A Portland State University science building is receiving a major remodel.

The structure known as Science Building 1 when it was constructed in 1967 included offices, teaching labs, and research labs. Now named the Vernier Science Center, it will still have those spaces following an approximately $66.65 million update but also feature a fresh look intended to draw people inside.

Bora Architecture & Interiors designed the project for PSU. Skanska is the general contractor.

Overall, the six-story building at 1025 S.W. Mill St. will decrease in size from 92,000 square feet to 90,000; however, the basement and the ground level will gain space. Some existing walls on the ground level will be removed and glass will be moved 8 feet farther outward. More use of glass will let more natural light into the building. The main floor will feature spaces to suit groups of students.

“We’ve got some ceiling elements that are made out of felt that will help absorb sound to make the space more appropriate for gatherings of students,” said Michael Tingley, Bora’s principal in charge.

Interior materials will include wood on the main level, fir panels around the solid walls near stairs and elevators, and white oak panels as cladding for a special, flexible classroom.

One of the key goals of the project was to create an environment that would draw more students from minority and indigenous backgrounds into science fields. Bora, through its design, worked to transform the character of the building to make it feel more inviting to those students and create spaces to help support them.

That effort began by engaging people of color and indigenous students in discussions. A group of students from minority backgrounds led an outreach process in which they met with faculty members, students, alumni, and incoming students who provided input on resources they need and challenges they face.

Through the outreach process, the project team learned that many of these students connect to families, have children of their own, or rely on a support network including parents or grandparents. The students wanted the building to feature space where their families would be welcome. Bora responded by incorporating a family lounge in its design.

Additional resources in the building will include spaces for tutoring and other support, lounging, and more, Tingley said.

An indigenous science lab will allow students to work with native plant materials and study how they are used for food and medicine. Audiovisual systems in the lab will allow teachers and students to collaborate with indigenous communities around the world.

“We’re making a space that’s intentionally less cold and sterile,” Tingley said. “We don’t have any white classrooms. We’re bringing color and more materiality into almost all the spaces in the building.”

The wayfinding system will be influenced by Pacific Northwest flora and fauna. The concept is for each building’s floor to connect to a specific ecological region, Tingley said. The basement level will be coastal marshland, the main floor will be the Willamette Valley (including a large-scale, deep planter with Pacific Northwest native species), and the theme will continue upward through Western Oregon, the plateau range, the high desert, and the Cascade highlands. The color palette for each floor will reflect those natural environments, beginning with greens on the lower levels up to blues on the top floor.

The project team is working with the state of Oregon on public art commissions for the building. Three artist teams with indigenous backgrounds will create elements for the main floor. These will include wood-carved items, a series of panels of Pacific Northwest indigenous textiles and patterns, and a series of hanging elements based on regional flower species.

The original building had rooftop greenhouses, which will not be maintained, Tingley said.

Selective demolition began last year and finished recently. Construction has begun and is estimated to finish by the end of May 2024.

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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When construction wraps up this fall on a renovation and expansion of the Karl Miller Center, the building is expected to become the most energy efficient structure on Portland State University‘s downtown campus.

Keeping the project on task during the past two years hasn’t always been easy for project team members as they faced challenges ranging from winter snow and ice storms to adjusting work schedules to accommodate occupants using the building during construction.

However, careful planning, clear communication and solid teamwork helped keep the project in the running to qualify for platinum status in the Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design rating program, according to David Dwyer, a project executive with Skanska USA Building.

When pursuing the highest level in the LEED program, every point counts. So while the building was being gutted completely, any material that couldn’t be reused was recycled, Dwyer said.

An atrium and pavilion, representing 40,000 square feet of new construction, feature materials that maximize daylighting. A passive cooling system includes windows that open automatically to allow cool air to enter the space, Dwyer said. Once a specified temperature is reached, the windows automatically close. A series of fans then circulate the air to maintain a consistent temperature throughout the space.

The pavilion, on the north side of the building, also has the capacity to perform what Sam Stadler, project architect and project manager for SRG Partnership, describes as a “night flush.” During hot times of the year, the automated windows open at night to allow hot air that has built up in the space during the day to be released while allowing in cool air.

“In the morning, the building actually closes,” Stadler said. “It’s like the building is breathing.”

