Portland Infill | Northwest Portland

[MarkDaMan]

Hawthorne growth: upsides, downsides
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Su-jin Yim
The Oregonian

Paul Widerburg is a vegetarian. He works with local farmers and sells organic produce. He even writes for a walking magazine.

All of which make him and his business, Uncle Paul's Produce Market, a perfect fit for Hawthorne, long a hippie enclave that has diversified over the years into a sought-after family-friendly neighborhood.

But Widerburg's four-year-old market might soon disappear. Three potential developments are headed for Hawthorne Boulevard, between Southeast 23rd and 26th avenues. TMT Development, which owns Widerburg's site, has told him and neighbors it is considering building high-end apartments.

Another, the Artisan Lofts, plans to replace dental offices a block east with 56 high-end condos by 2009. Rivermark Credit Union, across from the Artisan Dental building, is looking at redevelopment. In all, neighbors say, the projects could lead to 150 new residences.

Some say the buildings would energize a semi-sleepy part of the boulevard, but others worry.

Renter Dan Tabayoyon frets that he and his wife will get priced out of the neighborhood.

"I'm going to have to move to North Portland," he says.

Tabayoyon's employer, Peter Fagnant of Excalibur Books & Comics at 2444 S.E. Hawthorne, says gentrification often forces out smaller locally owned businesses such as his.

"You start bringing in big condos and it . . . changes the flavor," Fagnant says. "Half the charm of Hawthorne is the unique stores. I hate to see that happen."

But Richard Harris of Central City Concern, a nonprofit for homeless people that operates a secondhand furniture store nearby, scoffs at such fears. Southeast Portland is too dedicated to its local shops for corporate businesses to take over, he says. Plus, infill is a healthy sign for the city and the environment as more people use mass transit.

"The city is attracting people who have means who want to live in the city and not out in the suburbs," Harris says. "That's what viable cities are all about: creating neighborhood environments that allow for more dense housing."

Richard Larson, who is developing the Artisan Lofts, says he has worked extensively with the neighborhood to design something that will fit. Originally, he intended to build a four-floor building but added a fifth level at neighbors' behest. The extra floor will enable him to give the building a smaller footprint and bigger setbacks, he says.

TMT Development did not return calls for comment.

Widerburg still hopes to stay in the neighborhood and may get a spot in the property owner's new building, he says. After two meetings with the developer representatives, Widerburg says he appreciates their time but still doesn't know when he might have to move.

"We have no idea what we're going to do," Widerburg says. "We're still in shock."

Su-jin Yim: 503-294-7611; suyim@news.oregonian.com
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/portland_news/118124805622620.xml&coll=7

[pdxtraveler]

I don't think I have seen this one on here before. Looks like it will be near where they are doing the container building.
http://www.portlandonline.com/shared/cfm/image.cfm?id=158576

[sopdx]

Cool.

Check out Brian Libby's portlandarchitecture.com. He features another project in North Portland that is very cool. Not sure where it is.

[Dougall5505]

There is a little blurb in Willamette Week about that whole Skylab project this week here it is:

"Eames-loving design nerds citywide(thats us) are geeking out to their minimal techno music on rumors that Portland's Skylab Design Group is doing schematic drawings on a tall condo tower at the corner of Southwest 12th Avenue and Washington Street. Mainly regarded as the highly talented interiors firm that drew up the Doug Fir and gave Lenny Kravitz a pimped-out Miami Beach pad, a 30-story Skylab tower would probably be the city's most iconic and would shimmer well and good next to the sleek 22-story high-rise that PDX airport designers the Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership and Gerding Edlen are currently erecting right across the street"

well it sounds like good news, although the blurb says thirty stories and I think someong here said it was going to be thirty five. interesting that WW says it would be the city's most iconic tower...

[MarkDaMan]

Seismic upgrade won’t halt Crystal’s shake, rattle ‘n’ roll
Daily Journal of Commerce
by Libby Tucker
06/25/2007


The Crystal Ballroom is under major renovation but Feist fans attending her concert there tonight likely won’t notice.

The historic building at Southwest 14th Avenue and Burnside Street, built circa 1900 with unreinforced brick, is being upgraded to meet current seismic standards. McMenamins purchased the building in 1996 and the city deferred the upgrades for 10 years.

But instead of a traditional retrofit that would have ripped up the floor and ceiling and installed steel columns in front of the ballroom’s dramatic windows, engineers are using a costly process designed to have minimal architectural effect.

Working from the roof, contractors are drilling 53 holes right down the middle of the building’s 13-inch-thick brick walls and inserting steel rebar. The center coring system is like putting bones into a body born without a skeleton.

Workers for subcontractor RDC Construction pull the brick cores out in four inch-thick cylinders that look like stone wine bottle corks. The steel rods are threaded through the 30-foot-long holes, which are then back-filled with grout.

“It’s like a combination of core drilling and pile driving,” Jack Haedinger, a project superintendent for general contractor Pacific Crest Construction, said.

The sand and epoxy mixture seeps into the surrounding brick, but not so much that it comes to the wall’s exterior, cementing the brick to its new steel frame.

Each drilling machine knocks out two holes a day, and contractors expect the project to finish by the end of July.

Only a handful of buildings in the Northwest have been retrofitted using the center wall drilling system, said Brandon Erickson, an engineer with Roggenkamp, Erickson & Associates overseeing the project.

A recent retrofit of the historic Eliot Chapel at First Unitarian Church in downtown Portland also used the center drilling method in order to preserve turn-of-the-century plaster on the building interior.

The method is “more expensive when you look at the straight structural costs,” Blake Patsy, an associate at KPFF, the engineering firm overseeing the Eliot Chapel retrofit, said. But “it turned out to be less expensive when you compare going in and taking down the plaster and then trying to replicate or replace” it, he said.

Core drilling costs about $100 to $125 per linear foot, Erickson said, and employing it on the Crystal Ballroom added about $500,000 to the project’s cost.

And although the more expensive method may help maintain the architectural integrity of the building, it may not preserve the structure in a large earthquake.

“Seismic renovations are good and bad for historic preservation,” Art DeMuro, president of Venerable Properties, said. DeMuro is renovating Old Town’s White Stag building, employing a more conventional seismic upgrade method with concrete sheer walls and interior metal frames.

“They’re good in that they make the building stronger,” DeMuro said, “... but usually the seismic standards are meant to protect human life rather than the buildings themselves.”

Ballroom’s bouncy floor still a safe bet

Concertgoers need not worry that the Crystal Ballroom’s seismic upgrade will alter the venue’s characteristic bounce.

The building’s brick walls weren’t built to rumble – in a major earthquake the historic walls would likely tumble, taking the roof with them. But the dance floor, a hard wood surface laid over a mechanical spring, was designed to shake.

The contractor’s method of drilling through walls from the roof instead of installing interior steel beams will strengthen the walls, while leaving the floor and ceiling intact.

“People may have been blissfully ignorant” about the danger of the existing walls, Brandon Erickson, an engineer with Roggenkamp, Erickson & Associates, said. But after the retrofit, “they can go to a show and know it’s safe.”

http://www.djc-or.com/viewStory.cfm?recid=29637&userID=1

[pdxstreetcar]

willamette week reports that there are 3 seperate mixed use projects proposed on hawthorne...

23rd/hawthorne - site of the produce market, owned by moyer
25th/hawthorne - site of the artisan dental building
12th/hawthorne - next to tiny's coffee

[pdx2m2]

I heard that Joe Weston's new tower was more costly than anticipated and that like many current towers that are on the boards may go on hold until the market improves.

[mcbaby]

has anyone heard any more about the shizen building under construction in NE? http://jetsongreen.typepad.com/jetson_green/2006/12/shizen_urban_de_1.html

[mcbaby]

willamette week reports that there are 3 seperate mixed use projects proposed on hawthorne...

23rd/hawthorne - site of the produce market, owned by moyer
25th/hawthorne - site of the artisan dental building
12th/hawthorne - next to tiny's coffee

here is the link: http://www.wweek.com/editorial/3333/9145/SOURCE=RSS

also heard some gossip from the rivermark credit union on 26th and hawthorne directly across from the artisan dental building. they are currently considering a newer 3 story building with condos on top. they would need to find a temporary location in the area to serve their members while construction takes place.

[MarkDaMan]

Hoping for a strike
Old Town/Chinatown team plan to transform historic structure
Portland Business Journal - June 29, 2007
by Wendy Culverwell
Business Journal staff writer

For a squat old building, the former Grand Central Bowl attracted more than its share of admirers when it went up for sale in 2005.

Mark Edlen, of Gerding Edlen Development Co., caught a whiff of the potential historic value behind the building's exterior of corrugated metal and cement blocks. He imagined what it might be like to remake the Central Eastside landmark at 839 S.E. Belmont St.

Edlen ended up passing on the opportunity, leaving the field open to John Plew and his colleagues at Concept Entertainment Group, proprietors of a string of successful restaurants and nightclubs in Old Town/Chinatown.

Plew formed Foresight Development and Real Estate to buy the old building, and assembled a redevelopment team consisting of Horst Architecture, R&H Construction and KeyBank.

Next month, Foresight and company will show the world why Grand Central was worth the trouble. The team will hold a ribbon cutting to celebrate the completion of an $11 million effort to put the "grand" back in Grand Central. The price tag includes the $3 million purchase price.

With major building construction nearing an end, tenants soon will start outfitting their individual spaces. The building will house an upscale restaurant and bowling lounge, a hipster barbershop, a coffee shop and a pizza-by-the-slice joint, among others. About 70 percent of the available space has been spoken for.

The project revealed Grand Central for the lovely piece of Portland architecture it once was, replete with hundreds of transom windows, a stucco exterior and castle-like towers on each corner.

The building has a storied history.

Grand Central opened as a public market in October 1929, just in time for the stock market crash that set off the Great Depression. It had basement parking and a cavernous interior lit by massive skylights and transom windows along all four walls.

The full-block building became a bowling alley in the late 1950s when the sport gained popularity. Operators began Grand Central Bowl with 16 lanes and later expanded to 28.

The 1970s brought the addition of a metal and cement exterior, meant to cover the windows and give the aging building a new look to compete with the crop of new bowling alleys being built around the city.

By the time modern developers came along, no one knew for sure what was concealed behind the false exterior.

But Plew, and Edlen before him, both suspected it was something special.

Edlen said photos of the old market showed incredible potential. Though he didn't take on the project, he's anxious to see how it turned out.

"I just think it's so cool to bring back old buildings like that," he said.

Plew and Foresight arranged to include Grand Central on the National Register of Historic Buildings, and set out to return the market-cum-bowling alley back into a market that happens to have a bowling alley.

Demolition crews peeled off the exterior to reveal 465 wooden transom windows, which were saved as part of the building's history.

The windows remain, though 65 had to be rebuilt and all 465 were outfitted with energy-efficient glass. In the battle between energy efficiency and historic preservation, efficiency carried the day, Plew said.

Plew has created many restaurants and clubs but never led a development on the scale of Grand Central.

He said his biggest challenge was to get people to see beyond the building's bowling alley, to see its potential to bring retail and entertainment to one of Portland's most interesting districts.

"It's not a bowling alley. It's really a retail development in an urban setting," he said, standing from the roof, which affords a front-row view to downtown Portland.

