50×72 Commercial Storage Building — Portland, Oregon

A 50-foot-by-72-foot partially-enclosed post-frame building in industrial Northwest Portland, built as unconditioned lumber storage for a commercial salvage and reclaimed-materials operation. About 3,600 square feet, engineered and permitted as a commercial S-1 storage structure (Type V-B) — not ag-exempt. This one went through full City of Portland commercial plan review.

The site is the defining constraint. The lot drops about four feet from the high southwest corner down to the northeast, and the owner did not want to excavate it flat. So the building was engineered to step with the grade rather than fight it: an 18-foot eave on the high end rising to a 22-foot eave on the low end, with roughly 16 to 20 feet of clear height under the trusses depending on where you stand. Scissor trusses — 4/12 over 2/12 — open up the interior height through the middle.

The front eave wall carries a 24-foot clear-span open bay. One truss there lands not on a post but on a heavy glulam beam spanning the opening, so equipment and material can move straight in and out of that bay with nothing in the way. Both eave walls were left open — girts only — for the owner to close in later on their own schedule. The gable walls are clad: one down to grade, one down to the bottom of the truss.

Commercial girts on the load-bearing walls, a DripStop condensation membrane under the roof steel — this is unconditioned storage, so shutting down the winter drip matters — and 18-inch overhangs on all roof lines. Built March through May of 2025.

Industrial Northwest Portland is a tight, heavy-industrial corridor. A commercial-permitted post-frame building is a cost-effective way to add covered storage on a sloped urban-industrial lot without paying to flatten the site first — you build to the ground you have.