[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

At 7:53 a.m. on Friday, countless eyes focused on the west side of Oregon State University‘s Reser Stadium in Corvallis.

“Five, four, three, two, one … fire in the hole!” a Hoffman Construction crew member yelled. “Let’s do this, coach.”

“Let’s do this!” OSU Athletic Director Scott Barnes replied.

At that moment Barnes turned two switches and ignited explosives laid in the stadium’s base. A series of small blasts and loud pops followed – and the large structure fell backward.

Crowds cheered and dust filled the air.

“The most exciting three and a half seconds of my life,” Barnes was heard saying in the background of the video. It’s viewable online at .

The implosion is part of a $153 million stadium renovation. Friday’s event went exactly as planned, according to Steve Hatch of Dykon Explosive Demolition Corp. The 100-foot-by-120-foot structure was leveled with slightly more than 200 pounds of explosives – a small amount for Dykon, he said.

Crews started loading the explosives days ago after months of preparation. Two different kinds of explosives were used: dynamite and another designed by NASA. The latter ones, used to cut through the stadium’s steel columns, were originally designed to go through bolts on spaces shuttles as they jettison fuel tanks on takeoff.

Shortly after the dust cleared, Staton Cos. crew members began making roadways through the rubble so that recyclable materials could be extracted, Hoffman superintendent Mark Rado said. A week or two will be needed to prepare the site for wider access, he added.

Then K&E Excavating will start excavation on the north end and move south as Staton finishes its work, Rado said.

“Very exciting time,” he said. “I’m still on a high right now; I don’t know about everybody else. But that worked great. We are really happy with the outcome.”

Construction of the stadium’s new west side is scheduled to wrap up before the start of the 2023 football season.

The post OSU stadium demolition occurs without a hitch appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

A new multistory mixed-use building is due to rise on Block 40, in Portland’s South Waterfront District, but demolition must take place first.

Hensley Lamkin Rachel Inc. of Dallas, Texas, designed the 232-unit project at 3838 S.W. Macadam Ave. for Alamo Manhattan, also of Dallas. Andersen Construction is serving as the general contractor.

Right now, crews are dismantling a single-story, 37,000-square-foot warehouse – formerly the home of La Grand Industrial Supply – built on the 1.07-acre site in 1956. The building was constructed with concrete tilt walls and a wooden post and beam structural framework. Because of its age, there was asbestos insulation and fireproofing material that required extensive abatement.

“We started demolition on Thursday last week, so now we’re pretty far along,” Andersen Construction project manager Mike Carrigg said Wednesday. “We did have asbestos, but all that work took place before we started demolition. It was a very effective product; that’s why they used it on everything. But in the remediation world it’s terrible.”

Westech Construction is working with Staton Companies of Eugene to perform this scope of work.

“That whole process is about a four-week process to demo and remove everything, and then we start on the excavation,” Carrigg said.

On Wednesday a Staton crew was on-site with a team of excavators knocking down concrete walls, roof trusses and other parts of the old warehouse. The building is now mostly demolished except for a storefront section along the Macadam Avenue frontage.

The new building will have seven stories of wood framing above a concrete podium and a parking garage partially below grade. The ground floor will have three separate retail spaces while the rest of the building will feature residential space and a rooftop amenity deck.

Because of the steep grade of the property, the building will present eight stories fronting Moody Avenue on the east side and seven stories fronting Macadam Avenue on the west side, Carrigg said.

The scope of work also includes construction of a public plaza on the Southwest Lane Avenue right-of-way abutting the project site’s northern portion. The of the two-block site with two seven-story buildings. According to Kimberly Lan, a development associate with Alamo Manhattan, the firm currently does not have a construction timeline for the second building: a seven-story, 190-unit structure at 3714 S.W. Macadam Ave.

