PROJECT: Patricia Reser Center for the Arts

LOCATION: Beaverton

SIZE:��43,000 square feet

COST:��$55 million

START DATE: late 2019

ANTICIPATED END DATE: February 2022 (opening March 8)

OWNER: city of Beaverton

OWNER’S REPRESENTATIVE: Gerding Edlen

ARCHITECT: Opsis Architecture

ENGINEERS: KPFF Consulting Engineers (structural), Otak (civil), PAE (mechanical and plumbing), Reyes Engineering (electrical, tele/data low voltage)

CONSTRUCTION MANAGER/GENERAL CONTRACTOR:��Skanska USA Building

OTHER CONSULTANTS/PARTICIPANTS: Anderson Krygier (environmental graphic design), Angelo Planning Group (land use), DCW Cost Management (estimating), JLC Consulting (specifications), Morrison Hershfield (envelope), Pacific Habitat Services (environmental consultant), PLACE (landscape architecture), Stantec (acoustics), The Shalleck Collaborative (theater planning and audio/visual)

SIGNIFICANCE OF PROJECT: Located near The Round between Southwest Cedar Hills Boulevard and Southwest Hall Boulevard, the Reser Center features a 550-seat theater; an art gallery; rehearsal, workshop and meeting space; a lobby; an outdoor plaza and an adjacent parking structure. The site is near a light rail station, City Hall, Beaverton Creek, shops, restaurants and lodging. This is the first facility of its kind to be built from the ground up in the Portland area in more than three decades.

Opsis Architecture sought to blend urban and natural settings in the design. The plan included not only the main structure, but parking, a pedestrian-friendly promenade with a street festival ambience, and public art. Inspired by the metaphor of a beaver dam, wood panels and long, thin wood slats or “sticks” and incision points are integrated to enable light to pour into the atrium, while blending with state-of-the-art acoustic and theatrical systems in the Mainstage Theater. With blue seats, the theater is evocative of a body of water adjacent to a creek housing a beaver dam. The facility includes 21,000 square feet of Douglas fir. The second floor has space for a variety of educational workshops, classes, rehearsals, meetings and events. The performing and presentation spaces are designed to maximize the connection between artists and audiences.

The concept of creating a center for the arts in Beaverton started in the late 1990s. Later, a study led by Opsis and Theater Consulting Group, in conjunction with University of Oregon students, showed what a world-class arts center could look like. In July 2018, the Beaverton Arts Foundation announced a pledge of $13 million from Pat Reser to launch the project. In three years, more than 950 donors – individuals, families, foundations and businesses – provided more than $12 million to exceed the initial goal by $1 million. Gifts ranged from $2 to $1.5 million. Also, the Beaverton City Council approved a hotel lodging tax to help pay for construction and provide ongoing financial support of operations.

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

The post Building Blocks: Patricia Reser Center for the Arts appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Before Ingrid Golleher, a forewoman for Skanska USA Building in Portland, entered the construction industry eight years ago, she had heard how many men in the trades viewed women co-workers. They were considered weak and emotional – i.e., not fit for a jobsite. They also were assumed to be lesbians – and if not, then they needed to become conquests.

Then, when Golleher began working on jobsites, the stories came to life. She became a target of harassment.

She’s frequently pursued by male co-workers on jobsites, she said, even if they know she’s in a relationship. “‘Oh, if you’re straight,’” she says co-workers have asked in a slimy tone, then, “‘like we should go out.’”

“No, I don’t want to go out with you! I’m here to work,” she said in response.

Construction has long been dominated by men. Women comprise only 10.9 percent of the construction workforce, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. On jobsites, that number is even smaller – less than 1 percent. That disparity has fostered persistence of a culture in which women are harassed, bullied or simply ignored on jobsites.

Harassment is defined by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) as unwelcome conduct based on race, color, sex, national origin, age (40 or older), disability, or genetic information. Unlawful behavior includes but is not limited to: offensive jokes, slurs, name-calling, intimidation, ridicule, insults, and interference with one’s work performance.

Anne Pfleger, president of the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC), said she’s heard of experiences like Golleher’s from women in all parts of the country.

“When you pull back and look at the root of it,” she said, “it’s the culture of the company.”

Pfleger suspects that in the 1980s, ’90s and early 2000s, women were mistreated a lot more, which hurt recruitment of women to join the industry. Only in the past five years or so, Pfleger said, have women come forward and become more vocal about being mistreated.

