Construction crews have broken ground on a new 17,000-square-foot police station in Molalla.

Mackenzie designed the facility for the city of Molalla, as well as the interiors, civil engineering, structural engineering, traffic engineering, land use planning and landscape design for the project. The project team also includes MEP Interface Engineering and general contractor P&C Construction.

The project began in 2012 when former Police Chief Rod Lucich expressed the need for a new station, according to the project’s website. In 2015, the city purchased the Molalla Bowl building at 150 Grange Ave. The building was demolished in 2023, Mackenzie project manager David Linton said in an email.

The new facility will replace an aging and undersized police station, currently located in Molalla City Hall, at 117 N Molalla Ave. The current facility, formerly the fire department, was renovated to become the city hall and police department. It was built prior to 1950 and has about 2,300 square feet of work/office space, Linton stated.

The new facility will also function as an emergency operations center for public safety crisis response. Thomas Peck, Mackenzie project designer, said in an email that the new station will be an essential facility designed for resilience.

“The organization of the facility and site was designed to create a more civically engaging relationship with the community,” Peck stated. “It will reinforce the presence of law enforcement and the public safety building as a resource for everyone in Molalla.”

The building has been designed to maintain a natural separation for security, with public interface prioritized along the street and secure operations and parking behind it. A public entry plaza correlates with nearby neighborhood public parks and visually connects visitors to a public-facing lobby and community room.

Peck said that the facility utilizes a structural brick to create a resilient and secure exterior envelope for the main operation footprint. A transparent and inviting approach has been taken for the public-interfacing portion of the building that fronts the street. A hybrid structural system of steel and cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels has been utilized for the building lobby, records office and community room to showcase Molalla’s heritage in the timber industry and provide a warm character with extensive overhangs to shelter and welcome visitors, Peck stated.

Additionally, wood reclaimed from the bowling lanes of Molalla Bowl has been salvaged to honor the site’s history. The wood is being used in custom wall panels that will house the Molalla Police Department’s emblem, as well as in custom seating within the lobby.

The total project cost is $16.8 million and is funded by a $16 million bond passed by voters in November 2023, as well as city money.

Construction began in August and is expected to be complete in late 2025.

On the Boards is a 91��Ƶ feature offering a look at projects in Oregon and Southwest Washington being tackled by local architecture firms. To have your firm’s projects considered, contact 91��Ƶ reporter Hilary Dorsey at��hdorsey@djcOregon.com.

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Beaverton’s first permanent emergency shelter is in the works.

The year-round shelter will provide a safe place for people experiencing homelessness to stay and access assistance with housing. Construction crews broke ground on the shelter earlier this month.

The shelter will include space for 60 guests, three meals per day, showers, laundry, clinic space and supportive services available 24 hours a day, every day of the week. Housing navigation and supportive services will also be provided, as well as a dedicated clinic space. The site will add capacity to Washington County‘s growing shelter program, which currently offers more than 400 beds in the county, according to a press release.

The 12,000-square-foot building, at 11380 SW Beaverton Hillsdale Highway, is in a business area, centrally located near transit and within walking distance to grocery stores and social service agencies. The city owns the building that is being renovated for the shelter, City of Beaverton spokesperson Dianna Ballash stated in an email.

Open Door HousingWorks was selected to operate the shelter through a contract with Washington County. Ink: Built Design designed the project for the city. The project team also includes KPFF for civil engineering, Studio Wild Landscape Architecture for landscape design, PCS Structural Solutions for structural engineering and P&C Construction as the general contractor.

“The shelter will be built with an emphasis on trauma-informed and sustainable design, including natural materials, calming light controls, inclusive furniture and abundant natural light,” Ballash stated.

Trauma-informed design principles implemented through the design include clear wayfinding, a folding area with seating outside of laundry space with windows for visual access of the laundry area, flexible spaces, covered and uncovered private outdoor areas, individual beds (not bunk beds), a calming color palette, amenities and provisions for pets, and more.

