From demolition to reuse: A Northeast Portland project shows what’s possible through deconstruction

Label:News article

A new pilot program from the Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability is helping turn old buildings into reusable materials to support local partnerships, reduce waste, and build toward a more circular construction system.

Sabin Avenue Plaza deconstruction site with development notice.

When most buildings come down, they leave behind piles of debris headed for the landfill. But at the former Avenue Plaza site in Northeast Portland, a different story is unfolding. One where windows become greenhouses, lumber becomes new housing, and a building's legacy continues long after its walls come down.

Through the Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability's (BPS) Commercial Deconstruction Pilot Program, Sabin Community Development Corporation and Meticulous Deconstruction are demonstrating how buildings can be carefully dismantled and their materials reused, rather than discarded.

Centering community partnerships

The Avenue Plaza site included 22 apartments across three buildings, along with a laundry room, office, and storage structures. Before heavy deconstruction began, community volunteers played a key role in recovering usable materials.

Deconstruction team works on the Sabin Avenue Plaza site.

With guidance from Meticulous Deconstruction, volunteers from AmeriCorps and Portland YouthBuilders salvaged windows, framing materials, landscaping rock, and more.

Those materials are already being put to use:

• Windows are being reused to build a greenhouse at another Sabin property
• Framing lumber was donated to the ReBuilding Center
• Landscaping rock was redeployed to address a drainage issue at a nearby site

This work reflects Sabin CDC's long-standing approach to reuse. That philosophy will continue through future development at the site, including the planned Nicole Sandoval Apartments.

Maximizing material value

After volunteers completed initial salvage work, professional crews conducted "selective deconstruction" to recover high-value materials within a tight construction timeline. Crews removed every other ceiling joist from two of the buildings, targeting strong, reusable lumber while keeping the project on schedule.

The results:

• Over 2400 board feet of Douglas fir lumber salvaged
• Approximately two tons of reusable wood recovered
• Additional framing materials preserved for future use

Some of this lumber will be used to create furniture for Sabin's future offices. The remainder will be processed by Sankofa Lumber for use in constructing an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) on another Sabin property, demonstrating how materials from one site can directly support new housing.

The project also highlights the hidden resource value within existing structures. In addition to wood, the deconstruction team recovered more than 200 pounds of copper wiring. Extracting that same amount of copper through mining would typically require moving tens of tons of earth, underscoring how valuable these salvaged materials can be. Projects like this show that many of the resources needed for future construction are already embedded in the built environment.

Trained volunteer staff work to deconstruct a window for salvage materials.

Commercial Deconstruction Pilot

BPS's Commercial Deconstruction Pilot Program is designed to evaluate how deconstruction can work at a larger, commercial scale. The program is helping the City better understand the costs, timelines, material recovery rates, and workforce needs of reconstruction projects. So far, the Avenue Plaza deconstruction effort has diverted more than 26,000 pounds of material from the waste stream.

This work is supported by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality through its Materials Management Waste Prevention Grant, which funds projects that reduce waste and advance a more circular economy. By investing in pilot projects like Avenue Plaza, Portland and its partners are building the foundation for expanding material reuse across the city.