Harassment on the jobsite

Golleher said stereotypes still follow her to every jobsite. She constantly must prove that she’s not weak either physically or mentally, and fend off ceaseless advances by co-workers, she said. Opportunities for career growth rarely are presented, according to Golleher.

“You have to throw yourself into things and ask for forgiveness later,” she said, because nobody is going to say, “‘Oh go ahead and go up there, Ingrid. Go ahead and do it.’ You have to take it.”

On a Skanska jobsite in 2014, while working as a carpenter’s apprentice, Golleher was given one of those rare opportunities: she learned to operate a forklift. But after driving a forklift for a year on the same jobsite without incident, one occurred.

A male co-worker ran over to Golleher, she said, and hyperventilated to the point that he needed to bend over to catch his breath.

“‘That’s the first time I’ve ever seen a woman on a forklift,’” she said he said with a demeaning laugh.

Last year, as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, Golleher took a journeyman carpenter position at a Sellen Construction jobsite in Seattle. She was the only woman on the crew. In fact, that bothered one man so much that he quit, according to Golleher.

One time on the jobsite, a crane operator sent another co-worker over to Golleher with a container of water and said in a sly manner that she “looked thirsty … and needed to have some of his water.

“I was so busy that I didn’t even take into consideration what that meant,” she said, “and then later when I got home, I was like wait a minute, what the —-”

Many of the crew members’ behavior eventually went beyond typical interest and felt more like “preying,” Golleher said. After just two weeks, she quit.

“I was afraid for my safety at that point,” she said. “(I was) afraid to be alone without the guy that I was working with because I wasn’t sure if someone was going to attack me and try to get me alone.”

The superintendent who hired Golleher was never around to see what was happening, she said, so she didn’t even have an opportunity to inform him why she was leaving.

“I wouldn’t want any women to go up there,” she said.

A culture in need of change

In response to Golleher’s allegations, Sellen Construction stated, “As soon as we were made aware of Ingrid’s experience through this article, we reached out to her to hear her experience and initiate an investigation. Sellen is committed to building teams and places that are safe for all employees.”

On a different jobsite in Oregon in 2013, Golleher was the only woman crew member. Her foreman at the time would repeatedly pull her aside, she said, in attempts to lure her. Later he started sending texts such as: “Oh. I’m in the bushes behind you.”

In this instance, Golleher told her Skanska superintendent about the foreman, and he was transferred to a different jobsite.

Upon being informed of Golleher’s experiences on Skanska jobsites, General Manager Tim Johnson stated, “I am deeply disappointed to hear of her negative experiences as a woman in construction. We have no tolerance for harassment of any kind.”

“I stand by Ingrid,” he said, “who was brave enough to come forward and share her story. Once I learned of these unfortunate incidents, I launched a full investigation into every allegation that pertains to our operations.”

The company could not reveal the investigation results due to its privacy policy regarding personal actions but stated that all of the allegations had been addressed.

Golleher acknowledged that she could’ve reported the harassment sooner.

“I know the resources,” she said. “I know that I could have called. It’s just not really like that. It’s more you gotta take care of yourself because there isn’t anybody else going to take care of it for you.”

That belief is typical among women workers, Pfleger said.

“Unfortunately, that’s a lot of what I hear from the women when they have situations like that,” she said. “Sometimes they have to pick their battles, and if it’s not serious, they’ll let it go and just keep moving because the repercussions are much worse than if they said anything.”

In cases of harassment, three out four individuals never report the experiences to a supervisor, manager or union representative, according to a September 2020 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Oftentimes, the reason is fear of retaliation or another adverse outcome.

“But we shouldn’t be thinking like that,” Pfleger said. “I don’t care if you’re a woman, man or whatever. You should not have to worry about getting harassed and bullied and demeaned and all that kind of stuff. You know you’re on a jobsite to do a job.”

Confrontation challenges

Engineering-News Record in 2018 surveyed 1,248 architects, builders and engineers from the U.S., Canada or overseas. Respondents were allowed to be anonymous, and 66 percent reported experiencing sexual harassment or gender bias on jobsites or in the workplace, and nearly 60 percent stated they had witnessed it. In these cases, harassment mainly consisted of inappropriate personal requests, questions, jokes or innuendos.

