Design Advice has been offered to Koz Development for a student housing development at 2211 SW 4th Ave, near Portland State University. The proposed building would include 110 residential units in an eight story building. The ground floor as proposed would be primarily taken up by public parking.
The project site is a triangular lot at SW 4th Ave and SW Grant St. The site is currently used as surface parking, and a condition of the potential sale of the land requires that 24 spaces be maintained for the use of the nearby branch of Chase bank.
During the advisory hearing the Design Commission expressed major reservations about the ground floor of the proposed building, which has a large number of blank walls and very little active use area. The applicant was encouraged to look into stacked parking, or some other way make the ground floor less dominated by vehicular uses. Concern was also expressed about the technical viability and long term maintenance of a series of rain garden planters proposed for the elevations on SW 4th Ave and SW Grant St.
The developers may now choose to return for a further Design Advice Request hearing, or submit for a full Type III Design Review.
Plans and Elevations
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- Plan – Ground
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- Plan – Typical
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- Elevation – SW 4th Ave
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- Elevation – Grant Street
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- Elevation – I-405
There are some pretty bad buildings going up right now but this one takes the cake. What a POS design.
The problem I see here is entirely with the ground level. The rest of it is not offensive; what is offensive is Chase bank requiring surface parking for their crappy bank.
I’m glad to see a green roof on the building, but structures so close to the freeway should also incorporate green walls to protect their residents from air and noise pollution!