Broadway Corridor (Post Office Redevelopment) | Proposed

[58rhodes]

Originally Posted by 2oh1

Plastic surgery?

Oh, wait... that's two Ts (a concept-butt). BA-DA-BING!

Seriously though, I agree with johnliu. This is a publicity stunt, and it seems to be working. They whipped up a fun image, sent it to the press, and they've gotten free publicity. KGW did a fluff piece on it during the 5 o'clock news tonight. They're definitely getting some free publicity.

Those towers would be completely out of scale at this time--maybe 50 yrs from now who knows?--more realistically if they had drawn up a couple of 550 footers it might be something to think about-Personally I would prefer a new tallest/tall between PAW and the US Bank Tower-that area needs some attention IMO.

[AcmeGreg]

Appreciate the audacity of this. Definitely looks out of place though, like a concept the architect might have proposed previously for a city in China or one of the Emirates. One tower at 970' would have been shocking enough for Stumptown, but two?! Also, if you're going to make them that tall why not have at least one tower crack the 1,000' mark?

[theoberheim]

Originally Posted by 58rhodes

Those towers would be completely out of scale at this time--maybe 50 yrs from now who knows?--more realistically if they had drawn up a couple of 550 footers it might be something to think about-Personally I would prefer a new tallest/tall between PAW and the US Bank Tower-that area needs some attention IMO.

Couldn't agree more. Both out of place, and more realistic at 500' (that wouldn't happen either). As others mentioned, this is a publicity stunt. The reality is that at most we might get one 9 story "tower" and the rest is all going to be 5 over 1. I mean come on! This is Portland....were you expecting something exciting to actually happen with this project?

[crackerd]

This proposal deserves it's own thread under the Supertall/Highrise proposal section so that others from around the country can comment. Right now it is hidden under the post office redevelopment thread.

[Delaney]

Originally Posted by crackerd

This proposal deserves it's own thread under the Supertall/Highrise proposal section

It really doesn't.

[Derek]

Yeah if this was a serious proposal of course it deserves it’s own thread. Unfortunately this is more fantasy than anything.

[Natural]

Remember this...big and bold and of course unrealistic-Smart Tower

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...=221055&page=5

scroll down to 92

[Pavlov's Dog]

Originally Posted by Phil McAvity

Portland firm unveils lofty proposal for tallest building on the west coast
by KATU StaffMonday, November 13th 2017

Design proposal for skyscraper courtesy William Kaven Architecture

PORTLAND, Ore. – A Portland-based architecture firm released a redevelopment plan for the city’s U.S. Postal Service headquarters that includes a skyscraper designed to be the tallest building on the west coast.
William/Kaven and Kaven + Co. released an image of what they hope to add to Portland's skyline on Monday as a proposal for the USPS headquarters in northwest Portland.
The postal facility and surrounding properties are managed by the city’s urban renewal agency, Prosper Portland, and are included in something called the Broadway Corridor project. The city said it is looking for development ideas that would help invigorate the neighborhood while connecting to Old Town/Chinatown and the Pearl District . The city has not issued a response to the design.
The image shows an enormous two-tower skyscraper that would reach up to 970 feet tall.
For scale, the Wells Fargo Center is currently Portland's tallest building at 546 feet, followed by the U.S. Bancorp Tower (AKA Big Pink) at 536 feet.
It would serve as the USPS’s new high-speed transportation hub, however Daniel Kaven - partner and founder of the companies behind the design – said the towers and surrounding buildings would offera mix of retail, office, and residential spaces to create a neighborhood feel.
“The city of Portland, currently, is devoid of iconic buildings – at least any that a tourist or foreign architect might recognize,” Kaven recently said in an op-ed piece published on DJC Oregon. “It is easily established that great buildings drive tourism and generate money.”
Another consideration that might keep the skyscraper from coming to the Portland cityscape is the city’s building height limits. The Central City 2035 Plan is working to protect the scenic views throughout the city.

http://katu.com/news/local/portland-...the-west-coast

Whoever wrote this has never heard of either San Francisco or Los Angeles

The newscaster and reporter both say clearly tallest in the PNW, not West Coast, so whoever the editor making the headline and opening paragraph was didn't pay attention.

I'm not crazy about the design but I like the idea of building something of this height

[maccoinnich]

FWIW, here is the full text of the original press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

November 14th, 2017

WILLIAM / KAVEN UNVEILS DESIGN FOR TALLEST BUILDING ON THE WEST COAST AND HIGH-SPEED TRANSPORTATION HUB FOR US POSTAL SITE IN DOWNTOWN PORTLAND.

PORTLAND, OREGON - William Kaven Architecture and Kaven + Co. unveiled plans today for the proposed redevelopment of Portland’s soon-to-be-demolished USPS headquarters.

