Manufacturing Plant Storage Addition in Springfield, Oregon

Location: Glenwood, Springfield, Oregon
Client/Owner: Rosen Sunvisor Systems
Partners: Western Steel Buildings (pre-engineered metal building supplier); lighting designer; land surveyor; City of Springfield
Year: 2020–2026, under construction
Size/scale: About 2,800 sq ft pre-engineered steel storage addition to an existing 37,009 sq ft light-manufacturing plant on a 1.77-acre site
JBE services: Schematic design, survey coordination, Type II site plan review, civil, building and structural permit documents, review of the metal building supplier’s drawings, construction observation and repair design for conditions found during construction
Sector: Industrial

Manufacturing floor with autoclaves inside a light-manufacturing plant in Springfield, Oregon

The challenge

The owner designs and builds sun-shading systems for aircraft and other vehicles, and needed more storage at its Glenwood plant. The addition fills the northwest corner of the existing building: a pre-engineered steel building set tight against a concrete tilt-up wall, on a site inside the Glenwood Riverfront mixed-use plan district.

That meant two kinds of work. The planning side had to show the City that the expansion met the district’s site and design standards. The structural side had to marry a new steel frame and footings to an older building whose foundations were only partly documented.

Project photos

What we did

We carried the project from schematic design through Type II site plan review, with a written statement, a site lighting plan and responses to City comments in 2023, and on to permit drawings issued in February 2025. Once the steel supplier came on board, we reviewed its progress and approval drawings through 2024 and coordinated the connection of the metal building to the existing concrete wall.

When excavation began in summer 2026, the existing foundations turned out not to match the record drawings. At the corner there were four different conditions, including one tilt-up panel bearing directly on pea gravel. Next to the new work, a panel that had been cut for a roll-up door was settling and cracking, and the clip angle at the head of the opening was starting to fail. We issued new footing details for each foundation condition. For the distressed panel we recommended an immediate repair: shore and re-plumb it with a helical pier, add a new spread footing, and add steel columns and headers.

The result

The addition was under construction in 2026. The plant is gaining its storage space, and a hidden problem in the existing wall was found and repaired as part of the same project instead of after a failure.