On Wednesday, April 3rd, Volunteers of America (VOA) Oregon will hold its second public meeting to present preliminary designs for the group’s six-acre campus at 8815 NE Glisan Street. People planning on attending should RSVP for the event and then arrive at the Multnomah University President’s Dining Room at JCA Student Center by 4 p.m. for the start of the event. The University is located near the future VOA site at 8435 NE Glisan Street.
Article originally published on March 7th, 2024
On February 24th, Volunteers of America (VOA) Oregon held its first town hall meeting, where organization leaders and architects presented preliminary designs for the group’s six-acre campus at 8815 NE Glisan Street. Over the coming years, VOA Oregon intends to consolidate its administrative services and some of its substance use, behavioral health, and childcare services onto this former church property. Project designers with Opsis Architecture explained that the multi-phased project would utilize the site’s sloped topography to hide increasing building height and borrow inspiration from residential rooflines to match nearby structures. A second meeting is scheduled for April 3rd from 4 to 5:30 p.m. at Multnomah University in the President’s Dining Room.
Designers structured the proposed campus with external functions in buildings adjacent to NE Glisan Street and internal services in the site’s northwest half. VOA Oregon buildings will stand two stories tall along the site’s southern edge, increasing to three levels as the land slopes downhill, presenting a consistent scale along its frontage. Crews will reconstruct the existing parking lot to include more trees and landscaping between the 92 stalls. Another cluster of lots along the property’s northern edge will provide an additional 54 on-site parking spaces. The early redevelopment will raze the 1950s-era church building and add frontage improvements along NE Glisan Street with significant work on NE 90th Avenue. Road Crews will reconstruct sections of NE 90th, adding sidewalks, street trees, and 17 curbside parking spaces to the street’s western edge.
VOA Oregon’s schedule for development is dependent on fundraising efforts. Construction will occur in phases, and the nonprofit will reuse existing site attributes, such as the main parking lot’s location, to save on costs. The first phase will prepare the site to host future buildings. The second phase will construct the NE Glisan adjacent administrative building and one of the residential treatment structures. Additional buildings will follow as funding allows. VOA Oregon also owns property across NE 90th Avenue. That site will allow for future multi-use development on the northeast corner of NE Glisan and 90th. Crews will construct a secure storage facility for company vehicles and supplies north of that building after demolishing the church’s storage structure, which is currently serving that purpose.
Opsis Architecture will design all buildings to serve distinct uses and complement VOA Oregon’s support programs. The main building will contain offices and community space with outward-facing uses, including a cafe and meeting rooms. Two L-shaped buildings will offer short-term units for the Women’s Residential Treatment program, where people and their children can stay between three and six months while receiving care. Each housing building can support 50 residents, meaning up to 100 people will reside on campus when fully occupied. Staff will work all hours of the day, year-round, making this formally dark and underutilized property consistently more active. Other structures will support community clinic services and childcare for employees and program participants.
In 2022, VOA Oregon President Kay Toran spoke with Montavilla News about the group’s hopes for the property. Since then, Toran has worked with the organization’s Board of Directors, staff, and designers to create a facility that she expects will provide the positive change that Portland’s behavioral health crisis requires. For 125 years, VOA has worked to rebuild lives after experiencing substance use and behavioral health issues. This campus will bring operational efficiencies to the organization and expand some offerings. However, they will maintain many other locations throughout the Portland Metro area and Oregon. They operate in an environment that has a nearly endless need for services as people transition out of addiction, incarceration, or trauma and into stable lives. VOA Oregon invites the community to attend the April 3rd meeting to receive more information, ask questions, and provide feedback.
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