[CouvScott]

Howard S. Wright Constructors this summer will begin work on $37 million building
POSTED: 04:00 AM PDT Wednesday, April 29, 2009
BY JUSTIN CARINCI

Vancouver’s central library, built in the 1960s, has limped its way out of the 20th century.

Construction will begin this summer on a new downtown library, which district officials hope will be a proud 21st-century building.

“This is a tired, old building,” Sue Vanlaanen of the Fort Vancouver Regional Library District said of the Mill Plain Boulevard library. “It was built before computers were even imagined.”

The new building, which will go up at the corner of East Evergreen Boulevard and C Street, promises to be everything that the old library isn’t – spacious, up-to-date, elegant and part of a pedestrian-friendly downtown.

“We knew we were going for something that was modern yet timeless,” said Karin Ford, manager of the Vancouver library. “We want this building to have a 50-year or longer life, so we wanted a design that doesn’t look too dated.”

Seattle’s Miller Hull Partnership designed the five-level building to let in daylight and offer panoramas of downtown. A panel along C Street could display words or video.

Ken Maheu, project executive with general contractor-construction manager Howard S. Wright Constructors, said the building will have a unique façade. “It’s got a pretty distinct exterior skin system,” he said. “There’s an awful lot of curtain wall in combination with a terra-cotta skin system.”

Compared to the existing 36,000-square-foot building, there’s an awful lot of everything. At 83,000 square feet, the new library will offer more room for collections, meetings, programs and displays. Patrons can use on-site computer terminals or connect wirelessly with personal devices. An upper-floor reading room will open onto a rooftop terrace.

Currently, the library district rents space in two buildings from the city of Vancouver because it doesn’t have enough room, Vanlaanen said. The new building would allow the district to consolidate its operations.

The design of the new library provides the flexibility to adapt to new uses in the future, Ford said. “The nature of the public library is continuously changing. It’s hard trying to anticipate what library services and collections will be like in 10 years, much less 50 years.”

The library is the first project in the planned mixed-use Riverwest development. The developer, Killian Pacific, put that $160 million project on hold last fall as the market deteriorated.

That delay isn’t expected to affect the library, funded with a bond measure passed in 2006 and a $5 million anonymous donation. Killian Pacific donated the land for library.

Library officials expect the project to cost $37 million. No more than $23.5 million of that amount can go to construction. Howard S. Wright is prequalifying subcontractors who will be allowed to bid on the project.

Another library project, alongside the Firstenburg Community Center in Cascade Park, is scheduled to open in late 2009 or early 2010. That project also drew funding from the 2006 $43 million bond measure.

Construction on the downtown library is scheduled to begin in August. The new library would open in 2011.

Killian Pacific is clearing existing buildings from the site to make way for the library. The historic Kiggins House on Evergreen Boulevard was moved uptown last year.

The new building will serve more than just Vancouver, Vanlaanen said. It will be the hub of a 4,200-square-mile district that stretches all the way to Klickitat County.

“It’s going to be a pretty important portion of Vancouver’s downtown,” she said. “But this is a library for the entire library district.”

http://www.djcoregon.com/articleDetail.htm/2009/04/29/New-library-planned-for-downtown-Vancouver-Wash-Howard-S-Wright-Constructors-this-summer-will-begin-

[CouvScott]

Wednesday, June 17 | 9:36 p.m.
THE COLUMBIAN

The new Angelo Building is nearing completion at 400 E. Mill Plain Blvd. in downtown Vancouver. (Julia Anderson/The Columbian)

Crews are on track to finish work early next month on the first of two buildings in The Al Angelo Co.'s $57 million 400 Mill Plain Center in downtown Vancouver.

On the block between Mill Plain and 15th at D Street, the five-story, $18 million building greets Interstate 5 traffic exiting west into downtown. The revitalized location once was the site of a Denny's restaurant.

The Angelo Co. expects to move into the building's top floor in September and is working to lease the rest of the building to other office and retail users, said Craig Angelo, a principal in the family-controlled business.

The new building will eventually face a companion structure, planned to occupy the block directly to the west. No date has been set for construction to start on the second building, Angelo said.

