Several bond-funded Portland Community College campus improvement projects are progressing. The efforts are intended to modernize instructional spaces, improve wayfinding, address deferred maintenance needs, and enhance accessibility.

Voters in 2022 approved a $450 million bond measure. Currently, four major projects include a renovation of the Communications Technology (CT) Building at the Sylvania campus, a renovation of the west side of the Health Technology (HT West) Building at Sylvania, construction of a new building to hold automotive and construction technology programs and a renovation of Building 2 at the Rock Creek campus, and construction of a new health center in downtown Hillsboro.

“We also have accessibility, IT upgrades, safety upgrades, deferred maintenance, and a roof budget line item,” said Rebecca Ocken, director of planning and capital construction at PCC.

The CT Building will be fully renovated. As part of permanent relocation of “swing spaces,” the work will involve renovating the second floor of the Technology Classroom Building, renovating the Social Science Building, and remodeling select areas of the South Classroom Building.

Also, the Performing Arts Center plaza, bookstore plaza, and other common gathering areas will be revitalized to create a more accessible and vibrant campus.

The Sylvania campus entryway will also gain better accessibility, safety and wayfinding. Other improvements are planned for the area north of the CT Building, and the P11 parking lot.

“This year, we tried ‘Future Sylvania’ as an all-encompassing name to talk about not only CT, but HT West, swing spaces, the improvements to the campus entry, and all the deferred maintenance,” Ocken said. “There’s a lot going on.”

The CT Building project team includes architects BRIC Architecture and Studio Petretti, civil engineer KPFF, structural engineer VALAR Engineering of Clackamas, and general contractor Lease Crutcher Lewis. The project budget is about $65 million.

PCC officials expect construction of the CT Building project to start this fall and finish in about two years.

Meanwhile, crews are wrapping up the HT West renovation at Sylvania. Existing spaces are being enhanced to create a welcoming environment. Common spaces are being updated to ensure accessibility and foster collaboration. Three health care classrooms, and four physical education rooms are being added.

Also, an inclusive locker room is being added, and the building’s mechanical, electrical and roofing systems are being updated for greater energy efficiency.

The HT West project team includes Woofter Bolch Architecture and general contractor Fortis Construction. The project budget is around $30 million.

HT West is scheduled to reopen late this month for the spring quarter.

The construction of an approximately 14,000-square-foot building and the renovation of Building 2 at Rock Creek is in schematic design. The building currently houses career technical education (CTE) programs such as building construction, welding, and automotive collision repair as well as computer labs, general academic programs, student resource centers, collaboration spaces, and staff office and meeting areas. PCC plans to seek a land use permit to allow construction of a new building for automotive programs and construction technologies programs.

“(Those programs) will be pulled out of Building 2 and will give other CTE programs more space, and then we’ll renovate the existing building,” Ocken said.

The work will include enhancing views of the surrounding natural environment while providing more equitable spaces to support learning, and increasing wayfinding, accessibility, safety, and stormwater mitigation.

The Building 2 project team includes Bora Architecture & Interiors and general contractor Fortis Construction. DAO Architecture is designing the new building. The project budget is approximately $85 million.

Construction is expected to start in late 2027 and finish in spring 2032.

For the health center (focusing on health education and workforce development) on Block 56 in downtown Hillsboro, PCC is partnering with Hillsboro School District and Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center. The school district will own the land and PCC and VGMHC will lease classrooms and clinic space, respectively, in the building.

“We’re excited to have both Hillsboro (School District) and Virginia Garcia be such strong and collaborative partners with us with both the building and the programming that we’re offering students,” Ocken said. “We’ve had discussions for years, so finally bringing it to fruition is an exciting moment for everyone.”

The project’s budget is $20 million, with a plan for the team to seek additional funds to account for cost escalation. The budget will be revisited as the project progresses, Ocken stated in an email.

A request for bids from design firms will be issued this month and one could be selected by the summer. A request for proposals from general contractors is expected to be issued this fall.

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A four-story, 87,742-square-foot housing development is in the works in Portland’s Cully neighborhood. The project – a collaboration of Portland Community College and Home Forward – will deliver 84 affordable apartments in a building along Northeast Killingsworth Street – on land now occupied by PCC‘s Portland Metropolitan Workforce Training Center.

