A major Midwest industrial developer is looking to make its mark on the Portland-metro market with a speculative project in Hillsboro.

Scannell Properties plans to seek bids in the coming weeks for construction of a 126,000-square-foot industrial structure with a 32-foot clear height. Mackenzie is designing the project for Scannell, and CBRE will search for a tenant.

The developer, based in Indianapolis, saw opportunity in the Portland market after completing two build-to-suit projects in Salem, said Mohnish Narlanka, a Scannell senior development manager who oversees the company’s Pacific Northwest projects.

Scannell built approximately 1 million square feet of logistics space for Dollar General and 300,000 square feet for Gensco after approaching the city of Salem to forge a land agreement to develop an industrial park.

“That was kind of our first dive into the greater Portland market,” Narlanka said. “As we got some positive momentum in the region, our next mandate was let’s go find that speculative deal that we like and plant the flag.”

Narlanka said he’s not among those investors turned off by the “optics around downtown Portland.” The developer said his wife grew up in Beaverton, and he’s become familiar with the area.

“Yes, there are challenges for downtown Portland, but it’s not indicative of what’s going on in Clackamas or Hillsboro or these submarkets that are doing really well,” he said. “So, we’re going to continue to invest where there’s demand. Our broad thesis is the Portland area is an area where there’s durable demand.”

Scannell develops some $4 billion in industrial real estate annually, split between speculative and build-to-suit projects. The privately held developer has in-house construction managers, along with accounting and legal staff, and typically works with local architecture firms and contractors.

In Hillsboro, Scannell was encouraged by limited land availability and activity from Washington County users.

“What we really liked about Hillsboro is it’s kind of a captive demand audience where people want to be close to those they serve, whether that’s Intel or someone else,” Narlanka said.

The developer is investing in a market that has seen its share of ups and downs in recent years. A spate of speculative construction led to higher vacancy rates and softening rents in some submarkets.

In the second quarter, leasing activity grew 25 percent compared to a year earlier, and leasing was up 7 percent compared to the previous quarter. That led to net absorption of 508,147 square feet.

Vacancy rose as new projects opened with limited preleasing. “Despite these headwinds, demand for modern Class-A space remains strong in select submarkets, particularly the Sunset Corridor, where premium facilities command some of the market’s highest rental rates,” CBRE stated in the quarterly report it released last week.

Vacancy in the Sunset Corridor remained low at 4.2 percent, compared to the market average of 7.7 percent.

An undisclosed tenant signed the quarter’s largest lease at Prologis Park Clackamas for 304,000 square feet. Consolidated Supply Co., Nuna Baby Essentials and Ferguson Enterprises also signed major leases, according to CBRE.

The construction pipeline remains robust, with nearly 3.5 million square feet on the way. Developers have delivered 1.6 million square feet year to date in the Portland market.

Scannell will seek one or two tenants for the Hillsboro speculative project, Narlanka said. The development is located at Northeast Starr Boulevard and Meek Road in Hillsboro, just south of U.S. Route 26 and near a cluster of new construction, including an Amazon fulfillment center and data centers.

The warehouse “theoretically could demise into two suites,” Narlanka said. “Many users prefer (an) entire building.”

Scannell is in the final phases of permitting and expects to begin clearing and grading the site in late September, Narlanka said. The company expects a 10-month construction phase, with availability in summer 2027.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Mohnish Narlanka leads Scannell Properties’ West Coast projects. Narlanka is in charge of the Pacific Northwest for Scannell.

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A $211 million senior housing development is coming to Issaquah, Washington — about 17 miles southeast of Seattle.

Senior housing developer The Springs Living of Beaverton broke ground June 3 on a five-story, 329,250-square-foot building at 850 Eighth Ave. N.E. in the suburb. The Springs at Issaquah Highlands will hold 225 apartments — 114 for independent living, 84 for assisted living and 27 for memory care. There will be one story of parking partially below grade.

The project is a joint venture of The Springs Living, co-developer PMB of Solana Beach, California, and alternative investment firm Harrison Street Asset Management.

