Eugene Faith Center: Church Structural Engineering in Eugene, Oregon

Location: Eugene, Oregon
Client/Owner: Eugene Faith Center
Partners: Four Square architects; Bineham Construction (design-build contractor)
Year: Designed 2004–2005; built 2005–2006
Size/scale: 45,000 sq ft, two-storey Phase I addition
JBE services: Schematic and final structural design, permit drawings and calculations, shop drawing review and construction observation
Sector: Faith & Community

Eugene Faith Center structural engineering project, Eugene, Oregon — photo 3

The challenge

The Eugene Faith Center needed more room, and its Phase I addition was a big step: a 45,000-square-foot, two-storey building joined to the existing church. The structure had to carry a full second floor, resist wind and earthquake loads, and connect to the existing building, where new openings were cut through to link old and new.

Project photos

What we did

Working with the design-build contractor from schematic design onward, we designed a steel-framed building on cast-in-place concrete footings. The second floor is a composite concrete slab on metal deck, carried on wide-flange steel beams; the roof is metal deck on open-web steel joists and girders; and steel braced frames resist lateral loads. A foundation permit set went out in June 2005, ahead of the full structural set in July.

Through construction we reviewed the shop drawings for the columns, braced frames, floor reinforcing, joists, steel studs, awning, cupola and stairs, made site visits as the steel and wall framing went up, and designed the glulam and steel headers for the new openings into the existing building.

The result

The addition was built in 2005 and 2006. When we reviewed the exterior wall framing in March 2006, we found the construction in excellent condition, with the alignments exact. The congregation has a much larger facility with room to grow — a good example of the church structural engineering we do in Eugene, Oregon.