PATH Architecture is expanding its use of cross-laminated timber to include a new senior living center at��3450 N. Williams Ave. When completed in 2019, The Canyons will be a 110,000-square-foot mixed-use structure next to developer’s Kaiser Group‘s Carbon 12.

“We have been working in mass-timber products for five years and we have learned a hell of a lot,” said��Ben Kaiser,��owner of PATH Architecture and Kaiser Group. “We keep moving the needle. We are pretty comfortable with CLT and how it works.”

One of the big advantages of using CLT in a senior living structure is that the panels help moderate moisture in the air.

In wintertime, the panels release moisture, which helps relieve dry air conditions that can hamper elderly residents’ breathing. Then in summertime, the panels absorb moisture.

The panels will include sensors able to detect exactly how much moisture they are absorbing or releasing.

“Studies have shown it’s a healthier environment,” Kaiser said. “The sensors will have a 13-year battery life. So for 13 years, we can read the moisture levels in the panels on an iPad. We will be able to see if there is a leak. That is fantastic to have in any building.”

The decision to use CLT as the primary construction material is one of the primary reasons for the $21 million price tag. Nevertheless, Kaiser sought to use an environmentally sustainable product.

“For me, at this point in my career, it’s about reversing the carbon footprint of construction,” he said. “I think the objective is to think beyond the immediate costs.”

Project developers have also added 10 units from the original plan formed two years ago.

“It has evolved,” said��Jennifer Dillan, a spokeswoman with Kaiser Group. “One thing this project does is build on a series of unique partnerships.”

Those partnerships include one with New Seasons Market. Residents at The Canyons will be able to order from the market ready-made meals that can be delivered.��A top goal of the project is to allow seniors to stay as independent as possible for as long as possible.

“This is not assisted-living level of care,” Kaiser said. “We designed an alley on the back of The Canyons. The elder folks will be able to go to an active retail corridor.”

This is Kaiser’s first foray into senior living structures. As such, he brought in Hoosiers Corporation as a partner. The Tokyo-based company has built numerous elder living structures in Japan. In return for sharing its expertise building elder housing, Hoosiers Corp. is getting firsthand experience using CLT, which is becoming more popular in Asia.

“They want to know about CLT and we want to learn about elder housing,” Kaiser said. “It’s a good match.”

The Canyons’ residential units will have a mid-price point, Kaiser said. A driving force in the effort to ensure costs wouldn’t be too high was the experiences he had with his own father.

“My siblings and I toured places,” Kaiser said. “The options for people who are not wealthy were not very good. They were all extremely expensive or so bad we would never put our parent there. We are trying to find a middle ground. We want to build something that is affordable but still a good place to live.”

R&H Construction has been chosen as the general contractor. Ground is expected to be broken in September and a grand opening is scheduled for December 2019.

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

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More buildings are in the works for the 17.5-acre Con-way development in northwest Portland, according to city land use review intake records.

James Santana, vice president of development for Cairn Pacific LLC, said the latest plans for developing the large parcel at Raleigh and Thurman Streets at Northwest 21^st Avenue will include a six-story apartment building on Lot 295 with 160 units and 13,000 square feet of retail on the ground floor. Plans for the adjoining lot 294 call for three new buildings – three stories, eight stories, and 14 stories – for a total of 226 apartments and 8,000 square feet of retail space at ground level. The apartments will be market-rate and the buildings on both lots will have underground parking for 600 cars, Santana said.

If all goes well, Cairn Pacific hopes to start construction on the two lots in the first quarter of next year.

“We have submitted for a design review and are going through an completeness check by the city,” Santana said.

Just last month, the Portland Design Commission approved an amendment to the Con-way Master Plan to allow Cairn Pacific to include the underground parking garage. The structure will have an entrance on Northwest Thurman Street.

Cairn Pacific also developed a New Seasons Market as part of the development, which Santana said will open Aug. 5. The company also partnered with Capstone Partners to renovate a 150,000-square-foot Con-way office building.

At total build-out, the Con-way development will feature between 1,000 and 1,500 residential units with some affordable housing and approximately 500,000 total square feet of retail and office space. A pedestrian mall will go through the Con-way development and connect to the surrounding neighborhood.