The existing training center, at 5600 N.E. 42nd Ave., will be demolished after staff moves into the new one now being built nearby. That will allow construction of the affordable housing project, which was designed by Hacker.

Home Forward, an independent government agency, is leasing approximately one acre of the PCC property to build and operate the housing complex. Units will be available to people who make no more than 60 percent of median family income.

Hacker began designing the housing development in February 2020.

“The project was more heavily geared towards roommates and small families,” Hacker design principal Chris Hodney said.

The units are designed to be flexible. There will be 15 three-bedroom units, 45 two-bedroom units, six one-bedroom units, and 18 studios.

“The building is an ‘F’ shape,” Hodney said. “It creates these two private courtyards.”

One courtyard will be an active play area for kids, with terraces connected by slides. A second courtyard will have multiple gathering spaces as well as outdoor seating adjacent to a communal room on the first floor.

The courtyards will be lined by some ground-floor apartments as well as amenities such as community rooms, management offices and support service spaces.

“Only a small portion of the building fronts Killingsworth just because of the way the site is shaped,” Hodney said.

That frontage is lined with commercial space, Hodney added. The Native American Youth and Family Center signed a long-term lease for space where its programs and services will be accessible by residents. The project design team will be available to help NAYA plan for offices, child care space, and possibly micro-retail spaces for clients such as startup businesses.

With a goal for Earth Advantage platinum certification, Hacker focused on cost-efficient design. Apartments will be only as big as they need to be, building plan dimensions (including floor-to-floor heights) will minimize wood-framing and gypsum-board waste, structural design will eliminate the need for a more expensive post-tensioned concrete slab, and thoughtful placement of exterior glazing will ensure the overall window-to-wall ratio is optimal.

“The building planning and the way we designed the apartment units was all about saving costs,” Hodney said.

O’Neill/Walsh Community Builders is expected to begin construction in June 2023 and finish in August 2024. The estimated total project cost is $24 million.

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 the 91��Ƶ at 503-802-7221 or newsroom@djcOregon.com.

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A renovation is in progress on the Health Technology Building at Portland Community College‘s Sylvania Campus in Southwest Portland. The 100,000-square-foot renovation is the largest project from PCC’s 2017 bond. The HT Building was built in the late 1960s.

Gary Sutton, senior project manager for the Office of Planning & Capital Construction, stated in a press release that there has been visible progress on the building in the past few months. The contractor has completed all of the demolition, seismic and structural work, including the majority of the mechanical, electrical and plumbing rough-in. The new air handler was installed on the roof late last month.

In addition, the exterior glazing is nearly complete around the building perimeter with the new skylight being installed and roofing scheduled to be finished later next month.

Sutton said the building is essentially “dried in,” with interior finishes beginning soon. That work includes the wall framing, sheetrock and ceiling systems. The scope of the job will continue through the end of the year, with the contractor beginning on the first floor and working their way up to the third floor.

The renovation project has included a build-out of many programs, including architecture, interior design, nursing, medical imaging and radiography, physical education and exercise science.

Until 2021, the biology labs used to be nested in the HT building but have moved to renovated space in Sylvania’s Science Technology (ST) Building.

PCC has already replaced the older HT medical imaging lab with a functional space, with a new open layout in the centralized suite.

In addition to ST, the Automotive Metals Building and its systems received several deferred maintenance improvements to the mechanical and exhaust systems, as well as replacement of the electrical gear and the remodeling of some existing classrooms to accommodate physical education classes during the HT renovation. Once HT is completed, the space will be fitted out as a large new classroom for the engineering department.

As part of all of this work, the campus will receive site improvements to enhance campus safety, accessibility, transit and connectivity. Plus, campus sustainability will be improved with increased landscaping and stormwater retention, and additional trees will extend the tree canopy, which can help cool temperatures in parking areas.

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At Portland Community College’s Sylvania campus, in Southwest Portland, an aging concrete building will soon be transformed into a vibrant education hub.

The Health Technology building, constructed in the 1960s, is the third-oldest building on the Sylvania campus. The three-story concrete structure has a partial basement; currently, classrooms can be accessed only from the outside via covered walkways. Inside, low levels of light create a dark, contrasting environment making it difficult to perceive space.

