Portland State University (PSU) Development News

[2oh1]

Originally Posted by MarkDaMan

Riverplace is such a waste of downtown space.

I agree.

I first moved to Portland in the fall of 1998. I moved to The Essex House apartments, next to KOIN Tower on 3rd. I remember looking at apartments in Riverplace and thinking "Wow, this neighborhood is really going to be something." But it didn't happen. It still has a ton of potential though. Hopefully, pushing PSU that way will be good for Riverplace. And if SOWA eventually reaches it from the other side... well... I realize that's a loooooong way off, but better late than never.

I love downtown so much. I see just about all of this as good good good news.

[Shilo Rune 96]

@ the Riverplace


The path along the water is quite nice, there's a lot of people out during the summer time walking, biking, and eating out on tables from the near by retail.

[philopdx]

Update from 3-5-2011:

[zilfondel]

Originally Posted by floam

So the adorable old brick building I live in at Park and Market is marked for destruction? That sucks.

Yeah, its going bye-bye. PSU wants to build a new School of Business Admin expansion to take up the entire block.

Details of the $60 million project can be found in this thread - which should probably be merged into this one:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=178545

School's website for the new building:

http://sba.pdx.edu/parkandmarket/

Construction starts 2014


image courtesy PSU

[65MAX]

Park & Market?? It's NINTH & Market.

Their map is wrong.... Park Ave is on the east side of the Park Blocks and Ninth is on the west side. I guess Ninth & Market doesn't sound as sexy for their marketing brochures.

[urbanlife]

Originally Posted by 65MAX

Park & Market?? It's NINTH & Market.

Their map is wrong.... Park Ave is on the east side of the Park Blocks and Ninth is on the west side. I guess Ninth & Market doesn't sound as sexy for their marketing brochures.

Actually they are correct, the entire length of the South Park Blocks, both streets are named SW Park Ave. 9th Ave is only called that north of Salmon.

[crow]

Originally Posted by zilfondel

Yeah, its going bye-bye. PSU wants to build a new School of Business Admin expansion to take up the entire block.

Details of the $60 million project can be found in this thread - which should probably be merged into this one:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=178545

School's website for the new building:

http://sba.pdx.edu/parkandmarket/

Construction starts 2014


image courtesy PSU

i thought this project was dead? looks like a nice building with some HUGE aspirations for design and sustainability.

[2oh1]

Originally Posted by crow

i thought this project was dead? looks like a nice building with some HUGE aspirations for design and sustainability.

It sure would be nice to see what this is going to look like. Are they avoiding showing it because the design is still up in the air? The photos they show aren't a good representation of a building that is going to be 19 stories tall.

[urbanlife]

Originally Posted by 2oh1

It sure would be nice to see what this is going to look like. Are they avoiding showing it because the design is still up in the air? The photos they show aren't a good representation of a building that is going to be 19 stories tall.

I think this project will probably stay dormant until the school can get a major tenant to sign onto the 19 story building portion because that is the mix use part of the block, which I am guessing is how they are planning on getting the financing for this project.

[zilfondel]

It looks like, as of their website info, they are looking at a 7-story midrise university building occupying 120 x 200', with the rest of the block to be perhaps sold off to a developer to build a mixed-use building. They are currently in fundraising mode, with the state of oregon committed to matching local funds.

Conservatively, I would bet on this being a 2-phase project. Course, none of that is probably written in stone. These 'plans' are obviously flexible.


pic from PSU

[bvpcvm]

Originally Posted by 2oh1

It sure would be nice to see what this is going to look like. Are they avoiding showing it because the design is still up in the air? The photos they show aren't a good representation of a building that is going to be 19 stories tall.

19 stories? where'd you get that?

[urbanlife]

Originally Posted by bvpcvm

19 stories? where'd you get that?

The total project would call for a 19 story tower on the parking lot portion and small house side of that lot, which is the western side. But right now, the only thing that has any actual designs for is the 7 story portion because that is going to be an education building, while the 19 story part would be a mix use building that would require a tenant of some kind.

[cab]

So phase 2 will never happen and we'll be stuck with a parking lot on the westside of the lot and two historic buildings being replaced. Well done. Why not tear the church down across the street for fun as well. Potentially there "could" be a project some day on that block. New rule no development on a site if a parking lot is available within 5 blocks of location. Maybe a new land swap fund is created. The parking lots are never going to get built on if we keep tearing down existing functioning buildings.

