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Bend, Oregon
City of Bend Public Works Campus
Building Bend’s Operations Hub
Morrison-Maierle provided structural and fire protection engineering as part of the progressive design-build team delivering the $130 million City of Bend Public Works Campus. As a result of this project, the city consolidated several essential city departments into a centralized operations hub, enabling approximately 300 employees to work at a single location.
As one of the first major projects to use the progressive design-build delivery method in the Bend area, the 26.5-acre campus includes three buildings: a 65,000-square-foot warm-vehicle storage building, a 50,000-square-foot mass timber (CLT) headquarters building, and a 28,000-square-foot fleet maintenance facility, along with covered parking, truck-wash facilities, decant infrastructure, and operational storage areas.
Up-front coordination is especially important for mass-timber projects. The progressive design-build approach proved to be beneficial on this project because it enabled the city, general contractor, architect, engineering consultants, and subcontractors to collaborate from the earliest planning stages through the design and construction of the campus.
Client
City of Bend, Oregon
Size
26.5-acre campus including three purpose-built facilities.
Highlights and Services
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Progressive Design-Build
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Mass-timber
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Integrated delivery approach
This project consolidated several essential city departments into one centralized operations hub.
The campus includes a 28,000-square-foot fleet maintenance facility, in addition to two other buildings.
The progressive design-build approach enabled early collaboration among the city, design team, contractor, and subcontractors throughout the project.
Integrated Structural and Fire Protection Design
To support the City of Bend’s sustainability goals, the headquarters building was designed as a 100% mass timber structure using cross-laminated timber (CLT) with glulam post and beam framing. The fleet maintenance and warm vehicle storage buildings also incorporate mass plywood exterior wall assemblies, extending the project’s innovative use of timber across the campus.
As design progressed, the team recognized that integrating fire protection engineering alongside structural engineering would be critical to the success of the mass timber design. At that point, Morrison-Maierle’s structural team suggested bringing our fire protection engineers into the project. Bringing both disciplines together strengthened coordination across the design-build team and helped balance fire protection performance, constructability, sustainability, and durability while keeping the project’s architectural vision.
With structural and fire protection engineering working in close coordination, the team developed the structural framing scheme and sprinkler layout in parallel, allowing fire protection systems to be integrated within the mass timber structure rather than added as an afterthought. Concealed chases in the CLT floor panels routed main sprinkler lines above beams and within floor depths, preserving the exposed timber aesthetic while supporting efficient installation.
By aligning sprinkler coverage requirements with supplier-provided CLT panel widths, the team minimized material waste and limited beam penetrations to just three across the entire headquarters building.
This integrated delivery approach allowed the team to evaluate options collaboratively, continuously align design decisions with budget and constructability, and respond quickly as project needs evolved. We are excited about this project and would enjoy sharing more about our progressive design-build approach and how it worked for the new City of Bend Public Works Campus.
We love talking about this project. Reach out to learn more.Meet the Team
Shawn Evilsizor
Bend Buildings Market Group Office Leader | Senior Structural Engineer
PE, SE, DBIA
Meet Shawn
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