Project name: University of Oregon (UO) Portland Multi-Building Campus ProjectLocation: Portland

Completion: September 2024

Size: 251,380 square feet

Owner/Developer: University of Oregon, Portland

Architects: Housing (27^th Avenue, 30^th Avenue) – Holst Architecture; Oregon House – Peter Meijer Architect; Library & Learning – SRG Partnership; Highland Hall – Lever Architecture; Portland Campus Center – Opsis Architecture; Innovation Building – TVA Architects; General Campus and Holman Apartments – Soderstrom Architects (exterior), PLACE (landscape architect)

Engineers: Housing (27^th Avenue, 30^th Avenue) – Interface Engineering; Oregon House – KPFF, ColeBreit Engineering; Library & Learning – Holmes, Interface Engineering, Samata Consulting Engineers; Highland Hall – Valar Consulting Engineering, Arris Consulting, Reyes Engineering; Portland Campus Center – Catena Consulting Engineers, Interface Engineering; Innovation Building – ABHT Structural Engineers, Interface Engineering, Capital Electric; General Campus – Capital Engineering & Consulting

General Contractor: Howard S. Wright, a Balfour Beatty company

Submitting Company: Howard S. Wright, a Balfour Beatty company

Other Associates/Key Consultants: General site – Sav A Tree; Highland Hall – O-LLC Lighting Designers, University of Oregon Energy Studies in Buildings Laboratory; Innovation Building – Jensen Hughes (code consultant), Tenor Engineering (acoustics), m.thrailkill.architect (specifications)

Subcontractors: A2 Fabrication, Allegion Access Technologies, Asbestos Abatement Contracting, Bell Hardware of Portland, Berrien Concrete, Brandsen Hardwood Floors, Bratcher Painting, Building Material Specialties, Chown, Clean World Maintenance, Columbia River Painting, Concrete Inspection Services, Culver Glass, Curtis Restaurant Equipment, Dallas Glass, Davidson’s Masonry, DeaMor Associates, Detailed Touch Painting, Diverse Works, EC Company, Excalibur & Associates, Faustrollean Fixture, Finish Line Concrete Cutting, Floor Solutions, Flynn BEC, Fred Shearer & Sons, Funax Cleaning Services, Gibson Door & Millwork, Harlen’s Drywall, Hermanson, Interior-Exterior Specialist, J.S. Perrott & Co., Janelle Waltz, Johnson Controls, Lanz Cabinet Shop, Legend Custom Woodworking, Linear Floor Installers, Matrix Industries, McDonald & Wetle, McKinstry, Metro Access Control, Michael’s Precast Concrete, Mid Valley Glass & Millwork, Ness & Campbell Crane, NW Construction Services, OEG, Paragon Tile & Stone, Pavement Maintenance, PBS Supply, Pdx Pressurewash, PDX Refinishers, Performance Contracting, Pioneer Sheet Metal, Pioneer Waterproofing, Prestige Tile & Stone, Pure Safety Group, Pye-Baker Fire & Safety, RDH Building Sciences, Refa Erection, Reyes Engineering, Rubenstein’s Contract Carpet, Savatree, Sawtooth Caulking, SDB Contracting Services, Sharon Maxwell, SI Contracting, Skyline Construction Services, Spectrum Custom Interiors, Streimer Sheet Metal Works, Superior Interiors, Super Metal Fab, T Gerding Construction, Teufel Nursery, The Johnson Collective, Thermobond Buildings, Town & Country Fence Co. of Oregon, Valley Shades, WH Cress, Weitman Excavation, Western Partitions, Western States Fire Protection, WFJ Janitorial Services, Zeeland

The University of Oregon has breathed new life into the former Concordia College campus in Northeast Portland through a comprehensive project that reimagines the historic property for modern educational needs.

Howard S. Wright partnered with UO on the transformative initiative spanning more than 14 separate refresh projects, working alongside 23 different architects and designers to create contemporary residential, educational, research and administrative facilities. There were more than 500 craftworkers onsite, with craftperson hours totaling 122,964.

At the heart of the renovation is the UO Portland Campus Center, originally constructed in 1953. Opsis Architecture led a dramatic transformation that removed solid walls from previous additions to visually connect formerly disconnected spaces. The team replaced a concrete bearing wall with steel columns and relocated networking systems to a prefabricated concrete shelter to ensure campus resilience during seismic events.