The master plan, which would provide approximately 5 million square feet of new development, consists of multiple high-rise buildings with a mix of uses that includes retail, office, hospitality, and residential. The two tallest central towers, one of which would exceed 970 vertical feet, would be interlinked by a glass-enclosed botanical bridge spanning 236 feet across the North Park Blocks some 680 feet in the air, providing dramatic aerial views of the entire city. Additional buildings situated along the extended blocks would deliver a diversity of mixed building typologies, ranging from affordable to market-rate residential with ground-floor retail.

William / Kaven partner and Kaven + Co. founder Daniel Kaven, who recently wrote an op-ed published in the Daily Journal of Commerce promoting a bold approach to the redevelopment of the site, says of the studio’s plans: “What we have conceived is a dynamic, modern neighborhood centralized around an extension of the park blocks. The towers are large enough to serve as a headquarters for a Fortune 100 company, such as Amazon, and would anchor the entire district both architecturally and financially. The towers and interlinking skybridge would be an iconic addition to Portland’s skyline and a destination for locals and tourists alike. The elevated garden would be a tropical respite from the gray of the city at any time of the year and provide breathtaking views of Mt. Hood and the entire city skyline."

Further, the studio plans to integrate a marquee transportation hub for high-speed rail and underground public transit innovations, such as Hyperloop, with the transportation facilities in the vicinity such as Amtrak’s Union Station, Greyhound Station and the local streetcar and bus. “This is our opportunity to lead the effort to build a bullet train network that links Portland to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Vancouver from the heart of an already-existing downtown transportation hub. There is no better place, nor a better time, than the opportunity that is upon us, with this huge site next to our historic train station,” states Kaven.

The studio’s master plan is conceived as an eco-district that prioritizes sustainability. “A site of this magnitude offers some really great opportunities to temper heating and cooling loads with ground source heat pumps throughout the district,” says William / Kaven partner Trevor William Lewis. “The buildings themselves would be high performance and energy efficient, with on-site power generation from photovoltaics integrated within the glazing.”

The project is currently in the conceptual design phase. Kaven + Co. and its partners intend to submit a formal proposal to the City of Portland’s development arm, Prosper Portland, in the 1st quarter of 2018 following the agency’s formal RFQ process which began last Wednesday.

See attached rendering of the conceptual design on the following page.

[innovativethinking]

Originally Posted by theoberheim

Couldn't agree more. Both out of place, and more realistic at 500' (that wouldn't happen either). As others mentioned, this is a publicity stunt. The reality is that at most we might get one 9 story "tower" and the rest is all going to be 5 over 1. I mean come on! This is Portland....were you expecting something exciting to actually happen with this project?

I agree! That’s why they call us Stumptown

When Bellevue has a more taller skyline than us that’s when we know we have to do something

[2oh1]

Originally Posted by innovativethinking

I agree! That’s why they call us Stumptown

That is not where the nickname Stumptown comes from.

Originally Posted by innovativethinking

When Bellevue has a more taller skyline than us that’s when we know we have to do something

...? ...because...?

[urbanlife]

Originally Posted by 58rhodes

Those towers would be completely out of scale at this time--maybe 50 yrs from now who knows?--more realistically if they had drawn up a couple of 550 footers it might be something to think about-Personally I would prefer a new tallest/tall between PAW and the US Bank Tower-that area needs some attention IMO.

Why not think of what this city would be in 50 years, heck something like this would probably take close to a decade before we realized it. Granted, I don't think this will get built, it is nice to see it has opened up the discussion.

Originally Posted by crackerd

This proposal deserves it's own thread under the Supertall/Highrise proposal section so that others from around the country can comment. Right now it is hidden under the post office redevelopment thread.

It already is in its own thread, for a while we are going to see a number of these idea proposals for the post office site before we actually see what is really going to get built.

Originally Posted by Natural

Remember this...big and bold and of course unrealistic-Smart Tower

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...=221055&page=5

scroll down to 92

Aww, the Smart Tower, I miss that idea, it was kind of bold and kind of dumb all at the same time. There really needs to be an exhibit off all the failed projects.

Originally Posted by innovativethinking

I agree! That’s why they call us Stumptown

When Bellevue has a more taller skyline than us that’s when we know we have to do something

Currently Bellevue doesn't have a taller skyline than Portland, though not sure why that matters. If Portland was across the lake from Seattle and next to Redmond, it too would have a beefed up skyline.

[Sioux612]

Ugh. Now they're just playing with my emotions.

The last time this city saw an idea that broke the 500' plateau:



The smART tower as proposed in 2006.

[MarkDaMan]

Originally Posted by urbanlife

Aww, the Smart Tower, I miss that idea, it was kind of bold and kind of dumb all at the same time. There really needs to be an exhibit off all the failed projects.

