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Albina Yard
Albina Yard is a new 16,000 sf speculative office building with ground floor retail located in North Portland. The building utilizes mass timber construction, with a glulam timber frame and Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) panels manufactured and prefabricated in Riddle, Oregon. The project’s primary goal was to utilize domestic CLT in a market-rate office building that would pave the way for broader market adoption of renewable mass timber construction technologies in Portland and the US. The design approach reflects a commitment to this sustainable technology by developing an architecture focused on economy and simplicity, material expression, and the careful resolution and integration of all M/E/P building systems to foreground the beauty of the exposed Douglas fir structural frame.
At the street level, the floor plan is organized around activating a small L-shaped infill site in a mixed residential/light industrial neighborhood. The side-loaded structural core connects the public entry to a day-lit CLT egress stair that opens onto a private south-facing courtyard. The retail space also connects to the street with a café/bar adjacent to the courtyard space. The upper floors have expansive views of Mt. Hood and downtown Portland, and are also divisible into four smaller units.
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Albina Yard is made from an engineered wood product called Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT). The project is the first building in the US made from domestically-produced CLT.
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The handrail in the central stair is made from three-ply CLT—the same ply thickness used for the building's roof and ceiling panels.
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Site Plan and Section
Legend: 1 Retail; 2 Entry; 3 Egress Stair; 4 Elevator; 5 CLT Stair; 6 Cafe; 7 Courtyard; 8 Shipping Container/Office; 9 Neighboring Building; 10 Office
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