On at least one occasion, however, harassment on a construction jobsite escalated to a deadly degree. In 2017, after days of allegedly suffering unreported harassment, Outi Hicks, a 32-year-old woman union carpenter apprentice, was beaten and killed by a male co-worker, Aaron Lopez, on a jobsite (involving neither Skanska nor Golleher) in Fresno, California.

“If one person had just gone up to deflect the situation, it would’ve turned out much differently,” Pfleger said.

The murder of Hicks (Lopez in 2020 was convicted and sentenced to 15 years to life in prison) triggered a shock wave. National campaigns were started in attempts to stop jobsite harassment and promote intervention training. Nevertheless, Golleher said she’s never been offered bystander prevention training at any jobsite where she has worked.

But there are challenges. Workers usually are not around the same group of people throughout a project. Tradespeople come and go as different types of work are performed. Oftentimes, workers are all brought together with limited introductions. That can inhibit confrontation.

“I think people want to try to say something or try to stop it but don’t want to get involved because they don’t want to have a target on their back,” Pfleger said.

Opportunities to be better

But Golleher, instead of just saying “next time, next time” in her head, has started confronting harassment more often, she said. Recently on a jobsite, a male co-worker – who Golleher was told had slept with another woman working on the same jobsite – made an advance toward Golleher. She told the man his behavior shouldn’t be tolerated, she said.

“Somebody needs to say this stuff, so I guess I’m going to be the one to do it,” Golleher said.

However, Pfleger added how important it is for high-level executives and even company owners to visit jobsites, interact with tradespeople and ask them “how things are going.”

While the construction industry in the past decade has suffered from a lack of skilled labor, the number of women working on jobsites has barely ticked above a quarter of a percent. While women make up 47 percent of the labor force overall, only 1.25 percent are in construction, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“We could have been much further along if we didn’t have these issues,” Pfleger said in reference to harassment. “The key here … is getting (women) into the industry but then also retaining them. Because once they come in, then you want to make sure we’re able to set them up, so they stay in the industry.”

Johnson indicated that more must be done to ensure that women feel safe on jobsites.

“As leaders, we must change this culture within the industry and have open and honest dialogue about the challenges women face in the workplace,” he said.

The post Behind the 1 percent: a disillusioned culture appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

A very rare rock was found at a construction site in Lake Oswego recently.

Crews performing excavation for the Lakeridge Middle School project turned up an ice age erratic boulder – so named because it was transported on glacial ice broken apart by the massive Missoula floods some 15,000 to 18,000 years ago, according to a local expert.

Jacob Parker, a site superintendent with general contractor Skanska USA Building, spotted the yellowish and greenish boulder – roughly three feet long, two feet wide and two feet thick – and instinctively knew there was something different about it.

“I walked through and examined all of the rocks we unearthed, and this boulder stood out as very unique in color and texture,” Parker said. “I quickly realized it may have some historical or geological significance.”

Parker and the Lake Oswego School District contacted Portland State University geology professor emeritus Scott Burns, who also serves as president of the Tualatin Ice Age Floods Foundation – a nonprofit that seeks to build public knowledge of local geology. Burns visited the jobsite to examine the find.

“I went over and took a look at it and I was very excited,” Burns said. “I said we need to have this because it’s so different and we’ve never seen an erratic like this one.”

After further research, the boulder was found comprised of rhyolite – a volcanic rock rich in silica that is extremely rare in the Cascade Range. Burns surmised that the rock likely arrived in Lake Oswego from Eastern Oregon or even farther away via an ice raft thousands of years ago. That could account for the many boulders that crews discovered at the project site.

“What happened there is they were rebuilding the middle school there and the reports said you will be able to dig down and there will be no boulder bigger than maybe a foot in diameter,” Burns said. “Well, they have boulders they were digging out that were five, six, seven feet across. And they have a huge field of these boulders that they were not expecting.”

Most of the boulders are composed of basaltic lava, which is typically much more fluid and travels much farther from its source than the highly viscous rhyolite.

“This is a major geological find,” Burns said. “Of all of the hundreds of boulders moved to the Willamette Valley by the Missoula floods, this is only the second rhyolite boulder recorded here.”

The event led to an in-person Pacific Northwest geology lesson for students.

“We have a significant real-life learning opportunity for the students here at Lakeridge with this amazing history right under our feet,” Lakeridge Middle School Principal Kurt Schultz said. “Once students graduate from Lakeridge they are freshmen and will study geoscience. So, they’ll have firsthand experience with a piece of historical earth science found right at their school.”

