ZGF Architects principal Paddy Tillett has written a new book that articulates lessons learned from nearly 40 years helping improve livability in Portland.

“Shaping Portland: Anatomy of a Healthy City” is about the values engendered by the city, and how those values have influenced growth. The book also presents a case study of a recognized urban infill success: the Pearl District.

Tillett is an architect, urban designer and city planner. He also is an adjunct professor at Portland State University. He grew up in rural Scotland, and obtained an architectural diploma from Oxford and then a master’s degree in civic design from the University of Liverpool. He then worked for consulting firms and public agencies in many parts of the world before settling in the Pacific Northwest.

Tillett recently spoke with the 91��Ƶ about his new book.

91��Ƶ: What was the motivation behind writing “Shaping Portland: Anatomy of a Healthy City?”

Paddy Tillett: A New York publisher called me up and asked if I’d like to write a book about Portland. I was so flattered, I said yes, and then I had to figure out what it was going to be. I had written chapters of a book on planning previously and one of them had caught their eye. I had written about the Pearl District for a British publication, and they were very taken with that.

There may be some advantage in being a longtime foreigner. I moved here to live in 1982 so I’ve been here a long time and I’ve seen a huge amount of change, and I’ve been involved in a lot of it through my work at ZGF. That was the background. It seemed like an opportunity to state the obvious in what people don’t necessarily see – how downtown and the inner neighborhoods have grown and changed during that period, and why. The things that make Portland different from other cities play into that in a big way. This area was born of cataclysmic seismic events, and yet there is sort of a blight will to ignore – if you look at how we’ve built – it’s as if we don’t really think anything is going to happen.

The book is two things. It talks about why Portland is the way it is and gives great credit to the statewide and local values. But on the other hand, it rings a warning. We’ve got the information; use it and find a way to act intelligently with the information we’ve got.

91��Ƶ: What are the primary shifts in urban design you’ve seen over the course of your career?

Tillett: It’s not so much a shift; it’s a growing awareness of how important urban design is. For example, when the transit mall was built back in the ’70s, it was led by the engineers. The architects and the landscape architects had something to do with it, but basically the whole thing was led by the engineers, and they identified what worked and what the architects would do. When it was rebuilt in 2009, TriMet put the urban designers – the architects and the landscape architects – in charge, recognizing that the places created along the transit mall were of primary importance. The engineers can make anything work, basically, and they really shouldn’t be calling the shots.

So I think there’s a shift in attitude, and there’s an awareness of urban design that frankly wasn’t there before. I think we see that in the way that the Pearl District has emerged, for example, and the way that we treat the waterfront. The greenway trail was identified on the plans 30 or 40 years ago, but it was a line.

But now, if you look at what’s been done in South Waterfront, for example, it’s become much more elaborate. We think about circulation, we think about recreation, we think about habitat not only on the bank but on the river. We’re really trying to achieve many more things with what we do, and the same is true with the way we design streets and open spaces.

Director Park, for example, instead of just being an open space as O’Bryant Square was designed, provides a lot of different opportunities for different things to happen concurrently. It recognizes that it will be used by folks who work downtown during the day, and it also recognizes that more and more people are living downtown and it’s going to have a different sort of life in catering to their needs.

We’re just becoming more sophisticated in understanding what urban design is and how it affects our livability – the quality of urban life that we have as a result of how we build things.

91��Ƶ: From your perspective, what do you see for the future of city planning?

Tillett: It’s an opportunistic view, but what I see is a shift away from specialists and silo thinking, which is what dominated the 20th century, into a place where design professionals will be informed generalists … to think holistically about each problem.

With that holistic thinking by all the design professionals, we’ll have a much more collaborative approach to design and things will be yet more purposeful than they are at the moment. Silo thinking is our enemy.

A great example is why we have one-way streets downtown. It’s for one purpose only, and that’s to get vehicles around more quickly. It completely overlooked what it does to retail. If you think about the best positions for retail in the street is usually the corner for approaching traffic so everyone sees it.

Well, when you make the streets one-way, half of those retailers lose out because they’re no longer visible. In the banal days of silo thinking, we thought singularly about how to improve things for the automobile, and in the process screwed up a lot of other things that were working perfectly well.

It’s this broadened vision which is so important. When one sees the whole picture of what makes a good city work and how do we embrace that.

91��Ƶ: What is the primary message you hope others take away after reading your book?

Tillett: I think to recognize that successful design is based in a very broad understanding of all of the things that play into it. We can’t ignore any of those. Some of them are things like seismic threats and some are more subtle like the function of trees and microclimates.

But one needs to be aware of all of those and one needs to be aware of what one knows but also what one does not know, and go searching for that so we continue to get a better understanding what makes a good urban habitat for mankind.

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Next year, architecture firm Hacker will move into a new space of its own design – a six-story, cross-laminated-timber building in Portland’s Central Eastside.