Picture in this link...

http://www.columbian.com/article/20090618/BIZ01/706189986

[360Rich]

Bigger pic from today's Columbian:

http://www.columbian.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=TC&Date=20090618&Category=BIZ01&ArtNo=706189986&Ref=AR&maxw=1000&q=1000&border=0

[CouvScott]

Since my company cut off photo storage sites, I rely on you. :worship:

[CouvScott]

Event set for August 14; new downtown branch set to open in 2011
Sunday, July 26 | 10:09 p.m.

BY HOWARD BUCK
COLUMBIAN STAFF WRITER


Battle Ground's new library opened in May.

Work continues on a new Cascade Park library branch, due to open by early next year.

And with a splash of fanfare on Aug. 14, the Fort Vancouver Regional Library District will formally break ground on its centerpiece: A new Vancouver Community Library.

Nearly three years after voters approved a $43 million construction bond measure in September 2006, speeches, refreshments and glitzy design sketches will usher in work on the system's flagship branch in downtown Vancouver.

The public is invited to the event, set for 1 to 2:30 p.m. on the building footprint, at the southeast corner of East Evergreen Boulevard and C Street.

The 83,000-square-foot library is part of a larger, mixed-used Riverwest development proposed where several old homes and the Carr Auto Group dealership formerly stood.

It will be first to spring forth from patches of remnant flowers and weeds and huge rubble piles that now cover several acres.

Given the unpaved, rough ground, event guests should wear appropriate shoes and dress.

There is no on-site parking for the event.

When the building opens sometime in 2011, there will be a surface parking lot for patrons just off Evergreen Boulevard, east of the library and close to Interstate 5.

The lot is planned to be a temporary substitute for an underground parking garage for library patrons and other Riverwest tenants. Due to the recession, the garage is shelved for now, as are office towers and condominiums proposed by developer, Killian Pacific.

Value engineering cutbacks aside, the four-story library promises to impress.

Clad in glass and terra cotta brick, the building will feature a rooftop garden terrace with southern exposure, a towering art sculpture rising through a glassy atrium and an innovative LED lighting system to run a changeable message board facing the street.

Floor plans call for separate teen and children's areas, community and quiet study rooms, plus space for a volunteer book resale outlet.

Killian Pacific supplied the library site and an anonymous donor gave $5 million toward the estimated $37 million building.

It will offer nearly twice the public floor space as the current main library a few blocks east, which opened in 1963. The library district currently plans to keep that building for administrative use.

[CouvScott]

My company is working on this project, but it is not one of my projects. Just curious how it looks from above.

[davehogan]

If nobody's looked in a bit, they've made a lot of progress on this. http://www.fvrl.org/aboutus/Main_Library_Project.htm has a time lapse of construction.

I just drove by on I-5 the other week, and it looks awesome so far. Since I was driving no pictures, but if anyone's up that way it'd be worth stopping to get a few. I'll be taking a trip up to check it out for the grand opening I'm sure.

[360Rich]

Sorry, I've been meaning to take some pics for a long time. Finally got out and took these this morning.

http://i970.photobucket.com/albums/ae182/rmayo/Van_Library/library009.jpg

http://i970.photobucket.com/albums/ae182/rmayo/Van_Library/library007.jpg

http://i970.photobucket.com/albums/ae182/rmayo/Van_Library/library006.jpg

http://i970.photobucket.com/albums/ae182/rmayo/Van_Library/library010.jpg

http://i970.photobucket.com/albums/ae182/rmayo/Van_Library/library008.jpg

[CouvScott]

I have been walking by it quite a bit this last month. It is really progressing quickly.

