The Daily Journal of Commerce on Thursday evening saluted Top Projects award winners during its 25th annual event at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland.

Approximately 400 people attended the celebration of the best construction projects in the Pacific Northwest. The 91��Ƶ recognized dozens of efforts that improved structures, changed skylines and overcame obstacles. Entrants were among the top projects in Oregon and Southwest Washington substantially completed by Dec. 31, 2025.

The top award, Project of the Year, was awarded to the team responsible for the Clackamas County Circuit Courthouse.

Also, the Subcontractor of the Year Award was given to��Carpentry Plus. The company was nominated by��three firms: Bremik Construction, Pence Contractors and Walsh Construction.

The People’s Choice Award, voted on by event attendees, went to the Oak Lodge Library & Concord Community Center Renovation.

Many firms and organizations sponsored Thursday’s event. They included: reception sponsor – RamJack West; first drink sponsor – Colas Construction; photo booth sponsor – AGC’s Oregon-Columbia chapter; nonprofit sponsors – Business Oregon, BOLI and Child Care for Construction; VIP sponsor – I&E Construction; celebration sponsors – Mortenson and Tapani Inc.; and table sponsors – Hamilton Construction, Hennebery Eddy Architects, Hoffman Construction, Howard S. Wright, Owen Gabbert LLC, P&C Construction, PCL Construction Services, Pence Contractors, R&H Construction, SAJ Architecture, Swinerton Builders, Turner Construction, and Walsh Construction.

To learn more about this year’s award recipients, please visit .

The 51 Top Projects honorees are:

• Albina One
• Altura
• Amity Orchards
• Astoria Public Library Renovation
• Benson Polytechnic High School
• Blue Lake Park Operations and Maintenance Facility
• Boardwalk Place Apartments
• Brooklyn Carreta
• Carson Commons
• Center for Addictions Triage and Treatment – Beaverton and Hillsboro Recovery Centers
• chaku kumtuks haws & chaku kumtuks illahee
• City of Bend Public Works Campus
• City of Phoenix Government & Public Safety Center
• Clackamas County Circuit Courthouse
• Combs Flat Road Extension Segment 1A and Ochoco Irrigation District (OID) Ironhorse Piping Project
• Dartmouth Crossing North
• Gates Residence
• Glisan Landing
• Gresham-Barlow Student Health Center
• Hillsboro Hops Ballpark
• Hoffman HQ
• Johnson Creek Confluence & Milwaukie Bay Habitat Enhancement
• Joice A. Taylor Apartments
• Julia West House
• Kafoury Court
• La Plaza Esperanza
• Lam Building G
• The Merchant Block / Inn at Dayton
• Milwaukie City Hall
• Mt. Scott Community Center Seismic Retrofit and Expansion Project
• Multnomah County Library – Albina
• Nehalem Bay Health Center and Pharmacy
• Oak Lodge Library & Concord Community Center Renovation
• One26 Vista
• Oregon Parks and Recreation Department��– Fort Stevens Guardhouse Historic Rehabilitation
• Plambeck Gardens
• Portal at the River District
• Portland Art Museum
• Press Blocks
• Providence St. Vincent Emergency Department Expansion
• Redmond Public Safety Facility
• Shortstack Milwaukie
• Shortstack Mississippi
• South Hillsboro Fire and Rescue Station #9
• T. Joyce Phillips Apartments
• Tistilal Village Redevelopment
• Union Gospel Mission Women’s LifeChange Center – Angela’s House
• US 101, Jefferson & Clallam Counties – Remove Fish Barriers
• Veterans Memorial Coliseum Modernization
• Virginia Garcia Newberg Wellness Center
• York Terrace Apartments

The post County courthouse named Project of the Year by 91��Ƶ appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

PROJECT: The Loft

LOCATION: 3015 S.W. First Ave., Portland

SIZE: 21,000 square feet

START DATE: March 2025

ANTICIPATED COMPLETION DATE: fall 2026

CONSTRUCTION COST: $12 million

OWNER/DEVELOPER: Ukandu

CONSTRUCTION MANAGER: MearsCPM

GENERAL CONTRACTOR: Walsh Construction

ARCHITECT: Gensler

ENGINEER: Froelich Engineers

OTHER ASSOCIATES/CONSULTANTS: Holzy Designs/Ian Holzworth

PROJECT DESCRIPTION: Construction crews are building The Loft, a community space and headquarters for Ukandu in Portland’s Lair Hill neighborhood. The 40-year-old nonprofit will provide free, year-round support for people impacted by a childhood cancer diagnosis — patients, survivors, siblings and caregivers.