The Innovation Building, designed by TVA Architects, represents a sustainable approach that retained much of the existing structure while creating naturally lit corridors flanking open design studios. The former chapel now serves as Innovation Commons, featuring custom pivoting steel frame walls that transform the space from intimate presentation areas to a large event hall. A key feature of the space is the platform, which functions as both a stage and a backdrop for storage.

Perhaps most distinctive is Highland Hall’s transformation from a former gymnasium into the new home for the Department of Architecture. Lever Architecture preserved the building’s historical significance while incorporating innovative sustainability features. Highland Hall’s new entry vestibules, two new seminar rooms and partial height dividing walls between studios are constructed from 7-inch-thick mass plywood panels reclaimed from a test structure at the TallWood Institute’s A.A. “Red” Emmerson Advanced Wood Products Laboratory at Oregon State University. The project team noted that this is the first project they are aware of to reuse mass plywood panels at this scale. The renovation also included extensive envelope upgrades exceeding current energy codes.

All projects were completed with minimal disruption to campus operations, ensuring students could occupy housing buildings ahead of academic years 2023 and 2024.

The university emphasized exceeding minority, women and emerging small business participation goals by enhancing accessibility to bid packages and tailoring them to accommodate smaller firms’ needs. The team more than doubled the goal, with an average of 19 percent MWESB participation.

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Established in 1999 by Alec Holser, Jim Kalvelage and James Meyer, Opsis Architecture is now led by nine principals and has been nationally recognized as the 24th firm in the country by Architect magazine’s Architect 50 program.

The firm’s work includes cultural and performing arts venues, educational facilities, student life centers, sports and recreational areas, and civic and community spaces. Through the Opsis Research Initiative, its team assesses the long-term performance of its buildings and the research also strengthens its collaborations with industry partners.

Opsis is committed to giving back to the community and offers 16 hours of paid volunteer time annually to each employee to pursue volunteer activities. The studio is closed on Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a day of service. Its community support includes Blanchet House, Architects in Schools and Portland Workforce Alliance.

Since its inception in 2017, the Opsis JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion) committee has worked to enhance internal education, processes and actions. This includes the firm’s participation in Portland Means Progress to monitor and assess cultural change within its office. Its involvement in events such as PMP’s Inclusive Policy Summit helps the firm gather recommendations to advance its policies further.

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Construction is soon to start on the University of Portland’s new $40 million Shiley-Marcos Center for Design & Innovation. The university held a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday.

The new state-of-the-art building, designed by Opsis Architecture, will replace the former UP Physical Plant, located between Mehling Hall and the L-P Tennis Center.

The four-story, 45,400-square-foot structure will provide classrooms and spaces for UP students in all majors. It is also designed to meet LEED Silver sustainability standards.

Skanska USA is serving as the general contractor for the new center, which is anticipated to be complete in November 2023 and be open for UP students in January 2024.

The new building was made possible by a $10 million gift from local philanthropist Darlene Macros Shiley. The building is named after her late-husband and UP alumnus (class of 1951) Donald P. Shiley, who was the inventor of the first artificial tilting disc heart valve.

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Woodburn’s Success High School, designed by Opsis Architecture, has received a Zero Energy certification through the International Living Future Institute. It was the first high school in Oregon to enroll in the Energy Trust of Oregon’s path to net zero program and the first Woodburn School District project to be awarded the Zero Energy certification by the ILFI.

The Zero Energy certification by ILFI is based on actual performance and awarded to green buildings where 100 percent of its energy needs on a net annual basis is supplied by on-site renewable energy sources, with no combustion. It is the only performance-based standard of its kind operating globally.

Opsis and its design team partner, Interface Engineering, designed the new school, which was completed in 2018, with a range of energy-saving features to achieve zero energy performance. Top performance features include a high-performance building envelope, a 251 kw-DC array comprised of 728 panels located on site by A&R Solar and a highly efficient mechanical and electrical system designed by Interface Engineering. The building’s variable refrigerating flow systems provide all the space heating and cooling for the building and offer high cooling and heating operating efficiencies. The efficient design of the building includes three heat recovery ventilators that recover energy from the building exhaust air to preheat incoming ventilation air. Additional energy-saving and sustainability strategies include the use of extensive daylighting controls in the commons and classrooms, occupancy-controlled power receptacles and the use of water saving products from dual-flush toilets to low-flow faucets.

