The Edward J. Ray Hall is the fifth building constructed at Oregon State University-Cascades, Bend, Ore. Serving as the science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM) building, it also is a prototype for future construction and stands as a gateway from the existing campus to the new development, which will occur on the 46-acre site of a reclaimed pumice mine.
Next to the site of a reclaimed pumice mine, Edward J. Ray Hall serves as a gateway building to the future development of the Oregon State University-Cascades
Those factors—future buildings, previous construction, site location—all were significant influences on the requirements for the STEAM building. Add to those obligations a very specific one: the university set very high sustainability standards and among them was the requirement to use mass timber, partly in a desire to support the timber industry in Oregon.
Photos: Kevin Scott
An Oregon Industry
“It was challenging because they had a fairly lean budget,” says Carl Hampson, AIA, LEED AP, design principal at Portland, Ore.-based SRG Partnership Inc. “But they had high goals for sustainability, including the use of mass timber. There’s a premium associated with using mass timber versus steel. What was budgeted in terms of square footage was more in line with a steel structure. We tried to keep the building as simple as possible and minimize the use of interior finishes.”
Wood finishes didn’t necessarily work on the exterior, though. The previous buildings on campus had been clad in either cedar or a cementitious product, and the university was facing significant maintenance issues because of that. “When this building was built, they wanted to connect it back visually to the first two buildings,” says Hampson, “but they didn’t want the entire building to have wood on it because of the maintenance issue. So, we elected to have wood on the east and west façades where we have the minimal amount of glazing.”
Metal Cladding
On the north and south façades, SRG specified a deep-ribbed aluminum panel from Metal Sales Manufacturing Corp., Sellersburg, Ind., in Polar White. The rib height was 4 1/2 inches and 6-inch on-center, and installed vertically. Arctic Sheet Metal, Portland, installed 10,600 square feet on the building.
The vertical alignment and narrow windows give visual height to the building, which is accentuated by the very thin roof line. But it also provides a sustainable performance characteristic. The panels help shade the windows. “On the north and south of the building,” explains Hampson, “we wanted to use a strategy that would clad the building but also create some sun control. And we wanted to see if there was a strategy that you could use on both the north and south that was similar. Logic would tell you that on the south you would want to do an overhang; on the north you would want to do a vertical for when the sun comes far around in mid-summer.”
But that wasn’t the case. SRG did a lot of energy modeling and learned that it could actually get more shade on the window regardless of orientation from a vertical shading device, which was the ribbed metal paneling. “It casts a shadow directly on the window,” says Hampson. “When you have a horizontal, it actually casts sometimes away from the window. So, it turns out we were able to clad the façade on both sides with the same strategy and get an effective screening of the sun.”
Prototype and Position
The roles for this building went beyond serving the needs of STEAM students and faculty. It also needed to fit into the long-term plans of the university. As the fifth building in an expanding campus, it became a pivot point from the older campus to what would become the new heart of the campus.
It served that role physically by sitting on the edge of the old pumice mine, and in tactic by becoming a model for how other buildings would be constructed. “One of the goals the university had was for this building to become a prototype of a kind of kit of parts for future buildings,” notes Hampson. “So, we developed this module that works very well in a building of this type. For future buildings they would use a similar structural system, a similar organizing strategy around the mechanical system. There is this flexible core element that we developed that captures all the verticals shafts, the elevator, and the toilet runs and so forth that becomes a standardized element that would go from building to building.”
It seems dramatic to position a building on the edge of a mine, but what Edward J. Ray Hall really does is become a gateway—a transition—from one part of the campus to the another. It is sited on a slope and the first floor is glass enclosed, serving as a kind of amphitheater that empties out toward the mine. Buy centralizing the MEP services in a module, it opened up the interior. Stepping out the door toward the mine, students walk out onto a courtyard that expands outward. Paths around the building further enhance its transitional nature.