A renovation of the Health Technology building is the largest project to come out of the 2017 bond measure in terms of scale, complexity and cost. The 100,000-square-foot renovation, covering the complex’s entire east side, will cost approximately $75 million.

Portland Community College is working with Hacker on the design. Lease Crutcher Lewis will serve as the contractor.

PCC’s managing architect, Krista Phillips, said the existing building was designed much like a strip mall – great when the weather is nice, but much less so when it’s not.

“(As) it exists today, its material (is) unwelcoming,” she said.

Because of the heavy-duty concrete, major framework adjustments or a rebuild would’ve been too tricky, Phillips said. All of the large concrete columns, low roofs, and overhanging walkways have to stay.

Instead, the design team devised a plan to open and warm up the interior spaces with wood features.

Currently, the atrium is one giant pathway with an oversize staircase, which takes up the entire space; the only thing students can do is pass through. Nick Hodges, a Hacker principal, said the new design opens the area up and shifts the stairs to create multiple platforms where students can stop and linger.

All of the building’s circulation also currently happens on the exterior walkways – creating a disconnection to the space.

Hodges said that around the 1960s, buildings were designed defensively as a response to unrest. This building was intended to allow occupants to park their motor vehicles, walk up and enter a classroom, and then leave without much interaction.

Today, there’s a shift toward collaborative spaces within academic buildings. Hodges said the team wanted the new design to address this idea. The building’s east wing will shift from a transitional zone into a collaborative one. All of the interior spaces and circulation will lead to the atrium; Hodges said this will allow students, faculty and staff to interact and connect better.

“The moves we’re doing are incredibly important and incredibly simple,” he said. “The bones of the building are so prominent that it drives so much of the response.”

All of the other design moves aim to create more visual connections to people and nature within the space, Hodges said. Nature helps ground people in their surroundings, he added, and that will be critical in this space.

Wood elements are being added throughout the building to create visual cues toward nature. Inside the atrium, Douglas fir panels are being added to the wall next to the staircase.

Expanding the views out of the building to nature is one simple move, Hodges said. The existing windows in the classrooms have dark-tinted glass. Instead of making a “big, bold, dramatic” move to a large window, glass is being replaced and a wood frame is being added.

“We knew that we needed to start fresh, with the exception of the structure,” Hodges said.

PCC’s students also requested that all bathrooms be made gender-free and an outdoor courtyard be created.

Trees and nature surround the campus, but there isn’t a place for students to congregate outside of classrooms. Hodges said the lawn is a really simple but important space.

For this whole renovation to occur, the building will need to be clear of all students, faculty and staff and stay unoccupied until spring 2023. The logistics of clearing the building had been one giant puzzle that took more than a year to complete, Phillips said. There are approximately seven programs that had to be transplanted throughout the campus or put into swing spaces. Fifteen additional projects emerged from this one project, she said.

Renovations are set to begin early this summer, after spring classes finish.

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The central Oregon coast is not a hotbed of welding talent. So the Port of Toledo‘s manager, Bud Shoemake, decided to initiate an effort to change that.

Under Shoemake’s supervision, roughly two dozen staffers operate the Port of Toledo shipyard and perform a variety of marine repair and maintenance services. Specialized skills – including welding – are required, and the port has encountered difficulty finding and keeping skilled workers. That led Shoemake, as part of the port’s five-year development plan, to create a pathway for certified welders in the small logging town on the Yaquina River.

“I’ve always said that Toledo was famous for exporting wood products and kids, and what we’re trying to do is get these kids good jobs locally,” Shoemake said.

To make it happen, the Port of Toledo went after and received a $261,285 Maritime Administration Small Shipyard Grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation in June 2019. The port then partnered with Oregon Coast Community College (OCCC) and Northwest Oregon Works, a nonprofit focused on workforce development, and used the grant money to build and equip a 12-bay welding training lab at the Toledo Shipyard Industrial Park. The new lab space will be available starting in February for Lincoln County high school students who enroll in an OCCC welding program. The course is also open to adults seeking to become certified welders.