Working closely with the school district and staff, Opsis designed the new 11,700-square-foot school around a unique alternative education program for grade 10-12 students not well served by a traditional high school setting.

The Energy Trust of Oregon worked closely with the school district, providing a range of technical assistance to maximize the efficiency and potential of the new building’s solar array to help reach its goal of generating as much energy as the school uses.

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PROJECT: Patricia Reser Center for the Arts

LOCATION: Beaverton

SIZE:��43,000 square feet

COST:��$55 million

START DATE: late 2019

ANTICIPATED END DATE: February 2022 (opening March 8)

OWNER: city of Beaverton

OWNER’S REPRESENTATIVE: Gerding Edlen

ARCHITECT: Opsis Architecture

ENGINEERS: KPFF Consulting Engineers (structural), Otak (civil), PAE (mechanical and plumbing), Reyes Engineering (electrical, tele/data low voltage)

CONSTRUCTION MANAGER/GENERAL CONTRACTOR:��Skanska USA Building

OTHER CONSULTANTS/PARTICIPANTS: Anderson Krygier (environmental graphic design), Angelo Planning Group (land use), DCW Cost Management (estimating), JLC Consulting (specifications), Morrison Hershfield (envelope), Pacific Habitat Services (environmental consultant), PLACE (landscape architecture), Stantec (acoustics), The Shalleck Collaborative (theater planning and audio/visual)

SIGNIFICANCE OF PROJECT: Located near The Round between Southwest Cedar Hills Boulevard and Southwest Hall Boulevard, the Reser Center features a 550-seat theater; an art gallery; rehearsal, workshop and meeting space; a lobby; an outdoor plaza and an adjacent parking structure. The site is near a light rail station, City Hall, Beaverton Creek, shops, restaurants and lodging. This is the first facility of its kind to be built from the ground up in the Portland area in more than three decades.

Opsis Architecture sought to blend urban and natural settings in the design. The plan included not only the main structure, but parking, a pedestrian-friendly promenade with a street festival ambience, and public art. Inspired by the metaphor of a beaver dam, wood panels and long, thin wood slats or “sticks” and incision points are integrated to enable light to pour into the atrium, while blending with state-of-the-art acoustic and theatrical systems in the Mainstage Theater. With blue seats, the theater is evocative of a body of water adjacent to a creek housing a beaver dam. The facility includes 21,000 square feet of Douglas fir. The second floor has space for a variety of educational workshops, classes, rehearsals, meetings and events. The performing and presentation spaces are designed to maximize the connection between artists and audiences.

The concept of creating a center for the arts in Beaverton started in the late 1990s. Later, a study led by Opsis and Theater Consulting Group, in conjunction with University of Oregon students, showed what a world-class arts center could look like. In July 2018, the Beaverton Arts Foundation announced a pledge of $13 million from Pat Reser to launch the project. In three years, more than 950 donors – individuals, families, foundations and businesses – provided more than $12 million to exceed the initial goal by $1 million. Gifts ranged from $2 to $1.5 million. Also, the Beaverton City Council approved a hotel lodging tax to help pay for construction and provide ongoing financial support of operations.

“Building Blocks” spotlights noteworthy projects either under construction or approaching the start of construction. To submit a project for consideration, please visit: djcoregon.com/building-blocks.

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Three Portland-based firms are taking their talents to Idaho to build a multipurpose facility intended to highlight mass-timber construction and the state’s wood industry.

Opsis Architecture, KPFF Consulting Engineers and construction manager/general contractor Hoffman Construction are the key members of a project team working to build the Idaho Central Credit Union Arena – a 62,000-square-foot basketball arena and event center at the University of Idaho in Moscow.

The $51 million project was intended from the get-go to be an iconic, one-of-a-kind building that speaks to the capabilities of mass timber, Opsis Architecture principal Chris Roberts said. The university’s hope is for the project to build the kind of excitement in Idaho that mass-timber construction already enjoys in Portland and in other parts of the Northwest.

“They didn’t want an out-of-the-box arena; they wanted a showcase piece,” Roberts said. “They wanted something special and unique that would speak of who they are as a university, help with recruiting and help build up their basketball program.”

Use of wood as the main material for an arena created a unique set of challenges, including how to achieve span lengths of up to 150 feet without so much use of the material that it became aesthetically overbearing.

“Basically, we didn’t want to have a massive, glorified log cabin,” Roberts said. “There’s definitely more engineering involved than just putting a big steel truss up.”

