Colonel Nesmith Readiness Center
Portland, Oregon | Products: Vertical Grain Fir Flush Doors
Take a gander at the images of the Colonel Nesmith Readiness Center in rural Willamette Valley in Dallas, Oregon. With the sweeping views and natural grasses your first inclination likely isn’t of regimented military company. But the center serves strictly a military function, just with form that besets not only the functionality needed by the Oregon Military Department for its 162nd Combat Engineering Company of the Oregon National Guard, but also with architectural features that make the readiness center useful on a variety of levels.
The multi-award-winning project designed by Hacker and Lease Crutcher Lewis gave Oregon 40,000 square feet of LEED Gold building for administrative, training, recruiting and family support. The building houses everything from educational classrooms, a library, a learning center, a physical fitness area and a vault and weapons training simulator. Broken into two main wings, one side of the project features an administrative focus, while the guard’s storage and training needs fill the opposing wing. Public spaces connect them both, highlighted by assembly hall and its sweeping views of the landscape. Inside the hall, skylights through a wood framework play off the local themes of wooden barns, but were done so, architects say, in a “highly ordered rhythm appropriate for the guard’s drills and ceremonies.”
The readiness center’s finishes help meld the LEED Gold standard with low maintenance, high impact resistance and acoustic absorption to keep the facility welcoming and secure. Windows are thermally broken aluminum with high-performance insulated glass units. At a 28 percent window-to-wall ratio for the entire facility and by strategically consolidating glazing, the overall impression offers one of transparency and openness. Lynden Door’s vertical grain fir flush doors help to absorb all that natural light in an aesthetically pleasing environment, but still offer up the functionality needs of durability within beauty. A fitting door for an overall project that follows the same model: functional beauty.
Wood veneers look rich and lustrous with a Lynden Door factory applied transparent urethane finish. A great choice, as it adds durability and seals the door, all six sides. Clear coated doors lend a unique European flair to painted jambs and casings - an eclectic look that works in equally well traditional or modernist decor.