Building boom in Vancouver, Wash., spans array of project types

By Melody Finnemore

The openings of an enormous, new expo center and a state-of-the-art entertainment complex in Vancouver, Wash., kicked off a busy construction year worth hundreds of millions in new development for the Southwest Washington city.

The $18.5 million Clark County Fairgrounds Expo Center opened in March and offers 112,000-sq.-ft. of exhibition and event space. At two football fields long, it required long-span trusses measuring 500 feet long and 200 feet wide.

"Everything was done 30 to 40 feet off the ground," said Dave Garske, project manager for Hoffman Construction Co. of Portland. "The duct work, lighting and sound systems are in the ceiling, so there was a lot of high bay work involved."

The fast-track project involved at least 10 sets of drawings, creating a challenging process of coordinating packages and working with scores of subcontractors while meeting deadlines, said Rob Barrentine of Architects Barrentine.Bates.Lee in Vancouver.

"Everyone understood they wanted a very large building. Semis can drive in and turn around and they look like Tonka trucks," Barrentine said. "We worked very hard to find a balance of elements that would make the building look agrarian…but not add to the cost."

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In late July, Vancouver celebrated the opening of Cinetopia, an eight-screen movie theater, restaurant, wine bar and cellar and art gallery. Developer Rudyard Coltman hired Portland's Robinson Construction Co. and WPH Architecture Inc. to build the $10 million complex.

Robinson Project Manager Ed Stanton said Cinetopia's atypical roofline makes the building unique.

"It's an open, canopy roof with exposed steel that is painted, so it's very attractive," he said. "We spent a lot of time and energy on the theaters and luxury seating. The chairs are slightly wider, have wider armrests and are made of imitation leather."

The Southwest Washington Regional Crime Lab also opened in July, though in a much more limited capacity than originally envisioned due to lack of funding from Washington's legislature.

As initially planned, the 35,000-sq.-ft. facility featured two stories of office and lab space, including a toxicology lab. The first level does offer functional office and support space, a lab and a firing range. However, the second story was left unfinished until the legislature reconsiders funding during the 2007-09 session.

"Funding for public agencies has been an issue since 2000 when the bottom fell out," said Paschal Johns, project manager for SRG Partnership Inc. which partnered with Swinerton Builders Northwest on the project. Both companies are located in Portland.

Despite funding challenges for public work, construction is under way on two, new county projects - Firstenburg Community Center and the Clark County Center for Community Health.

Scheduled for completion in November, the $16.7 million Firstenburg Community Center will offer 15,000-sq.-ft. of aquatics space, a two-court gymnasium, a 4,000 sq. ft. fitness center with a jogging track, 12,000-sq.-ft. of lounge space for seniors and teens, event and meeting space, and child-care rooms. Its proximity to Haagen Park in Northeast Vancouver drove a design that complements the park's landscape. Diseased trees on the site will be milled locally and used for interior finishes.

"The challenges kind of became the opportunities. It's a large building on a busy street near a wooded area, and we wanted to create a community feel," said Jeff Stern, project manager with Portland's Opsis Architecture. "Transparency between spaces was an important part of the design. You get a lot of views from one space to another so you get a great sense of community and activity, and natural daylight helps conserve energy."

Designed for LEED Silver certification, operable windows allow natural ventilation, a porous concrete parking lot will filter storm water, and waterless urinals and low-flow fixtures will conserve water. In addition, water used to clean the pool filters each week will be captured in a tank and used to flush toilets, saving about 1 million gallons of water each year.

Keith Michel, project manager for Berschauer Phillips Construction Co. of Olympia, Wash., said such sustainable design elements added to the project's complexity. Hardwood siding ordered from South America generated longer lead times. Indoor air quality had to be monitored constantly to ensure construction dust and fumes didn't contaminate ventilation systems. And builders had to take advantage of a brief window of good weather to ensure the porous concrete parking lot was done correctly, Michel said.

"It's a pretty unique project - I've never built one that has so many special elements," he said. "One of the most rewarding parts of my job is that I get to see the finished product, and I hope I'm one of the first to head down the slide into the pool when it opens."

The $30 million Clark County Center for Community Health, set to open in November, will improve services for those receiving drug and alcohol treatment by consolidating several agencies under one roof. The four-story, 176,000-sq.-ft. structure, being built on an existing campus, will house the Veteran's Administration, county Health and Community Services departments, and several nonprofit organizations as well as residents of a 90-day drug rehabilitation program treatment program.

"When we designed it we found there weren't other models to turn to because it hadn't been done before," said Terry Werdel of Vancouver's LSW Architects. "Since people live in the building, security was a challenge because we had to figure out how to seal off the bottom floor from the upper floors."

The center's design is intended to serve an array of different programs while providing a safe haven for those seeking treatment.

"We used horizontal lines to break up the building so it doesn't look so enormous. A lot of these people are really going through a tough time and we didn't want them to feel like they are in this huge, institutional building," Werdel said.

Winter concrete pours also required some innovative solutions, said Richard Condrey, senior project manager for Swinerton.

"We ran into a few issues that were weather related. It wasn't wet but it was cold, and we realized we had to take measures like adding hot water to the concrete and providing temporary heating in order to get the proper cure," Condrey said.

The nearby V.A. Medical Center Transport Lodger Building, also due for completion in November, is a $5.13 million project that will provide 16,650 sq. ft. of living space for up to 30 veterans awaiting organ transplants.

"The site contained old World War II barracks that we had to tear down, and they were just filled with asbestos. We were abating asbestos for about two months," said Mike Clancy, project manager for Todd Construction Inc. of Tigard, Ore.

Along with recycling wood, steel and concrete on the site, other sustainable measures include bamboo flooring in the guestrooms and common rooms that lead to outdoor spaces.

"You can gather inside or go outside and have contact with the earth, which helps deinstitutionalize it," said Hans Ettlin, president of Peck Smiley Ettlin Architects of Portland. "These guys could be here for a week or up to a year, so the whole idea was to deinstitutionalize it and break the space up."

Other projects underway include the Birtcher Business Center, a 216-acre business park in Northeast Vancouver that will offer 1.5 million sq.- ft. of retail, office and industrial space just minutes from Portland International Airport and several marine terminals. Birtcher Development, WRG Design and Ankrom Moissan Associated Architects, all of Portland, have partnered on the $100 million project, which is expected to reach full buildout in 15 to 20 years.