The exterior of the new addition features Alaskan Yellow cedar siding, which is rated by the Forest Stewardship Council and will help the building score LEED points.

“Originally, it was designed as a mass timber structure; that really didn’t price out,” Stadler said. “We were looking for other ways to integrate wood and a suggestion was made to use wood cladding. It was a genius move. The distinction between the renovation and the new portion is really aided by the cladding.”

The experience of the project team – from the main team of general contractor Skanska and designers SRG Partnership and Behnisch Architekten to a list of subcontractors – wasn’t just critical to maintain high standards for sustainability. It also helped keep the project on schedule despite some hefty challenges.

“Everybody’s been through this rodeo before,” Dwyer said. “You begin it (in) the problem-solving mode and you move on – that’s just construction. You might be surprised by some things, but it’s an organized chaos.

The organization factor came into play even before construction began. The Karl Miller Center serves as the home of PSU‘s School of Business, which meant that the building would be occupied while construction took place. The solution the team came up with pays tribute to the origins of the building.

The Karl Miller Center was actually built in two phases, between 1979 and 1989. In order to undertake rehabilitation, the team moved occupants and daily activities into one half of the building. A wall was built to separate the two sides of the building. Electrical, mechanical and other systems, all located in the center core of the building, were decoupled so that crews could begin gutting the empty half of the building. Once all rehabilitation work was complete, occupants were relocated to the newly renovated portion so crews could tackle the rest of the building.

But even with such careful planning, there still were times when anticipated work had to be delayed or rescheduled.

“You can’t have jackhammers going when students are taking a (midterm or final) test,” Dwyer said.

The project encountered another unexpected delay this past winter when snow, unusually cold temperatures and freezing rain combined to shut down work on projects across the Portland-metro area for several days.

In order to recoup some of that lost time for the Karl Miller Center, Dwyer said, some work had to be re-sequenced. Extra workers were brought in and some strategic overtime was added. Those small changes made a big difference over the span of a few months.

“We’re down to the last 5 percent of the job,” Dwyer said. “We’re on track to finish on time. We’re going to get there.”

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Portland Community College plans to build a 20,000-square-foot training center in Scappoose as part of a new venture: the Oregon Manufacturing Innovation Center.

Last week, the Oregon Legislature released $7.5 million for the project, also known as OMIC. The center is backed by Oregon State University, Portland State University and Portland Community College, along with Boeing and groups such as Business Oregon, the city of Scappoose and the Oregon Employment Department.

Plans for the OMIC call for both a research and development center as well as a training center. The research and development center will be housed in an existing building that the Oregon Institute of Technology has committed to purchase. It will have about 25,000 square feet for research and development and 10,000 square feet for classroom, business and office use, according to a news release.

PCC also wants to build a training center holding approximately 20,000 square feet, said Nathan Buehler, spokesman for Business Oregon, an economic development group. The community college is currently negotiating with the property owner to build a facility, he said.

A PCC spokesman was out of the office and could not be reached for comment.

In addition to OSU and PSU, Boeing will serve as an anchor tenant, the groups said in a news release.

OMIC is modeled after the Advanced Manufacturing and Research Center in Sheffield, England. AMRC Sheffield is a 400-acre campus that employs 2,000 engineers and apprentices, and provides 800 member companies with access to training.

OMIC is slated to formally launch by 2017, although advanced manufacturing research activities by Oregon Tech, OSU and PSU are poised to begin immediately. Also, PCC will begin OMIC apprenticeship programs at its Rock Creek and Sylvania campuses until the new training center is built.

In April, PCC’s board of trustees passed a resolution allowing the college’s president to move forward with the purchase of property for the training center.

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Portland’s Fortis Construction and Hennebery Eddy Architects are at work on an extensive, $10.5 million renovation of the University of Oregon‘s Chapman Hall.

The historic building on the Eugene campus was built in 1939 to house the university’s bookstore and humanities departments. It’s now home to the Robert D. Clark Honors College, with a large lecture hall and several smaller classrooms.

Crews will upgrade Chapman Hall’s building systems, including heating, ventilation, electrical, plumbing and lighting, according to the university. Work also will involve interior partition revisions and material enhancements.

The project is in the design phase. Design completion is targeted for July 1, and project completion is expected on Dec. 1, 2017.

