A 50,000-sq-ft, two-story mass timber facility replaces a building from the 1950s, providing modern spaces for multiple city departments and consolidating four office locations into one.

The $39-million project features distinctive blue metal siding designed to interact with changing daylight. Its purpose-built collaborative workspaces serve as the new home of the city’s public works, engineering, administrative and parks and recreation teams.

Emergency preparedness and response is a critical role for the public works and parks departments in Salem. With the new building’s improved operational efficiency, the city is able to better respond to emergencies such as wildfires, flooding and ice storms. This all-electric building is also equipped with solar panels that contribute power to the neighborhood and to the state of Oregon’s first-of-its-kind local microgrid.

Photo by Josh Partee

The mass timber structure is exposed throughout the building and set against a simple palette of steely tones, along with untreated hot rolled steel, exposed aggregate concrete and seating. Design choices prioritized material durability, climate resiliency and human health.

Mass timber products are just as porous, stain-prone and warp-prone in wet conditions as their component pieces. Unlike a typical building that would be framed and quickly drywalled and weather-wrapped to prevent moisture damage, the exposed mass timber framing and even more elaborate aesthetic features were a key to this structure’s design. To ensure the longevity and weather resistance of these components, the team engaged a weather-proofing envelope consultant as early as possible. Structural and exterior lumber were sourced from Oregon, including mass plywood panels from Freres Engineered Wood and reclaimed and sustainable juniper siding from eastern Oregon.

Photo by Josh Partee

Mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire protection systems were all carefully designed with aesthetics in mind. Chases were incorporated directly into the mass plywood panel decking design, allowing sprinkler and electrical systems to run over beams rather than underneath or through them. However, any necessary beam penetrations were coordinated early in the schedule process, given a mass timber structure’s limited flexibility for changes during construction. To simplify the process, the wood timber subcontractor along with the MEP and fire protection partners were brought on to the project early in design. A robust BIM process ensured overhead utilities were clash-free down to the pipe hanger and helped identify multiple design revisions that led to both time and cost savings.

Photo by Josh Partee

Extensive coordination across all stages of the project, from planning through design and construction, resulted in a public works building full of raw wood features and exposed framing, with so few points of rework that the team saved both time and cost for the client.