Liz Sias//February 21, 2018//

It’s back to the drawing board for a Portland architecture firm after design commissioners last week asked for revisions to the proposal for a mixed-use building.
The seven-story building on the southwest corner of Northwest 19th Avenue and Pettygrove Street would have 107 residential units above 1,150 square feet of ground-level retail space, a bike storage room and vehicle parking.
YBA Architects‘ design features ribbed and flat metal paneling, black vinyl windows, glass guardrails, steel plate canopies and planters, concrete piers, black aluminum storefronts and wood doors and seating accents.
Commissioners requested revisions to a couple of areas.
Large storefront windows open directly into the parking area. While some vertical vines are proposed to partially obscure this view, city staff is concerned that views into a parking structure are unattractive. Design review staff also found that the building setback on the west side isn’t big enough to accommodate foundations for the proposed cable-mounted vines.
Also, YBA Architects’ design called for ground-floor windows that don’t meet the minimum length required by the city. All exterior, ground-level walls that are 20 feet or closer to a public open space or right-of-way must have windows that are at least 50 percent of the length and 25 percent of the ground level wall area. Currently, the planned windows are only 40 percent of the length.
The project team is scheduled to return before the Design Commission for another review hearing on March 1.