Oregon State Treasury Office

The Oregon State Treasury Department processes more than $265 billion annually on behalf of state agencies, including government employee pay and retirement checks as well as managing the state’s nutritional assistance program. Additionally, it is a critical service in post-event disaster recovery: the department is responsible for maintaining day-to-day functions post-disaster and also for immediately distributing Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds. To reinforce this essential facility against potential earthquake damage, KPFF designed the new building to be seismically resilient. The project received a Platinum rating from the United States Resiliency Council — the highest rating available — and was the first building to do so in the State of Oregon.

The 2-story, steel-framed, 37,000sf office building utilizes base isolation to protect the structure, occupants, and contents from ground shaking. A system of isolators placed underneath the building separates it from ground shaking and is composed of a combination of elastomeric isolators which act as springs to provide a restoring force and sliding isolators which act as frictional dampers. Isolators were tuned for each column location in the building based on the location-specific dead and live loads, as well as the target isolation system properties (e.g., stiffness, frequency, damping, etc.). The base isolation system is designed so that personnel remain safe, the building and equipment inside remain undamaged, and the Oregon State Treasury Department can fulfill their post-disaster role after a Maximum Considered Earthquake event in the region.