Pearl District News

[tworivers]

The downside (maybe not a downside, depending on perspective) is that it looks like Ball is going for a more strictly faux-historic style. The upside is that the attention to detail looks like it could save it, or at least turn it into a decent fabric building rather than something like the Asa that constantly draws your eye to its horribleness. My feeling is encapsulated by the decorative lighting on the front of the building in the rendering: some part of me responds favorably to the sort of 1920's Gotham-esque quality that it lends, but a bigger part of me just thinks FAKE.

I think it will end up looking better than the renderings, but I still don't like it very much. Excited to see something on that block nevertheless.

[NJD]

I've always been a fan of art deco, and I find nothing about this design that says "fake art deco" to me. The style was based on pre-fab technology that is still in use today, so really art -deco never 'ended' as a style. Same with modernism: no one called the Metropolitan fake-modernism for example. That's my two cents anyway... I like this design except the streetscape looks really dead to me: no retail, long expanses without openings, metal bars on windows, and featureless corners. You can look at the Gregory as an example of new art deco with a Portland-style streetscape.

[Derek]

Not every single building needs retail. Sure, it'd be nice, but given the location of this building, I don't think retail is necessary, so long as other new buildings in the vicinity have some GOOD retail. I don't want to see more "Metrovino" type places. I want to see more places in The Pearl that myself and other people will actually go to.

[philopdx]

Residence Inn taken this week:

[philopdx]

The Janey is all wrapped up, and I love the street-level interaction:

[urbanlife]

Wow, that building actually turned out really nice. I must say I am really pleased with the final results, they did a great job with material choices.

[WestCoast]

^^^^^

I drove by that building yesterday and totally forgot it was brand new.
It just absolutely fits into the neighborhood without any drama.

[zilfondel]

Originally Posted by Derek

Not every single building needs retail. Sure, it'd be nice, but given the location of this building, I don't think retail is necessary, so long as other new buildings in the vicinity have some GOOD retail. I don't want to see more "Metrovino" type places. I want to see more places in The Pearl that myself and other people will actually go to.

I wonder. It says it will have these amenities - hopefully they will front the street:

a workout facility, coffee bar, 180 bicycle stalls, a dog-washing area and a bicycle repair station.

...at least the coffee bar?

[tworivers]

I wish buildings like the Janey were the standard all over PDX.

[downtownpdx]

^^^ Yeah I agree, it's great from top to bottom and feels like it's been there for years -- the initial renderings didn't look so good but it turned out nice! The retail space blends in really well too.

[pdxstreetcar]

I too am really impressed with this project and especially the really active ground floor.

In my opinion, the Janey, Grays Landing (SoWa) and NE 6th/Couch are three recent projects that have turned out really nice as designs, are fantastic additions to their neighborhoods and which came out better than I expected.

[pdxstreetcar]

I like how the first floor units are raised up from the sidewalk level half a level, that is so essential for the sake of the units, though I admit difficult with ADA requirements on no-setback buildings. Although I imagine if you get the windows too much higher up on the first floor that you cant see in, you potentially run into the inactive ground floor blank wall issue.

Good points about retail.

I wish Portland had a strategy for retail, it need not necessarily be a requirement to follow but a strategy for where to really encourage placement of retail and where to be neutral about it. Certainly this is shaped by the market, but I'm thinking have a retail consultant with their knowledge of the urban retail market create an overlay for the city for where retail will work and discourage it or be neutral to it elsewhere. But its got to be looked at from a neighborhood scale not a single building scale like it seems to be currently. A retail expert knows where retail will succeed and what it needs to do to succeed. From the little I know about retail, I do know it needs to be concentrated and not spread out, it benefits from being adjacent to other retailers so that it becomes a destination for shoppers, this is all how successful Portland shopping streets NW 23rd, Hawthorne, Mississippi function. So certain streets would have the retail and other nearby streets would have other active ground floor uses and actually be designed that way from the start. Likewise as part of this, certain incentives should be offered to improve buildings with dead frontage on retail streets to grow existing successful retail continuity, for example Good Sam Hospital on NW 23rd... that blank brick wall severs the continuity of 23rd south of the hospital from north of the hospital, if they could add in retail space along that frontage and relocate the current hospital uses there elsewhere on the campus it would do tremendously to benefit adjacent businesses and the street as a whole (plus thats a lot of high value rent that the hospital could capture).

As this area north of Lovejoy in the Pearl gets developed, where (if any) might the main retail streets be north of Lovejoy? Maybe it will be all residential and office?

Interesting how the retail in the south half of the Pearl (Glisan & south) is really successful, the retail in the northern half is mediocre to marginal even parts that are built out like Jamison Square and Lovejoy.

[bvpcvm]

Grays Landing? Which one is that?

[MarkDaMan]

^The affordable/veterans housing building in the South Waterfront.

[New Madrid]

Originally Posted by Derek

You guys are picky as hell with architecture.

thanks.

[crow]

Originally Posted by New Madrid

thanks.

And i would add that some also think very highly of themselves.

[i2m]

I think the lack of density in the North Pearl is holding back retail development. Most of the existing retail space north of Lovejoy is still vacant, some, like the Pinnacle Pavillion and Metropolitan, after many years.

As the North Pearl develops, it will have more retail success although unlikely will be anything like the South Pearl. Hoyt had a retail study some years ago that showed that there is likely to be minimal retail in the North Pearl, even when it gets built out.

Main retail streets will probalby be 14th, 13th, 11th, and Overton although I don't think any of these will have much retail density and vitality.

I expect more ground floor residential, office, and live work as development continues north.

[MarkDaMan]

Pearl District's first hotel is under construction
Portland Business Journal by Wendy Culverwell , Business Journal staff writer
Date: Tuesday, December 11, 2012, 10:13am PST

http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/blog...tricts-first-hotel-is-under.html?s=print

The industrial strength thumping sound ringing through the Pearl District may be unfamiliar to newcomers, but is a welcome sign of economic revival after four years of relative silence.

The thumping is the sound of construction crews driving piles into the ground for the foundation of the 225-room Residence Inn by Marriott. The Pearl District’s first hotel is officially under construction at Northwest Ninth Avenue and Northrup Street, near Union Station.

The $49.5-plus million project hints at a reviving interest in privately-funded development in the city’s trendy north end district. It is also the first evidence in Oregon of a fresh source of money to finance construction projects — the federal EB-5 immigrant investor program.

The hotel is a joint venture of Williams & Dame Development and EB 5 Global. The former is led by Portland developer Homer Williams; the latter formed as a conduit to channel investment by immigrants under the EB-5 program, which rewards foreigners who invest $500,000 in U.S. projects that yield at least 10 jobs with green cards.

Williams has been actively marketing the Residence Inn project to investors in China.

In a May filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission — its most recent — a Williams affiliate disclosed it had raised $8.5 million out of a total $52.92 million sought, with a minimum investment of $500,000.

SERA Architects designed the building. Howard S. Wright Constructors, a division of Balfour Beatty, is building it.

[pbd]

Some plans and elevations for the Planet Granite climbing gym are now available:

http://www.portlandonline.com/bds/index.cfm?c=42259&a=428003

Fosler, of Freedom Center fame, is the architect.

[Shilo Rune 96]

Originally Posted by pbd

Some plans and elevations for the Planet Granite climbing gym are now available:

http://www.portlandonline.com/bds/index.cfm?c=42259&a=428003

Fosler, of Freedom Center fame, is the architect.

Kinda silly it's so close to LA Fitness?