TVF&R Fire Station 58 Boulton

Project: TVF&R Fire Station 58 Boulton
Location: West Linn, Oregon

Architect: Peck Smiley Ettlin Architects

4412 SW Corbett

Portland, Oregon

97239

General Contractor: CSI Construction

Square footage: approx. 8,391 sq. ft.

Status: Completed Winter 2010

This was another fire station for Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue in the West Linn area. The style of station 59 in the Willamette area was to match the buildings in the surrounding area. Station 58 on the other hand is located in a residential area and was not strict as station 59. Although the community was allowed input to the final design.

It was a 2-story structure and all wood construction. The second floor foot print is 9 feet smaller all around than the floor below. The walls for the second are supported on glulam beams which are then supported on columns down to the foundation. There is a beam line that runs north/south at the roof to support pre-manufactured press-plate trusses. The trusses were a mansard style and it created a well area for mechanical units to be placed and a solar panel on the roof. They also mounted a radio antena in this area. The east side the roof extended to the building edge below as to create a patio on the second floor.

Lateral forces from the roof diaphragm were taken out through shear walls on the second floor and transferred through drag struts and the second floor diaphragm. Beams/columns were sized to resist the lateral forces.

Most of the second floor framing used glulam beams. Over the apparatus bay steel wide flange beams were used which were supported on HSS columns to the foundation. The depth and cost of using glulam beams in this area got too deep and costly and they required as much clear height as possible to service the trucks and other equipment.

Because the project was built on a slight hill, extensive retaining walls were required to level the project site. A portion of the retaining wall system was not only designed for the soil pressure, but also the load from the trucks, as the drive way curved into the building. The construction took considerable time and in the end came out looking nice. A portion of them allowed for a planter near the street level.

Both this station and Station 59 replace existing stations. The capacity nearly doubled for Station 58 compared to the previous station.

In addition to Station 58 and 59, our office did Station 34 and Station 53 an several others.

TVF&R Fire Station 59

Project: TVF&R Fire Station 59

Location: Willamette Falls/West Linn, Oregon

Architect: Peck Smiley Ettlin Architects

4412 SW Corbett

Portland, Oregon

97239

General Contractor: CSI Construction.

Square footage: approx. 7,013 sq. ft.

Status: Completion Fall 2009

The fire station is a 2-story all wood construction. The only exception is where wood beams were unable to adequately span with the required load and clearance requirements. Steel wide flange beams were used in these cases with wood nailers fastened to the top flange with carriage bolts. Open web wood joist were used to span over the apparatus bay and repeated in the roof at the same location to minimize additional loads to the second floor joist. The remainder of the floor and roof framing was accomplished by using plywood web joist.

The foot print of the second floor was smaller than the first floor, creating an offset above. A steel angle was bolted to the studs to carry the brick on the upper wall. Many of the windows around the building had curved lintels. Steel HSS jambs and HSS headers were used to acheive this.

The construction of this building went fairly smooth, with the usual twist and turns. Head clearance at the main stair became an issue and we had to modify the frame that was already in place. The stair at the back needed an additional support, so a rod was added and supported off the glulam beam above.

In addition to Station 58 and 59, our office did Station 34 and Station 53 an several others.

Salem Senior Center

Project: Salem Senior Center

Location: Salem, Oregon

Architect: Peck Smiley Ettlin Architects

4412 SW Corbett

Portland, Oregon

97239

General Contractor: Todd Construction

Square footage: 32,000 sq. ft.

Status: Completed 2008.

The Salem Senior Center was my third project I worked on since I joined Lewis and Van Vleet. It was new a 2-story senior center located near downtown Salem, to the north.

The building is constructed primarily of steel. The roof originally was constructed with open-web wood chord/metal web joist with plywood sheathing. But after some number crunching by the architect and developer, they opted to use open-web steel joist with metal roof decking. Centered in the roof is a clerestory to provide light below.

The second floor was framed with a series of wide flange beams framing into wide flange girders with a composite floor diaphragm. The configuration of the building was such that the upper floor plan was square in nature and the lower floor more rectangular, in that a portion extended out beyond. This provide a location for mechanical units and the same sort of framing was extended to that area. It allowed to surface to be concrete as well, providing some damping below.

On the first floor plan, they had a great hall, but the wall from the second floor rest about in the center of the hall. The architect and owner did not want a column in the center of the hall, so we designed a plate girder to span the length of the hall, nearly 64 feet. The flange width needed to be 10 inches maximum 2 1/2 inches thick. The depth was kept at 60 inches with a 1/2 inch thick web, to avoid interference with the window system. At one point, we suggested a truss fabricated of HSS sections, but it was too difficult to coordinate windows around web openings.

The lateral system was a series of moment frames with two braced frames. In the end, it turned out to be all moment frames because of openings and such required by the architect/owner. They were designed as special moment frames in accordance to AISC standards and utilized the "dog bone" style connection.

Initially I started the design using RAM Structural System. I had never used this program so it was a learning experience for me. I did not have enough time to really assuage the troubles I was having with designing the moment frames within this program. After discussing it with Lance, I opted to use RAM Structural System to design only the composite gravity loads and then did the moment frames in RISA 3D. This worked well in the end.

The building turned out to be a real nice addition to the community. I had stopped by one Sunday when they were having a wood carving fair. I engaged one of the men there about the place and told him I was the structural engineer on the project. He then informed me, the only real complaint was that the janitorial room was 3/4's smaller than over at the other building.