Wallowa Valley Senior Living

Additional Info

Award Winner : Modern Building Systems, Inc.

Architectural Excellence : Located in the remote NE Oregon community of Enterprise, this memory care and assisted living facility was designed to give the residents the feeling of living in a grand mountain lodge. The interior layout is open and presents a family living atmosphere with the privacy of individual rooms. Use of vaulted ceilings in spaces of congregation gave definition and spaciousness to the area. Skylights in these vaulted areas bring natural light into the interior of the building, which is a key item for elderly care. Tasteful coordination of interior colors and materials touched on the western theme of this community, providing a bright stimulating surrounding for the aging residents. Twenty-six modules of varying widths and lengths were brought together with some small on-site framing to complete this structure.

Cost Energy Effectiveness : Wallowa County’s previous facility was lacking in size and condition, and was very outdated. Though this publically funded structure was originally conceptualized as a stick-built building, it became evident that there was not enough money to construct this facility with conventional on-site construction. Modular construction was the answer as the offsite construction allowed this badly needed new facility to come to realization for Wallowa County Health District. The client was able to maintain the size and aesthetics of the building, as well as address the tight budget. Another benefit was the concurrent work paths and time savings. Facing an upcoming strong winter season in this mountain region, modular construction allowed quick erection of the structure so other work tasks could be done through the winter season. These were invaluable to this rural community working on a limited budget.

Occupied Date : 6/1/2013

Production Start Date : 8/1/2012

Project Location City : Enterprise

Project Location State Name : OR

Technical Innovation : The modules were built at Modern Building System’s factory in Aumsville, Oregon. This allowed project stakeholders, who were actually much closer to the factory than the actual project site, the chance to visit and meet regularly during production. This was key for the stakeholders as this was their first use of modular construction. Due to the long trek from factory to site, various areas of the building were built together as one module to save trucking loads. They were then separated at site and craned into their appropriate places on the foundation. The total project was crane set in less than 48 hours from arrival on site. The structure was unique in that one wing had to meet memory care building requirements as well as ADA requirements, while the other wing needed to meet specific assisted living requirements, in addition to some living spaces meeting bariatric patient requirements.

Total Square Feet : 18670