The initial Oregon Zoo improvement projects backed by money from a recent bond measure are moving ahead.

Voters approved a $380 million bond measure in May 2024. A $3 million entry plaza and a $10.5 million covered shelter are included in the $19 million first phase, as outlined in the zoo’s campus plan. Both projects for the Southwest Portland attraction are proceeding through permitting and cost estimating processes.

The team includes owner Metro, architect Opsis Architecture, civil engineer Vega Civil Engineering, structural engineer Equilibrium Engineers, landscape architect Walker Macy, and general contractor Fortis Construction.

The entry plaza will extend from the back of the Cascade Crest building. A covered deck will provide protection from heat and inclement weather. Skylights will let in natural light.

“Working with Opsis Architecture to design a structure that works with an existing style as well as create a new design was rewarding,” Beth Redmond-Jones, director of campus planning and development for the Oregon Zoo, stated in an email.

Redmond-Jones oversees the team working on projects funded by the 2024 bond.

The second project will be a covered shelter between Polar Passage and Growler’s Pizza. A $7.5 million building permit is under review for the project. The approximately 10,000-square-foot space will be large enough to accommodate a band, a dance floor, dining tables, a buffet setup, and bars. There will be lights, fans, radiant heaters and skylights.

“It will be an ideal place for visitors to get out of the elements, as well as for hosting private events such as company picnics and parties,” Redmond-Jones stated.

Sustainable and natural construction materials will be used for the two structures, which will integrate solar panels for energy efficiency.

“We are thrilled with how beautifully the architecture blends with the surrounding Washington Park landscape, and we look forward to zoo guests being able to get out of the elements on both hot and rainy days,” Redmond-Jones stated.

With the remaining unallocated bond dollars (approximately $5.5 million) for the first phase, the zoo will add a smaller covered shelter (plans call for a design in the same architectural style as the $10.5 million one) between the Growler’s eatery and Elephant Lands.

Construction is scheduled to start on the entry plaza and the larger covered shelter in January 2026 and finish in August 2026, according to Oregon Zoo spokesperson Hova Najarian. Construction of the smaller covered shelter is scheduled to start in February 2027, he added.

In addition, bond money will cover a second phase of projects. These will include updates of some of the zoo’s oldest animal areas, educational exhibits, guest facilities and infrastructure. Currently, the zoo team is planning for the first habitat projects: sea otters, harbor seals and Humboldt penguins, Redmond-Jones stated. A request for qualifications for an architect/engineer will be issued in the fall and a request for proposals for preconstruction services will be issued in the first quarter of 2026.

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The American Institute of Architects has named the Oregon Zoo‘s Education Center one of its 10 COTE Top Ten award winners for 2019.

The AIA Committee on the Environment awards program, now in its 22nd year, recognizes completed projects that exhibit exceptional design excellence and environmental performance.

The $18.7 million, 20,000-square-foot Education Center was substantially completed in 2017. It was designed by Opsis Architecture to show zoo visitors that “small things matter” to environmental health. Recently, the building received a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design platinum rating.

“The COTE Award reflects Opsis Architecture’s lasting commitment to creating beautiful architecture that nurtures people and place,” Heather DeGrella, the firm’s sustainable design director, stated in a press release. “It is truly the most authentic honor we could receive. We are proud to have been partners with the Oregon Zoo and Metro on this significant building.”

The project team also included general contractor Fortis Construction, civil engineer KPFF Consulting Engineers, MEP engineer PAE Engineers, structural engineer Catena Consulting Engineers, and landscape architect/interpretive consultant Jones & Jones.

The center provides the zoo a base for educating children about sustainability, natural systems and habitats, and more. It features classroom and meeting space, offices, gardens, an environmental science laboratory and an outdoor nature learning and play space.

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The Oregon Zoo has to the Portland Bureau of Development Services to amend the Conditional Use Master Plan to allow demolition of an existing café, construction of a new café and construction of a new storage facility.

