Waterleaf

Location: Portland

Cost: Not disclosed

Completion: October 2023

Owner/Developer: BRIDGE Housing

Construction Manager: Otak DAY CPM

Architect: Ankrom Moisan

Engineer: Valar Engineering

General Contractor: Walsh Construction

Submitting Company: Walsh Construction

Subcontractors: Academy Specialties, ACME Scenic & Display, Affordable Electric, American Heating, Amplified Wireless Solutions, BD Aerial, BrandSafway Services, Black Line Glazing, Bravado Outdoor Products, Bridgeport Interiors, Bryker Enterprises, City of Roses Disposal & Recycling, Civic Construction aka Wood Mechanix, CoLiant Solutions, Colors NW, Contemporary Visions Signs & Wayfinding, Concrete Sawing, Convergint, Davidson’s Masonry, De-el Enterprises, Delta Fire, Eagle Striping Service, G&L Janitorial, G.R. Morgan Construction, Grant Painting, Hillebrand Construction, Interior Technology, JBA, Landscape Forms, Lanz Cabinets Shop, LDC, McDonald Excavating, McNulty Flooring, Metro Overhead Door, Milwaukie Floors & More, Ness & Campbell Crane, NetCompliance Environmental Services, Otis Elevator, Pacific Foundation, Package Concierge, Paragon Tile & Stone, Pioneer Waterproofing, Point Monitor, Professional Lath & Plaster, Raimore Construction, RDF Builders, RQ4D, Siemens Industries, Skyline Sheet Metal, Standard TV & Appliance, Superior Interiors, T.A. Onchi,Tapani Plumbing, Teufel Nursery, Topline Counters, Turtle Mt. Construction, Ultra Quiet Floors, Umpqua Roofing, Vale Insulation Group, VPI Quality Windows, WESSCO, Western Partitions, Whitaker/Ellis Builders

Waterleaf, a 187,448-square-foot affordable housing facility in Southwest Portland, features 178 units ranging from studios to three-bedroom apartments. Twenty units are dedicated to Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing and several units include special features for people with mobility, hearing and visual impairments.

The six-story facility has five stories of wood framing over a one-story concrete podium. Convenience and amenities were highly important for this development: its location is adjacent to a streetcar stop. The building features a ground floor community room with a community kitchen and an adjoining landscaped exterior courtyard with a children’s playground. The community room provides for a range of uses including resident meetings, public or private resident events, and programmed events by the on-site service coordinator. An adjoining Resident Services office facilitates the connection to residents. Residents also have access to two community laundry rooms, trash/recycling rooms on each floor of the building, 67 parking spaces and 267 bike parking spaces.

The design and construction team faced a unique challenge on the project - this was the second phase of a two-phase development featuring a shared a basement and concrete podium with a completed building, Vera. The team had to develop innovative solutions to ensure Vera remained open and unaffected during Waterleaf’s construction. Extra communication with residents and meticulous planning with the city of Portland was required. Another challenging component of the project was the shared permitting with Vera both phases were on the same building and public works permit. As a result, special care was required when connecting fire life safety and utilities to the new building.

The Waterleaf started out as a market-rate apartment complex, but design pivoted to affordable housing. This effort was supported by the Metro Affordable Housing Bond Program passed in 2018.

The project had a goal to use 30 percent of the workforce through MWESB trade partners. Walsh Construction exceeded that, achieving 35.5 percent. Walsh utilized workforce training on the project, achieving 23.6 percent apprenticeship out of the total labor force.

One of the project’s biggest safety challenges was the streetcar running next to the site. The construction team coordinated with TriMet to pause the streetcar during crane demobilization.

Waterleaf achieved LEED Gold certification.

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