One of the biggest and earliest supporters was its neighbor to the west, KeyBank. Foresight and KeyBank worked out an agreement to share parking in the vacated street that separates them. The bank showed even more support when it bought Foresight's construction loan, and then, the historic tax credits associated with the project.

The renovated building includes a full block of free parking in the basement and about 42,000 square feet for retail.

Plew's company, Concept Entertainment Group, will operate Strike Restaurant and Bowling Lounge, constructed in 22,000 square feet centered on 12 lanes. The "eatertainment" venue is expected to open this fall. Plew describes it as a stylish place for adults to gather, bowl, play pool, lounge by fireplaces, sip cocktails and eat.

Think cocktails and appetizers instead of buckets of beer and blah pizza, he said.

"It's OK to have fun if you're an adult," he said.

Plew said he's not worried about attracting customers to the eastside neighborhood, where neighbors range from industrial businesses to restaurants.

"The entertainment people will lead a neighborhood, like we did in Old Town/Chinatown," he said.

The popularity of two eastside fixtures, Clarklewis restaurant on Southeast Water Avenue and the Doug Fir Lounge on East Burnside, confirm the area's destination potential. The 45,000 vehicles whizzing past each day on Southeast Morrison Street every day won't hurt, he added.

Two growing Portland businesses have signed on for space: Sparky's Pizza and Bishops Barbershop. The building is leasing for $25 to $30 a square foot, which is very strong for the market.

The Grand Central project doesn't involve financial support from the Portland Development Commission, but it has the redevelopment agency's support, said Kia Selley, a PDC project manager.

The old bowling alley closed in late 2004 and was boarded up, which hurt the neighborhood and its businesses.

"Not only did Concept take the property from being an abandoned, vacant building, they refurbished it in a historic way," she said.

And Edlen, whose firm has major projects under construction from Southern California to Seattle, confesses he still has a sweet spot for the Central Eastside.

"If I were 25 and starting over, I'd probably make a beeline," he said.

wculverwell@bizjournals.com | 503-219-3415
http://portland.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2007/07/02/story3.html?t=printable

[MarkDaMan]

Hoping for a strike
Old Town/Chinatown team plan to transform historic structure
Portland Business Journal - June 29, 2007
by Wendy Culverwell
Business Journal staff writer

For a squat old building, the former Grand Central Bowl attracted more than its share of admirers when it went up for sale in 2005.

Mark Edlen, of Gerding Edlen Development Co., caught a whiff of the potential historic value behind the building's exterior of corrugated metal and cement blocks. He imagined what it might be like to remake the Central Eastside landmark at 839 S.E. Belmont St.

Edlen ended up passing on the opportunity, leaving the field open to John Plew and his colleagues at Concept Entertainment Group, proprietors of a string of successful restaurants and nightclubs in Old Town/Chinatown.

Plew formed Foresight Development and Real Estate to buy the old building, and assembled a redevelopment team consisting of Horst Architecture, R&H Construction and KeyBank.

Next month, Foresight and company will show the world why Grand Central was worth the trouble. The team will hold a ribbon cutting to celebrate the completion of an $11 million effort to put the "grand" back in Grand Central. The price tag includes the $3 million purchase price.

With major building construction nearing an end, tenants soon will start outfitting their individual spaces. The building will house an upscale restaurant and bowling lounge, a hipster barbershop, a coffee shop and a pizza-by-the-slice joint, among others. About 70 percent of the available space has been spoken for.

The project revealed Grand Central for the lovely piece of Portland architecture it once was, replete with hundreds of transom windows, a stucco exterior and castle-like towers on each corner.

The building has a storied history.

Grand Central opened as a public market in October 1929, just in time for the stock market crash that set off the Great Depression. It had basement parking and a cavernous interior lit by massive skylights and transom windows along all four walls.

The full-block building became a bowling alley in the late 1950s when the sport gained popularity. Operators began Grand Central Bowl with 16 lanes and later expanded to 28.

The 1970s brought the addition of a metal and cement exterior, meant to cover the windows and give the aging building a new look to compete with the crop of new bowling alleys being built around the city.

By the time modern developers came along, no one knew for sure what was concealed behind the false exterior.

But Plew, and Edlen before him, both suspected it was something special.

Edlen said photos of the old market showed incredible potential. Though he didn't take on the project, he's anxious to see how it turned out.

"I just think it's so cool to bring back old buildings like that," he said.

Plew and Foresight arranged to include Grand Central on the National Register of Historic Buildings, and set out to return the market-cum-bowling alley back into a market that happens to have a bowling alley.

Demolition crews peeled off the exterior to reveal 465 wooden transom windows, which were saved as part of the building's history.

The windows remain, though 65 had to be rebuilt and all 465 were outfitted with energy-efficient glass. In the battle between energy efficiency and historic preservation, efficiency carried the day, Plew said.

Plew has created many restaurants and clubs but never led a development on the scale of Grand Central.

He said his biggest challenge was to get people to see beyond the building's bowling alley, to see its potential to bring retail and entertainment to one of Portland's most interesting districts.

"It's not a bowling alley. It's really a retail development in an urban setting," he said, standing from the roof, which affords a front-row view to downtown Portland.

One of the biggest and earliest supporters was its neighbor to the west, KeyBank. Foresight and KeyBank worked out an agreement to share parking in the vacated street that separates them. The bank showed even more support when it bought Foresight's construction loan, and then, the historic tax credits associated with the project.

The renovated building includes a full block of free parking in the basement and about 42,000 square feet for retail.

Plew's company, Concept Entertainment Group, will operate Strike Restaurant and Bowling Lounge, constructed in 22,000 square feet centered on 12 lanes. The "eatertainment" venue is expected to open this fall. Plew describes it as a stylish place for adults to gather, bowl, play pool, lounge by fireplaces, sip cocktails and eat.

Think cocktails and appetizers instead of buckets of beer and blah pizza, he said.

"It's OK to have fun if you're an adult," he said.

Plew said he's not worried about attracting customers to the eastside neighborhood, where neighbors range from industrial businesses to restaurants.

"The entertainment people will lead a neighborhood, like we did in Old Town/Chinatown," he said.

The popularity of two eastside fixtures, Clarklewis restaurant on Southeast Water Avenue and the Doug Fir Lounge on East Burnside, confirm the area's destination potential. The 45,000 vehicles whizzing past each day on Southeast Morrison Street every day won't hurt, he added.

Two growing Portland businesses have signed on for space: Sparky's Pizza and Bishops Barbershop. The building is leasing for $25 to $30 a square foot, which is very strong for the market.

The Grand Central project doesn't involve financial support from the Portland Development Commission, but it has the redevelopment agency's support, said Kia Selley, a PDC project manager.

The old bowling alley closed in late 2004 and was boarded up, which hurt the neighborhood and its businesses.

"Not only did Concept take the property from being an abandoned, vacant building, they refurbished it in a historic way," she said.

And Edlen, whose firm has major projects under construction from Southern California to Seattle, confesses he still has a sweet spot for the Central Eastside.

"If I were 25 and starting over, I'd probably make a beeline," he said.

wculverwell@bizjournals.com | 503-219-3415
http://portland.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2007/07/02/story3.html?t=printable

[MarkDaMan]

dup

[MarkDaMan]

Hoping for a strike
Old Town/Chinatown team plan to transform historic structure
Portland Business Journal - June 29, 2007
by Wendy Culverwell
Business Journal staff writer

For a squat old building, the former Grand Central Bowl attracted more than its share of admirers when it went up for sale in 2005.

Mark Edlen, of Gerding Edlen Development Co., caught a whiff of the potential historic value behind the building's exterior of corrugated metal and cement blocks. He imagined what it might be like to remake the Central Eastside landmark at 839 S.E. Belmont St.

Edlen ended up passing on the opportunity, leaving the field open to John Plew and his colleagues at Concept Entertainment Group, proprietors of a string of successful restaurants and nightclubs in Old Town/Chinatown.

Plew formed Foresight Development and Real Estate to buy the old building, and assembled a redevelopment team consisting of Horst Architecture, R&H Construction and KeyBank.

Next month, Foresight and company will show the world why Grand Central was worth the trouble. The team will hold a ribbon cutting to celebrate the completion of an $11 million effort to put the "grand" back in Grand Central. The price tag includes the $3 million purchase price.

With major building construction nearing an end, tenants soon will start outfitting their individual spaces. The building will house an upscale restaurant and bowling lounge, a hipster barbershop, a coffee shop and a pizza-by-the-slice joint, among others. About 70 percent of the available space has been spoken for.

The project revealed Grand Central for the lovely piece of Portland architecture it once was, replete with hundreds of transom windows, a stucco exterior and castle-like towers on each corner.

The building has a storied history.

Grand Central opened as a public market in October 1929, just in time for the stock market crash that set off the Great Depression. It had basement parking and a cavernous interior lit by massive skylights and transom windows along all four walls.

The full-block building became a bowling alley in the late 1950s when the sport gained popularity. Operators began Grand Central Bowl with 16 lanes and later expanded to 28.

The 1970s brought the addition of a metal and cement exterior, meant to cover the windows and give the aging building a new look to compete with the crop of new bowling alleys being built around the city.

By the time modern developers came along, no one knew for sure what was concealed behind the false exterior.

But Plew, and Edlen before him, both suspected it was something special.

Edlen said photos of the old market showed incredible potential. Though he didn't take on the project, he's anxious to see how it turned out.

"I just think it's so cool to bring back old buildings like that," he said.

Plew and Foresight arranged to include Grand Central on the National Register of Historic Buildings, and set out to return the market-cum-bowling alley back into a market that happens to have a bowling alley.

Demolition crews peeled off the exterior to reveal 465 wooden transom windows, which were saved as part of the building's history.

The windows remain, though 65 had to be rebuilt and all 465 were outfitted with energy-efficient glass. In the battle between energy efficiency and historic preservation, efficiency carried the day, Plew said.

Plew has created many restaurants and clubs but never led a development on the scale of Grand Central.

He said his biggest challenge was to get people to see beyond the building's bowling alley, to see its potential to bring retail and entertainment to one of Portland's most interesting districts.

"It's not a bowling alley. It's really a retail development in an urban setting," he said, standing from the roof, which affords a front-row view to downtown Portland.

One of the biggest and earliest supporters was its neighbor to the west, KeyBank. Foresight and KeyBank worked out an agreement to share parking in the vacated street that separates them. The bank showed even more support when it bought Foresight's construction loan, and then, the historic tax credits associated with the project.

The renovated building includes a full block of free parking in the basement and about 42,000 square feet for retail.

Plew's company, Concept Entertainment Group, will operate Strike Restaurant and Bowling Lounge, constructed in 22,000 square feet centered on 12 lanes. The "eatertainment" venue is expected to open this fall. Plew describes it as a stylish place for adults to gather, bowl, play pool, lounge by fireplaces, sip cocktails and eat.

Think cocktails and appetizers instead of buckets of beer and blah pizza, he said.

"It's OK to have fun if you're an adult," he said.

Plew said he's not worried about attracting customers to the eastside neighborhood, where neighbors range from industrial businesses to restaurants.

"The entertainment people will lead a neighborhood, like we did in Old Town/Chinatown," he said.

The popularity of two eastside fixtures, Clarklewis restaurant on Southeast Water Avenue and the Doug Fir Lounge on East Burnside, confirm the area's destination potential. The 45,000 vehicles whizzing past each day on Southeast Morrison Street every day won't hurt, he added.