The project is on track to achieve Energy Trust of Oregon’s Path to Net Zero. Sustainable features include the reuse of the existing building and concrete flooring, a solar array that will supply 22 percent of the shelter’s energy, EV charging station, no fossil fuels (except emergency generator), all electric appliances, low flow plumbing fixtures, all LED lighting fixtures, additional daylighting with an added skylight and solar tubes, and more.

Amenities include a kitchen, showers, an enclosed landscape backyard with covered structure, individual sleeping pods, a coordinated care space for mental and physical health, and flexible spaces for group or individual support.

The shelter is made possible through availability of new funding sources for shelter acquisition and operations through $5 million from the voter-approved Supportive Housing Services measure. The city of Beaverton is also expecting to receive approximately $9 million in state and federal funding, including American Rescue Plan Act funds.

The total project cost is $11.9 million, including the purchase of the building.

Intake will be by enrollment through Community Connect, the Washington County coordinated entry system. Case managers will be able to help their clients enroll and there will be a central phone number for unhoused community members to call.

The shelter will be an adult shelter for guests 18 and older. Families with children will be referred to other partner agencies in Beaverton/Washington County, according to the project’s website.

The new shelter is expected to open in late summer 2024.

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PROJECT: New De La Salle North Catholic High School campus

LOCATION: 4300 N.E. Killingsworth St., Portland

COST:��$26 million

START DATE: July 2020

END DATE: October 2021

OWNER: De La Salle North Catholic High School

OWNER’S REPRESENTATIVE: Shiels Obletz Johnsen

ARCHITECT: Bora Architecture & Interiors

ENGINEERS: Mazzetti (civil), Catena Consulting Engineers (structural), Interface Engineering (MEP)

GENERAL CONTRACTOR:��P&C Construction

OTHER ASSOCIATES/CONSULTANTS: Acoustic Design Studio (acoustical), Code Unlimited LLC (code consulting), Halliday Associates (kitchen), Kelsay Environmental Consulting (environmental), Lango Hansen Landscape Architects (landscape), NV5 (geotechnical/environmental), PSI (special inspections), Radongreen (radon)

SIGNIFICANCE OF PROJECT: De La Salle North Catholic High School offers a private, faith-based college preparatory education to urban students with limited educational opportunities, turning no one away because of an inability to pay. Since opening in 2001, the school rented two locations. Now it’s operating at the first new Catholic high school campus in Portland in more than 50 years. De La Salle North Catholic is co-locating with St. Charles Parish, which previously operated a Catholic elementary school from 1950 to 1986.

A $26 million capital fundraising campaign was led by Mary and Tim Boyle, in two phases over 30 months. Phase one included $20.5 million for renovation of an existing building to become an academic wing, and new construction of the commons, courtyard and parking lot. Phase two sought $5.5 million for a gymnasium and additional work. Phase one of the campaign was launched publicly in March 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic hit. At that point $2.2 million more was needed in order for construction to start. Undeterred by uncertainty generated by the pandemic, the fundraising team successfully met its phase one goal and broke ground in July 2020. Two months later, the team raised the minimum amount required to build the gymnasium.

The new campus accommodates more than 350 students. It includes a private courtyard, a commons, state-of-the-art science labs, a specialized art classroom and the Michael Kelley Gymnasium. The science classrooms can accommodate both technology-based and hands-on learning in physics, biology and chemistry.

The school welcomed 274 students on Sept. 7, while crews finished constructing the commons and gymnasium. A ribbon-cutting ceremony is scheduled for Oct. 22.

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

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Nearly 20 years since previously tackling new construction, developer Sabin Community Development Corporation is embarking on a new affordable housing expedition.

Sabin CDC, based on Alberta Street in Northeast Portland, was formed in 1992 when neighbors started to see gentrification in the area. Its mission has been to provide long-term affordable housing options for low-income and median-income households, with a focus on Black residents.

The Harvey Rice Heritage Center project, named after Sabin CDC’s longtime board chairman, will bring a total of 41 affordable housing units to Northeast Portland. Two separate properties will gain developments; each one will be named after a local artist (Isaka Shamsud-Din and Charlotte Lewis) who has work displayed in the Portland Museum of Art.