The renovations are being paid for via $5.5 million in deferred maintenance X-bonds, $2.5 million in state G-bonds and a $2.5 million donor-matching grant, according to the university.

Chapman Hall, designed by Ellis Lawrence, features concrete walls and brick veneer. It’s among the historic buildings that front Memorial Quad.

Oregon’s public universities are hotbeds of construction activity. A major expansion is under way at Oregon State University‘s Cascades campus in Bend, while Portland State University is planning a new multiuse arena called Viking Pavilion as well as potential renovations to Smith Memorial Student Union.

The University of Oregon is also planning to renovate Dean Hall and build a $35 million, 50,000-square-foot College and Careers Building. Willie and Don Tykeson of Eugene in 2014 presented a $10 million lead gift for the College and Careers Building.

Fortis Construction is also leading construction management and general contracting for bond-funded projects at Portland Community College‘s Rock Creek campus. Shane Kucera, spokesman for Fortis, said that more than 80 percent of the firm’s projects are CM-GC builds.

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Extensive research by two local architectural enthusiasts is shining a spotlight on some influential early Portland architects.

Robert Mercer, assistant dean at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Portland State University, and Jim Heuer, chief technology officer at Evos Logistics, met in Portland and have been a couple for 27 years. Their love of architectural history has evolved over time.

Mercer grew up in Northeast Portland and said he loved going with his mother to shop at the Lloyd Center because of the old houses they’d pass along the way.

“It was just one of those lifelong things that I was fascinated with old houses, and Jim experienced the same thing growing up in Illinois,” Mercer said. “We never did much about it, but if we’d go somewhere, we’d take old house tours.”

Heuer and Mercer started conducting serious architectural research about 16 years ago, when they bought their house and learned that it was designed by architect Emil Schacht in the early 1900s. That led to the couple giving a presentation on Schacht’s work for the Architectural Heritage Center about 10 years ago. He was known for American Craftsman-style designs, particularly in the Willamette Heights neighborhood.

“He came to town in about 1885 or ’86 and died in 1927,” Heuer said. “He did hundreds of projects, was very creative and introduced arts and crafts and craftsman styles to Portland.”

Then in 2008 Heuer and Mercer delivered a presentation on the work of architect Joseph Jacobberger. On Saturday will give an updated version of that lecture, “Hidden Brilliance: The Residential Architecture of Joseph Jacobberger,” at the Architectural Heritage Center.

Heuer and Mercer spent many months researching Schacht, scouring old newspaper archives and researching the details of all of the houses – approximately 100 – he designed. Next they tracked down the homes’ current owners and invited them to a party spotlighting the homes’ history. To the couple’s surprise, people representing 70 of the homes showed up.

“We are strong believers that if you know the history of your house and community, it enriches your life and sense of belonging,” Mercer said.

The couple spent three years tracking down details about Jacobberger’s designs for private homes in Portland. They started by spending a week at the University of Oregon‘s Knight Library taking digital photos of hundreds of his designs. Then they visited the physical locations of more than 100 surviving houses and took more pictures.

“Jim is really an architectural photographer,” Mercer said.

But Heuer and Mercer didn’t stop there. Next they wrote letters and even knocked on the owners’ doors to ask if they could take interior photos.

“Amazingly, a great many people said, ‘That’s cool; come on in,’ ” Mercer said.

Their research yielded voluminous information on Jacobberger’s career, which Heuer and Mercer distilled into a 125-page presentation and 22 pages of detailed listings of all the houses he designed.

Architect Bill Hawkins, author of “100 Years of Great Portland Houses,” said the research performed by Heuer and Mercer is indispensable in bringing the work of architects like Jacobberger and Schacht to the forefront.

“It’s astounding how much work they put into it,” Hawkins said. “They used their wonderful talents in bringing up very important architects who had big practices but are just not known today.”

Heuer and Mercer also researched and presented at the AHC a program on architect Alfred Faber, who moved to Portland from Philadelphia in 1904 and was one of the first to popularize the bungalow style in the Northwest.

The couple has chosen to research architects working from the late 1890s to World War I, Mercer said, because it was a time when the middle class had money to build homes and hire architects to design them.

“Portland was the fastest-growing city in the country in 1910,” he said. “It grew 130 percent between 1900 and 1910 and doubled again between 1910 and 1920.”