[tworivers]

so phase 2 will never happen and we'll be stuck with a parking lot on the westside of the lot and two historic buildings being replaced. Well done. Why not tear the church down across the street for fun as well. Potentially there "could" be a project some day on that block. New rule no development on a site if a parking lot is available within 5 blocks of location. Maybe a new land swap fund is created. The parking lots are never going to get built on if we keep tearing down existing functioning buildings.

+1..........

[urbanlife]

Originally Posted by cab

So phase 2 will never happen and we'll be stuck with a parking lot on the westside of the lot and two historic buildings being replaced. Well done. Why not tear the church down across the street for fun as well. Potentially there "could" be a project some day on that block. New rule no development on a site if a parking lot is available within 5 blocks of location. Maybe a new land swap fund is created. The parking lots are never going to get built on if we keep tearing down existing functioning buildings.

Well PSU does own the entire block, while I don't like the idea of what they want to do, I do understand it. They are going to build School of Business regardless, and the college wants to make the Park Blocks a major focus for the school, so it makes sense to want a building like this built on the Park Blocks side rather than on the other side of the lot. I would rather them not tear down the old apartment building, I do understand the building is probably in need of a major renovation and is probably a major energy waster and the amount of money it would cost to renovate this little building would more than likely cost too much in comparison to building a new dorm room building.

Also keep in mind that the school doesn't really have the money to build this building anyway. I am guessing we will probably not see any form of construction happening without having help from an anchor tenant that would go into the tower that would be adjacent to this building.

As for having rendering to only half of the development, that actually makes sense, the school knows what it wants and needs from a new School of Business building, therefore it can afford to spend the money now to get the plans worked out for the building that is more concrete. The tower portion is all a bunch of unknowns, so I am guessing no actual building documents will be created for the tower portion until the school finds an anchor and figures out the actual financing they are able to do to construct a project like this.

Either way, all the buildings on that block will eventually be coming down.

[Okstate]

Originally Posted by urbanlife

Either way, all the buildings on that block will eventually be coming down.

I hope the northern movement on South Park Blocks doesn't continue. If the apt. building on Park & Columbia comes down I would literally throw up.

[bvpcvm]

Reposting Mark's link: http://www.fap.pdx.edu/planning/publ...kPlan_June.pdf

PSU isn't particularly focusing on the Park blocks; it already dominates the Park blocks anyway. Its focus is clearly on expanding east toward 4th Ave and south along the edge of the freeway. I wouldn't worry about them expanding north; all the plans for new dorms cluster around the Broadway building/Ondine/new dorm under construction as well as the old Red Lion on Lincoln.

[floam]

I'm certainly biased here, living in the building, though I'll be long gone in 2014, but it sure would be nice if maybe they'd just knock down the ugly XSB building (built in the 50s, sucks) and build whatever they want to build on the block around the the Parkway building. I wouldn't really shed a tear for that old house that's falling apart. They'd be able to have an entrance on the park blocks and it'd be nearly as good. This apartment building needs some TLC but a conservative rehab could probably be good enough. It's likely inefficient as hell, but just replacing the drafty windows, and getting some smarter electronic controls (there's got to be some way to take outside temperatures into account, and take input from a few thermostats placed around the building?) for the boiler/heating would do a lot. The kitchens and bathrooms suck.

Perhaps it requires a life-safety seismic retrofit legally, I'm not sure how the codes for that stuff works. At least it's not unreinforced masonry. They recently did some lead testing and apparently the levels were above the legal EPA limits in the unoccupied room they tested (.024 mg/L), and under the limits but measurable in an occupied room (.002 mg/L). New plumbing probably wouldn't be so cheap, if they were forced to do that. No idea what else they'd need to do. I don't think it needs much of a makeover, a little dilapidation can be charming. Hopefully the historic freaks step up to stop demolition, we're not going to get any more of these.

[Okstate]

PSU will soon be taking over/demolishing the USPS facility near campus to expand. The USPS must vacate before 2013.

[bvpcvm]

any idea what's supposed to be built there? generally, this is pretty good news.