Following a ceremony at the school project site, the rhyolite boulder was donated to the Tualatin Ice Age Floods Foundation and then transported to the Tualatin Heritage Center by Brian Clopton Excavating. The rock is now available for public viewing.

The construction project consisted of demolition of Bryant Elementary School and Lakeridge Junior High School, redevelopment of the site, and construction of a new middle school, sports fields and grounds – all while classes continued on site.

The new 138,325-square-foot school building, completed in fall 2020, consists of a square of interconnected, two-story buildings with a courtyard and a walkway in the center. There is a wood structural shell and decks with steel columns, whole columns fabricated from 29 trees removed from the site, and interior metal studs. The exterior facade consists of fiber cement panels, brick and concrete masonry units.

The school’s courtyard, incidentally, was patterned after the kolks (underwater vortices) that formed during the Missoula floods as water flowed into the Willamette Valley.

“Some of the Native American legends actually talk about floods,” Burns said. “The valley filled up from one side to the other side and everybody had to use their canoes to get away. And maybe that (the Missoula floods) was one of the last ones, because Native Americans were here at that time – 15,000 calendar years ago.”

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PDX Next – the ambitious, five-year, $2 billion effort to improve and expand Portland International Airport – is now in full swing. While construction of a new main terminal will surely stand out, some smaller projects – relatively speaking – also are taking place to expand passenger concourses on both the north and south sides of the airport.

Concourse E, home to Southwest Airlines, is complete. And work is moving quickly on Concourse B for Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air. A Hoffman Construction/Skanska USA Building joint venture is serving as the general contractor for both the main terminal project (“T-Core”) and Concourse B. The latter will feature 11 new passenger gates – five with raised, enclosed walkways connecting to aircraft, and six ground-level ones for smaller commuter planes.

“Normally CCB (Concourse B) would be a giant project for the Port, and it’s dwarfed by T-Core,” said Scott Sparman, a construction manager for the Port of Portland. “It’s a long overdue upgrade for these particular customers.

“The old structure was more of a temporary structure. There were some B gates up here in the existing part of the concourse that served the larger aircraft, but now we’re going to have more capacity here.”

Concourse B was designed by ZGF Architects, and crews broke ground in early 2020. The structure will feature a massive amount of glazing wrapped around a stout, seismically enhanced steel framework erected by ironworkers with By Design Steel. The two-story concourse will largely function as a single story, with a wraparound upper-level walkway on the north side allowing access from the main terminal. From there, people will reach the lower level via stairs or an elevator. Food and drink will be available from businesses such as Screen Door and specialty coffee roaster Good Coffee.

“We’re still going to have the main processing of passengers in the old room there,” Sparman said. “And then passengers are going to flow down here and get on their gates.”

Right now, the new concourse is still open to the elements. But Snyder Roofing is installing the roof and Western Partitions is quickly framing the exterior walls; mechanical, electrical and plumbing work is ongoing throughout the space. Work on the building envelope is expected to finish over the summer. The Port expects the new terminal to be ready for use sometime in November.

The narrow, ground-level gates for Horizon Air that extend eastward almost seem separate from the rest of the project. But those, too, are now enclosed and undergoing MEP work.

“There are a lot of things opening this fall, so we’re going to sequence that,” Sparman said. “It does look like there’s a lot to do, but we have the hard part done. The rest of it is finishes, building envelope, and that’s coming in May. In another month this is going to look like something you could just hang out in.”

Concourse B will eventually have a custom art installation crafted by Ryan Feddersen, a Native American artist based in Tacoma, Washington. Crafted entirely from wood, the installation will cover the concourse’s south wall at ground level.

So far, Sparman said, the most difficult aspect of the Concourse B project is its location. It sits between an active taxiway on the south side and TriMet‘s MAX light-rail infrastructure on the north side. Those transportation corridors have remained in full service during construction.

“Erecting steel (and) bringing in materials through a security checkpoint, that’s the biggest thing,” he said.

“It’s not dissimilar to Concourse E, where it’s between a taxi area and a roadway,” Port of Portland spokeswoman Kama Simonds added. “There are similar constraints, just on the other side of the airport.”

The post Another PDX project on final approach appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

While the new Sherwood High School was being constructed, Career and Technical Education (CTE) teachers opted to take advantage of an ideal opportunity.

