PROJECT: Rose Villa, phase 3

LOCATION: Portland

COST:��$77 million

START: May 2020 (Madrona Grove and Schroeder Lofts); February 2021 (Trillium Townhomes)

ANTICIPATED COMPLETION: August 2022 (Madrona Grove and Schroeder Lofts)

OWNER: Rose Villa

OWNER’S REPRESENTATIVE: Klosh Group

ARCHITECT: Scott | Edwards Architecture (Madrona Grove and Schroeder Lofts)

CONTRACTOR:��Bremik Construction (Madrona Grove and Schroeder Lofts)

DESIGN-BUILD FIRM: Green Hammer (Trillium Townhomes)

SIGNIFICANCE OF PROJECT: Construction is under way for the third and final phase of the Rose Villa master campus. This $77 million project consists of three new structures, including Madrona Grove, a state-of-the-art, 24-hour, long-term-care building with new campus administrative spaces above. The project also includes two new independent living neighborhoods, Schroeder Lofts and Trillium Townhomes, which will surround a half-acre enclosed courtyard garden. Scott | Edwards Architecture, which worked on the Garden Grove and North Pocket independent living homes during Phase 2, is designing Madrona Grove and Schroeder Lofts in Phase 3. Madrona Grove will replace the existing 1960 long-term-care building. The new building will resemble a modern interpretation of a large, airy farmhouse and feature 32 private suites with floor-to-ceiling windows and easy access to outdoor space. Madrona Grove will feature a variety of common spaces, including open kitchens, sunrooms, a covered terrace with an outdoor fireplace, and direct access to the courtyard garden. Each of the first two floors will feature 16 individual rooms. Schroeder Lofts are inspired by the adaptive reuse urban street lofts found in the Pearl District. The four-story loft apartment building will be anchored by a child development center, with 35 apartments above street-level commons. The ground level will feature a clinic, a community room and the Treasure House resale shop. The building will step back at the fourth story, creating exterior terraces for each loft. Schroeder Lofts homes are 86 percent sold. Trillium Townhomes, a collaboration between Rose Villa and Green Hammer, will be a six-unit, zero-energy community built to Passive House standards. It will feature 18-foot ceilings, triple-pane and tilt-turn windows, sustainably harvested bamboo flooring, and ultra-energy-efficient lighting and appliances.

“Building Blocks” is a new 91��Ƶ feature that spotlights noteworthy projects either under construction or approaching the start of construction. To submit a project for consideration, please visit: djcoregon.com/building-blocks.

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As a forward-thinking design-build contractor, Green Hammer is accustomed to tackling projects that push the green envelope. Its latest fits the bill.

In Oak Grove, an unincorporated community in Clackamas County, Green Hammer is wrapping up construction on the Oaks at Rose Villa – a neighborhood of four triplexes. It’s designed to become the first senior living development in the Portland-metro area to receive net zero energy certification from the International Living Future Institute.

All 12 Craftsman-style residences are expected to produce as much energy as they consume. Both active and passive techniques – a large, south-facing solar array on the roof of a shared carport and triple-paned windows, for example – are being used to help achieve this.

Green Hammer architect and design team manager Erica Dunn believes the project has the potential to influence others in the future.

“It’s just about to open, which is really exciting,” she said. “It’s been a really great project and it’s been a lot of fun to work on it with (Rose Villa).”

Rose Villa is the owner and developer of the project, which is being integrated into a 22-acre senior living community featuring a wide range of stand-alone neighborhoods.

“I’ve been here 12 years,” Rose Villa CEO Vassar Byrd said. “And when I came on site it was slowly but surely crumbling at the edges. There was no place to go but up.”

The complex has since been transformed.

“We have a huge group involved in environmental stewardship,” Byrd said. “And this is a great opportunity to really play to the interests of both current and future elders. The idea of taking it one step further as a housing provider was great. It was like, ‘let’s go all the way to a zero-energy footprint.’”

The complex is designed around a central courtyard dominated by a towering heritage savannah oak. Each triplex – wood-framed and with metal roofing – has two ground-level units and one second-floor unit served by both staircase and elevator. Residences range from roughly 1,100 square feet to around 1,600 square feet. Each one is heated and cooled by just a single HVAC unit stashed above the bathroom entrance. Triple-paned glazing imported from Poland and a virtually airtight envelope help insulate the building and keep air quality high.

Byrd admitted that net-zero-energy certification likely added around $50,000 per unit to the final cost, but that didn’t deter prospective residents.

“It does come at a higher price because it’s not a standard yet,” she said. “I wasn’t sure people would put their money down, and as a nonprofit you have to prove the concept before loans are approved,” she said. “But we sold out and it only took about six months max. It was really amazing.”