Two growing Portland businesses have signed on for space: Sparky's Pizza and Bishops Barbershop. The building is leasing for $25 to $30 a square foot, which is very strong for the market.

The Grand Central project doesn't involve financial support from the Portland Development Commission, but it has the redevelopment agency's support, said Kia Selley, a PDC project manager.

The old bowling alley closed in late 2004 and was boarded up, which hurt the neighborhood and its businesses.

"Not only did Concept take the property from being an abandoned, vacant building, they refurbished it in a historic way," she said.

And Edlen, whose firm has major projects under construction from Southern California to Seattle, confesses he still has a sweet spot for the Central Eastside.

"If I were 25 and starting over, I'd probably make a beeline," he said.

wculverwell@bizjournals.com | 503-219-3415
http://portland.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2007/07/02/story3.html?t=printable

[MarkDaMan]

^oh geeze...that's just embarrassing...not quite sure what happened there.

[mcbaby]

its a great location right on belmont. Holocene, Adam Arnold Studio and Oregon Ballet across the street. Rimsky's, Nostrana, Crush and the Basement Pub a couple blocks away plus with the new development at the old Washington high school and new condos on 20th, the place should be hoppin. Plus if they redeveloped the old monte carlo property into mixed use with housing, would become a great neighborhood to live.

[zilfondel]

edit!

[Dougall5505]

actually nevermind sorry

[mcbaby]

?

[PacificNW]

Hmm..for some reason (on this particular thread) I cannot advance beyond Marks multiple posts (page 16)...even though I see other people have posted since him....weird.. :shrug: Maybe if I respond it will advance me to page 17... YES...it worked!

[Dougall5505]

that happened to me too thats why I posted that weird message but it didn't work for me


but now it does

[Dougall5505]

brian libby on the rocket http://www.portlandonline.com/bds/index.cfm?c=35625
his pictures
http://chatterbox.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/07/02/rocket_2.jpg

http://chatterbox.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/07/02/rocket_3.jpg

[MarkDaMan]

dup...see article next post down

[MarkDaMan]

S.W. Portland not quite ready for mixed-use development
Daily Journal of Commerce
by Kennedy Smith
07/03/2007


Along Southwest Capitol Highway, a four-lane throughway that connects Portland to Beaverton, there’s a small strip of businesses including Starbucks, Wild Oats and a McMenamins restaurant. Designated a town center by regional government Metro, the strip is what most people associate with the Hillsdale neighborhood, last stop on the way to Beaverton. But it’s hardly a stop at all.

Just before the road splits into Capitol Highway and Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway at 18th Avenue, the neighborhood’s first mixed-use project is under way. But most other development in the neighborhood is single-family infill.

The development is “the biggest thing going on in Hillsdale right now,” said Leonard Gard, a land-use specialist at Southwest Neighborhoods Inc., a consortium of 16 Southwest Portland neighborhood associations and three business associations.

The Watershed at Hillsdale, developed by the nonprofit Community Partners for Affordable Housing Inc., will contain 51 affordable senior housing units, a 1,500-square-foot community center and 3,300 square feet of commercial space.

But the rest of outer southwest’s development activity comprises single-family houses, row houses and condominium conversions, said Jeff Parker, a Realtor who markets Southwest Portland properties.

As far as mixed-use development goes, Parker said, the Watershed at Hillsdale stands alone.

Permit records from 1995 to 2004 show Portland’s west side comprising about 26 percent of the city’s single-family units and 5 percent of its multifamily units, according to the Portland Bureau of Planning.

The majority of the city’s large, multifamily projects have been built in Northwest, with the Southwest primarily housing smaller infill projects, the bureau said.

Because the Watershed at Hillsdale is the first development of its kind in Southwest, it’s hard to tell whether it will spur more mixed-use development, Gard said, especially when all the other development activity is single-family residential.

“Hillsdale has the best chances for row houses, so that’s what we’re seeing out here,” he said.

The major roadblock to mixed-use development, Gard said, is a zoning constraint that doesn’t allow for more than one use on most parcels.

In 2001, City Council adopted the Southwest Community Plan, which aimed to change some of the restrictions in order to rezone certain residential areas to commercial mixed-use. The Watershed at Hillsdale is the first mixed-use development since the plan’s adoption.

The plan encourages transit- and pedestrian-oriented mixed-use projects and a range of housing types, including affordable housing. But most of Southwest Portland is zoned for single-family medium- and low-density development.

Although most neighbors support more intense development with a mix of commercial and residential space, Gard said, Hillsdale is playing catch-up with the rest of Portland.

Gard said he’s holding out to see the kind of development outlined in the 2001 plan, “more intense development along the thoroughfares like Barbur, and some kind of project that would bring a work force with it.”

Land in Southwest is scarce for mixed-use projects, Gard said. Community Partners for Affordable Housing has applied to develop a project on Multnomah Boulevard that would comprise a mix of residential types but no commercial space.

The only other foreseeable opportunity for a mixed-use project in Southwest Portland is the Burlingame Fred Meyer store, east of the Watershed at Hillsdale, at 7555 S.W. Barbur Blvd. Fred Meyer is exploring redeveloping the store into a supermarket with housing attached, Melinda Merrill, a spokeswoman for the company, said.

“The community very much wants housing in there, so we’re working on finding a developer and figuring out how to do that,” she said.

Architect Richard Brown, whose firm rehabilitated an old auto garage into the Pacific Artists Dance Center on Capitol Highway, is eyeing a lot across from the Watershed at Hillsdale for retail use.

“We looked at mixed-use but it quickly became too complicated,” he said. “There was not enough parking to support it.” But, Brown said, mixed-use development in the area is “just a matter of time.”

http://www.djc-or.com/viewStory.cfm?recid=29691&userID=1

[bvpcvm]

A project on 19th and Overton, unloved in this forum, was just approved for construction:

http://www.portlandmaps.com/detail.cfm?action=Permits&folder=2612470&propertyid=R141118&state_id=1N1E33AB%20%2010100&address_id=625124&intersection_id=&dynamic_point=0&x=7640601.725&y=687812.917&place=1947%20NW%20OVERTON%20ST&city=PORTLAND&neighborhood=NORTHWEST%20DISTRICT&seg_id=136361

http://www.myhregroup.com/images/projects/Overton_Large.jpg
http://www.myhregroup.com/images/projects/OvertonAerialLarge.jpg
http://www.myhregroup.com/images/projects/OvertonSiteLarge.jpg
http://www.myhregroup.com/images/projects/Overton_Sidewalk-Large.jpg

[sirsimon]

I know that I'm a loner, but I kind of like this one.

[PacificNW]

I like it also....

[zilfondel]

puke

[tworivers]

gag

[robbobpdx]

I like it also....

Me too !!!

And it looks like it fits in great withe scale and look of the surrounding area too.

:tup:

[PDX City-State]

I think its motives are terrible, but at least it's iconic.

[MitchE]

I think it will look a lot better in person than the rendering suggests. I don't think the roof is going to look so weird. It reminds me of the Vaux a lot. I thought it was kind of bland based on the renderings I saw but I think it turned out fantastic... at least for the style it is going for.

http://www.sinecosine.org/forums/NW/P1010226.JPG

[westsider]

The styling doesnt bother me one bit, I think it will look pretty good when its done.

[kvalk]

Robo: "And it looks like it fits in great withe scale and look of the surrounding area too."
really...seven stories on Overton and 19th...i personally don't care about the height, but don't tell me it fits in with the scale of the neighborhood.

add another three stories to the Vaux, then what do you think...

[westsider]

^ That looks retarded....

[cab]

I think Hundreds of well earning people living more efficiently in the city spending their money at local store's and adding vibrancy to upper 21st. What do you Kvalk?

[kvalk]

Like I said, I don't mind the height, and I appreciatte the greater density. I don't care for the aesthetics of the building, but that's just my personal opinion, and that's not really important.
I also don't think the upper floor set back on a seven story building really has the intended effect. It definetly won't change the feeling of the building at the street level, it's a nice thought, and i know neighbors like to hear "we set the top floor back to make the building feel smaller" but once you get past the fourth floor you have to be quite far back to even notice the difference.
I also appreciatte that it's not a full block mass, as there appears to be a nice courtyard, though with a 7 story building on the south side it may not get much light.

The building next door to the EAST, visible in the renderings, is actually quite a nice little 2 story building, completed several years back, perhaps by Bolighus??? though my memory may be off.

[kvalk]

Cab, I haven't seen the plans, do you know how many units are in here, my quick math, based on balconies and a lot of assumptions is about 88-90 units, which would probably be well below 200 residents...so the idea of "Hundreds of well earning people living more efficiently in the city spending their money at local store's and adding vibrancy to upper 21st" may be a bit of an exageration, by my count. though a nice idea.

[kvalk]

^not very well said, but I think i agree with your point...
anyways, they are having a public opening for the building this evening, so everyone can go see for themselves, or urinate on it, whichever you prefer.

[pdxtraveler]

I kind of like it, it fits the more bohemian nature of s.e.

[WonderlandPark]

Helluva lot better than the rock climbing building. The "art" can go.

[bvpcvm]

i like this building - except for the balconies, which look a little awkward. i wish the building itself just jutted out over the sidewalk like the other buildings down there.

[mcbaby]

http://chatterbox.typepad.com/portlandarchitecture/2007/07/climbing-aboard.html
here is the actual link to brians article

[tworivers]

I went to the open house last night and came away impressed, especially with the rooftop garden and its potential for chickens and bees. If that's the future, I'll take it.

Overall, the architecture of the building doesn't blow me away, but I appreciate how it relates to its surroundings, and it was built on the cheap and is LEED platinum-level sustainable. I think Kevin Cavenaugh deserves heaps of credit for the project as a whole. Apparently he's not even a licensed architect, which makes him even cooler in my eyes.

The art... I would like it if the panels were more coordinated somehow. I found myself liking some of the individual panels, and wishing one or a couple of their themes had been carried across all of them. Overall, as it is now, it looks awkward and feels somewhat sophomoric.

[dkealoha]

I went to the open house last night...

Is that what was going on? I went to Chesterfield yesterday for the first time (which by the way, has some awesome $4 happy hour cocktails!) and saw a bunch of people milling around the building.

[zilfondel]

Yea, I kind of like that Overton building. Nice materials, reminds me of Dutch contemporary architecture. :D

[bvpcvm]

yuk. i like the height and density, but it looks like a left over from a star wars set.

[zilfondel]

This building really reminds me of the run-of-the-mill simple stucco buildings arrayed wall-to-wall throughout European city centers: inexpensive and everywhere. Although the balconies are interesting... I think it is a good experiment. And I like the bright, fucking red color.

[tworivers]

New teaser website for the Overlook, u/c on N Interstate:

http://www.liveintheoverlook.com

And this project looks pretty awesome:

http://www.milepostfive.com/welcome

[MarkDaMan]

Developer, neighborhood divided on Division project
Daily Journal of Commerce
by Alison Ryan
07/11/2007


Tricky site. Tight programming. Tough location. A proposed mixed-use condominium building in Ladd’s Addition will be the first new commercial project in the Southeast Portland historic district in two decades – but it won’t be an easy effort.

