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A 175-foot-tall multifamily building project, years after surviving challenges from Pearl District neighbors, is advancing between Northwest Naito Parkway and the Willamette River.

Designed by TVA Architects for Lincoln Property Company, Fremont Place will ascend as high as 17 stories and hold 236 apartments above ground-floor retail space and amenity space.

General contractor Andersen Construction and subcontractors are getting ready to tackle the foundation. Pacific Foundation crews are installing over 100 steel pipe piles to support the building, while Andersen Structures Inc. workers prepare the necessary formwork.

DCI Engineers performed the structural engineering, which was complicated due to the riverfront location (1650 N.W. Naito Parkway).

鈥淭hey are now working on the structural excavation, but we have fully excavated out to the elevation that’s needed to install all the steel pipe piles,鈥� Andersen Construction project manager Katie Hoyt said. 鈥淲e have an initial foundation permit, which is approved and signed off, and then we’re very close to getting the remainder of the building permits from the city.鈥�

The Portland Design Commission approved the design for Fremont Place in 2018, but that decision was appealed to the City Council by the Pearl District Neighborhood Association. That appeal was at first upheld, but then reversed by the City Council, allowing the project to finally move forward.

The new building will have one level of below-grade parking featuring car stackers. The ground floor will have bike storage, two artist studios and a commercial space with an outdoor patio connected to an adjacent greenway. Meanwhile, the upper levels will have a mix of studios, one-bedroom units and two-bedroom units, with lounges and roof terraces on the second and seventh levels.

The massing, designed to minimize view obstructions for neighboring buildings to the west, steps down as the structure approaches the river. The full 17-story height is reached in the northwest corner, with eight stories on the northeast podium and six stories on the southwest podium.

Exterior materials will include brick pillars, curtain wall and storefront window systems on the ground floor, a window wall system on upper floors, fiber cement panels and metal panels.

The riverfront soil led to a unique foundation design, Hoyt said.

鈥淔rom the middle of the building out to the river it’s been very sandy,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd then it starts to be a mix of sand and your typical soils we encounter right around the railroad tracks.鈥�

Along the building’s east face, closest to the river, deep soil mixing was used to construct the below-grade retention wall. On the south and the west there is standard shoring and lagging walls; on the north there is a laid-back wall. Shotcrete will be the main material for the vertical walls below grade.

鈥淎nd we have over 100 steel pipe pile, which per design are supposed to go down 106 linear feet,鈥� Hoyt said, noting that the piles arrived on site via a barge equipped with a crane. 鈥淏ut it’s going 25 or 30 feet beyond that so that it hits bedrock.鈥�

Initial excavation started in October 2020. Crews are expected to require 25 months to reach substantial completion. Westech Construction did the excavation work. Subcontractors currently on site include Ocean Park Mechanical, Bergelectric and Patriot Fire Protection. All are performing below-grade work at present in preparation for the first of three large foundation concrete pours.

鈥淭hey’re putting sewers in, getting conduit ready for electrical 鈥� that kind of stuff,鈥� Hoyt said. 鈥淎nd our (project engineers) are working on submittals for all the exteriors.鈥