And down the road, the cost savings generated by the energy efficiency is expected to continue to hold appeal.

“I think that often net zero energy is most appealing to owner-occupied buildings or buildings that owners hold onto,” Dunn said. “So they make a lot of sense for someone who can get dollars for construction but a harder time with operating costs. In senior living we’re seeing a lot of growth in that area, regardless, and I think the (baby) boomers in particular are a group coming out of the ’60s where living their values is really important to them even as they age into community living spaces.”

To earn net zero energy certification from the ILFI, occupants will monitor their energy usage over the next year and compare it with the energy produced by the solar array. If the numbers work out, the project will be certified sometime in 2020.

“We’ve set up a lot of monitoring, but the expectation is zero or very little energy cost,” Byrd said.

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From working on several past projects together, R&H Construction and Rose Villa knew they had much in common. Now, the construction company and the Milwaukie-based senior living community company have one more similarity to talk about when they get together.

In the past six or seven months, both companies have become certified by a statewide campaign to improve the health and wellness of Oregonians using principles developed through a program called Blue Zones.

The program is the result of research conducted by Dan Buettner, who traveled the world identifying places where people were living at least 100 years As he examined the lifestyles of the centenarians he discovered, he found nine similarities – including incorporating moderate activity into daily tasks, maintaining strong connections with family, and regularly using stress reduction techniques – that formed the basis of the Blue Zones program.

The program has since expanded to include a statewide campaign, the Blue Zones Project, which aims to encourage entire communities to work together to support health and wellness in their schools, restaurants and grocery stories, worksites and government centers. The idea of the statewide campaign, which arrived in Oregon last year, is to get everyone in the state to take a small step in adopting one of the Blue Zones’ principles and then share it with others.

“Small changes can add up to big differences,” Karen Swanzy, human resource generalist with R&H, said.

Construction companies have long placed an emphasis on developing strong safety programs. In the past few years, though, the construction industry has been trending toward adding features that support the health and wellness of their employees.

“Our safety program has always been a high priority,” Swanzy said. “But in the last couple of years, it’s become more than just safety; it’s about the wellness piece too.”

Blue Zones Project Oregon offered a way to take the commitment that R&H already had to the overall wellness of its employees and not just reinforce it, but help spread it beyond the company.

“The whole (Blue Zones) platform resonated with me,” Swanzy said. “One of the things I really liked … was that it’s more of a community. If an employee goes home and tells his wife, and their family adopts it, and the kids talk about that at school, you can get the word out and make a big difference.”

In earning a Blue Zones Project certification, which R&H obtained in August, the company has come up with a whole new roster of wellness-related events, from walking meetings and trading out seated desks in jobsite trailers for stand-up desks to organizing company stand-up paddle excursions and bike rides.

Rose Villa also has added new programs and events for its employees since it began working toward a Blue Zones Project Oregon certification, which it received last month. Rene Swar, Rose Villa’s wellness director, said the new approach is already making a positive difference, especially a decision to allow employees to use a pool that previously was reserved for residents.

“The residents love seeing the staff use the pool,” Swar said. “It’s brought people together. The (residents) get to see the staff outside their usual work environment, and the residents are a great inspiration (for the staff).”

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Six Oregon projects were honored recently during the 2016 Gold Nugget Awards event, which recognizes excellence and innovation in complex design-build residential and housing-related efforts.

Two of the projects – 2125 Franklin and the Chehalem Cultural Center – received grand awards while the rest were named merit award winners in the international competition.

2125 Franklin, at the University of Oregon in Eugene, won in the “best campus housing – faculty or students residential – institutional use” category. The five-story, mixed-use project was designed by KTGY Architecture + Planning for developer American Campus Communities. Adroit Construction Co. was the builder.

The Chehalem Cultural Center in Newberg was honored in the “judges’ special award of excellence – rehabilitation” category. The project was designed by Scott | Edwards Architecture and built by Triplett Wellman Contractors.

Scott | Edwards was part of the project team for two merit-level projects: the Albertina Kerr Louise Building in Gresham and the Canterbury residence in Portland. The Louise Building, built for Albertina Kerr Centers, was entered in the “best commercial project under 20,000 square feet” category. The Canterbury residence, built by iBuildPDX.com, was entered in the “best custom house under 4,000 square feet” category.

The Alameda, another Portland project, received a merit award in the “best renovation or restored single house” category. Chris Barlow Architects Inc. was the architect; the builder was Northwest Heritage Renovations.