Val Ballestrem, education manager at the Architectural Heritage Center, said it’s indebted to Heuer and Mercer for contributing to its efforts to preserve Portland’s architectural history and for uncovering information on early prominent architects.

People tend to remember only famous Portland architects like John Yeon, A.E. Doyle or Pietro Belluschi, Ballestrem said. Others “had fallen under the radar and had been forgotten,” but undeservedly so, he said.

“They had prolific and lengthy careers locally and did work that has lasted,” he said. “That’s what architecture is all about.”

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All signs point to a strong market for single-family homes this year, with tight inventory propelling prices higher.

Portland-area homes sold for a median price of $335,000 in March, a 15.5 percent jump from $290,000 a year earlier, according to listing service RMLS.

Meanwhile, houses are also selling faster. Time on market fell to 51 days, down from 75 days in March 2015.

Portland has one of the nation’s hottest real estate markets. The city had the strongest price increase in the nation in February at 11.9 percent, compared to a year earlier, according to the closely watched S&P/Case-Shiller 20-City Home Price Index.

“When a good property comes on the market, it’s sold quickly,” said Jeff Wiren, principal broker with RE/MAX Equity Group in Portland. “It still needs to be priced competitively, but if it’s priced competitively, it will likely get multiple offers.”

New listings remain scarce, with only 3,409 homes coming on the market in March, down from 3,596 a year earlier.

Tight inventory affects everything

Low inventory is perhaps defining Portland’s real estate market this year. Although listings are seeing a seasonal increase, they remain far below what is normally seen this time of year.

“Probably the biggest challenge today is finding homes,” said Bil Willis, principal broker at ERA Freeman and Associates in Gresham.

That is putting a lid on the overall market, he said. Pending sales fell 9 percent in March, compared to a year ago, according to RMLS.

“Our market is plateauing in some respects because there just isn’t enough inventory to meet the demand,” Willis said.

Tight inventory has a compounding effect, agents said. Potential sellers are unwilling to jump into the market because they don’t want to sell their existing home before they can lock down a new residence.

“Think about a frog jumping across a lily pond,” said Mark Meek of Summa Real Estate Executives in Clackamas. “If there’s no lily pad to jump onto next, you’re a little unwilling to make that leap.”

Willis agreed.

“If the seller sells their home, they have no place to go,” he said. “They’re very hesitant about finding themselves homeless.”

Another problem is that in increasingly common multiple-offer scenarios, contingent offers often don’t measure up. Sellers, in addition to the highest price, want the simplest transaction available.

Inventory could begin to ease as new home construction comes onto the market in places such as Hillsboro, Happy Valley, unincorporated Washington County and some limited infill in Portland proper. But real estate agents said they don’t expect new inventory to make much of a dent in demand this year.

Builders in the fourth quarter of 2015 were issued 3,261 permits for private housing in the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro Metropolitan Statistical Area, according to Portland State University’s Center for Real Estate. That was a 5 percent increase from the same period a year earlier.

“I think we’re starting to see some new construction come on board, but it just can’t come on fast enough,” Wiren said.

Now that the market has come roaring back from the recession, there’s a lag as projects take more than a year from conception to completion.

The lack of single-family homes is pushing some buyers into the condominium market, which has seen a revival since dropping off during the recession.

“I’m seeing a huge demand in condominium sales,” Wiren said. “There’s just nothing available in the detached market.”

Jessica Tindell, principal broker of Tindell & Co., recently sold a Pearl District condominium to a buyer from California who is starting a residency at Oregon Health and Science University.

The condo market is “very aggressive,” Tindell said. “We’re seeing condos go probably $50,000 over asking (price).”

One wild card: Intel recently announced it will lay off 784 employees at its facilities in Hillsboro and Aloha. That could pry some housing stock loose in Washington County as former Intel employees move elsewhere.

“If a whole bunch of homes go on the market all at once, that’ll make it more competitive for buyers,” Meek said.

Cash sales

Cash is king, goes the old saying. It remains relevant as buyers from other areas – particularly California, Seattle and even abroad – sink money into Portland real estate.

Cash offers are increasingly common, and winning out among multiple offers.

“I’ve seen more cash (offers) in the last three years than I’ve seen in the 30 years prior to,” Willis said.