General contractor Skanska USA Building, electrical subcontractor Rosendin Electric and other parties that worked on the $147 million project cooperated with school staffers to devise a series of lessons for students to learn more about the construction industry and the skilled trades. Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Skanska worked closely with some high school construction management interns. Then, even after the pandemic shut down in-person instruction, CTE teachers Allison Meadows and Jon Dickover pursued more involvement for their pupils.

“I think that one of the requests that our school district had of Skanska was that they somehow involve students, and that helped grease the wheels for what we did a little bit,” Dickover said. “It helped that Rosendin and Tim (Moore, Northwest operations manager) had a clear vision of how they really wanted to help, so that was easy.”

Students enrolled in Sherwood’s CTE program can choose welding, woodworking and basic construction courses. With in-person classes cancelled for much of the 2020-21 school year, Dickover and Meadows asked subcontractors to provide virtual lessons in a wide variety of topics touching on the skilled trades and the wider industry. Firms obliged via Zoom and students then applied that instruction to their coursework assigned by teachers.

“Students sign up for CTE courses because they are hands-on-minded kids,” Meadows said. “We were thinking ‘How can we make this really relevant for them?’”

CTE students typically “hate sitting in front of a computer,” she added.

“We could have taught them out of a book, but that’s not how our students want to learn,” she said. “So, we structured it so we had as many speakers from different industries and as many professionals as possible come in. Students would see as many as four different speakers during the week and have a reflection about it on day five, and also have Q and A during those sessions.”

Other firms that took part and offered virtual lessons included BRIC Architecture (designer of the 353,000-square-foot facility), Anning-Johnson Company, Apollo Mechanical Contractors, Coffman Excavation, Dennis’ 7 Dees Landscaping, and Sowles Company. Additionally, representatives from Ironworkers Local 29, the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters, the Sheet Metal Institute and Sheet Metal Workers Local 16, and UA Local 290 Plumbers and Steamfitters participated.

“All of these opportunities have been great in not only educating students, but their parents as well,” Rosendin Business Development Manager Courtney Hron said. “We find that a lot of parents weren’t ever told about the trades growing up, so they are more likely to also push the college path to their children. But programs like this have really helped open their eyes.”

It helped that Sherwood High School had a preexisting relationship with Rosendin. In past school years, students have visited the company’s Hillsboro office and shop.

“I think for years we wanted to do this,” Meadows said. “Jon (Dickover) and Tim (Moore) went round and round with multiple stakeholders about how this could be a dream program, but we couldn’t figure out how to solve it. We’ve all been talking about serving students in that way and this happened to be the prime time to drop it.”

A previous collaboration between Rosendin and the Sherwood School District led to construction of a concessions trailer for the high school softball program, Moore said.

“It was really fun, and we were just getting ready to frame it and COVID hit,” he said. “That was going to involve most of the trades, and the kids were really excited about it. What excites me is what we might be able to build in this trades class with the kids and give back at the same time.”

Now, with students on the brink of returning to in-person classes, the future of CTE education at Sherwood High School is brighter than ever.

“I think it’s more exciting to think about how this will impact our programs for future years and if it drives more students into that area as a result of sheer exposure to the trades,” Meadows said.

The post On-site workforce development appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

PROJECT: Skanska USA Building Inc. interior design

LOCATION: 1010 Flanders Building (1010 N.W. Flanders St., Portland)

SIZE: 17,243 square feet (fourth and fifth floors)

COST:��$6,360,000

CONSTRUCTION START DATE: September 2019

CONSTRUCTION END DATE: April 2020

BUILDING OWNER: Specht Development Inc.

ARCHITECT: RDC

CONTRACTOR:��Skanska USA Building Inc.