[Okstate]

http://djcoregon.com/news/2010/09/03/vancouvers-waterfront-you-cant-get-there-from-here/

http://djcoregon.com/files/2010/09/0907_vancouver_waterfront_redevelopment.jpg
Vancouver’s waterfront: You can’t get there from here
POSTED: Friday, September 3, 2010 at 01:29 PM PT
BY: Nick Bjork
Tags: Gramor Development, Vancouver
(Photo by Dan Carter/DJC)

Before beginning the Vancouver waterfront redevelopment project, Gramor Development, BNSF Railway and a team of government agencies will raise train tracks, that currently block downtown from the site. They will also extend Esther Road and Grant Road down to the site. The access project is expected to cost $44 million. (Photo by Dan Carter/DJC)
Vancouver, Wash., waterfront development groundbreaking

What: Vancouver waterfront redevelopment access project groundbreaking
When: Wednesday, Sept. 8 from 4-6 p.m. Formal program begins at 5:15 p.m.
Where: The waterfront redevelopment site, located just west of Vancouver Landing and the Red Lion Inn at the Quay
Who: Speakers will include Gramor President Barry Cain, Vancouver Mayor Tim Leavitt, Washington Senator Patty Murray and Washington Representative Brian Baird.

The city of Vancouver, Wash., and Gramor Development will break ground tomorrow on the first phase of a long-anticipated $1.3 billion Vancouver waterfront redevelopment project.

But before the public-private team transforms the 31-acre former Boise Cascade site into waterfront parks, downtown restaurants and corporate headquarters, the team has to build a way to get there.

Right now, most of the site is separated from downtown Vancouver by railroad tracks. Gramor, BNSF Railway and various government agencies will spend a total of $44 million to raise the tracks and build roads under them.

“We got into the visioning process for what we wanted to see on the land, and then we realized there wasn’t a convenient way to get to the waterfront from downtown,” said Barry Cain, president of the Tualatin-based Gramor Development. “It’s funny because downtown is so close to the water, but you can’t get there from it.

“We’re going to change that.”

Gramor will put $8 million down on the access project, the railroad will pay $2.5 million and the rest will come from a mix of city, state and federal sources.

Once the access project is done, Gramor will begin redeveloping the 22 city blocks it bought in early 2008. The first phase of work will include building a public park and esplanade stretching a half mile along the waterfront. It will also include a hotel, two restaurants and office space that Cain thinks would be a perfect fit for high-level corporate tenants.

“This is very much on the scale of the Pearl District,” said Cain. “This project is a game changer for both Vancouver and the region.”

When Gramor is done with redevelopment work on the site, 21 buildings there will boast 800,000 square feet of office space, 200,000 square feet of retail space and 3,000 housing units, said Mark Brown, government relations coordinator for the city of Vancouver.

“The scope and scale of this project is unprecedented,” Brown said. “It’s literally going to be a city within a city.”

Despite the sluggish economy, Gramor has been hitting pay dirt when it comes to finding financing for its projects.

Last month, the development firm broke ground on three development projects around the region: a Costco-anchored development in East Vancouver known as Lacamas Crossing, a $60 million retail and office development at Progress Ridge in Beaverton and a Fred Meyer-anchored development in Wilsonville.

The waterfront project is the latest job opportunity with Gramor. The project to raise the tracks along the Boise Cascade site alone will create between 600 and 700 construction jobs, Brown said. The city estimates another 10,000 long-term construction jobs could be created once work on the park, esplanade and buildings begins, he said.

The project is expected to leverage $30 in private investments for every $1 spent by the public. The project is estimated to cost $1.3 billion. The entire scope of the project will take 10 to 15 years to complete.

[philopdx]

Update 11-28-2010:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5085/5217147792_29a556b7b2_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4085/5216559503_dd96210d75_b.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5287/5217148194_001b31551b_b.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5168/5216559969_6556d5c780_b.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5207/5217149534_9dec557ea5_b.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5201/5217148750_b517547449_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4107/5216560859_ef6b6cd579_b.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5047/5217148598_184cf33f92_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4112/5217447072_efde6ea401_b.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5202/5216560557_931c8395b5_b.jpg

[urbanlife]

wow, I am really liking this building.

[zilfondel]

This is Miller Hull? I really loved their 1310 Union residential building.

[Shilo Rune 96]

I was in Vancouver over the weekend and noticed this project:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=&sll=45.669987,-122.518834&sspn=0.004146,0.009967&gl=us&ie=UTF8&ll=45.669875,-122.518222&spn=0.004116,0.009967&t=h&z=17


Although, I didn't get any pictures I did notice a sign saying something about the Army Corps of Engineers, etc. etc. It's just off Fourth Plain Blvd heading East towards Hockinson.