Swollen home values in California, Seattle and other West Coast markets are driving cash offers in Portland.

“Their price point is a little bit higher,” Meek said. “The cash buyers are from out of state, a lot of them. But there are some cash buyers in state.”

In some cases, in-state cash buyers are downsizing from a large home to a more modest residence that fits an empty-nester lifestyle.

Pondering the market’s future

“It’s a very different circumstance and I don’t see this bubble bursting,” Tindell said. “I see Portland continuing to be a place of development and growth and opportunity.”

Portland and Oregon continue to attract in-migration. Overbuilding often presages a bubble bursting, but Portland has an acute lack of inventory. Interest rates remain low, and regulators have not seen fit to encourage anything more than a modest, gradual rise. And mortgage lenders are more careful than during the run-up to the Great Recession.

Some observers see clouds on the horizon. Wage growth remains far below housing appreciation. Student and credit-card debt are holding back some first-time homebuyers. And anything from further corporate layoffs to an economic reckoning in China could eventually pop the bubble, or at least slow its rise.

But for now, those concerns seem remote.

“I would tell buyers to get in while they can,” Tindell said. “The housing market is a good, stable thing to put your money into.”

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Designing landscapes to serve a diverse population is a complicated process, but one that can benefit entire communities. But some observers say that process in the Portland-metro area needs to be better at including minority populations.

Randy Gragg, director of the John Yeon Center for Architecture at the University of Oregon, said the city and Multnomah County need to be more inclusive.

“We have not done a very good job and could improve our game a lot,” he said.

The solution may be for government officials to do more of what community groups have done – go into neighborhoods to reach people instead of relying solely on input gathered at public meetings.

Changing demographics and input collection

Portland is becoming more and more diverse. From 2000 to 2010, its nonwhite population grew from 25 percent to 28 percent, according to , which cited data from Portland State University’s Population Research Center.

Portland’s population in 2015 was about 9 percent Hispanic or Latino, 7 percent Asian, 6 percent African-American and 1 percent Native American, with lesser numbers for Pacific Islanders and others, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Recent immigrants to Portland include families from: Ukraine, Romania, China, Vietnam, Somalia, Afghanistan, Turkey, Bhutan and the former U.S.S.R, to name but a few, said demographer Charles Rynerson, a research associate at the PSU center.

Connecting with people in so many different cultures can be difficult. Metro’s normal public input collection process for a park, for example, is to form a stakeholder advisory committee and then hold four public meetings. But that isn’t enough to reach underserved populations, said Olena Turula, a landscape architect and project manager for Metro.

However, Metro is beginning a study to determine the best ways to reach minority populations. The effort is expected to require 18 months.

“We’re just a little ways into it,” Turula said, “but it’s about taking time to build relationships with people.”

The city of Portland, meanwhile, also is seeking new ways to reach people in ethnic neighborhoods, such as connecting with community leaders and local groups. But the city’s outreach process still relies heavily on evening open houses – and not everyone can attend meetings at night, according to Laurie Matthews, president of the American Society of Landscape Architects’ Oregon chapter. Plus, people in some cultures distrust authority and aren’t comfortable in those settings, she added.

“This is one of the most pressing issues facing landscape architects today,” she said. “I have high hopes that Portland will make some significant changes and be a leader in terms of public process and design in terms of equity and diversity.”

Portland Parks & Recreation is trying to be more inclusive in its efforts, bureau director Mike Abbate said. A recent symposium by ASLA Oregon impressed him.

“It just tells me people in the design professions are trying to figure out what it means to design a thing equitably for communities,” he said.

Abbate said the parks bureau is connecting to minority populations in several ways, often through churches and community centers, and through sports like soccer and basketball.

“We have to go out to those folks, have relationships with leaders and mentors and entice them to bring people in,” he said.

Diane Jones Allen, a landscape architect and principal at DesignJones LLC in New Orleans, spoke at the ASLA forum and said the old methods of holding open houses or initial design charettes do not work very well.

“A charette means you come in and stick pins on a map but at the end (what is built) is nothing like what you really wanted,” she said. “It’s better to get to know the community members first and then keep them in the entire design process. It’s a longer process but you have to have a commitment.”

