February 11, 1997

CITY IGNORED ENGINEER'S WARNING ABOUT PORTLAND BUILDING, NEWSPAPER SAYS

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- A city engineer stumbled across major structural problems with the Portland Building during early construction in 1981, but his warnings were ignored, a newspaper says.

The Oregonian reported in its Sunday editions that Bob Reslock, a structural engineer charged with reviewing plans for the building, discovered that reinforcing steel, used for earthquake protection, was missing from key points on the fifth floor of the 15-story building.

The newspaper reported Saturday that an independent structural engineer, hired by the city in 1995, determined the building was so poorly designed it never met seismic codes in place at the time it was built.

The city has not released a recent study of the building, conducted by Portland engineer Robert McGarrigle, after cracks were discovered in the top floor in 1995.

Now the city faces a $9 million repair bill to bring the building up to the earthquake standards it should have met 16 years ago, plus another $4 million in maintenance costs.

During construction in 1981, Reslock was worried enough to call in a noted engineering professor, Franz Rad, an expert in seismic design at Portland State University, who supported Reslock's concerns.

The building's design was "barely adequate" to meet earthquake codes at the time, Rad said.

Some of Reslock's concerns were noted in a four-page handwritten document The Oregonian found in city records.

Reslock said he hadn't seen the notes since he wrote them 16 years ago.

"I stood up to a lot of people," Reslock said. "Everybody was saying just quiet down. I was the only guy to write stuff down. It was like 'Let's not make trouble."'

Reslock managed to shut down construction for a week, until the missing steel on the fifth floor was installed. But questions remain about the adequacy of earthquake reinforcement on the lower floors, he said.

The looks of the Portland Building have been the subject of longtime controversy.

Built for $25 million in what is called the "post-modern" style, it marked a turning point in architecture that still earns praise today.

But since 1995, when cracks were found in the building's top floor, worries have grown about its structural design.

"It wasn't a good design," said Rad, the Portland State engineer. "I thought it was a barely adequate design. As a professor, I would give it a D grade. That means it could get by, but I like to see A's and B's."