What's Old Is New Again: Inside Mortenson Construction's Pearl District Office
Mortenson Construction recently completed one of the more unusual tenant improvement projects in Portland when it moved to the Crane Building at 710 Northwest 14th Ave., and did tenant improvements for itself, using parts of a century-old Oregon barn.
The 1909-vintage 710 Northwest 14th Ave. once served as an office for Crane Plumbing Co. Ahead of the move, Mortenson superintendent Blake Haldeman led the remodeling of the new office space, incorporating rustic design elements that his team had collected in Oregon.
As part of the renovation, Mortenson purchased a 100-year-old barn in Colton, Oregon, that was no longer needed for the modern farm. The barn's wood was then repurposed. For instance, Haldeman used Douglas fir from the barn for the office’s workspaces and trim.
The 9K SF space in the Pearl District includes barn wood incorporated into cabinetry, workstations, a welcome desk, a bike rack and an art timeline wall. Some of the wood also serves as focal piece walls in conference rooms.
"As a midsized commercial general contractor, we seldom get the opportunity to engage in an office TI," Blake said. "The project was performed under an extremely condensed schedule, in essence we put six months' work in place in three months."
A brick painting in the kitchenette pays homage to the signage in the first Mortenson office. Also, a 1920s refrigerator door is being used as a decorative piece on a stair cap, an antique crosscut saw is displayed in the conference room and a conference room table was fashioned out of an 1890s-era door from an estate on Portland’s East Side.
A mural, painted by local artist April Mehls, features the misty trees of Oregon.