The triangle-shaped site, which sits at the intersection of Southeast Division Street and Ladd Avenue in the intersection-heavy Seven Corners area, is a brownfield. Environmental concerns mean no living spaces can go on the ground floor. And the small, oddly shaped lot means the units won’t be large enough to house families.

Multnomah County gave developers REACH Community Development and Portland Community Land Trust the property. But one of the conditions of the transfer, said Michelle Haynes, REACH housing development director, was keeping an affordable component. The program for the building, tentatively called Corner Six, pairs commercial condominium use at the ground floor with a mix of affordable and market-rate condominiums on upper floors. Eight of the 26 units permanently will remain available to people who make 80 percent of Portland’s median income; four units initially will be offered to people who make 80 percent of median income. The current 80 percent level is $43,000 for a family of two.

Because there’s little funding opportunities for smaller – units run from studio to two-bedroom size – affordable ownership projects, Haynes said, the project’s market-rate condos let the affordable condos exist.

“We’re taking that profit and putting it back into the project,” she said, “to allow us to be able to sell below-market.”

That innovation in creating affordable units has touched the building design. The fourth story makes the economics work for REACH. But it also made members of the Portland Historic Landmarks Commission ask for a closer look at building massing and scale during a design advice session Tuesday.

“It’s a huge structure, and I’m wondering how it’ll fit in with its neighbors,” Commissioner Linda Dodds said.

Current design calls for rusticated brick on floors one through three, with wood siding or fiber-cement panels for the fourth story. Many of the area’s historic multifamily housing buildings are “fairly shotgun,” said architect Mike Corl of Vallaster & Corl Architects, and made simply of brick or stucco.

From a historic perspective, said neighbor Richard Ross, the building is a fit.

“They really looked around at the vocabulary ... then came up with something that fits well as a mix of commercial and multifamily,” said Ross, who was part of the community team that helped develop the district’s historic guidelines.

But some neighborhood residents are concerned about how the building may affect traffic and parking in the already-tangled Seven Corners area, said Linda Nettekoven, Hosford-Abernathy Neighbor-hood Development Association vice-chairwoman. HAND opposes the project.

Neighbors are also concerned with the building massing along Division Street and Ladd Avenue, where the full four stories butt against the sidewalk.

But, Nettekoven said, “the zoning allows what it allows, and as a neighborhood association we’re sophisticated enough to know that.”
http://www.djc-or.com/viewStory.cfm?recid=29732&userID=1

[PDX City-State]

Willamette Week
July 11, 2007



Architecturally speaking, Southeast Division Street between 12th and 20th avenues resembles a rummage sale.

North of Division, charming half-million-dollar bungalows mix with unsightly underdeveloped land to form the gateway to the tony Ladd's Addition neighborhood. Certain stretches of the street's south side feature a hodgepodge of strip-retail and more humble dwellings. But the contrast between the two sides is not that sharp.

Yet, thanks to Ladd's Addition, Division Street's north side qualifies for city historical protections. The south side does not. And because of this, the two sides of the street have two very different sets of rules—and headaches—for developers and architects proposing new buildings along this busy Southeast artery.

And Division's quirky design divide also illustrates a problem that's becoming endemic to the entire city: Portland's crazy quilt of design-review guidelines makes infill development a crapshoot. It's a problem that's sure to grow as the city's population increases and housing becomes so scarce that historical districts get considered for housing.

On a triangle of land on the north-side corner of Southeast 20th Avenue and Division, local housing nonprofit REACH plans to build a four-story, 26-unit mixed-use condominium on a parcel unused since the Reagan years.

REACH plans to sell 18 third- and fourth-floor units at the market rate of roughly $350 per square foot to subsidize eight low-income units on the second floor that will sell for a third of that price. But officials with the nonprofit say one of the city's two design-review boards, the Landmarks Commission, could make that difficult.

Because the city designated Ladd's Addition a historic district in 1998, the $6.4 million project must pass muster with the Landmarks Commission's eight volunteer members—who are mostly of the historic-preservation bent. Ladd's Addition is one among 13 historic districts in Portland, covering an estimated 6.5 percent of the city. (See accompanying box.) The city can declare a district historic, or the neighborhood can petition for historic status.

REACH is seeking approval from the Landmark Commission by August. So far, REACH says it has incurred an extra $15,000 in design fees to incorporate changes in the exterior suggested by the commission, including window placement and the inclusion of stucco or brick. The design review also means that the project will take at least two months longer than projects that don't have to undergo review.

Plus, commission members have indicated in informal feedback that they want the condos reduced to three stories instead of four to protect the scale of Ladd's Addition, where the average home price tops $600,000, according to Realtor Jan Caplener.

Michelle Haynes, REACH's director of housing development, says removing a story would kill the project.

"It would be impossible because we are attempting to offer some units at below cost—we need the fourth story because those are the units that will make the project pencil out," Haynes says. "We care what the community thinks, but we have to produce a project that at least breaks even.

"It's a challenge for affordable-housing developers to produce a product that both meets historic guidelines as interpreted by the Landmarks Commission and still make the city's affordable housing goals," adds Haynes.

Had the building been proposed on the other side of the street, it would have been a different story. There would have been no design review.

For example, the brightly painted green-and-yellow New Seasons Market at 1954 SE Division St., on the south side of the street, didn't require design review when it went up in 2004, according to architects at Richard Brown, the Portland-based firm that's designed seven New Seasons locations. Neither did developer Randy Rapaport's ultramodern four-story condo building that's going up six blocks east on the south side of 26th Avenue and Division. "Had it required review, the project would have never happened," says Rapaport.

Jeff Joslin, land use-manager for Portland's Bureau of Development Services—which oversees the Landmarks Commission—agrees that finding a balance is difficult. But he defends the role of the commission.

"We have a community that cares deeply about how it's developing and where it's coming from," Joslin says. "The purpose is to identify the resources we care most deeply about."

Critics counter that those "identifying the resources" can have too narrow a focus. Where should a local agency that regulates aesthetics draw the line between preserving history and blocking projects from happening at all?

And in areas comprising many architectural styles, such as Division Street and North Mississippi Avenue, it's not clear which architectural era the commission should base its rating of "historical significance" on.

"[It] can be conflicting," Haynes says. "Different members have different suggestions, and it's not always clear to a developer or an architect how to improve or refine a design."

[CouvScott]

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e214/couvttocs/1035nw14thave1.jpg
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e214/couvttocs/1035nw14thaveb.jpg

[MarkDaMan]

I'm so lost there is so much infill...If anyone is really bored this summer, a map with all the infill projects tagged would be awesome!

Irvington's take on condo project: NIMBY
Thursday, July 12, 2007
By Stephen Beaven
The Oregonian

Stop me if you've heard this one before: A Portland neighborhood group is fighting a proposed condo project because residents say it'll tower over their homes and set a bad precedent for future development in the area.

Irvington residents are trying to force a developer to limit the size of a building planned for Northeast Hancock Street now designed to be six stories, 73 feet tall and only a few feet from the sidewalk.

The area is zoned for high-density residential projects with heights up to 75 feet. But that hasn't softened resistance.

"It's not a skinny tower," says Richard Levy, president of the Irvington Community Association. "When I first saw the design, I thought it would be a very nice building that would fit in well in Washington, D.C., where they build lot line to lot line."

The community association and the owners of a nearby bed and breakfast have been negotiating with Lake Oswego developer Leon Simms for a year and report some progress. But they still think the building will be out of place in a residential neighborhood where most of the houses and other buildings are two stories and set back from sidewalks.

There's already talk of appealing to the Portland Historical Landmarks Commission if the city approves Simms' land-use application.

Simms, however, says the response to his project has been positive, despite "a tiny, minority faction" in the neighborhood that has raised concerns about the size.

He's made several concessions, adding architectural detail, saving trees and making the ground floor more pedestrian-friendly. He predicts "the building will be a poster child" for projects that must blend in with an older neighborhood.

"I think I've gone way overboard in terms of fitting in architecturally," Simms says.

The property sits at 1510 N.E. Hancock St. For now, it's a modest apartment complex surrounded by trees and a small yard. Simms bought it two years ago for nearly $685,000 and wants to construct a brick building with 18 condos that would stretch from one end of the lot to the other.

Dustin Carsey and Steve Unger are two of the Irvington residents who've been talking to Simms and his development team. They own the Lion and the Rose Victorian Bed & Breakfast Inn, a historic 101-year-old house that sits south of the proposed project.

They have agreed to write a letter to the city supporting the project in exchange for compensation from Simms for business lost during the five busiest months of construction. But in their letter, they plan to note their opposition to the height. They'll also support an appeal to the landmarks commission, if it comes to that.

Carsey and Unger are resigned to the prospect of a big building behind their inn, which is also their home. But they fear that if Simms builds a 73-foot-tall project, other developers will snap up cheap properties nearby and do the same, altering the nature of the neighborhood.

"We're not against change and improving the neighborhood," Carsey says. "We're against this massive height."

Stephen Beaven: 503-294-7663; stevebeaven@news.oregonian.com
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/portland_news/1183674359318440.xml&coll=7

[bvpcvm]

1035 NW 14th


isn't this the second proposal for this site? i seem to recall an 8-story office (?) building proposed here about a year ago - which also have left bob ball's showroom intact, as this appears to.

[CouvScott]

isn't this the second proposal for this site? i seem to recall an 8-story office (?) building proposed here about a year ago - which also have left bob ball's showroom intact, as this appears to.

I don't remember off hand, but I know I get a lot of these black and white renderings mixed up with what is going in a block to the North (Machine Works building - 8-10 stories I think)

[zilfondel]

(regarding the triangle division lot)
I just don't understand how they can consider anything historic about a gravel lot with nothing even GROWING on it. I mean, c'mon.. Half of Division is a commercial strip; New Seasons and Starbucks are across the street in modern buildings. Hello???

They need to fire those assholes.

[tworivers]

Here are a few shots I took the other day of "12 and a half", the 3-story Holst development at NE 7th and Knott. I like it from a distance, and enjoy its presence as I ride by (almost) every day. Up close, though, the skin (Hardy panels?) looks kind of cheap. Also, I'm feeling a lack of windows. And the street-level interaction is not especially neighborly. Even if there was a little corner coffee shop or something, I'd be more willing to forgive. Only a few units seem to be occupied, although I thought I saw a few more people moving in today.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1172/795807829_fc1ec6fde3.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1156/795807873_ed9e627506.jpg?v=0

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1282/795808013_a71631c17b.jpg?v=0

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1416/795808109_42a08961b9.jpg?v=0

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1140/843412780_66802aa48e.jpg?v=0

[kvalk]

fyi. that's a three coat stucco system, not hardy panels.

[MarkDaMan]

North Portlanders pull away from Killingsworth Station
Daily Journal of Commerce
by Alison Ryan
07/18/2007


Neighborhood advocates have hoped the proposed Killingsworth Station would be a “signature” project for North Portland communities facing rising housing costs, family flight, and other by-products of gentrification. But the four-story mixed-use development targeted for the corner of North Interstate Avenue and Killingsworth Street isn’t rising to expectations.

“If this is our signature, man, we’re in trouble,” said Interstate Corridor Urban Renewal Area co-chairman Walter Valenta.

Members of the Interstate Corridor Urban Renewal Area (ICURA) advisory committee Monday questioned the use of urban renewal money for a project that doesn’t, they said, provide housing that’s either affordable or family-oriented. The dollars, said committee member Diane Feldt, are supposed to keep longtime residents in the area.