Officials seek to raze the existing 1,460-square-foot “Bearwalk” café and replace it with a new 1,600-square-foot “Polar Passage” café approximately 110 feet away. The master plan allows for building relocations within 100 feet of their existing locations. Also, officials want to add a 1,900-square-foot storage building – not included in the master plan – next to the new café.

This is one of four projects for which zoo officials have submitted applications for building permits; others include the new “Polar Passage” polar bear habitat, a holding facility for chimpanzees and a Life Support System building to hold mechanical systems serving the polar bears’ saltwater pool. All four building permits remain under review by city staff.

Metro owns and operates the zoo. It received approval several years ago for a Conditional Use Master Plan guiding future improvements and now is in the process of carrying out projects in its polar bear, primate and rhino exhibits.

Metro has retained Philadelphia firm CLR Design, which specializes in exhibit, design, architecture and landscape architecture, to produce a preliminary site plan for the two projects related to the polar bears. Angelo Planning Group is representing the zoo during this stage of the public process. Lease Crutcher Lewis is listed as the contractor on city documents.

This proposed master plan amendment involves a Type II land use decision made by city staff. The public comment period is open until 5 p.m. on Jan. 2, 2019.

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With work on the latest bond-funded project at the Oregon Zoo proceeding smoothly despite a glaring shortage of carpenters, the long-term focus will soon shift to construction of a new polar bear habitat.

The $17 million education center project is about half finished, with substantial completion on schedule for November, project manager Brent Shelby said Monday on a walk-through of the jobsite.

Expected to open to the public in spring 2017, the education center is the fifth of eight projects being paid for by a $125 million bond approved by voters in 2008. Designed by Opsis Architecture, the center will house a variety of features, including a large exhibit center, an auditorium, an insect zoo, a turtle pond and spaces for summer camps and teen programs.

The zoo’s main drag and narrow-gauge sightseeing train both originate outside the center, at the under-construction Discovery Plaza. It will function as a central meeting space with an outdoor cafe, a learning garden and a nature playground.

“This will all be a pretty active hub,” Shelby said.

Crews on Monday installed some of the 700 solar panels being supplied by Solar World of Hillsboro. The panels are part of an effort to achieve net zero energy use at the education center. A Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design gold rating is being targeted (under the bond measure ballot language, a minimum LEED silver rating must be pursued for all projects).

Next up is the $22 million polar bear habitat, which will mark a considerable upgrade in accommodations for the zoo’s two polar bears. Presently, twins Conrad, a male, and Tasul, a female, occupy a 2/5-acre space, said the zoo’s head of construction, Jim Mitchell.

Pre-schematic designs of the 83,000-square-foot habitat have been submitted by project designer CLR Design of Philadelphia. They show a sumptuous, two-tiered site layout with a deep-water cove, shallow pools, a ridge and a beach.

“It will be a huge improvement for the bears,” Mitchell said.

Lease Crutcher Lewis, builder of the new Elephant Lands exhibit, won the bid; project completion is expected in 2018.

After the polar bear habitat project, upgrades are planned for habitats serving primates and rhinoceroses. They’ll likely be rolled into one project, in part because the rhino habitat project is small.

One challenge faced by the education center project team headed by general contractor Fortis Construction has been the many underground layers of construction work dating to the 1950s, when a bond measure provided money for a new zoo facility near the top of Washington Park. Excavation work has turned up many surprises, Shelby said, and the construction documents that exist aren’t much help.

Mitchell said a greater challenge has been a lack of carpenters – a direct and stark effect of the current labor shortage. The project is on schedule through the efforts of the contractor, he said, but some employees will have to start working Saturdays.

Mitchell noted during the walk-through that the plaza should be noisier.

“Look at that,” he said, gesturing at under-construction classrooms with no workers nearby. “It’s desolation.”

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Fortis Construction, founded in 2003, in the garage of David Aaroe – now executive vice president – has grown from a certified Emerging Small Business to one of Oregon’s largest general contractors. It has a staff of around 190 and the resources to handle jobs ranging from $100,000 to more than $300 million. Projects include commercial offices, data centers, health care facilities and higher education buildings.