Quite the big project for such an empty field! I actually thought it was a large school or church at first. This was actually a site for Walmart but has sense seen legal troubles, I believe. From my understanding Walmart was supposed to fund a road connecting with NE 162nd ave but only wanted to pay for a two lane road, while the city wanted a two lane road with a center lane.

[CouvScott]

Meet Vancouver’s soon-to-be tallest structure
June 10, 2011
By Christy Lochrie
A new landmark is on the horizon for Vancouver.

United Grain Corporation (UGC) began the first phase of a $72 million building operation this week with the continuous pour concrete construction of a 340-foot tall building at the Port of Vancouver. The building, used for grain cleaning and shipping, is part of an overall project that will add 24 storage silos, with a capacity of 60,000 metric tons of storage for wheat, corn and soybean.

To get a sense of the building’s final height, imagine the 50-foot tall clock tower at Esther Short Park, then picture seven of them, placed end on end, towering along Vancouver’s shoreline. The entire project will use 20,000 cubic yards of concrete.

Construction is expected to be completed next summer, according to Anthony Flagg, vice president for UGC, a subsidiary of Japan-based Mitsui. However,m the first portion of the project, which is under way now, is expected to finish by Thursday or Friday of next week with a continuous, around-the-clock concrete pour.

“You can look up every morning and you’ll see (the skyline) change,” said Flagg, adding that this pour will result in Vancouver’s tallest structure.

Port spokeswoman Theresa Wagner said UGC currently exports about three million tons of wheat from the terminal, which accounts for 16 percent of the nation’s total exports. The expansion will add another two million tons of annual export capacity and add corn and soybean to the mix. The food is transported to the site via train car from silos in Montana, the Dakotas, Oregon, Washington and Idaho.

Flagg said two key factors influenced the company’s decision to expand: The Columbia River dredging project, which finished in December, and emerging middle classes in Asia and the Middle East.

With the dredging project, which took 20 years and cost $190 million, larger ships are able to dock at the Port of Vancouver and other Columbia River ports. These larger ships have a greater storage capacity, reducing shipping costs.

“The whole key is trying to get as much volume through there as you possibly can,” Flagg explained.

In Asia and the Middle East, Flagg said more people in growing middle class ranks are eating meat and buying corn, soybeans and white bread – a trend he expects to continue.

Meanwhile, UGC recently relocated their corporate offices from Portland to Vancouver, a move that gets more of the company’s 60 employees closer to their Vancouver homes and closer to the company’s operations.

For the port, UGC’s ongoing grain project is good news, with more expansions on the horizon.

“We’re looking at tripling our exports in the next five to 10 year,” Wagner said.

[65MAX]

Was this in the Columbian newspaper? Any renderings of the 340' tower?

[CouvScott]

Was this in the Columbian newspaper? Any renderings of the 340' tower?

It was in the Vancouver Business Journal and they did have a rendering. I don't have a way of posting here at the office.

[philopdx]

Good news for the region. So after the expansion is complete, that port will be shipping closer to 20% of the nations wheat exports. Pretty cool.

[CouvScott]

Photos at website:

http://chatterbox.typepad.com/portlandarchitecture/

Miller Hull Partnership's new Vancouver Community Library enhances the city's revitalization


BY BRIAN LIBBY

Over the past decade, Portland’s suburb across the Columbia River, Vancouver, has made impressive strides to establish a vibrant, pedestrian friendly downtown. Public and private projects alike, such as Esther Short Park and a Hilton hotel that was the nation’s first LEED-rated lodging, have helped create a sense of place. So will a capping of Interstate 5 in the downtown area for which the city held a design competition last year. The next piece of the puzzle is the grand opening of the new Vancouver Community Library, set for July 17.

Located on the southeast corner of Evergreen Boulevard and C Street in downtown Vancouver, at the site of the future, privately funded Library Square development, the building is expected to attract a million visitors per year.


