Portland Business Journal – June 30, 2006 by Maureen McGrain – Business Journal staff writer
Constructing a modern building in one of Portland's most historic and dense districts is no small feat.
But that's just what Sera Architects Inc. and Hoffman Construction Co. are doing with the Union Gospel Mission 's LifeChange Center . Hoffman began constructing the center in January of this year and expects to complete the building in Dececember....
...The building sits next to the Union Gospel Mission's longtime home at 15 N.W. Third Ave.
The mission has been serving the area's homeless with a variety of services including provision of meals and clothes since the Depression.
The new 28,500-square-foot, $7 million LifeChange Center will allow the nonprofit to more than double the number of people it can serve through LifeChange, a years-long rehabilitation program for alcohol and drug addicts. The increased space will also mean shorter lines of people waiting outside for meals.
Sera architects had to familiarize themselves with the addiction recovery program and the other people Union Gospel Mission serves in order to design the LifeChange Center.
The five-story building will house 75 men and women in quarters varying from dormitory-style to private rooms.
As LifeChange participants work their way through the program, they get upgraded rooms. The dorm-style rooms have windows facing a courtyard that connects the new center and the existing Union Gospel building. Group bathrooms and showers grace the same floor.
The quarters' differing window views reflect the program's cycles. People new to the program must face a "blackout period" that limits contact with the outside world and encourages introversion -- hence, the view of the courtyard -- while senior participants farther along in the program have views that face out into the world.
The building also will hold five to six classrooms, a library, common rooms on each floor, and administrative offices for Union Gospel staff, which were previously housed in a separate building a few blocks away.
The ground level of the building will be an open common area with a lot of glass where Union Gospel will hold religious services, distribute sack lunches and house its clothing store. Because it will be such a high-traffic area, Sera pushed a palette of highly durable materials, said Sanderson, including carpet, vinyl composite tile, steel, concrete ceilings and exposed vents.
mmcgrain@bizjournals.com | 503-219-3420