Facebook, Prineville mission-critical campus

Fortis has worked with Facebook in Prineville since 2009. In that time the contractor has built more than 1.28 million square feet of “mission-critical” facilities and is still at work at the site today, according to marketing manager Shane Kucera. When the first phase began in early 2011, the facility was one of the most energy-efficient in the world, featuring a cooling system created for the unique climate characteristics of Central Oregon.

Oregon State University, Learning Innovation Center

The $56 million, 135,000-square-foot OSU was completed on schedule for fall 2015 classes. It contains 20 percent of all classroom space on campus – 2,300 classroom seats in 14 unique settings plus 640 seats of informal learning space distributed around the building. It serves every department in the university, and is home to the Honors College.

Legacy Mount Hood Medical Center, Medical Office Building 4

Fortis recently completed the $22.5 million, 75,000-square-foot and outpatient services center at the Legacy Mount Hood Medical Center. The three-story facility features an endoscopy center, outpatient surgery suites and outpatient lab services. The third level was originally shell space, which is now being built out by Fortis. Legacy Health has described the facility as “a modern healing environment that promotes well-being.”

Oregon Zoo, education center

Fortis is constructing two new buildings that will compose the 20,000-square-foot education center, a major piece of the zoo’s 20-year master plan. It will serve the 200,000 children who take part in zoo camps and classes each year, and feature an insect zoo, an outdoor plaza and café and a 150-seat auditorium/event space.

Ex-Oregonian Building renovation

The building at 1320 S.W. Broadway in Portland was designed by renowned architect Pietro Belluschi and constructed in 1948 for The Oregonian newspaper. Fortis Construction is completing a $15 million upgrade to deliver desirable work space for firms handling tech, creative and professional services. The overhaul has so far opened up towering, 28-foot ceilings, 20-foot glass walls and architectural accents long buried beneath drop ceilings and acoustic ceiling tiles. When work finishes, the building will offer 165,000 square feet of open offices and hospitality spaces over five floors, including retail on the ground floor.

Builder’s Choice is a new 91��Ƶ feature offering a look at the projects being tackled by local architecture, engineering and construction firms. To have your firm’s projects considered, contact 91��Ƶ construction reporter Garrett Andrews at 503-802-7226 or garrett.andrews@djcOregon.com.

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The Oregon Zoo in Washington Park offers visitors the chance to see large animals such as elephants, rhinos and lions, but its new education center – now under construction – will focus on all things small.

Brent Shelby, project manager for the zoo, said visitors to the center will be able to learn about smaller species in a large exhibit hall, called the Nature Exploration Station. There they will see Western pond turtles, which are endangered, and which zoo staff raise until they are big enough to be released into the wild. Butterflies and a new insect zoo also will be featured.

“The idea behind the whole facility is that small things matter,” he said. “That’s related to baby turtles and insects, but also small conservation actions any one person can do. If a number a people take action it will have much larger of an impact.”

People will be able to learn just how much impact they can have, Shelby said, through an interactive exhibit showing how their actions affect wildlife.

“It’s where you can say, ‘I want to help bumblebees or polar bears,’ and they have a list of actions you can take,” he said.

For example, registering to stop junk mail or switching from fluorescent lights to LED lights can have a positive impact on nature, Shelby said.

“It’s a bunch of actions that might seem small, but when you think about the multitude of people who come through the zoo it’s a much bigger impact,” he said. “Large animals get a lot of attention elsewhere in the zoo, but this is a location where we can focus on some of the smaller animals.”

Zoos are also places of education, Shelby said, and the education center will have four new classrooms and creative learning labs “to engage students of all ages in journeys within and beyond the bounds of the Oregon Zoo.”

The 20,000-square-foot facility will be divided into two buildings and include a central plaza with an outdoor café, a learning garden and a nature playground. The center will also house a 150-seat auditorium accessible when the zoo is closed.

