Pearl West | 120' | 9 floors | Complete

[tworivers]

Given the description in the blog, I'd hardly call this design 'basic', though admittedly that can mean different things to different people. To me it looks refined, confident, and striking. Love the black brick. Also love the fact that they've clearly thought about context while designing something for the present. Underground parking. Street level looks interactive. Hope it happens. Wasn't the last proposal some sort of extended-stay hotel?

And yeah, excellent blog! Who is it? One of us?

From Places Over Time:

The scheme consists of 167,000 sq. ft. of offices and street level retail on top of a 3-story underground parking garage holding 153 spaces. The designers looked to compliment the existing urban fabric of century-old masonry warehouses with a dark brick facade perforated by evenly-spaced square window bays that feature oversized piers and spandrels reminiscent of traditional building techniques. The first three floors are designed to align with the neighboring historic building’s window lines and parapet, creating a smooth transition across the block. The remaining facade is proposed to change in pier and floor width as the building rises, slowly transitioning from thicker to thinner wythes of brick veneer giving the overall mass a sense of lightness toward the top and heaviness at the base.

[2oh1]

That render is out of whack, isn't it? The building reaches 9 stories before the building next door (The Avenue lofts, if I'm not mistaken) barely reaches its 3rd floor.

[maccoinnich]

It looks proportionally correct to me. I think what's confusing about the render at first glance is that the building in the foreground is ghosted so that you can see all of the facade of the new building.

[maccoinnich]

Design Advice file here. [12 MB PDF]

[urbanlife]

Originally Posted by tworivers

Given the description in the blog, I'd hardly call this design 'basic', though admittedly that can mean different things to different people. To me it looks refined, confident, and striking. Love the black brick. Also love the fact that they've clearly thought about context while designing something for the present. Underground parking. Street level looks interactive. Hope it happens. Wasn't the last proposal some sort of extended-stay hotel?

And yeah, excellent blog! Who is it? One of us?

From Places Over Time:

I have to agree, I think it might be even better than Brian Libby's site, even though they are technically two different type of sites. It is definitely a great addition for Portland blogs, I am sure a number of us will continue to mine this new site for information.

[bvpcvm]

Apparently the Pearl West office tower is breaking ground this month.

http://placesovertime.wordpress.com/2014/06/15/pearl-west-iii/

[riterpdx]

Originally Posted by bvpcvm

Apparently the Pearl West office tower is breaking ground this month.

http://placesovertime.wordpress.com/2014/06/15/pearl-west-iii/

its kinda ehh just a big box, although I do like that it'll be a darker building, don't think theres enough dark buildings to contrast against the others in the Pearl, or downtown either.. There's like two black glass-wall buildings that get overshadowed and are lost amidst the others, Portland could use more dark buildings, I mean look at the presence of Seattle's Columbia tower, stylish... anyways I digress

I'm sure more office and retail space will do that area good though,

[Derek]

I actually like that building a lot. It's completely bland and boring, but it completely breaks the mold of the surrounding area, which in my opinion is a good thing. Variety is awesome.

[PDX City-State]

Originally Posted by Derek

I actually like that building a lot. It's completely bland and boring, but it completely breaks the mold of the surrounding area, which in my opinion is a good thing. Variety is awesome.

I like it too. It's simple and has nice big windows. It will be great to have more people working in this neighborhood--nice to have office space in the mix.

[MarkDaMan]

Developers of Pearl West office tower speed toward groundbreaking next week
Oregonian
By Elliot Njus | [email protected]
Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on July 08, 2014 at 12:30 PM, updated July 08, 2014 at 12:32 PM

http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index...reaking_for_pearl_west.html#incart_river

The developers behind a planned Pearl District office tower are moving fast.

The nine-story Pearl West building, announced in January, is set to break ground next week after flying through the city's design review and permitting process.

Why the rush? The team behind the project, led by developer Walter Bowen's BPM Real Estate, wants to take advantage of one of the hottest markets for office space in the country at a time when there's little competition in the offing.

"They were pretty clear to us when we were being considered for the project that we need to be very aggressive getting the project through quickly," said Phil Beyl of GBD Architects Inc., which collaborated with THA Architecture Inc. on the project.

...continues

[maccoinnich]

Whoa, that was quick.

[zilfondel]

More info:

http://placesovertime.wordpress.com/2014/02/14/pearl-west/

167,000 square feet of office, 153 parking spaces (3 stories underground). The site is currently a roughly 20,000 square foot parking lot.

[Sioux612]

There's a lot of action in the Pearl!

Doesn't the Park Central tower break ground next month as well?

[maccoinnich]

I think so. The site is fenced off at the moment, and there was something in the NW Examiner this month about them getting started soon.

[2oh1]

Originally Posted by MarkDaMan

Developers of Pearl West office tower speed toward groundbreaking next week
Oregonian
By Elliot Njus | [email protected]
Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on July 08, 2014 at 12:30 PM, updated July 08, 2014 at 12:32 PM

http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index...reaking_for_pearl_west.html#incart_river

I'm glad this one is moving quickly. I was starting to wonder if this lot (NW 14th & Irving) was cursed. I'd swear there have been several different proposals for the site that came and went. It'll be good to lose that surface parking lot, and the building isn't bad either. It's relatively simple, but I think I like it.

[urbanlife]

Originally Posted by 2oh1

I'm glad this one is moving quickly. I was starting to wonder if this lot (NW 14th & Irving) was cursed. I'd swear there have been several different proposals for the site that came and went. It'll be good to lose that surface parking lot, and the building isn't bad either. It's relatively simple, but I think I like it.

I am with you on this one. Good to see this surface lot go and the design is actually simple and good, it will fit in nicely.

[maccoinnich]

Pearl West fenced off last night.

[Tykendo]

Tower? What!! How 'bout, The Pearl West Office Squatty. 9 stories is a tower in Medford, not PDX.

[Innovativethinking87]

Originally Posted by Tykendo

Tower? What!! How 'bout, The Pearl West Office Squatty. 9 stories is a tower in Medford, not PDX.

Totally agree, don't know why people are so excited about this stumpy looking tower

[Derek]

For the location, 9 stories is ideal. Anything taller would start to look out of place. We're excited because Portland is finally starting to get more office space and this lot has been vacant for quite some time.