Early collaboration between the project team members was essential for determining the best method for spanning such a large space while maintaining a competitive cost relative to materials traditionally used for an arena.

The team also includes British Columbia-based design/build firm StructureCraft, which is fabricating and erecting all of the timber. Also, Hastings+Chivetta Architects, a St. Louis-based firm that specializes in collegiate arena design, is designing the building’s basketball-related programming.

Another challenge was minimizing the structure depth, said Josh Richards, a principal with KPFF; its Portland and Boise offices both worked on the project. Creating too much volume in the space would drive up costs by requiring more finish material and create more area in need of heating and cooling.

“We ended up with a pretty good system,” Richards said.

That system involves the use of king-post trusses, which are assembled using multiple 40-foot glue-laminated beams. A triangular piece of steel is attached to the beams, and a steel cable runs on the underside of that.

“It’s a large amount of wood and a small amount of steel, and you utilize the qualities of each to maximize the spans,” Roberts said.

The trusses will support a roof with an undulating shape that essentially curves in two directions. That created another engineering challenge, Richards said, due to the need for precise geometry and a wood decking that could actually warp to the roof’s form.

The building will also utilize dowel-laminated timber in some of the programming areas. Most of the wood material for the project has been sourced from Idaho and donated by the state’s wood industry.

Construction of the arena began in June 2019. Crews with Hoffman Construction dug a significant hole for the arena’s bowl, which recesses into the ground by 14 feet. Concrete and steel erection were carried out through the winter and this spring in preparation for start of construction of the wood structure.

Following a year of ground work, erection of the wood structure has begun and is expected to last about four months. Late last month, StructureCraft crews installed the building’s first wood column. The project is scheduled for completion next year, in time for the 2021-22 basketball season, according to Hoffman Construction project manager David Shourd.

“It’ll be a great venue,” he said of the 4,000-seat arena. “Every seat in the house is a good one.”

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Cities, counties and public agencies in the Pacific Northwest are jumping on the mass-timber bandwagon. The city of Hillsboro, for example, has hired Swinerton to construct the Hidden Creek Community Center. The two-story, 51,500-square-foot facility will feature a mix of structural elements that include glulam beams and cross-laminated timber panels as well as concrete tilt-up panels and shear walls.

The $37 million building, designed by Opsis Architecture, is expected to serve as an example of how mass timber can be integrated into public works. Meanwhile, Washington County and the cities of Milwaukie, Hillsboro, Oregon City, Lincoln City and others are pursuing mass-timber projects.

“We now have more and more public entities in multiple states that we’re in plans for,” said Tym, a superintendent with Swinerton’s mass timber subsidiary who goes by a single name. “The success of our private partnerships showed us there’s a big learning curve, but we’re turning that into something that is predictable and cost-effective.”

The in Hillsboro also was constructed by Swinerton. That five-story, 156,000-square-foot structure was designed by Hacker and completed in 2018. Swinerton still regularly fields inquiries about how the project came together, Tym said.

“That was my first interaction with mass timber and CLT,” he said. “And those partnerships have really driven the idea of a sustainable, really aesthetically pleasing product into the mainstream of public works projects.”

The Hidden Creek Community Center is becoming one. It will feature a two-court gymnasium, with 90-foot-long glulam beams supporting CLT ceiling panels.

The building also will hold cardio��and weight rooms, two exercise or dance rooms, community meeting rooms and more – all inside an open shell comprised largely of wood. The facility is being built on 20 acres of city-owned land across the street from 53rd Avenue Community Park.

Swinerton’s general contracting team has worked with its mass timber division as well as concrete and carpentry self-perform units. KPFF Consulting Engineers performed structural engineering. Calvert Co. of Southwest Washington fabricated the beams and columns, with one exception: The glulam beams used in the gymnasium were fabricated in Drain by American Laminators.

Finally, Austrian firm KLH Massivholz GmbH manufactured the five-ply cross-laminated timber panels used in the building’s ceilings and roof.

“Mass timber is really hot right now,” Swinerton project manager Greg Byrnes said. “Schedule-wise, the local (fabricators) are all filled up.”

One of the biggest challenges for the construction team, Byrnes said, was connecting the gym’s concrete walls with its massive long-span roof beams, as well as sealing the building envelope around them. Each glulam beam weighs 13,700 pounds. A NessCampbell Crane + Rigging crew flew them in.