Fortis Construction began work in 2015 on the $10.1 million education center, which is being paid for with money from a $125 million bond package approved by voters in 2008. The education center is the fifth bond-funded project; a new veterinary medicine center, a new water-saving filtration system for the penguin exhibit, a new California condor exhibit and the new Elephant Lands were finished previously. Future bond-funded projects include a new polar bear exhibit, currently in the design phase, and new habitats for primates and rhinos.

Also under construction – but not funded by bond money – is a new station for the zoo train.

“We are taking advantage of the fact that the area is under construction and the zoo operations folks came up with the money for a new train station,” Shelby said.

The old train station dates back to 1959, he noted, and did not provide enough of a canopy cover and used “an archaic queuing system.”

To learn more about Oregon Zoo programs and new construction, visit .

Oregon Zoo education center

Location: Washington Park

Cost: $10.1 million

Construction start date: fall 2015

Anticipated completion date: spring 2017

Owner/developer: Oregon Zoo

Architect: Opsis Architecture

Landscape architecture: Jones & Jones

Interpretive displays: Q Magic and Work at Play

Civil engineering: KPFF Consulting Engineers

Structural engineering: Catena Consulting Engineers

Mechanical/electrical engineering: PAE Consulting Engineers

General contractor: Fortis Construction

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Within weeks after the Oregon Zoo‘s new Elephant Lands exhibit opened, project leaders were delighted to see some very notable differences in how much the elephants were moving around the six-acre site.

“We have randomly timed feeders to encourage foraging like in the wild, and they are constantly exploring the new features and foraging for food,” said Heidi Rahn, the zoo’s bond program director. “This is great because that was one of the main goals for the habitat.”

A national model for other zoos, Elephant Lands features an 80-foot-wide, 160,000-gallon pool that is up to 12 feet deep; a 14,000-square-foot barn; and several outdoor habitat areas with paths, warming sheds and feeding stations. Elephant Lands includes an interpretive center and indoor viewing area in Forest Hall, which is 33,000 square feet and has auditorium seating overlooking a large indoor enclosure. The enclosure has 40-foot walls and 4 feet of sand on the floor with dune play areas.

Rahn said zoo staffers quickly saw changes in the elephants’ foot pads because of the sand, and the pads are adapting to better grip it. In addition, the keepers have seen changes in the elephants’ social structure and dynamics.

Construction Manager Jim Mitchell oversaw the $57 million project and said researchers filmed the elephants three days a week to record their reactions as the construction took place around them. The researchers are continuing to monitor the elephants in the new habitat, measuring their activity and social dynamics; a report comparing their behavior before, during and after construction will be released later this year.

Elephant Lands is one of eight projects paid for with money from by a $125 million bond measure that voters passed in 2008. Other projects already completed include a new Veterinary Medical Center; an upgrade to the water filtration system in the penguin habitat; and the Condors of Columbia exhibit. A new Education Center is being built. A full renovation of the polar bear habitat, an upgrade to the primate habitat and an expansion of the rhino habitats are in the works.

“The transformation of the zoo with these bond projects is phenomenal and it feels pretty fantastic,” Mitchell said. “The elephant project in particular really exceeded my expectations. It’s a legacy project.”

“We’re so appreciative of the community’s support for the zoo,” Rahn added. “If people haven’t checked it out already, they should come see us because just these four (completed) projects have really changed things here.”

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As three-year-old elephant Lily approached her herd’s new swimming pool, she didn’t hesitate to jump into the cold water and use her trunk to scoop up fresh-cut apples floating on the surface. She was soon joined by her mother, Rose-Tu, and the two dove and splashed as they played in the Oregon Zoo‘s 80-foot-wide, 160,000-gallon pool up to 12 feet deep. (To see a video of Lily and Rose-Tu’s first swim in the Elephant Pool, visit .)

The pool is just one part of a greatly expanded habitat for the zoo’s small herd of Asian elephants. The entire Elephant Lands, which opened Wednesday, is expected to become a model for other zoos. Officials conducted an early media tour to show the six-acre development that includes the pool, an interpretive center and indoor viewing area in the 33,000-square-foot Forest Hall, a new 14,000-square-foot barn and several outdoor habitat areas with paths, warming sheds and feeding stations.

