Change is in the air for the Multnomah County Courthouse, and at a Thursday open house – the first of two – planners for a new structure reminded attendees that, historically, “change is the only constant” in reference to the two proposed sites.

Project team members explained the pros and cons of the preferred site and alternate site, the histories of both sites and details on project needs, timeline and funding to drop-in attendees at the open house.

After evaluations of 11 potential locations, the project team chose a preferred site – a block bounded by Southwest Jefferson and Madison streets, First Avenue and Naito Parkway – and an alternate site – bounded by Southwest Clay and Columbia streets and First and Second avenues – on which they’re now performing due diligence, including requests for public input.

“We had about 70 people visit the open house, and we’re very happy with how it went,” county spokesman Mike Pullen said. “Attendees were generally favorable about the preferred site and a lot of the people at the open house were people who are interested in working on the project.”

Photos on display of the preferred site from 1909, 1949, 1963, 1979 and present day support the planning team’s statement that change is the only constant for the site, showing that at least until 1949, there were buildings occupying the now-empty space on the block surrounding the existing Jefferson Station building and the attached building holding longtime downtown restaurant Veritable Quandary.

Pullen said the owners of both Jefferson Station and Veritable Quandary attended the open house, asking questions of project planners.

“Both parties that share the preferred site block have expressed concerns,” Pullen said. “They have both said they appreciate the information we’re providing.”

County officials will wait to address specific concerns from building and business owners near both sites until a final site decision has been made, Pullen said.

Concept plans for both sites show an L-shaped building with a ground-level sally port for prisoner transport security, one of many features that the 100-year-old existing courthouse lacks.

Among those deficiencies, the project planners identified a less-than-ideal security situation, where defendants are walked through public areas on their way to court. Additionally, the existing courthouse doesn’t meet current seismic codes, isn’t large enough to meet the county’s needs and is becoming increasingly expensive to maintain as it ages.

The new courthouse “will accommodate best practices that cannot be met in the existing building,” according to Pullen.

Amenities outlined at Thursday’s open house included an efficient, environmentally sustainable building with improved technology, adequate space with separate circulation for employees, defendants and the public.

Preliminary cost projections are between $250 million and $260 million, with funding split 50-50 between the county and the state.

One of the advantages of building on the preferred site is that Multnomah County already owns the land, which project planners estimate would save about $20 million in project costs. Other pros identified at the preferred site and outlined at the open house include its prominent downtown location at the Hawthorne bridgehead, its proximity to the Justice Center on Southwest Third Avenue, improved in-custody transport, access to an existing parking garage and a need for only minimal demolition.

Many of the identified pros of the preferred site are identified by project planners as cons at the alternate site. For example, land acquisition would increase project costs, “security concerns” would be tied to an adjacent underground garage entrance and there would be no nearby staging area.

The two sites are being evaluated for criteria such as accessibility to public transportation, safety and security, staging and construction logistics and their geotechnical and seismic attributes.

The county, at the open house, outlined a project timeline that includes site selection by early April and the issuance of a request for proposals by the end of April. By July, the county plans to choose an architect and contractor and will start with final design in August. Construction should begin in fall 2016, with project completion and move-in scheduled for early 2020.

The second open house is scheduled for Feb. 5 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in room 130 of the Multnomah County Courthouse, 1021 S.W. Fourth Ave.

An online open house with opportunity to comment will be available starting Feb. 5 and ending Feb. 23, Pullen said. To participate in the online open house, visit .

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Multnomah County officials are seeking public input as they prepare to select a site for their new courthouse. In December they identified two possible sites – one at Southwest First Avenue and Clay Street, and one at Southwest Naito Parkway and Jefferson Street – to accommodate the development.

The planning team has scheduled two open houses to answer public questions, provide information and receive suggestions from parties interested in being involved in the decision-making process.

The first open house will take place Jan. 29, from 5 to 7 p.m., in the boardroom of the Multnomah Building, 501 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd. The second will take place Feb. 5, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., in the main jury room (Room 130) of the Multnomah County Courthouse, 1021 S.W. Fourth Ave.

