Even Engineers Marvel Over the Curves of PDX’s New Roof
Published November 16, 2021
(Video credit: Alberta Poon)
Once the airport's nine-acre roof slides into place over the main terminal next year, what you see may depend on who you are.
You, we hope: a roofline you’ll recognize from a distance, with swooping wooden curves and giant round skylights.
Every architect, contractor, construction worker, and fabricator who built the roof: a brain-twisting feat of design and engineering.
After all, the roof's arched 80-foot-long ribs, made out of glue-laminated (glulam) wood, didn’t grow in that shape. The two-inch-thick plywood that covers those beams didn’t bend easily. It took hundreds of people and a full-scale test run just to figure out how to make the curves, well, curvy.
Zip-O Laminators, a 76-year-old family business based in Eugene, had to build a test beam merely to see if a one-piece, 80-foot arch would even fit in their plant, let alone their equipment. They used steel templates to make sure they shaped each beam correctly, pressed the glued boards together until they adhered, and carved the smooth curves by hand. Then they did it again — 272 times.
Covering the arcing beams
Next challenge: Connecting hundreds of thick, flat plywood panels together — without any gaps — to form domes and vaults that curve in three dimensions at the same time. Swinerton, which tackles construction logistics for this project, worked with CadMakers to use cutting-edge 3D-modeling software to calculate the shape of each panel and the angles at which it should be cut.
Another Swinerton partner, Freres, used a sophisticated computer-guided saw to cut the plywood, labeling each piece so the panels could be assembled on site like a jigsaw puzzle. (Sadly, they didn't scramble the pieces around just to make the puzzle more fun.)
Building the roof on site
Construction lead Hoffman Skanska Joint Venture are currently building the roof on the pre-fabrication site. Then they'll separate the roof into 18 cassettes to maneuver into place.
One other cool detail? Every major part of the roof was fabricated within 300 miles of here. The steel was milled locally. The metal girders and Y-shaped beams were fabricated in Oregon and Washington. We know the forests that supplied every one of the 35,000 boards in the ceiling lattice. (Let us introduce you to four of these sustainably managed forests and their caretakers.) The pandemic may have interrupted global supply chains and slowed construction jobs all over the world — but PDX Next has largely stayed on schedule because all our materials come from so close to here.
Jared Revay, senior project manager at Swinerton, says, "What I'd want people who see the roof to know is that all the people who made this happen — our craftspeople, our manufacturers, our vendors who stained it, even the trucking companies — everyone was so involved and so enthusiastic about this process. Without that cooperation, the success of a project like this would be very difficult."
The flexible interior spaces were designed with the future of travel in mind — and to give you plenty of comfortable spots to recharge before your next flight.
Two permanent installations from acclaimed contemporary artist Jacob Hashimoto hang like clouds above the concourse’s common areas.
Shops and restaurants are clustered together like city blocks, with a pedestrian-friendly scale and lots of room to spread out.
Artist Jacob Hashimoto’s canopy of kite-like discs reflects the atmosphere of the Pacific Northwest, with locally inspired graphics incorporated throughout.
Sky-high windows fill the interior with daylight while maximizing the concourse extension’s energy efficiency.
At the east end of the concourse, a wall of windows opens up this epic view of Mt. Hood, where you’ll definitely want to pose for a photo before takeoff.
The Concourse E extension project is the dedicated home for Southwest Airlines at PDX, with six new gates.
Remember the view of Mt. Hood on Concourse E? It’s coming back, brighter than ever.
Tillamook’s menu includes the best of the classics with fried cheese curds and a signature grilled cheese.
Calliope takes its name from one of Oregon’s native hummingbirds and showcases creative and playful keepsakes.
Grab your favorite book, magazine or newspaper at Your Northwest Travel Mart.
Remember the feeling of walking through an Oregon forest for the first time?
That feeling inspired the design of the new Concourse B.
An early movement flow study for the new Concourse B.
The new Concourse B has great exposure to southern light.
Interior rendering for the new Concourse B.
The new Concourse B has Pacific Northwest touches like warm wood panels and indoor greenery.
Exterior rendering of the new Concourse B.
The six new ground loading gates for Alaska Airlines are bigger and brighter.