The college is also offering welding classes at Taft High School, which has its own workspace funded by the Lincoln County School District. Regardless of location, people who complete the new semester-long course will obtain industry certification and become qualified for jobs in a variety of fields.

“They’ll be certified,” Shoemake said. “We use a lot of wire, and we also do some stick welding. And we cut with plasma cutters. But mainly it’s just a lot of wire welding. It’s not ABS certification, which is more for shipyard stuff.”

Preliminary interest in the program when it was announced this past summer suggests there is strong demand locally for such training. Dave Price, director of marketing at OCCC and former director of its small business development center, said the reaction on social media and in real life was much stronger than expected.

“It told us in no uncertain terms there is huge interest in the trades,” Price said. “So we’re doing everything we can to develop that.”

The new welding lab is an offshoot of wider development efforts by the Port of Toledo, which started with the purchase of a boatyard from Fred Wahl Marine Construction a decade ago. Eventually, the Port adopted a new business plan, which included an education component aimed at training new welders.

“We started an internship program in the boatyard last year, and to qualify for that the schools had to have an industrial program or shop classes,” Shoemake said. “Waldport (High School) and Toledo (High School) did, but nobody else did in the district, so that really got us thinking about it.”

More recently, Lincoln County resident Annette Mulee donated to the college $25,000 that will be used to fund 10 scholarships for welding students working out of Taft High School. The scholarships will cover tuition, books, consumables and fees associated with the course.

The courses will be taught by Mike Rasmussen, former department chairman for welding at Portland Community College‘s Swan Island Trades Center in Portland.

It’s not a moment too soon, as far as Shoemake is concerned.

“We did a couple of big projects last year, and we had to hire 13 temporary welders from all over North America,” he said. “We did that just to try and keep up with the schedule.”

Fortunately, OCCC anticipates little difficulty in filling available slots.

“Our big concern is managing expectations,” Price said. “We have 20 bays, so we’ll have one class that runs from February through June. And we’re going to put these 20 students in the new certificate program.”

Then, he added, the possibility of expanding the program could be explored.

“This welding (course) is the beginning of what we expect to be a broader, larger marine technology program,” he said.

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Designing a building with children in mind demands a different touch than most commercial architecture projects.

It requires the careful use of color and light to create spaces that encourage learning and collaborative play. And in the case of Portland Community College’s new child development center on its Rock Creek campus, there also is a strong desire to connect the spaces inside with those outdoors.

“Lighting is a big thing,” said project lead Allyson Oar, an architect with Scott | Edwards Architecture. “We want children to feel connected, not just to the teacher and the inside, but to the outside as well.”

General contractor Kirby Nagelhout Construction Co. of Bend broke ground earlier this month on the 7,800-square-foot facility. It is a new ground-up building with a $7 million bond-funded budget intended to serve as many as 67 children of PCC students and staff. It will have three pre-kindergarten classrooms and an infant classroom, as well as a multi-purpose room that can be opened to the outside via a vertical door.

“We thought a lot about color and how it can help foster a soothing environment for children to learn in,” Oar said. “So, we’re using mostly blues and greens. We wanted to have a connection with this idea that children are connecting with the environment outside, so we felt that pastel blues and greens would give a more natural feeling and a calmer environment.”

To further this idea, nature-based play elements such as logs, sand and a rolling landscape are being used in the facility’s outdoor play area.

Another notable design aspect on the building’s exterior involves the use of standing seam metal and various woods to reflect the appearance of other buildings on the Rock Creek Campus. It also is being constructed to achieve Earth Advantage Certification (EAC) Gold for sustainability.

“It’s actually very similar, but a bit more affordable for clients to get the certification,” Oar said. “LEED can be time consuming and cumbersome for the design team and costly for the client, so some of the smaller certification systems can be more appealing. They push the contractors and designers to push for similar efficiencies at a lower cost.”

Zahava Jones, project manager for PCC, agreed.

“LEED has really been on the forefront, but now there are other programs that are great for smaller projects,” Jones said. “Energy is a big hog, so if you have good systems in place and use healthy materials and the siding is done appropriately to maximize the sunlight, it’s great that there are other programs out there that can help achieve the same goal.”

Jones noted the project will also include a rooftop solar array, but its size and composition have yet to be determined.

Many of the materials used in the project also required careful consideration, Oar said.

