What's Happening

DJC Top Projects Winner: Mercy Corps Headquarters

May 20, 2010

 

 

PROJECT TEAM + STATS:

Project Location: Portland, Oregon

Project Cost: $37 million

Start Date: March 2008

Completion Date: June 2009

Owner/Developer: Mercy Corps International

Architect: THA Architecture

Engineers: ABHT Structural Engineers, David Evans and Associates, Glumac

General Contractor: Walsh Construction Company

 

 

It’s perhaps an understatement to say that Mercy Corps’ new headquarters opened last summer with much fanfare. Bhavna Kumar, project manager for Portland’s Walsh Construction Co., recalls giving more tours during its construction than any other project she’s done. And since its completion, the building has garnered its share of national attention.

But, according to Paul Dudley Hart, Mercy Corps’ senior vice president, the international aid organization’s Global Action Center truly lived up to its name after an earthquake devastated Haiti in January.

“We now have a facility that makes our response more organized because people flow in and out of work spaces according to need and our volunteers are better coordinated to help out,” he said.
“But more than anything else, the ground floor is our connecting tissue with the community,” Dudley Hart added. “We had a vigil downstairs after Haiti, and it was less about fundraising and more about a place for people to come express their sympathy and sadness about what had happened.”

Mercy Corps’ goal in moving downtown was to consolidate its staff and operations into one building, and to create a headquarters that reflects the work it does and the populations it serves.
“Pretty much every day, the success of those who designed and built this building is manifested,” Dudley Hart said. “One of the things we told (architect) Tom Hacker is, ‘We want people to come together.’ So he built that into this wonderful central staircase we have as well as a couple of other places where people gather.

“That’s pretty remarkable to tell an architect what you want to achieve and he comes up with a feature that is a behavioral catalyst,” Hart added.

Originally constructed in 1892 as a fresh produce warehouse called the Packard Scott building, the structure required seismic upgrades. Mercy Corps added a new 40,000-square-foot steel and concrete structure to create an 80,000-square-foot home for its offices, action center, the Lemelson Foundation and a small retail space.

Kumar said blending the new structure with the historic building was among the most difficult aspects of the project. “The biggest thing was making sure the walls were shored properly while tying in the new building,” she said.

The LEED platinum building incorporates a host of environmentally friendly features, including a green roof and solar panels. The unique combination of technologies is an experiment in whether the cooling properties of the green roof will make the solar panels more efficient.

Dudley Hart said he hopes the building gives back to the community as much as the community has given to Mercy Corps.

“This was a great way to save an historic building, make it functional and do it through right-minded work,” he said. “Thanks to Portland’s support, we’ve done this for a fraction of what it would have cost otherwise. That savings flows to the beneficiaries we work for, so we feel deeply grateful to PDC, the city and the people of Portland for giving us this extraordinary opportunity and making it affordable.”

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