Gentrification impacts

Much of Northeast Portland has experienced upheaval in the past decade, Sabin CDC Housing Director Loulie Brown said. Roughly 30 years ago, the broad inner area (Sabin, Woodlawn, Vernon, King, Humboldt, Boise and Eliot neighborhoods) was roughly 60 percent Black with a median income of $36,000, according to . Now it’s around 71 percent white with a median income of $70,000, according to the and .

Meanwhile, approximately 76 percent of residents in Sabin CDC housing identify as Black or multiracial and have incomes that average less than 50 percent of the median. There are even some folks that have no income, Brown said.

That reality led to the origin of the Harvey Rice Heritage Center project.

Sabin CDC was awarded low-income tax credits for the project in August 2020. Scott | Edwards Architecture was then brought in to perform the design work and P&C Construction was hired as the contractor. Partnership groups Community Vision and Iron Tribe Network have also aided the project.

Folks with disabilities, Brown said, face many barriers to housing that aren’t just income-based. With an aging residential population, Sabin CDC wanted to make sure the new buildings could accommodate them.

“That’s a void that Community Vision makes a herculean effort to fill,” Brown said.

Iron Tribe will then help support people who are transitioning from group living to individual housing. Also, trauma-informed design is being used for the Isaka Shamsud-Din and Charlotte Lewis buildings.

The Isaka Shamsud-Din

A four-story, 29-unit building is planned for the corner of Northeast 14th Place and Killingsworth Street. Currently, the lot holds a two-story, nine-unit building that will be demolished. The new structure will consist of one-bedroom and two-bedroom units as well as a 1,250-square-foot community room.

The Isaka Shamsud-Din will be painted terra-cotta and have a varied board and batten exterior. It will be a more playful take on the traditional form of cladding and reminiscent of Shamsud-Din’s work, Scott | Edwards Architecture architect Hayley Purdy said.

Instead of long, poorly lit corridors typically seen in affordable housing, the building will have large windows in both hallways and units, Purdy said.

The size of the community room is not typically seen in affordable housing. But Sabin CDC wanted a space that residents and community members could use for classes. It even will have a kitchen and a partition to divide the room into two spaces if needed.

“This building will feel very bright and welcoming and a place that feels special for the tenants to call home,” Purdy said.

The Charlotte Lewis

Two three-story buildings – with a total of 12 units – and a courtyard will be constructed on a lot on Northeast 72nd Avenue, next to Cully Park.

The design of the Charlotte Lewis is more residential in nature so that it will fit in with the single-family structures of the neighborhood. The exterior will be straight edge shingles painted light gray with gable roofs.

A unique layout will be used to serve families: The first floor will have single-story apartments, while the second and third floors will hold two-story apartments. Each one will have its own private entryway on the outside.

To accommodate the layout, Purdy said the team shifted the buildings’ locations. Then team members found spots where they could place pops of pastel colors from the Charlotte Lewis palette.

Project challenges

Like any affordable housing project, many needs had to be met in order to land the tax credits and accommodate groups involved. However, the Isaka Shamsud-Din building, in particular, is a bunch of puzzle pieces coming together, Purdy said.

Two months into design and schematics, the team learned a two-foot dedication was required along 14th Place and a three-foot one on Killingsworth Street.

“Unfortunately, we found out about the dedications after the owner had committed to the number of dwelling units provided for the federal tax credits,” Purdy said, noting that once tax credits are secured for a project, its programming can’t change.

In addition, the site is also along an urban corridor. Altogether, it required the team to pull back the façade facing Killingsworth Street. That was tough, Purdy said, because especially with affordable housing there isn’t much flexibility to absorb such changes.

The Charlotte Lewis site didn’t come with any surprise dedications. Instead, its main challenge was to move an existing driveway in order to accommodate the new building’s layout.

Currently, the goal is to break ground in November or early December, Brown said.

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Oregon State University in recent years has played a major role in promoting the growth of mass timber in the Pacific Northwest. Now the university is doing so via its own 22,000-square-foot facility in Oregon City.

Designed by Soderstrom Architects, the new Extension Service Education Center will feature an array of mass-timber elements.

