certain programs needed to be located, Gillis said. Programs that dealt with x-rays needed easy access to the building’s electrical system. Programs that dealt with imaging needed darker rooms to allow images to be examined without light reflecting from windows.

The design team also had to get all program personnel to buy into office locations.

“They had to understand why certain things needed to be where they are,” Gillis said.

The project was paid for, in part, by money from a $34 million bond measure passed by voters in Linn and Benton counties. The state of Oregon chipped in about $8 million for the project. Triplett Wellman Contractors is the project general contractor. The building is slated to be finished in time for the fall term.

“We train every kind of health-care professional, except for doctors,” Tarnay said. “There will be some expansion on the nursing program. It’s sort of a general trend at the college.”

After Gillis and her team got the school’s support for the two-story design, they had to face residents in a city where large multi-story buildings are far from the norm.

“It is definitely out of scale,” Gillis said. “Some see it as positive and some see it as negative.”

The community college’s current project is part of a larger building boom taking place in Lebanon. A new medical center and a convention center and a supporting hotel are in the process of being built in the city. The changes in the city have led to a variety of reactions in the community.

“There are some longtime residents that say it has really changed the town,” Gillis said. “It is unusual building for that area. The scale of it is different.”

The change is not likely to slow down anytime soon. The school plans to begin construction on the second and third phases of an Alternative Transportation Technology Center. Despite some residents misgivings, the new buildings help address what residents cited as their top three concerns in the city’s long-term visioning plan called “Lebanon 2040.”

“(The school) is a huge employer,” Gillis said. “With a project like this, the opportunity to stay in the area is increased. There is such a shortage of services for these people in these small towns.”

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Work is progressing rapidly on a veterans home in Lebanon, according to project engineer Matt Baker of .

“There is still some final grading left to be done on the pads, but we’re happy to report that they are substantially protected from weather,” he said. “We’ve placed more than 13,000 tons of rock and have had a peak of 16 truck-and-pups in circulation.”

Janice Westcott, the director of marketing for Lease Crutcher Lewis, said construction is scheduled to finish in July 2014. She added that the structure, designed by of Salem, is being built according to a new federal model for senior veteran care.

Jim Willis, the director of the , said that model calls for shared living spaces. The 154-bed facility will contain 11 community clusters – each with 14 one-bedroom units. A 42-bed Alzheimer’s wing also is planned.

Work on underground utilities, earthwork, grading and electrical infrastructure began last month.

“This work was expedited to begin before the fall rains set in,” Westcott said. “The soil on-site is comprised of typical Willamette silt. When wet, it becomes more difficult, and more costly, to excavate.

“Performing the site work during the dry months instead of mid to late fall (the original time frame) allows us to use less costly grading equipment and complete the scope within a shorter time frame,” she said.

This will be Oregon’s second veterans home. It will be named after Army Major Edward C. Allworth. He earned the Medal of Honor during World War I after leading his troops to safety and the capture of more than 100 German soldiers during a battle Nov. 5, 1918, at the Meuse River.

After the war, Allworth returned to Oregon Agricultural College (now Oregon State University) and spent the next 38 years as secretary of the alumni association and the Memorial Union Board of Governors.

Linn County voters approved a $10 million bond to help pay for the $30 million project.

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The Oregon Department of Veterans’ Affairs is planning to build a $30 million veterans’ home in Lebanon, and the search for a construction manager/general contractor to take on the unique project began last week.

Fifteen general contracting companies attended the mandatory pre-proposal conference for the project in Salem on Tuesday. The veterans department intends to award the contract on June 8, although the project is still contingent upon funding approval from the state grant program.

Federal funding has been sought since 2008, but because Linn County voters in 2010 approved a property tax levy to raise money for a federal match program, the project is now a higher priority for federal funding, according to ODVA project manager John Osborn.

“We’re still pushing through some of the requirements, but we’re looking to break ground in spring of 2013,” Osborn said.

The facility will provide 150 beds for veterans in need of long-term care, rehabilitation services and Alzheimer’s and dementia care. Salem-based  and global firm  are working on a “small house” model that alters the facility size, interior design and staffing patterns when compared to traditional skilled nursing homes and assisted living facilities.

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Design work is underway on a medical center and home that would provide much-needed room for aging Oregonian veterans.

Salem-based and global firm this fall were contracted to conduct the design, engineering and consulting services for the construction of Oregon’s second veterans’ home in Lebanon.

The $30 million budget will bring 150 beds for long-term care, rehabilitation services, and Alzheimer’s and dementia care, according to Oregon Department of Veterans’ Affairs project manager John Osborn.

Oregon’s only existing veterans’ home is a 151-bed facility in The Dalles, but according to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Oregon needs more than 900 skilled nursing beds for its aging veterans.

“We do need facilities and we want to put them as close as we can to the veterans and where they live,” Osborne said. “We don’t want the veterans or their loved ones to have to travel very far if they are in one of these facilities.”

Construction on the Lebanon facility is expected to begin by the end of 2012 and last for 14 months.

ODVA is also working on a study to validate a recent decision from the Oregon Legislature to build a third facility in Roseburg. Osborn said that report will be finished by 2015.

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The city of Lebanon could soon be producing renewable diesel.

A pilot plant is being constructed that would convert woody biomass into diesel fuel using a process called gasification, according to Dave Shutte, a consultant for developer Cascade Renewable Energy LLC.

The project is owned by Rick and Bernice Franklin of Lebanon, and Duane Stroupe and Casey Stroupe of Tualatin. Gasification uses high temperatures and oxygen to convert carbon-based materials into gas. A fuel conversion system will be used to convert the gas into diesel fuel.

Shutte says gasification coupled with a fuel conversion system has been used to make diesel since World War II, but previously coal was the feedstock used to make the diesel. Using biomass to make diesel is a new, and highly competitive, venture, Shutte said.

“There are other folks out there trying to do what we’re doing,” Shutte said. “We’re trying to get there faster.”

The new gasification plant at 500 N. Williams St., in Lebanon, is about 95 percent complete. Next, the facility will be tested for several months before an additional facility is built to convert the synthesis gas into diesel. Rick Franklin Corp., which operates a construction material recycling business, will provide wood waste for the plant. The gasification plant will initially produce one million gallons of diesel per year.

In the future, the developers plan to build a commercial scale facility producing 3 million gallons per year. Shutte says they are examining several sites near Portland for the larger facility.

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Proposals are due Feb. 16 for the Oregon Department of Veterans’ Affairs Request For Proposals seeking a site for a new veterans home. The nursing home would have around 250 beds, with 50 of those reserved for Alzheimer’s patients.

Julie Manning, vice president for marketing and public relations for Samaritan Health Services said that Samaritan is working with the Linn County Health department to site the facility at the Lebanon hospital campus.

According to VA documents, the facility would employ around 300 people. The project would cost roughly $40 million to $45 million to build, not including land costs.

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