“Breaking It Down” is your indispensable roadmap to ushering in an era of change. In this groundbreaking guide, you’ll delve into the powerful tool of Building Deconstruction, a revolutionary approach to tackling the environmental, economic, and social challenges brought about by the construction and demolition industry. Millions of tons of debris generated annually, poisonous emissions, resource waste, and economic decline—all these issues demand attention and action.
Category Archives: Portland Area
PDX: Coming 2024 – YouTube
We know you love the carpet. Soon you’ll have a reason to look up, too. (Director: Dawn Jones Redstone)
Vanport, Oregon – Historic (and racist) 1948 Deconstruction Advertisment
This 1948 advertisement for deconstructing buildings for the materials, was found by a redditor at Multnomah Library in Portland, Oregon.
Sources: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/vanport-oregon-how-countrys-largest-housing-project-vanished-day-180954040/ fb4ncw119u491.jpg (1299×2439)
Deconstructionist Opening – Lovett Deconstruction, Portland, Oregon
The Lovett Deconstructionist is the heart of the company. This role requires a self-starter, someone who is a hard-working, thoughtful, attentive, service-oriented person who can do everything from the rough, dirty work of demolition to the careful, surgical removal of material such as cabinetry, windows, and salvageable hardwood floors. The deconstructionist uses expert skill and collaboration with team members to protect, salvage, and disassemble all range of structures. Our deconstructionists are team players; they are friendly, safe, and conscientious, creating a work environment that is positive and productive. They work in all kinds of conditions, in all kinds of weather, and perform a brilliant level of service regularly surprising clients. At all times, they carry themselves with dignity and professionalism because they are the best at what they do.
Source: https://www.lovettdeconstruction.com/deconstructionist
Appeals court reverses verdict that awarded $1 billion to Oregon timber counties – OPB
In this file photo, a truck carries logs through the Tillamook State Forest. Amelia Templeton
The court determined that Oregon can manage more than 700,000 acres of donated forestland for a range of values like recreation, water quality and wildlife habitat — not just logging.
Source: Appeals court reverses verdict that awarded $1 billion to Oregon timber counties – OPB
Net Zero Buildings Could Bring an Energy Savings Boom – Bloomberg
The roof of ZGF’s new terminal for Portland International Airport will be constructed from locally sourced cross-laminated timber. Credit: Port of Portland
“Acting at scale is so eminently possible,” Lindsay Baker told me. She is the CEO of the International Living Futures Institute (IFLI), which runs the Living Building Challenge, an extraordinarily rigorous certification program that has pushed the building industry to achieve energy use reductions deemed all but impossible a few years ago.
Source: Net Zero Buildings Could Bring an Energy Savings Boom – Bloomberg
How 3D printing could turn an Eastern Oregon town into a high-tech housing hub – OPB
A structure printed with concrete and a 3D printer by manufacturer Alquist. Courtesy: Alquist
To mitigate the logistical challenges, the City of John Day applied for and won a grant from the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development. Now Walker and the City of John Day have $60,000 to develop plans for a practical 3D-printed home.
Source: How 3D printing could turn an Eastern Oregon town into a high-tech housing hub – OPB
Why Cities Want Old Buildings Taken Down Gently | WIRED
Good Wood illustrates Portland’s success. Over the past four years, the city has deconstructed more than 420 single-family and duplex homes that were registered as historic places or built before 1940. Good Wood has taken apart 160 of them. Today, 19 contractors are licensed to deconstruct in the city, thanks in part to a city-sponsored training.
Source: Why Cities Want Old Buildings Taken Down Gently | WIRED
$1 billion timber case goes before Oregon Court of Appeals – OPB
A log truck near Tillamook, Ore., in an undated file photo. Amelia Templeton
Gutman countered that logging revenue isn’t the only permanent value that forestland can provide and that recreation, habitat protection, flood stabilization and other land uses also contribute. “It provides economic value even if the land doesn’t generate revenue,” Gutman told the court. “That’s not just some 21st-century notion being superimposed on statutes from the 1940s.”
Source: $1 billion timber case goes before Oregon Court of Appeals – OPB
Investment and Innovation grants | Portland, Oregon Metro
Coming soon: 2022 Investment and Innovation grants Applications for program and capital grants will open on Jan. 3 and close on Feb. 15.
Art foundation in Oregon is a green space for creating – Inhabitat
Bodecker Foundation, Portland, Oregon
“The warehouses were cut into and modified, while retaining the memory of their historic boundaries,” Bodecker said. “Peeling back the roof of one and slicing the other, the warehouses were remixed and fused together with a new central core building.”