Our new rental car center opens in 2021.
Movable plants and furniture make the space flexible.
When the new rental car center opens in 2021, you won’t need a shuttle to pick up your car.
Interior acoustical materials help reduce noise.
The new facility also provides more long-term parking, new office spaces, and a new and relocated parking toll plaza building.
A new exit plaza opened in November 2019.
Every design decision we make is about keeping the heart and soul of PDX intact. You’ll see homages to all the things you love about our city and region in the new airport designs.
The new terminal’s wooden roof (as seen in this close-up rendering, right) might remind you of daylight filtering through forest canopies.
You’ll notice subtle nods to Pacific Northwest elements throughout the new space. The ripples and currents of our pristine rivers, for example, are inspiring the undulating flow of the wooden roof, as depicted in this architectural model (right).
We’re filling the new main terminal with a lot of Portland love — both in terms of regionally sourced materials and, well, doughnuts. (C’mon, what would PDX be without doughnuts?)
You’ll see a scene something like this when you enter the more spacious ticket lobby at PDX. This early architectural rendering previews the vision for the iconic wooden roof — inspired by Pacific Northwest nature, craft and our partly sunny skies.
Natural light, living trees and native Oregon foliage might give you the feeling of walking through a park, as this early architectural rendering shows.
Expanding the heart of the airport creates more spaces for the local shops and restaurants you love. Architects are thoughtfully planning these public spaces to resemble the human-friendly scale of your favorite Portland neighborhoods.
Tom Strong - Chief Executive Officer, Skokomish Indian Tribe, Skokomish Washington
"We're foresters in that we're stewards," says Tom Strong, Chief Executive Officer of the Skokomish Indian Tribe, which manages 200 acres of Washington forests for its 800 tribal members. "We're not cutting and planting, seeking to develop our lands into a commodity. Instead, we're doing it to restore the forest."
Over the past 100 years, the two dams on the North Fork River have had a major impact on the entire ecosystem of Skokomish land. "We want to restore the entire Hood Canal watershed," Tom says. The forests are just one part.
Selling wood from Douglas fir trees the tribe selectively thinned will help fund this restoration. "We don't have an endless amount of money," Tom says. "But we would like to think we've got an endless amount of time."
Ben Hayes - Co-owner, Hyla Woods, Cherry Grove, Oregon
Ben Hayes is a sixth-generation forester who manages Hyla Woods, outside Cherry Grove, Oregon, with his father, Peter. He is also a sustainable-forestry consultant. At Hyla Woods, the Hayes experiment with selective thinning and patch cutting, instead of clear-cutting, to foster diversity of tree species, ages, and sizes.
"When you look 100 years out, having greater complexity in terms of species and the structure of the forest, you can increase the forest's resilience in the face of extreme weather and drought," he says.
"We're working toward a model of forestry that you could practice for the perpetual future,” Ben says. “It's a model that lifts up both rural and urban communities and the ecosystems we rely on."
Richard and Ann Hanschu - Owners, Doneen, Forest Grove, Oregon
Ann Hanschu's father first bought land outside Forest Grove, Oregon, in 1956. Ann grew up trailing her father around the forest, learning from him. The Hanschus now have three children, four grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.
Richard says, "We're planting trees that our grandchildren will see the profits from — not even our children. It's long-range thinking."
"A lot of the timber is older,” Ann adds. “We're laddering it with trees of different age groups — some 30-40 years old, some 10-20 years old — so the land can continue to produce a sustainable amount of wood."
Herman Flamenco - Central Cascades Conservation Forester, The Nature Conservancy, Cle Elum, Washington
"We know historically that the stands we're working on were overstocked," says Herman Flamenco, Central Cascades conservation forester for the Nature Conservancy, of the 50,000 acres outside Cle Elum, Washington, the organization manages. Thinning the trees welcomes in light and biodiversity.
Some loggers in the region worry that this low-impact approach to forestry yields less lumber, and less profit, than clear-cutting. One local outfit took on this labor-intensive challenge, selectively harvesting Doug fir trees from steep slopes.
"Western Washington is wetter. In our dry climate, there's less moisture and increased fire risk," Herman says. "As we look at climate change, it's just going to get dryer. We want to make sure we can keep our forests around."