PMC Building LLC will own the building, “Eastside Office,” which will face Southeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, between Stark and Washington streets. Currently, the site holds a parking lot and a building occupied by Portland Music Co. That structure will be demolished, and the business will move to a space on Southeast McLoughlin Boulevard.

Hacker’s Alex Zelaya, a project architect, and Corey Martin, a principal, said they drew inspiration for the design from traditional industrial workplaces and timber-framed warehouses. With large windows, the building will be able to let in ample natural daylight and provide views of the surrounding neighborhood and landscape.

The upper five floors will be office space, and the ground floor will hold retail and restaurant space. The interior will feature double-height spaces, inspired in part by Hacker’s former studio in the Balfour-Guthrie Building.

Glue-laminated columns and beams and cross-laminated timber floors will be fully visible throughout Eastside Office’s interior. The light exterior will come from a combination of textured, mortar-washed bricks and the large windows that make up the majority of the façade.

Use of mass timber in large structures has become increasingly popular, and Zelaya and Martin said Hacker has been interested in such construction for a while. One project Hacker designed is the First Tech Federal Credit Union office in Hillsboro – at 150,000 square feet, it’s the largest cross-laminated timber building in the United States under construction (though larger projects are in the works).

“It’s taking wood to the next level,” Zelaya said. “There’s a very strong case to use wood for these projects, as a renewable and local resource that’s very abundant.”

Hacker is seeing increasing numbers of clients who want wood in new buildings, Zelaya said. It’s become the architects’ favorite material to work with for a variety of reasons, he explained. One is its renewability, but another is how it ties into biophilic design, which aims to reconnect people with the natural environment.

People who work inside a wood office space can have lower heart rates and greater productivity, Zelaya said.

“It just feels good to be inside of a wood space,” he said. “We always try and find ways in which we can connect people to nature. … People are healthier and happier in these spaces.”

The design calls for 90,400 square feet in Eastside Office. An outdoor courtyard is planned on a portion of the site. Expectations are for construction to last 14 to 15 months, with move-in to follow next year, in summer or early fall.

“Building something that will be just as useful now as it will be in 50 or 100 years is our goal,” Martin said. “This building feels that way. You’ll look at it 50 years from now and it won’t seem too dated and it won’t seem out of place.”

The project is expected to achieve 70 percent energy reduction below the baseline. Some of the integrated sustainable features include the large operable windows and doors allowing natural air ventilation, the VRF (variable refrigerant flow) heating and cooling system, energy recovery ventilation via a dedicated outdoor air system, solar control, a flow-through stormwater planter that treats all on-site rainwater and roof space reserved for a future solar array option.

The building is being developed in partnership with Beam Development and Urban Development + Partners. Andersen Construction is the general contractor. More details about the project are available at .

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During a design advice hearing on Thursday, the Portland Design Commission said a proposed eight-story building in the Central Eastside lacks a specific identity.

The new building designed by Ankrom Moisan Architects would sit on Northeast Davis Street between Northeast Grand Avenue and Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The site is currently occupied by a garage and a surface parking lot.

The 168,845-square-foot, L-shaped structure would be about 84 feet tall. A total of 163 residential units – including some affordable housing – are proposed above 6,650 square feet of ground-floor retail space along Martin Luther King Boulevard and Grand Avenue as well as a fitness room also on Grand. An amenity room and deck are proposed at the southwest corner on the top floor.

The development by Fairfield Residential Co. includes 61 parking spaces on the ground floor and basement. The garage door for all vehicle spaces is located along Davis Street. Potential cladding materials include metal panel and metal mesh with purple artistic elements. A floor projection is proposed over the sidewalk along Martin Luther King Boulevard.

The proposed building combines features from both of the sculptural buildings found near the Burnside Bridge and more traditional mixed-use buildings scattered around the Central Eastside.

During the design advice hearing, John Schupp of Ankrom Moisan Architects said design objectives include adding to the newly forming identity in the neighborhood of simple, strong massing. Some buildings have highly sculpted qualities and some have traditional massing with cleanly detailed façades. The proposed building is located at the gateway to the neighborhood.

The design team also wants to highlight the importance of Grand Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard as the commercial spine of the neighborhood, as well as enhance the pedestrian experience, Schupp said.

Commissioners said they felt the that the current design of the building lacks a specific identity,  and suggested picking either the sculptural look or the more traditional look and sticking to it.

“You have a lot of buildings in the area that have a very clear identity,” Commissioner Don Vallaster said. “The way you’ve started this thing is too complex. It seems like it’s a little confused. Simplification around one core idea is probably going to be more successful.”

Commission Chair Julie Livingston advised picking one concept going forward.

“A building that’s straddling a traditional approach and a sculptural approach is neither here nor there,” she said. “Choosing one of those and knocking it out of the park is probably a better response.”