“We want to know what does the public think of these sites – and if they have concerns about either, what are they,” county spokesman Mike Pullen said. “We also want the public to understand the history of each site, how a courthouse might fit on either and how would that work with the (bicycle, transit and vehicular) infrastructure.”

Meeting attendees will learn about the sites, project needs and goals, a timeline and possible funding options. “Concept visuals” presented will depict how each site may be developed.

The county’s technicians are performing due diligence on both sites – testing for geotechnical, environmental, land use and permitting issues, Pullen said.

In April, after the surveillance process is finished and public input has been gathered, the City Council will receive the information and make its final decision on which of the two sites is most viable.

To learn more about the project, visit .

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Multnomah County officials are holding off on major repairs to the Morrison Bridge until an investigation takes place to determine replacement materials for failing deck panels.

Construction to replace the bridge deck was initially scheduled to take place next year, but will have to wait until a decision has been made whether to use steel, aluminum or fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP), county spokesman Mike Pullen said.

The challenge is that each option has drawbacks, he said. Open steel grating doesn’t provide good traction when wet and isn’t ideal for cars traveling at high speeds. Aluminum panels are less slippery, but also considered more experimental.

As for fiber-reinforced polymer, the county is suing the only company that uses the material for bridge deck panels. This type of panel was installed on the Morrison Bridge nearly three years ago and later found defective because of cracking and failure of the fastening system.

The deck was installed between 2011 and 2012 by Ridgefield, Wash.-based Conway Construction, which later filed suit against the panels’ manufacturer – Durham, N.C.-based ZellComp Inc. – and supplier – Bristol, Va.-based Strongwell Corp. Earlier this year, the county joined the suit and filed another against New York-based Hardesty and Hanover LLP, which designed the fiber-reinforced polymer system. The lawsuits are scheduled to go to trial in February 2015, Pullen said.

In the meantime, the county will continue to close the bridge once a month to make repairs, but this can only go on for so long, he said.

“We do see signs of premature wear that tells us we’re going to have to replace the deck in the near future,” he said.

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Multnomah County Commissioners will send to the Department of Justice a proposal to use a construction manager-general contractor procurement model on the $10 million Broadway Bridge project.

Built in 1913, the bridge has a rare Rall bascule lift system that essentially rolls each 2,000 ton section of the bridge on bull wheels. Named after its inventor, Theodore Rall, the system went out of style. The Broadway Bridge is the largest of only three Rall bascule bridges left in the United States.

The project, which will involve replacing four, cracked counterweights that lift the bridge, will be highly risky and complicated, said Michael Pullen, a county spokesman.

The complex nature of the work, which includes aligning the Rall wheels and tracts and correctly locating control struts that guide the rotation of the bridge, prompted the county to consider a CM-GC procurement model, Pullen said.

“We didn’t want to go low bid on this,” he said. “If we hired somebody on a low bid contract and they didn’t do it right, there is a lot of damage they could do.”

Under a new state law that took effect July 1, the Department of Justice must review the bridge project to determine whether it meets state criteria to employ the CM-GC model. If the justice department gives its approve, the county would then move the issue to a public hearing phase before the end fo the year, Pullen said.

If the county does end up using a CM-GC model, design development would start in September and last through July, 2015. The construction contract would be awarded next summer after negotiation of a guaranteed maximum price, Pullen said.

Construction would start in November 2015 and be completed in November 2016, he said.

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As architects and builders search for innovative materials to meet growing demands for owners’ sustainable projects, universities may provide a key connection.

After visiting ‘s showroom in Southeast Portland, two Oregon State University students were inspired to look more deeply into what they consider an up-and-coming sustainable material. Mike Pullen, owner of Bamboo Revolution, is donating materials to the research; he says the results could be a boon to his fast-growing business.

