The Design Commission has approved a 5-story, 64’ tall mixed use building in the Kerns neighborhood, designed by C2K Architecture for Green Light Development. The project, currently known as the Glisan Street Apartments, will include 86 residential units as well as ground floor retail. 22 vehicular parking spaces will be provided in an at-grade garage, accessed from NE 15th Ave. 132 long term bike parking spaces will be provided, split between 88 spaces in a bike room, 42 spaces in the residential units and 2 spaces in the retail area.
The project will be located on the southernmost portion of a parking lot serving a 1965 office building at 1500 NE Irving St. A separate renovation of the Skidmore, Owings & Merrill designed building is planned in the future. 
The building is arranged as a bar shaped mass. At the ground level fronting NE Glisan St there will be seven units with mezzanine bedroom lofts. A small retail space is proposed at the corner of NE Glisan St and 16th Ave. An amenity room for building residents will be provided at the fifth floor.
The primary exterior material for the building will be brick in coal and almond colors. Other materials proposed include metal panel, wood veneer, aluminum storefront system, and vinyl windows.
The Glisan Street Apartments were approved by unanimous vote at the project’s third Design Review hearing, held on November 2nd 2017. In the Final Findings and Decision by the Design Commission the development was praised for its “simple and well composed design”:
The Glisan Street Apartments is an infill development that provides transition between the institutional and office uses on the north and west, and the multi-family residential uses on the east and south east. The simple and well composed design responds to the context and helps provide this transition by scaling down the mass and bulk of the building with vertical breaks, façade setbacks and material differentiation. The ground level of the street facing façade have been articulated with stoops and planters, corner retail and higher level of transparency to address the pedestrian emphasis guidelines. Good quality and well detailed material palette that is sensitive to the historic context have been provided.
Building permits will need to be obtained before construction can begin.
Drawings
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- Plan – Site
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- Plan – Level 1
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- Plan – Level 1 (Loft)
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- Plan – Level 2
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- Plan – Levels 3 to 4
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- Plan – Level 5
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- Plan – Roof
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- Elevation – East (NE 16th Ave)
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- Elevation – South (NE Glisan St)
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- Elevation – West (NE 15th Ave)
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- Elevation – North
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- Section
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- Section
I am sorry, but this is so ugly
Don’t you know everyone wants to live in a cinderblock apartment with a postage stamp porch or maybe a window that can be cracked 2 inches and pay $1400/month?
Well the evidence suggests that they do, otherwise they would not rent out until the price matches the value. No need to project your vision of a perfect apartment on to others.
Thanks for your productive comment. If we were to only allow buildings that get 100% approval from everyone nothing would get built. I would assume there are architects out there who agree with you but doubt they would be so lazy as to just say it is ugly. They might comment about certain design cues that could be slightly modified and yet make a huge difference. They might comment that they understand that the land use controls our city (rather the Nimby citizens) imposes on development limit design potential.
I for one appreciate the design just wish they would forgo the parking, or maybe in this case were allowed to forgo parking.
I think deeming a building “ugly” can be a useful start, if the claim is supported with some specifics. In what way(s) is it ugly? What features of other buildings make them more beautiful in the eyes of the commenter? What are some examples of Portland apartment buildings that are better? Or of those from other places? With which comments of the Design Commission, who approved this building, does one disagree?
Another bland, tasteless stack of modernist boxes, devoid of character or humanity/ community built with EB5 visa money. Flipped to managers and left half empty like many of the others as they rush to cash in on the next flip. Identical to all the the other monstrosities being put in at Kerns (and elsewhere in the city) and destroying the exact thing that supposedly made it an attractive “destination’ neighborhood. ( Charming homes, friendly neighbors, tree lined streets, quirky small businesses, places for young families, children or pets). The best thing to be said about it is that is doesn’t destroy any older homes, or buildings with character, or neighborhoods since it is built in a parkinglot. Cheap, fast and crap as friends said about the “Goatblocks” building where they could hear everything in all surrounding units ( they leased thinking retirement and close to family, but moved in and out within 3 months and bought a house further out, taking a bath on the rest of the year lease).