ORI New Building Fact sheet

07/15/11

New building site approved by state Board of Higher Education.

06/16/2010 - Parking lot update

After several conversations with concerned community members, the size, location, and number of parking spaces has been reduced. The parking is divided into 3 small lots: one to the east of the building, one to the west of the building, and one to the south.

The parking lot incorporates green building principles:

Parking is reduced to the minimum city requirement.
Reduced parking stall dimensions, in order to keep the lot as small as possible.
Bio-swales for storm water runoff.
Alternative pavers and tree canopy to reduce heat island effects of pavement
Perimeter berm and landscaping to screen parking from bicycle path.
Dedicated green vehicle parking stalls located close to building to promote green transportation.

It should also be noted that contrary to the persistent rumors that the parking lot will be the “size of two football fields”, the square footage of the parking areas will be much less than one football field. If structured parking becomes available in the future, TC is committed to converting surface parking to other uses.

Oregon Research Institute – New Office Headquarters 2011 - 2012

Oregon Research Institute (ORI) is an independent behavioral research center doing research on public health and human wellbeing. Its research includes studies on the prevention of cardiovascular disease, depression, drug abuse addiction, and cigarette smoking. ORI is recognized throughout the world for its contributions to understanding the factors that threaten health and wellbeing and developing effective prevention and treatment interventions. building

ORI is presently located in two rented offices near the University of Oregon. Founded in 1960, ORI has approximately 250 employees and is the largest independent behavioral research institute in Oregon. ORI is the third-largest recipient of National Institutes of Health (NIH) research funds in Oregon (after the Oregon Health & Science University and the University of Oregon).

ORI has a long history of collegiality with the University of Oregon, often hiring students as research assistants and in work-study positions and often collaborating with University researchers. Many ORI scientists have held or currently hold UO positions. The new building will allow ORI to be housed in one structure and will stimulate research efforts by providing larger, more efficient research space and more meeting areas for collaborative discussions with colleagues. The research space incorporates specialized facilities for bringing participants to ORI to assist in our research. In 2009, hundreds of Lane County residents participated in our studies; ORI conducts no research on animals. The new building also includes a largemeeting room which will expand our ability to hold conferences and trainings for the community. ORI is very excited to be the connecting point between the UO and Eugene’s downtown.

The Structure & Setting

The developer, Trammell Crow, is leasing a 4.32 acre parcel from the University of Oregon (UO) at the west end of the Riverfront Research Park to construct a building to be rented to ORI and EPIC, a UO spinoff. EWEB is to the west of the site, the train tracks to the south, and the bike path and Willamette River to the north. The site is approximately 600 yards west of the current soccer field. The Trammell Crow building will have four stories with a total of 79,800 square feet. ORI will initially occupy 69,009 square feet. The $17 million environmentally sustainable building will be LEED Silver/Gold certified. The project design includes widening the south bank bike path to 14 feet, providing bike and pedestrian lighting and safety railings, removing invasive blackberries and providing natural riparian landscaping, and improving the bike path connection to the UO and downtown via the at-grade crossing at 8th Ave./Hilyard St. The parking area will be separated and not visible from the bike path by a four-foot high berm planted with native plants.

Community Conversations

Concerns about the Trammell Crow project have been raised by a group called Connecting Eugene, which consists of UO Landscape Architecture professors, students, and concerned citizens. ORI has met with them twice and considered their two alternative site locations in depth. ORI’s architect, developer, and Riverfront Research Park representatives also attended the meetings. While we appreciated the talent and creativity evident in the landscape architecture students’ alternative plans, we found them unrealistic and unattainable. However, we did make some revisions to our site plans based on this and other community dialogues about Eugene/Springfield’s important riverfront. We have moved our building 25 feet farther from the river. At the closest, it will be 100 feet from the river’s edge. We have reduced the number of parking spaces to that required by code and have moved 40 – 50 spaces south of the building, between the railroad tracks and the Riverfront Parkway. In our present locations, ORI currently has 140 parking spaces and EPIC has 30. Parking surfaces will be pervious paver blocks or similar surface. We have consulted bicycle advocates regarding the bicycle path connection to the river via 8th Ave/Hilyard Street. In addition, the construction and design of the building include many green building features:

Photovoltaics (PV) will be used to offset energy usage;
Pervious pavers for stormwater management reduce quantity of water in the city system;
Roofing design will reduce heat island effect of the site;
Building orientation maximizes thermal efficiency;
Energy efficient light systems will complement natural day lighting;
Local contractors and suppliers will be used to reduce carbon expenditure in transportation of materials;
All work spaces will be on the outside perimeter of the building, allowing natural day lighting. The building’s core will be used for confidential research rooms and infrastructure needs;
Wherever possible, recycled materials will be used in the construction;
Full cut off down- lights will reduce light pollution;
75 – 95% of construction waste will be diverted from land fill;
The building will have low-flush toilets and a high-efficient HVAC system.

Alder Street Bike Connection

An improved bike connection between this site and the Alder Street/bike corridor has been publicly discussed as a desirable element of this plan. We have met with a city planner and have asked him to do a feasibility study of creating a railroad underpass for pedestrians and bicyclists. If the city finds that this can be done, we will gladly accommodate a bike path to the river within our site.

Site Environmental Considerations

Through the State Board of Higher Education, the University of Oregon owns the RiverfrontResearch Park property. The site originally was owned by the Eugene Sand & Gravel Company, and was mined for sand and gravel extraction. In 1966, the UO acquired the parcel and in 1968 leased it to EWEB for utility pole and transformer storage. After EWEB’s lease terminated, the site was investigated and remediated by UO under the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) guidelines. The DEQ found the remediation complete and declared that no further action was necessary, except for the far western portion (0.9 acre) of the site. That clean-up is complete. There has been no public access to this site for over 70 years during its ownership by Eugene Sand & Gravel and lease to EWEB as utility storage. This site is currently surrounded by a chain-link fence and broken asphalt bike path, and attracts a transient population that creates additional safety concerns. The proposed project will remove all junk from the site including old concrete slabs, and replace the fencing with a natural separation from the bike path consisting of a berm with native shrubs and plants.

Timeline

Expected ground-breaking in third quarter of 2011.