The Rose Villa‘s Rose Villa pocket neighborhood and town center project earned a merit award in the “best senior housing – on the boards” category. Myhre Group Architects served as the design architect and interior designer while RLPS Architecture served as the architect of record. The general contractor was R&H Construction.

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R&H Construction superintendent Wayne Kunzman, who for nearly two years has been overseeing the firm’s major expansion and renovation of the Rose Villa retirement community in Southeast Portland, performed a cannonball into a new pool at the site earlier this month that raised over $10,000 for the nonprofit community’s foundation.

After an offhand comment from senior housing consultant Craig Witz, Rose Villa’s project manager, that Kunzman had yet to try out the pool, Witz offered to match donations up to $1000 to the Rose Villa Foundation if Kunzman would perform a cannonball. Kunzman anted up another $1000, R&H Construction got involved and other firms and individuals donated to bring the total to $10,120. A crowd of Rose Villa residents, employees, and project officials turned out to watch Kunzman make the leap.

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A generation that has always preferred doing things its own way has started to change senior housing.

Or so say many professionals in the design and construction sectors. A number of firms in the Portland area, including builders like R&H, Perlo and LCG Pence as well as designers like Ankrom Moisan, Myhre Group and LRS, have made senior living a central focus.

R&H is working on four such projects in Oregon – Mary’s Woods in Lake Oswego, Rose Villa in Milwaukie, Cedar Sinai Park in Portland and Dallas Retirement Village in Dallas. The firm is predicting that the future of assisted living will hold more single-floor layouts, highly customizable design and feature options, and further renovations, according to R&H principal Norm Dowty.

“We’ve been in senior housing for some time now, and it continues to be a strong market,” he said.

Bob Boileau of Myhre Group Architects said senior housing is a good fit for the firm because it incorporates Myhre Group’s other core competencies: mixed use, interiors and hospitality.

People entering retirement communities these days tend to want the same things their grandkids want, Boileau said. That’s why the pool has a slide.

“We want them to know what health services we provide, but that’s not what sells,” he said. “It’s the active stuff, and contributing to a neighborhood. And there’s a pent-up demand for this. It’s what a lot of people are looking for.”

is perhaps the biggest senior living facility going up in the Portland area. It is one level, with “pocket-style” units and fun amenities as well as shops and restaurants that face outward, not in. Housing options are also highly customizable.

In general, Rose Villa was intended to feel more small-town and pedestrian-friendly, Rose Villa CEO Vassar Byrd said.

“But the difference is just that we are also on a campus where we also have pretty intensive health care options, so as they get older, people don’t have to face the incredible disruption or chaos of trying to find a nursing home when they’re already sick,” she said. “We have really transformed from what was once called a retirement community to more of a mixed-use community designed to serve people as they age.”

Part of the problem with traditional retirement homes is what Byrd calls an “institutional imperative.” Care facilities for older people have been perceived as cold, sterile buildings resembling medical offices where rules must be followed and the management is in charge. More and more new residents enter Rose Villa with different expectations.

“The baby boomers – they’re not like my grandparents,” Byrd said. “The folks coming online today are used to getting their own way. They understand consumer activism, to getting all the information they are entitled to. You need to partner with them in a serious way.”

The Mary’s Woods nonprofit continuing care facility was established by an order of nuns – the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary – who still sponsor the home and live there. Because of the sisters’ longtime residency in the area (they established an academy here in 1859), they view time differently than other developers, said architect Laurie Linville-Gregston, the project manager for Ankrom Moisan Architects.

The expansion added 200 units for individual living and a 40,000-square-foot commons area with natatorium, dining room, kitchen and administrative space. The facility was occupied throughout the renovation, presenting further difficulties for crews. The project was first proposed in 2003, but given the sisters’ deliberative decision-making – and the Great Recession – numerous revisions were required.

“Their process is a little slow,” said George Signori, an Ankrom Moisan senior associate. “But when the economy crashed, they were glad they hadn’t started yet. And it sat until the sun started shining again.”

Ankrom Moisan designed the tower-style Mirabella in the South Waterfront District. It has more of an urban feel, Linville-Gregston said. But Mary’s Woods was designed to incorporate its tranquil natural surroundings.

With a retail component, Mary’s Woods is also mixed use, like a lot of new assisted living. The shops serving food and drinks cater to drivers of nearby Oregon Route 43. Designers sought to better integrate the campus with its surrounding community, as well as with nature, Signori said. In traditional retirement homes, one enters a closed system without a need to leave.

“This one was intended to be a little more forward-thinking,” he said. “Well, actually, it’s backward-thinking – this is the way they used to do it in the old days.”

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