The Elephant Lands project was $57 million, and was paid for with bond money approved by voters in 2008. The budget covered construction of a new service access road, work to reroute the zoo train loop and relocation of the zoo’s Wildlife Live headquarters.

Construction took three years to complete, said Jim Mitchell, the zoo’s construction manager.

“It was a phased project and we had to keep the elephants in place while we were building,” he said. “That definitely added time to project – plus we put a complete new service road around the zoo and that all had to be done before we actually started Elephants Lands.”

Mitchell was accompanied on the tour by zoo spokesman Hova Najarian, zoo bond program director Heidi Rahn and elephant curator Bob Lee.

Elephant Lands will give zoo visitors a much closer view of the animals, but the important thing, Rahn said, is that the new environs emulate a natural habitat.

For example, automated feeders dispense food at random times, which encourages natural foraging behaviors, and ample land allows the elephants to roam.

“This will be a model for other zoos to follow,” Rahn said. “This is such a huge milestone for the zoo and the community. The community really stepped up to make sure we have the best habitat for our elephants.”

The total bond issue was for $125 million, and Elephants Land is the fourth project out of eight that the bond will pay for, she said.

Other projects already completed include the new Veterinary Medical Center, an upgrade to the water filtration system in the penguin habitat and the Condors of Columbia exhibit. Currently, a new Education Center is being built. A full renovation of the polar bear habitat, and expansions of the primate and rhino habitats are in the works.

In planning for Elephant Lands, zoo staffers visited zoos in Europe and the U.S., Rahn said, and learned best practices for elephant habitats to incorporate into the design.

“The Oregon Zoo has always been a leader in elephant management and research, and this puts us at the top of all zoos,” she said.

Research is essential because, as the interpretive center in Forest Hall explains, natural habitats for Asian elephants are threatened – particularly because of palm oil plantation expansions.

One of the most impressive displays in Forest Hall is a full-size photograph of 53-year-old Packy, the zoo’s oldest elephant. The photo is on clear glass and can be viewed from both sides, giving the impression that there really is an elephant in the room.

Forest Hall also has auditorium seating overlooking a large indoor enclosure with 40-foot walls and 4 feet of sand on the floor with dune play areas.

After their swim, Lily squealed with delight as she led Rose-Tu into the enclosure at Forest Hall. Lily ran up to a large tower that dominates the center, where surprises are hidden in small holes. There, she used her trunk to find some treats, including some water, which she promptly sprayed on herself. Then she got dirty all over again by rolling around on one of the sand dunes.

Elephants are considered highly intelligent and social animals that adopt a matriarchal family structure. According to a zoo pamphlet, that structure was the motivating factor behind the recent expansion.

“This ancient matriarchal structure is the guiding principle of the Oregon Zoo’s elephant vision,” the pamphlet reads. “Caring for elephant families means nurturing complex relationships and providing a life and environment full of choice.”

But for Lee, the curator, seeing Elephant Lands completed is a bit more personal.

“For me it’s the realization of a dream,” he said. “We have all these ideas in our head about the perfect situation for the animals and go home every night and think, ‘What more could we have done?’ ”

Lee said knowing that the community is behind the creation of Elephant Lands is for him an unparalleled experience.

“It gives me a kind of joy I haven’t had before,” he said. “It’s incredible to have the bond measure and know that it was in the best interest for the animals. It was truly inspired through their eyes and giving them what they need.”

Elephant Lands

Location: Oregon Zoo

Cost: $57 million

Construction start date: January 2013

Construction completion date: December 2015

Owner and developer: Oregon Zoo

Architect/management: SRG Partnership

Zoo architect/planning/exhibit design: CLR Design

Landscape architect: PLACE Studio

Civil engineering: KPFF Consulting Engineers

Structural engineering: Equilibrium Engineers

Mechanical/electrical/plumbing: PAE Consulting Engineers

Life support engineering: TJP Engineering

Cost estimating: Rider Levett Bucknall

General contractor: Lease Crutcher Lewis

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Midsize builder Lease Crutcher Lewis is busy with public and private work in the Portland-metro area:

• Work on the $103 million Wizer Block project is under way in Lake Oswego. The controversial redevelopment will include 201 residential units and 42,000 square feet of retail space. Deconstruction of the Wizer shopping center has begun, with construction scheduled to conclude in fall 2017. Opponents have criticized the project for being too bulky and dense. Recently, a challenge of project approval was denied review by the Oregon Supreme Court.

