Focus: Portland’s Tallest Planned Buildings (2016)

Posted on May 20, 2016 by nextportland

Image from the Discussion Draft of the Central City 2035 Plan (Bureau of Planning & Sustainability).

Image from the Discussion Draft of the Central City 2035 Plan, showing a possible development scenario approximating future growth in the Pearl District over 20 years (Bureau of Planning & Sustainability). At least two of the sites shown as potentially developable have current proposals on them.

It is just over a year since Next Portland last did a roundup of the tallest buildings planned or under construction in Portland. At that time, we counted 25 buildings over 100′ in height planned. Today we count 40. Given the length of time it takes to complete a high rise building, many of the buildings on the 2016 were also on the 2015 list. Four buildings are no longer on the list this year, due to having been completed: Block 17, Pearl West, the Aster Tower and Park Avenue West. Seven buildings that were still in the design phase last year are now under construction. No building on last year’s list is known to have been cancelled.

Read on to see our complete list. Where possible, the heights given are the building height as defined in the Portland Zoning Code and published in the Design Commission’s Final Findings. In some cases the heights have been estimated.

Under Construction: Pearl Block 136 (images)

Posted on March 25, 2016 by nextportland

This is an updated version of a post originally published on October 21st 2015.

Construction has begun on Pearl Block 136, which will be located on the site of the former PNCA Goodman building. The project consists of two buildings separated by a publicly accessible courtyard: a 5 story office building facing NW 13th Ave; and a 15 story residential tower facing NW 12th Ave. Underground parking for both buildings will be accessed from NW 12th Ave, with 211 vehicular parking spaces and 332 long term bicycle parking spaces. The design of the project is by Seattle based architects Mithun, for developer Security Properties.

Pearl Block 136

Metro Reports: Oregonian Publishing Buildings Redevelopment, Oliver Station, Broadway Tower and more

Posted on March 8, 2016 by nextportland

The Broadway Tower, as presented to the Design Commission in November

Every week, the Bureau of Development Services publishes lists of Early Assistance applications, Land Use Reviews and Building Permits. We publish the highlights.

Design Advice has been requested for a project at 10840 SE Salmon St:

New 5 story 146 unit apartment building, 49 parking spaces provided

Design Advice has been requested for the new Multnomah County Courthouse:

Multnomah County intends to construct a replacement Multnomah County Central Courthouse.

Carleton Hart Architects have requested Early Assistance for a project at 3368 NE Martin Luther King Blvd:

Proposal is for a six story multifamily residential development consisting of 81 units with grd floor retail. PHB project.

Lever Architecture have requested Early Assistance for a project at 2110 SE 82nd Ave:

looking to developed lot for commercial tenant space – retail, office, restaurant.

Works Partnership have requested Early Assistance for a project at N Mississippi & Cook:

Project if a four story timber structure with retail and workspace on first floor and work space on remaining floors. There are six proposed parking space with a loading zone.

GBD Architects have requested Early Assistance for a project at 1715 NW Couch St:

St Mary’s Cathloic Cathedral Church – questions regarding developing parking lot into multi family housing and structured parking – with renovation of existing perish hall.

GBD Architects have scheduled a Pre-Application Conference to discuss a project at 817 SW 17th Ave:

Pre-Application Conference to discuss a Type III Design Review and possible Type III Central City Parking Review for the proposed redevelopment of the Oregonian Publishing buildings near SW 17th and Yamhill. The applicant is considering several designs for a project that will include office, retail, housing and parking. The submitted plans identify 513 parking spaces proposed to support the proposed residential units and the commercial spaces, as well as be available as shared spaces for other nearby uses. No upper-level floor plans or exterior elevations were submitted. The applicant has submitted a list of questions for staff’s response.

DiLoreto Architecture have submitted a project at St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church at 2400 SE 148th Ave for Conditional Use Review:

Additions to exterior church and social hall with interior renovations and parking lot will accomodate non-conforming upgrades and stormwater.

Ankrom Moisan Architects have submitted Oliver Station at 9202 SE Foster Rd for Design Review:

Oliver Station is a new five story mixed-use commercial and apartment development on two blocks at the heart of Lents Town Center.

Lever Architecture have submitted Framework at 430 NW 10th Ave for Design Review:

new 12-story mixed-use project. The building will be timber-framed with ground-floor retail, 5 floors of office and the remaining floors in residential use –workforce housing. The rooftop will provide amenity space. Adjustment for loading access, Modification for long term bike parking.

