Extraordinary Architecture, Health Care Provide a Boost to Eugene Construction

by Lucy Bodilly

Home of one of the most anticipated pieces of architecture in the country, and innovative sustainable architecture, Eugene is making a name for itself with national retailers and companies as a good place to grow.

When a Pritzker Award winner designs one of the most accessible buildings in the city, it's bound to draw attention from national retailers and real estate developers. The city of Eugene, about to celebrate the opening of the Wayne Morse Courthouse, designed by Thom Mayne, is working to anticipate that change.

The city is working to increase housing and retail opportunities throughout the downtown area for the city of 85,000. Residential construction is a main concern because of the pressure students at the University of Oregon put on the housing market. Most get an automatic housing subsidy from their parents, while lower income families struggle to find a place to live with little help. To fill this gap, the city of Eugene and Metropolitan Affordable Housing Renewal Agency are breaking ground on WestTown on 8th, 100-plus unit apartment complex. The $15 million project just received a $445,000 loan from the city council to help make up the increased construction costs. Ground breaking is scheduled for December 2006.

The city is also reviewing requests for proposals to develop the former city library site, and potentially the surrounding blocks.

"We only own the library site, but some of the respondents have figured out how to acquire surrounding property to build larger mixed use projects," said Denny Braud, of the city planning office. The new courthouse, constructed by J.E. Dunn Northwest, may be the most spectacular building to come on line in the coming months, but the General Services Administra-tion, isn't the biggest owner with projects in the area.

Peace Health, owner of Sacred Heart Hospital, is building RiverBend, a new hospital complex in Springfield. It recently finished a $15 million remodel of the Oregon Medical Laboratories, an annex to the RiverBend site and announced that much of its facility close to the University of Oregon would be turned over to research space and a teaching hospital in conjunction with the University of Oregon. Cost the conversion is about $61 million.

General contractor on the new regional medical center is Turner Construction, Portland. Peace Health Systems would not comment on the project, but referred to information on its website.

The Eugene Water and Electric Board, a utility company that serves Eugene and some smaller communities, is working with Pivot Architecture, Eugene, to develop a 40-acre site to house it's engineering, field operations, support staff and equipment. The firm hopes to be done with design development in January. Total project cost is estimated to be $54 million. Lease Crutcher Lewis, Portland will be the general contractor.

The construction highlight of the building will be the new technology used. Ken Beeson, project manager with EWEB, said the utility is looking into Living Machine for the plumbing system, which uses natural processes to clean the all water used on the site.

BNIM, of Kansas City, KN. the lead architect on the building, has used the system on several of its other projects. The system uses small invertebrates, plants and microorganisms to treat water which can then be used for irrigation and toilet flushing. A similar system is in place at IslandWood, a ecological learning center near Seattle.

"Since we are the main utility company, we want to demonstrate as many sustainable features as possible," Beeson said. Other sustainable features are green roofs, solar panels and natural ventilation for cooling the buildings.

Pivot also used AutoTurn software to configure the parking lot. The software demonstrates exactly how much space is used to turn vehicles around and how much is needed for parking. "That allowed us to use as little space as possible," said Beeson.

The firm, which works primarily in the Eugene area, now has 60 active projects.

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Expanded Call Center Opens

Symantec Corp., developer of virus protection software opened a new office building and expanded its call center in the Eugene-Springfield area this summer. Matt Construction was the general contractor. Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines is also building a call center there.

Luigi P. Sciabarrasi, Vice President - Real Estate & Facilities, Global Operations of Symantec Corp. answered these questions about the new facility.

Symantec has recently moved into Phase II of their Springfield call center and technical support facility. Could I have a project description?

Phase II is essentially a mirror image of the Phase I facility with a 120-ft. connection linking the two buildings. This is a 205,000-sq.-ft., two story, concrete tilt-up building. The configuration of the buildings creates a courtyard that will be used for outdoor dining and has a basketball court for employees.

Are you incorporating any special design features such as sustainable design?

There are several unique design features to this building. The southern exposure of the 120-ft. building connector is comprised of a glass curtain wall system. This curtain wall is a natural extension of the 12-ft. wide, 744-ft. continuous skylight that runs the length of the building. Due to the building orientation, skylight and other natural lighting strategies, the lighting load for the building is 1/3 that of a typical office building. Symantec's open floor plans and choice of rapidly renewable resources (bamboo flooring and recycled carpet throughout) also go far to minimize resource consumption.

What challenges did the contractor or architect face in order to meet your requirements?

This project was built on a very tight schedule which required the construction team to roof the building during the very wet winter of 2005/2006. The general contractor, Matt Construction, Eugene, along with Umpqua Roofing, devised a plan where an ice and water shield was used to "water seal" the roof panels and temporarily dry-in the building envelope until more favorable weather arrived.

Another major challenge was the busy market place for subcontractors during our construction period, due to many local developments, especially the new Sacred Heart Hospital. The relationships that we established during Phase I of our development were instrumental in helping us to secure the highest quality subcontractors.

I read that there was some controversy about the location -- that the building might contribute to traffic congestion and that it added urban sprawl. How did you work with the public to counter these allegations?

I was not aware that there was any controversy about the location. Symantec and its development manager, Sares Regis Group, were diligent about establishing strong relationships with the City Manager and city staff and the team met early and often with city officials. Our goal was to identify concerns early and to come up with innovative ways to resolve them. In Phase II we had a number of very mature Douglas fir trees on our site. Symantec chose to thoughtfully integrate these trees into our site plan, creating a walkway through this grove which saved these trees and added to the site sustainable character.

Why did you choose the Eugene/Springfield area?

Symantec had existing operations downtown Eugene. However, the location was not optimal for our growth. We explored opportunities in both Eugene and Springfield and found the City of Springfield refreshing in their approach and willing to meet our aggressive schedule for our proposed Phase I development.