More than 1,000 school buildings are at a high or very high risk of collapse in an earthquake, according to a 9-year-old Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries survey.

With many school buildings on the Oregon Coast, they are older structures and may not be safe for the students and faculty especially should an earthquake or tsunami ever occur.

Luckily, the school districts took action and to date, $5,496,977 in bond dollars and $3,861,933 in seismic dollars have been spent district-wide including Tillamook East Elementary.

The CM/GC project involved a large seismic retrofit of school classrooms, offices, the cafeteria, and the gymnasium.

In the summer of 2019, we partnered with the Neah-Kah-Nie (NKN) School District on many seismic upgrades to a variety of their schools including Garibaldi Grade School.

What’s particular unique about this project is that about 70% of our Coast team members reside in Tillamook County. Several of those team members have attended NKN school district schools themselves, and 35% have children and/or even grandchildren that are currently attending those schools. With strong ties to this school district, our team took great pride in working on these school projects that directly impacts our coastal community.

The CM/GC project involved a large seismic retrofit of the school gymnasium and the school exterior and became one of our first of many seismic retrofits for that community.

After 45 years and an increase in visitors, it was time for a large renovation of the Seaside Civic & Convention Center. The expansion added 19 percent more space for events, maintenance facilities and storage capacity totaling 55,000 square feet.

The project involved renovations and upgrades to ballrooms, offices, lighting, storage, and plumbing. It also included a new lobby, a second plaza, a 35 percent expansion to the Necanicum Ballroom, new meeting spaces and several new entrances. The project was completed in several phases, and the building remained operational throughout the entire renovation process.

Keeping the convention center fully operational throughout construction was one of the largest challenges. The team worked closely with the Fire Marshall and other officials to ensure proper exits and access points were approved and safe for the community. As an example, the team built the staircase to be both safe and aesthetically pleasing and to minimize any disruption during paid events.