Mississippi Avenue Lofts - Blog

Mississippi Avenue Lofts invites you to join us this Saturday July 12th for the Mississippi Avenue Street Fair 10:00AM-7:00PM . Featuring over 150 vendors, children’s activity areas, 4 stages with live music, rib cook-off, beer garden, plenty of food, fun and entertainment for the whole family. This years event will be the greenest yet! Last year we featured sustainable vendors in a special block dedicated Mississippi Green, this years fair is going carbon neutral with help from the Blue Sky Renewable Energy Program and Portland Office of Sustainable Development Event Recycling Program. Look for recycling and composting stations throughout the fair!

A benefit for the Boise-Eliot Elementary & Albina Youth Opportunity Schools

Mississippi Avenue Lofts will be hosting hard hat construction tours during the street fair. We invite you to stop by and learn more about this exciting new sustainable mixed-use development. Mississippi Avenue Lofts has been designed to become the 1st building of its type in Oregon certified LEED Gold v2.2 from the U.S. Green Building Council.

The photos and copy in this post are a highlight of the work completed by general contractor Gray Purcell and their subcontractors during the months of May and June.

Gray Purcell installed structural steel for retail storefronts.

Gray Purcell installed pan decking, rigid insulation, forms and re-bar, Portland Mechanical installed fire stops and O’Neill Electric installed rough-in electric for 3rd floor slab and walls.

O’Neill Electric installed metering panels and switch gear in the main electric room. Portland Mechanical began installation of the City-Multi energy sharing fan control units and refrigerant lines. Parker Fire Protection installed the main fire control room and began installing pipe for fire sprinklers throughout the building. Subcontractor I.C.E. installed framing and drywall.

Gray Purcell and Union Masons from Anchor Concrete placed the 3rd floor slab, Gray Purcell poured 3rd floor walls.

Gray Purcell cored slabs for plumbing, mechanical and electric. Portland Mechanical installed plumbing, O’Neill Electric installed conduit, light fixtures and wiring in lofts. J C Metal Fabricators installed structural steel for the brick wall on west elevation and Long Painting began painting structural steel in lofts and hand rails from Riverside Manufacturing.

J C Metal Fabricators welded structural steel knife plates, Gray Purcell prepared and installed heavy timber beams, pan decking, rigid insulation and re-bar. Portland Mechanical installed fire stops and O’Neill Electric installed rough-in electric for 4rd floor slab.

Gray Purcell and Union Masons from Anchor Concrete placed concrete for the 4th floor slab.

Gray Purcell installed T&G decking and structural timber beams for elevated walkways. Anchor Concrete placed concrete for elevated walkways in the courtyard.

I.C.E. continued installation of framing and drywall, O’Neill Electric installed conduit, Portland Mechanical installed plumbing.

Gray Purcell began installation of 4th floor structural steel, retail storefronts and window systems.

In our ongoing effort to achieve the highest level of LEED certification possible Mississippi Avenue Lofts co-developer Peter Wilcox met with consultants from Solar City. Solar readings were taken across the span of the building to determine the amount of Kilowatts (kW) that could be generated with the installation of a large photovoltaic solar array.

We look forward to seeing you Saturday July 12th at the Mississippi Avenue Street Fair!

Mississippi Avenue Lofts is proud to participate with Laughing Planet Cafe in Cirque du Cycling a Benefit for SEI.

We’re sure you’ll enjoy these photo’s from todays event! Hat’s off to Franz and the team from Laughing Planet Cafe for making such a wonderful contribution to our community!

Come one, come all! The circus is coming to Mississippi Avenue. Cirque du Cycling, presented by Laughing Planet Café, is part circus, part bike street race and a benefit for Self Enhancement, Inc.The whole event kicks off at 4:00 with a free three mile family ride to Peninsula Park. There is also a bike parade (advance registration required) featuring all sorts of wild sculptural bikes: tall bikes, choppers, swing bikes and more.There’s live music all afternoon, plenty of entertainment to watch and an evening criterium street race with a two-way racing right down the middle of Mississippi Avenue.Come relax in the beer garden, bring your bike, settle into your lawn chair, peruse the shops of Mississippi Avenue and numerous exhibitors and be prepared to be awed by spectacular bicycle tricks and riding feats.

CALDERA LAUNCHES HELLO NEIGHBOR PROJECT:
Communities Across Portland and Central Oregon Unite through Student Art!