Vancouver Community Library was designed by The Miller Hull Partnership of Seattle, for which this kind of public project (especially one designed sustainably) seems an ideal commission. The firm’s project manager, Adin Dunning, is a Vancouver native, and the Miller Hull Partnership is the recipient of the National Firm Award from the American Institute of Architects. The firm has received over 200 design awards and was listed by Architect magazine earlier this year as the #22 architecture firm in America.

Miller Hull’s portfolio includes a slough of award-winning public projects, including sustainable architecture dating back to the early 1980s. More recently, there are projects like the LOTT Clean Water Alliance Regional Services Center, which was included in this year’s AIA Committee on the Environment Top 10 Green Projects list, the striking 1310 Union condominiums the Seattle Center Fisher Pavilion (also a COTE Top 10 honoree in 2003), the Willamette River Water Treatment Plant in Portland, and the Tillamook Forest Center west of the city. Their upcoming design for the Columbia Springs Environmental Education Center, also in Vancouver, is on target for net-zero energy usage, producing more energy than it consumes.

“The essence of their practice and the genius of their work is collaboration,” writes former AIA president Thomas Penney, “which blossoms in a straightforward, elegant architecture that delights the eye and elevates the soul. Enlightened stewards, equally faithful to their profession and the public realm, theirs is a model of best practice where nature is a co-equal giver of form, guiding the art and science of craft in the service of the architect’s ultimate client, the planet earth.”

The Vancouver Library, comprising approximately 83,000 square feet on five levels, will have more than twice the 11,000 square feet of space for books at the current library. The new facility includes numerous children’s spaces, including a 4,000 square-foot early learning center, one of the largest in the country. There are also numerous computer terminals (about 100), three community meeting rooms available for outside group use, classroom and study areas, and an automated book-sorting system and capacity for 385,000 volumes. The new library also will include a used bookstore operated by the Friends of the Library, and small café.


Project cost for the library is approximately $38 million, which includes a $5 million private anonymous donation. Primary funding is from a 2006 library facilities bond measure. “Library Square” developer Killian Pacific donated Land for the library.

The building boasts numerous sustainable methods and materials, culminating in a projected 33 reduction in energy use compared to a building designed to code. A green roof reduces the heat-island effect, while exterior shading on south-facing side reduces heat gain. Interior finishes are low-VOC for better indoor air quality, while recycled materials such as eco-resin panels are used in interior spaces and on casework as well as a concrete structure incorporating recycled content.


The building is teeming with natural light. Each floor is open to the atrium in order to take advantage of natural daylight and views. This also capitalizes on natural daylight with north-facing windows and a south facing atrium that provides passive cooling in summer by allowing heat inside the building to rise and be exhausted at the top via the stack effect. The fifth floor features a 4,086 square-foot terrace with views of Vancouver, the river, and Mt. Hood

From the exterior, the building is very handsome, if a little corporate-boxy and monolithic. It also seems to lact a truly intuitive main entrance. Yet the clarity and beauty of its materials and a sense of airy openness help elevate the overall experience. In addition to its palette of glass and concrete, the exterior uses a terra cotta paneling system that echoes the brick of the historic Academy building across Evergreen Boulevard. It’s a much richer, more dignified brown tone of terra-cotta panel than the orange panels used by other recent building projects like the Casey Condominiums in Portland’s Pearl District.

Standing inside the library's massive atrium, one gets not only of a massive, glassy volume of space, but a wonderful cross-sectional sense of the library’s stacks of books, people and activity. This is a compelling gathering place for a burgeoning city with a renewed urban core, one where community is embodied by openness and connection to the outside.

The Portland area has an impressive collection of regional and neibhborhood libraries. The city's Central Library, a stately Georgian landmark from 1913 designed by A.E. Doyle, is perhaps the most well loved and most widely used public facilities in the nation - particularly after a 1997 renovation overseen by Fletcher Farr Ayotte. Central Library and the Woodstock Branch Library, the latter designed by Thomas Hacker's firm, THA Architecture, were both included in a list by the American Library Assocation and the American Institute of Architects of the top 10 libraries in the nation. THA also has designed several other quietly wonderful libraries in the area, such as the Hillsdale Branch Library and the Beaverton City Library.

