Lincoln Hall gets makeover to improve safety, gain LEED certification

After the noise and dust clears in Lincoln Hall, it will be home sweet home again for Portland State music and theater students in the fall of 2010. Until then, the construction team will be hard at work to make the building a more safe and greener building with some added amenities as well.

A priority of the building’s renovations is to bring the building up to seismic code by adding concrete shear walls and steel braces to the building.  The roof will also be replaced to add structural stability. Lincoln Hall follows the recent seismic upgrade of Shattuck Hall.

“Many [campus buildings] have been seismically upgraded. Other upgrades are in-process,” said Ron Blaj, project manager for the Lincoln Hall reconstruction.

In addition to the $29 million given by the state to improve the building, which also includes replacing electrical, plumbing and fire alarm systems, $1.5 million was given under the Oregon Economic Stimulus program to improve the exterior of the building.

This will mainly be used to replace the windows with more insulated windows. Cosmetically, only a few changes will be made to the outside.

“They will still have an historic appearance, but they will be much more energy efficient, and be much better,” Blaj said.

The project is also keeping in mind sustainability and aiming to get Leadership in Energy and Environmental design (LEED) certification, which certifies buildings on a point system based on the sustainability of the construction of the building. Platinum is the highest rating and certified is the lowest.

“This project is attempting to reach LEED gold standard, which is the second highest rating,” Blaj said.

Better-insulated windows are one of the ways that the project will gain LEED points. Buying materials within 500 miles, using recycled materials, recycling demolished materials and having the windows designed so that they introduce more natural light, thus saving on electricity, will also help with LEED points, according to Blaj.

The numerous music students that often must wait in line to use the practice rooms will be happy to know that a few more practice rooms will be added to Lincoln Hall, and the rooms will also have better sound insulation.
With the renovations the acoustics in the auditoriums should also improve, Blaj said.

“There are some walls and ceilings that are being put back together with acoustics in mind, and the windows will be much better acoustically,” he said.

Dressing rooms will be moved closer to the performance areas and the studios will have better temperature control Sarah Andrews-Collier said, who is chair of the department of theater arts.

Film students at Portland State might also be delighted to know of additions being made to Lincoln Hall.
“The film program is a very quickly growing program in the theater department, so there are some spaces that are being dedicated for use by the film program,” she said.

Some of that space will be used to add a film computer studio that will be used mainly for editing.

Both the music and theater departments moved to temporary locations. The music department has moved to the Extended Studies Building and theater and film classes have been spread out on campus, such as Market Center Building, and many classes are off campus as well.

“While the MCB is comfortable, the dislocation has been very challenging on the whole,” Andrews-Collier said. “Students have to commute off campus to labs. Faculty [has] to be in two places at once.”

Other disruptions during the construction will be limited driving room for cars and closed bus stops on Broadway near the construction site, although the streetcar will still be running, Blaj said.

“We anticipate that the improvements will result in a building that is safer, more comfortable, more energy efficient,” Blaj said, “[and] home to improved learning spaces, more beautiful, and better able to deliver 21st century technology to the music and theater departments.”