Pursuit of the Living Building Challenge can require creativity, flexible thinking and a willingness to embrace alternatives to ideals. That is certainly the case for PAE Engineers‘ new headquarters building in downtown Portland. When limitations precluded creation of a net-positive-energy structure, the project team formed a unique partnership with a local nonprofit developer in order to meet requirements.

“Honestly, I think it’s one of the better stories of the project,” said Ed Sloop, a project manager and chief estimator for general contractor Walsh Construction Co.

The PAE Living Building is expected to become one of the largest commercial buildings in the world to gain certification from the International Living Future Institute. For that to happen, the building must demonstrate over one year that it is producing more energy than it consumes, producing more clean water than it consumes, recycling all wastewater produced on-site, and more.

The ILFI uses seven “petals” – place, water, energy, materials, equity, beauty, and health and happiness – to measure building performance. Energy petal requirements at first stumped designers from ZGF Architects, MEP engineers from PAE and project managers from Walsh Construction. Two years ago, the problem boiled down to simple math: A five-story, 58,000-square-foot building on only a quarter-block would have nowhere near sufficient roof space for enough solar panels to produce needed electricity.

“As a team we were all kind of disappointed we couldn’t do it all on site,” said Marc Brune, a PAE principal and a project team member. “There’s something that’s just elegant about the concept of really modeling it after a plant or tree that’s in the forest that’s doing all of its own energy production and water harvest.”

The building’s innovative solar array, with panels facing east to west and assembled in an undulating, articulated manner to maximize surface area, is projected to have maximum output of 133 kilowatts – only around one-third of energy needed.

“If it were a smaller building for the floor area you might be able to get away with it here,” said Walsh project manager Kent Usher, who recently oversaw subcontractor EC Electric‘s installation of the rooftop array.

The project site, in the Skidmore/Old Town Historic District, limited potential solutions. Unlike the well-known Bullitt Center in Seattle, a certified living building also engineered by PAE that has solar arrays overhanging its roof edges, the PAE Living Building could not follow suit.

“Being a downtown historic district,” Usher said, “we had to keep it hidden and under the parapet height so you can’t see it from anywhere.”

Fortunately for the project team, version 4.0 of the ever-evolving Living Building Challenge allows off-site energy production solutions if they are within the same utility district as the project. And after looking around the district, the team targeted the Renaissance Commons affordable housing development on North Argyle Street in the Kenton neighborhood.

Developed by REACH Community Development Corporation and also built by Walsh Construction, the four-story, two-building complex was solar-ready; it already had the structural and electrical components needed to accept a solar array. And Renaissance Commons had three times as much roof space as the PAE Living Building would have.

“I happened to be working with Kent (Usher), who was in the same role on this other project,” Sloop said. “So, having knowledge of both projects – and the other project had a very large roof and a big footprint; I knew it had good solar orientation – so I just threw it out there.”

However, installation of the solar array at Renaissance Commons required financial support from PAE Living Building developer Edlen & Co. The firm, which has backed sustainable elements in many of its projects, agreed to cover the $670,000 cost of placing a 207-kilowatt array at Renaissance Commons.

In addition, the arrangement fulfilled a key requirement of the equity petal, which calls for donation of half a cent or more of every dollar spent on the project to a charity or ILFI’s Living Equity Exchange Program. In this case, REACH CDC qualified because of its affordable housing work.

“From my perspective, it’s really like a best-case scenario when you have a problem and you come up with a best-case solution,” Edlen & Co. partner Jill Sherman said.

REACH CDC’s CEO, Dan Valliere, said the nonprofit was simply taking advantage of an opportunity presented to it. REACH CDC agreed to pay for operations and maintenance of the Renaissance Commons array in exchange for being able to use the power generated on-site.

“We didn’t have to do a lot at the outset,” Valliere said. “It was a great opportunity to add a feature to the building with our partners doing most of the heavy lifting and still learn through the process.”

Meanwhile, the PAE Living Building will serve as an example of how project teams can creatively pursue living building certification.

“I personally think it’s a way of thinking of net-zero-energy production that has the potential to increase the benefit of it beyond the one-building footprint and into the broader community,” Brune said. “It can achieve the same goal as if you’re putting it on your roof, but with benefits for more people.”

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Under construction for a long while now, Renaissance Commons (formerly called the Argyle Street Apartments) is due to open in Portland’s Kenton neighborhood later this year.

The building is rising at 2133 N. Argyle St., on property left over following construction of TriMet‘s MAX yellow light-rail line along North Interstate Avenue.

The vast majority (185) of the 189 units at Renaissance Commons are intended to house current or former North or Northeast Portland residents who were displaced in recent years.

MWA Architects designed the complex, which is technically a single structure. However, it closely resembles a pair of separate buildings connected by a second-story sky-bridge. The building will have a total of 151,555 square feet of floor space.

General contractor Walsh Construction is building the project for developer REACH Community Development Corp. Ground was broken in early 2019, and completion is expected by June.

Currently, crews from several subcontractors are on site performing interior and exterior work. Some include: sheet metal technicians with Pioneer Sheet Metal, electricians with O’Neill Electric, drywall installers with Bridgeport Interiors, HVAC specialists with Jacobs Sheet Metal, finish carpenters with RDF Builders and masons with Kraft Masonry. Tapani Plumbing, Vale Insulation and KO Construction also are working on the project.