“A builder on the leading edge will want to adopt new materials and technology, but doesn’t have the resources or ability to test them him- or herself,” said Sean Penrith, executive director of . “The academic world and construction industry may be worlds apart, but it’s a symbiotic relationship that should happen more often.”

OSU students Skyler Mlasko and Danny Way are working with assistant professor Arijit Sinha to discern whether bamboo has more structural applications than typically considered in the U.S. market. , a student-managed grant program, is providing $3,000 for the effort.

“For smaller companies with limited resources, having the university lend a helping hand and put the time and hours into something we can’t – it’s obviously a huge benefit,” Pullen said.

Bamboo Revolution is already inspiring architects and contractors to prominently feature bamboo in their projects. Doors, floors, countertops and wall panels all are made from bamboo, and company sales are on a trajectory that reveals a growing market.

Sales increased 50 percent in 2008 and 30 percent in 2009, prompting Pullen in September 2009 to begin remodeling a 1927 auto parts store into its current showroom. Sales have continued to grow 30 percent each year, he said.

For the research, Bamboo Revolution’s bamboo first will be glued together to make larger glu-lam beams. Pullen and the researchers are hoping to work with Eugene-based Walsh Industries, a company that specializes in custom glu-lam beam manufacturing.

At OSU, the team will conduct a series of strength and destructibility tests on the bamboo glu-lam beams. Such data have not been published yet, according to the team.

“Bamboo could be competitive in the market because initial studies say that it has structural properties comparable with wood and conventional building materials,” Sinha said. “But there are no documents out there giving the actual values as a structural material, which will be needed for building codes to be adapted.”

Pullen recently started growing bamboo in Albany with the hope that he could eventually source all of his material locally. If bamboo could be used as a structural component, it would dramatically increase the value of his farm because he would be able to use more pieces of the grassy stalks.

A lot of the material can’t be used in furniture panels because of inherent aesthetic flaws. But Pullen pointed out that for structural use, all that matters is performance – not aesthetics.

In the future, Pullen hopes to see bamboo not only accepted in the building code, but also considered seismically safe.

“It’s a superior material because it doesn’t have a complete failure point, whereas fir will actually break completely at some point,” he said. “It would be fantastic if there was seismic activity because it has flexibility within the beam.”

While the six-month project will not lead to a revolution of that magnitude, the team says it is a vital first step in advancing bamboo research.

“(The structural tests) have been on my mind since starting the company,” Pullen said. “But instead of having to spend the money up front, the university is performing that, and I’m able to continue focusing on making sales to keep the company running in the present tense.”

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Revised plans for the Sellwood Bridge replacement could reduce construction costs by up to $41 million, according to a new estimate by the project’s advisory committee.

The biggest changes to the design are associated with the bridge intersection with Oregon Route 43. The committee has recommended reducing the size of that interchange to save money, said Mike Pullen, a spokesman for Multnomah County, which is leading efforts to replace the bridge.

“Reducing the size makes the project cheaper and also reduces the visual blight of what would have been an 80-foot rock cut in the side of the mountain in that area,” Pullen said. “That was a big visual impact that the community didn’t like.”

The 85-year-old, two-lane Sellwood Bridge has only a two-point rating on a 100-point scale for structural sufficiency, which has led to load limits and the need for a replacement.

The initial plan for that replacement included an expensive horseshoe ramp beneath the bridge and Highway 43 to connect the span to a boat retailer in the area. That company has since folded, however, and the owner is willing to negotiate sale of his land, Pullen said.

“Without the business there, the needs to build this ramp have also gone away,” Pullen said. “And by buying this boat business, we’re able to move the whole project toward the river and away from the hillside, so instead of an 80-foot rock cut, it’s only 40 feet high and we can do some planting in the area to make it look nicer.”

Shifting the interchange will reduce its size to about half of what was planned originally, which means fewer construction materials will be needed and the rock cut will be less costly, he said.

The group also decided to lower the cost of possible streetcar development on the bridge by leaving room for eventual streetcar tracks but not installing them as part of the bridge plan, Pullen said.