Mackenzie and GBD Architects partnered to design the project; Mackenzie is also the civil engineer. Exxel Pacific of Bellingham, Washington is the general contractor. Other contributions include structural engineering by KPFF, landscape architecture by Lango Hansen, MEP Basis of Design by Interface Engineering, mechanical and plumbing design/build by Ocean Park Mechanical of Tukwila, Washington, lighting design by Biella Lighting Design, and electrical design/build by Bergelectric, which is based in Carlsbad, California.

“With shared values, a strong focus on client needs, and a commitment to the communities our designs serve, Mackenzie and GBD view this partnership as a strategic union of our expertise and local knowledge, designed to meet the project’s specific needs,” Mackenzie architect and principal Steve Rupert stated in an email. “Together, we have intentionally identified key personnel with the correct skill sets to deliver our promise: a fun, engaging design process, clear documentation, and a team that will stay by the client’s side through project completion.”

This is the first collaboration between the two firms, but with hope there will be more, Rupert stated.

Both firms have a commitment to thoughtful design, strong client relationships, and creating places that matter, GBD Architects principal Craig Mendenhall stated in an email.

“By bringing together the strengths of both firms, we’re able to approach the project from multiple perspectives while staying focused on a common goal: delivering a solution that reflects the client’s vision and serves the community well,” he stated.

The development is designed to reflect the character of the Issaquah Highlands neighborhood and its walkable access to parks and trails. The community’s location adjacent to the Swedish Issaquah medical campus reflects The Springs Living’s long-term vision for deeper integration with healthcare systems, creating greater alignment between housing, care, and access to services over time, Rupert stated.

Warm, natural materials will be paired with refined urban elements to create a welcoming residential environment. Building materials will include artisan brick, while natural wood accents introduce warmth and human scale. Board-formed concrete, black metal detailing, and a balanced composition of light and dark fiber-cement panels will add depth, texture and durability, ensuring the building will age gracefully over time, according to GBD Architects. Perforated metal screening will be integrated into the structured parking areas, incorporating artistic expression that reflects the character of the community.

The interior design will capture the feel of a modern rustic lodge and include stone and solid materials to anchor spaces. Light, airy spaces will be balanced by rich, warm wood elements. Communal hearth space will include big, comfy chairs where residents can relax, GBD Architects shared. There will also be outdoor-inspired elements like continuous flooring and overhead planes.

The building will be anchored by a signature water feature, a refined porte cochere, and a bright, lodge-style lobby. Neighborhood-inspired layouts were chosen for upper floors. A secure memory care wing will have outdoor areas, including a garden.

Other outdoor areas will include an assisted living courtyard, an independent living courtyard, a rooftop deck offering outdoor activities, and a wine lounge.

Indoor amenities will include an art room, a theater, dining venues, a pool, and a fitness center.

Staff spaces, including break rooms and kitchens, will be located along the building’s perimeter, with access to natural light.

The project team plans to pursue Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design gold and Fitwel certifications.

The new community is expected to open in late 2028.

Design Beyond Borders is a 91��Ƶ feature offering a look at the projects outside of Oregon and Southwest Washington being tackled by local architecture firms. To have your firm’s projects considered, email the 91��Ƶ news staff at newsroom@djcOregon.com.

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Consolidated Supply Co., a regional plumbing and water works supplier headquartered in Tigard, has agreed to lease the entire 276,092-square-foot East Building of an industrial park under construction in Woodland, Washington.

The Woodland Industrial Park will include two buildings: the East Building and the West Building, which will be a 655,094-square-foot cross-dock warehouse with a 40-foot clear height and 130 trailer parking stalls.

The development was designed by Mackenzie for commercial real estate developer Trammell Crow Company (TCC). Sierra Construction is serving as the general contractor. The complex is scheduled for completion by this fall and is approximately 30 percent leased, TCC stated in a press release. It’s located at 345 N. Pekin Road in Woodland.

Capacity Commercial Group is marketing the Woodland Industrial Park for sale and lease; the firm represented TCC in lease negotiations. Consolidated Supply Co. was represented by Stu Peterson of Macadam Forbes.