There's a lot of leads in this thread: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=166854

Just needs someone to compile them into a usable format.

[58rhodes]

Originally Posted by Sioux612

Ugh. Now they're just playing with my emotions.

The last time this city saw an idea that broke the 500' plateau:



The smART tower as proposed in 2006.

that thing was ugly

[tworivers]

I appreciate Kaven encouraging folks to think big but this rendering hardly looks "iconic", certainly not outside of Portland. It looks like it belongs in Dubai about 10 years ago. I'm not completely opposed, personally, to building this tall here but 1) you could fit pretty much the entire economy of Portland in that thing and 2) please, give us something actually iconic. Kuma's designs for Riverplace look more responsive to the city than what our local guys have sketched up for this site. And I'd still rather fill in a hundred parking lots with human scale structures than go "supertall".

Also, and this is obvious to many of you, little old oh-my-gosh Portland can't even deal with most of the contemporary architecture we've built in the last few years. We don't even have a decent museum! Ha! After spending the last three weeks in Berlin and Beirut I am reminded yet again that we likely have not even hit our adolescence yet as a city. Maybe we just need to go through a handful of bloody wars. /s

[RED_PDXer]

Originally Posted by tworivers

I appreciate Kaven encouraging folks to think big but this rendering hardly looks "iconic", certainly not outside of Portland. It looks like it belongs in Dubai about 10 years ago. I'm not completely opposed, personally, to building this tall here but 1) you could fit pretty much the entire economy of Portland in that thing and 2) please, give us something actually iconic. Kuma's designs for Riverplace look more responsive to the city than what our local guys have sketched up for this site. And I'd still rather fill in a hundred parking lots with human scale structures than go "supertall".

Also, and this is obvious to many of you, little old oh-my-gosh Portland can't even deal with most of the contemporary architecture we've built in the last few years. We don't even have a decent museum! Ha! After spending the last three weeks in Berlin and Beirut I am reminded yet again that we likely have not even hit our adolescence yet as a city. Maybe we just need to go through a handful of bloody wars. /s

I think you're selling Portland short. I've traveled the world and I like quirky Portland. PAM is more than decent BTW. We don't have the built history of a European city, but we have the future to look to. I doubt this sexy rendering will become anything, but sure.. they should dream big and show local officials what could become of this opportunity site.

[tworivers]

Originally Posted by RED_PDXer

I think you're selling Portland short. I've traveled the world and I like quirky Portland. PAM is more than decent BTW. We don't have the built history of a European city, but we have the future to look to. I doubt this sexy rendering will become anything, but sure.. they should dream big and show local officials what could become of this opportunity site.

I love Portland, don't get me wrong. In many ways it's the only place that I've lived where I've truly felt at home. I also think it's fine/good to be critical. I'm constantly pushing --frequently to my own peers, who complain constantly and nonsensically about "New Portland"-- the importance of greatly-increased density, investments in mass transit, adequately priced roads/parking, and contemporary architecture that doesn't necessarily "fit in".

I have to disagree about PAM, though, sorry. I think the art museum is pretty bad in almost every respect, from the too often fusty programming to small but important things like signage, graphics, typography. It's underwhelming and reflects our cultural footprint poorly.

[urbanlife]

Originally Posted by tworivers

I love Portland, don't get me wrong. In many ways it's the only place that I've lived where I've truly felt at home. I also think it's fine/good to be critical. I'm constantly pushing --frequently to my own peers, who complain constantly and nonsensically about "New Portland"-- the importance of greatly-increased density, investments in mass transit, adequately priced roads/parking, and contemporary architecture that doesn't necessarily "fit in".

I have to disagree about PAM, though, sorry. I think the art museum is pretty bad in almost every respect, from the too often fusty programming to small but important things like signage, graphics, typography. It's underwhelming and reflects our cultural footprint poorly.

Yeah, I am gonna have to disagree with you about the PAM, as an art museum in a city the size of Portland, they do a really good job. Plus the future addition the the museum is going to make it even that much better. They also have a really good collection of art, as well as a respectable amount of art traveling through.

[RED_PDXer]

Originally Posted by urbanlife

Yeah, I am gonna have to disagree with you about the PAM, as an art museum in a city the size of Portland, they do a really good job. Plus the future addition the the museum is going to make it even that much better. They also have a really good collection of art, as well as a respectable amount of art traveling through.

Agreed. A friend of mine was visiting town and wanted to check it out for the modern art collection. He said he was finally able to see some of the art he studied in school in person. I recognize it's no Prado or Louvre, but it's not like every city can have one of those. Also, other than Rothko, does Portland have a deep bench of artists that PAM's art collection is missing? I wouldn't mind seeing Native American art displayed more prominently though. Now, it's sort of lost on the top floor.