The Haseltine Building, in Portland’s Old Town Chinatown neighborhood, has already endured 127 years’ worth of Pacific Northwest weather. Work now under way should help the structure withstand much more.

Melvin Mark Brokerage Company acquired the 48,000-square-foot building in 2007 and then invested in an extensive interior remodel that improved energy efficiency and tenant space. But even though a new cornice was installed in 1980 and the brick masonry was repainted, the exterior needed more attention.

Now the four-story building at 133 S.W. Second Ave. is undergoing a complete face-lift that will touch its façade, glazing and masonry. Work began Sept. 2 and is likely to wrap up by the end of the year, weather permitting.

“It’s not in terrible shape,” said Matt Zeller, project manager for Pioneer Waterproofing, a Portland firm that has specialized in historic building renovations since 1964. “We’ve cleaned the stone, which was super dirty; it had a bunch of carbon on it. We then started stripping all the windows and then started grinding out all the bad mortar joints.”

The quarter-block Haseltine Building features a Richardsonian Romanesque-style design; it’s a contributing resource in the Skidmore/Old Town Historic District. As such, any renovations or repairs are strictly regulated by the National Park Service as well as the city of Portland. With very few exceptions, any work must use matching materials as those in the existing building as well as maintain its existing appearance. This applies to details such as the mortar used to secure brick masonry.

The first part of the job involved grinding out old lime mortar, having its chemical composition tested by an East Coast lab and then creating a new batch of mortar to match the old.

“I replicated what was in there,” Zeller said. “It’s more breathable and it has the same compactive strength, but it just breathes better into the wall. It allows water to seep out a lot better than, say, a type N mortar would.”

The building’s south side, fronting Southwest Pine Street, has borne the brunt of the weather-based wear and tear.

“On this (east) side we didn’t do so much replacing the mortar; this side wasn’t as bad,” Zeller said. “On this (south) side, we replaced 100 percent of it. You can see it’s all brand new mortar. The stone is all chiseled out. There are, I’d say, about 70 patches all throughout that we did to make it blend back in.”

While the building itself has retained integrity against water intrusion from the top, the next step in the job will see every window in the building reglazed and all window frames and sills replaced by subcontractor Stayton Wood Windows due to water damage and rot. Water has leaked through most of the windows during driving storms.

“We went into this project not knowing how bad of shape the windows were in,” Zeller said.
Once the paint was stripped from the wooden frames and sills, however, windows’ conditions became clear.

“Every single window sill is completely rotted,” Zeller said. “If you touch it, it completely falls apart. Before, it was just strip them and paint them. Now we have to fix them. You can’t usually tell until you’re actually up there and going through it.”

After the windows are refurbished, the upper three floors of brick masonry will be repainted by Hunt Painting to match the building’s original rusty red color. Fortunately, the masonry and the sandstone cladding on the ground level are in passable condition and don’t require any serious work.

“It’s getting there,” Zeller said. “It’s almost done.”

Reprinted from the Oregon Daily Jrnl of Commerce
Photography credits: Josh Kulla/for the DJC