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The Portland Design Commission has approved an amendment to the Con-way Master Plan that will pave the way for more development on the 17-acre area in Northwest Portland.

Commissioners on Thursday granted city staff’s request to remove a vehicular access restriction in the plan on portions of Northwest Pettygrove and Thurman streets, city planner Hilary Adam ��said.

The amendment will allow Portland-based developer Cairn Pacific to include a parking garage in a proposed mixed-use development on Block 294, near the intersection of Northwest Thurman Street and 21^st Avenue, she said. The development will now likely have a garage entrance on Northwest Thurman Street, Adam said.

Initial plans call for a 13-or 14-story tower on the north end of the site, she said.

Adam said city planners were baffled why the Con-way Master Plan, approved in 2011, included the vehicular access restriction on Pettygrove and Thurman and concluded that it must have been connected to plans to extend the Portland Streetcar into that area.

Cairn Pacific also developed a New Seasons Market store on the master plan site, scheduled to open this summer, and is partnering with Capstone Partners to renovate a nearby former Con-way office building, at 1621 N.W. 21^st Ave.

Design commissioners on Thursday offered feedback in a design advice request for another Con-way development being designed by Portland-based YBA Architects for Portland-based Guardian Real Estate Services on Block 290. The proposed mixed-use development, at 1417 N.W. 20^th Ave., would include ground-floor retail and residential use on the upper floors distributed across three buildings with heights varying from one to seven stories. The buildings would surround a public plaza.

Design commissioners weren’t entirely sold with initial proposed designs for the development, Adam said. Another challenge to the project will be the restrictions of the site, she said.

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If the former Washington High School building in Southeast Portland were converted into housing, its central auditorium would likely have become a light well.

Instead, a $20 million renovation that transformed the residentially zoned building into a mix of office and retail space preserved the auditorium so that performances can return.

“We always thought it had to be housing,” said Jessica Engeman, a project manager and historic preservation specialist with Portland-based developer Venerable Properties. “It just didn’t feel like the right project for so many reasons.”

But scrapping the housing plans and keeping the auditorium intact presented a series of challenges for Venerable, investment partner PacTrust, project designer SERA Architects and general contractor Bremik Construction. Among the most significant were insulating sound produced in the auditorium from the surrounding 50,000 square feet of creative office space. The development team was also tasked with ensuring they could recoup the investment of transforming the former school auditorium into Revolution Hall, a modern, multipurpose event space.

Project team members covered these topics and others related to the effort to preserve and revitalize the 91-year-old Washington High building last week during a panel discussion in the freshly renovated auditorium.

“The room we’re sitting in right now was probably the thing I was most excited about – I love music – but also the thing I was most scared about,” said Eric Sporre, vice president of asset management at Portland-based PacTrust. “By and large, (for) our tenant base here it’s been a draw for the building.”

The discussion was part of an event showcasing the nearly complete renovation of the Washington High building hosted by the Urban Land Institute Northwest‘s Oregon and Southwest Washington Young Leaders Group and the Oregon chapter of the American Planning Association. Along with Engeman and Sporre, panelists included Bremik Construction President Brent Parry, SERA associate Steven Ehlbeck and Kevin Cradock, co-owner of Revolution Hall and Mississippi Studios, a North Portland concert venue. Jerry Chevassus, head of store development with New Seasons Market, also discussed the grocery chain’s decision to relocate its headquarters to the building.

The school closed in 1981 because of declining enrollment. When Venerable and PacTrust purchased the property from Portland Public Schools in late 2013 with plans to renovate the building, it had sat vacant for decades.

Venerable’s late founder, Art DeMuro, was an ardent historic preservationist who became captivated by the former school building and wanted to see it restored, Engeman said.

“Before he became sick with cancer, this was really a development that caught his eye,” she said.

DeMuro’s goal to preserve the building drove the way it was renovated, Engeman said. She recently submitted a nomination for the building to be added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Much of the original school finishes were preserved, including lockers, blackboards, classroom clocks, cabinets and intercoms.

“There was no doubt that the classroom spaces were going to maintain their classroom character,” Ehlbeck said. “That was a very clear mandate.”

The auditorium was also carefully preserved; many of the wooden seats were restored. Cradock said he was immediately attracted to the space and saw the potential for it to host concerts and other events.

