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The team proposing to construct near the east end of the Burnside Bridge a mixed-use development featuring two six-story buildings with a facade inspired by wrapping paper has applied to the Portland Bureau of Development Services for another design review hearing.

Phillip Chubb, an associate with FFA Architecture and Interiors, on Dec. 3 submitted the request to address modifications made to the Fair-Haired Dumbbell since a previous hearing before the Portland Design Commission. Ross Caron, a spokesman with the BDS, said no date has been set for the next hearing.

The development, designed by Kevin Cavenaugh of Portland-based Guerrilla Development, would be on Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and bordered by Burnside and Couch streets. Plans presented to the design commission in January called for a wood-frame building with ground-level retail and parking. The second through sixth floors were designed with heavy timber construction to give the new building the feel of an old warehouse.

Commissioners expressed several concerns with the proposal, including the inclusion of ground-level parking and how it could cause traffic congestion.

When Cavenaugh approached banks for a loan to complete the approximately $15 million speculative project earlier this year, lenders led him to believe he’d have an easier time getting funding if he included parking.

鈥淚t probably looks about the same as it did to the average passerby,鈥� Cavenaugh said of the revised design. 鈥淏ut I think we addressed 100 percent of the commission’s concerns.鈥�

Initial designs included 72 ground-level mechanized parking spaces, but commissioners worried about impacts of cars entering and exiting the parking area. Now that 40 percent of the space has been pre-leased, lenders seem less concerned about parking, Cavenaugh said.

鈥淲hen you’re in architecture school, they teach you that form follows function,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hen you get to the real world and realize function follows parking, and it’s kind of a sock in the gut.鈥�

Cavenaugh intends to present three modified design options to the commission 鈥� one with 36 parking spaces, one with 14 and one with none.

鈥淭he no-parking scheme has the best ground floor presence,鈥� Cavenaugh said. 鈥淭he submittal we’re offering has parking, but my hope is that the design review board and I can get at it and nibble away at the parking.鈥�

The modified design moves the elevators inside the building so that they’re no longer visible from the street. Also, construction material for the wrapped facade now would allow the color and image to stay strong in the long term, Cavenaugh said. Initially, the plans called for color to be applied to metal sheeting in a process similar to painting a car. Cavenaugh said the new method, which he declined to expand upon, is a 鈥渂etter solution鈥� that brings with it a 20-year warranty from the manufacturer.

鈥淚 feel great about it,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he building as it sits now is sexy as hell.鈥