Alterations to the Ballou & Wright Building at 1010 NW Flanders St have been submitted for Historic Resource Review:

Project involves exterior modifications to a National Register (Ballou & Wright Bldg) and its adjacent non-contributing structure on the same tax lot. Project includes one roof deck with elevator override and stair on NR bldg, roof deck on non-contributing bldg, elevation remodel of non-contributing bldg, removal of fire escape ladders on NR bldg, window replacement on NR bldg and modify loading dock and new storefront for ADA access on NR bldg.

Fosler Portland Architecture have submitted alterations to a building at 833 SW Naito Parkway for Historic Resource Review:

Type III Historic Resource Review for renovations to an existing building in the Yamhill Historic District. Work includes alterations to both street-facing facades and a partial second floor addition and roof deck. With increase in floor area under 500 sq feet.

A Demolition Permit was issued to Mackenzie for an existing building on the site of the proposed 120 SE Clay office building:

Demolish one story 11,910sf auto repair shop – remove all debris

A building permit is under review for a project at 8035 SE Center St:

Construct new 3 story, 12 unit apartment building, detached trash enclosure less than 120 sf, includes associated site work

A building permit is under review for a project at NE Glisan and 146th:

New 3 story 3 unit condo building, associated site work included

GBD Architects have submitted a portion of the Broadway Tower for building permit review:

Excavation and Shoring for new commercial high rise structure with retail, office and hotel uses with 4 floors of below grade parking

A building permit was issued for the Block 136 development by Mithun:

New 15 story 218 unit residential high rise apartment building including 2 level underground parking garage under this building and extending under the adjacent office building.

New 5 story office building

A building permit was issued for the Blackwood Lofts at 88 SE 24th Ave:

Construct new 4 story apartment building with 23 units, interior trash storage and bike racks, no onsite parking, stormwater facility and associated site work

Focus: 25 Office Buildings Planned for Portland

Posted on January 15, 2016 by nextportland

Pearl West by Hacker / GBD Architects, the first new office building to break ground in the Central City after the recession

While Portland has long been considered a desirable place to live, it has traditionally lagged its suburbs—Washington County particulary—in income and job growth. Following the recession this appears to have changed. Employers increasingly desire a location in central Portland. As commercial vacancy rates have dropped and rental rates gone up there has been a sudden influx of new office proposals.

The vast majority of these are speculative projects, where the developer starts work on the project without a specific tenant in mind. Only three of the buildings—the Daimler Trucks North America HQ, the Multnomah County Health Department HQ and the Seven Corners Community Collaborative—are planned for a specific end user.

Click through to see our roundup of the major projects going on right now, arranged in no specific order. Where a significant portion of the building will be used for functions other than office, the area of the office floors alone has been given. Note that the area of any building may not be directly comparable to another due to differences in methods for how floor area is calculated.

Weekly Roundup: Inclusionary Zoning, Growth in the Pearl, Airbnb taxes and more

Posted on December 20, 2015 by nextportland

The Courtyard at Block 136 in the Pearl

Next Portland is taking a break over Christmas. Blogging will be light in the coming week, but will resume at the normal frequency the following week.

The building that used to house Starky’s Restaurant and Bar has been demolished, reports The Portland Chronicle. A permit is currently under review for a 46 unit, 3 story apartment building on the site at 2913 SE Stark St.

An article in GoLocalPDX asked “will growth kill the Pearl?” Quoted in the article was a representative of Preserve the Pearl, the organization that has now appealed the approval of Block 136 to the Oregon Court of Appeals.

The City Council voted 4-1 to dedicate revenue raised from short term rentals including Airbnb towards affordable housing.

In a record setting deal, Singaporean investors paid $45 million for the Janey II apartment building, which will in the future become a “temporary home for visiting employees at Portland-area companies.” The deal includes both the first phase building, completed in 2012, and the recently completed Janey II addition.

The Portland Mercury reported that the State Legislature may take up inclusionary zoning again during the 2016 session. A bill that would have lifted the current ban on local governments from mandating that developments include affordable housing failed during the 2015 session.

Focus: Our 25 Most Popular Posts of the Year

Posted on December 17, 2015 by nextportland

LOCA @ The Goat Blocks, the subject of our second most viewed post of 2015

2015 is the first full calendar year Next Portland has been in operation, and it’s been a year of huge growth for the site. As the year draws to a close it seemed like a good time to look at what the most popular posts of the year were. If there’s an overall trend evident it’s that posts about tall or large buildings do well. The single most popular post was the round up of the 25 tallest buildings planned or under construction. Posts about high rise buildings under construction—including Block 136, The Cosmopolitan, The NV (formerly The Overton), and Yard (formerly Block 67)—feature prominently in the list. The giant development at Oregon Square makes the list three times, and the redevelopment of the USPS site in the Pearl is included three times. The most popular post about a single project covered LOCA @ The Goat Blocks, a superblock development currently under construction in inner Buckman.

