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Reviving Historic Structures: University of Oregon

Reviving Historic Structures: University of Oregon - Huestis Hall

When you look at the buildings surrounding you, you probably notice a mix of old and new. The new structures are designed to meet the safety standards of today; however, the older structures may not meet today’s standards, potentially posing a risk to the safety of the public. So how do we fix this problem? Do we tear down the old buildings and replace them with new ones? Or are there ways to ensure our older buildings can be repurposed to meet modern code? At catena, we take pride in finding ways to couple creativity and applied science to revive our older building structures.

At the University of Oregon, the renovation of Huestis Hall was completed while the building remained occupied. To mitigate noise, vibration, and dust (a critical need for the highly sensitive occupants) within the four-story, 60,000-sf building’s environment, the team employed Fiberglass-Reinforced Polymer (FRP) to add the strength and ductility needed for the original vertical core walls to adequately function during a large earthquake. FRP is applied using a gluing process that nearly eliminates noise, vibration, and dust. The final thickness is less than ¼”, maintaining critical square footage for Huestis Hall. The existing vertical stair and elevator cores, which were originally isolated from the main building structure, were used as part of the strengthening strategy – a process only made possible through the creative use of building technologies and advanced analyses. It was the only solution that met the constraints of the occupants, budget, schedule, and desired post-earthquake building performance. After a two-year design and construction schedule, Huestis Hall is completely open to the faculty and students and ready to serve the University for the next 50 years.

@uoregon
@tvaarchitects
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We are proud sponsors of the @smpsoregon Inclusive

We are proud sponsors of the @smpsoregon Inclusive Partnership Mixer happening May 21st in downtown Portland. Come meet and build relationships with DMWESB-Certified, Self-Certified and BIPOC-led firms in the AEC industry. We'll see you there!

For more information on this event or to register, check out the link in our bio.

Check out the new North Eugene High School during

Check out the new North Eugene High School during A4LE's Tour & Happy Hour event next Friday, May 10th!
North Eugene High School (NEHS) is the first new high school in the Eugene-Springfield area in more than 50 years. The new 216,000-square-foot campus replaces the old North Eugene High School with a two-story, high-quality facility built for safety, modern seismic standards, sustainability, and 21st century education. The project was completed in time for the Fall 2023 term.
For more info on this event, check out the link in our bio.

Article #2 on the Oregon State Capitol Seismic Reh

Article #2 on the Oregon State Capitol Seismic Rehabilitation project is published in STRUCTURE Magazine! Our own Damian Andreani and Stefanie Chamorro joined Forell Elsesser's Mike DeRubeis to describe the complex design and implications of creating a new concourse level below the capitol building. Give it a read to learn more about this project! Link in bio.

@srg_cannondesign
@arg.create
@hoffmancorp

#catenateam #catenaprojects #structuralengineering #pnwstructuralengineers #weSEEaboveandbeyond

The International Mass Timber Conference was a gre

The International Mass Timber Conference was a great chance to catch up on recent developments in the mass timber world! We were able to attend sessions that discussed mass timber from a variety of perspectives, including a contractor panel that discussed detailing to prevent moisture damage and a roundtable about fire risk management during design and construction. MTC Solutions even had some of their full-scale fire test specimens on display on the exhibition floor.
The presentation on The Hive (a new mass timber building in Vancouver, Canada) was especially interesting. The lateral systems in this new building will utilize Tectonus spring friction dampers in series with timber braced frames and a CLT rocking shear wall.
We had a great experience all around, gaining even more of an understanding about the world of mass timber!
#catenateam #masstimber #internationalmasstimberconference #structuralengineering

Project Highlight | The Canyons The Canyons is a u

Project Highlight | The Canyons
The Canyons is a unique project born out of a commitment to use mass timber (CLT) in building structures typically dominated by more traditional materials. The five-story, 110,000-square-foot CLT framed apartment building features a series of interconnected CLT bridges to allow ease of movement throughout the 70-unit building. The building provides retail and care-based services for residents who want to age-in-place and maintain an active lifestyle.
The structure is a five-over-two podium with the upper levels constructed of stick frame wood walls, wood shear walls and CLT roof and floor decks. The lower levels are PT slabs with concrete columns and shear walls. The CLT panel layout and configuration created an undulating outdoor corridor between wings of the building. To achieve this design, CLT panels were used in atypical span conditions requiring finite element modeling. Testing was conducted at Oregon State University to validate modeling. In the end, the panels outperformed expectations and did not exhibit any signs of strain even after applying 3.5x design loading.
The CLT panel design produces a carbon offset equivalent to nearly 800 fewer cars on the road as well as boosting productivity and feelings of well-being while reducing stress. The open-air zig-zagging corridors allow fresh air into the building with each unit designed to be 100% barrier free.

@patharchitecture
@rhconstco

#catenaprojects #masstimberprojects #pnwstructuralengineers #structuralengineering #weSEEaboveandbeyond

Project Highlight | Umpqua Hall, Southwestern Oreg

Project Highlight | Umpqua Hall, Southwestern Oregon Community College
This project consists of the design of an 18,000-square-foot addition to and renovation of the existing 8,200-square-foot Umpqua Hall building. The combined building includes shared space, science and technology classrooms and labs and building facilities. The goal of the building is to address the need for a highly trained healthcare workforce required for the rapid increase in need for healthcare services.

The college recognized their role in preserving and celebrating the region’s timber history and engaged the design team in developing strategies to incorporate mass timber into the design. Working closely with Opsis Architecture and the college, we developed designs that employed the use of cross-laminated timber in strategic locations to simplify project bidding on a competitively bid project. The result achieved cross-laminated timber roofs at the STEM Lab building and Lecture Hall and a composite concrete and cross-laminated timber floor within the existing warehouse building.

@swocc_oregon
@opsis.architecture
@bci.us

#catenaprojects #masstimberprojects #pnwstructuralengineers #structuralengineering #weSEEaboveandbeyond

We were too busy enjoying our delicious pie to wis

We were too busy enjoying our delicious pie to wish everyone a Happy Pi Day yesterday!
Hopefully you enjoyed this fun holiday too.
#catenateam #piday #march14 #pnwstructuralengineers #weSEEaboveandbeyond

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