November 2024 Monthly Meeting
Please note that this meeting will occur on a Thursday
Architectural Aluminum Framing Systems can be broken down into a number of subcategories. These are: Storefront, Curtain Wall, Window Wall, Overhead or Sloped Glazing, Windows, Entrances, Interior Frames and Sliding Storefronts. The first three categories: Storefront, Curtain Wall and Window Wall are most commonly used for fixed exterior glazing on commercial applications. Each shares some common characteristics but for the most part, each is very different and designed for specific applications.
2024 - 2025 Membership
September 2024
Dear Portland BEC Members,
We hope you’ve all had a great summer and are enjoying this heat wave that may be the last hurrah of the season as we approach fall. With students now back in schools, your Portland Building Enclosure Council follows suit with our regular education sessions starting next week with our kick-off meeting on Tuesday, September 10 and extending monthly through June 2025.
October 2024 Monthly Meeting
For our October 1, 2024 Portland BEC meeting, we have arranged for a unique opportunity to tour the ongoing construction of the OHSU Hospital Expansion Project (OHEP). This 14-story, $540M immediate care facility features approximately 500,000 sf of programmed space and parking, planned accommodations for up to 192 beds, 250,000 sf of unitized curtain wall, 10,000 sf of vegetated roof, and three (3) bridge connections to adjacent campus buildings.
September 2024 Monthly Meeting
Building science is a dynamic field that integrates age-old practices with cutting-edge research, offering critical insights into the design and construction of buildings. While some principles have been established for centuries, our understanding of building science continues to evolve as new research and industry experiences emerge. In recent years, there has been a growing recognition of its value, especially in addressing the complexities of modern construction and mitigating risks.
2024 Portland BEC Symposium
General Information
The Portland Building Enclosure Council is pleased to announce the 2024 Symposium. This year’s Symposium will focus on building enclosures responding to a changing climate.
The symposium is a full day event, comprised of presentations, speakers, and opportunities for sidebar conversations.
May 2024 Monthly Meeting
Mass timber is both an innovative building material and a fundamentally familiar material. This course will cover some of the challenges which can be encountered when using this material with an emphasis on the construction process. This course will address the nature of wood material and how it reacts to moisture and relate that to the practical use of mass timber as a construction material. The standards applying to mass timber moisture content during both manufacturing and fabrication and then erection and construction in general will be reviewed.
April 2024 Monthly Meeting
Blower door testing in Oregon is relatively new and the requirement has created a fair amount of questions for compliance and how the test is performed. Learn the ins and outs of how the test is performed and how the ASHRAE 90.1 criteria is applied in order to satisfy the energy code.
March 2024 Monthly Meeting
As jurisdictions across North America introduce more stringent building energy performance standards (BEPS)—such as the BC Step Code and Seattle 2018 update—developers, architects, and contractors are left wondering the best way to meet the new benchmarks while controlling costs. This balance can seem daunting, especially when it comes to incorporating manufactured components, such as windows. Fortunately, a general understanding of the impacts of high-performance fenestration can help keep a project on track.
February 2024 Monthly Meeting
In new and existing building envelope inspections, Torrance has observed the results of severe catastrophic decisions regarding air barrier design and installation procedures.