MECHANICAL: Alliant Systems

LIGHTING CONSULTANT: Oculus Light Studio

SIGNIFICANCE OF PROJECT: This 100-year-old building’s interior now has comprehensive features to promote environmental health. These include: flexibility for workstation distancing, natural daylighting, dual entry alternates, reverse osmosis water filtration, and variable air volume systems. RDC designed full workplace tenant improvements on the fourth and fifth floors with a connective, open staircase. The space serves as the primary area for administrative functions and collaboration for Skanska’s Portland office; it’s designed to accommodate 80 team members. The open work space features half dividers, individual desks and half personal cabinets. Flex seating in a “hot desk” format accommodates visitors or day use. A roof deck overlooks the Portland skyline. The elevator lobby at the fifth level serves as the hosting level and event space with rooms including phone booths, a library, an open kitchen and a wellness room with some workstations. The central training room was designed for flexibility so that it can host large social gatherings. Other design highlights include a kitchen island design to maximize seating, with bistro-style tables able to connect to the island or be removed and stored elsewhere. The reception desk features two predominant materials: concrete and wood. The concrete reflects Skanska’s role providing concrete materials for its many construction projects. The wood echoes the regional office’s Pacific Northwest forest surroundings and pays tribute to the historic buildings in Portland’s Pearl District. “We collaborated with RDC to co-design and build out our new office space, as they incorporated existing architectural features from this historic Pearl District building, while adding a mixture of flexible work spaces,” stated Tim Johnson, Skanska executive vice president and general manager. “During the pandemic, many employees worked remotely or on the various project sites. As we prepared for the main office employees to return, we’ve created new guidelines to ensure a safe and healthy workplace … including digital social distancing personal units and a fully modernized HVAC system with comprehensive air filtration technology.” The 1010 Flanders Building originally was known as the Ballou and Wright Building and was completed in 1921. It is on the National Register of Historic Places.

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

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This free article brought to you by Perlo Construction

While questions saturate the construction market’s future, industry leaders still see strong resiliency.

Commercial builders typically have a three-to-five-year horizon for planning and implementation. Tim Johnson, general manager and executive vice president of Skanska USA Building, said time will tell whether there will be long-term economic ripples from the pandemic that affect contracting businesses in the Portland-metro area.

“We believe the market is strong, and if our pipeline and planned pursuits are an indicator, there will be few recession-type concerns,” he said about Skanska’s 2021 projections.

Skanska is looking to rededicate itself to carbon reduction through use of mass timber, Johnson said. The company is focusing on wood because it requires less preparation, less handling, less packaging and less refinement, he said.

Skanska has set a goal to reduce its carbon emissions globally by 50 percent by 2030. The company is using technology to calculate emissions and refine its resource strategies.

“By being proactive in our planning and building choices today, we will help work towards achieving this lofty goal,” Johnson said.

Aside from managing projects and dealing with the pandemic, Skanska is striving to increase diversity in its workforce, and form relationships with diverse vendors and project partners, Johnson said.

Greg Holloran, operations manager for Turner Construction, said there’s still a lot of uncertainty, especially with the market. But he believes that could soon change.

The rollout of COVID-19 vaccines is the “first piece of certainty that we have seen that has the potential to change something in the next coming months dramatically,” he said.

The economy has been through a formidable storm, but Holloran said Turner still believes work will be available.

When the pandemic initially hit, Perlo Construction Vice President of Business Development Todd Duwe said the firm was trying to get its arms around business.

The company has since focused on its workers’ welfare to ensure there aren’t any outbreaks on job sites.

Contractors made sure they were following social distancing rules, Duwe said, because if one project team didn’t follow the rules, the whole industry could have been shut down.

“It was a kindred spirit – didn’t matter if we were competitors,” he said. “As an industry, we’re all in this together. As an industry, we were concerned about keeping our job sites safe.”

Perlo Construction volunteers made face masks for employees and handwashing stations for job sites.

“We got our team intact through (2020) and are marching forward full steam ahead while staying vigilant,” Duwe said. “We still see good potential for projects in front of us.”

The post Construction leaders navigating uncertain times appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The Portland Clinic and developer Rendina Healthcare Real Estate are engaged in an effort to deliver a new medical office building to the West End of downtown Portland.

The proposed seven-story, 140,000-square-foot building would rise on a half-block at 804 S.W. 12th Ave., between Taylor and Yamhill streets. The property currently is serving as a surface parking lot, and as home to a trio of food carts. The location is near the clinic’s existing downtown location, at 800 S.W. 13th Ave.

Rendina, a national health care developer, was selected through a request for proposals issued by The Portland Clinic. Cushman & Wakefield represented the local health care group.

The project is poised to produce the first major medical office building in downtown Portland in decades, said Greg Goodman, president of Downtown Development Group. The Goodman family owns the property targeted for development. A long-term land lease agreement has been reached.

“I love their concept,” Goodman said. “It’s a great opportunity, and I think the people who are in (the deal) will do real well.”

The Goodman family has owned the 12th and Taylor property for about 45 years, he said. With more people living downtown, it makes sense that there’s increased demand for services including health care, he added.