Trauma-informed design was used to create space for inclusive programming and on-site mental health services. The center will offer warm, welcoming spaces where families can come together, as well as unique spaces for teens and caregivers.��Amenities will include an active space with an obstacle course, a two-story climbing wall, and a sports simulator bay with golf, baseball, archery and zombie dodgeball; a lounge and sanctuary for caregivers; an arts and crafts room; a multimedia room featuring music and games; a reflection room (an immersive digital environment for celebrating and honoring the lives of loved ones); and an outdoor patio with a firepit, stage and movie screen.

Solar power, LED lighting, low toxicity paint, and high-efficiency appliances are being used for the building.

Pacific Bank was instrumental in helping the owner acquire the building. Construction is being self-financed. Grants were provided by the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust ($300,000) and the Marie Lamfrom Charitable Foundation ($100,000).

“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 Loft appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

A 17-story office building is receiving some updates. The first phase of the project will be complete late next year.

The Standard Plaza building, at 1100 SW Sixth Ave., Portland, home to The Standard, is set to undergo a multi-phase renovation. The first phase of construction and remodeling – about 70,000 square feet of remodeling – began in late March.

The project team includes owner Standard Insurance Co., architect GBD Architects, civil and structural engineer KPFF and general contractor Walsh Construction.

The phased project begins with the renovation of floors one through five. The redesign of several floors will enhance collaboration and team engagement through upgrades to meeting rooms, workspaces, common areas and more. There will be updates to finishes, plumbing, electrical and flooring throughout the building, reusing and recycling building materials where possible. Over time, the 17-floor building, including the main entrance, lobby and outdoor courtyard will be completely remodeled, The Standard spokesperson Melissa Wilmot wrote in an email.

“Spaces emphasize community, connection and collaboration and are optimized for hybrid, virtual and on-site work,” Wilmot stated.

There will be gathering areas for employees, customers and brokers. The design supports collaboration, while also accommodating a smaller percentage of daily workers. It will include a fireplace lounge and drink bar, as well as a work lounge.

The redesign will also include historical items from The Standard’s archives, as well as artwork by local artists.

A $6 million alteration permit was issued in June for redesign of the second level. The work will involve demolishing walls and adding new ones to create a north and south gallery, restrooms, a reading area, a library meeting room, a library, a vestibule, a main lobby, a fire command center, a parking lobby, an elevator lobby and storage rooms. The work will also involve ceiling, flooring, finishes, plumbing and electrical.

A $9.7 million addition permit is currently under review for the project. The exterior scope of work would involve removing an existing escalator, removing a storefront at the north and south alcoves, adding a storefront at the east facade to enclose the escalator alcove, removing and replacing the plaza deck surface and waterproofing. The interior scope of work would include building new connecting stairs between floors 1 and 2, and reconfiguring the space to include a vestibule, training rooms, reading and fireplace areas, and new restrooms at the west alcove.

Phase one of construction is scheduled to be complete in late 2026. Construction will take several phases and is expected to take several years to be fully complete.

The post Portland’s Standard Plaza begins major renovation appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Sloop, who joined Walsh in 1995 as a laborer, has served as assistant superintendent, superintendent and project manager. The U.S. Navy veteran’s leadership has been pivotal since 2010 in the estimation, value engineering and system analysis of all Walsh projects in Oregon. He brings expertise to a portfolio of more than 500 projects, including schools, affordable housing, medical offices, and community-focused facilities. His work covers projects of all sizes, from $125,000 tenant improvements to $125 million developments, and integrates sustainable building certifications such as Living Building, LEED, and Earth Advantage.