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Several months after installation of a massive dry well, construction of the Argyle Street Apartments, in Portland’s Kenton neighborhood, is in one of its busiest stages.

Crews are framing walls, installing mechanical and electrical and plumbing systems, placing windows, and wrapping the building with a weather barrier expected to help the project gain Earth Advantage gold certification.

Walsh Construction is the general contractor for the affordable housing project at 2133 N. Argyle St. REACH Community Development Corp. is developing the project, which was designed by MWA Architects.

Plans call for a single four-story building; however, the complex will more closely resemble a pair of buildings connected via a three-story sky-bridge spanning a ground-floor breezeway. The 189 apartments will be studios, or have one, two or three bedrooms.

Crews are working their way through the building from the ground floor up, Walsh Construction project engineer Scott Rascoe said. MEP subcontractors are not waiting for framing crews to get more than one floor ahead of them, either.

Currently, Wood Mechanix carpenters are framing the second story. Tapani Plumbing and O’Neill Electric employees are working on the ground floor while KO Contracting workers are installing double-glazed vinyl windows.

Use of prefabricated wall panels by Pacific Wall Systems of Olympia, Washington, has significantly reduced the number of carpenters needed, according to Rascoe. Instead of a crew of 30 to 40 carpenters framing walls by hand from scratch, barely half that number are not only framing walls, but also installing joists and sheeting walls, he said.

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A long vacant lot in North Portland is gaining affordable housing.

Walsh Construction is serving as the general contractor for the Argyle Street Apartments, a 189-unit complex that is rising at the corner of Argyle Street and Interstate Avenue – in the Kenton neighborhood.

MWA Architects designed the complex, which technically is a single building. However, it’s more akin to a pair of neighboring structures connected by walkways. The two four-story structures will provide a total of 151,555 square feet of floor area.

The project is intended to serve low-income families and working adults. Longtime and displaced residents of North or Northeast Portland will have priority through the Portland Housing Bureau‘s N/NE Neighborhood Housing Strategy.

After changes in the federal tax code reduced the value of low-income housing tax credits, developer REACH Community Development Corporation was forced to abandon plans for mixed-use programming.

Construction is under way, with crews tackling structural concrete work and sewer lines.

A 55-foot-deep dry well is being excavated this week, with a crew of pile drivers from Vancouver, Washington-based Pacific Foundation utilizing a massive Bauer BG 55 foundation drill rig to carry out the work.

“We’re working hard at getting some footings and columns and shear walls and stem walls built, and today we’re doing the rebar for the slab-on-grade that we’re going to pour, I believe, next week,” said Laura Voss, a project engineer with Walsh Construction. “Then we’ve been doing a lot of plumbing work over here, but it all kind of had to be paused until this rig gets out of the way.”

Originally there were supposed to be three separate dry wells, Walsh Construction project engineer Scott Rascoe said. But geotechnical analysis suggested one location would be superior.

To complete the job, a convoy of trucks delivered the drill rig, including a 6-foot-wide steel caisson that was used to shore up the walls of the dry well as the permanent concrete pieces were set into place. Setting the drill rig up for a single day’s work required three days of prep, Rascoe said, and then three more days were needed to break it down.

“It’s another load just to get the caisson out here,” he said. “And then we’ll fabricate what’s left on site. It takes about one day to drill it. Then we’ll start testing it tomorrow … It’s a big process.”

On Monday, crews from Pacific Foundation and N8 Excavation set the caisson and installed the concrete manholes inside before backfilling. Then the caisson was removed.

“We ended up going a lot deeper with the one location instead of having three separate dry wells on the site,” Rascoe said. “This is one of the largest drill rigs they actually have, which becomes an issue, because there are not many of them. There are only a couple of companies that even do this in the state, so to get someone who has the capability and the knowledge to do this is hard.”

The project team expects construction to finish next year.

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Public comments on a four-story multifamily development proposal for a North Portland property are continuing to be accepted by the city.

The Portland Housing Bureau and REACH Community Development are proposing that the development, the , include a pair of four-story buildings at 2133 N. Argyle St., in the Kenton neighborhood. According to public records, the project would feature 189 affordable housing units, public courtyard space, ground-level community space and 60 surface parking spaces. Of the 189 units, 18 would have three bedrooms and 47 would have two bedrooms.

MWA Architects created the initial site plans and elevation drawings submitted to the Bureau of Development Services, with help from The Bookin Group. Drawings show that both buildings would be constructed around a courtyard or community spaces facing North Argyle Street.

The 2.18 acres hold three separate tax lots owned by TriMet. City and county records show the property has a current combined market value of slightly more than $3.3 million. Existing zoning is for commercial and mixed use. The property is in a design overlay zone, so it is subject to design review; this has not been scheduled yet.

Public comments on the development proposal will be accepted through Sept. 28.

The Argyle Street Apartments project site is near a property targeted by Transition Projects for its Low-Income Single Adult Housing (LISAH) project. Plans call for 36 studios and 36 single-room units in four buildings. Holst Architecture is designing a modular development with prefabricated, timber-framed walls.

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