“The insulation layer on the tilts connected with carbon fiber pins, and to stitch the whole thing together – those were a challenge,” Tym said. “I’ve never done the large beams and the clear story on top of it with compounding sloping elements (33 inches) on top of that. It has tapered column lines, and making sure everything was sound while we put it together was phenomenal.”

For Swinerton Mass Timber, each project presents something new.

“It’s evolving every day,” Tym said. “I have weekly, daily meetings about how the timber is going to interface with other mediums, how we’re making these connections and still sustaining the viability and technical ratings we require for these building types.

“We’re learning more and more that six, eight months out we have a heavy-loaded front end because of the planning and design work, but also for procurement and fabrication. All that work that comes on the front end is then dependent on having a good logistics and erection plan from the craft superintendent side.”

The connections and fasteners for each material are different and the plans are different, even down to the moisture barrier around those connections, Tym added.

“Every element we’re able to work with comes with new challenges,” he said. “But with the challenges we’re able to archive and make predictable these things for future projects.”

Because Swinerton operates nationally, it has a good handle on regional market trends. And those trends suggest mass timber is steadily rising in popularity.

“The market is absolutely exploding in California,” Tym said. “We are putting these projects up all over the country, but because this is an emerging market there are still constraints on who can provide, manufacture and deliver. Those supply chains are a critical element in deciding factors during pre-con.”

But as the market matures, he continued, companies are branching out into more specialized aspects of mass-timber construction.

“People might see it as niche right now, but what we’re seeing is that it’s going to be much more commonplace,” he said, driven in part by public-private partnerships like the one used for the Hidden Creek Community Center.

“If there’s a desire and growth in the market, new businesses are going to spawn from it,” Tym said. “The whole world is trying to go tall wood. We want high-rises and we want big stuff. There’s a lot of math by engineers to make these things behave properly, but we have great aspirations to make this mainstream enough and utilize these efficiencies so we can continue to grow bigger and make things look really beautiful.”

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An adaptive reuse project that combined a pair of Northwest Portland industrial buildings into a single creative office campus took top honors at the Portland Architecture Awards ceremony hosted by AIA Oregon last month.

earned LEVER Architecture an Honor Award for what judges described as a “rather sublime conception of how design might better relate to ecology in this century.” The project, completed earlier this year for Langley Investment Partners, involved stripping a pair of 1940s-era heavy-timber buildings down to their structural elements before rebuilding them into an open-office building with an industrial aesthetic respectful of the site’s heritage.

Old-growth timber posts, beams and joists were refurbished and left exposed, and mezzanines were installed in both buildings. New banks of clerestory windows provide natural daylighting. The buildings were clad in weathering steel and joined by a glass-enclosed breezeway that serves as a main entrance and reception area.

In their judging notes, Quebec-based competition jurors Cécile Combelle of Atelier Barda and Kiel Moe of McGill University lauded the building as an example of a design ethos that “… carefully considers and interprets what already exists in order to nudge and extend the life of our building environments.” The jury also included Kim Pariseau of Quebec-based Appareil Architecture.

Judges bestowed four Merit Awards, including two upon Hacker: one for a private residence in Bend, and another for Berwick Hall, a building that provides music rehearsal/performance space and offices for the Oregon Bach Festival on the University of Oregon campus in Eugene.

Merit Awards also went to Architecture Building Culture for Jarrett Street 12, a modular affordable housing project containing 12 for-sale units in North Portland, and Opsis Architecture for the Navigation Center shelter project in the Pearl District.

Citation Award winners included Silica by William/Kaven Architecture, the Oregon Conservation Center by LEVER Architecture, OHSU Center for Health and Healing – Building 2 by ZGF Architects, and Howard Residence by Architecture Building Culture. Works Progress Architecture‘s 7 SE Stark won a Citation Award as an unbuilt project.

In addition to the judged entries, two projects were honored for meeting or exceeding 2030 Challenge standards for carbon neutrality. Those honors were based on energy data from project submissions and with assistance from BetterBricks and the University of Oregon School of Architecture’s Energy Studies in Buildings Lab.

Tillamook Row, designed by Green Hammer director of design Erica Dunn, won a 2030 Award. Also, Hennebery Eddy Architects‘ Great Smoky Mountains Institute second campus in Townsend, Tennessee, won one for an unbuilt project.

