Hennebery Eddy’s historic rehabilitation and seismic retrofit of the Oregon Supreme Court Building has been honored with a 2024 American Architecture Award in the Restoration/Renovation category. The American Architectural Awards are “the nation’s highest public awards given by a non-commercial, non-trade-affiliated, public arts, culture and educational institution.” This program is organized by The Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design, in partnership with The European Center for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies and Metropolitan Arts Press. This marks the eighth award for the Oregon Supreme Court project, which has received recognition for design, restoration, engineering, and craftsmanship excellence.
The rehabilitation of the 1914 Oregon Supreme Court Building, the oldest government building on Salem’s Capitol Mall, preserved its Beaux-Arts style while ensuring its resilience for the future. The project team took a forward-thinking approach to both preservation and resilience, integrating significant energy-saving upgrades and a seismic retrofit using a base isolation system to preserve the building’s details and structural integrity in the event of a major earthquake. As one of only two historic buildings in the nation that is both LEED Gold-certified and base isolated, the project achieved a 22% reduction in energy use and a 35% reduction in water use over baseline, and preserved 62% of interior finishes and 90% of furniture through salvage and restoration. Accessibility improvements further enhanced the building’s functionality. It was also nominated to the National Register of Historic Places and certified under the State of Oregon’s SEED program.
Congratulations to the Oregon Judicial Department, the Oregon Department of Administrative Services, and the entire project team: Forell | Elsesser Engineers, KPFF Consulting Engineers, Interface Engineering, Hoffman Construction, Knot Studio, The Harver Company, Portland Coatings/Williamsen & Bleid, JS Perrot, EC Company, Hydro-Temp Mechanical, and Pence/Kelly Concrete.
The Oregon Supreme Court Building will be included in a special issue of Global Design + Urbanism XXIV “New American Architecture” for 2024. The awards were selected by a distinguished jury of recognized design practitioners, business professionals, educators, and critics. A full list of award-winning projects can be found on the awards website.