Sloop’s ingenuity and problem-solving skills shined on the PAE Living Building project. When space limitations prevented full on-site energy generation, he proposed an off-site solution using the solar-ready roof of Renaissance Commons, an affordable housing development built by Walsh in the same utility district. This strategy not only resolved the energy challenge but aligned with the equity requirements of the Living Building Challenge, directly benefiting the community.

Sloop volunteers at Doreen’s Place – a Portland men’s shelter – and participates in SOLVE neighborhood cleanups.

The post Ed Sloop appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Each year, the 91��Ƶ editorial staff compiles a list of the contractors, engineers and architects that are shaping skylines and redefining the industry through their outstanding work. This year’s Power Lists features 20 companies that are leading the AEC industry into 2023 (in no particular order).

GBD Architects

GBD Architects is behind some of Portland’s most recent mega-projects. Highlights include Block 216, a 35-story giant rising out of the city’s downtown; the eight-acre RiverPlace master plan development near the South Waterfront District; and the 30-story RiverPlace tower. The firm’s most recent large-scale work is a proposed 22-story tower in the Pearl District.

Andersen Construction

Andersen Construction has served as the contractor for several of Portland’s recent tall multifamily developments. Projects include Alta Art Tower, a 21-story, 314-unit mixed-use tower; the Sutton (previously “Fremont Place”), a 17-story apartment building; and the Alamo Manhattan Blocks that include a 23-story mixed-use tower and a six-story mixed-use building.

LEVER Architecture

LEVER Architecture is one of Portland’s leading architecture firms in mass timber with projects such as Albina Yard and Redfox Commons. Now it is turning this early innovation into a maturing excellence. The firm hit a significant milestone in 2022 when Portland’s Design Commission approved Sandy Pine, a planned 12-story mass-timber tower. If built, Sandy Pine will be the city’s tallest timber development.

ZGF Architects

As the largest architecture firm in Portland, ZGF Architects has taken on some of the city’s most high-profile projects. Recent highlights include the ongoing $1.95 billion Portland International Airport Main Terminal Core project that features a nine-acre timber roof as well as the PAE Living Building – poised to be the world’s largest commercial living building.

Carleton Hart Architecture

Carleton Hart Architecture is one of Portland’s most prominent firms for designing affordable housing developments. It is a cornerstone of the firm’s mission-driven focus. Projects in recent years have included Nesika Illahee, Mamook Tokatee and Red Rock Creek Commons. One of the firm’s most recent endeavors consists of the complete renovation of the Joyce Hotel in downtown Portland into permanent supportive housing.

PAE Engineers

PAE Engineers is the “brain” behind the recently completed PAE Living Building, which is slated to be the world’s largest living commercial building. Sustainable systems designed by PAE allow the four-story building in Portland to be primarily independent of any city systems. PAE also provided mechanical, electrical, fire protection and technology system design and engineering for the University of Oregon’s modernized Hayward Field, which recently hosted the World Track and Field Championships.

KPFF

KPFF is the engineering firm behind some of Oregon’s largest commercial projects – and more. Work includes Block 216, Oregon State University’s Gladys Valley Marine Studies Building (91��Ƶ Project of the Year 2021), Portland International Airport’s (PDX) Concourse E extension, and the PAE Living Building.

Howard S. Wright

Howard S. Wright is the general contractor behind the largest building in Portland since the U.S. Bancorp Tower – Block 216. At 844,117 square feet, the project will likely become the largest Portland building of its era. It will house 158,000 square feet of office space, a five-star Ritz-Carlton hotel with 215 rooms, and 138 residences.

Walsh ��DzԲ��ٰ��ܳ��پ��Dz���

Walsh Construction is the general contractor for many sustainable and complex projects and myriad affordable housing developments. The contractor recently constructed the four-story PAE Living Building, which required that every item be thoroughly researched and approved against a list containing the “worst in class” materials, chemicals and elements concerning human health and the ecosystem. More than 2,700 materials were vetted for the project.