Vancouver Community Library fits nicely into this tradition. Like THA's work, it has moments of grandness, particularly the view out over the multistory atrium. If it ranks a close second to THA's library in overall poetry of form, Vancouver is those buildings' equal in its sustainability and its open, naturally lit environments. And as with Miller Hull's past portfolio, this feels like a simple, clean-lined work of architecture that was squarely and generously designed with its occupants in mind. And though the coating on the windows can, depending on the time of day, sometimes diminish this effect, the Vancouver Library uses transparency to communicate and reveal a kind of simple social machine, with levels of activity available to see for anyone passing by.

[2oh1]

Vancouver, has made impressive strides to establish a vibrant, pedestrian friendly downtown. Public and private projects alike, such as Esther Short Park and a Hilton hotel that was the nation’s first LEED-rated lodging, have helped create a sense of place. So will a capping of Interstate 5 in the downtown area for which the city held a design competition last year.

Holy moly. Where did Vancouver find the money to afford THAT? How much of a stretch are the capping? How does that compare to the idea of capping the 405 in downtown PDX? Such a shame we can't bury or (better yet) completely remove i5 from downtown. It's sad to give up such great land along the river to that. [/tangent]. Sorry.

[CouvScott]

Holy moly. Where did Vancouver find the money to afford THAT? How much of a stretch are the capping? How does that compare to the idea of capping the 405 in downtown PDX? Such a shame we can't bury or (better yet) completely remove i5 from downtown. It's sad to give up such great land along the river to that. [/tangent]. Sorry.

It's part of the CRC budget. It was explained as a pivotal part of the project for federal buy-in because it will connect downtown to the National Historic Site (Officer's Row, Fort Vancouver, the Army Barracks, Pierson Air Park and Central Park)

[CouvScott]

See RFP #12-11 and all of the attached plans...

http://www.cityofvancouver.us/purchasing.asp?menuID=10464&submenuID=10524&itemID=15442

[CouvScott]

Vancouver, Wash., officials approve tax break for development project

POSTED: Tuesday, August 16, 2011 at 03:11 PM PT
BY: Nick Bjork


The Vancouver, Wash., City Council on Monday evening approved a 12-year property tax exemption for the residential portion of a proposed downtown mixed-use building.

The 12-year exemption will save Vancouver-based developer Elie Kassab, owner of Prestige Development, approximately $93,000 annually over that period on his proposed $16 million Prestige Plaza development. It’s an exemption that Kassab said he needed to gain the financing required for the project.

“One of the steps I needed to secure the financing from the bank was the exemption,” Kassab said. “As soon as it is deemed legal we will move forward with the bank.”

The project Kassab is proposing consists of two identical five-story buildings with a total of 92 rental units and 11,300 square feet of ground-floor retail space. Kassab said the permits are pulled for the project and he plans to move forward with construction as soon as the Burgerville building that currently sits on the property is demolished in October.

The tax break is authorized under Washington state legislation that was initially approved in 1995. The exemption allows developers to forgo property taxes on the residential portion of a development for up to 12 years if the property is located in a designated urban center and the project helps meet housing goals.

[Okstate]

Does anyone know where we could see a map of the "designated urban area" of Vancouver?

[CouvScott]

Does anyone know where we could see a map of the "designated urban area" of Vancouver?

Here is a plan adopted a few years back... Basically, page 4 shows the Urban Centers.

http://www.cityofvancouver.us/upload/images/EconDev/VCCVFINALREPORT061807.pdf

[CouvScott]

http://www.columbian.com/news/2011/aug/21/united-grain-project-gives-a-lift-to-port/


By Zachary Kaufman
The Columbian
Construction continues Friday on a cluster of silos at the Port of Vancouver that will hold corn and soy beans shipped to the port from the country’s interior by rail and then transported by ship to China, where a rising middle class is creating demand for meat, which in turn requires feed for livestock.

It scrapes the sky, but it’s no towering office building.