Walker Macy works on a lot of public projects, said Chelsea McCann, a landscape architect at the firm. Over time, it has discovered that to collect public input, there are better ways than holding meetings, she said. For instance, by first engaging community leaders and groups Walker Macy is able to reach more people.

“It’s a lot more legwork, but diversity of feedback is much improved,” she said.

Diving into communities to serve all populations

The success stories of spaces designed for diverse populations are mostly community-driven. Lee Dayfield, the driving force behind development of in Gresham, said she knew how important it was to consider the surrounding Rockwood neighborhood, which has a large Hispanic population.

Months of community outreach, led by planning and design firm MIG Inc., started with a declaration of cooperation by community members and 17 partners, including Human Solutions, the city of Gresham and the Audubon Society, to devise a plan.

One of the group’s preferences was for covered picnic tables, though Gresham city councilors were hesitant to approve that aspect because they were worried the tables would attract “ne’er-do-wells,” Dayfield said. She finally told the councilors that they would never know if the plan would work unless they at least tried, she said.

“You can’t not build things out of fear,” she said.

The park, which is owned by city, has covered picnic tables, walking trails, a nature play area, many educational programs and a 50-plot community garden. It brings different cultures together, Dayfield said.

“We have people from all over the world (visit the park),” she said, “and the most amazing thing is that some of them have seeds from their own country, from Taiwan and Africa, and with Russians and Asians and Hispanics.”

Gresham Mayor Shane Bemis praised the volunteer and collaborative effort to create the park.

“Not only is Nadaka a great example of community involvement in design, it is a perfect example of the community really leading the way throughout the project,” he said.

MIG Inc. also led much of the public outreach for the in North Portland. Landscape designer Madeline Carroll worked with the Community Cycling Center to gather input from even the youngest members to inform design, said Christina Frank, a landscape architectural designer with MIG.

“The kids were involved, even after the park was built,” Frank said. “She engaged the kids with thinking rules of engagement, making it safe for everyone.”

Another collaborative design in the works is the one for Cully Park, said Tony DeFalco, eco-district coordinator for community group Verde.

DeFalco said he has renewed hope that the landscape architecture community can help create a Portland that has more inclusive outdoor spaces – whether public, private or nonprofit – that reflect neighborhoods’ heritage and history.

Donita Sue Fry of the Native American Youth and Family Center knows about valuing her heritage. For years, she’s been involved in planning for Cully Park, on a site that formerly held a Native American culture. That inclusion might not have happened without community input like hers, she said.

“Native American history is American history and when we are not acknowledged in public spaces and trails we are perpetuating institutional racism,” she said.

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With an eye toward improving the construction industry’s dismal retention rates among female and minority apprentices, Oregon’s Bureau of Labor and Industries has given nonprofit Oregon Tradeswomen Inc. grant money to promote harassment-free workplaces.

The two-year, $200,000 grant will fund efforts to raise awareness of “expectations of respectful workplaces through improved communication and behavior change,” according to a news release. Trainings will also cover “bystander interventions (and) other avenues for addressing disrespectful or discriminatory treatment on the job.”

The money is from the Federal Highway Administration, through the Oregon Department of Transportation‘s Workforce Development initiative.

The pilot project will focus on Newberg-Dundee Bypass construction. The infrastructure enhancement project is intended to reduce traffic congestion along the Oregon Route 99W corridor in the Yamhill Valley. Both prime contractor Hamilton Construction and Portland State University will donate staff time to support the effort.

According to a study by PSU, women and people of color were less likely to complete highway construction apprenticeships, with completion rates of 32 percent by male minorities, 26 percent by white women and 19 percent by female minorities, compared to 41 percent for white men.

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With approval from the Portland Design Commission, the $45 million renovation and expansion of Portland State University‘s Peter W. Stott Center can at last proceed.

Planning for the upgrade of the center at 930 S.W. Hall St. has dragged on for a decade, said Dan Zalkow, PSU associated vice president for planning and construction.

At a previous design review hearing, Zalkow called the existing center one of “the ugliest buildings on campus,” but the improvements are expected to change such opinions. The building’s west side will gain extensive maintenance, while the east portion will be reconstructed to hold a new multipurpose arena, Viking Pavilion, with 3,400 seats.

The project is being designed by Woofter Architecture and Denver-based Sink Combs Dethlefs Architects. When construction is complete, the Stott Center will include a café, a student lounge, classrooms with athletic uses and bike parking.