LMC Construction��

Affordable housing has become a cornerstone of the Portland-metro development market. Many general contractors tackle such projects, but LMC Construction is behind most. More than two-thirds of the contractors’ work is building affordable homes. Projects include Red Rock Creek Commons, Nesika Illahee and Cathedral Village Apartments.

Hoffman Skanska JV

Hoffman-Skanska is the joint venture contractor formed to partly undertake the $2 billion modernization of Portland International Airport. At the heart of this endeavor is the $1.95 billion main terminal project that involves a new nine-acre, mostly cross-laminated-timber roof structure. The entire roof will weigh about 18 million pounds. A self-propelled modular transporter capable of carrying a submarine is being used to move each section into position. Officials anticipate the roof being fully installed soon and the entire terminal updated in 2025.

Kiewit

Kiewit Corp. is known for tackling projects that would be described as large, massive, and complex. All three terms represent the general contractor’s current undertaking with the Abernethy Bridge project that spans the Willamette River. The venture involves drilling more than 200 feet into the earth below the water to place new bridge foundations capable of withstanding a significant seismic event. It is the first major interstate freeway construction project in Oregon in nearly 45 years.

TVA Architects

TVA Architects is one of Oregon’s most high-profile firms, and few others have placed as large a stamp on the state. Projects include Park Avenue West, Fox Tower, and the University of Oregon’s basketball palace – Matthew Knight Arena. Most recently, the firm designed the Sutton (previously called “Fremont Tower”) – a 17-story residential tower under construction on the banks of the Willamette River.

R&H Construction

R&H Construction is building some of Portland’s largest multifamily developments. Projects include Freewell, Saltwood South and Tiller Terrace – a six-story, a 214-unit development in the Goose Hollow neighborhood. Recently, R&H broke ground on Splash Apartments – the first phase of the five-acre Pop Blocks development.

David Evans Enterprises

Oregon’s largest engineering firm, David Evans and Associates, has worked on a wide range of notable projects in the state. Recent highlights include the Newberg-Dundee Bypass, in which the firm designed two new bridges and seven support structures. DEA’s work on the Oneonta Tunnel rehabilitation project also earned . The 2017 Eagle Creek Fire severely damaged the tunnel and rendered it unusable until DEA’s work allowed it to reopen in spring 2021.

Harper Houf Peterson Righellis

Regarding transportation infrastructure improvements in Oregon, Harper Houf Peterson Righellis is one of the key players. The firm is behind the Clackamas Regional Center improvements, which involved widening a bridge that spans Interstate 205 at Sunnyside Road, as well as the Willamette Falls Drive streetscape improvements project that topped the transportation category for the 2022 ACEC Oregon Engineering Excellence Awards.

��Mortenson��

Mortenson is a general contractor with a long reputation in Oregon for building challenging and unique projects. Recently, the contractor has undertaken a significant renovation of the Multnomah County Behavioral Health Resource Center – a 116-year-old building in downtown Portland.

SERA Architects

SERA Architects has worked on some of Portland’s largest multifamily developments in recent years. Projects include Freewell, the Saltwoods, Tiller Terrace and more. Most recently, SERA drew up Slabtown Savier, a two-building multifamily project under construction in Northwest Portland.

BORA Architects

BORA Architects is behind several notable projects in Oregon, including the Cosmopolitan – a 28-story residential tower in Portland’s Pearl District and the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact on the University of Oregon’s Eugene campus. One of the firm’s most recent undertakings is the modernization of Lincoln High School in Portland; It is one of the first high-rise schools west of the Mississippi River.

Swinerton��

Swinerton is a leading general contractor for mass-timber innovation in Oregon. Recent projects include the Wingspan Event and Conference Center in Hillsboro, Steeplejack Brewing in Portland, and Oregon State University-Cascades’ Edward J. Ray Hall in Bend.

Clarification: An earlier version of this story implied an incorrect association for Swinerton to the Beaverton Public Safety Center project. Swinerton was the mass-timber subcontractor for the project.