The post Warehouse coming down so new building can go up appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Demolition of a building formerly used by The Oregonian newspaper is under way in Portland’s Goose Hollow neighborhood. In its place will rise a mixed-use building, Canvas at Press Blocks, with 8,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space, seven stories of office space and a ninth-floor tenant amenity space. The building is one of three being constructed as part of the Press Blocks redevelopment; also planned are a 23-story residential tower and a three-story office-and-retail building one block east.

Staton Companies is demolishing the 175,000-square-foot building, located at 817 S.W. 17th Ave., for general contractor Lease Crutcher Lewis. The structure formerly held large newsprint rolls, which were moved through the building by a large gantry crane and transported by tunnel to the full-block printing space on the adjacent block to the east.

The warehouse was constructed of double-T precast wall and roof panels, some of which are being supported through the demolition sequence by shoring braces installed by Omega Morgan; it’s performing welding work and crane assistance for Staton. The building’s concrete wall panels are being saw-cut at the top, after which the remaining gantry crane rail is cut and the loose panel is laid down on the ground and crushed on site. The removal of roof panels involves demolishing the concrete webs on either side of the double-T panel beams, and then cutting the beams to allow them to drop.

Demolition work is about halfway complete. The building will be taken down to grade by December, at which point shoring pile and deep foundation subcontractors will install temporary shoring so the site can be excavated for a single level of below-grade parking. The contractor estimates coming out of the ground around March 2019, then taking about 10 months to build the eight floors of post-tensioned concrete. A ninth-floor with amenity space, a terrace and mechanical penthouse will be constructed using structural steel. Substantial completion of the project is slated for mid-2020.

The site’s constraints – TriMet MAX lines to the west and the north, a bus line to the east, and occupied buildings on the block’s southern half – will require the project team to carefully orchestrate deliveries of materials.

“It’s about as just-in-time construction as it gets,” said Mike Sager, senior project manager with Lease Crutcher Lewis. “It basically comes off a truck and goes in the building. It’s all about logistics on this one.”

The Press Blocks project is being conducted in partnership between Security Properties and Urban Renaissance Group, which previously acquired and redeveloped The Oregonian’s headquarters building at 1320 S.W. Broadway. Invesco Real Estate is serving as an investment partner. GBD Architects designed the Canvas at Press Blocks building. Mithun is the architect of the two buildings on the full-block site, which does not yet have an anticipated construction start date.

The post Redevelopment starts with demolition appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

A $70 million renovation to Portland State University‘s Neuberger Hall is the latest in a series of major upgrades to campus buildings, including the Karl Miller Center last year and the Viking Pavilion at the Peter W. Stott Center this year. Fortis Construction is building the Hacker-designed project, which will modernize the 1960s-era Brutalist building with seismic and systems upgrades, improved accessibility, a light well providing ample daylight penetration, and a new curtain-wall system on the western portion.

The full-block structure, which fronts Southwest Broadway to the east and the South Park Blocks to the west, consists of two separately constructed buildings. The western portion is constructed with concrete-encased steel and was completed in 1961, and a steel-framed addition on the eastern portion of the block followed in 1969.

Crews have been at work on the project for about four months, primarily handling demolition and abatement. That phase of work is expected to continue through this summer. Performance Abatement Services is currently removing asbestos-laden fire retardant from steel beams on two of the building’s four above-grade floors, as well as in the basement.

Once abatement and demolition work is completed, the next major step in the project will be to cut a light well into the building’s west side. A section of slab measuring approximately 3,000 square feet will be removed from each floor and the roof to allow daylight into the center of each of the building’s occupied floors.

Meanwhile, Staton Companies crews are demolishing fifth floor/rooftop mechanical structures, and soon will commence removing the curtain-wall facade of the western portion. The facade will be replaced with more glazing in an effort to open the building up to the facing Park Blocks. Similarly, precast concrete panels on the ground floor of the building’s eastern portion will be replaced with an aluminum storefront system, providing a connection to the streetscape of Southwest Broadway. In addition, new entries will be constructed at each building elevation.

When it opens for the fall 2019 term, the building will house offices, classrooms and laboratories, and an art museum funded by the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation.

