Portland city officials have approved building codes that allow for the construction of single-staircase multifamily buildings up to four stories, but a requirement inserted at the insistence of fire authorities may make the code unworkable, according to interviews with multifamily experts.

Housing advocates have long championed the potential for single-staircase buildings to provide apartment and condo units in dense urban areas such as Portland.

“It lets you put multifamily buildings on smaller lots,” said Michael Andersen, director of cities and towns for the Sightline Institute, a Seattle-based nonprofit.

On Nov. 4, Portland Permitting & Development issued new code guidance allowing for single-staircase buildings as tall as four stories, in consistency with the updated 2025 Oregon Structural Specialty Code, which took effect Oct. 1.

The prior code allowed single-staircase buildings as tall as three stories, but a fourth story adds more density and, potentially, revenue-generating units, making more projects financially feasible.

The new rules allow for up to 4,000 square feet of total building footprint, with up to four units per floor, for a total of 16 units.

But some outside experts and designers are concerned that a condition meant to provide firefighters with a second point of access to an engulfed building will render plans impossible to construct.

The requirement calls for an unobstructed street width of 26 feet, not including shoulders or parking, and no overhead utility or power lines that would be within 10 feet of an aerial fire ladder extended from the street to a building’s roof.

That could prove a challenge on Portland’s narrow streets, according to interviewees.

“If they enforce this as written and don’t provide alternatives, it makes it almost impossible to find a site to build four-story, single-staircase buildings,” said Iain MacKenzie, a multifamily designer at TVA Architects and a noted local commentator on design and public policy.

Portland’s streets typically have little more than 20 feet of clear width after parked cars and shoulders are taken into account, MacKenzie said.

“All the other conditions (code officials) put on there are totally reasonable and workable,” he said. “But this one thing is a deal-breaker, and it’s not something you can solve by design — it just makes most sites unbuildable.”

A fire official defended the requirement, saying it’s necessary to preserve two access points for firefighters.

“The fact of the matter is a single stair is already a concession to the construction and development industry to maximize livable space on maybe a constrained lot,” said Tom Walsh, assistant fire marshal for Portland Fire & Rescue. “This is already a concession. This is us working with the industry to come up with innovative solutions, but we’ve got to maintain firefighter and occupant safety for fire code.”

The requirement is an “an extrapolation of the existing code language,” Walsh said.

The fire concerns are real — no one wants to go back to the days when entire cities burned down. But housing advocates argue buildings are much more fire resistant than they used to be.

“We required sprinklers, which have been extremely effective at fire prevention, along with modern cladding, fire separation and all the rest,” Andersen said.

The single-staircase discussion filtered down from the International Code Council after several cities approved taller single-staircase buildings. Cities such as New York City, Seattle and Honolulu allow six-story single-staircase buildings, something Andersen said he’d like to see in Oregon.

“We don’t want the only way to add apartments to a block to be to completely transform it,” Andersen said. “We want there to be attractive, family-sized housing sprinkled through neighborhoods.”

A double-staircase design tends to force architects into a design with a long corridor, with a staircase on each side, resulting in units that have windows facing only one direction, MacKenzie said. Think of a hotel.

Housing advocates say single-staircase buildings result in more corner units, and more multiple-bedroom units.

“The single stair is the international standard,” said MacKenzie, who hails from Scotland.

Designers of some smaller projects have found solutions to fire access. Two projects designed by QUAD Architects on Southeast Division Street have no aerial access because of power lines and other obstructions, but they were allowed to build with a large roof hatch and a ship ladder. However, both of those projects are only three stories.

The hatch-and-ladder design requires a fairly flat roof, so firefighters can walk atop it, said Armin Quilici, co-founder and partner of QUAD Architects. The hatch-and-ladder solution, he said, was “pretty simple to do.”

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Multiple public agencies have issued calls for donations of personal protective equipment amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The state of Oregon, Portland Fire & Rescue and the Multnomah County Health Department are among those seeking surplus unused gloves, masks, respirators and other equipment for use by medical staff and first responders, and are reaching out to the construction industry and other groups.

Requested items include latex-free gloves, N95 respirators and filters, other respirators including P100s, PAPRs and PAPR supplies, as well as procedural masks, face and splash shields, and hand sanitizer.

Donations are being accepted in Portland at Portland Fire & Rescue’s fire marshal’s office parking lot, at 1300 S.E. Gideon St., between noon and 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, and at the loading dock of Multnomah County’s headquarters building at 501 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd.

Donations can also be dropped off in Salem, or mailed to: Oregon Dept. of Corrections, Attn: PPE Coordinator, 3601 State Street, Salem, OR 97301.

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Cracking in the facade of the Fifth Avenue Building, in downtown Portland at 1400 S.W. Fifth Ave., caused an evacuation as well as traffic and transit closures on Tuesday.

At about 2 p.m., three hours after the initial emergency call, a Portland Fire & Rescue spokesman, Rich Chatman, confirmed that the problem was not structural in nature and the building was not in imminent danger of collapsing.

A technical team with the fire bureau was first inside. They swept the building and determined it wasn’t in imminent danger of collapse. Structural engineers with the city then began investigating the problem from the inside.

The building is owned by Melvin Mark Cos. The 10-story structure, built in 1951 to house state government services, is a “non-descript state office building,” according to a .

Chatman said the plan was to erect scaffolding to secure loose siding before tenants would be allowed to resume normal operations in the building.

The 130,000-square-foot building houses offices for eBay and Oregon Health & Science University as well as outlets of FedEx, 24 Hour Fitness and KinderCare.

OHSU occupies four floors of the building, and eBay occupies five.

Evacuated OHSU employees said they could hear a crack shortly before being told to leave the building. Several said they assumed the noise came from an ongoing construction project. Some reported hearing a fire; others said it was too quiet to hear.

“It looks like I’ll be working from home for a while,” said Jamie Hinton, an OHSU billing representative who works on the second floor, about one floor below where the buckling appeared.

By 2 p.m., employees were allowed to return to their offices to retrieve possessions, but were told the building would remain closed.

24 Hour Fitness members grumbled outside about missing their lunchtime workouts.

“I guess this means Body Pump is canceled,” one said.

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Two crewmen were seriously injured when one fell from a construction platform Wednesday morning while performing rehabilitation work on the Ross Island Bridge.

A worker with Minnesota-based Abhe & Svoboda Inc. fell 30 feet onto lower scaffolding, injuring a co-worker in the process.

Portland Fire & Rescue received the call at 8:27 a.m. and responded to 3030 S.W. Moody Ave. The two men were attached to backboards by emergency personnel and lowered to the ground using the boom extension of a vehicle parked below, according to Lt. Rich Chapman of Portland Fire & Rescue.

The injured men were transported to Oregon Health & Science University.

The Ross Island Bridge Rehabilitation Project, with a cost in the $30 million to $40 million range, began in 2014, Oregon Department of Transportation spokesman Dave Thompson said. The project involves sandblasting, restoring historic colors and removing lead-based paint.

Abhe & Svoboda Chief Financial Officer Tom Stockert said the company is “cautiously optimistic” about the conditions of the two men. He denied they were father and son, as some Portland media outlets reported.

Falls from height are by far the leading cause of death in the construction industry, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. And falls to a lower level were the leading type of construction fall in Oregon for 2013-15, causing a total of 774 injuries. In 2016, fall-protection requirements were the most-cited rule by Oregon OSHA.

Oregon OSHA is investigating the incident.

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