The post 91��Ƶ Power List 2023 appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Five years ago, PAE Engineers, ZGF Architects, Edlen & Co., and Walsh Construction set out to construct a building able to meet today’s most advanced sustainability metrics.

In November 2021, they completed that building.

Now, the team must wait for a full year of operation and data collection before receiving word if the PAE Living Building has successfully achieved the International Living Future Institute’s Living Building Challenge.

Systems inside the building allow it to produce its electricity, capture and treat all its water, operate efficiently, and more. But to solve big challenges, the project team first needed to turn to the little details.

One valve after another

In the back of the PAE Living Building, on the ground floor, is the mechanical room. In the far corner are two rows of tall, blue composting machines – each capable of holding five gallons of liquid waste. Above each of the 20 composters is a black-and-yellow valve.

After a 70-gallon sump fills with waste from toilets (about once per day from typical use), one composter’s valve opens for 10 seconds – waste pumps in – and then closes. The valve at the next composter then follows suit, and on down the line until the sump is empty. The system ensures that each composter fills evenly.

“If you use one composter too much, you can overload it, and then just like backyard compost would turn into a wet soggy mess,” PAE principal and lead engineer Marc Brune said. “It’s even worse here.”

The setup also allows the composters to be at the back of the building. The project team could have relied on gravity instead of pumps, ZGF principal Justin Brooks said, but that would have required alignment of the restrooms and the composters throughout the building and thus a restricted floor plan.

Project financing relied on investments, so it was important for the structure to perform not only sustainably but also economically. A 2,365-square-foot mechanical room did not help the cause. However, use of a nutrient recovery system created more leasable space.

All liquid from the urinals drains into the system, beginning with a 1,000-gallon collection tank. The liquid then runs through a distillation column (about once a month), which separates the leachate from the urine and creates both liquid and powder fertilizers that will be sold.

Without separation of the urine from the urinals and the waste from the toilets, the building would have needed 23 composters, Brune said. Each composter costs substantially more than $10,000, said Ed Sloop, chief estimator for Walsh Construction, so use of just 20 represented a significant cost savings.

As far as the project team knows, no other Living Building has a nutrient recovery system.

Nuances in materials

Holding the 58,000-square-foot structure together are cross-laminated timber panels, glulam structural columns, and beams with concrete shear walls in the center for additional reinforcement.

“It’s basically a wood building wrapped around a concrete building,” Sloop said.

So, when it came to the stairway that travels up the center of the building. Brooks said the team needed to make a design decision: Should the wood and the concrete touch? In the case of the stairway, they do not.

Also, by not adding finishes to connect the surfaces, Brooks said, the team limited its use of materials, energy, carbon … and money.

Similarly, CLT panels lay flat across the floor beams, and just a thin line separates them. But to ensure that it would be a thin line and not a gap, KPFF engineers and Walsh Construction team members needed to engage in hours of back-and-forth and prep work.

Each glulam beam is engineered to have a precise arch (camber) so that only a certain amount of it leaves when the CLT is placed. Then the rest of the camber comes out from the concrete’s weight from the roof, leaving a flat line.

A lot of the back-and-forth, Sloop said, was on how to pour the concrete and ensure the weight was proportioned correctly for the beams.

“We said, ‘OK, we’re going to pour it uniform thickness and trust the math,’” he added. “And it came out great. You can walk around … and you don’t see ‘smiles’ because it just landed flat.”

Hidden systems

Small vents scattered atop the building are the only visible markers of the unique system that allows the roof to “breathe.”

The day the roof was placed there was “bad weather,” Sloop said, and a vapor barrier had to go down. When the concrete top was poured, an abundance of moisture was left under it and within the exposed structure.

“We couldn’t get a warrantable roof unless we could do something with the moisture,” Sloop said.

That difficulty as well as the one posed by the Living Building Challenge‘s restrictive Red List of “worst in class” materials led to a new roofing system being invented for the project. A special waffle-pattern insulation allows air to circulate under the membrane. The vents atop the roof then let the air escape.

