Since 2011 Ausland Group has worked with Britt Festivals leadership to design improvements focused on improving the experience for concert goers, and provided technical support for grant writing.   The Britt Performance Garden, a unique concert venue, will create an intimate setting for approximately 150 people and capture the natural splendor of Britt.

The New Garden will be nestled into the hillside near the main gates, and offer an area for smaller, more intimate concerts, and other special events.  New performances, additional seating – a new Britt Experience!

You can be a part of this exciting new venue by purchasing a personalized brick which will become the Britt Performance Garden’s new pathway.   Bricks will be available for purchase at the Hill.

Construction is anticipated to begin in Fall 2012.  For more updates, visit the project page at: www.auslandgroup.com/britt

Ausland Group offers complete capital improvement expertise in development consulting, engineering, and construction.   For more information, visit us at http://auslandgroup.com/

Todd brings to Ausland over 15 years experience in the development industry.  Previously Todd held positions as Director of Engineering at Seattle, Wash. based HBA Design Group, as well as Senior Engineer at Wood Research and Development in Corvallis, Ore.

Todd is registered to practice engineering in Oregon and Washington, and is a graduate of Oregon State University.

Ausland Group offers complete capital improvement expertise in development consulting, engineering, and construction.   For more information, visit us at http://auslandgroup.com/

To learn more about this rising star in Southern Oregon, visit www.calderabrewing.com

Ausland Group offers complete capital improvement expertise in development consulting, engineering, and construction.   For more information, visit us at http://auslandgroup.com/

A 1940’s era Veterans Administration (VA) Building was demolished last week in White City, Oregon.   While the building is gone, it is not lost.  In fact, you will find bits and pieces of it around the Rogue Valley in coming months.

Ausland has found a home for just about everything from the old 36,000 square foot building.  Wood Timbers were salvaged for reuse in another building on the VA campus.   Concrete has been crushed and will be used as fill beneath a new building and parking lot.   Wood studs have been chipped and will be used as landscape mulch.  The fire alarm system has been salvaged for parts in another building.   Steel scraps will be recycled into new metal parts.  Over 95% of the demolished building –1,000+ tons – has been diverted from the landfill by either recycle or reuse.

Just a decade ago, it was common practice to haul the majority of demolition rubble to the landfill.  Today, smart demolition is proving to be one of the most constructive things in the development industry.   If a building has exceeded its service life, there are options beyond the landfill.  Ausland is amongst a growing number of design and construction firms committed to smart demolition practices, a part of the greater green building movement.  This commitment requires proactive research of markets to find new life for old materials; and a purposeful management effort to disassemble, reclaim, and recycle as many materials as can be economically justified from projects.

With the old building recycled, the site is now being prepared for an expansion of the VA Ambulatory Care Clinic, which is anticipated to open in early-2013.   This  $8.8 Million project will be two-stories and provide exam rooms, treatment rooms, caregiver offices, and a new lobby for outpatient services.

The VA Southern Oregon Rehabilitation Center & Care Clinic (VA SORCC) is located in White City, Oregon, and serves as a regional and national resource for underserved special populations, e.g., homeless, chronically mentally ill, and substance abuse, providing quality residential treatment in psychiatry, addictions, medicine, bio-psychosocial, physical and vocational rehabilitation. The facility provides veterans with individualized, compassionate, and high quality care and emphasizes rehabilitation as it provides safe residential rehabilitative care to inpatients and accessible primary and mental health care to its outpatients.

For more information about opportunities to work with Ausland on this or other projects, find us at www.auslandgroup.com

This year, we need your help in coming up with ideas for fun, interesting science and engineering projects to take place this Saturday March 10, 2012 at 9:00 am-1:00 pm at South Middle School, 950 W. Harbeck Road, Grants Pass.

Please leave comments and suggestions at facebook.com/auslandgroup

Hope to see you all out there.

https://www.facebook.com/AuslandGroup#!/AuslandGroup

For more information on SOASTC: www.soastc.org

MERLIN — Big plans are on the drawing board for a large area of underdeveloped industrial land. The Ausland Group has been working with representatives from Rendata Industrial Park for the past six months to create a master plan for 110 acres of industrial land and 60 acres of residential property.

“This is the largest unincorporated opportunity for industrial expansion in Oregon,” said Aaron Ausland, chief executive officer at Ausland, which is based in Grants Pass. “This is a bright spot of something that’s going to transpire for the community in the immediate future and for the next two to 10 years.”

Five businesses currently operate on the Rendata site. Ausland said the site is operating at only 25 percent of capacity. “The use is fairly minimal,” Ausland said. “There’s a few things happening out there, but it’s not nearly representative of the type of the employment in Josephine County.”