“We had dozens and dozens of conversations with Venerable about how we could curate the venue,” he said. “This town doesn’t really have a world class, state-of-the-art concert venue and now it does … It would be a shame if this was a light well. When you hear a concert in this room you’ll really understand.”

The tricky part was making sure the venue penciled out financially, Cradock said. Adding a roof deck to the building with panoramic views of downtown Portland and renting it out for weddings and other private events has helped, he said.

“The roof deck kind of padded the economics for us,” Cradock said. “It’s the best view in Portland, bar none.”

Creating the roof deck took a leap of faith that appears to be paying off, Sporre said.

“You’re also spending big money on something you don’t know has any revenue stream on it,” he said.

The roof deck was a larger investment, but the development team found other ways to save, Sporre said. A minimally invasive renovation that preserves much of the existing building kept costs down because no seismic upgrade was needed, he said.

As with any older building, there were surprises as construction crews pulled away portions of the former Washington High School, Parry said.

“Historical renovations are always challenging because you’re working on an existing building and there’s always constraints on what you can and cannot do,” he said.

The project team spent a significant amount of time figuring out how to keep the noise in the auditorium out of the office spaces, Ehlbeck said. To resolve this, a spring isolated ceiling was installed in the auditorium and doors were insulated heavily.

Chevassus said New Seasons officials weren’t bothered by the idea of sharing a building with a concert venue.

“We actually went through a sound test almost before most of the improvements and we thought, ‘We can live with this,’ ” Chevassus said.

Cradock said Revolution Hall will do its best to be a courteous neighbor to the office tenants.

“It’s still a science experiment, but something that I think will be very successful,” he said.

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Urban Land Institute Northwest next month will host a tour and panel discussion highlighting redevelopment of the former Washington High School in Southeast Portland into offices and event space.

The “School is in Session: Washington High Panel & Tour” event will take place on April 2 from 4 to 7 p.m. at the former school, 1300 S.E. Stark St. A panel discussion featuring renovation team members will take place in Revolution Hall, a new performance venue in the school’s former auditorium. Following the talk, light refreshments will be served and event participants will be able to tour the , which retains many original school elements, such as lockers, clocks and chalkboards.

The panel discussion will take place from 4 to 5:30 p.m. and be moderated by Portland architect Paul Falsetto. Panelists will include: Brent Parry, president of general contractor Bremik Construction; Eric Sporre, vice president of project investor PacTrust; Jerry Chevassus, head of store development for building tenant New Seasons Market; Jessica Engeman, project manager and historic rehabilitation specialist for building owner and developer Venerable Group; and Steven Ehlbeck, an associate with design firm SERA Architects.

The cost of the event is $10 for ULI members and $15 for nonmembers. The deadline to register online is March 31.

Visit to learn more about the event and register.

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Developers are queuing up another mixed-use building in the convoy of development on the Con-way Master Plan site.

Alex Yale, co-founder and principal at Portland-based YBA Architects, has applied to the Bureau of Development Services for design advice on a proposed seven-story, mixed-use building on the west half of Block 290 (developers call it Block 290W), at 1417 N.W. 20th Ave.

“We’re going in very early to get design advice on the overall mapping of the project,” Yale said. “We’re looking at having buildings fully enclose a public square in the center of the block.”

Yale’s team designed a pinwheel-shaped set of buildings around a public courtyard. The design is intended to maximize visibility of ground-floor storefronts and provide a “gateway” from the new developments to the west into the public park planned for development on the property directly to the east (on Block 290E).

“We worked a lot with the neighbors on the project and got a tremendous amount of feedback,” Yale said. “They really wanted an enclosed European-style square, which is very unique to Portland.”

Preliminary plans for the Block 290W project include graduated building heights of between one and seven stories.

“It’s unique in that the height steps all the way down to one story to get variety and improve sight mapping in the public square,” Yale said.

Though plans are far from final, he said that Block 290W will have approximately 100 residential units on the upper floors, with the ground level dedicated to commercial tenants. In addition, the development will have underground car parking.

“There’s going to be a full-plate parking lot underneath and we’re way over a one-to-one ratio,” Yale said. “I think we’ve got room for about 180 parking stalls for about 100 units.”