“You don’t see it; it’s not sexy,” Sloop said, “but it’s super important to how this building got built and the longevity of the roof.”

A few windows in the walls give peeks at the inner workings, but most of the systems are tucked away.

“I just think about how much is contained in a relatively small container,” Sloop said. “There are more systems on this building than any building I have ever participated in.”

Completion of the PAE Living Building is realization of a dream, Brune said, especially since it holds the engineering firm’s new headquarters.

“I’m hoping we’ve pushed the bar a little further and (we’re) a lot closer to seeing a lot more of these because of this project,” he said. “To me, it’s just an inspiration to work in here every day that I come in.”

The post PAE Living Building aiming to live up to its name appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Central City Concern is bringing new life to the southwest corner of Northwest Sixth Avenue and Flanders Street in Portland‘s Old Town Chinatown.

The old, decrepit Westwind Apartments building was demolished in October 2021, and Walsh Construction has since led the effort to replace it with a seven-story, 100-unit affordable housing structure designed by Works Progress Architecture.

Recently, the building got a name: the Starlight. Central City Concern’s director of real estate development, Mary-Rain O’Meara, said the name relates to the area better since Amtrak’s Coast Starlight line travels through Union Station nearby and the annual Starlight Parade passes through downtown.

The building will have 70 single-room-occupancy units and 30 studio apartments for people earning either 30 percent (or less) or 50 percent (or less) of the area median income. There will also be ground-floor retail space and an outdoor courtyard. Residents will have access to “extensive supportive services,” according to the city of Portland.

Early Thursday morning, Zavala Corp. crews started laying the second and last post-tensioned concrete deck. They began on the southeast corner of the site in the dark, and by 9 a.m. on a clear morning, the third-floor deck was nearly filled in.

Pouring concrete in the Portland-metro area comes with lots of challenges, especially now when there’s so much construction taking place, Walsh Construction Community Outreach Director Afton Walsh said. Project teams must pick their day two weeks out, commit to it, and then hope for good weather, she added, because concrete crews have full schedules.

Once Zavala Corp. finishes its work, framers, plumbers and electricians will enter.

“It’s kind of an exciting day,” Walsh said. “It’s sort of the completion of one scope of work, and then we’re really off to the races.”

This is the first time Walsh Construction has partnered with Zavala Corp., a COBID-certified firm based in Troutdale. Its crews laid the foundation and the two post-tensioned decks.

“(It’s the) start of a very long partnership,” Walsh said. “I know that.”

Over the coming months, the building will rise four more stories and gain a roof. Then drywall work will begin.

Central City Concern opted for new construction, O’Meara said, mainly to increase site density and provide space to better suit future residents – primarily chronically homeless individuals – and social service providers.

The new building is designed to achieve Earth Advantage platinum standards. There will be a solar array on the roof. Also, an outdoor courtyard on the second floor was designed to match neighboring buildings’ courtyards and create a small, urban oasis.

Construction of the project is expected to wrap in the fall.

“We really see it as revitalizing this corner of Old Town,” O’Meara said. “We’re looking forward to having it come to fruition.”

The post New life for a bit of Old Town Chinatown appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Crews have broken ground on a 144-unit affordable housing complex in Washington County.

Related Northwest‘s Terrace Glen Apartments will be in Metzger, a census-designated place near Washington Square. The project – the developer’s first in the suburban county – is being paid for in part with Metro housing bond dollars.

There will be a couple of four-story buildings around an inner courtyard. Apartments will range from studios to four-bedroom units. Rents will be from $483 to $1,408 per month.

Terrace Glen will be the fourth affordable housing project in Washington County to benefit from the Metro bond. The funds are administered by the county’s Housing Authority.

“It’s affordable housing projects like Terrace Glen that alleviate the burden of housing instability and increasing rent costs for our community members,” Washington County Board Chairwoman Kathryn Harrington stated in a news release. “Terrace Glen is going to make a big difference in the lives of 144 families.”