The company plans to purchase the East Building and next year will have an option to do so or extend its lease, TCC spokesperson Cynthia Langhorst stated in an email.

Consolidated Supply Co., a fourth‑generation wholesale distributor founded in 1928, is dedicated to serving professional plumbers, utility contractors, and municipalities throughout the Pacific Northwest. The company’s 22 branch locations across Oregon, Washington, and Idaho are supported by a workforce of over 500 employees.

“Consolidated Supply Co. has a long history of investing in the region we serve, and this new location in Woodland reflects our continued commitment to the Pacific Northwest,” Karla Neupert Hockley, chairman and CEO of Consolidated Supply Co., stated in the press release. “Expanding our distribution footprint allows us to improve service levels, streamline logistics, and enhance the extraordinary service our customers expect from us.”

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Construction crews have broken ground on a new 17,000-square-foot police station in Molalla.

Mackenzie designed the facility for the city of Molalla, as well as the interiors, civil engineering, structural engineering, traffic engineering, land use planning and landscape design for the project. The project team also includes MEP Interface Engineering and general contractor P&C Construction.

The project began in 2012 when former Police Chief Rod Lucich expressed the need for a new station, according to the project’s website. In 2015, the city purchased the Molalla Bowl building at 150 Grange Ave. The building was demolished in 2023, Mackenzie project manager David Linton said in an email.

The new facility will replace an aging and undersized police station, currently located in Molalla City Hall, at 117 N Molalla Ave. The current facility, formerly the fire department, was renovated to become the city hall and police department. It was built prior to 1950 and has about 2,300 square feet of work/office space, Linton stated.

The new facility will also function as an emergency operations center for public safety crisis response. Thomas Peck, Mackenzie project designer, said in an email that the new station will be an essential facility designed for resilience.

“The organization of the facility and site was designed to create a more civically engaging relationship with the community,” Peck stated. “It will reinforce the presence of law enforcement and the public safety building as a resource for everyone in Molalla.”

The building has been designed to maintain a natural separation for security, with public interface prioritized along the street and secure operations and parking behind it. A public entry plaza correlates with nearby neighborhood public parks and visually connects visitors to a public-facing lobby and community room.

Peck said that the facility utilizes a structural brick to create a resilient and secure exterior envelope for the main operation footprint. A transparent and inviting approach has been taken for the public-interfacing portion of the building that fronts the street. A hybrid structural system of steel and cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels has been utilized for the building lobby, records office and community room to showcase Molalla’s heritage in the timber industry and provide a warm character with extensive overhangs to shelter and welcome visitors, Peck stated.

Additionally, wood reclaimed from the bowling lanes of Molalla Bowl has been salvaged to honor the site’s history. The wood is being used in custom wall panels that will house the Molalla Police Department’s emblem, as well as in custom seating within the lobby.

The total project cost is $16.8 million and is funded by a $16 million bond passed by voters in November 2023, as well as city money.

Construction began in August and is expected to be complete in late 2025.

On the Boards is a 91��Ƶ feature offering a look at projects in Oregon and Southwest Washington being tackled by local architecture firms. To have your firm’s projects considered, contact 91��Ƶ reporter Hilary Dorsey at hdorsey@djcOregon.com.

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The city of Lake Oswego has broken ground on Rassekh Park. The park includes a new multi-purpose sports field, large playground and skatepark for the community at the Rassekh property on Stafford Road.

The new 10-acre park will also include a parking lot with a dropoff area, new access pathways and the expansion of existing multi-use pathways, restrooms, walking trails, a covered picnic area, a protected natural area surrounding Pecan Creek, and the necessary utilities, including water, electricity, stormwater and sanitary sewer service.

The project team includes landscape architect and civil engineer Mackenzie, electrical engineer Sazan Group, skatepark design-build California Skateparks and general contractor Paul Brothers Inc.