“It goes hand in hand with sustainability,” she said. “With little kids crawling around on the ground, we wanted floor surfaces that aren’t toxic; we wanted everything to be as natural and resilient as possible.”

That goal extended from the linoleum used to line the floors to making sure only paints containing no volatile organic compounds were used.

In the end, the project, which is scheduled for completion by spring 2019, is about improving the student experience, according to Jones.

“It’s just really important to know that this is a student service,” she said. “Our goal at PCC is to help students achieve success and give them the best chance to complete their degree or certificate program, so having this on campus will benefit the students greatly.”

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In the months following the June 2014 shooting death of freshman Emilio Hoffman, Reynolds School District officials took a long look at how they could improve security at their schools. Hoffman was shot and killed by a fellow student armed with an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle in the boys’ locker room of the gymnasium at Reynolds High School in Troutdale.

Shootings across the nation at campuses such as Columbine High School in Colorado and Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut have occurred at an alarming rate in the past few decades. These days, existing schools are receiving security improvements and new schools are being built with security in mind. This includes limited access points, automatic locking doors, video cameras, card access and much more. And that impetus to do more grows with each mass shooting.

“Probably since Columbine we’ve been dealing with it,” said architect Karina Ruiz, a principal with Portland’s BRIC Architecture, which designed improvements at Reynolds High School as part of a project led by Bremik Construction.

“It ebbs and flows in terms of districts having heightened concerns about it,” Ruiz said. “Certainly after Sandy Hook there was a considerable amount of work invested at the national and local levels developing guidelines dealing with CPTED (crime prevention though environmental design).”

These days, Reynolds School District officials decline to speak publicly about the latest measures being adopted into existing schools as well as the three elementary schools being rebuilt via a $125 million bond measure passed by voters.

“With our successful bond in 2015, we have been able to incorporate secure vestibules and upgraded security both inside and outside of all the existing and new schools within our district,” said Stephanie Field, a public information officer for the district. “We take the safety and security of our students, families and staff very seriously, and would not want to compromise that security with information published regarding the safety features within and around the schools.”

Information available publicly suggests Reynolds is taking steps similar to those being taken by other districts around the country. Up to two-thirds of all schools now employ active shooter drills, according to a 2017 Government Accountability Office study, and virtually all districts at least have a plan for such scenarios.

In Oregon, none of this is unfamiliar. Paul Odenthal, executive administrator for facilities with the Beaverton School District, said its $680 million bond measure approved by voters in 2014 included $10 million dedicated to security improvements. Despite every school in the district gaining upgrades, he added, more work is needed.

“$10 million is probably not enough today,” Odenthal said. “In 2014 it was an unknown of what we wanted to achieve with the bond other than we knew we needed to do something about security.”

Other local districts currently embarking on construction programs funded by bond money include Gresham-Barlow, Hillsboro, Portland Public Schools and Evergreen in Vancouver, Washington, among others. All include at least some dedicated funding for safety and security measures.

Nonetheless, each of the Beaverton district’s 54 schools, both new and existing facilities, is getting a security overall. These will include single-point entries at elementary and middle schools, as well as double vestibules that place visitors on camera and require staff to buzz them inside through locked doors. High schools, with more points of entry, and larger campuses can prove more challenging to secure.

Ruiz agreed, and said recent school designs at all levels have embraced unobtrusive features such as clearing lines of sight from a school office to parking lots, single points of entrance, target hardening and passive supervision through interior use of transparent windows and surfaces. It’s a compromise between providing enough security and maintaining the feel of a traditional school, she said.

“It has to balance,” she said. “We certainly don’t want our campuses (to) feel like prisons, and we can’t let fear dictate design. But you do need to address it; you need to create spaces that are warm and welcoming and really look at creating spaces that balance the need for safety and security.”

Voters in 2017 approved a $185 million Portland Community College bond measure that will pay for work at four campuses in the city. Linda Degman, director of PCC‘s bond program, noted that enhanced security and safety features have been a fact of life for years.

A decade ago, a system of mass notification for emergency events was installed at each campus for staff and students. This included speakers, indoor and outdoor, hooked up to the central fire alarms system, allowing notifications to be sent out from a central dispatch office at the Sylvania campus.