Related Northwest is part of New York-based real estate giant Related Companies. Related Northwest has previously worked with partners such as Central City Concern and the Portland Housing Bureau. Related has previously completed Cedar Commons in outer Southeast Portland. Crescent Court Apartments is on track to wrap up in Southeast Portland in May and Cathedral Village Apartments in St. Johns is set to open in late summer.

“With the lack of supply of affordable housing, we are proud to be able to bring such an integral development to the community of Tigard,” stated Ann Silverberg, CEO of Related Northwest.

Terrace Glen pairs housing with on-site services. The Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization will support self-sufficiency, EngAGE Northwest will provide arts education to the multigenerational population and HomePlate Youth Services will provide services to homeless youth between 18 and 24 years old.

Walsh Construction is serving as general contractor for Terrace Glen. C2K Architecture designed the development. GLI Advisors is managing construction.

In addition to the housing bond, financing is being provided by Citibank, US Bank, Metro (via its Transit Oriented Development Program) and Oregon Housing and Community Services.

Construction is scheduled for completion in June 2023.

The post Metro-area affordable housing project under way appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Fewer developable properties remain in Portland‘s Pearl District than can be counted on the fingers of one hand.

One of the last sizable projects under way there is at the corner of Northwest 13th Avenue and Quimby Street. Crews are making rapid vertical progression on the 16-story Holden of Pearl, a 237-unit senior living facility designed by Ankrom Moisan Architects for Alliance Residential. Ground was broken in March, and general contractor Walsh Construction is expected to finish in August 2023.

Holden of Pearl tenants will have access to a huge range of amenities as they age in place.

“There’s going to be a lot of green space and courtyard space so that residents can play at chess tables; there’s even going to be a giant chessboard,” said Laura Waddick, a Walsh Construction project engineer. “There are barbecues, water features. There’s a double-sided fireplace on the first floor. It’s going to be a good spot for people to come and visit their grandparents.”

The building will have 16 stories of post-tensioned concrete and a single level of below-grade, tandem parking. A three-story podium will support a narrower tower with the bulk of the residential units – including luxury penthouse units at the top.

The building’s ground floor will have a double-height, arched entryway off of 13th Avenue. Memory care units on that level will serve residents with dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. A porte cochere (essentially a circular driveway) off of Quimby Street will be used for valet parking and access to the parking garage.

The second and third levels will feature assisted living units, while the fourth floor will host shared facilities such as a dining area, a yoga studio, a bistro, a nail salon and more. A massive rooftop patio on the fourth level will hold a barbecue area, a dog run and the aforementioned giant chess set. The remainder of the brick-clad building will host studios and one- or two-bedroom apartments.

Because of low soil quality at the site, the engineering team of Kramer Gehlen & Associates and Harper Houf Peterson Righellis chose to employ auger cast piles to shore up the foundation. Pacific Foundations used a massive drill.

“It’s bored out and they pour concrete in and pull the drill out,” Walsh Construction assistant superintendent Abigail Anderson said.

“Our deepest one was 117 feet,” Walsh Construction superintendent Mario Hernandez added.

Other work was required to allow Westech Construction crews to proceed with excavation.

“This is the lowest elevation part of the Pearl District, and we had to do some pretty extensive waterproofing,” Waddick said. “We are in the flood zone, and we had to ‘bathtub’ the entire basement.”

While many Portland project teams have had to deal with radon mitigation, the Holden of Pearl team also had to deal with methane seeping from the ground.

Though no sustainability certifications will be sought for the building, it will have a large eco-roof as well as bird-safe glass on the floors with outdoor amenities. Because birds are unable to see standard transparent glass, bird-safe glass has patterns of dots or stripes.

“It’s basically around all of the courtyard green spaces,” Anderson said. “It’s just around the fourth-floor roof and then there’s a courtyard on first, second and third where the residents can just go out there and have lots of green space, so they put bird-safe (glass) all around that – anywhere where birds land.”