Mackenzie helped engage the surrounding community by embarking on a year-long public outreach process that encouraged and enabled key community members to influence and inspire the concept and vision for the park. Through a series of meetings hosted by Mackenzie and the city of Lake Oswego, more than 600 community members drove a concept for the park that maximized play and exercise opportunities, while respecting the natural character of the surroundings, Mackenzie stated in a news release.

Since athletic fields in Lake Oswego are in high demand, new fields were identified as a high priority to be funded with the Lake Oswego Parks & Recreation bond money, the firm stated.

The groundbreaking event served as the official launch of the phased development. Phase I of the project will include the construction of a 10,000-square-foot skatepark (designed by California Skateparks); right-of-way improvements for Stafford Road such as trees and streetlights; reconstruction of the multi-use path; a new restroom building; and the development of a variety of other critical utilities that lay the foundation for the rest of the project.

Phase I of the project is expected to be complete next year.

Additional features will be realized in the subsequent phases: a synthetic turf athletic field will enable year-round soccer, lacrosse, baseball and softball games for youth sports. A new, large playground will also be constructed. Input from more than 100 local elementary school children informed the final concept of the playground, which will include a mix of natural play elements and accessible play equipment.

The total project cost for all phases is expected to be over $5 million.

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Mackenzie unveiled an initial design for a 15-story building with 260 apartments in the Lloyd District during a design advice hearing with the Portland Design Commission on Thursday.

A Eugene firm, Master Development, is behind the project at 701 and 777 N.E. Seventh Ave. The proposed building would be entirely residential and provide parking, mostly below grade.

The project site is located three blocks east of the Oregon Convention Center at the Lloyd District’s south end. Design commissioners and Bureau of Development Services staff said the project’s context will be important: It’s on the future Green Loop route on Northeast Seventh Avenue. Also, the building will be near the Blumenauer Bridge that crosses Interstate 84.

BDS valued the project at $45 million.

Design commissioners largely praised the initial massing scheme from Mackenzie, a Portland-based firm.

“The big moves of massing, the vertical expression – overall I think it’s quite compatible with the context of what’s emerging in the Lloyd District right now,” Commissioner Brian McCarter said.

The building’s height would far exceed its width to fit on the half-block property. Master Development acquired the tract for $4.2 million in November 2021 from the Oregon Auto Dealers Association, according to Multnomah County records. The property currently has two small, single-story office buildings, which would be demolished to make way for the apartment tower.

Ben Nielsen, a BDS planner, said the lot is “surrounded by a sea of parking garages.” Also nearby is the site planned for Oregon Square, an American Assets Trust office project that was approved in 2020 but has not moved into the construction phase. AAT has until 2024 to begin construction with its current entitlements, Nielsen said.

Master Development’s as-yet-unnamed project would feature fiber cement panels and glass windows. Wood would be used on the underside of overhangs to contribute warmth, architect Thomas Peck said. The design calls for vertical fins to wrap around the façade.

Unlike many new buildings, Master’s would have no retail space. Instead, common amenity areas would help activate ground-floor frontages.

Some commissioners opined that the building could use more character so it doesn’t appear to be an office building.

“It’s pretty austere-looking at this point,” Commissioner Don Vallaster said.

Vallaster and Commissioner Zari Santner suggested balconies may improve the façade’s appearance.

“I hope that it can be jazzed up, and it can distinguish itself a little bit,” Santner said.

The project team is targeting a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design gold rating from the U.S. Green Building Council, Peck said. The building will meet inclusionary zoning rules, he added; however, he did not specify how that would be accomplished.

The project team may opt to return for another design advice hearing, or it could proceed directly to design review.

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Industrial real estate continued to hum along in 2021, with fewer vacancies, active leasing and growing rents, Kidder Mathews reported.

In the Portland area, industrial space continued to enjoy strong demand as retailers responded to consumer demand for shipping. Developers, meanwhile, pushed ahead with real estate plays north and south of Portland.

“Industrial has been sort of that one product type that’s been most resilient and has seen the most growth,” said Chris Nelson, principal of Capstone Partners, a Portland-based developer.