• Lewis is modernizing Roosevelt High School in Portland’s St. Johns neighborhood. Demolition and site work for the $65 million project began in the summer. Construction of a new classroom building, a performing arts center and an athletic complex is under way. The historic auditorium building is undergoing a seismic upgrade and renovation to accommodate a new library and classrooms. Work should wrap up in fall 2017. The project is one of three major high school modernizations funded by a Portland Public Schools bond. The architect is Bassetti Architects.

• The Oregon Zoo‘s $48 million, 6.25-acre Elephant Lands habitat project, which began in February 2012, will finish later this fall. The Metro project includes an elephant viewing area and modifications to the zoo railway. The local architect is SRG, in partnership with CLR Design of Philadelphia. The project is the first in Oregon to incorporate cross-laminated timber, and the largest of those funded by a $125 million bond passed in 2008.

• Lewis is constructing a nine-floor tenant improvement for Stoel Rives at the Park Avenue West skyscraper. The project involves renovating 135,000 square feet to accommodate a two-floor conference center, five floors to serve attorneys and two floors to serve administrators. The construction value is $15 million.

• Lewis in spring 2016 will start a 175,000-square-foot headquarters renovation and addition for SAIF, Oregon’s not-for-profit state-chartered workers’ compensation insurance company. The project will include a seismic upgrade, a building façade modernization and a major addition.

Lease Crutcher Lewis in 2013 was the city’s 10th-largest general contractor, with $93.6 million in local billings. CEO Bart Ricketts splits his workweek between the firm’s Portland office above Tasty n Alder at 550 S.W. 12th Ave. and its Seattle office. The firm self-performs all concrete work and relies on predominantly union carpenters, laborers and operators, according to Lewis Marketing Director Janice Westcott. – Garrett Andrews

Builder’s Choice is a new 91��Ƶ feature offering a look at the projects being tackled by local architecture, engineering and construction firms. To have your firm’s projects considered, contact 91��Ƶ construction reporter Garrett Andrews at 503-802-7226 or garrett.andrews@djcOregon.com.

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Andersen Construction announced this week that it has completed the first vertical use of cross-laminated timber in the state.

The 24-foot-high CLT panels, averaging eight feet in width, were manufactured by D.R. Johnson in Riddle, according to Brad Barcroft, Andersen’s senior project manager for work at Western Oregon University’s Richard Woodcock Education Center in Monmouth.

Earlier this year, CLT was used horizontally for a roof at the new Elephant Lands exhibit at the Oregon Zoo. Barcroft said Equilibrium Engineers worked on the zoo project as well as the one at WOU, where 23 load-bearing CLT panels were used instead of concrete beams in the education center’s stairwells.

The stairwells are located on each side of the two-story, 57,000-square-foot building that will house 13 classrooms, 86 offices, three computer labs and conference space. Construction is expected to finish in June 2016.

Barcroft said placing each CLT panel was similar to setting vertical precast concrete, but with the advantage of faster completion. Plus, minor adjustments can be made on-site with a saw, which would be impossible with concrete.

“Typically, we would have used concrete or steel,” Barcroft said. “There are lots of different things we could have used, but this is new technology.”

Oregon officials have been pushing for the use of CLT, made from sustainably-grown young trees, as a way to boost the state’s timber industry. CLT was a point of discussion for Gov. Kate Brown and others at the 2015 Oregon BEST FEST last month.

Barcroft said he’s glad to be part of the new trend.

“I was pretty excited to be part of dealing with new technology and doing something that could be meaningful to the economy of Oregon down the road,” he said. “That was kind of cool.”

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