Caldera is pleased to announce the dates of its series of “Hello Neighbor” project celebration events. “Hello Neighbor” is a student art based community-building project created to inspire neighbors to connect with each other.

Students from ten middle schools in Portland and Central Oregon are participating in Caldera’s “Hello Neighbor” project. With photographer Julie Keefe, the students have begun to identify, interview and photograph diverse neighbors of all ages in their local communities.
From their work, the Caldera students will create photo-and-word portraits which will be printed on large format (7′ X 5′) vinyl banners throughout their communities. The banners will be displayed from May through September, 2008 in Bend, Redmond, Terrebonne, Madras, Sisters and Portland.

“Hello Neighbor” was conceived by Keefe, a photographer based in Portland, who has been involved with Caldera and its programs for 12 years. Keefe’s inspiration for this project came when she moved into a changing North Portland neighborhood and saw the need to begin a dialogue about community between neighbors of all ages. “When I moved into the neighborhood in 1991, with my husband and infant daughter, I was a new neighbor, and as an artist, I wanted to find a way to publicly address the changes I was part of.”

In each school community, there will be a celebration to unveil the banners and to celebrate the students’ work. Students will lead other students, teachers, parents, and members of the community on a walking tour of their neighborhood to visit each site where the banners are displayed. The schedule of events is as follows:

Wieden+Kennedy, June 5 from 6:00pm-9:00pm;
Mississippi Ballroom (SEI Academy) June 6 from 5:00pm-7:00pm.

Hello Neighbor has been made possible in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Local community involvement is essential for Hello Neighbor to succeed. Those interested in learning more or becoming a “Hello Neighbor” sponsor should visit contact Rebecca Groff at rebecca.groff@wk.com or 503-937-7594 or visit www.calderaarts.org.

Founded in 1996 by Dan Wieden, chief creative officer of the Portland, Oregon-based international ad agency Wieden+Kennedy, and his wife, Bonnie, Caldera is a nonprofit organization that provides long-term mentoring through the arts to underserved children, and provides fully subsidized residencies to professional artists. Programs take place in schools and community centers throughout Portland and Central Oregon, and at Caldera’s Blue Lake Arts Center in the Oregon Cascade Mountains.

Since our last construction blog March 19th General Contractor Gray Purcell installed FSC Certified glulam beams for the south 1/2 of the 3rd floor structural system, placed forms, installed rebar and poured the North elevator and stair towers to the 2nd floor, south stair well and 3rd floor structural concrete beams across the west elevation.

During the 1st 1/2 of April J&J Construction and Fabrication continued welding structural steel and Gray Purcell continued installation of glulam beams, Regupol Sound Impact Insulation, pan decking, rigid insulation and rebar for the 3rd floor slab. Forms were placed, rebar installed and stem walls were poured for the retail storefronts. Portland Mechanical and O’niell Electric installed fire stops, conduit and drains for 3rd floor slab.

On April 14th union masons from Anchor Concrete joined Gray Purcell to place the south 1/2 of the 3rd floor slab.

Throughout April Portland Mechanical, O’niell Electric and Parker Fire Protection continued installation of plumbing, electrical and fire suppression systems. Framing and drywall subcontractor I.C.E. began installation of light gauge steel framing and Portland Mechanical began installation of City Multi air handling systems for 1st floor retail and 2nd floor lofts.

During the 2nd 1/2 of April crews from Gray Purcell working with Portland Mechanical and O’niell Electric set forms, placed rebar and poured 3rd floor walls for the North stair tower, elevator tower and gridlines 9 and 10. Gray Purcell set forms and placed rebar for 3rd floor walls on gridlines 8-6 and continued placing glulams, Regupol, pan decking, rigid insulation and rebar structural systems for the remaining 3rd floor slab.

As April ended Gray Purcell and Portland Mechanical began plumbing rough in on the 3rd floor, I.C.E. continued framing 2nd floor lofts and Gray Purcell began installation of structural steel for retail storefronts.

Mississippi Avenue Lofts and The Sierra Club. Photo’s from the ‘Power2Change’ Campaign with media coverage on YouTube. On March 26th Mississippi Avenue Lofts Joined the Sierra Club for a media round table to launch the campaign in Oregon, then on Saturday April 19th over 70 cyclists visited and toured the Mississippi Avenue Lofts as part of the ‘Shift to Green Bike Tour’ followed by an Earth Day Rally on April 21st in Pioneer Courthouse Square with Governor Ted Kulongoski and Secretary of State Bill Bradbury.