The plan includes 110 acres of industrial land surrounding two ponds and a riparian zone, about 30 acres on the hillside for cottage-style businesses where the owners can live next to their workshops, and 30 acres of mobile living and recreational vehicle parking for tourists or employees who work at the industrial site. The industrial park offers efficient rail and freeway access, one of its important selling points. “One of main concepts is that there’s a lot of people in our county currently operating small scale businesses out of their homes, illegally,” Ausland said. “This would give people a legal, affordable option where they are also around other businesses that complement each other. “A big part of the residential component is to create affordable living for people either living and working in the upper area,” Ausland said.

Kelsy Ausland, principal engineer, said the master plan was rurally designed, keeping the area spacious, and preserving the natural trees and vegetation in the area. The plan includes an area for a market, laundry services, and other services. Also, within the plan Ausland designed, the “wigwam” left behind from the previous mill will remain and be preserved as a centerpiece to the development. “We wanted to keep true to the area’s history,” Kelsy Ausland said.

The park is zoned Community Industrial, which means the land can be used for “a broad range of intensive institutional and industrial uses that are likely to involve significant land use impacts”. Land within this zone are areas that are now developed, or historically developed, with heavier institutional or industrial uses.

Ausland is having the site reviewed by Business Oregon for a “shovel-ready” Industrial Site Readiness and Certification, which will place the zone on a national map stating it’s ready for development. Already, there has been some interest from outside companies looking to relocate to the area. “We’re talking to a lot of green industries, manufacturing components for home building,” said Patrick Engel, chief operating officer of Rendata. Engel said that Michael Gandee, of Green Builders Institute in Medford, has been working on recruiting companies to Rendata. Gandee didn’t return a call for comment this morning, but told the Daily Courier in September that he was working with a number of start-up businesses in the “green” industry that were looking at Rendata. Engel predicted that businesses at Rendata will generate 300 new jobs over the course of the next three years.

Reach reporter Linsay Cathey at 541-474-3722 or linsaycathey@thedailycourier.com. More about this project can be found on-line at: http://auslandgroup.com/projects/rendata-industrial-park-masterplanning-and-shovel-ready-certification-grants-pass-oregon/?cat=commercial

Ausland Group led this seismic and architectural renovations for Josephine County.

By Stacy D. Stumbo of the Daily Courier

A maintenance worker put the “JO” back in JOSEPHINE COUNTY over the weekend.

After decades of exposure to the elements, the gold label on the front of the Josephine County Courthouse at 500 Sixth St. in downtown Grants Pass had started to fade.

“We’ve known we needed to do something for the past couple of years,” said Rich Halliday, the county’s property facilities manager.

The three-story marble core of local democracy was constructed in 1916, and no one remembers the last time the letters were repainted, Halliday said. It may have been more than 50 years ago.
“We weren’t even sure what type of paint was used to do it,” Halliday said.

Maintenance workers wondered if the paint was gold leaf, like that used on the Golden Pioneer that stands atop the Oregon Capitol in Salem. Some theorized it might be actual gold that was recessed in the marble. The truth was revealed after a worker leaned over the building’s parapet and investigated.

“Turns out, it was just paint,” Halliday said. “But it was really good paint with lots of lead in it. Obviously, we can’t use lead paint nowadays, but we got very high quality gold paint and it will look just as good.”

The shiny new paint job comes just as the county completes a $2.4 million improvement project at the courthouse, paid for with bonds backed by the Oregon State Lottery. Improvements included installation of fire sprinkler and alarm systems, lighting upgrades and building security.
The project began in April.

“Ausland Group wrote the grant, oversaw design, and is now administering construction on behalf of the District“.

By Patti Richter of the Daily Courier

APPLEGATE — Nearly a century after it was built, Applegate School is getting some much-needed help.

In March 2010, Applegate School was chosen as a recipient of an Oregon Emergency Management seismic rehabilitation grant. The $846,000 grant is being used to shore up the brick building and install steel structural supports.

Construction started on the original Applegate School in 1910 and its doors were opened on Dec. 12, 1912. District officials decided to abandon the historic building in 2000 when structural engineers determined the building wasn’t sound. At the time, the four large classrooms on the upper level housed grades one through four. Students were moved into temporary portable buildings, which are still in use. Grades five through eight meet in a newer building on the same grounds, while the older building is currently used as a storage facility.

Since April, crews have torn off the roof to make room for steel support beams that will protect against an earthquake. The beams have been installed and now work is focusing on a new roof.
“There are a lot more unique attributes in a building this age,” said Daniel Ronda, project superintendent for the Ausland Group Construction Services, which is handling the project. “The construction was unique and there were a few things we really had to overcome.”

One of those was finding the end of the old building’s support beams. Workers had to dig by hand through rocky ground up to 5 feet deep in several locations to find the end of the support beams and then go another 16 inches deeper for the new steel supports. They then poured new concrete.

“At some points, we had guys digging under the building in little caves with shovels,” Ronda said. “That took several weeks to do.”