Other posts to make the top 25 were more surprising. The list includes the Worldmark by Wyndham and The Society Hotel, both relatively small hotel projects in Old Town. The initial post about 3rd & Taylor likely performed so well not because of the scale of the project, but because Next Portland was the first place to write about the potential demolition of the Hotel Albion. At only 8 stories Carbon12 wouldn’t come close to making the list of the tallest buildings planned for Portland, but is notable for the fact that the high rise structure will be built out of wood.

Were there any posts you particularly enjoyed reading this year? Let us know in the comments. Here is the full list of our most popular posts of 2015:

1 – Focus: 25 Tallest Buildings Planned or Under Construction

2 – LOCA @ The Goat Blocks

3 – Burnside Bridgehead, Pt II: Block 67

4 – Focus: 20 New Hotels Proposed For Portland

5 – Worldmark by Wyndham set to receive Design Advice

6 – Carbon12, an 8 story wood building, proposed for N Williams

7 – Concepts released for redevelopment of USPS site

8 – Pre-Application Conference scheduled for SW 3rd & Taylor

9 – Under Construction in Old Town: The Society Hotel

10 – Cook Street Apartments

11 – Lloyd Cinemas redevelopment returns in front of Design Commission (images)

12 – The Fair Haired Dumbbell

13 – Burnside Bridgehead, pt I: Block 75

14 – PDC identifies preferred concept for Post Office site

15 – Block 136 heading to Design Review

16 – Under Construction in South Waterfront: Block 37

17 – North Pearl High-Rises, Part II: The Overton

18 – Design Commission approves Oregon Square

19 –Design Commission reviews Oregon Square

20 – Oregon Square update

21 – North Pearl High-Rises, Part I: The Cosmopolitan on the Park

22 – Design Commission approves The Porter hotel

23 – 4th & Harrison returning for Design Advice

24 – Grand Belmont returns before Historic Landmarks Commission

25 – Hyatt Regency at the Oregon Convention Center

Focus: 25 Tallest Buildings Planned or Under Construction

Posted on May 15, 2015 by nextportland

It’s now almost 6 months since the first post on Next Portland. Since then we’ve published over 180 posts and added over 350 projects to our map, which is a testament to the staggering scale of development happening right now in Portland. Much of this development is 4-6 story buildings along the corridors such as N Williams and SE Division, but there is also a large number of tall buildings going up in the Central City, which why we decided to list the 25 tallest buildings planned or under construction.

While the boom of the 2000s was defined by the activity in South Waterfront, today that district has no apartments or condos planned over 6 stories tall. By contrast the Pearl, the Lloyd District and the Central Eastside are all seeing their skylines altered. Activity in Downtown has quieter, but it also has the tallest building in our list, which is now the 4th tallest building in the city.

Where possible, the heights given are the building height as defined in the Portland Zoning Code and published in the Design Commission’s Final Findings. Where indicated the heights have been estimated.

1 – Park Avenue West

Height: 460′
Architect: TVA Architects
Status: Under Construction

November 21, 2013 LU 13-214772 DZ - Drawings - 03

Weekly Roundup: Goat Blocks, Station Place Lot 5, Multnomah County Courthouse and more

Posted on April 12, 2015 by nextportland

Station Place Lot 5

The City Council heard the appeal of Preserve the Pearl LLC against the Design Commission’s decision to approve Block 136. Comments for or against the appeal can be sent to cctestimony@portlandoregon.gov until 5pm on April 15th. The Council will deliberate on April 23rd.

The Portland Development Commission board has voted to sell Station Place Lot 5 to Williams & Dame for $7.4 million. The developers plans to build a 204,000 sq ft office building on the vacant Pearl District land.

Grocery store Market of Choice and hardware store Orchard Supply will be the anchor retail tenants for LOCA @ The Goat Blocks, which is now under construction.

According to a post at The Portland Chronicle, demolition has begun on the Spring Market building on SE Hawthorne Blvd. In its place will be the Hawthorne 31 apartments by TVA Architects and VWR Development.

An article in today’s Oregonian covers OMSI’s desire for housing to be allowed on land it owns in the Central Eastside. The City is currently working on a draft of the SE Quadrant Plan, which will guide the zoning for the area for the next 20 years.