“It all comes from them,” said Michael Shea, a Soderstrom Architects principal. “They wanted a Cascadian sort of Northwest design … like Timberline Lodge, so it’s very reminiscent of Timberline. Years ago we did some remodeling there, so we do have some expertise. The idea is that it’s a wood-framed, heavy-timber building with glulam columns and beams; they wanted to highlight wood products of the region.”

Clackamas County commissioners approved project plans in October 2019. The new building will be located on the southeast corner of the intersection of Beavercreek Road and Warner Milne Road – about two blocks east of OSU‘s existing Extension Service office on Clackamas County’s Red Soils campus.

Both cross-laminated timber and mass plywood manufactured by Freres Lumber Co. of Mill City will be used. The building will include a 150-seat meeting and training room, multiple smaller meeting rooms and even a kitchen to accommodate cooking and nutrition education.

“The second floor is all office space, like a big day-lit bar,” Shea said. “It’s a big hall with cubicles and little boxes, and everyone will get to see the nice-looking CLT up at the roof. The daylight is really quite spectacular too. There are large windows and some hidden clerestories that you can’t see from the street.”

Plus, the building is designed to achieve net-zero energy use by producing more energy than it consumes.

“The roof uses insulated metal panels to get the high R (insulation) value, and that’s mostly tempered with (photovoltaic) panels,” Shea said. “And then the mechanical systems are pretty much state of the art, while the PVs make up the difference.”

Instead of exposed mechanical systems typical of recent CLT designs, the new building will have an 18-inch-tall access space between the first and second stories. This will hide HVAC, electrical, plumbing, data and other systems.

“It’s nice to see the wood, but it would be great to see the wood without all that stuff in the way,” Shea said. “It should work out well visually and acoustically.”

Heating, cooling and ventilation are separated. Heated and chilled water will come from Clackamas County’s central plant serving its Red Soils campus.

“We’re supplying 100 percent fresh, outdoor air,” Shea said. “There’s no recycled air. On the design side we know the dedicated outdoor air systems are healthier, and that’s part of the whole sustainability story of the building. It’s not something the Extension service was particularly interested in but I’m sure they appreciate it now.”

Also, the building will be constructed to Level 4 seismic resiliency so that it can serve Clackamas County officials as an emergency operations center.

Gardening education will take place within the building. A “Master Gardener Clinic” will be open to the public.

“The ground floor is where the Extension Service has its public service counter and suite for master gardeners,” Shea said. “It was interesting designing for them. They said ‘Our finishes have to be sturdy; people are going to be bringing in muddy, wet plants.’ They also have a lot of programs for the public and school kids, and they have a suite of offices there for that.”

Construction is expected to begin in June, Shea said. P&C Construction is set to serve as the general contractor.

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The city of Gladstone is preparing to welcome one new building, with two distinct uses.

General contractor P&C Construction is wrapping up work on the Gladstone Civic Center, which will house both the police department and city hall. Punch list items are being tackled, and substantial completion is expected later this month.

Scott | Edwards Architecture designed the building. Ground was broken in April 2019.

“We really worked closely with the chief of police and the city administrator early on to develop how this site shook out, so to speak,” said Jennifer Marsicek, a senior associate with Scott | Edwards Architecture. “It actually works pretty well to have the police side separate from city hall because of the seismic and the resiliency measures the police side requires that the city hall side doesn’t require. And joining it with a mass-timber lobby really made sense overall.”

The single-story building has slightly fewer than 20,900 square feet – around 13,000 square feet on the law enforcement side. That part of the building is built to Category 4 seismic resilience, while the city hall portion is built to Category 2 resilience. This is in part because the police headquarters also will serve as a city emergency operations center.

The city hall side will house administration, planning and other key departments, as well as a city council chambers that will be able to serve as a municipal court.

The two sides are joined by a gently tapered corridor topped with exposed cross-laminated timber panels and glulam columns and beams. Historic photos of Gladstone adorn the corridor walls next to public-facing department entrances.

“With the separation we were basically able to build two separate buildings and do the infill with CLT,” said Will Somme, project manager for P&C Construction.

The two-acre site sits next to the city’s public works facilities and across the street from Gladstone High School. The new complex also will provide additional off-street parking.

