A proposed 23 story tower in the Pearl District has gone in front of the Design Commission to receive Design Advice. The project is being developed by Vibrant Cities in partnership with the Sunray Group, with design by Otak. The lower 11 floors of the 250′ tall building would be occupied by a Hyatt Place branded hotel. The upper 12 floors would be residential, with 120 apartment units. No vehicular parking is proposed.
The project site is a quarter block at NW 12th & Flanders, currently used as surface parking. A large silver maple tree is currently growing at the corner of the site. The site is on the same block as the Oakwood Pearl (originally known as the Janey).
The building’s two major programs are expressed in the elevations, with a shift in the window pattern happening mid-facade. Balconies would extend out from the building at some of the residential units.
Building materials have still to be determined, however initial concepts show “shaped, textured metal panels for major window facades” and “textured fibrous cement panels for more solid walls.”
The ground floor of the hotel would include the hotel lobby, lounge and a bar/cafe, oriented to NW Flanders St. The residential lobby would be accessed from NW 12th Ave. Between the first and second Design Advice Request (DAR) meetings the building’s loading docks were moved from NW Flanders to NW 12th Ave, to better respond to the future Flanders Bikeway.
At the project’s second DAR two options were shown for the expression at the ground level. The first idea is described by the applicants as “sculptural cast concrete structure [which] celebrates industrial context.” The second idea is “less sculptural and [has] simpler cast concrete columns.”
The Hyatt Place went in front of the Design Commission for advisory Design Advice meetings on October 4th, 2018 and January 3rd 2019. As described in a Summary Memo, written after the second meeting, the Design Commission was “generally supportive of the project concept and scale but would like to see additional development of the project’s massing and tower design to better reflect the quarter block site.”
At both hearings the project attracted substantial public testimony in opposition to the project, from neighbors organized under the umbrella of the Pearl Neighbors for Integrity in Design. Issues raised included the height of the building, the lack of on-site parking and the loss of the mature maple tree at the corner of the site.
In order to gain approval the Hyatt Place will be required to go through a Type III Design Review, with public hearings in front of the Design Commission.
Drawings
DAR #1 | Plan | Site 
DAR #1 | Plan | Ground 
DAR #1 | Plan | Basement 
DAR #1 | Plan | Mezzanine 
DAR #1 | Plan | Levels 02 to 11 
DAR #1 | Plan | Levels 12 to 22 
DAR #1 | Plan | Level 23 
DAR # 2 | Plan | Levels 01 & Mezzanine
I have to confess, it is just boring and dull and unimaginative. I’m struck by how much better buildings were just before the Crash of 2008. Everything now just feels so cheap, slapped together, and everyone is afraid of color! I can see why there is opposition…except it’s that someone wants to build a tower more than anything else. I mean, come on, it’s the Pearl! No one in the present expected this neighborhood to get built out with tall buildings. Where else in the Pearl can you find anything remotely like that? *rolls eyes*
Yup!
I have to say in the era of fake news, I can’t help but be suspicious that comments like this are from oppositional neighbors in the Pearl who are whining about their views being taken away. And wow, hyperbole much? I would hardly call The Cosmopolitan “cheap” or “slapped together.”
It’s a hell of a lot worse than what was proposed earlier by the same developer: https://www.greatplacetowork.com/images/profiles/1367559/1367559_9856_20181214055359790_company_image_1.png
Yikes…that image was scary…my first impression was I was looking at a building on one of those “after people” TV shows….
This proposed development is totally out of context with the other structures in this South Pearl residential neighborhood. This out-of-town developer has no ideal of the architectural culture of this Pearl Neighborhood and is only interested in squeezing the last square inch and the last nickel of profit out of this 10,000 square foot quarter site. With a total of 285 individual units, between the hotel and the residences, it would overburden the sustainability of this site which sits atop of the Tanner Creek culvert. The traffic congestion would also endanger those using the planned green bike path on Flanders which leads to the soon to be built pedestrian and bicycle bridge over Route 405.The removal of 39 publicly available vehicle parking spaces would further limit visitor parking for this neighborhood.
Patricia Cliff, President, Pearl Neighbors for Integrity in Design, PNID
“totally out of context with the other structures in this South Pearl residential neighborhood…”
Huh? I see a lot of high rises in the area. It’s DOWNTOWN PORTLAND for gosh sakes. It’s an aread when people expect density. Much better than another subdivision in the suburbs defendant on cars.
“… it would overburden the sustainability of this site…”
Um, isn’t building on the fringe of the metro much less sustainable than this locaton?
Is the real issue here that your view from another nearby building is being blocked?
I dont think you guys have figured out why hotel buildings often look to build in area where they are out of scale, especially vertically….it is called unimpeded views…means majority of the building can get top dollar for “city views”….you place this building in more of the core and 3 to 4 sides of the thing will look at other sides of taller buildings
I recently stayed a night at the Benson. The room’s window faced the backside of the AT&T building. That has to be the ugliest view I have ever seen in my life. A plain gray wall with no windows.