In addition, card-controlled access doors were installed across the college’s campuses, while perimeter doors were given remote-controlled locks, allowing public safety staff to lock down entire buildings with the touch of a central button.

“So, if there’s an incident at (the) Southeast (campus) they can push a button and lock down the perimeter doors,” Degman said. “If there’s some sort of imminent threat they can lock down the doors instantly.”

Further, a series of classroom or office-based panic buttons have been installed at the four campuses, she added.

One big difference between college buildings and K-12 buildings comes with their end uses. Colleges typically are more widely used by the public and require a greater level of access, limiting the use of certain measures employed at smaller elementary and middle schools.

“We’re a college campus, and there’s always that dynamic,” Degman said. “It’s a little more challenging for us in that we have lots of community members coming in, lots of students coming in and lots of visitors. So the question is: How do we have it open and accessible as well as providing the safety we need?”

In the past, it’s been a “huge issue,” Degman said.

“So, as we’re designing new buildings we limit those accesses down to as minimal as we can get away with, maybe three or four as opposed to 10 or 12,” she said. “We’re not like an elementary school or a K-12 to where we have one point of access. That would not be amenable to the use of our buildings and the use of our facilities, so we need to put other security measures in place.”

The Gresham-Barlow School District has been having the same conversation since voters approved a $291 million capital bond measure in November 2016. Of that amount, $13 million is earmarked for security upgrades, and every school in the district will receive some sort of improvement. Two elementary schools, East and North Gresham, are gaining state-of-the-art facilities that will feature new closed circuit television systems, enhanced radio communications between school staff and bus drivers, internally locking doors, bollards to limit vehicle traffic around school entrances, and revamped entrances that limit public access.

Similar measures also being pursued by Portland Public Schools, which is spending $790 million in bond money approved by voters in May 2017.

Regardless of the measures taken, administrators, designers and builders still strive to create an environment that emulates what students are already used to.

“We want our campuses to be secure,” Odenthal said. “But by the same point, we don’t want to have them feel or appear like a prison.”

Ruiz said that despite the unpleasant nature of the topic, the only solution is to plow forward and find better answers.

“It’s disgusting that we have to have these conversations,” she said. “It’s sad, and certainly it requires a comprehensive solution; it’s not just about school design or about gun control or about access to mental health services. It’s all of that, and those are the conversations we’re having with our clients.”

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With more than $1.5 billion in school construction bonds approved by voters in the Portland metro area in the past year, and the potential for more than $1 billion in additional projects if voters in the Battle Ground and Evergreen school districts in Washington approve two bond measures in February, the education construction market is expected to be hot for local building and design professionals for years to come.

With an eye toward helping local firms in the building industry tap into those opportunities, the Daily Journal of Commerce will kick off a new Builder Breakfast series with a Jan. 31 event. This one, on tap from 7:15 to 9 a.m. at the Sentinel in downtown Portland, will focus on the specific upcoming work opportunities for design and building professionals, as well as suppliers, via several local area school bonds.

The format will feature a panel discussion. Panelists will include:

• Dan Jung, senior director of Portland Public Schools‘ Office of School Modernization ($790 million health, safety and modernization bond passed in May 2017)
• Adam Stewart, chief financial officer and capital projects officer, Hillsboro School District ($408 million capital construction bond passed in November 2017)
• Linda Degman, bond director, Portland Community College ($185 million workforce training center bond passed in November 2017)

Panelists will discuss the types of work they expect will be available, how to find more information on specific projects, what is required of firms to qualify for work on these projects and best practices to obtain and successfully complete education construction work.

The panel discussion is part of the Daily Journal of Commerce’s new quarterly Builder Breakfast series. The event will include networking opportunities, breakfast and a discussion on specific upcoming work opportunities. The cost to attend is $25, or $225 for a table of 10.

Registration is available online at djcoregon.com/builder-breakfast/.

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The four partnering agencies behind a 10-story project tentatively called 4th and Montgomery are in the early stages of exploring the use of mass timber.

The proposed idea was confirmed Wednesday by Alisa Kane, the city of Portland‘s green building manager. Joining the city to develop the project are Portland State University, Oregon Health and Sciences University, and Portland Community College.

