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Hacker‘s design for the Field Office, a new kind of office environment that brings the natural environment into the workplace via green terraces at several levels, is close to getting approval from the Portland Design Commission.

The project planned at 2030 N.W. Front Ave. came before the commission for a final review last week; however, it was extended to Dec. 17. Plans call for two six-story steel buildings that flare away from each other with a large public plaza to the south furnished with native plants. The buildings, with a total of 270,000 square feet, will have a roof garden and 鈥渉igh parks鈥� at several levels.

City planner Grace Jeffreys said the commission couldn’t vote at the Nov. 19 meeting whether to approve the project because a conflict concerning a planned bicyclist-pedestrian path still must be resolved.

According to city documents, the project site is a large, irregular parcel sandwiched between Northwest Front Avenue to the east, 17th Avenue to the west and the Union Pacific rail line to the south. A 12-foot-wide path would be located along the rail line in vacated areas of undeveloped Terminal Street.

鈥淲e still have issues regarding the bicycle-pedestrian path parallel to the rail line,鈥� Jeffreys said. 鈥淒ue to outstanding information, staff could not yet recommend approval.鈥�

That outstanding information revolves around safety concerns of the Oregon Department of Transportation and also whether the parcel should be defined as a superblock, said Stefee Knudsen, senior associate and project manager at Hacker.

Defining the site as a superblock would affect traffic patterns, Knudsen said. A superblock is usually defined as one created when a street in the middle of two blocks is vacated, she said, but in this case the vacated street portions are at one end and not in the middle.

鈥淪o the project may not need to meet superblock requirements,鈥� she said, 鈥渂ut it’s an open and active site that’s trying to bring together a lot of the uses that happen around it. I think we’ve potentially found some ways we can address ODOT‘s very legitimate safety concerns, and the city is reviewing those (superblock) requirements.鈥�

The Field Office will bring the outdoors inside with landscaped terraces, a concept praised by design commissioners in previous hearings. Knudsen said the name also applies to the exterior skin that will create a 鈥渇ield鈥� motif.

鈥淲e’ve had a lot more development of the exterior skin, which will have a dark metal chevron patterned panel and window systems at an irregular rhythm,鈥� she said.

That effect will give emphasis to those green balconies, or 鈥渉igh parks,鈥� Knudsen said.

鈥淭he exterior skin starts to create a field that highlights those high park features,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he whole building is about creating a new way of work, a more natural environment.鈥�

At ground level the building will provide restaurants, retail space and 92 long-term bicycle parking spaces. Approximately 350 motor vehicle parking spaces will be built below grade.

The entire project was driven by landscape architecture, said Jonathan Ledesma, who is heading up the project for developer Project^. At a previous design review meeting, Ledesma said that Jane Hansen of Lango Hansen Landscape Architects played a major role in the design for the vacant lot near the Willamette River.

鈥淲e have the ability to do things architecturally that you could not do in the city center,鈥� Ledesma said during a previous design review. 鈥淲e are bringing in the experience of the landscape that creates a new way to work in the city.鈥