Nonetheless, the new grain silo rising at the Port of Vancouver is likely the tallest structure in Clark County.

The silo, made of concrete and reinforced steel, climbs more than 300 feet — the equivalent of roughly 20 stories. “I don’t think any of the (Vancouver) downtown structures comes even close,” said Curtis Shuck, the port’s director of economic development and facilities.

The looming silo was built using the “slipform” method of construction, in which concrete is poured into a continuously ­moving form. “They actually jack it up and the whole thing rises at about one foot per hour,” Shuck said. “It’s the tallest slipform structure in North America.”

It’s also part of a larger

$72 million project launched by United Grain Corp. to boost the company’s export capacity to handle corn and soybeans. Driving United Grain’s pursuit of the project is China’s rising middle class, Shuck said. With more Chinese people eating meat, demand is high for corn and soybeans, which serve as feed grains for livestock.

The port’s elected three-member board of commissioners unanimously approved the project in January. Since then, crews have torn down two buildings at the port’s Terminal 2 — with one more to go — and have been busy erecting the slipform silo and building a storage facility comprised of 24 grain silos.

The silo, which will be used to remove debris from the loads of corn and soybean, is all but complete. Shuck said crews are now installing the machinery that will enable it to load the corn and soybeans — hauled into the port by train from other parts of the U.S. — onto ships bound for Asia.

A nearby 24-silo storage facility, which crews are now assembling, will provide an additional 60,000 metric tons of storage space for corn and soybeans, or roughly 2 million bushels.

United Grain, a subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Mitsui Group, already ships 3 million tons of wheat from Terminal 2, about 16 percent of the country’s crop.

Its current project, to be completed in the fall of 2012, created 240 temporary construction jobs. When it’s finished, the new grain handling facility will employ a few permanent, full-time workers.

The company’s expansion into the corn-and-soybean export business provides several other benefits, Shuck said, including allowing the port to move ahead with its $150 million West Vancouver Freight Access project.

 The project aims to increase the port’s rail track from 16.9 miles to more than 44 miles, adding capacity to handle freight and increasing the speed at which cargo moves along the BNSF Railway and Union Pacific main lines. Those main lines link the Pacific Northwest to major rail hubs in Chicago and Houston.

“Faster freight and more of it means a lower cost, which means global competitiveness,” Shuck said.

Shuck said port tenant CalPortland benefits from the silo project because United Grain is purchasing all of its ready-mix concrete from CalPortland, a provider of building materials.

Perhaps the most obvious impact of the United Grain project is the fact that you can’t miss it as you trundle along West Mill Plain Boulevard through the port district.

As Shuck put it, “We’re actually modifying the Vancouver skyline.”

[shaggon16]

Damewood, A., & Rice, S. (2011, September 28). Official hears arguments over proposed biomass plant: county wants to build facility in downtown Vancouver. The Columbian.

Without opening another "Vancouver" thread, I thought this was an interesting read because of the potential impact in local neighborhoods---including my own. Also, how will the plant interact Vancouver's revitalization efforts? Does Portland have any of the plants?

The question of whether a biomass plant can be built in downtown Vancouver was one that the project’s proponents, Clark County and its private partner, and the project’s opponent, the city of Vancouver, argued late into Wednesday night...more (http://www.columbian.com/news/2011/sep/28/Official-hears-biomass-plant-arguments-vancouver/)

[CouvScott]

It's a view that hasn't been seen in 104 years, but now it's also a look at Vancouver's future.

Construction crews have punched through the BNSF Railway berm due south of City Hall, offering a view from the end of Esther Street to the waterfront that's been hidden for more than a century.

Ultimately, both Esther and Grant streets will run under the tracks, and serve as the main links between Vancouver's downtown and the Columbia River waterfront.

"Anybody who works at City Hall or downtown can see a breath of fresh air here -- they can see some trees, see some water, see some blue sky," city spokeswoman Barbara Ayers said Wednesday. "When things are starting to open up, literally and figuratively, it's really exciting."

The work, headed up by Vancouver-based Nutter Construction, will continue on the BNSF tracks through the end of the year; the first stage of the city of Vancouver's $44 million waterfront construction project. City crews will start work on road construction at the start of 2013, and expect to finish by the end of the year.