In the past, the building “turned its back” on the Park Blocks, architect Miles Woofter said, but the new design will include a small terrace below the glass-walled entrance that will be open and welcoming to the pedestrian green space.

But it was the terrace that elicited the most discussion at Thursday’s meeting. The terrace sits on a 7 percent grade, and the design includes a series of steps that descend parallel to the building with a brass railing on the outside.

Jane Hansen of Lango Hansen Landscape Architects told commissioners that in the terrace area, seating would be better than small shrubs. Seating is scattered throughout the terrace and along a long wall about 40 inches high slightly below the entrance. Hansen suggested having ivy climb the wall, but commissioners preferred the wall feature artwork or patterned brick.

“I like more patterned expressive brick if you could do it architecturally without any landscaping,” Commission Chairman David Wark said.

Commissioner Tad Savinar said the entrance should impress alumni.

“This doesn’t make people want to write checks,” he said of the design.

But commissioners agreed that art on the wall could make a big difference.

“This is a great space to sit and be outside, and a masonry wall with art would be lovely,” Commissioner Julie Livingston said.

Woofter said PSU has $300,000 allocated for art. He is working with the Oregon Arts Commission to that end.

Commissioner Don Vallaster said he would like to see adjustments to the railing because it presented a barrier, and Woofter said the railing could be shifted to the center of the stairs.

This was the third formal design review for the project. The latest design features more glass at the building’s corners, expanded student area and Viking green-colored spandrels.

The design was approved unanimously with conditions that designers work with city staff to determine how the masonry wall on the terrace would be treated, with either art or patterned brick.

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A ton of research for the building industry is happening at local universities. It’s all state-of-the-art and expensive; some of it is even proprietary.

University researchers with big budgets study many broad topics such as seismic retrofitting, air quality and energy conservation. Smaller-scale research for specific new products developed by startups and small businesses is underwritten by grants and loans – much of it provided by state-funded nonprofit Oregon BEST.

Kevin Van Den Wymelenberg is director of the University of Oregon’s Energy Studies in Buildings Laboratories, in Eugene and Portland. He said his labs are working on many projects, and that the research helps companies not only validate their products but also connect to each other.

“We work with a lot of different industry partners and it’s an opportunity to be an aggregator and cast the wide net and maybe make matches,” he said.

“And we have really, really deep knowledge in specific problems. Our real work is problems we have right now and how we can help make that research more meaningful.”

Such research is making possible the validation of groundbreaking and innovative building products and practices. Here are some of the latest developments:

Formaldehyde-free wood adhesive

One new product about ready to hit the market is a formaldehyde-free wood adhesive that can be used to make particle board and other manufactured wood products.

Hugh Mandel, owner and CEO of Corvallis-based EcoPro Polymers, has been working with Fred Kamke of Oregon State University’s Department of Wood Science and Engineering to test and develop his new glue.

Mandel said the research had an unexpected benefit by connecting him with his first client, Spekply, which has its own product being tested at OSU. Spekply creates wood-like products for specialty architectural panels and other products using agricultural waste, including hemp stalks and sunflower hulls.

“Spekply was looking to develop specialty architectural panels and we collaborated with them and did some pilot testing at OSU,” Mandel said. “We are ready to scale up for them whenever they are ready to produce. (The research) helped us a great deal.”

Kamke said EcoPro’s adhesive has been tested in phases over the past year and a half.

“The whole premise is to provide an alternative adhesive system for many types of wood products that does not contain formaldehyde,” he said. “This new commercial venture would not have been possible without Oregon BEST.”

Reduced-concrete wind tower base

Another emerging company, RUTE Foundation Systems of Portland, is working with Franz Rad, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Portland State University.

Doug Krause, president of RUTE, said his design for a wind tower base will cut down by 75 percent the amount of concrete used for wind farm turbine towers, which can reach heights up to 400 feet.

“As far as launching and making all other parts of the train roll right, they helped a ton in making leverage and getting the test project out there,” he said of Oregon BEST.

Rad said he has been working with Krause for about year. Everything is still in the design phase.

“What we’re trying to do is eliminate most of the concrete that is used,” Rad said. “It’s not because we don’t like concrete, but it is such a big heap.”