ZGF Architects is designing the building, and Skanska USA Building is on board to serve as general contractor. The project will be subject to the city’s design review process; early assistance has been requested. ZGF Architects staff declined to comment on the design.

The project is being called the West End Medical Center. The facility will have room for primary care, internal medicine, cardiology, orthopedics, diabetes care, dermatology, gynecology, neurology, rheumatology and urology. Plans also call for 8,000 square feet of retail space and on-site parking.

Rendina, based in Jupiter, Florida, has developed more than 7.75 million square feet of health care space nationally for clients such as Cleveland Clinic, Community Health Systems and Tenet Healthcare Corp.

“The Portland Clinic got us excited about this project from the beginning,” Rendina President Steve��Barry stated in a news release. “We are fortunate to be working with one of the most trusted health care providers in town that has built a culture around relationship-based care. The Portland Clinic’s involvement, combined with the premier location of the West End Medical Center at 12th & Taylor, will make this project the blueprint for the future of health care delivery in a downtown setting.”

Barry did not respond to interview requests.

For The Portland Clinic, the new building will extend a century-long presence in the West End. CEO Dick Clark, in a news release, described the planned facility as “conveniently located, modern and contemporary in design and packed with health and wellness services.”

The project represents the transformation of yet another downtown parking lot into a gleaming commercial building. Many of those lots are owned by the Goodmans, stemming from properties bought for City Center Parking, which was founded by Walter Goodman in 1955.

The medical building proposal is an indication of how the nature of downtown development has changed, Greg Goodman said, since the advent of Portland’s inclusionary housing policy. It requires developers of multifamily projects with at least 20 units to dedicate a percentage of them as affordable or pay a fee in lieu.

“We don’t get calls anymore on apartments,” Goodman said. “We get calls on hotels, some office and in this one case, medical. But the numbers don’t work for housing.”

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The new Samaritan North Lincoln Hospital has opened in Lincoln City.

Skanska USA Building served as the general contractor for the $42 million project, which wrapped up in October 2019. Then personnel and other resources were moved into the new building from an old one. A grand opening took place recently.

The project was designed by HGA Architects.

In addition to a new primary hospital being constructed, the existing 19,600-square-foot Health Professions Education Center building was remodeled to provide administrative space and physical rehabilitation services. Now, demolition of the existing hospital building and creation of a new main parking lot will take place. Also, a variety of other improvements will be performed around the campus.

Both the front and back portions of the new hospital will have offer greater operational efficiency than those in the existing building.

The new hospital has sufficient seismic strength to allow immediate occupancy following a major earthquake. This is standard today for a critical care facility, according to Todd Predmore, a Skanska USA Building vice president and account manager.

The facility has four patient observation rooms, two inpatient maternity rooms, and 10 inpatient rooms for medical, surgical and critical care. The new Emergency Department will have five exam rooms and two trauma exam rooms.

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With the additions of six airline gates and seven restaurants, the expansion of Portland International Airport‘s Concourse E is a big deal for travelers.

The 830-foot-long expansion, designed by Hennebery Eddy Architects and Denver-based Fentress Architects, is one project of many large ones within the Port of Portland’s huge PDX Next initiative. Others that will take place over the next several years include: remodels of concourses A and B, construction of larger security checkpoints, refurbishment of ticketing and baggage drop spaces, and the addition of rental car space. Work is expected to continue through at least 2024.

The $215 million Concourse E project is about five months from completion; it’s expected open in June. Skanska USA Building, the project’s general contractor, also is working with Hoffman Construction as a joint venture on the upcoming overhaul of the main terminal and security checkpoints, among other improvements.

The concourse expansion is taller than the existing section and has a lot more windows that will let in a lot of natural light. Three types of glazing with different opacity are being used.

In addition, the south side will feature a curtain wall system to maximize natural light and minimize heat gain inside. This feature and others are contributing to pursuit of a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design gold rating.

Right now, a host of craft workers are working on both the interior and exterior of the concourse extension. Carpenters, plasterers and laborers with Performance Contracting Inc. are framing the interior walls, ceilings and soffits, and also applying fireproofing. Meanwhile, plasterers and laborers with Professional Lath and Plaster are applying acoustic dampening material to the same walls prior to painting.

Electricians from Oregon Electric Group and O’Neill Electric are also busy with interior work, while flooring specialist Top End Terrazzo of Los Angeles is installing terrazzo tile.

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