Unlike Oregon City‘s Robert Libke Public Safety Building, which features CLT wall and ceiling panels, the Gladstone Civic Center has only CLT ceiling panels.

“This is concrete tilt on both sides and you have a wood diaphragm group, whereas out there it’s all CLT and you have all the extra bracing,” Somme said. “You don’t have to go to that extent when you have a concrete tilt structure.”

The Gladstone building’s police side has a backup power generator and water, as well as gas service separate from the civic side.

“The diaphragm still was a lot of work, specifically on this side, where you saw there’s a break where it goes from a Category 2 to a Category 4 building,” Somme said. “There’s a full seismic joint that runs through the interior of the lobby, so you have that flexibility there.”

Combining practical police needs with more aesthetic civic ones can be a challenge for designers, and Marsicek worked with Lango Hansen Landscape Architects to provide the city with a warm public space filled with plants. Glulam beams even extend outside the building and provide support for planters that will eventually sport fresh vines.

“It was their concept,” Marsicek said. “And with an overall site design that drains into a central swale it made sense to bring that into the building.”

The project was one of the first in Oregon to come together via progressive design-build delivery. In this method the owner retains a design firm and a construction firm early on for joint work on planning, design and construction – with agreement on price and schedule. The method can shorten project schedules, including procurement, and create a single point of responsibility for owners.

“It was a new experience for us,” Marsicek said. “It was really a team effort from the beginning with P&C, the owner and us.”

The method made sense for this particular project, Somme said.

“Contracted police buildings are unusual, and that’s why you typically see a different delivery method based on qualifications,” he said. “Because you just don’t want a contractor to come in, and nothing against them, but to not have that experience, because of what goes into these buildings, it usually doesn’t work.”

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While construction teams carry on during the COVID-19 pandemic, some are beginning to encounter a materials supply chain that has been taxed to the limit – especially beyond U.S. borders. Government-imposed economic shutdowns have left manufacturers, distributors and their customers all scrambling to keep shelves stocked and workers equipped.

Lead times on orders are increasing. Material shortages are persisting. It’s the new norm, and no one really knows when that will change.

“Two weeks ago, (if) you would have asked how is a particular project in Hillsboro going for us … I would (have said), ‘Fine; no issues,’” said Eric Wiesmann, purchasing manager for Rosendin Electric‘s Hillsboro facility. “And three days later, factories are shut down and materials are put off until June. So I’d say today it’s undetermined; next week I’m probably going to tell you every one of our projects is going to be impacted.”

Many countries have required factories to suspend or severely limit operations. Outputs are slowing, and delivery times are growing – and U.S. customers are noticing. Andersen Construction Vice President Brian Knudsen said international shipments of a number of items –elevators, doors, flooring, thin brick and others – are being delayed.

“We have had a thin brick product on a project delayed not only due to the German factory being closed, but also because the broker for the product is from New York and they are closed,” he said. “So getting the delivery information has been difficult, causing uncertainty.”

Meanwhile, for the Halsey 106 mixed-use building in Portland, general contractor LMC Construction is trying to ensure there won’t be a shipment problem.

“On this one, we have quartz countertops coming from Vietnam, and at this point we haven’t heard of any issues,” project manager Ken Bello said. “But what we’re trying to do is procure and get this stuff on ships as soon as possible so we have them here.”

LMC Construction has tried to be proactive, Vice President Kyle Anderson added.

“Everything we’re hearing is be prepared for materials coming from China to take a lot longer,” he said. “But right now it hasn’t hit us because we’ve tried to get ahead of it … and get material on-site and get additional storage.”

A similar approach is being taken by Hoffman Construction, according to Vice President Dan Drinkward. The firm has been able to work through supply chain issues so far, he said, but there are concerns about long lead times – especially for items coming from overseas.

Locally, even before state emergency measures were being taken, builders were working to mitigate supply chain issues. For the Robert Libke Public Safety Building project in Oregon City, procurement of items like rooftop HVAC units and storefront systems was moved up to accommodate a wider delivery window, P&C Construction project manager Will Somme said.

“We have to get out in front of it,” he said. “It’s been minor, but the whole shipping industry is overwhelmed right now.”