Three design professionals were recognized for contributions to the community and the profession. John Reynolds, professor of architecture emeritus at the University of Oregon, was named the AIA Portland President’s Award winner; Carin Carlson, an associate with Hennebery Eddy Architects, was given the Young Architect Award; and Whitney Ranson, a designer with SRG Partnership, was honored with the Emerging Professional Award.

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A massive $790 million capital bond measure approved by voters in 2017 is paying for a lot of improvements at facilities operated by Portland Public Schools. One construction project that began this past summer is the modernization and expansion of Madison High School, at 2735 N.E. 82nd Ave.

The 62-year-old school is being mostly demolished, save for a pair of two-story classroom wings. The remainder will be renovated into modern educational space (including Career Technical Education space), while a new 1,700-seat gymnasium, new commons and new performing arts center will be built by general contractor/construction manager Fortis Construction.

Opsis Architecture and DAO Architecture collaborated on the design.

In total, the renovated school will hold 292,000 square feet of usable space and be able to accommodate as many as 1,700 students. Over 170,000 square feet will be new construction.

Recently, crews from NorthStar, Finish Line Concrete Cutting��and other subcontractors utilized an array of machinery to take down the reinforced concrete structures that comprised former gymnasium, auditorium and administrative spaces.

Project completion is scheduled for summer 2021, in time for the facility to be used for the 2021-22 school year.

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Sub-bids were published this week for work on a $46 million arts center in downtown Beaverton, the latest sign the showcase civic project is moving forward.

Construction manager/general contractor Skanska USA Building will build the 43,235-square-foot Patricia Reser Center for the Arts. The regional arts venue will include a 550-seat theater, art gallery, and space for rehearsals, workshops and meetings. The project will be the first new performing arts center built in the Portland metro region in three decades, supporters say.

Project backers expect to break ground before the end of the year. If all goes well, the arts center would open in mid-2021.

The project would be built on a city-owned parcel adjacent to The Round, increasingly a hub of public life in Beaverton. The area is on the MAX Blue Line and near a bustling food-cart pod.

“This project is part of a larger project for downtown Beaverton to create a more vibrant downtown,” said Chris Ayzoukian, general manager of the Patricia Reser Center for the Arts.

Renderings show an expansive two-story building on Beaverton Creek with transparent glass facades framed by narrow white columns backing into a box-shaped performing arts venue and the taller parking garage.

A light-filled, transparent design was repeatedly mentioned by local residents in surveys as desirable, Ayzoukian said.

“The site is unique in that it’s right along Beaverton Creek, so there’s real opportunity to play with the natural landscape, and the urban, with The Round next door,” Ayzoukian said.

The project is funded by $21.9 million from the city of Beaverton via a lodging tax. The venue received a boost from the Oregon Legislature, which awarded $1.5 million in lottery funding during the 2019 session. Reser, who serves as chair of the Beaverton Arts Foundation board, donated $13 million.

Other private fundraising will provide the balance of the funding. The Arts Foundation is still looking to raise $3.5 million, said Executive Director Lani E. Faith.

The Beaverton City Council must give final approval to break ground. A Skanska executive declined to comment, referring questions to the city of Beaverton.

“There are a few more steps and hurdles to go before the project is green lighted,” said Cadence Petros, development division manager for the city of Beaverton. “City Council needs to make a determination that they’re far enough along in the fundraising to pull the trigger.”

The city would continue to own the building after completion. Beaverton Mayor Denny Doyle also serves on the Arts Foundation’s board.

The Arts Center will include 2,400 square feet of office space for administrative purposes. The facility will not have enough space to lease out to other users, Ayzoukian said.

A neighboring parking garage will be built at the same time. The parking structure will have approximately 350 vehicle spaces and 7,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space. “We’re looking to attract activation of the street along the lines of restaurants or retail,” Ayzoukian said.

During the design phase, the Arts Center theater was enlarged from 450 to 550 seats. The facility is meant to host both regional performing arts groups as well as touring acts. “The center has evolved quite a bit, as often these projects do,” Ayzoukian said.

Opsis Architecture is designing the project, and Gerding Edlen is serving as owner’s representative. The project team also includes landscape architect PLACE Studio, KPFF Consulting Engineers, Otak, and PAE Consulting Engineers.

A smaller, 1,800-square-foot room called The Lab will host more intimate performances and workshops.

“For a long time there’s been a shortage of performing arts in the region, especially on the West side,” Ayzoukian said. “This center fills a real need in terms of performance space.”

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