“How does this project do that?” she said. “And if it doesn’t, why are we supporting it?”

The project’s original $12 million budget, created in August 2006, has risen by $2.24 million. Developer Jim Winkler’s proposal will take about $650,000 more from a Portland Development Commission-administered urban renewal area fund than the PDC originally expected. Of the $2.24 million budget increase, $900,000 came from construction cost increases and $297,000 came from construction loan interest increases. The PDC’s requiring the project to pay prevailing wage accounted for a $670,000 addition; the PDC also upped the sale price of the land from $645,000 to $1 million.

PDC staff recommends a $650,000 increase to the project’s permanent subsidy to help cover the gap. Total PDC funding, which combines construction loans and subsidies, will rise from $3 million to $3.9 million.

‘Affordable’ component questioned

Faced with a softening condominium market, developers are dropping three three-bedroom units from the development. The proposal originally called for 42 one-bedroom, six two-bedroom and three three-bedroom units.

Six two-bedroom units and 48 one-bedroom units, half at market rate and half available to buyers making between 80 percent and 100 percent of the median family income ($43,450 to $53,500 for a family of two), are now proposed.

The eight condominiums at 80 percent of MFI have a unit price of $144,600. The 17 one-bedroom condos available to buyers at 100 percent of MFI will sell for $185,800. Two two-bedroom condos are priced at $209,750 for buyers at 100 percent of MFI. Market prices range from $214,580 to $252,755 for the 23 one-bedroom units and $341,550 to $370,450 for the three two-bedroom units.

That price range, ICURA advisory committee members said, is not “affordable” housing.

“There’s only eight units that are at 80 percent,” said Julie Metcalf-Kinney, who has developed housing projects for people who earn 20 percent to 30 percent of MFI. “Eight. And that’s higher (income) than any of the folks that I’ve ever provided housing for.”

“I can see a market niche for them,” said committee member Chris Duffy, “but I don’t see this as a project for PDC particularly.”

The site, said John Warner, senior development manager in the PDC’s housing department, has been vacant for five years. And the Winkler proposal came out of the PDC’s second RFP request, issued after an effort by developer Tom Kemper floundered in 2005.

Winkler’s revised proposal, Warner said, keeps the benefits of a transit-oriented, work-force-housing project. Trying to pull family, low-income and other elements into a proposal for the site, he said, would likely lead to failure.

“You tend to layer on requirements, and often it gets to the point that the project just can’t bear it,” Warner said. “And at the end of the day, it collapses under its own weight.”

Winkler’s proposal, he said, is “probably the best project we could conceive of for this location.”

Committee members said they wouldn’t support giving developers additional money out of the ICURA fund.

“The ultimate face of gentrification has been one-bedroom condominium units,” said committee member Jennie Portis.
http://www.djcoregon.com/viewStory.cfm?recid=29775&userID=1

[crow]

it is apparent that Holst has figured out the cost for IPE, stucco, or whatever fits. to the point now that is kind of boring and prescriptive. i would expect something a little more progressive given all the exposure they have had - that is my humble opinion.

[kvalk]

^^^oh totally, BORING.

but isn't "figured out the cost for IPE, stucco, or whatever fits." and bringing a project in on budget kinda the idea...of actually getting things built.

[MarkDaMan]

Once stymied, now costlier, Mississippi lofts move forward
Daily Journal of Commerce
by Kennedy Smith
07/20/2007


It was so hated by some neighbors that it almost didn’t happen. The Mississippi Avenue Lofts, a 32-condominium mixed-use project at 4138 N. Mississippi Ave., was appealed to Portland’s Historic Landmarks Commission after receiving a go-ahead from the city’s Bureau of Development Services.

The Boise Neighborhood Association argued the building didn’t fit into the context of its surroundings, so developers Bill Jackson and Peter Wilcox tweaked the development to reach a middle ground with objectors. Although they say they’re not exactly happy with the changes, they say they still believe the project will be a success.

With the goal of a platinum rating from the U.S. Green Building Council’s Lead-ership in Energy and Environmental Design program, Jackson and Wilcox say the lofts will bookend a library of sustainable projects to come on Mississippi Avenue that stretches to the ReBuilding Center at 36th Avenue.

But before Mississippi can become a model of sustainability, the city needs to change its ways, they say. Working within the constraints of the design review process is too challenging and Portland is outgrowing its own design guidelines, they argue. But the only way to tell whether the lofts will be successful is to wait and see whether the neighborhood can warm up to a modern building in its historic district.

DJC: What was the original plan for the Mississippi Avenue Lofts?

Peter Wilcox: It was bigger, about 33 percent bigger. We were going to develop four lots.

Bill Jackson: And then build it denser within those four lots as well. We were planning for a bigger footprint and greater level of density.

DJC: When was it that you saw you weren’t going to be able to do what you wanted to in the original plan?

Jackson: Through the course of the early development process, we made a conscious choice amongst ourselves not to develop the full site, and we reduced it to a parcel that we actually control. We were in the process of acquiring the additional site, but we decided not to move forward with that and just move forward with the 15,000-square-foot site.

Wilcox: That was long before any interaction with the neighborhood. We decided that on our own. It was more manageable. The zoning’s been available to do something there, but nobody has developed. The risks were too big.

DJC: You mean financially?

Wilcox: Yes. Just until a few years ago, nobody in their right mind would build here. It’s only recently become popular to build something here.

DJC: Why wouldn’t somebody want to build here?

Wilcox: The incomes and the raw perception in the Portland area as a whole that this is a bad neighborhood. The influx of young people to this community has only been in the last three to five years.

DJC: What were some things you took off the table once neighbors started getting involved?

Jackson: Well, I think that we really, the truth of the matter is that our program has never changed. Our building today is going to effectively be what it was intended to be nearly a year and a half ago when we were approved.

What has changed through the neighborhood involvement with the concerns of the Historical Landmarks Commission has been the aesthetic appearance of the building. The internal program of the building has not changed.

Wilcox: One other thing that really changed with the neighborhood process besides the aesthetic – I think it’s the most important change from the neighborhood process – is that our prices went up by $50,000 a unit. We had to raise the prices because in the 13 to 15 months we were delayed, the price of steel, concrete and everything grew out of proportion. All the projects going up around us, which are not nearly as green, have higher prices, but we’ve managed to maintain some affordability. But the neighborhood process meant we lost some of that affordability.

DJC: I’ve heard the argument that the higher prices for units at Mississippi Avenue Lofts is going to raise the price of housing surrounding it, forcing lower-income people out.

Wilcox: I reject that. We’re providing 32 homes where people don’t have to have cars. They can walk to everything; there’s public transportation. Those are 32 families that are not trying to buy that house over there (points to a house on the street) or that house over there. They’re people that can live in an urban way.

Building dense housing on these commercial corridors does not gentrify. In fact, it has the opposite effect. It provides a place for people to live without raising the prices of surrounding single-family housing. It’s not perfect, but it’s the best solution all the best thinkers in Portland have been able to come up with over 20 years.

Jackson: About 50 percent of our inventory has been at or below the median price of a home in Portland. What is coming in at $289,000 today was coming in at $239,000 a year ago. It’s unfortunate, but it’s the only way this project was going to move forward.

Wilcox: And the irony is that two groups of people who fought our project were the owners of the mansion (the John Palmer House at 43rd and Mississippi) that said their views would be blocked. We don’t really think that’s the case. They couldn’t fight us on that so they tried to fight us every other way.

The other group was people who were young and a little naïve.

DJC: Do you feel you’ve made any headway with the neighbors?

Wilcox: The mansion on the hill, they still don’t like it, although they’re building a condominium right across the street with the same height that they fought us on.

DJC: Do you think the civic process could be changed to make it easier for developers and neighborhoods?

Jackson: Yes. What blends in to you might not blend in to me. Unfortunately the process is one of subjectivity instead of clarity and articulated development planning. At the end of the day we were required to go back and make our building look as though it had pre-existed. It’s pitting modern architecture against historical context.

Wilcox: We have to accept the fact that along those commercial corridors, we need to get denser, much denser. We should be building six-story, eight-story buildings.

DJC: Do you think because of objections from neighbors that this project will be looked on as a failure?

Wilcox: Looking at your question more broadly, would a project be a failure because the community is angry with it? Well, there are examples of really bad projects that people really dislike. There’s a terrible condo project at 16th and Broadway that was supposed to have a Zupan’s in it, and it still hasn’t sold the units out. It’s ugly. It doesn’t fit in with the context of the neighborhood. …

It’s amazing how good the public is at judging this stuff. There are buildings out there that are simply not selling. Look at the ones half-full, like 12.5 (a condominium project on the corner of Northeast Knott and Seventh Avenue).

Jackson: Without naming project names, we’re seeing upper Division, upper Belmont, the public is judging those, and you can tell because no one is in them.

Wilcox: Some of the young architects are focusing on making a name for themselves and they haven’t been in the Portland context long enough to say they’re part of something bigger. Every building is urban design.

DJC: Is Portland simply not ready for the kind of cutting-edge architecture that you would see in Seattle or New York?

Jackson: I’m not sure if the system is ready to allow that to happen yet.

DJC: Are you talking about the Design Commission?

Jackson: Yes, that and the Historical Landmarks Commis-sion. That’s a whole other conversation. That was an unfortunate process for us, quite frankly. It was flawed and one of obligation. At the end of the day we were required to make some tweaks to make it look like it came from yesterday.

DJC: How should the city change the process?

Jackson: It needs to be rewritten. Right now we’re working with the (Bureau of Planning’s) community design guidelines. That’s the book that drives what this looks like. The first step is to go back and revisit those and bring them up to today’s standards. The process is not going to allow us to go where we should go the way it exists today.

When we were going through Landmarks, simultaneously Apple was going through the same thing for their flagship store on Northwest 23rd. The decisions that sent Steve Jobs packing is a tragedy to this city. We need to allow that type of internationally recognized, epic architecture to happen.

DJC: How would you do this project differently if you had to start all over again?

Wilcox: Probably not buy land that’s in a historic district so that we wouldn’t have to cede control to a group like that.

DJC: Doesn’t that go against your argument that infill needs to happen here?

Wilcox: There are a lot of commercial districts that aren’t a landmarks district. It’s painful to give up that much control.

http://www.djcoregon.com/viewStory.cfm?recid=29793&userID=1

[mcbaby]

killingsworth station sounds like a dissapointment in many ways.

[tworivers]

That's a great, highly informative interview. Good questions.

[tworivers]

An early rendering of the Planned Parenthood building at Beech and MLK.

Looks decent style-wise, especially when compared to the LRS-Fremont corner and the horrifying piece of shit they turned the old Heritage building into (see here (http://www.pdc.us/ura/convention_center/3934-ne-mlk.asp)).

I wonder who the architect is. Obviously not a total dumbass whose license should be revoked pronto. :cheers:

http://www.pdc.us/images/ura/convention_center/mlk/beech-street-rendering.jpg

Today:

http://www.pdc.us/images/ura/convention_center/mlk/beech-street.jpg

[zilfondel]

^ Augh! Don't scare me with creepy links like that. Nearly had a heart attack!

Such godawful architecture belongs in SoCal, not Portland.

[sirsimon]

^ Augh! Don't scare me with creepy links like that. Nearly had a heart attack!

