Have you ever wondered what the difference is between the Portland Development Commission and the Design Commission; between the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability and the Bureau of Development Services; or between the Building Code and the Zoning Code? At Next Portland we try to avoid using too much jargon, but there are certain terms that we’ve found get used in our posts more than others. Below we’ve compiled a list of some of the more commonly used terms that are particular to development in Portland. If there are any other terms that should be added please let us know in the comments.
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Category Archives: Focus
Focus: Projects by Neighborhood
There are 95 neighborhoods recognized by Portland’s Office of Neighborhood Involvement, and Next Portland has now written posts about projects happening in 29 of them. In some of these neighborhoods we’ve written 20 or more posts; in almost half of them we’ve only written about one project. To a certain extent this reflects where development is happening: there are a number of cranes up in the Pearl for construction of high rises, while other neighborhoods don’t have a single pin on our map. It is also however a reflection of the fact that in the Central City Design Review is required for all projects; in other neighborhoods such as Northwest or Boise developers can choose between Design Review or the prescriptive Community Design Standards; while in other neighborhoods such as Richmond or Sunnyside projects never go through Design Review. As such there are sometimes no published images of large new buildings, even once they are under construction.
Over the past month we’ve added categories to all of our in depth posts. To see which neighborhoods we’ve written about the most, read on.
Focus: 25 Tallest Buildings Planned or Under Construction
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
