Structural steel erection for a new gymnasium at Tigard High School is wrapping up as crews approach the end of a two-year, $66 million expansion and renovation project.

The school, constructed during the postwar building boom, has received some 18 remodels over the years. General contractor Pence Construction is carrying out the latest improvements, thanks to money from a $291.3 million bond approved by voters in 2016.

“This high school was built in the 1950s; that was its first iteration,” said Eric Nesse, Tigard-Tualatin School District‘s bond support administrator. “It’s really been a Frankenstein job with many additions. Our architect has a little historic card with all the different colors from all the different remodels.”

The project, designed by Bassetti Architects, is taking place in two phases; renovations and new construction are covering a total of approximately 153,000 square feet. In the first phase, workers expanded an existing classroom wing for business and career and technical education, built a new wing with administrative space and a large common area highlighted by a learning stair, installed new turf for athletic fields, and constructed new tennis courts.

In the second phase, now under way, crews are building a new auxiliary gym that will connect with the new common area and an expanded cafeteria.

“There will also be the courtyard,” Nesse said. “And there’s a little breezeway that will be locked with a fence across it to the old building that will create a secure area. Looking into the auxiliary gym area, this is actually sort of a pit. There’s a walkway all the way around the gym that’s kind of sunken like a pit, with the basketball court down below at a lower level.”

All of that is now evident as completion of construction is now in sight.

“We’re in phase two, but there are still some odds and ends to take care of from phase one,” Pence Construction project superintendent Kurt Schwabauer said. “They’ve been using (the new wing) all year and everyone seems to be pretty happy.”

While DSL Builders of Salem is finishing structural steel work for the gym, Fred Shearer & Sons of Beaverton is building walls as well as connecting new structures with existing ones.

“The ironworkers are out there, and now the framers are here from Fred Shearer and they do the interior and exterior framing,” Schwabauer said. “They’ve got a pretty big package; they’re doing the interior and exterior framing (and) they’re doing the drywall and the insulation and the weather barrier.”

Fred Shearer & Sons also is performing finish carpentry and installing custom wooden ceilings throughout much of the new space. Other major subcontractors on the job include Prairie Electric and Oregon Cascade Plumbing & Heating.

“Oregon Cascade has our plumbing and heating package,” Schwabauer said. “Their labor force does the wet side of things, and then they’ve hired Salem Heating to do the dry side.”

For now, crews are scrambling to get roofing into place and the new gym dried in as spring approaches. This summer will mark two years of work on the project.

“With final phase 2 delivery, building turnover (will be) in early August and the parking lot will be done at the end of the summer,” Schwabauer said.

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