The Historic Landmarks Commission has reviewed the Multnomah County Central Courthouse for the first time. The 17 story, $300 million project will replace the existing courthouse on SW 4th Avenue, which is considered seismically unsound and no longer fit for use. The architects for the project are Portland based SRG Partnership and New York based CGL RicciGreene. The landscape architects are PLACE.
The program for the 325′ tall building includes multiple courts, office for District Attorneys, Public Defenders, Sheriffs, as well as support areas for staff, juries, defendants and the public. No parking is proposed. The project intends to achieve LEED Gold Certification.
The site for the new courthouse was selected last year, after a long list of sites was narrowed to two potential sites. The site that was chosen is on County owned land at the Hawthorne Bridgehead, surrounded by SW Madison St, Naito Parkway, Jefferson St and First Ave. Roughly one quarter of the block is occupied by the Jefferson Station office building, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The building will be renovated andbe incorporated into the new courthouse complex. Because the new building is considered an addition to the existing historic building, the entire project is being reviewed by the Historic Landmarks Commission, rather than the Design Commission (who would typically review a new building outside of a historic district).
In January 2016 it was reported that Multnomah County will buy the Veritable Quandary restaurant annex and incorporate the land it sits on into the site. The restaurant closed on September 30th.
The primary material for the Courthouse will be limestone, a material which the architects point out has a long history of use in US courthouses. Other materials proposed include curtainwall (vision and spandrel), punched window openings, and metal accents.
The new courthouse building will be arranged in plan as an “L” shape, split into two distinct volumes: a bar for the courtrooms on the east half of the block; and a smaller tower form for the judges and staff offices at the northwest corner of the block. The public circulation will be located at the perimeter of the courtroom volume, allowing for uninterrupted views to Waterfront Park, the Willamette River and Mt Hood.
The main entry to the building will be located at the corner of SW Madison and First Ave. The entry sequence will be arranged so that the public lobby can be seen directly from the entrance, without being obscured by the security screening area. Unlike the current courthouse there will be sufficient interior space to ensure that security queues won’t have to form outside. An exterior garden area, visible from the security area, will be created in the space between the new courthouse and the existing Jefferson Station building. The triple height lobby will include a grand staircase aligned with the east-west axis of the building. The staircase will terminate at the jury assembly area on the third floor, where the building will have views to the river uninterrupted by the tree line.
The Courthouse design was first presented to the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners in February 2016, and received Design Advice from the Design Commission in May 2016. In June 2016 the Portland City Council voted to increase the allowable height on the site from 200′ to 325′. The height increase is consistent with (but in advance of) changes that were approved in principle as part of the West Quadrant Plan and are likely to take effect in 2018.
A Staff Report and Recommendation to the Landmarks Commission, published before the October 24th Historic Landmarks Commission hearing, did not yet recommend approval for the project. Areas of concern outlined in the report, and largely shared by the Commission, included: the lack of active uses along SW Madison, Naito, and Jefferson and whether these were sufficiently mitigated by the public art proposed; the lack of weather protection & pedestrian amenities; and the need for further review by the Bureau of Transportation for the elements of the project in the right-of-way.
The project is currently scheduled to return in front of the Landmarks Commission on December 12th. Preliminary site work, including the demolition of the Veritable Quandary building, has already begun.
Drawings
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- Plan – Site
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- Plan – Basement
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- Plan – Level 1
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- Plan – Level 1 (Jefferson Station)
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- Plan – Level 2
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- Plan – Level 2 (Jefferson Station)
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- Plan – Level 3
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- Plan – Level 3 (Jefferson Station)
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- Plan – Level 4
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- Plan – Roof (Jefferson Station)
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- Plan – Level 5
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- Plan – Level 6
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- Plan – Level 7
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- Plan – Level 8
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- Plan – Levels 9 to 11
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- Plan – Levels 12 to 17
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- Plan – Roof
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- Elevations – North and East
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- Elevations – South and West
How can there be no parking to cope with high risk, high security prisoners? Courthouses are full of the condemned and seriously dangerous persons who have associates and enemies still free on the outside. It appears this feature is overlooked. Not the case with the Hatfield Federal Courthouse building. One wonders why the oversight?
There were be a sally port for the secure transfer of people in custody.
There is no parking for the current courthouse they’re replacing. They simply park the big transport next to some stairs of 5th and you walk up them and into the transport.
Also, pretty sure there have never been any “breakouts” at the downtown courthouses in Portland or much of anywhere.
This building is entirely too tall for this prominent site. The City Council has made a mistake that we will be living with for years to come. The long held Portland tradition of stepping down to the river is correct for many reasons and this flies in the face of it. If we must have this height the design team should have created a more elegant massing and design to mitigate the wall of painfully trendy offset fenestration its creating. It’s bad enough we are moving the Courthouse out of Government Square focused on the 3 parks–one of the few formal urban design gestures we have in this extremely informal town of the relentless grid. This should be a grand civic building and the entrance should not be on a bridge head dominated by autos. Why is this town so afraid to do something grand?
I disagree. I hope this building IS a step down. I’d love to see taller building behind it to increase our density even further in the downtown core. I don’t understand this ‘step down’ that people are wedded to. Great cities have buildings built out to the water.
Shall we build over Waterfront Park so that we may become a “Great City”? Increased density is a good thing but lets not confuse height with density. We have very small streets and blocks which will be easily overwhelmed if we build to max height on every block. In addition it would be a loss to eclipse our unique West Hills forest backdrop by building too high. Great cities can come in many shapes and sizes. We ought not allow height envy to cloud our judgement.
I think are really meaning that we shouldn’t impede the views that the wealthy have from their houses in the west hills towards Mt Hood perhaps.
I’m not advocating building on waterfront park. But building taller buildings along Naito shouldn’t be absolutely nixed. The crappy new timeshare building down the way that is going to be built is just such an example of awfulness.
The courthouse is much needed. This is land the county owns in downtown. I don’t see many other options.
I never really understood peoples desire to keep the view of the west hills or makes them unique. They’re hills. We have them all over the NW .. I’d like to see 600-700ft buildings in multiple locations and give our city a real grounded and established metropolitan feel. As much as you probably don’t want to hear this – its inevitable- the city is one of the fastest growing in the country and is showing no signs of slowing down .. I mean just look at Seattle, its booming .. 75 cranes over downtown alone according to the Seattle times thats more cranes than NYC or LA .. I personally think this project is unattractive .. I would like to see a tower backed up next to the wells fargo tower
id like to see more creatve designs like in major cities and foriegn countries