LMC Construction expects to see more of that, Anderson said.

“All we can do with our clients is be as transparent as we can about what’s potentially coming up and what we’re seeing,” he said, “and then we just react to it on a case-by-case scenario.”

While issues vary for each project, Hoffman Construction has adjusted by ordering materials earlier than usual, forgoing factory inspections in distant locations, and working with subcontractors and distributors to try and identify potential problems before they become critical.

“We’re trying to set up projects up front and avoid sole-source specifications that could lead us into a bottleneck that would put a project in a difficult position,” Drinkward said. “We’re trying to build some flexibility into the supply chain anticipating we’re going to have impacts and understanding we don’t know what we don’t know yet.”

What is known is that numerous fabrication shops in Clark County, Washington – including ones that work with steel – have closed. That impact has stretched across the Portland-metro area.

“We’ve had some subcontractors and suppliers from Washington basically tell us they’re shutting down,” Anderson said. “Most of our Washington-based subs are still working. The ones we’ve heard of are the ones with an actual fabrication shop in Washington, where they feel like they have to shut it down.”

Much of that burden is being shouldered by distributors, Wiesmann said.

“We’re going to distributors and asking them to find new light fixtures, panel boards, breakers – different brands of those products – and we’re going to multiple distributors,” he said. “Everybody is working harder, and it’s this very odd blend of circumstances that leaves people working harder and making less money.”

Fortunately for LMC Construction, the material impacts it has experienced so far have not been critical, Anderson said. The closure of a door manufacturer in another state forced project managers for a renovation of the Silvertowne Apartments in Silverton to hunt for alternatives. Meanwhile, a team handling a different project ran into difficulties sourcing bath hardware. Other items that are proving more difficult to procure, Anderson said, include sheet metal products and steel products.

“We made the substitution from a different manufacturer for a slight material increase, and that’s what we’re seeing for the most part,” he said. “But the other thing we’re starting to see more and more of is suppliers and manufacturers warning us that their lead times are going to be longer.”

Andersen Construction has multiple tower projects under way in downtown Portland. It’s receiving similar messages, Knudsen said.

“We have received notices from most of our trade partners about material delays on all of our projects,” he said. “Many times they are not specific, only that there will be delays, but the timing is not specific or is given as a range of weeks or months of delay.”

Not every contractor in the Portland-metro area is dealing with such uncertainty. Yes, larger materials, and especially ones not standard sizes, seem to be problematic. And of course, many international shipments appear likely to be slower for the foreseeable future. But some firms have yet to face material shortages or delivery delays.

“It is definitely an important topic to examine, and seems to be coming up a lot on some of the calls with developers,” said Angie Cole, director of marketing for general contractor Lorentz Bruun Construction. “We are very fortunate, however, in that we have not experienced any of the challenges you mentioned. We may be a lucky exception.”

Ultimately, as the pandemic continues, no one is sure what the long-term effects will be, either on their projects or the wider construction industry. Everyone is responding to the situation at hand.

Nevertheless, Drinkward and others say the industry is already adapting to the new realities – including supply chain challenges – in a more cooperative fashion than in the past.

“It’s ever-changing, but we’ve figured out largely how to do it,” he said. “And we’re seeing with the (resumption of construction) now in Washington, with our projects up there, although many of them were considered essential, now they’ve got new guidelines and the new normal. It’s actually one of the things we’ve hoped and offered up. As other businesses start up, we have a lot of lessons we’ve learned on how to do it.”

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One of the advantages of mass-timber construction in the Portland-metro area is that products aren’t far away. They can be produced at plants in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia, Canada. That has taken on even greater importance now, when deliveries of many materials are beginning to take longer.

P&C Construction knew that as it began to construct the Robert Libke Public Safety Building in Oregon City. Rick McMurry, chief safety officer for MHA Resource Co., parent of P&C Construction, said delayed arrivals of materials due to the COVID-19 pandemic haven’t yet impacted the anticipated completion date for the project. But the possibility of that happening is on team members’ minds.

