The Henry Building

Preserving History: The Henry Building

Built in 1909, the historic Henry Building in downtown Portland originally housed a bank, offices, and a barbershop. Today the iconic six-story building is owned by Central City Concern, a nonprofit agency that provides housing and support for low-income tenants.

However, the years had taken their toll on the unreinforced masonry structure, which needed a major seismic retrofit to comply with modern building codes. With our experience in multi-family housing, Klosh Group was the natural choice to lead the renovation effort.

Navigating the unknown

The century-old structure has limited as-built documentation, making it difficult to know how the building was originally constructed. This lack of clarity presented a major challenge to the design and construction teams, who rely on such legacy documents to guide their work.

Taking a flexible approach, Klosh Group helped the team quickly adapt to unforeseen building conditions, preventing lengthy delays and costly change orders in the process. We also steered the project through the City of Portland’s complex permitting process to avoid more extensive seismic upgrades that the limited project budget would not be able to support.

Major renovation, minor disruption

Complicating matters was the need to maintain occupancy during construction for approximately 40% of the existing residents and minimize disruption to commercial tenants. During weekly in-depth planning meetings working with our client stakeholders, we developed a detailed work plan and schedule designed to minimize impact to all affected parties.

To protect the well-being of the building’s vulnerable communities, we also coordinated the move of 147 residents to temporary housing and back to their original dwellings while the building renovation was in progress. Socializing this plan helped alleviate the stress of relocation and allowed residents to easily transition back to their newly upgraded rooms. 

Maintaining historic integrity

The renovation included the installation of seismic bracing towers, two new elevators, and 20 units of additional housing. Klosh Group managed all of the above with a focus on preserving the historic integrity of the building, which is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The upgrade maintained the enameled brick façade, daylight atrium, cast-iron stairway, and other historic features of the building. As an added benefit, the implementation of a rooftop solar photovoltaic system will increase the financial viability of the building.

Related Press

Restore Oregon’s “An Easement in Action: The Henry Building”

Restore Oregon’s “2021 DeMuro Award Winner: Henry Building”

Building on History’s “Good News at the Henry Building”

Portland Tribune’s “173 Affordable apartments re-open in downtown Portland”