“The streetcar plan might not happen for 20 years or so, whereas saving money in 2011 or 2012 is a much more pressing concern,” Pullen said.

Also, the committee decided to not build a bus queue in the area, which will also save some money and allow the new bridge to meet traffic demands.

“The bridge will still be up to modern standards, functional and safe, but it will be cheaper,” Pullen said.

The new estimate reduces the cost from $331 million to $290 million, he added.

Funding for the project will come from Multnomah County vehicle fees, the city of Portland, the Oregon Department of Transportation and some federal programs, he said.

“Even with the reduced costs we don’t have all the funding we need, but the amount that we don’t have has gotten smaller – we’ll still have about 10 percent of the project that we need to find funding for,” Pullen said.

The goal is for construction of the new bridge to start in July 2012. Work is expected to last three to four years, and the old bridge will remain operational during the construction phase.

Construction bidding closed on Jan. 10, and the county should decide on a primary contractor by March, he added.

T.Y. Lin International and CH2M HILL were chosen as the design team in December, and the challenge period has passed. The contract is still under negotiation, however, Pullen said.

“They were involved in planning the project, so it’s good that they’ll be doing the design,” Pullen said.

The committee will present changes at a public stakeholder meeting on Jan. 18 from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. in Rooms A & B of the ODOT Region 1 Building at 123 N.W. Flanders St. in Portland. The meeting is open to the public and time will be allotted for public comment.

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In the early 2000s, residential remodeler Mike Pullen was laying bamboo floors for a client when his tools were stolen. When law enforcement officers arrived at the scene, their first question wasn’t about the crime, but about the floors.

“The police showed up to take fingerprints,” Pullen said. “They both said, ‘… what is that?’ They wanted samples to take home. That’s when I knew bamboo would be my business.”

Today, Pullen’s company, Bamboo Revolution, uses the fast-growing material to make items such as panels and flooring for the building industry, suitcases and pens. And with a showroom set to open soon in Southeast Portland, and an industrial-scale bamboo farm in the works, Pullen’s business is growing almost as fast as the bamboo itself.

Company sales increased 50 percent in 2008, and 30 percent in 2009, prompting Pullen in September 2009 to begin remodeling a 1927 auto parts store into a showroom to better display his products. He also recently brought on Keith Shradar as his lead product designer and business partner.

Bamboo Revolution’s new showroom at 1300 S.E. Grand Ave. reveals the diversity of bamboo’s use. Doors, floors, countertops and wall panels all are made from bamboo. Pullen said visitors will see that bamboo can be more than an ornamental plant.

“When someone buys a cutting board from me, they get my 15-minute talk on the benefits of bamboo,” Pullen said. “I love seeing people come in with their game face on, wanting to get in and out, and (then) leave with this new understanding of bamboo’s potential.”

Presently, Pullen’s bamboo comes from China, where he is a business partner with a bamboo mill owner. But after negotiating for two years with Andy Ringle, a member of an Avery Island, La., family that owns one of the oldest timber bamboo groves in the U.S., in 2009 he brought 180 live Moso bamboo plants to Oregon from Louisiana.

“We took our 10-person company down there to clear out 60 years of deadfall from the grove,” Pullen said. “I told Andy, ‘You’ve given me my dream. What’s yours?’ He said, ‘For my family’s legacy to live on.’ ”

The Louisiana plants were planted at Dain Sansome’s Bamboo Valley farm in Albany. Pullen plans to eventually make all of his products from Oregon-grown bamboo, though that could be five or 10 years down the road.

“My reason for making money at this point is to further what I can do with bamboo,” Pullen said. “I’d like to be able to control every aspect of my product from seed to the finished product.”

Pullen has traveled extensively through bamboo forests in Japan and China. He first fell in love with the plant while working as a snowboard developer in China.

“When you walk into a bamboo forest, you can feel the better air quality,” Pullen said. “It converts more carbon dioxide to oxygen than other plants. There’s something almost magical about it. Once you’re into bamboo, you’re hooked.”

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