Bremik Construction recently completed an interior renovation of the 128-year-old Fechheimer & White Building on Southwest Naito Parkway for owner John Russell of Russell Development Company, Inc. The building’s floor plan was reorganized and offices were opened up to give the space an open feel. Portions of floors were removed to create light wells, and the building received a full seismic upgrade. Other partners on the project included Leeb Architects and Grummel Engineering.

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In November, a small cross section of Portland’s building industry gathered in a dark, smoky foundry to witness a rare execution of modern cast-iron craftsmanship.

Workers at the Silverton Foundry recreated pieces of the cast-iron facade of Portland’s oldest building. According to several of the experts working on the restoration of the Hallock and McMillan Building, it was the first time in modern history that the process was used to cast large sections of a building’s facade entirely in iron. Though many preservationists consider the project an exciting step in the right direction, the restoration is stalled until the neighborhood is developed more fully.

At the foundry, cranes swooped overhead, bringing molten iron from a tall, cylindrical furnace to custom molds that were created based on historic photographs of the 155-year-old Hallock and McMillan Building. The firms carrying out the project – , and – all sent representatives to the Silverton Foundry to witness the unique recreation of the historic facade.

“It seemed ancient as all get-out,” said architect and cast-iron expert Bill Hawkins, who was a consultant for the project. “(The building) will once again look as it did when its architects designed and built it.”

After housing an electronics business for many years, the Hallock and McMillan Building was purchased in 2010 by John Russell, founder of He then assembled a group of experts to restore the building’s cast-iron facade with full-iron replicas.

“It’s a long process and you can’t hurry it,” Russell said. “You have to plan for six months of preparation work, but it’s absolutely worth it.”

Several experts needed nearly a year to design and prepare the molds. The Silverton Foundry then fashioned a series of cast-iron ornamental pieces and seven-foot columns to replace the originals, which were removed in the 1940s and then lost.

The casting process employed basically the same techniques that would have been used when the building was constructed in 1857, according to David Field, who owns the foundry with his brother George.

“It’s a craft that is pretty rare, and the knowledge of the foundry men is really, really critical,” said Dave Talbott, president of Architectural Castings Inc., a Portland firm that helped develop drawings and molds for the foundry. “It would be tough to do without the aggregate knowledge of these guys.”

Russell, who owns multiple cast-iron buildings in Portland’s Skidmore/Old Town Historic District, said he will not install the recently cast pieces on the Hallock and McMillan Building until the area is improved.

“The neighborhood is just not ready for it; there are too many empty parking lots,” he said.

However, this recent effort to restore the Hallock and McMillan Building, which is located at the corner of Southwest Naito Parkway and Oak Street, may influence future redevelopment of the area.

“We need to rehabilitate the resources we have left and infill the missing pieces (of the district) that right now are surface parking lots,” said Peggy Moretti, executive director of the . The HPLO recently listed the Skidmore/Old Town district on its 2012 list of Oregon’s most endangered places.

The Hallock and McMillan Building originally had the kind of showy, cast-iron frontage that defined Portland in its early days. But many of the building’s cast-iron neighbors have been torn down, and an unclear vision for the district has stalled redevelopment.

“The whole district is in a gridlock,” Moretti said. “Tackling that poor, pathetic-looking building represents what the district used to be and can be again.”

A new Skidmore/Old Town task force is gearing up to tackle some of the district’s ongoing development issues. But Hawkins and other preservationists have already made it clear that they hope that the city’s stockpile of salvaged cast iron will be used to rebuild the Skidmore/Old Town area. The same process used for the Hallock and McMillan project could be used to recast the missing pieces.

“I hope (the project) will trigger a little renaissance for our historic district,” Hawkins said. “If the area is going to be reborn, it should be done in iron.”

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One of Portland’s most historically significant buildings has sold for $700,000.

The Hallock & McMillan Building, at 237 S.W. Naito Parkway, was purchased by John Russell of Russell Development Co. Ed Handris of the Handris Realty Co. represented the seller, Peter Corvallis.

Russell bought the building “after 30 years of trying,” he said. “I took (Corvallis) to dinner every year trying to get him to sell it.”

Corvallis used the space for his event company, Peter Corvallis Productions. But Russell owns other historic buildings nearby and wanted to add it to his portfolio.

“I wanted to fix it up, to restore it to the same standard as when it was it was built,” Russell said.

Corvallis did not return calls for comment by press time, but Russell said Corvallis decided to sell the building after he found another building with which he could exchange.

The Hallock & McMillan Building is Portland’s oldest surviving commercial structure. The building was constructed in 1857, according to the Architectural Heritage Center. It is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The building, at two stories and 4,525 square feet, is modest in scale, but it was revolutionary when it was built.

It’s an example of cast-iron architecture, a style popular during the Industrial Revolution, before the development of steel. Cast iron is an alloy of iron and enough carbon to make it brittle. It cannot be either wrought or bent into shape and is instead cast into form.

The material became popular because it could be molded into designs that would be more difficult to carve out of stone. Cast-iron columns also allowed for taller buildings without thick stone walls. The material also was relatively cheap and abundant.

Surpassed only by the SoHo and Tribeca areas of New York, Portland’s Skidmore/Old Town National Historic Landmark District is home to one of the largest collections of surviving cast-iron buildings, according to the Architectural Heritage Center.

Russell owns cast-iron buildings on each side of the Hallock & McMillan Building – the Fechheimer Building, built in the 1880s, and the Dielschneider Building, built in 1859. He plans to restore the Hallock & McMillan Building and then connect all three.

“If you were to look at (the Hallock & McMillan Building) now, you wouldn’t think it was the oldest,” he said. The building’s brick was covered with stucco in the 1950s, and its cast-iron columns have been removed. But the cast-iron window frames are still intact.

Russell plans to convert the Hallock & McMillan Building into office space, like his other buildings nearby.

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