Construction has started on the rebuild of the Westwind Apartments, designed in collaboration by Works Progress Architecture and Architecture Building Culture for Central City Concern. The new building will replace the existing Westwind Apartments with 100 new units of deeply affordable housing. The 7-story building will include seventy two SRO units and twenty-eight studios, combined with supportive services. Ground floor program will include office space, residential amenity space, and retail lease space. No vehicular parking is proposed.
The new building will replace a three story building, built in 1903. The building, which has long served long income tenants, was privately owned until 2018, when it was purchased by the Portland Housing Bureau. The building was demolished in June 2021.
The proposed building is arranged in an L-shaped plan, around a courtyard at the second level. Amenity spaces will open onto the courtyard. Residential amenity spaces would be provided at the building corner on levels 2 to 7, with projecting landscaped elements.
The primary material for the building would be metal panel, in two shades of grey. Other materials would include vinyl windows, dark brick at the ground floor, and storefront glazing.
The primary material for the building will be “ash” color Ceraclad ceramic-coated siding, with brick used at the lower two levels. Other materials will include wood soffits, “adobe” color vinyl windows and aluminum storefront.
The redevelopment of the Westwind Apartments was approved by the Design Commission on July 2nd, 2020, after previously having received Design Advice in February 2020. In the Final Findings And Decision By The Design Commission it was noted how the development will help address Portland’s housing problems:
This development not only reflects the character of the mixed-use residential neighborhood as it exists today, but will allow for transitional housing opportunities in the River subdistrict of the Central City, as part of Portland’s overall effort to develop sufficient infill housing to keep the City’s housing stock both affordable and vibrant.
A building permit for the new construction was issued on May 26th, 2021.
Drawings
Plan | Site 
Plan | Ground 
Plan | Second 
Plan | Third-Fifth Floors 
Plan | Sixth-Seventh Floors 
Plan | Roof 
Elevation | East (NW 6th) 
Elevation | North (NW Flanders) 
Elevation | West 
Elevation | South 
Section
Thank you so much for all the work you do on this site! It is an amazing resource! I just noticed that this project is not shown on your development map and there are some other projects that don’t seem updated yet. For example, Morningstar at Laurelhurst looks like it is under construction, but it isn’t reflected on the map.
Unfortunately I’m having technical problems with the map and am not able to update it at the moment.