The project team also includes Mayer/Reed, KPFF Consulting Engineers, PAE Engineers, and ABHT Structural Engineers.

The post Upgrades to help PSU thrive in decades ahead appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Staton Cos. crews are demolishing a quarter-block office building in downtown Portland to make way for a new 15-story hotel. The 90-year-old, three-story building at the southwest corner of Southwest 11th Avenue and Alder Street formerly was occupied by the United Way of the Columbia-Willamette; it has consolidated its office space into an adjoining building on the southeast quarter of the block. The new building will be a 220-room Hyatt Centric hotel designed by SERA Architects. Mortenson is the design-build contractor and lead developer of the project.

��

The post Downtown office building razed for new hotel appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

When Jeanne Staton and Leonard Staton divorced about two decades ago, Jeanne got Staton Companies and Leonard got “everything else,” she said.

She says she still thinks she got the better end of that deal.

Jeanne Staton, 70, recently stepped down as head of Staton Cos. – one of the largest demolition firms in the Pacific Northwest. She was a force in the Oregon construction industry for more than four decades, and the first woman president of the Oregon-Columbia chapter of Associated General Contractors. This summer she’ll receive the AGC‘s SIR Award for her contributions.

“We just love her and respect her greatly and wish her the very best,” said Mike Salsgiver, executive director of AGC’s Oregon-Columbia chapter. “Her contributions are many and she will be remembered here for a long time.”

Longtime Staton Cos. employee and former general manager Ron Richey bought Staton’s share to become president and sole executive officer.

“She’s been a great, great partner,” Richey said. “She built this company. And employees last a long time here. That tells you what type of a company it is, and Jeanne’s created that. She’s done a wonderful job here.”

Jeanne married Leonard Staton, 18 years her senior, in 1971. Three weeks later, he was out of a job. With experience in demolition, Leonard pursued a contract to demolish the old Springfield High School in his hometown. That led to excavation contracts. Eventually the couple started to do a little better than break even.

With the Eugene/Springfield area experiencing rapid urban renewal, it was a fortunate time to be in the development business, Jeanne Staton said.

The roughest patch, she said, was in the 1980s, when interest rates rose as high as 18 percent. The firm hit a slump and had to borrow money to pay its bills. Keeping up with numerous equipment payments made for trying times.

“When we finally paid off that loan, it was an albatross off our shoulders,” she said.

Jeanne Staton gradually took over more and more of the company as Leonard lost interest in the company, she said. Today it employs about 45 people in Springfield and Portland, many who’ve been with the company for multiple decades. Her son, Jeff Staton, is an estimator/operator with the firm.

Jeanne Staton watched as automation radically changed the field of demolition, to the point where today, Staton Cos. workers rarely touch building materials directly. Recycling too has become an important factor in every project. Now up to 90 percent of commercial buildings can be recycled for profit, and around 60 to 70 percent of residential buildings.

Jeanne Staton said there was a time when her company paid owners to wreck their buildings, because of the value of the recyclable metals and other materials.

“Now you do just anything you can think of besides landfilling,” she said. “First you try to sell it. Then you try to give it away. Get creative – anything besides landfilling.”

Being a woman in a male-dominated field was always a bit of a double-edged sword for Jeanne Staton. For one thing, she felt she had to work harder to earn respect from male colleagues. But unlike some women who’ve experienced harassment in construction and related fields, Staton said she was never treated unfairly.

“I always thought that it was an advantage for me, because people certainly do remember you,” she said. “It just takes determination.”

Staton kept regular office hours until recently. She plans to dedicate more time to industry and community causes, including those tied to Associated General Contractors, Associated Oregon Industries and the Northwest College of Construction. She said she’ll surely travel more.

Important issues include deregulation, opposition to a gross receipts tax and workforce development through apprenticeship programs.

“I intend to stay pretty busy,” she said.

The post Staton Companies undergoes leadership transition appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.