S.D. Deacon project helps Gresham Station shape up

Daily Journal of Commerce (Portland, OR), Jun 28, 2004 by Jessica Swanson

General contractor S.D. Deacon Corp. of Oregon is building a 40,000-square-foot LA Fitness center at the new Gresham Station development on Council Drive in Gresham, the first new LA Fitness in the Pacific Northwest.

Many of the center's architectural features will carry a circular theme, reflected in radial designs in the ceilings, the furniture and the center's 36-foot-tall rotunda.

The center will include a 3,800-square-foot basketball court with glue-laminated timber trusses in the ceiling designed to hold 10 times the ceiling's weight.

Although the exposed heavy-duty trusses are not structurally necessary, the exposed timbers will give the ceiling a unique, industrial look. At 5 feet-deep and stained a honey color, the trusses will be connected by jet back connector plates.

They are way over-engineered, said project manager David Hirsch, but they give the (ceiling) a certain look and feel.

The focal point of the lobby will be a circular black granite reception desk in front of a counter top that holds sunken computer monitors. Huge images of people participating in fitness activities will be papered onto the rotunda walls. There will be 20 skylights set in a radial pattern in the rotunda's ceiling, and the flooring will be slate tile.

The center's locker rooms are designed with cherry wood lockers instead of typical metal ones, aluminum and glass features, a series of showers, and a sauna. The locker room mirrors will be sandblasted and back lit. Sitting lounges will hold plasma screen televisions.

Plans call for a spinning and aerobics room, where the ceiling will be a series of acoustical tiles set up to resemble a sun pattern, reflecting the theme of circular images. A 5,000-square- foot mezzanine will hold exercise bikes, treadmills and other machines, positioned in front of a bank of television sets hanging from the ceiling. A pool, a spa, racquetball courts, a kids' fitness club, an in-house day care area and a juice bar will round out the fitness center's amenities.

It comes down to the aesthetic details for Hirsch, who has never managed the construction of a fitness club before.

It's just going to be cool looking, he said.

By the end of this month, S.D. Deacon expects to have the roof structure and the mezzanine complete, and will begin interior build out in July. The center should be complete in September.

WPH Architecture designed the building, and more than 36 subcontractors have contributed to the project.