The plans that the design team will submit for design advice are very conceptual at this point, Yale said. The number of parking stalls could change, and the developer isn’t certain whether the housing will be apartments available for rent or condominiums available for purchase.

“It depends on what the market calls for by that time,” Yale said.

The Block 290W project site is the southwest portion of a superblock bounded to the north and south by Northwest Raleigh and Pettygrove streets, respectively, to the west by 21st Avenue and to the east by 20th Avenue.

When the superblock is fully developed, Northwest Quimby Street will bisect the parcel, creating a private drive for residents, Yale said.

Block 290, on the southernmost property within the 17-acre Con-way Master Plan approved by Portland City Council in 2012, is the third Con-way project to move ahead. This summer, the $150 million Con-way Slabtown development will open with a New Seasons Market and an adjacent 113-unit apartment complex. Meanwhile, the permitting process has begun for an effort to add two mixed-use buildings featuring about 370 residential units, 600 vehicle parking spaces underground and 500 bicycle parking spaces.

Crews also are renovating the 32,000-square-foot LJC Building as part of the master plan development.

Outside of the master plan, YBA Architects is working on another project – Q21 – on the block to the west and adjacent to Block 290W. The mixed-use building will have 160 market-rate apartments, 15,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space and 12,000 square feet of office space.

“My goodness it’s really happening fast down there,” said Mark Barry, an appraiser and owner of Barry & Associates. “The whole Con-way area is really seeing a lot of movement.”

Barry on Wednesday spoke at a forecast luncheon, saying that although vacancy rates in Northwest Portland are marginally higher than elsewhere in the metro area, he still believes demand will absorb the new units coming online over the next year.

“Finally, Portland-metro is getting some traction,” he said. “This will be, by far, the busiest year ever for multifamily construction in Multnomah County.”

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A six-story mixed-use project is being built as part of the Slabtown Marketplace development, the first phase of the Con-way Master Plan in Northwest Portland. The L.L. Hawkins, named for a Portland parks commissioner who was instrumental in the creation of Forest Park, will feature 113 market-rate apartments over ground-floor retail space, tuck-under and below-grade parking.

The project was designed by GBD Architects and Holst Architecture, and is being built by John Residential Construction Group. Cairn Pacific and Capstone Partners are the project’s joint developers.

The apartment building occupies the eastern portion of a block bounded by Northwest Raleigh and Quimby streets and 21st and 22nd avenues. An existing warehouse building on the block’s western portion is being redeveloped for New Seasons Market, which is slated for a late summer opening. Work on the L.L. Hawkins will be complete by early fall.

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Tyler Vick believes drawing a map is often the best route to make sense of reams of complex data.

He’s a principal with FLO Analytics, a subsidiary of environmental engineering firm Maul, Foster & Alongi that specializes in data analysis using geographic information system (GIS) technology. The company, which has offices in Portland and Seattle, creates detailed maps illustrating various factors considered by municipalities, school districts, land trusts and private companies seeking sites for future development or conducting land use studies and property inventories, among other uses.

“It very much became a communication tool,” Vick said. “A picture is worth a thousand words resonated with MFA early on.”

MFA leaders started FLO Analytics in 2012 after firm leaders realized the demand for GIS maps that staffers were producing for environmental consulting work could be used more broadly, MFA President Jim Maul said. As the technology continues to evolve, the firm is finding even more applications for the data-derived maps, he said.

“What it does is it allows you to pull in these different elements of the problem and create an output that’s easy to understand,” Maul said. “One of the things people wanted was data-driven decision-making.”

It quickly became apparent that the technology is useful for public and private entities seeking to expand, FLO Analytics principal Steve Taylor said. Distilling a survey of numerous potential sites onto a map based on certain priorities helps clients make informed decisions about purchasing properties for future development, he said.

“At least they know where they need to be looking,” he said.

FLO Analytics staffers have created maps for school districts seeking optimal sites to build a new school using projected enrollment and population growth pattern data. Another application is cataloging ideal properties for grocery stores like New Seasons Market to expand based on neighborhood demographics and proximity of competitors. The firm has also worked with electricity and wastewater management companies that own vast swaths of infrastructure to track maintenance of pipes and power lines as well as analyze where to expand those services in the future.