BNSF trains are running on a temporary track while a new permanent berm with 13.5-feet-high bridges over Esther and Grant is completed. That temporary "shoofly" track will then be turned into a new lead track allowing access to the Port of Vancouver, Public Works spokeswoman Loretta Callahan said.

The work is all in hopes that Vancouver can land private developers ready to invest $1.3 billion for a Pearl District-esque transformation of the former Boise Cascade paper plant. A large waterfront park and extension of the Waterfront Renaissance Trail are also part of the plans.

Downtown residents and visitors should expect loud noises and vibrations from demolition and pile driving on weekdays now through July 16. The World War II murals further east along the berm will not be affected by the construction, Callahan said.

Once the roads are done, the vehicle crossings over BNSF tracks will be closed at Eighth and Jefferson streets, meaning that trains will no longer have to sound their horns there.

http://www.columbian.com/news/2012/may/23/railroad-berm-byway/

[cdp6204]

They just put a brand new sign up for this two days ago. Could it be moving forward soon???

http://thewaterfrontvancouverusa.com/

[Eco_jt]

also saw this in The Oregonian...in case anyone missed it.

Vancouver waterfront development will be shovel-ready soon, developer, investors say (http://www.oregonlive.com/clark-county/index.ssf/2013/04/vancouver_waterfront_developme.html)

[Derek]

I'll believe it when I see it.

[tworivers]

Looking at that rendering, wow, it's hard to imagine that there is nearly enough market demand to make such a dense development happen. In Vancouver.

[Mr. Walch]

In defense of Vancouver it has the best downtown outside of Portland's. Compared to downtown Gresham or Beaverton or Hillsboro it has somewhat of a nacent urban core centered on Estershort Park. There are several new, taller buildings including housing, a hotel conference center, and the new Miller Hull (a well known Seattle Architect) designed library which is quite nice. When the current prep work finishes they will be more connected to the river and have new parks and trails. I still wouldn't trade Portland for it, but I can see it growing into a decent place.

[Derek]

Looking at that rendering, wow, it's hard to imagine that there is nearly enough market demand to make such a dense development happen. In Vancouver.


I can see maybe a few 6 story buildings going in, but not anywhere close to anything we are seeing in that rendering.


In defense of Vancouver it has the best downtown outside of Portland's. Compared to downtown Gresham or Beaverton or Hillsboro it has somewhat of a nacent urban core centered on Estershort Park. There are several new, taller buildings including housing, a hotel conference center, and the new Miller Hull (a well known Seattle Architect) designed library which is quite nice. When the current prep work finishes they will be more connected to the river and have new parks and trails. I still wouldn't trade Portland for it, but I can see it growing into a decent place.



Vancouver's downtown isn't that bad at all! But as tworivers said, where's the demand?

[RainDog]

I could see it working out if they did something to improve the transit connections across the river, right now it is pretty abysmal. I hope it does pan out though, the downtown area does show some promise.... if only Vancouver and greater Clark county would embrace being a part of Portland metro...

[tworivers]

I actually wasn't trying to diss Vancouver at all. Their downtown has tons of potential. It just doesn't seem like Portland has all that much demand -- look at all the space left in South Waterfront -- which makes me think the rendering for Vancouver's waterfront is extremely ambitious. Even shorter buildings would be a nice addition though. Too bad the CRC plan didn't involve running MAX over a new arterial bridge from N PDX...

[Mr. Walch]

You are right. Vancouver, while having an okay small downtown is probable not able to support a collection of high rises any time soon. This especially true when Portland is fluch with big development sites (SoWa, Conway, Post Office, Lloyd, North Peral) and is only building 6 story buildings, even on SoWa waterfront.

[CouvScott]

http://www.cityofvancouver.us/ced/page/waterfront-development

[Derek]

Well, at least they included an underpass for Amtrak and freight trains. Something I wish downtown Portland had on Naito. :(



I'd be surprised to see 3-4 of those building actually built, let alone the entire project.




Edit: That video was very well done. :tup: