UPbeat

News for and about University of Portland faculty and staff.

Dundon-Berchtold Hall

Dundon-Berchtold Hall Use & Opening

Dundon-Berchtold Hall is nearing completion, and the building will be open for use on Thursday, August 22, for Orientation, and then the start of classes on Monday, August 26. With the opening of the building there are serval new spaces in EMS that can be requested for your events and classes starting Wednesday, August 21.

  • 17 classrooms varying in size
  • 1 meeting room that accommodates 12 people

There are rooms that require additional approval to be requested for meetings or events:

  • Brian Doyle Lecture Hall – accommodates 150 people
  • Conference Room 102 – accommodates 14 people
  • Conference Room 202 – accommodates 12 people

These rooms require a member of the President’s Leadership Cabinet or a dean to request the room and to be present for the entire meeting or event. Requests for these rooms are to go through the president’s office. Contact Kathy Simek at x7101, or simek@up.edu.

If you have additional questions, please email events@up.edu.

Summer Traffic Restrictions, Road Closures: May 13-July 20

With the conclusion of the 2018-2019 academic year, work will commence to complete the plaza, road, and landscaping work that was started last summer for Dundon-Berchtold Hall. As with last year, the road between the Pilot House and Waldschmidt Hall will be closed. A preliminary schedule has the road closed starting on May 13 and re-opening on or before July 20.

In order to accomplish this, there are going to be changes to the traffic flow entering and exiting campus beginning next week and continuing through construction completion.

Please read the information below carefully and refer to the map located at the Facilities Planning & Construction page link here.

Main entrance: Beginning Monday, May 13, traffic coming onto the campus via the main drive off of Willamette Boulevard will be required to stop and turn right by the Pilot House and proceed to the main lot. Cars will not be able to proceed any further along the main drive past the Pilot House to reach the Waldschmidt parking lot or Kenna Road.

Kenna Road (near Kenna and Shipstad Halls, off Willamette boulevard): Southbound traffic on Willamette Blvd. will be allowed to turn right to enter onto Kenna Road at the southeast edge of campus. Traffic departing campus from Kenna Road can only turn right onto Willamette Blvd. and proceed south. Northbound traffic on Willamette Blvd. cannot turn left onto Kenna Road, but must either proceed into the main entrance or must turn around further north and proceed back to the right turn entry into Kenna Road. Kenna Road will be striped to provide two lanes for traffic moving in both directions from Willamette Blvd. to the Waldschmidt parking lot.

Portsmouth Avenue: All buses visiting campus will be directed to enter via Portsmouth Avenue, which will not be affected by the construction. This includes buses for camps or athletic events.

Fortunately, there will be no additional loss of parking spaces during the summer, and there will be no restrictions to pedestrian access for the plaza, bookstore, and Pilot House.

Tours Available for Dundon-Berchtold Hall

Construction is well underway for Dundon-Berchtold Hall. The new academic center will house classrooms, faculty offices, a gathering space, and the Dundon-Berchtold Institute. Tours will be available by appointment on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons at 3 p.m. beginning November 27. Each tour is limited to ten people. Please register here.

Tour groups will meet outside the fence near the construction trailer close to the main drive leading into the Waldschmidt parking lot. Appropriate attire for a construction site must be worn–legs covered and closed-toe shoes.

For more information contact University operations at landtise@up.edu.

Construction & Traffic Update

Construction crews have been very busy this summer completing much of the new roadway and plaza work and erecting the steel frame for Dundon-Berchtold Hall, according to Jim Ravelli, University operations. Steel erection and pouring of concrete floors for the building are expected to be complete on August 27, just in time for the start of the Fall 2018 semester, and workers will then move on to the next phase of construction, which will be interior framing.

Much of the roadway and plaza improvements were completed this summer and the new roadway reopened for one-way traffic to Waldschmidt Hall on August 17 with construction fencing moved back to its position prior to the end of the school year. The Kenna entrance is again an “exit only” and the right hand turn to enter from Willamette will no longer be allowed. That one-way road will be in place through the completion of the project in June 2019.

For more information contact Ravelli at ravelli@up.edu.

Campus Traffic Changes Start Monday, May 14

Construction activity will be ramping up on Dundon-Berchtold Hall now that summer is underway, according to Jim Ravelli, university operations. Fortis Construction will need to accelerate the pace of their work in order to accomplish as much as possible during the summer months when students and many faculty are not on campus. In order to accomplish this, there are going to be changes to the traffic flow entering and exiting campus beginning this week and continuing through August 20. Please read the information below carefully and refer to the map located at the Facilities Planning & Construction page at this link.

VEHICLE ACCESS

Beginning Monday, May 14, auto traffic coming onto the campus via the main drive off of Willamette Boulevard will be required to stop and turn right by the Pilot House and proceed to the main lot. Cars will not be able to proceed any further along the main drive past the Pilot House to reach the Waldschmidt parking lot or Kenna Road. Southbound traffic on Willamette will be allowed to turn right to enter onto Kenna Road at the southeast edge of campus in order to park in the bluff or Waldschmidt lots. Traffic departing campus from Kenna Road can only turn right onto Willamette and proceed south.

Northbound traffic on Willamette cannot turn left onto Kenna Road, but must either proceed into the main entrance or must turn around further north and proceed back to the right turn entry into Kenna Road. Kenna Road will be striped to provide two lanes for traffic moving in both directions from Willamette Blvd. to the Waldschmidt parking lot.

All buses visiting campus will be directed to enter via Portsmouth Avenue, which will not be affected by the construction. This includes buses for camps or athletic events.

Fortunately, there will be no additional loss of parking spaces during the summer.

PEDESTRIAN ACCESS

From May 14 through August 6, pedestrian access to the Bookstore and Pilot House will be limited to the east side of the building. Contractors will be removing the recycled rubber pavers from the west side of the Bookstore and replacing the surface. The white oak in the middle of the turnaround on the main drive will not be harmed by construction projects but the other trees will be removed.

During this period, the Bookstore will remain open for business Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Pilot House will close beginning May 11 and will reopen on June 11 from 3 to  7 p.m.  Access to the patio and the sidewalk on the west side of the Bookstore will reopen after August 6.

The sidewalk along the east side of Romanaggi Hall and the Buckley Center will also be closed until August 6. All other pedestrian access remains the same as it has been during the early months of construction.

As always, the main concern is the safety of everyone on the campus, so please stay alert to contractor vehicles and trucks as they come and go, and be aware of these additional impacts the project will make.

After months of looking at the preliminary pre-construction work, you’ll finally be able to see the new Dundon-Berchtold Hall beginning to rise over the summer. The first stage will be the installation of the basement walls. The steel supports, which will be lifted into place by a crane, not pounded into the ground, will be installed in July. By the time the new academic year begins in late August, the superstructure of the new building will be in place.

For more information contact university operations at x7540 or landtise@up.edu.

Dundon-Berchtold Hall Construction Cameras

Board of regents member Amy Dundon-Berchtold and Jim Berchtold ’63 have donated $15 million to fund the Dundon-Berchtold Institute for Moral Formation and Applied Ethics and serve as a lead gift towards the construction of a new academic center, Dundon-Berchtold Hall. The new building will house classrooms, faculty offices, selected key programs, gathering spaces, and the Brian Doyle auditorium. It is the first construction of a new building in the middle of campus since Franz Hall was built in 1995. Two cameras have been installed to view  the construction of Dundon-Berchtold Hall. Please use this link and this link.

Dundon-Berchtold Hall Construction Begins

Construction on Dundon-Berchtold Hall will begin on Monday, February 5, according to Jim Ravelli, university operations. This will be the first construction of a new building in the middle of campus since Franz Hall was built in 1995 and, as with any major building project in such a central location, there will be some impacts that can be minimized, but not entirely avoided. Beginning Monday, employees will begin to see an increase in activity on and around the site as contractors begin to mobilize. The main concern is the safety of everyone on campus, so please stay alert to contractor vehicles and trucks as they come and go, and be aware of these additional impacts the project will make:

Expanded fencing: One of the first activities will be the expansion of fencing around the site. Fencing will be expanded outward to include half the main road across from the Pilot House and towards Waldschmidt Hall. This will eliminate the sidewalk that extends from Shipstad to the roadway by Romanaggi Hall. The sidewalk next to Waldschmidt that runs in front of Christie will remain open for pedestrians. There will also be temporary walkways on the Shipstad side of the sequoias from Christie to the main drive.

Parking impact: Unfortunately, there is no way to avoid the loss of several parking spots as the fencing expands into the roadway along the main entrance drive. This will affect all of the parking along the construction side of the main drive from the turnaround by the Pilot House to Waldschmidt. Parking on the side of the drive adjacent to Buckley and Romanaggi will remain available.

Traffic access: Because the fence will extend into the street, the road will be limited to a one-way only lane between the turnaround by the Pilot House and the Waldschmidt parking lot.  Traffic from the Waldschmidt lot area will be required to leave campus via the Kenna Hall exit.  As construction begins, a flagger will be on site to assist drivers who are headed past the Pilot House towards Waldschmidt Hall.

“Thank you for your patience as we start on this major construction,” says Ravelli. “I know it will require some adjustment for everyone, but the end reward of a new academic hall will be worth the temporary impact. Please plan on seeing regular construction updates from me as the project progresses.”

For more information contact Ravelli at 7540 or go to www.up.edu/uo.

Dundon-Berchtold Hall Groundbreaking Ceremony: Sept. 21

All University faculty, staff, and students are invited to the groundbreaking ceremony for our new academic center, Dundon-Berchtold Hall, on Thursday, September 21, at 6 p.m., on the Eastside Quad near Waldschmidt Hall. There will be a short program in which we will also recognize the generous lead benefactors of the new building, Amy Dundon-Berchtold and Jim Berchtold ’63. If you have any questions about the ceremony or need an accommodation to attend, please contact Hannah Pick in the Office of University Relations at x7397 or pick@up.edu.

Howard Hall Demolition Cam Online Now

There is now a live camera focused on Howard Hall (or what’s left of it) for those who might be interested in seeing progress on the demolition project, according to Jim Ravelli, University operations. The link is here.

Howard Hall’s demolition will make way for construction of the new Dundon-Berchold Hall, scheduled for completion in 2019.

For more information contact University operations at landtise@up.edu.