Source: Art foundation in Oregon is a green space for creating
The Age of Portland, Oregon’s Buildings
Source: 9nkedlgpo0w71.jpg (3300×6600)
Roofing Company Hit With Largest Fine in DEQ History for a Decade of Emissions – Blogtown – Portland Mercury
DARIAREN / GETTY IMAGES
The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) issued a $2.1 million fine—the largest in the department’s history—to Malarkey Roofing Products last week for emitting higher levels of formaldehyde than previously reported for over a decade.
Portland airport crafts wooden roof, part of $2B expansion | KOIN.com
PMG PHOTO: JONATHAN HOUSE – Vince Granato, the Chief Projects Officer at Port of Portland, under the Portland International Airport’s upcoming mass timber roof for the main terminal.
There are 200 craft workers on the side-by-side roof sites, and another 400 working at the airport on other projects.
Source: Portland airport crafts wooden roof, part of $2B expansion | KOIN.com
Oregon’s only midcentury aluminum Alcoa Home bulldozed in SW Portland – oregonlive.com
But Cheryl Luckett, who lived in the house for 18 years, said she is in shock at the demolition. Luckett sold the home in 2016 to a retired general contractor who restored and upgraded the interior.
Source: Oregon’s only midcentury aluminum Alcoa Home bulldozed in SW Portland – oregonlive.com
Georgia-Pacific to raze 11 unused buildings near downtown Camas – The Columbian
Buildings just north of the main Camas paper mill site sit vacant on Jan. 7. (Joshua Hart/The Columbian) Photo Gallery
Nine of the buildings to be demolished were built between 1929 and 1970, according to G-P’s demolition plan. They include a two-story, 31,360-square-foot development lab; a four-story, 31,000-square-foot nonwovens manufacturing building; a three-story, 11,000-square-foot office building; a two-story water treatment building; two warehouses; a 3,500-square-foot library; and a one-story microscopy laboratory.
Source: Georgia-Pacific to raze 11 unused buildings near downtown Camas – The Columbian
Exploratory Study of Salvaged Lumber as Feedstock for Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) | Tallwood Design Institute
This study suggests that salvaged lumber could potentially be a new source of raw material for mass timber products, which could create new opportunities for wood waste recovery and greener building products.
Salvaged lumber from Portland deconstruction practices was collected, graded, and processed for mass timber panel manufacturing.
Minor White Captures The Ornate Beauty Of Portland’s Past – YouTube
In 1939, the Works Progress Administration hired a promising young photographer named Minor White to document some of Portland’s buildings before they were demolished. At the time, White was just starting his artistic journey. But he would soon become one of the 20th century’s most important photographers.
Pamplin Media Group – Reused MAX train designs debated at Oregon Rail Heritage Center
DAVID F. ASHTON – Competition exhibits are taped up on the sides of old rail coaches for public display – to be voted on by people attending the event.
The competition grew out of an idea by TriMet General Manager Doug Kelsey to find a way to re-purpose the Type 1 light rail vehicles while addressing a public need, and if successful, keeping the trains from becoming scrap. “Wouldn’t it be amazing to find a new way to re-use these old trains that advanced the legacy of transit – connecting people with services, with opportunities, with the community we so value?” he asked.
Source: Pamplin Media Group – Reused MAX train designs debated at Oregon Rail Heritage Center
Portland shoe baron’s 1880 mansion saved, moved and now for sale at $1.8 million – oregonlive.com
KLiK Concepts LLC
1880 Fried-Durkheimer House
“It’s the most beautiful, most authentic project I’ve work on,” says Karlsson, a Portland development consultant. “And it’s a perfect post-COVID-19 office space” for a boutique law firm or financial service group, or a larger company downsizing to allow employees to work at home yet still needs private offices.
Transporting two halves of a historic mansion through downtown Portland streets grabbed headlines three years ago. The outcome of the taxing, slow move of a shoe baron’s Victorian-era house to save it from the wrecking ball is even more stunning: The three-level structure, on its new triangular lot, is for sale at $1.8 million.
Source: Portland shoe baron’s 1880 mansion saved, moved and now for sale at $1.8 million – oregonlive.com
Report: Transformation of Pacific NW waste & recycling by 2040 would bring tens of thousands of jobs and cut pollution – Washington State Wire
“The good news is that—as we’ve seen in the past two decades with Clean Energy—strong leadership with a clear vision can pay off for the Northwest in big ways: hundreds of new Clean Materials businesses, thousands of new jobs, and billions of dollars in new investment. At the same time, we can slash the emissions that are driving climate change and reduce toxic pollution.”