Such godawful architecture belongs in SoCal, not Portland.

That really is a ghastly building.

[MarkDaMan]

I don't think that one is nearly as bad as another ugly ass building...I can't even think of what corner. It is a new faux historical building in a octagonal shape I believe...just horrible!

[MarkDaMan]

A green contractor takes on green building
Daily Journal of Commerce
by Libby Tucker
07/24/2007
by Libby Tucker
libby.tucker@djcOregon.com


Jeremy Morgan just finished his first sustainable building, but the 24-year-old construction manager for Schommer & Sons in Portland is no longer green.

Morgan, a 2005 graduate of Oregon State University’s engineering program, had little managing experience and no real knowledge of sustainable building. But he dove in head-first last year, overseeing construction of the Burnside Rocket, a four-story mixed-use project at 1111 East Burnside Street.

Developer Kevin Cavanaugh is shooting for a U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design platinum rating. If approved, the Rocket would become Schommer & Sons’ first LEED project.

“It was all Jeremy who made it happen,” Cavanaugh said. “With the Rocket under his belt, he’s very much not green anymore.”

As green building becomes a common practice among Portland contractors, Morgan’s experience will serve Schommer & Sons as well

Twenty-two buildings in Portland have achieved LEED status. And as knowledge among developers spreads, owners are beginning to demand more green building practices on construction sites.

“LEED is becoming not really an option for contractors in Portland,” said Mike Williams, project manager for Green Building Services, which served as the Rocket’s sustainable design consultants. “If you don’t do it, you’re not going to get an opportunity to bid on the project.”

Doing the homework

When Cavanaugh set out to build the Rocket, he didn’t plan on applying for LEED status. He chose Schommer & Sons to build on the 40-foot-by-100-foot lot because of the company’s reputation for excellent work on difficult sites, he said.

But about six months after hiring Schommer & Sons, while in the process of applying for building permits, Cavanaugh decided to go for a platinum designation, despite the contractor’s inexperience with green building.

Schommer & Sons assigned Morgan the task of learning about LEED for the company and overseeing every aspect of the green building process on the Rocket.

To prepare himself for the project, Morgan started by reading up on LEED. He studied the Green Building Council’s LEED materials, took a green building course at Portland Community College and talked to peers at networking events and industry associations about the green-building process.

“It’s great to take the courses and know what’s going on in preparation for a LEED project,” Carrington Barrs, owner of Barrs and Genauer Construction Inc. and a PCC instructor, said. “You need a contractor that’s really dialed in, and you start with a course to get the concept and really understand what it is.”

Ready. Set. Go.

Once Morgan had the basic LEED vocabulary in place, he began work with a green building consultant to come up with construction specifications. But the real work for the contractor lies in making sure everyone involved in the project is on board and aware of the project’s requirements, Morgan said.

“Mainly, the big piece is planning,” he said. “All the pieces have to fit together.”

LEED contractors must be meticulous in sorting and recycling materials on site, and in reading labels and sourcing materials to ensure LEED standards are met.

Materials procurement is probably the biggest headache for a contractor on a green project, Francis Dardis, the project’s architect with FBD Architecture, said.

The specifications of the materials – non-toxic paints and certified lumber, for example – require a contractor’s diligence. Everything must be documented, which means calling materials suppliers to ask where exactly materials, such as fly ash in the concrete, come from.

Materials must often be specially ordered, which can also create kinks in a project schedule if it’s not done properly. If a site runs out of certified lumber, for example, a crew member can’t just run to the lumber yard and pick up more, Morgan said. On the Rocket project, if something was missing, he had to send somebody to Newberg in order to re-stock the item.

With the Rocket project under Morgan’s belt, Schommer & Sons is ready to have him take on more complicated projects, including those with a sustainable bent.

“Jeremy is relatively new to the industry, and it just became an assignment for him to give him an opportunity to learn specifically about green construction practices and methods,” Bob Schommer, owner of Schommer & Sons, said. “We don’t have these opportunities like this every day … and he was the right person at the right time.”
http://www.djcoregon.com/viewStory.cfm?recid=29811&userID=1

[zilfondel]

I don't think that one is nearly as bad as another ugly ass building...I can't even think of what corner. It is a new faux historical building in a octagonal shape I believe...just horrible!

true, that is even worse. But thats like comparing an AMC Gremlin with a Ford Pinto... :yuck:

[MarkDaMan]

I know people here like 12.5 but I hate it...HATE IT. I do see it as a piece of art, and I'm comfortable with hating it, and I respect the developer George Hales answers in this interview. I just can't wait to see what he's going to do next.

Infill as art: a developer’s dilemma
Daily Journal of Commerce
by Kennedy Smith
07/27/2007


Developer George Hale isn’t worried that his latest condominium project, 12.5 at the corner of Northeast Knott Street and Seventh Avenue, isn’t selling like hotcakes. Of its 13 units, two units have sold and there are offers on two others.

In Portland’s recent past, condo projects in the city have reached pre-sales records, some – like South Waterfront’s John Ross or The Harrison condo conversion in downtown – selling nearly all of their units before the projects were even off the drawing boards.

But Hale, whose expertise is infill, says the tides are changing. Portland’s housing market is cooling, and 12.5 is on track with the city’s 20-year sales history. Plus, 12.5 isn’t for everybody, he says. People either love it or hate it, and he’s only interested in those who love it.

Hale – whose infill projects include row houses and townhouses in Southeast, Northeast, North Portland, Redmond and Gresham – argues infill is about pushing the limits of urban design, not about fitting with the neighborhood. It’s about incorporating modernity into historical neighborhoods, and with the influx of a young creative class entering the home-buying market, Hale says that customer base is waiting for more.

DJC: Are there some parts of Portland that are more open to infill than others?

George Hale: Typically I think of infill as like an older, established neighborhood. It used to be different because in those neighborhoods, you used to have a lot of houses that either got burned down or got so dilapidated that (they were) torn down because people figured an empty lot was better than a dilapidated house. I found it easier to do infill because nobody else was building new houses in these older neighborhoods. I always thought these neighborhoods are great. They’re close to the city. You’ve got this core of shops that you can walk to. I thought if I’m going to live somewhere, this is where I would want to live. That’s why I was building the infill. I could understand it. I knew the kind of person who would want to live there. I filtered everything through my eyes.

DJC: One of the arguments against infill is that it gentrifies a neighborhood. What do you think about that?

Hale: I don’t think that’s a bad thing. For the most part, you see lifecycles of neighborhoods. Particularly gentrification of close-in Portland is driven by a couple factors. One is the urban growth boundary. To develop we have to do it inside the UGB. Number two, I think Portland is a really cool place to live. I think close-in is a neat place to be. That’s part of what’s driving the gentrification of the historically overlooked areas.

DJC: Another argument that comes from established neighborhoods is that proposed infill projects look out of place. How do you reconcile that as an infill developer?

Hale: That’s the nature of infill. A lot of times things aren’t going to fit it. Take the 12.5 condos for example. Does that fit into the neighborhood? I think you can argue yes and no. Does it look like the old 1920s and 1930s houses? No. But that’s today’s representation of what those houses were.

DJC: We’ve also got in place the Design Commission and the Historical Landmarks Commission, and they’re scrutinizing each project that comes along. I’ve heard arguments from developers who say they could have done so much more but had to scale it back because of the commissions that are in place. What do you think about that?

Hale: To tell you the truth, I don’t know 100 percent about what’s going on there. I try and stay away from a lot of those design overlay districts because I like to have creativity in my projects, and they control the creativity.

I will say that in a lot of districts, having a second set of eyes look at it and drive the design probably helps. Look at downtown Lake Oswego. They redesigned a block downtown, a mixed-use building with retail and offices. The city was very involved in driving that design, and it’s really done a lot for the downtown.

DJC: That brings up an interesting dichotomy, the difference between urban infill and suburban infill. It’s seeped out into the suburbs, where people are calling it new urbanism. People want to live in the suburbs and not feel like they’re in suburbia. When you’re working in the suburbs, do you have to take on a different mindset?

Hale: I think so, just because your demographic is different. Your end user is different. As a developer you have to target your markets. Typically they are different in suburbia.

You’ve got a lot more families. You’ve got a lot more people with kids. Close-in Portland, you do have families but I think for the most part you also have a higher concentration of young people, single people, couples with no kids. It’s a lifestyle choice.

DJC: Do you have a family?

Hale: Yes, three kids.

DJC: Did you ever live in close-in Portland?

Hale: Yes, we lived in Southeast. Then I moved to Raleigh Hills and now I live in Lake Oswego.

DJC: Was it because of your family?

Hale: It was partly driven by that.

DJC: So the mindset you take when you develop for suburbs, you can relate to because you have started a family and left the city.

Hale: Yes. But I feel like I can relate to the single, downtown person more than I can the suburbanites. I enjoy relating to the downtown creative types more. They’re more artistic, whereas the suburban stuff is very “Leave it to Beaver.”

What’s happening is that modern design is now creeping into family life. It’s more acceptable today to have kind of a modern-designed house. When you’re doing modern design for families, the person who wants a modern-designed family home is incredibly specific about what they want. So you have to do a custom house. We’re more spec builders here.

DJC: When you first started developing 12.5, you weren’t that interested in sustainable features, but you turned around on it. What was that about?

Hale: A couple of things happened. I met the contractors (Barrs and Genauer Construction), and they’re completely into sustainable development. Then I read an article about Wal-Mart. They wanted to use their weight to have a better impact on the world. I thought if they’re going to do it, I should probably do it too.

DJC: What was it about sustainability that made you not consider it in the first place?

Hale: It was the cost. It does cost more to do sustainability. There’s no doubt about it. And I thought people don’t really care. They’re not going to want to pay. And I still don’t know if the buyer wants to pay more. They want sustainability but they don’t want to pay more.

DJC: The 12.5 is completely built. Most of the time you hear of condo buildings being pre-sold before construction. Does it make you nervous that 12.5 isn’t selling like that?

Hale: Yes and no. Historically speaking, you have a condo project and if you’re not 95 percent sold out before it’s finished, something’s wrong. That’s happened over the last two or three years. But in reality, if you look over the last 15 to 20 years, we’re exactly where we’re supposed to be. It’s on track with normalcy. As developers we have to step back from what happened in the recent past and think about what’s normal. Yes, it’s scary because as a developer you always have this fear that it’s not going to sell. But you know theoretically it’s going to.

DJC: What becomes the point where you say, “OK, these really aren’t selling and we need to lower the price”?

Hale: It’s a function of traffic, feedback you get from people, feedback from buyers and real estate agents. It’s a combination of all that. Right now we have great traffic. I know our competition. We really don’t have any. Unique buildings like this, that’s more than just a house and a place to live; it’s artwork. People walk in and either hate it or love it.

DJC: You said you really don’t have any competition. What did you mean by that?

Hale: Well, competition as far as modern-style town houses. Right now if somebody wants a condo that’s close in, there are a couple three- or four-story buildings. But for a modern-style condo where you drive into your garage and go right into your unit, there really aren’t a lot around.

Tearing down a legend

A resident of Lake Oswego, Hale found himself in a sticky situation earlier this year when he bought and intended to tear down the house adjacent to his own – a house that happened to be designed by Pietro Belluschi, the man behind the Portland Art Museum and the Equitable Building in Portland.