“Once this (pandemic) rolled out, we’ve been checking in weekly with subcontractors about anything with a lead time,” said Will Somme, a P&C Construction project manager. “We’re like, ‘Guys, this is a public project. We have an avenue to get stored material paid for; let’s get it here.’ At some point it’s going to have an impact. We just don’t know when that’s going to happen.”

The Robert Libke Public Safety Building will be a single-level, 34,000-square-foot, multipurpose facility located on the Mt. Pleasant property that formerly held school buildings over more than 150 years. The ex-Mt. Pleasant Elementary School, at 1232 Linn Ave., was demolished to make way for the new building. It will house the Oregon City Police Department, municipal court space and emergency management operations.

The building is named for the late Reserve Officer Robert Libke, who in 2013 responded to a house fire, was shot by an occupant of the house, and then died the next day. A new outdoor plaza will feature a memorial wall made of bricks and a main entry window salvaged from the elementary school.

Designed by FFA Architecture & Interiors, the new building is being constructed entirely from mass timber, with cross-laminated timber panels for walls and ceilings, and glulam beams and columns holding everything up. The entire heavy-timber package was fabricated by British Columbia firm Structurlam. All structural elements were placed this past winter, prior to the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The facility is designed to seismic standards that call for immediate operations in the wake of a significant earthquake. Even interior shear walls meant to protect the building during seismic events are made from cross-laminated timber panels.

Engineers designed a roof structure with the entire diaphragm locked into the structural elements via a series of massive, six-inch, metal-plate drag struts, Somme said. KPFF Consulting Engineers is the structural engineer for the project.

Typically, on a wood structure locking the diaphragm together with angle brackets, drag struts and other measures is not needed, he added. But because this is a Category 4 building it was required.

Steel, buckling-restrained brace frames were considered and rejected on aesthetic grounds, Somme added.

“On a CLT structure you can incorporate those BRB frames,” he said. “But you don’t really want to because it takes away from the visualization of the interior of the building. You see the cross braces and you think, ‘Well, that’s a beautiful wall behind it.’ It was a challenge for our structural engineers.”

The building’s interior is designed to showcase the heavy timber, with CLT wall and ceiling panels left exposed along with ductwork.

The rectangular massing features a variety of cutouts that create courtyards with protected views and openness to ample natural light. Public areas, including the municipal court, will be separated from law enforcement-only spaces, including offices, conference rooms, evidence storage and more. All of these spaces will feature vaulted ceilings and natural light coming from a clerestory that parallels the main corridor running the length of the building.

On the exterior, metal panels will feature predominantly, along with curtain-wall storefronts.

For now, the scheduled completion date for the project is Aug. 21. That could change, however.

“The way (the pandemic is) going it might eventually, but for now it hasn’t,” McMurry said.

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De La Salle North Catholic High School is set to move to property alongside St. Charles Church in Northeast Portland.

Backers plan to build the first new Catholic high school campus in Portland in more than 50 years at St. Charles, at 5310 N.E. 42nd Ave. Crews are scheduled to break ground on the project, expected to cost at least $21.6 million, on May 8 to allow the facility to open in August 2021.

Bora Architects is designing the project, and P&C Construction is serving as general contractor.

The project was spurred by the impending end of De La Salle’s lease at its current location, the former Kenton Elementary School property owned by Portland Public Schools. The Catholic school’s lease with PPS expires in June 2021.

The project team is essentially working backward from the delivery date the school needs. Bora and P&C have extensive experience designing and building education facilities, respectively.

Plans call for renovating the existing 30,000-square-foot school building at St. Charles and constructing 21,000 square feet of new space, including a common area, administrative offices, gymnasium and associated weight and locker rooms.

“The building has good bones,” school President Oscar Leong said. “It’s just a matter of coming in and working with the professionals.”

Phasing depends on fundraising, De La Salle and Bora officials said. The gym could be built in a second phase if not enough dollars are immediately available.

De La Salle has launched a major fundraising campaign that has raised 85 percent of its goal through major backers including Tim Boyle, president and CEO of Columbia Sportswear, and his wife, Mary; and Edward Maletis, owner of Portland Bottling Co., and his wife, Cyndy.

De La Salle has had something of a vagabond existence. The ex-Kenton facility is its second location. The basketball teams have practiced in several locations, including a Salvation Army gym.