The Post Office Redevelopment could be a ‘golden opportunity for bikeway’, says BikePortland. Work on the Broadway Corridor Framework Plan, which includes in the USPS site, will begin this year.

The Portland Development Commission has issued a Request for Proposals for Riverplace Parcel 3. Working with the Portland Housing Bureau, they hope to create at least 200 affordable homes on the site.

At Portland Architecture Brian Libby asked whether Portland can grow the right way.

A photo gallery at the Daily Journal of Commerce shows the progress on the Park Avenue West tower.

The Portland Development Commission has reissued a Request for Proposals for NE 106th & Halsey. According to the Portland Business Journal, the PDC is willing to “donate the land at no cost or channel up to $3 million in public funding” to secure the kind of development it wants to see.

A due diligence report [PDF] on the Multnomah County Courthouse was presented to the County board. The two sites currently being considered for the new courthouse are at the Hawthorne Bridgehead, and adjacent to the KOIN tower. No fatal flaw was found for either site, and the site at the Hawthorne Bridgehead remains the preferred site.

Metro Reports: OHSU in South Waterfront, demolition of old PNCA building and more

Posted on March 2, 2015 by nextportland

Market Street Apartments

Every week, the Bureau of Development services publishes lists of early assistance applications, land use reviews and building permits. We publish the highlights.

SRG Partnership and ZGF Architects have requested Design Advice for two new buildings in South Waterfront, including the OHSU Center for Health & Healing II:

Design Advice Request for new ambulatory care facility on Block 29 and new mixed-use structure on Block 28.

SRG Partnership have also requested Design Advice for the OHSU Schnitzer Campus Building III at 2730 SW Moody Ave:

Project is new research building for Knight Cancer Research Institute.

YBA Architects have requested Design Advice for Conway Block 290:

Mixed use develpoment 7 stroy building with retail/comercial on the 1st story & underground parking

Leeb Architects have scheduled a Pre-Application Conference to discuss a project on North Harbour Lot 2:

3 lots total. 2 development areas to create one 4 story and one 5 story apartments with podium parking first floor

A demolition permit was issued for the PNCA Goodman Building, which is set to be redeveloped as Block 136:

Demolition of single story concrete warehouse with no basement. Slab will be left on site.Seperate permit for demo of sprinkler system to be obtained from the Fire Marshal’s Office. JET

A building permit is under review for a new building by Solterra Systems at 2422 SE 9th Ave:

New 34,000 sf, 5 story building with b, s, f, and a occupancies; ground floor retail; interior bike parking; lower level parking; ecoroof and elevator

A building permit is under review for the New Seasons University Park at 6300 N Lombard St:

Shell only; construction of new 26,500 sf building; associated site improvements and parking, landscaping and utilities

A building permit was issued for a project at 8211 N Montana Ave:

New 6 unit building, 3 story, 2 units on each floor, flat lot, complex

A building permit was issued to SERA Architects for the Market Street Apartments at 1115 SW Market St:

54,000 SF, 6 story apartment building (5/1)

A building permit was issued for the rebuild of the NE Weidler Taco Bell:

New construction of a taco bell restaurant on same property as existing taco bell that will be demolished

Weekly Roundup: Oregon Zoo, PNCA, Block 136 and more

Posted on January 25, 2015 by nextportland

Zidell Yards

The Design Commission approved designs for Block 136 and the 19th & Overton.
The Portland Development Commission is moving working on finalizing a Development Agreement with ZRZ Realty for Zidell Yards. The Portland Business Journal reported that the main areas still to be worked concern affordable housing and a new park. The Oregonian obtained a draft memo from the Portland Housing Bureau, which asked whether the Zidell family had “no desire” to develop affordable housing.
Beneficial Bank is considering redeveloping property it owns at 430 NW 10th Ave in the Pearl with an 11-story wood building. The property is currently occupied by a branch of Albina Bank.
Construction is underway on the Burnside Bridgehead Block 75, designed by Works Partnership. The Portland Business Journal reported that a formal groundbreaking is scheduled for Thursday January 29th.
The Portland Chronicle published photos of the church at 5000 SE Lincoln set to be demolished, to allow the construction of new townhomes.
A 2,000 sq ft visitor center at the Oregon Zoo Elephant Habitat will be the first building in the state to use Cross Laminated Timber, as reported in the Portland Business Journal.
Brian Libby of Portland Architecture had a first glimpse of the PNCA 511 Building, set to open soon. Next Portland published an article about the building earlier this week.