Asking lease rates grew 4.4 percent from $0.69 per square foot on a triple-net basis to $0.72 per square foot in 2021 compared to a year earlier, Kidder Mathews reported in a fourth-quarter update. Among other findings:

• Vacancies fell from 4.0 percent to 3.2 percent.
• Leasing activity jumped 15.6 percent from 9.9 million square feet in 2020 to 11.4 million square feet in 2021. The most active submarkets were Southeast Portland and the I-5 corridor with 35.8 million square feet and 29.4 million square feet leased, respectively.
• 6 million net square feet were absorbed – most of which occurred in the fourth quarter.
• Sales volume fell 24.2 percent from 10.4 million square feet in 2020 to 7.9 million square feet in 2021.
• Projects totaling 4.9 million square feet were under construction in the fourth quarter, while 1.8 million square feet were completed in 2021. The Bridgepoint I-5 development delivered 677,568 square feet to the Airport Way submarket, and Portside Industrial Park added 192,960 square feet to the Central Business District/West Vancouver submarket.

The industrial market has seen more mega-deals as users led by Amazon locked up space near cities. Specht Properties sold a parcel near Woodburn for $23.3 million in June. Amazon plans to build a five-story, 3.84-million-square-foot shipping warehouse on the Specht parcel and two neighboring parcels, for which it paid a total of $27 million, The Oregonian reported.

“What’s really pretty spectacular from a market perspective is how strong demand has been, particularly from large users,” Nelson said.

While Amazon gets the headlines, other retailers such as Walmart and Target have moved aggressively into e-commerce, buttressing demand for logistics facilities.

“What you’re seeing is that traditional retail businesses that would have distributed out of a warehouse to bricks and mortar – they’re all pursuing an omni-channel strategy,” Nelson said.

Capstone Partners is looking for a build-to-suit user for a potential 750,000-square-foot facility in Salem. “We’re hoping that will be a start (in 2022), but we’ll have to see,” Nelson said. “It depends on demand.”

Specht is building a 468,793-square-foot industrial building in Ridgefield, Washington, on speculation. (CEO Greg Specht could not be reached for comment). Completion is expected in August. Mackenzie is the architect and Perlo Construction is serving as general contractor.

“You’ve seen bigger sites and bigger development projects both north of Portland and down in Salem,” Nelson said. “(2022) in my opinion will be very much like ’21: another growth year.”

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Design students from around the world recently reimagined the ODOT blocks in Portland’s Central Eastside Industrial District.

Mackenzie partnered with NewSchool of Architecture and Design in San Diego for an integrated design studio. It drew more than 80 participants, including about 20 students from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia who collaborated virtually.

The ODOT blocks presented students an opportunity to learn about urban analysis, site selection criteria for resilient urban development, design parameters, and design methods and tools. The students based their proposals on real client needs and constraints within Portland’s municipal code, and received input from Mackenzie and Beam Development.

“Through direct experience with projects such as the ODOT blocks, students get to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of integrated design and are better prepared to enter architectural practice that is defined by complex relationships throughout the community,” stated Daniel Deutsch, studio coordinator and head of architecture programs at NewSchool of Architecture and Design.

The ODOT blocks comprise three vacant parcels – formerly owned by the Oregon Department of Transportation – along Southeast Water Avenue. Prosper Portland purchased the land for $2.485 million.

The Daily Journal of Commerce reported in April 2020 that Prosper Portland’s board voted to authorize negotiations with Beam Development for a ground lease and a disposition and development agreement for one of the three vacant blocks. Beam would also have exclusive development rights for the other two blocks.

The students’ completed design work will be shared with the client, Mackenzie’s marketing director, Jan Mason, said.

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The “new normal” has taken on multiple forms throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The first stage was shifting to remote work temporarily and then to a long-term work from home life. But the “new normal” is still metamorphosing as people prepare to return to the office.

With two COVID-19 vaccines approved for emergency use, the general public might start to see vaccinations late-spring to mid-summer. Work spaces need to be prepared to keep occupants safe during the pandemic for when workers gradually return.