“So much of that is understanding your assets,” Vick said.

The technology has been particularly useful for school districts to track where students live within boundaries and anticipate surges in enrollment at certain schools based on population growth and development trends in the surrounding neighborhoods, Vick said. In a land use study for Bellingham Public Schools, in Bellingham, Wash., FLO Analytics staffers created a map pinpointing the location of each student household and predicted how that population would shift in 10 years based on residential development patterns in the city and its comprehensive plan. The district used this information to plan where to expand, Vick said.

The firm will do a similar study for the Central Valley School District in Spokane Valley, Wash., which is planning to build a new high school.

FLO Analytics has also worked with the Ridgefield School District, in Southwest Washington, to analyze voter turnout in certain parts of the district after a bond measure failed in 2007. The data helped target outreach to voters living in a portion of the district that extends into Vancouver, Wash., during the campaign for a bond measure that passed in 2012.

“It just painted a very compelling picture, and I think that’s what we’re all about with FLO,” Maul said. “(Out of) all this complexity, the result is something that’s simple to understand.”

Seeing the demographics of the district illustrated was eye-opening for Art Edgerly, a former Ridgefield School District superintendent who advocated for the bond.

“It was a great opportunity to learn about your school district,” he said. “What we were really seeking was some strong data (and) demographics of the regional school district. We needed information. To have that data collected and analyzed was really important.”

The data analysis work by MFA and FLO was also helpful for long-range facilities planning, Edgerly said.

“It was really a way for us to collaborate with them and get a good picture of what the Ridgefield School District would look like in the future, so we could plan accordingly,” he said. “It really provides a road map for the (school) boards and superintendents.”

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Developers working on the Con-way Commons site in Northwest Portland have applied to the Bureau of Development Services for a pre-application conference.

The application, submitted Dec. 9, indicates that the property at 1717 N.W. 21st Ave. would be developed into two mixed-use buildings featuring about 370 residential units, 600 underground vehicle parking spots and 500 parking spaces for bicycles.

The property is two blocks north of the New Seasons Market store under construction between Raleigh and Quimby streets and 21st and 22nd avenues, according to city information.

Planning for redevelopment of the Con-way Commons site has taken place over about seven years. The 16-acre parcel is owned by Michigan-based Con-way Inc. The trucking company is poised to sell chunks of land to private developers rather than redevelop the site itself. Plans call for mixed-use, market-driven development – including open space and a park.

Con-way in 2011 described its vision for the 16 acres as having between 1,000 and 1,500 residential units, including a number of affordable ones. The plan calls for about 368,000 square feet of office space and 144,000 square feet of retail space. The city approved the master plan in September 2012.

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A 90-year-old former school being renovated in Southeast Portland is set to have a new class of tenants by early 2015.

Washington High School is on track to have 80 percent of its office space leased by the end of October, Venerable Properties President Craig Kelly said.

Two anchor tenants are on board already, Kelly said. New Seasons Market has leased 33,500 square feet of office space to hold its corporate headquarters, and Copious – a digital design agency – has leased 10,500 square feet.

Three smaller companies – Walker Tracker, Murmur Creative and Arch Rival 4Ever – have all signed leases for spaces between 900 and 1,400 square feet, and Kelly said lease agreements with a couple of other small prospective tenants are in the works.

“We are in negotiations with three medium-sized tenants,” he said. “I consider medium-sized to be about 2,000 to 6,000 square feet.”

Venerable Properties has secured lease agreements for about 60 percent of the 83,000 square feet available in the ex-school, Kelly said.

The renovation was scheduled for completion by Nov. 1, but Kelly said the team now is planning to finish by the end of the year.

“The smaller tenants will move in in January because we’re building a lot of turn-key spaces for them,” he said. “The bigger tenants, because their spaces will require more (tenant improvements), will have move-in dates of February or March.”

The $18 million renovation of the building at Southeast Stark Street and 14th Avenue began in October 2013 and includes work on a 500-seat auditorium and a 2,700-square-foot rooftop deck.

The project team has run into a host of challenges, but that’s what makes renovation fun, Kelly said.

“That’s the blessing and the curse of renovating historic buildings,” he said. “We come across the issues, address them, and move on.”

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