Aurora Mills Expanding Retail Footprint, with Place for Large Things and Airplane Wings
“Yeah, we have one of those,” Byrnes said with a laugh. “It was for a giant. And it will be for other large items: back bars, theater lighting, airplane wings, floor boards, things like that. I like to joke that we could fit a double-decker English bus in there.”
Source: Aurora Mills Expanding Retail Footprint, with Place for Large Things and Airplane Wings
A Historic Portland Building Turns Over a New Leaf—as a Stylish Hostel – Metropolis
Courtesy Mikael Lundblad
“I think this is one of the last buildings from that era,” says Sean O’Connor, the general manager and partner of KEX Portland. “So it’s nice to be able to preserve the original history and character of that Eastside industrial area.”
Source: A Historic Portland Building Turns Over a New Leaf—as a Stylish Hostel – Metropolis
Unbuilding boats: Work underway on vessel deconstruction facility in Ilwaco | News | chinookobserver.com
Construction has started on a nearly 6,000-square-foot vessel deconstruction facility in Ilwaco slated for completion this fall. The facility will be located at 165 Howerton Ave., the current location of a boat-storage yard. Luke Whittaker
Derelict vessels often contain large quantities of oil, lead, asbestos or other toxic substances that could pose a threat to animals and the environment. If leaked or leached, these can injure or kill marine mammals, waterfowl and other aquatic life; and contaminate aquatic lands, nearby shorelines and water. “There’s a lot on a vessel to prevent life from attaching. They’ve found those contaminants in orcas and salmon, which could be attributed to derelict vessels. We wish we could remove them all,” Wood
State of Oregon: Materials Management – Reuse and Repair
A Portland Distillery Is Making Its Own Hand Cleaner in the Wake of Coronavirus – Willamette Week
IMAGE: Courtesy of Shine Distillery.
Shine Distillery and Grill, on North Williams Avenue, is repurposing the high-proof byproduct from its 130-gallon steel-and-copper still to produce hand cleaner, and making it available to the public in 2.7-ounce bottles.
Source: A Portland Distillery Is Making Its Own Hand Cleaner in the Wake of Coronavirus – Willamette Week
Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brock parts with Portland Craftsman – Los Angeles Times
Isaac Brock’s Oregon home is a hit. Records show the Modest Mouse frontman sold the 111-year-old Craftsman for $1.09 million, finding a buyer after just a month on the market.
Source: Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brock parts with Portland Craftsman – Los Angeles Times
Heather – ALBERTA STREET GALLERY EVENT CALENDAR
Heather’s wood art and furniture is truly made from Portland, utilizing found wood and materials from deconstructed or abandoned homes in the Portland area. She incorporates recognizable reclaimed wood pieces such as lath, decorative edging and moulding into one-of-a-kind designs.
Portland Street Artists Turned a Doomed Building Into a Temporary Work of Art – Willamette Week
IMAGE: Mick Hangland-Skill.
New owners Eastbank Development are planning to raze the site and turn it into apartments—but before doing so, they offered it to the nonprofit Portland Street Art Alliance to use as a canvas. Since last spring, more than 50 artists have contributed to the project, covering all four of the building’s outer walls with cows, bears, Sasquatches and hyper-bright 3-D lettering.
Source: Portland Street Artists Turned a Doomed Building Into a Temporary Work of Art – Willamette Week
A sustainable teardown in Lake Oswego – Pamplin Media Group –
PHOTO: CLARA HOWELL – Workers have started building vertical on the new City Hall building.
Redevelopment Manager Sidaro Sin said contractors were able to recycle 90% of the two existing buildings — a former medical office and doggy day care — that were on the property where the new City Hall is being built. That was about 15% more than the contractors’ original goal.
Source: Pamplin Media Group – A sustainable teardown in Lake Oswego
Oregon’s Most Endangered Places for 2020 – Restore Oregon
Nominated from people and organizations across the state, Oregon’s Most Endangered Places list sheds light on important examples of our state’s heritage that are at risk of destruction or irreparable damage. The 2020 list includes endangered places from communities that for too long have been underserved–that embody Oregon’s diverse cultural heritage and require concerted efforts to be retained and passed forward.