The building is planned for a site near PSU known as the Jasmine Block and will feature some retail and commercial space along the classrooms and offices. PSU is leading the project and will be the anchor tenant.

The site was once proposed as the site for the Oregon Sustainability Center, an ambitious high-rise that would have showcased Oregon’s green industry.

The city is a tenant and owner of one floor of the project. Its Bureau of Planning and Sustainability will relocate to the building upon completion.

The project is in the planning stage until May. Move-in is scheduled for fall 2020

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Sofia Urbina told the Make-A-Wish Foundation she wanted a place where she could do her art. Her family had recently stayed in a yurt at the coast, and Sofia loved the roundness of the space and the intimacy it provided.

So she told Make-A-Wish she wanted an “art yurt.”

“First thing, I was like, OK, what’s an art yurt?” said Jake Sly, R&H Construction vice president of preconstruction.

Sly on Friday helped oversee construction of the 12-foot-high structure in the Urbina family’s backyard in Southwest Portland. He was aided by approximately a dozen R&H staffers from various divisions.

Sofia, 7, has Batten disease, a rare genetic disorder that slowly is taking her mobility and vision. Children with it typically don’t live into their 20s. The Urbina family learned she had it a year and a half ago, when she started struggling to see the board in class.

Despite this, Sofia is described as bright, dynamic and often “amazing” by her mother, Marlo Urbina. Sofia loves her friends, and she and her twin brother, Max, clown around almost constantly. Their house is the one on the block where the kids gather after school. Attractions include a zip line, climbable trees and bunnies.

Sofia has a specific, imaginative outlook – certain things should be certain colors, trees should have faces – and around her backyard, they do.

“The girl loves to do art, everywhere, all the time, nonstop,” Marlo Urbina said. “And the thing she hates the most is having to put away her art.”

When Make-A-Wish representatives first met with Sofia, she was more interested in drawing in the backyard. But she drew for them what her wish looked like – a place where she and her friends and her brother could have fun and make art. It would be outdoors, in the round. No grown-ups allowed.

Enter R&H, to help fulfill a fourth Make-A-Wish dream. By this point, the projects are so popular around the office that not everyone who wants to participate gets to do so. Smaller groups are sometimes more productive, Sly pointed out.

Other businesses contributed to the project. Pacific Yurts sold the wood and canvas structure at a discount. Cascadian Landscapers donated the paver materials. Wood Mechanix supplied lumber for the platform. DeBenedetto’s Commercial Flooring donated the carpet, and McDonald & Wetle provided insulation for the decking.

Sly and a few others over two weeks spent some of their off-hours prepping the site. Then the yurt, paver, landscaping and everything else went up in one day. The mood in the backyard on Friday was lively and positive. Marlo Urbina took the day off from work and brought out coffee and cookies. Sofia’s dad, Joe Urbina, stopped by from nearby Portland Community College-Sylvania, where he and Marlo work. A neighbor drove by and asked about donating art supplies. Another told some workers, “We love you guys.”

Then on Saturday, Make-A-Wish officials unveiled the yurt with about 40 friends and neighbors in attendance. They led Sofia out in a blindfold, and when they removed it, her face lit up. The yurt was more than the family had envisioned. It’s weatherproof and well-insulated, and lets in lots of natural light. An overhead window provides views of the stars. The yurt is even wheelchair-accessible, though Sofia doesn’t need a wheelchair yet.

“The idea is that we’re bringing all the inside activities outside, so she can have her own sanctuary,” Sly said. “I was told all of her friends are really excited to come and enjoy this special space.”

Make-A-Wish often arranges meetings between children and their heroes, or sends them on dream vacations. Sofia’s wish will last much longer and be shared with her friends. They’ve already learned from Sofia compassion and patience, Marlo Urbina said. And they’ve learned how to be with someone battling physical challenges outside her control.

The yurt will also be there for Max. Living with his sister as she fights this disease has perhaps helped him mature more than most kids his age, Marlo Urbina said.

“It’s kind of my wish as a parent that the two of them can share this space together and just be brother and sister and make great memories, because they’re going to be really important to Max,” she said. “I think of this project as being really important for him. This is his inheritance. He gets to remember these years with her.”

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