PROJECT: The Annex Apartments

LOCATION: 2720 S.E. Powell Blvd., Portland

SIZE:��16,700 square feet

COST:��$4.66 million

START DATE: August 2021

ANTICIPATED END DATE: June 2022

OWNER: Catholic Charities of Oregon

DEVELOPERS: Caritas Housing Initiatives, Sister City

ARCHITECT: All Hands Architecture

ENGINEERS: Holmes Structures, Froelich Engineers, Alentur LLC, Squires Electric, Red Hawk Fire Protection, Piper Mechanical

CONTRACTOR:��Truebeck Construction

OTHER ASSOCIATES/SUBCONTRACTORS: Kalesnikoff Lumber

SIGNIFICANCE OF PROJECT: Portland is gaining its first affordable housing development to feature cross-laminated timber (CLT) in its design and structure. The benefits of using CLT include faster construction and creation of a more natural environment than a traditional concrete-filled interior.

The Annex was guided by trauma- and pandemic-informed design principles. The layout balances opportunities for community-building with privacy and security for residents. The four-story building will have 27 housing units – 18 studios, seven one-bedroom apartments and two two-bedroom apartments – and two ground-floor office spaces.

Other amenities will include gathering places, including a landscaped courtyard with stadium-style seating that gives way to the main circulation staircase. Not only will the Annex be affordable, but it also will be one of the finer living places at such price points.

“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: The Annex Apartments appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

A new mobile app created by global firm HeidelbergCement is now in the hands of concrete contractors in the Portland area.

HeidelbergCement subsidiary Cadman Materials is using the app, called OnSite, to coordinate deliveries of concrete to jobsites. There, contractors also using the app have access to an array of data such as delivery trucks’ locations, and the amount and type of cement being delivered.

“The thing that people get attracted to initially, and the thing we like, is the real-time status of the delivery,” said Joe Sheehy, a sales executive with Cadman Materials. “You can see your truck, and the feedback from customers is more around the quick snapshot ETA. You can get on doing something else instead of guys propping up the shovel and waiting for concrete. You can utilize your resources more efficiently.”

OnSite is available to HeidelbergCement customers globally as part of its three-pronged digitalization strategy consisting of HConnect, HProduce and HService. When it comes to the sale of concrete for local jobsites, OnSite is already making a difference, Sheehy said.

“We launched in late summer 2019, and I guess we really sort of kicked into gear summer of 2020,” Sheehy said. “We went through a couple of iterations of the app and changes and learning on the job, and then we really started to turn the screw on it in summer 2020. Now, we’ve got it to a place where we’re pretty happy with it.”

At first glance, OnSite may appear relatively simple. In addition to keeping tabs on details of a customer’s order, the app offers GPS-based tracking of Cadman concrete trucks, showing users where their deliveries are on a Google map and offering an estimated time of delivery. Also, telemetric data is used to feed information on the amount of concrete being delivered and its specifications. And when the trucks are on site and feeding the pumps, equipment on the trucks sends data to the app telling users how much concrete has been pumped and how much remains.

In construction, time is money, especially in the concrete trade. A recent visit to the (Division 28 Homes) mixed-use project being built by general contractor Truebeck Construction in Southeast Portland showed how OnSite is used to increase efficiency on the job.

“On a placing boom, I’ve got to keep mud in the system fresh, so you can’t let the one truck leave,” said Paul Gannon, a field superintendent for the Conco Companies – the project’s concrete subcontractor. “So, if you can see that that truck is ready to go, you can get that next truck in. On a placing boom job, it’s going to let you get your truck out two minutes faster. And when the mud’s coming every six minutes, two minutes is a big deal.”

For a project like the EBS Building, where space is limited, a tool like OnSite can be invaluable.

“I’ve got no staging here, so it’s nice to know that if a truck is out of line – and sometimes you’ve got neighbors that are pouring too – so it’s nice to see, well, that’s not my truck,” Gannon said. “It makes it easier. We used to have to call in and dispatch would have to radio the truck, and radio back and she’d have to call me back and let me know, hey, your truck is six minutes out. Now you can track it and see them on a map.

“If I don’t have a truck pulling in when I need a truck pulling in, it screws the whole show up.”

Cadman Materials also is supplying concrete for the Eleven West and Block 216 projects, Sheehy said.

“A lot of our customers … call into the dispatch office to place orders once a week,” he said. “Now they can quickly check what orders they’ve got for the coming week.”

A busy company, Sheehy added, might have someone ordering for multiple sites at one time, which is where the efficiency of the app ramps up.

“It gives that person a holistic view, where if they have access to the app, they can see what they’ve ordered,” he said. “That person has the ability to say, ‘Oh, yeah your concrete is 11 minutes out.’ It’s two parts – the real-time ETA and … a sort of really good insight on what’s on the schedule for the coming day or week.”

There’s no other construction product quite like concrete, Sheehy said.

“You’ve got two hours to get it to the site, placed, finished in the mold, and done,” he said. “In terms of technology, it’s really important to have this ability to see things in real time. It’s why customers have taken to it. Concrete is expensive, and it has to be carefully managed with the confines of the specifications. So, this technology is really key; it gives people insight and it gives people confidence.”

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PROJECT: The Factor Building

LOCATION: 210/226 S.E. Madison St., Portland

SIZE:��53,560 square feet

COST:��not provided

START DATE: August 2020

ANTICIPATED END DATE: May 2021

OWNER: 210 SE Madison OZ LLC

DEVELOPER: Libertas Management

ARCHITECT: SUM Design Studio + architecture

CONTRACTOR:��Truebeck Construction

ENGINEERS: Grummel Engineering LLC (structural), AKS Engineering & Forestry (civil), American Heating Inc. (design-build HVAC, plumbing), Christenson Electric Inc. (electrical design-build), Geopacific Engineering Inc. (geotech)

SIGNIFICANCE OF PROJECT: The project continues the modernization of the Central Eastside Industrial District while maintaining its working-class roots. Two 1920s-era warehouses are being integrated into a single multilevel, multi-tenant building. Construction is taking place in phases amid partial occupancy. The building will feature an exposed timber and steel structural system, an open social stair at a shared, open common area, exposed steel and wood stair systems, murals by local artists, a central light monitor that will flood common areas with natural light, and upgraded (for current energy code) envelope and mechanical systems. There will be new energy-efficient windows throughout the structure. Salvaged and reclaimed materials are being incorporated. One of the original buildings (both were constructed before the Hawthorne Bridge’s on-ramps) formerly was a Miller Paint warehouse. The combined new building will have high-beam ceilings, an elevator, and open and collaborative spaces. Spaces will range from small to large (more than 10,000 square feet).

“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: djcoregon.com/building-blocks.

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