The steel beams weigh about 900 pounds each and the columns that support them are around 1,200 pounds each. Each of the steel beams and columns were lowered in through the roof using a crane. “The wood and steel ties together to create a seismically sound structure,” Ronda added.
Crews are also planning to upgrade the school’s mechanical systems, replacing old windows and a few other cosmetic items, said Principal Stephanie Allen-Hart.

“We are in the process of figuring out how much it will all cost,” she said. Allen-Hart added they were hoping to recruit volunteers who specialize in these areas to donate their time to help with the finishing touches.

Workers were also careful to remove the large bell in the school’s bell tower and ceiling boards covered with signatures from former students. Last year’s eighth-graders were able to sign the bell, like many of the students who attended Applegate before them.

Ronda believes Ausland will finish the project in November. Allen-Hart said counselors and custodians will likely move into the building’s first floor once it is available. Students will get to use the classrooms in the building next fall, just in time for Applegate’s 100th anniversary celebration.

“Ausland has been fantastic and worked around our schedule. The noise hasn’t been too bad,” said Allen-Hart. “Some of our younger students love coming out on recess to watch them work. It’s been fun to see this kind of activity because the building has been off limits to our students for 10 years. It is going to be nice to have students inside it again.”

Supporters of the Holly Theatre hope to go prime time with their restoration efforts if Medford officials agree to provide $300,000 in seed money.

The Jefferson Public Radio Foundation has requested from the Medford Urban Renewal Agency board a matching $100,000 improvement grant to restore the front of the building to what it looked like when the theater opened in 1930.

The facade grant will be discussed during a MURA meeting at noon Thursday at City Hall, 411 W. Eighth St. It would pay for a new neon marquis, new front doors and a neon mast at the corner of the building.

In addition, JPR, which purchased the building last year, wants another $200,000 to repair a broken truss supporting the roof and to perform other demolition and cleanup work. MURA had set aside $200,000 in its budget to help with the Holly restoration, though it was anticipating possibly awarding the money sometime next year.

JPR undertook a similar project in Redding, Calif., fully restoring the Cascade Theatre.

Ron Kramer, executive director of JPR, said preliminary structural analysis of the truss indicates it can be saved and the roof won’t have to be demolished as originally feared.

“We don’t believe the truss will require $200,000 to repair,” he said.

A $37,500 structural analysis of the broken truss and others and design for the repairs will be conducted in the near future. The design could include a cable-tension system used to repair a cracked beam in the Bowmer Theatre in Ashland that cost the Oregon Shakespeare Festival $500,000. However, the truss at the Holly should be cheaper because it doesn’t support the same kind of loads.

Kramer said the truss, damaged by a leaking roof, needs to be repaired so that JPR can bring in tours that will help with fundraising activities.

If JPR receives both grants from the city, it will help boost fundraising efforts, he said.

“The city would be making a formal statement that it is recommending the Holly,” Kramer said.

In 2002, Medford officials ordered the building vacated after the truss snapped.

Since then, the failed truss has been held up by makeshift supports.

Chris Reising, Medford’s public works director, said he has recommended the Holly have limited occupancy at present because of structural issues with the roof, though JPR helped take some of the weight off the truss by removing a lot of the old ceiling.

Once the truss is fixed, groups of about 10 could be allowed inside the building for touring, Reising said.

He said public works crews likely will take a look at the proposed repairs that will be recommended by the engineer hired by JPR.

The MURA board previously rejected JPR’s request for a facade improvement grant primarily because JPR didn’t own the building at the time.

Kramer said structural analysis of the building, which has reinforced concrete walls, has been surprisingly good.

So far, Kramer said JPR estimates the building can be restored and improved with modern lighting and sound equipment for $3.5 million.

JPR has cleaned out the building, fixed the lighting and made other improvements that give a better idea of its former grandeur. Since the cleanup, JPR has shown the building to individual City Council members and other local officials.

By Oct. 1, the JPR board will select an architect for the project.

Once the facade and truss work are completed, Kramer hopes to hold a dedication ceremony next spring that will give local residents a firsthand look at the interior.

George Kramer, a preservation consultant and Ron’s brother, said enough remnants of the Spanish colonial building designed by local architect Frank Clark have been found to give a good idea what it formerly looked like.

“We’ve found some of the original carpet, which we can replicate,” he said. “The general colors were greens, reds and golds.”

Original light fixtures have been found, though Kramer and others are looking for other features from the old building, including the “Ladies” and “Gentlemen” signs next to the bathrooms.

The theater itself was designed to provide the feel of being in the middle of a Spanish courtyard complete with balconies.

“We can make this a truly restored, state-of-the-art theater,” Kramer said.

Reach reporter Damian Mann at 541-776-4476, or e-mail dmann@mailtribune.com.