“We haven’t actually had to teach tenants how to safely occupy a building,” Keren Eichen, director of real estate services for Unico Properties, said.

Buildings, entryways, and gathering spaces are being retrofitted to allow for social distancing. Signage is being put up reminding people to stay six-feet apart and wear a mask. Throughout the building, sanitation stations may lace the hallways; arrows placed directing one-way traffic and barriers put up to protect workstations.

ZGF Architects principal Alan Gerencer has spent nearly 30 years working on methods to build collaboration in workplaces and design environments for people to feel comfortable.

“People need to be ready to return and feel comfortable in the space,” Gerencer said. “Make sure it feels and looks clean.”

While every company will have a different approach and space to work with, Gerencer encourages businesses to survey employees about what they’re comfortable with and not. The information gathered will help inform how to design spaces.

As the pandemic progresses, Dietrich Wieland, president of Mackenzie, said the virus is impacting design on simple levels in many cases. It has made them rethink how they plan break rooms and entryways.

The firm released a COVID-19 design guide in March and updated it in May, where they looked at existing layouts, how they could be retrofitted and then reimagined.

Entryways typically have people coming and going from the same door, which places people face-to-face. As a retrofit, it could have a barrier in the middle, creating lanes for entering and exiting. A sanitation station can be placed inside the doorway, and a queue of people can wait outside to enter with markers indicating every six feet. A reimagined design has separate entry and exit points, touchless doors and a canopy to cover people waiting.

While it’s going to be a slow transition back into the office, COVID-19 has already impacted the way people look at office spaces and their importance for workplace culture.

“The beauty of the office is this touch point where we all come together,” Gerencer said.

As property managers, Unico Properties has been investing in signage, touchless technology, PPE and sanitation chemicals to get the U.S. Bancorp Tower ready for people to come back to work.

Eichen said the scale of the signage campaign required throughout the tower is the first of its kind. Signs line the building and are propped up in rooms that say “Let’s be safe” in the hallways, “Thank you for practicing social distancing,” and on the floor detailing “Stand here; stop the spread.”

Property Managers have been going above and beyond what their jobs traditionally mandate. Eichen said Unico is the busiest it has ever been in 2020.

Workers continue to remain at home as COVID-19 case numbers rise. But the planning and preparation for their returns have already started.

While 2020 comes to a close and 2021 entices a “new normal,” flexibility has been a critical clause throughout.

“It is really important to understand what is so important to people,” Gerencer said. “What is it that will make them feel comfortable and valued and what is working for them.”

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When the coronavirus outbreak hit the U.S. earlier this year, health care providers had to move quickly to alter their operational practices to prevent the spread of COVID-19 while adapting spaces to accommodate a massive influx of patients.

Now, with months’ worth of perspective, architects and health care providers are looking at how medical spaces can be designed to allow maximum operational efficiency and prevent the spread of infectious diseases.

Over the past decade, Ebola, SARS and H1N1 (swine flu) pandemics spurred an evolution of health care design, said Ali Sadri, director of planning, design and construction with Legacy Health. But the arrival of COVID-19 was a wake-up call that accelerated discussions about functional programming, and the relationship between building occupants and their physical environment.

“Most of our providers started paying more attention to environment of care in general,” Sadri said. “What do they need to be more effective and efficient, and care for their patients better so that space would not become an obstacle for them?”

One major step involves removal of some patients from buildings altogether. While business owners, school officials and others weigh strategies for returning to in-person operations, the health care industry is doing the opposite by adopting new methods for keeping some patients off-site.

“We’re going to rely a lot more on care within your own home, because that’s where you’re safest,” said Erin Couch, the Portland-based architectural standards and design director for Providence St. Joseph Health.

Health care providers in recent months have increasingly relied on “telehealth” as a means of seeing patients while reducing the number of people in their buildings. Rather than coming to a hospital or clinic for preventive care appointments, patients connect with providers via video conferencing or over the phone, minimizing the risk of virus exposure for both staff and other patients.

