Peavy Hall is coming down.
The longtime home of the Oregon State University College of Forestry, located at the corner of Southwest 30th Street and Jefferson Way, is being torn down to make way for a new classroom and laboratory building that will be part of OSU’s $65 million Oregon Forest Science Complex.
With its distinctive interior courtyard and extensive landscaping, the 45-year-old Peavy Hall is a campus landmark, and some members of the OSU community have questioned the decision to rebuild rather than renovate.
Michael Collins, director of marketing and communications for the college, said that option was considered, but renovation would have been costly and would have resulted in a less functional building than the new Peavy Hall, which is designed to have multiple classroom and laboratory configurations with flex space to accommodate a variety of uses.
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“At the end of the day, it became clear … that building the new Peavy was the most viable option,” Collins said.
At 80,000 square feet, the three-story structure will be slightly smaller than the old building, Collins acknowledged. But he also noted that some of the labs housed in the old Peavy have been relocated to OSU’s Oak Creek Laboratory, freeing up room for other functions in the new facility.
Peavy Hall has been vacant since mid-July, when demolition began. Rather than just swinging a wrecking ball and hauling off the rubble, however, workers have been dismantling the two-story structure piece by piece. One of the goals of the project is to minimize waste.
The college is hoping to recycle 65 percent of the material in the old building, reuse 20 percent in the new structure and limit the amount sent to the landfill to 12 percent, with the remaining 3 percent requiring disposal as hazardous waste.
“I think we’re on track to meet (most) of those,” Collins said. “There is some worry about hitting that recycle number because we’re finding more asbestos and lead than expected.”
Among the features of the old Peavy Hall expected to find their way into the new building are glu-lam trusses that will become part of the main staircase and trees from the central courtyard that will be milled into furniture.
The demolition is scheduled for completion next month, with groundbreaking on the new Oregon Forest Science Complex set for Oct. 29.
In addition to the new Peavy Hall, the project will include the A.A. “Red” Emmerson Advanced Wood Products Laboratory, a 15,000-square-foot structure that will be focused on the development of cross-laminated timber and other types of engineered wood products. The name commemorates the co-founder of Sierra Pacific Industries, which made a $6 million donation to the project.
Walsh Construction is the general contractor on the project, which will showcase new types of engineered wood technology and will be operated by the OSU College of Forestry in partnership with the University of Oregon School of Architecture.
The target opening date for both buildings is spring of 2018.
In the meantime, the college’s students, faculty and staff will be learning, teaching and working in temporary space at other locations around campus, including Richardson, Snell and Strand halls as well as the College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences building.
Some $29.7 million of the $65 million project cost is being financed with state bonds, with the rest coming from donations.
Reporter Bennett Hall can be reached at 541-758-9529 or bennett.hall@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter at @bennetthallgt.