Currently, crews with RDF Builders, Walsh Construction’s carpentry and concrete division, are constructing formwork and piecing together shoring for what will be the fourth-level PT deck. Other crews from Ocean Park Mechanical, Bergelectric and Patriot Fire Protection are installing mechanical, electrical and fire suppression systems, while ironworkers with Timberland Inc. are handling structural steel.

The post Residential building on the rise in Pearl District appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

A wrap date is just around the corner for the PAE Living Building, which is expected to eventually be certified as the world’s largest commercial living building.

Lead team members from PAE Engineers, Edlen & Co., ZGF Architects and Walsh Construction gathered Thursday during the 91��Ƶ’s latest Builder Breakfast event to discuss lessons learned during the project in downtown Portland.

That team sought to construct a building that would meet perhaps the world’s most stringent sustainability metrics. The project spent 28 months in preconstruction to ensure that all systems would pencil out, Walsh Construction chief estimator Ed Sloop said. Now the structure is anticipated to be self-sufficient in terms of energy use, water use, waste treatment and more.

But to achieve the International Living Future Institute‘s Living Building Challenge, the building will need to demonstrate that all sustainability goals were met. Certification is given only after a full year of occupancy and systems testing.

The project team has received the green light to turn on all of the building’s systems, PAE Engineers principal Marc Brune said. The one-year audit is predicted to begin in May or June 2022, once the building is at 80 percent occupancy.

All metrics associated with building occupancy, such as energy use and water use, will be measured during that year. Then other systems will be audited separately.

Design/mechanical engineering + plumbing

The first challenge for the project team was solar energy, Brune said. Downtown Portland has a protected grid network, and if the five-story, 58,000-square-foot building were to send excess energy to the grid, a 12-block radius blackout could result.

The team engaged with Portland General Electric, Brune said, to find an appropriate amount of energy the building could feed back to the grid. That ended up being 50 kilowatts, so a battery in the building will store any surplus.

The next challenge was the building’s size – specifically its roof. The urban site meant the building’s space was up rather than out, ZGF Architects principal Justin Brooks said, so there was less space on the roof for solar panels. Also, the Skidmore/Old Town Historic District cannot accommodate reflective surfaces (i.e., solar panels can’t be visible from the street).

As a result, the project team donated 215 kilowatts of solar panels to Renaissance Commons, an affordable housing building within the same utility district, to benefit both buildings. Carly Harrison, development manager at Edlen & Co., said it’s about $20,000 worth of power every year.

Financial

Project financing came via a developer-driven model with investors. That means the building needs to not only perform in terms of sustainability but also economics, Brooks said. To the project’s team knowledge, this type of financial model hasn’t been done yet for a potential living building – or at least at such a scale.

The financial model was intentionally designed to make this type of project more replicable, Harrison said. Typically, living building projects are subsidized by grants – a model much more difficult to repeat.

“The biggest challenge was really how to thread the needle of the cost and the rent needed to make it pencil,” Harrison said.

Team members did not mention the project’s cost on Thursday; however, Portland Bureau of Development Services permit information in April 2020 placed a $20.5 million value on the building’s structure.

Much of the project cost is associated with the special systems, especially for plumbing, electrical and solar. Also, the water treatment and waste treatment composters require a large mechanical room, reducing the amount of usable/leasable space. From that standpoint, the building is inefficient, Harrison said. But with approximately half of the building serving as PAE Engineers’ new headquarters, team members were able to discuss appropriate lease rates, Harrison added.

Construction

The structure is primarily made of cross-laminated timber panels, heavy glulam structural columns and beams, and a concrete core. About 60-70 percent of the finished product, Sloop said, is the structure itself. Protecting that was challenging, he said, after the construction start date was moved from January to April. Some of the work planned for drier weather, like roofing, was pushed to wet-weather months, he said.

Additional complexity for construction came from the project team needing to ensure that items on the ILFI “red list” – materials and chemicals considered “worst in class” to people and the environment – were not used. More than 3,000 products were vetted, Sloop said, to see whether they met Living Building Challenge requirements. The construction team had to develop a roofing system never used before, Sloop added.

The post The PAE Living Building: lessons learned appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.