Couch, who works within Providence’s Real Estate Strategy and Operations pillar, sets design standards across a seven-state system that includes 51 hospitals, over 1,000 clinics and 100,000 caregivers. Moving forward, she is going to recommend that Providence convert a quarter of its existing examination rooms to telehealth rooms.

Monty Hill, a Mackenzie design director and associate principal whose specialties include health care design, said his firm anticipates telehealth remaining prevalent after the pandemic, due in large part to changes in how providers are compensated.

“Some of the things that we use as cues for changes in health care are Medicare and what the government is willing to reimburse,” he said.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in April announced a temporary expansion of telehealth benefits for Medicare patients, allowing hospitals to bill the system for services rendered remotely. A bill introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives on July 16 would make the expansion permanent, as would a bill introduced to the U.S. Senate on July 20 by Sen. Ron Wyden.

Designers and providers are also giving considerable thought to the flexibility of spaces. For years, the nature of health care building design was to create silos of specialties. While a shift in thinking was taking place before the pandemic, providers are increasingly looking at creating universal rooms.

Solvei Neiger, a ZGF Architects partner who specializes in health care spaces, says an ongoing consideration among her clients is the design of nursing units, including those in emergency departments, to allow for compartmentalization of spaces and creation of flexible groupings of rooms for cluster care.

Clients are planning lobbies with some of the infrastructure necessary to convert them to triage space, Neiger said. Rooms are being rethought as well.

“Maybe it’s an exam room one day, a triage room or treatment room another day,” she said. “Being able to not have barriers allows for different types of uses to happen, which gives them maximum flexibility.”

Especially important will be a shift toward rooms that can be adapted to intensive care units in the event of a surge, Hill said. With COVID-19, demand exceeded supply for ICU rooms, which differ from typical rooms because of their life-sustaining equipment available, level of monitoring for the nursing staff, and either positive or negative air pressure.

“I think we’re going to see government rules change to have a plan in order to deal with any major catastrophe,” Hill said, “not just for coronavirus, but any future virus that we may need to be prepared for.”

Also on the horizon is a shift away from using return air to a 100 percent outside air system in all areas in order to reduce the likelihood of contagions spreading through a building’s HVAC system. The Emanuel West core-and-shell project nearing completion in North Portland will not use recirculated air, Sadri said. Energy models show that the full outside air system offers better control of the environment without wasting energy.

“We can actually capture more energy from our exhaust than reintroducing that air back into the building,” Sadri said. “And, of course, fresh air and not recycled air is what everybody in infections control is advising. You will see single-pass air become much more common.”

Providence is also considering a move to a 100 percent outside air system, and is using simpler ways to keep contaminants out of the air. According to Couch, they have already turned off all hand blowers in restrooms, and are considering a return to use of toilet lids.

Reducing surface contamination is an equally important consideration. Touchless devices will also become even more commonplace than they already are, as will handwashing sinks. Some materials like carpet may be completely eschewed for surfaces that are more conducive to disinfection. Cove base flooring and countertop backsplashes, already common in many areas, could become even more prevalent in any areas that patients go.

“It really just eliminates any place for a virus to hide,” Hill said. “The cleanability of surfaces is going to increase.”

Waiting rooms are likely to shrink to allow for improved social distancing among patients and visitors. Large groups of chairs will give way to small clusters or individual seating. Modern communications technology makes it possible for medical staff to be in full contact with patients and to stay updated without being on hospital grounds.

Also, after the widespread shortage of personal protective equipment that caught many hospitals off-guard early in the COVID-19 pandemic, some may begin storing supplies in bulk in warehouse space.

Designers are also beginning to rethink how providers are typically clustered, such as at nursing stations, in order to allow for greater distancing between medical staff members.

The pandemic has accelerated thinking on how to make medical spaces function as safely and efficiently as possible. For Couch – busier than she’s ever been with Providence – it’s a time that has begotten industry-wide ingenuity and a fresh approach to provision of community health care.

“I’m sorry it took a pandemic to do that, but it’s certainly improved the way we do business,” she said. “We will look back at 2020 and say, ‘That’s when it all changed.’”

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