DJC: What’s the story behind the (Pietro Belluschi) house?

Hale: So, the Belluschi house is next door to where I live. What’s been going on in my neighborhood is that people tear down houses and build a house next to it in its place. So, my wife and I decided to buy the house and build a house that we really like there and that we think is going to go well next to our house.

I bought it, applied for a demo permit, and it turns out it’s this Belluschi house, a famous architect. Me, I look at the house and its garbage. The guy who lived there for 60-something years did nothing to it. It was all dry-rotted. I met with a man named Tim Mather (owner of MCM Construction in Lake Oswego). He said this was an architecturally significant house and asked if he could take it. I said, “If you want to, go for it.” So he spearheaded taking the house apart, numbering it and putting it in storage and rebuilding it. I don’t know that he knows where it will go yet, but there’s a pool of four or five people who want it.

DJC: Did you feel like the bad guy for wanting to tear it down?

Hale: I didn’t. My wife’s uncle was one of the partners at Boora (Architects), and I ran it by him. He said not all great architects make great architecture. I’m glad somebody found value in it and is going to do something with it, but I don’t think it was really architecturally significant.

DJC: Would it be a blow to your ego to know that somebody might do that to your projects one day?

Hale: Emotionally, sure. When you build something you invest your time and effort into it. It’s a little part of you. But intellectually, I’d say if it’s past its lifecycle, that’s what has to be done. It’s all part of the nature of infill.
http://www.djcoregon.com/viewStory.cfm?recid=29836&userID=1

[tworivers]

Wow. I can't believe that he accidentally bought a Belluschi house. And then deconstructed it and had it taken away!!!

Another great interview.

Mark, what are your reasons for hating 12.5? Have you actually checked out the site? I'm just curious. My "like" comes with significant qualifiers, btw.

[mcbaby]

i found a link of the 12.5 http://www.360pdx.com/index.php?page=tourpanos.php&id=412 seems pretty stark inside. the courtyard garage doesn't make for pleasant viewing.

[Aya Murase]

Does anyone have any info on the art school building that is going in on SE 25th/26th & Division? I saw an image in the DJC yesterday, but accidentally recycled it before I had a chance to take a closer look.

[Dougall5505]

the watershed in hillsdale I took this one with my crappy old camera
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1368/920531624_3d31625596_b.jpg

[bvpcvm]

Does anyone have any info on the art school building that is going in on SE 25th/26th & Division? I saw an image in the DJC yesterday, but accidentally recycled it before I had a chance to take a closer look.

are you talking about the "fire and earth art center"? the dept planning and development review has a pre-app notice about it here (http://www.portlandonline.com/shared/cfm/image.cfm?id=163749).

[NJD]

Looks like the new building will block a lot of the downtown views of the Clinton Condos... I wonder if Rapaport feals good about this neighboring project... Looks good to me, the entire 7 corners/ Clinton area is defnitely getting built up... I hope all the building doesn't push away more local businesses though...

[holladay]

It's interesting to me that 12.5 has generated so much controversy. From the virtual tour I agree 12.5 is stark on the interior, though not exactly in a successful way. The main living space is clean, but it lacks presence. Also, the 2 street elevations are a little closed. I would've liked the project more if the main elevations were less static, more like the courtyard, which is enlivened by the wood siding and the banded portions on the middle level. All-in-all I really respect Holst and the work they do, and I appreciate the daringness of this project. I just wish that it had more of the sensuality that came through in their best works like Belmont St and Thurman St.

[mcbaby]

are you talking about the "fire and earth art center"? the dept planning and development review has a pre-app notice about it here (http://www.portlandonline.com/shared/cfm/image.cfm?id=163749).
is there a rendering? is there a pic of what currently is located at that address?

[bvpcvm]

is there a rendering? is there a pic of what currently is located at that address?

just follow the link - no renderings, but some elevations.

[ATR]

There's a model of the art academy building at http://www.fireandearth.org.

[Aya Murase]

Looks like the architect for the art academy building is Perkins Architectural.
http://www.perkinsarch.com/commercial.shtml

hmmmm.....

[MarkDaMan]

City bets on courtyards
TRIB TOWN • Planning agency contest seeks designs that meld density, family-friendliness
By Anna Johns
The Portland Tribune, Jul 31, 2007

After years of hearing complaints from neighbors, the city of Portland’s Bureau of Planning is taking the first step to encourage real-estate developers to build high-density housing that is family-friendly.

This month, the bureau launched a nationwide design competition for courtyard housing. Traditional courtyard housing rises only two or three stories high and wraps around a courtyard on three sides with all the units opening up to the courtyard.

The fourth side of the courtyard is open to the street.

“As higher density housing is a larger component of new housing, we want to look at how family housing might be part of that mix,” said Bill Cunningham, city planner.

Courtyard housing, Cunningham said, is an obvious choice for families because of the semiprivate courtyard that is shared among neighbors. Courtyard units – with up to three bedrooms and two levels – tend to be larger than many compact condominium units that are popping up throughout Portland.

The city already has courtyard housing complexes sprinkled throughout its neighborhoods. Many of the complexes were built in the 1930s and 1940s, often as affordable housing for families after World War II.

The design competition is meant for lots that are typical for two areas of Portland most likely to experience high-density housing:

• Inner Southeast: 100-foot-square lots, which can accommodate four to 10 units facing a shared courtyard space.

• East Portland: lots 95 feet wide and 180 feet deep can accommodate seven to 17 units facing a shared courtyard space.

Courtyards can be limited to pedestrian-only use or can be mixed-use with narrow streets that provide pedestrian access, but no through traffic. The designs are intended to be on quieter streets in the neighborhoods, not on main business streets where complexes featuring retail on the ground and housing above are most profitable for developers.

Cunningham said courtyard housing is meant to be an alternative to row houses or “skinny” houses that developers are building on those lots.

The advantage to developers, he said, is that they can fit more units on a lot in a courtyard-style development than with row houses. The disadvantage is that courtyard housing developments tend to be better rentals than ownership opportunities because of liability insurance costs.
Resident loves the design

Caroline Skinner has lived in a courtyard housing complex in Northwest Portland for 20 years. She raised her daughter – now college age – in their two-bedroom apartment in the Quimby Court Apartments.

“For years, I’ve been saying the city should get more courtyards like this one,” she said. “I love the design.”

For Skinner, the shared green space provides limited privacy from the road but also provides limited intimacy with the neighbors who live in her building.

Because of the courtyard each of the 16 units in the building are far enough away from one another that no one looks directly into someone else’s living space.

“I’m really glad that Portland is recognizing the seriousness of the situation that housing is just about out of reach for ordinary people,” Skinner said.

In inner Southeast Portland, the word “infill” has a negative connotation. The Hosford-Abernethy neighborhood – which borders the Willamette River, 29th Avenue, and Hawthorne and Powell boulevards – has approximately 100 new condominium units under construction.

“People within this neighborhood and this inner-Southeast area have been concerned for a long time with trying to find a way to take our share of the increased density and hold on to what makes our neighborhood special to us,” said Linda Nettekoven, vice chairwoman of the Hosford-Abernethy Neighborhood Association.
More families wanted

Nettekoven identifies families and local businesses as key assets to her neighborhood. Hosford-Abernethy has seen growth in local businesses along Hawthorne and Division Street, but new families have been slow to move into the neighborhood.

“We’re always nervous about enrollment at the neighborhood schools,” Nettekoven said.

Nettekoven is supportive of the design competition and hopes that the city actively encourages developers to build family-friendly, high-density housing once the contest is complete. And, she said, it will take more than development opportunities to entice families to return to the inner city.

“We need community centers and settings where families can come together,” Nettekoven said. “If families are going to settle for less space so they can live in the city, we need some amenities for them.”

The designs are due Oct. 24. The winner will receive $20,000. Information is at www.CourtyardHousing.org.

annajohns@portlandtribune.com
http://www.portlandtribune.com/news/story.php?story_id=118582942332189500

[MarkDaMan]

this doesn't really go here...it mentions the Gateway project near the end so I'm going to see if I can't find something on portlandonline today.


Design’s early-look process to get closer look from city
Daily Journal of Commerce
by Alison Ryan
08/01/2007


The two Portland commissions that review building design are expected to take a closer look at how well the city’s design advice process works.

The design advice option, introduced in 2003, is a way for developers to get early feedback from the Portland Design Commission or Historic Landmarks Commission on what may be complicated or limit-pushing projects. Unlike design review and the pre-application conference, design advice sessions aren’t mandatory.

Developers pay a flat fee of $1,501 for design advice. City staff says paying a small amount before spending between $7,611 and $24,712 for formal Type III design review is worth the added cost.

“That’s just excellent due diligence,” city planner Tim Heron said.

But commissioners have started to question whether repeat appearances are time well spent. The fee paid covers the entire design advice process, which can involve two or even three appearances before the commissions.

A recent design advice session for a Reach Community Development project on Southeast Division Street had Historic Landmarks Commission members questioning the role of the advice option in the entire process. The project, in its third appearance before the commission, hadn’t changed significantly since the last session, Commissioner Peter Meijer said.

“Basically, they’re looking for approval before they submit to the formal application process,” he said.

Most often, Heron said, projects returning two and three times have undergone significant, fundamental changes along the way. For example, he said, a project in Portland’s Gateway District that began as two five-story buildings with ground-floor retail space has shifted to six stories with no retail component.

As building activity in the central city, historic districts and other areas subject to design review has grown, so has interest in the design advice option. The variety in what’s submitted, in terms of level of detail, accompanying renderings and photographs and plans, is widening as the process becomes more popular.

Design advice is due for a look by both commissions. City review processes are constantly being refined, Heron said, and design advice issues popped up in Historic Landmarks Commission meetings as well as Design Commission meetings.

The process is likely to be on the agenda for commissioners’ yet-to-be-scheduled retreats, typically held once a year in a half-day recorded session.

“We’ve had a lot now to reflect on,” Heron said. “Let’s look at some that weren’t as successful and some that were.”

[MarkDaMan]

dup

[tworivers]

Brian Libby's latest blog post is worth posting here in its entirety. Interesting discussion happening in the comments (http://www.portlandarchitecture.com).

Email From A Frustrated Architect

A few weeks ago I wrote about the small Portland firm William Kaven Architecture and its various housing projects. This week I received a follow-up email from co-principal Daniel Kaven expressing some major frustration at the apparently lengthy process of making his firm’s latest design, a multi-family project in North Portland called the North House, a reality.

The City of Portland actually recently approved the Kaven design on North Vancouver, but it has been appealed by a neighbor near the property. "The proposed development is in a residential zone and therefore should be designed to enhance these existing and predominant features," the appeal argues. "The design is not compatible with the existing structures and neighborhood."

A design review commission hearing this Thursday, August 2 (1900 SW Fourth Ave., Room 2500A) will allow public testimony, and the architects asked me to appeal to the design community to come and support their efforts. It’s not just about the North House, Daniel argues, but the ability of contemporary architecture to get approved in a timely fashion that doesn't let good projects die on the vine.

“The City of Portland has made it excruciatingly difficult to make the most simple changes to its own community-design standards,” he goes on. “I have been sucked into the BDS [Bureau of Development Services] bureaucracy for months now based solely on my attempt to have flat roofs, which exist in order to have more urban space and foster green roof development.”