Source: Oregon’s Most Endangered Places for 2020 – Restore Oregon
Lever Architecture turns Portland factories into creative workspace
Photograph by Lara Swimmer
American firm Lever Architecture used weathering steel and original timber in the adaptive reuse of two factories built over 70 years ago for a hay-baler manufacturer.
Source: Lever Architecture turns Portland factories into creative workspace
Portland Has Broken Its Promise to Keep Neighborhoods Safe From Demolition Contaminants – Willamette Week
Green, the deputy ombudsman, points to a $4 million project in the Overlook neighborhood. The contractor failed to remove the siding before demolition took place. The penalty? Just $876 in administrative fees due to the stop-work order. (BDS does not issue fines for first-time violations.)”Why follow the rules if the fine totals $876 and you’ve saved $5,000 on removing the siding by hand?” Green asks. “Human nature is not on the side of doing right.”
Portland may expand which old homes must be dismantled by hand – oregonlive.com
The Oregonian/OregonLive
A work crew deconstructs a Southeast Portland home in 2015 (The Oregonian/File)
The majority of council members said Wednesday that they plan to approve the ordinance, and Commissioners Jo Ann Hardesty and Chloe Eudaly said they would like to see a more severe penalty for violators. A first offense can lead to a fine of up to $500 and a third or more can be up to $1,500. “I support everything else, but I think if you’re going to hold people accountable, they’ve got to feel it,” Hardesty said. “This is not something that they’re going to feel.”
Source: Portland may expand which old homes must be dismantled by hand – oregonlive.com
Preservation awards salute old fire station reuse, pioneer farmhouse restoration, 10 others (before, after photos) – oregonlive.com
Restore Oregon – 1912 Fire Station No. 17 in Portland
That night, recipients of 12 coveted DeMuro Awards will be applauded for their preservation and reuse of architectural and cultural sites, and the impact the improvements have made on their communities.
OP/ED: You never know what you got till it’s gone. – Tillamook County Pioneer
Manzanita celebrates the uniqueness of CARTM and its reuse /recycle leadership and the fact that the City was the first coastal community to ban the use of plastic bags all in the name of environmental stewardship. Reusing building materials and diverting demolition materials from a landfill all contribute to LEED points which are not available for new construction so why did the City decide to not give citizens the opportunity to even have this discussion and prevent approximately 500 dump truck loads of building material from being hauled to the landfill?
Source: OP/ED: You never know what you got till it’s gone. – Tillamook County Pioneer
Lunar lander tiny house builder is having a blast on the Columbia River – oregonlive.com
A breakfast nook has a parquet wooden table from the first boat Hughes built and starship sleek bench seats in which to peer out of the planet-shaped glass. Hughes calls this his “Captain Nemo window,” a nod to one of his favorite childhood books, Jules Verne’s “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.”
Source: Lunar lander tiny house builder is having a blast on the Columbia River – oregonlive.com
5 Hottest Office Design Trends of 2019 | Inc.com
COURTESY EXPENSIFY
“It’s an incredible opportunity for not only historic preservation, but also adaptive reuse,” says Atwood. The Portland, Oregon, office of fintech platform Expensify is housed in the 100-year-old First National Bank. There’s no denying that it’s a 21st-century office, but many of the original design elements remain intact.
Lovett Deconstruction’s Dropbox Derby Labor Day – Portland, Oregon
How Women Are Leading the Charge to Recycle Whole Houses | Innovation | Smithsonian
Ruthie Mundell stands among new and vintage chandeliers—all salvaged and ready to find a new home. (Teresa Carey)
“You have a grassroots momentum for something like deconstruction, and you have a massive industry against it,” says Sara Badiali.
The building material reuse consultant thinks regulations are an effective way to make a change. Yet, she has searched the world and “can’t find any place that actually has the words ‘building deconstruction’ in legislation.”
Badiali worked with the city of Portland, Oregon, to create the nation’s first reuse ordinance. Now, Portland homes built before 1916 must be evaluated for deconstruction. Other cities like San Francisco and Milwaukee are drafting their own ordinances.
Source: How Women Are Leading the Charge to Recycle Whole Houses | Innovation | Smithsonian
Dropbox Derby — Lovett Deconstruction – 3 TEAM SPACES LEFT! – Portland, Oregon
Lovett Deconstruction’s Annual Dropbox Derby is taking teams & vendors until July 28th – spaces are limited. Sign up here!
An annual design/build challenge using salvaged materials to raise money for a good cause.