A wind tower’s base can be 8 feet deep and 40 to 50 feet wide to support the tall turbines, he said, which essentially makes it a permanent fixture.

The problem is that sometimes wind towers need to move because of changing weather patterns or greater need elsewhere. With the existing building method, that’s almost impossible to do, Rad said, and potential farming land is wasted.

“You can’t get rid of that heap of concrete and would have to spend lots of money to come in and dynamite it out,” he said.

The solution that RUTE came up with and that PSU is testing is a portable “hexapod” – a six-legged precast concrete structure that can be assembled in pieces and removed the same way.

“Once precast, these beams are pretty massive themselves – about 50,000 pounds each and 24 feet long,” Rad said. “The cross-section is 3.5 feet wide by 7 feet deep with a lot of reinforcement and post-tensioning systems inside. It’s a very stout beam.”

The beams, still being designed, will be able to handle 14,000 pounds of pressure per square inch. The six legs will be attached to a center hub about 17 feet in diameter, Rad said. Towers will be delivered to sites and bolted into the “hexapods.”

“Then all the equipment has to be installed – electronics and propellers – so we can eliminate most of the concrete and make construction easier,” he said.

A tower might stay in use for decades, Rad said, but once it is no longer needed, people will be able to move it.

“We can take the beams out and then reuse them somewhere else so the land can be plowed back into a cornfield,” he said.

Rad said he is also researching new methods to produce steel that is twice as strong and concrete that is three times stronger.

Better ways of capturing wind energy

Raul Cal, professor in PSU’s Mechanical and Materials Engineering Department, is studying wind energy for three proposals. Portland General Electric is providing grant money for one proposal and the National Science Foundation is covering the other two.

“Each one has a different scope, but all of them are looking toward how to increase capacity factors or be able to extract power out of wind farms in a better, more informed way,” Cal said.

Specifically, PGE has anted up about $750,000 for the PSU lab to conduct research on its Biglow Canyon Wind Farm in the Columbia River Gorge.

“They are interested in understanding what is happening with their farm and how they can product more energy,” Cal said. “We use wind tunnel experiments to try and replicate what they have and give them a better idea on how to harness the wind.”

Many people worked on the project, but Cal said high school student Jorge Reyes made a significant contribution by spending three of his summers as an unpaid intern constructing the terrain.

Efforts to increase seismic strength

Thomas Schumacher, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at PSU, is working with associate professor Peter Dusicka on seismic research.

Schumacher, who joined PSU last year, also is continuing his collaboration with Erik Thostenson of the University of Delaware on “a big federally-funded project” looking at carbon nanotube sensing of seismic events.

The nanotubes form an electrically conducive network. When the skin is put on the structure, an electric current is applied to the network in different places. Once a structure deforms or experiences tension, the skin deforms as the nanotubes in that area move away from each other. The amount of change in the skin can then be measured to determine the severity of the damage or stress.

Schumacher said he is still in the process of building his lab at PSU and working on other research, such as acoustic emission monitoring that can measure the effect of real-time seismic events.

“We measure dozens of sensors in a network and using advanced signal processing can figure out the location and type of source and the nature of the source and capture it as it occurs,” he said.

Other research can help measure damage from earthquakes by using ultrasounds to determine loads being carried by structures such as concrete columns.

“We can actually send stress waves through a material and determine the level of applied stresses on that element,” he said.

Another experiment at PSU uses digital cameras to take videos of how buildings vibrate, Schumacher said.

“We use signal processing to analyze individual pixels and see how the pixel changes as a function of time,” he said. “We get information on frequency and in some cases even the amplitude or vibration or displacement.”

Dusicka’s research concerns structural strength in seismic events. He is trying is to create a type of brace that becomes a “sacrificial” element able to absorb some of the energy of a seismic event and perhaps ensure a bridge’s continued use.

“And while that component gets damaged, it protects the rest of the bridge with the idea that you can come back and replace that component,” he said. “In effect, you are trying to have a sacrificial bit within the bridge that will hopefully protect the rest.”

Typical bridges have two or three spans with several columns in between, Dusicka said.

“This strategy we’re pursuing right now is introducing these special braces into where the columns normally sit so that when an earthquake comes through, the braces take most of the damage and protect the rest of the columns,” he said.

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