Entries by Swinerton

Seismic strength critical for new Beaverton facility

A large earthquake is expected by some experts to shake the Pacific Northwest within the next 50 years or so. The new Beaverton Public Safety Center now under construction is being engineered to withstand such a quake and continue operating thereafter. Ground was broken in September 2018 on the three-story, 72,000-square-foot building on a 3.5-acre site at […]

July 16, 2019 by

Why Your City’s Next High-Rise Could Be Made Of Wood

As steel, concrete and glass came to dominate cities’ dense cores, wooden construction was largely relegated to single-family houses in the suburbs. But a push for sustainable and aesthetically pleasing construction materials — and some well-timed updates to building codes — could bring wooden construction back downtown. Buildings constructed with wood were long constrained to […]

July 10, 2019 by

Using history to break ground on new Agricultural Complex at CCC

A greenfield at the edge of the Chemeketa Community College (CCC) campus in Salem, Oregon will soon be the new home of a 14,500-square-foot mass timber office and classroom building. The ground-breaking ceremony uniquely utilized historic cultivating techniques from a horse-drawn plow, to a steam engine tractor, and ended with the modern tractor and plow […]

June 18, 2019 by

The 2019 100 Best Green Workplaces in Oregon

Congratulations to the companies and nonprofits that made it into the 2019 100 Best Green Workplaces in Oregon list. The following ranking showcases employers with best-in-class sustainable workplace practices. These organizations have implemented environmentally friendly strategies that their employees appreciate and rate highly. The 100 Best Green Workplaces in Oregon come from a variety of […]

June 11, 2019 by

New Land Building Wins Federal Grant

A downtown Milwaukee high-rise has found support from an unlikely source: the United States Department of Agriculture. The department’s Forestry Service division announced this week that it had awarded 41 grants totaling $8.9 million to businesses, universities, non-profits and tribal partners in 20 states to “create jobs, support fire-safe communities, restore healthy forest conditions, and […]

May 22, 2019 by

Outdoor Education Center construction reaches milestone

Construction on the new education facility at the Snow Family Outdoor Fitness and Wellness Center reached a milestone May 8 in a gathering to celebrate the near-completion of timber installation on an innovative project covering 16,500 square feet. In lieu of a traditional “topping off” ceremony, general contractor Sherman Construction welcomed key stakeholders from Clemson […]

May 10, 2019 by

Using CLT, Hacker Architects Helps Connect a Workplace to Its Surrounding Nature Preserve

The First Tech Federal Credit Union office—at five stories and 156,000 square feet—became America’s largest CLT-framed building by area when it opened this past summer. When First Tech Federal Credit Union commissioned a new corporate office in the Portland, Oregon, suburb of Hillsboro, the idea was to be near tech-industry clients in what’s known as […]

April 26, 2019 by