“We need a place to call home,” Leong said.

Plans include creating high-tech science labs in the former St. Charles gym and a visual arts center. The existing parish building is not part of the project.

“It’s been an incredibly meaningful project for Bora to work on,” said Amy Donohue, a principal at the Portland-based firm.

Materials on the new building will be red brick and white metal paneling to maintain a cohesive appearance with the existing St. Charles building, Donohue said.

Bora has something of a secret weapon for the project in Nikolas Tucker, a De La Salle alum who is a junior architect at the firm. Tucker, 23, earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Columbia University in 2018. He worked for a couple of New York City firms before returning in 2019 to Bora, where he had interned for two years.

“It’s very rewarding to come full circle like this,” Tucker said. “It wasn’t something I was planning on, but I’m very happy for the serendipity.”

A central courtyard will serve as a meeting and social space for students.

“The dream is the gym, but the focal point and the heart of the school will be a courtyard,” Leong said. “In our current home, we have no soft spaces for students to hang out and be themselves.”

The project team has applied for permits from the city’s Bureau of Development Services, which has moved to remote work and a by-appointment-only model for permitting during the coronavirus pandemic.

“We will see if there’s any slowdown with permitting,” Donohue said. “We’re in the queue, but we’re all holding our breath right now.”

De La Salle currently has approximately 280 students. Capacity would increase to 350 at the new campus.

Leong said he hopes De La Salle North Catholic High School can become a community resource.

“We don’t want to be the best-kept secret,” he said. “We want to be able to celebrate with all of Portland.”

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These days, public education projects are helping drive the regional construction market. Hillsboro School District, for instance, is moving forward with a rash of projects via money from a $408 million bond approved by voters in 2017. Two new elementary schools are being built, another is being replaced, and a middle school and a high school are being expanded.

2019 is likely to be the busiest summer of the entire bond cycle, district bond marketing specialist Jane Siguenza said. One of this year’s projects is the expansion and refurbishment of Evergreen Middle School.

“It’s getting a media center addition with classrooms,” Siguenza said. “And there are interior classrooms also. The old library is being converted into six classrooms, and the cafeteria and commons area are getting changed also. The reason why we’re doing this project is because of the growth in this attendance area, so it’s going to accommodate 200 more students.”

Evergreen was built in 1981. Despite several expansions, the school has never stayed ahead of steady population growth in Washington County. So, in addition to a new, 18,000-square-foot addition housing a media center and library, classrooms will be added in a new wing on the school’s south side.

Also, the school is gaining new roofing, HVAC equipment, security equipment and furniture. Seismic upgrades will be carried out as well. P&C Construction is serving as the general contractor for the project, which was designed by Soderstrom Architects.

Ground was broken this past spring, and demolition started around that time. But large-scale work – including excavation and site work for the expansion – really only began in mid-June, after the school year ended.

Completion is anticipated for approximately Spring Break 2020.

“Teachers were still here Monday, so our first day of hitting it hard and heavy was Tuesday,” site superintendent Michael Fry said. “We actually did an early start on Saturday, came in and demoed all the ceilings while the teachers weren’t here. The staff and admin here have been amazing, though; they’ve been great to work with.”

The addition will be constructed using primarily concrete tilt panels, Fry said. On the interior, however, a structural composite lumber product, laminated veneer lumber (LVL), will be used around the building perimeter as a means of increasing shear wall strength and seismic support for the building’s structural steel and glulam framework.

“It’s a fairly standard tilt-up addition,” Fry said. “It’s always interesting tying a tilt-up into an existing building, but everything’s pretty standard. It’s structural steel with glulams holding up the roof.”

LVL beams are used for a number of applications, but in this case in combination with glulams as an outer tension lam to increase the overall strength of the glulam beam.

To accommodate the expansion, some classrooms will be removed from the existing building and replaced by new glulams and structural steel. Engineers even managed to simplify the usual methods of tying new expansions into existing structures, Fry added.

“Where the tilt-ups come in, shoring up this end of the roof here, there are no expansion joints,” he said. “They actually tied the buildings in together structurally.”

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