“The manner in which the City of Portland and neighbors can hold your design hostage has really gotten out of control. There needs to be major changes in the "community design standards" in order to accommodate modern design. Modern housing, which might only slightly deviate from the standards, is slathered in red tape, while awful track housing still gets the green light.”

I present Daniel’s experience not as gospel, because to be honest I hear varying things about city design review and have never been through this process myself. Anyone I’ve ever talked to at the City seems pretty reasonable about crafting a balance between unchecked design freedom and rigid guidelines. But proof is in the project, of course. What do other architects and developers trying to generate contemporary urban infill projects in historic neighborhoods have to say about their experiences?

It seems tempting to cast this, as Daniel has, as evidence of civic growing pains, wherein residents who love their Craftsman bungalows, Tudors and other pitched-roof single family homes see the arrival of contemporary architecture as out of character. I and many others have argued that, done properly, modern buildings and homes fit in easily with historic styles, and the diversity enriches the entire neighborhood. However, with any project there can be a lot of subtle but important details regarding scale and material that can and should be worked out in order to help a modern structure fit into a more historic context or accentuate the pedestrian experience. One of the appeal's other complaints other than the contemporary style had to do with public access and pedestrian integration, which I think may have been better served as a stand-alone argument rather than this "the world is flat" mentality about the place of contemporary architecture.

The city may have certain legitimate concerns about certain details regarding the North House they want to take time to resolve, and quite often the timetables of public and private concerns can be different ones - like two cars on the freeway who belong in the far-left and far-right lanes but have to somehow ride together. But I know William Kaven is not the only architecture firm to express frustration about red-tape. The very term "red tape" is a cliche, after all, because so many people have reached for such shorthand terms over time for government slowness and time-wasting. Does the BDS need more resources to do its job, or are these architects just Kaven to the pressure?

Posted by Brian Libby on July 31, 2007

http://chatterbox.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/07/31/kavennorthhouse3.jpg

http://chatterbox.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/07/31/kavennorthhouse2.jpg

[pdxman]

The design looks great...but nimbys will be nimbys and of course the city caves in whenever neighbors get involved. ONE person has complained, ONE! and they send it back. Thats ridiculous IMO. The portland process is alive and well and this situation proves it.

[kvalk]

PDXMAN, it would probably be good if you had some basic understanding of the process before making comments such as those. Because apparently you don't.
Now I'm not high on the city processes, but I'm also not a fan of placing blame were it doesn't belong.
One person has appealed, by following the process of the code. The city has done no caving, they actually APPROVED the project. Now the Design Commission will hear the appeal. That's the process, nothing has been sent back.

[hi123]

How iss lane 1919 progresing? Any new pics?

[pdxtraveler]

How iss lane 1919 progresing? Any new pics?

I can see it from my desk. I don't think you want pics now, it looks HORRIBLE. I hope once they do the finishing touches it looks good. My fingers are crossed!

[CouvScott]

Thursday, August 02, 2007
By Fred Leeson
Special to The Oregonian

Barely more than three years ago, the City Council expressed high hopes for the block bounded by Southeast 102nd and 103rd avenues between Burnside and Ankeny.

It had the potential, the city said, to become a gateway to the Gateway District. So the council gave it a zoning label that would allow a building height of 150 feet -- say, 12 or 13 stories.

What will come to this block, however, is a senior housing complex of three and four stories. And that's just fine, city and neighborhood officials say.

"Conditions for redevelopment are very difficult," says Justin Douglas, a project coordinator for the Portland Development Commission. He says incomes in the area are declining, and unpaved streets and a lack of parks discourage major developers.

The "gateway" block -- vacant except for a house that will be removed -- soon will become the third phase of Russellville, a development that began in 1999 after the Rembold Cos. bought what was then a vacant school site in 1995.

The latest, and final, phase will contain 139 units for senior residents, including 17 group-living units for seniors suffering from memory disabilities.

Four wings will frame a central courtyard. The Burnside and 103rd Avenue facades will be four-story, flat-roofed structures. The southern and western sides will have three stories topped with pitched roofs and gables.

Robert Moreland, a principal in MCM Architects, says a pedestrian link across 103rd will allow senior residents in Russellville II to use fitness and dining facilities in the new building.

While not as urban (read dense) as planners had once hoped, Moreland says the new block will help create a defined district within Gateway.

"The new development reflects a lot of the patterns and motifs of the existing development," he says. "We feel our neighborhood is developing a pedestrian feel, and what we are doing will be a continuation of that. We think it is a community that really works."

With a nod to the city's planning goals, the Burnside frontage has a more urban look, with its flat roof and a horizontal Art Moderne feel. Moreland's plan turns the corner at 102nd with a bold curve that will add visual interest before the pitched roofs march down the rest of 102nd.

The pitched roofs raised some eyebrows on the Portland Design Commission. But Linda Robinson, vice chair of the Hazelwood Neighborhood Association, says neighbors like the residential feel of the pitched roofs and gables.

"Some feel it might not be urban enough," she says of the plan, "but it's a big step from what's there now. It's really tough to put in big fancy new buildings when there's nothing there now."

Douglas of the PDC says the completion of Russellville has the potential to attract more development to the Gateway urban renewal area.

Wayne Rembold, head of the development team, says the first two phases filled slowly. He thinks the third phase will fill faster with seniors who already live in Southeast but who need assisted care.

Final approval of the plan is expected from the design commission later this month. Construction should begin soon thereafter. "We have our phase three financing, and we're ready to go," Rembold says.

[MarkDaMan]

Neighbor’s appeal of modern North Portland design denied
Daily Journal of Commerce
by Alison Ryan
08/06/2007


A neighbor’s appeal of a three-story modern triplex project in North Portland was denied Thursday by the Portland Design Commission.

The project’s slice of land on North Vancouver Avenue sits in a neighborhood of layered context: the front porches and intense detail of historic residences, and the boxes and utility of commercial use.

“It needed to be the transitional element between the residential element and what will surely be a very big commercial development,” said designer Daniel Kaven of William Kaven.

Stacked squares of glass and true cement stucco, three stories for each of the three units, are accented by stretches of ipe in Kaven’s design for the building. Living spaces are contained in the first and second stories; the third stories are large green roof decks.

The solution offers a creative, modern transition between the commercial and the residential, commissioners said. Kaven’s design is an integrated, sensitive response in a “well-orchestrated” piece of architecture, commission Chairman Lloyd Lindley said.

“You do have a historical view of development over time,” Jeff Stuhr said. “This is truly going to be a building that’s of it’s time.”

As developers and designers target infill lots in Portland’s grown-up neighborhoods, existing residents say buildings of their time can be too much: too big, too modern and too expensive.

The proposed design, said Deadra Hall, the neighbor appealing the approval, encroaches on neighboring properties, doesn’t fit within the visual flow of existing residences, and will ultimately usher lower-income residents out of North Portland.

“Mr. Kaven’s design is insulting and only serves to satisfy his creative appetite,” Hall said.

The project was approved by staff in the city’s type II review process, in an effort that involved much back-and-forth between staff and the design team, said city planner Justin Fallon Dollard. Changes like the addition of a front porch and front entry door, he said, helped move the project within the community design guidelines.

The end result, he said, “is probably the greenest triplex we’ve ever seen.”

Some of the neighborhood concerns, said commissioner Gwen Millius, are generated as by-products of sustainability efforts. Flat roofs create green roof opportunities. Higher density in an urban corridor means fuller use of infill lots.

“Architecture does have to evolve, and we have to allow it to accommodate certain values that as a city we’re trying to embrace,” she said.

But installing such a project could, residents said, change the dynamic of the neighborhood itself. Keeping the neighborhood a neighborhood, 25-year resident Bernice Dunn said, is her main concern.

“Not structure, life there,” she said. “Life.”

Commission vice-chairman Michael McCulloch said that future residents of the new triplex are likely to be attracted, and contributors, to the neighborhood character.

“I’m hoping you don’t think higher density, as such, creates a lack of neighborhoods,” he said.
http://www.djcoregon.com/viewStory.cfm?recid=29886&userID=1

[tworivers]

I'm glad the Design Commission made the right choice.

It'd be a shame to see quality contemporary design like this get squashed when the crap they're building over on Cupola Blvd (aka MLK) gets through no problem. Yes, each of the three new buildings that the PDC has had a hand in --Fremont corner, Heritage Bldg, and Vanport-- feature cheap-looking cupolas, I'm guessing as a nod to neighborhood provincialism.

“Mr. Kaven’s design is insulting and only serves to satisfy his creative appetite”

I love that line. Man... Portland is the wrong place to be marrying creativity and architecture, I guess...

[zilfondel]

That is why I'm not crying when old-school Portlanders move to Gresham. People with the mentality of a Jack Bog don't have anything to contribute positively (to anything), IMO.

Let 'em move.

[Eagle rock]

Jack Bog isn't even from Portland. He is from New Jersey or something. Don't forget that many visionary old school Portlanders established the policies and principals that define Portland today and brings newcomers into the city.

[EastPDX]

there are progressives living here in Gresham. You do generalize, my friend. We love being closer to Nature and still be able to get to PDX on MAX or stay local at our home grown resturants in Old Town Gresham.

By the way, are you a Native Oregonian? Some of us NO's like staying close to family, friends, and our roots. Some of us have been environmentalists since the Sixties because our Faith taught us to honor Creation. Some of us treasure Love, Creation, and Others.

Some of us progressive Christians go to our local churches and stay away for the corporate mega-churches. There are many of us in East County my friend including our Native American Associate Pastor. He teaches us alot about God's Creation.

Is it strange to you to have someone call themselves a progressive and talk about Creation?

EP

[zilfondel]

^ Yea, I'm a native. Born in Corvallis, didn't grow up in P-town.

My post wasn't meant to say anything about Gresham, just that a lot of people are fleeing Portland to move to the burbs... and I don't really give a **** that they are moving.

My parents were LA escapees. And considering I grew up in small-town Oregon surrounded by religious nuts and Mormons, I'd prefer to stay as far from any religiously minded people as possible. Thanks, tho.

[Okstate]

Is the Mormon influence very strong in PDX?

[Eagle rock]

I think it should be a concern that native Portlanders are moving to the suburbs. I think this trend will ultimately hollow out the city into just a bunch of rootless transplants that may not really even care about the city. Old native Portlanders add richness and character to the city and when they leave they take pieces of the cities history with them.

Don’t get me wrong. I think the new people who have moved into Portland have had a tremendously positive effect on the city and are responsible for much of the culture and vibrancy. But I have heard these anti native Portlander sentiments from lots of newcomers and I think that is kind of a messed up mentality.

I am a native but I have lived in California for the last 5 years so I am sure people down here might feel the same way about me.

[zilfondel]

^ The people that are moving are the ones that generally don't give a rat's ass about Portland. Those that are staying are the ones that have the passion... as do many of the new 'immigrants.'

Or have you not noticed? After living here a few years, the change is about as noticeable as it is to be struck by a semi at 60mph.

==

Mormons in PDX? Nope. I have yet to meet any... I was talking about a small town that shall remain nameless.

[brandonpdx]

phu-lease. I'm a native and I live in the heart of the city and I'm not going anywhere. A lot of people that are moving to Portland are of a like mind in our common values. we have maintained not being very politically diverse for better or for worse.
I appreciate your concern, but the sky is not falling.