GLEAN Portland
GLEAN, Portland, Oregon
GLEAN exhibit blurs boundaries of “trash,” showcases artists at Lovejoy Square, Aug. 1 – 25
Inspiration often arrives in unexpected packages. See how five local artists – Vanessa Calvert, Jeremy Okai Davis, Asa Mease, Miel-Margarita Paredes and Lauren Prado – transformed a steady stream of the Portland area’s trash into art. Their works will be on display and sale at Lovejoy Square, 1313 NW Kearney St., Portland. Opening reception from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 1. Gallery hours: noon to 5 p.m. Friday – Sunday. Ends Aug. 25. Wheelchair accessible. Gleanportland.com
Source: GLEAN Portland
Dropbox Derby — Lovett Deconstruction – Portland Waterfront Monday September 2
Join us on Labor Day for the Annual Dropbox Derby.
Featuring Revive’s Flea Market Extravaganza! Monday September 2, 2019 10am – 4pm Eastbank Esplanade Parking Lots Between SE Salmon and Madison.
If you are a DIY fanatic, a design junky, or a fan of Portland’s quirky, innovative, and unique talent, then grab your friends and family and head down to the east waterfront on Labor Day for the Annual Dropbox Derby, Portland’s design-build challenge!
Saved from the wrecking ball and other success stories told on the Irvington Home Tour | OregonLive.com
1913 Craftsman: The house was built for William L. and Minnie McCabe, who owned a Portland stevedoring company.
The district, which earned a spot on the National Register of Historic Places, has the state’s largest, most diverse and intact collections of significant structures.
Deconstruction vs. Demolition: An evaluation of carbon and energy impacts from deconstructed homes in the City of Portland Submitted to: City of Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability (BPS) By: Andey Nunes, Jordan Palmeri and Simon Love
In October 2016, in an effort to reduce waste, support material reuse, and reduce environmental impacts of demolition, the City of Portland, Oregon, enacted an ordinance requiring manual deconstruction of residential homes built in 1916 or earlier. This study analyzes the material quantity data from the first 36 deconstruction projects in Portland to measure carbon and energy impacts. The carbon and energy impacts were also calculated for a hypothetical scenario in which the same houses were mechanically demolished.
The goal of this project is to calculate the carbon and energy impacts of deconstruction and demolition of
single-family houses in Portland, Oregon. The results will allow the City of Portland to measure the effectiveness of their deconstruction policy in achieving climate and energy goals.https://www.oregon.gov/deq/FilterDocs/DeconstructionReport.pdf
https://www.oregon.gov/deq/mm/production/Pages/Deconstruction.aspx
Saving a vandalized, historic home near Mount Tabor | OregonLive.com
Lyrin Murphy
The once-majestic house was open during the Architectural Heritage Center’s Old House Revival Tour on Saturday, April 13.
The abandoned Jacob H. Cook mansion near Mount Tabor in southeast Portland was ripe to be ripped down. Instead, new owners Lyrin Murphy and Steve Day have carefully started to restore much of the oak woodwork, porcelain tile and tub, and the kitchen of the pre-1890s house.
Source: Saving a vandalized, historic home near Mount Tabor (photos, video) | OregonLive.com
Undercover investigation tracks protected African timber to Roseburg Forest Products – oregonlive.com
Associated Press
Deforestation in the tropics has led to protests all over the globe, including this one in Germany. (AP Photo/Joerg Sarbach)
Four years of investigation into the illegal timber trade in West Africa led an environmental group to the doorstep of Roseburg Forest Products, one of the Oregon’s largest and oldest timber companies.
Call for Reuse Artists – Deadline March 31st – Portland, Oregon
Building the Blair Lofts | Camas-Washougal Post-Record
Mark Nichols, a Portland-based remodeler, works on framing the second floor walls of the Blair Building in downtown Washougal, in October 2016. The upper level of the historic building on Main Street has been transformed into four studio apartments with modern amenities. (Contributed photo courtesy of Heidi Kramer)
Local couple Bruce and Heidi Kramer spent three years rebuilding the second floor of a nearly 100-year-old structure known as the Blair Building.
Source: Building the Blair Lofts | Camas-Washougal Post-Record
Artist Strives To Save Portland’s Historic Mayo House, Memorialize Gentrification Struggles . News | OPB
An arborist removes a tree to prepare the lot for the removal of the Mayo house and the construction of new town homes.
Amelia Templeton/OPB
“I thought, ‘I could save the house,’” said Cleo Davis, an artist who lives just a few doors down.The Mayo house appealed to him because demolition and lost opportunities are a big part of his family’s story — and part of the African-American experience in this part of Portland.