Project designer Schupp said they wanted to create a simpler building, but it got too busy.

Commissioners also said the fitness room on the ground floor along Grand Avenue should be relocated to take advantage of the valuable square footage.

“That’s a deal breaker for me. That’s got to move,” Commissioner Jessica Molinar said. “It can go on any level. There’s no reason why it should be right there.”

Trevor Boucher of Fairfield Residential Co. said they are looking at having more unique options such as a climbing wall because the ground level along Grand Avenue will have double height for the retail and fitness room, but Livingston said the commission typically advocates for retail in order to have consistent use of the space.

Overall, commissioners agreed the building could be a success with a unique, sculptural concept.

“Any building in this location at the bridgehead is a huge opportunity to do something fairly significant that is not traditional,” Livingston said.

Schupp said the design team will continue to work on defining the building before Ankrom Moisan Architects returns for a second design advice hearing on May 17.

Also during the Thursday meeting:

• The Design Commission approved a project for three mixed-use buildings of five to seven stories in the Lloyd District. Designed by Holst Architecture, the buildings will be constructed at Northeast Multnomah Street and 16th Avenue. The development will replace the Lloyd Cinemas and a surface parking lot adjacent to the Sears building in the Lloyd Center mall. The buildings will hold 556 residential units, including 20 walk-up units; 34,300 square feet of retail space; nine live-work units; and 252 vehicle parking spaces. The proposal also calls for two public plazas on the ground floor and rooftop decks for residents. The site will provide 34 short-term bike parking spaces and 844 long-term bike parking spaces.

• In a 4-1 vote, the Design Commission approved an application for a seven-story mixed-use building on the southwest corner of Northwest 19th Avenue and Pettygrove Street. Owner DD Pettygrove is planning 107 market-rate residential units above 1,150 square feet of ground-level retail space, 34 vehicle parking spaces and 120 long-term bike parking spaces. 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 also approved renovations to the east end of Lloyd Center. The project will include the renovation and conversion of the existing four-story Lloyd Center Sears from a single tenant building to a multi-tenant building with a new 14-screen theater to be built on the third level of the former Sears building. The new third-level theater footprint will expand over the existing parking area to the south, and the existing first and second floors will become lease space for multi-tenant retail or office space. The entrance to the theater lobby will be on the third-floor parking deck. The primary cladding above the ground level will be metal panels in a “champagne” color. The renovated floors and the new expanded third-level theater will have a new total of 166,308 total square feet of area, an increase of approximately 20,000 square feet.

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Now in its sixth year, Design Week Portland is a week-long, city-wide series of programs exploring the process, craft and practice of design across all disciplines.

The goal is to increase appreciation and awareness about design and its effects on society and culture, including community development, education and the economy.

Running April 14-21, Design Week Portland stitches together hundreds of events, talks, gallery showcases, tours, unique experiences, workshops and open studios that aim to connect, educate and inspire.

“We think about design as a tool for drawing out important civic conversations,” said Tsilli Pines, the festival’s director and cofounder. “Many of our efforts, collaborations and exhibitions are about how we use design to amplify citizen voices.”

Last year the festival attracted 7,000 people who participated in at least one event, and this year festival organizers are expecting the same. The presentations and events explore a variety of design disciples, ranging from architecture to manufacturing to graphic design and more.

The event is created by and for designers – and anyone else curious about the role design plays in society. Programming throughout the week will illustrate what is new and interesting in the field of design from the perspective of designers who work across many practices.

“It’s an opportunity to really increase the appreciation and awareness about design and its far-reaching effects,” festival spokeswoman Kimberly Davis said. “The real magic happens when we see collaboration across disciplines.”

The week kicks off with drinks and music at the opening party, 7-11 p.m., Saturday, April 14, at Custom Blocks, 900-998 S.E. Main St. Attendees will get a first look inside , a creative office space in Central Eastside, and connect with each other at the party that launches more than 300 events across the city.

The party will include design activations from the new local design studio Plastic Sunshine, a parklet installation competition in partnership with the Portland Bureau of Transportation and an auction of refurbished mid-century benches via PDX Originals.

Design Week events range from serious to educational to lighthearted and fun. Some feature guest panelists, while others encourage collaborative work. Still other events are walking history tours or open houses. This year, organizers tried to make the event more accessible by creating various itineraries: there’s one for specific disciplines, one geared toward people not in the design industry, and one with a list of free or low-cost events.

“At the end of the day, we are about connection and contribution through design,” Pines said.

Design Week culminates in a closing party, 7-11 p.m. Saturday, April 21, at Marmoset Music HQ, 2105 S.E. 7th Ave., where there will be an interactive mural allowing visitors to make music.

Most events are free or low cost. Register for each event separately – there is no central pass. The full list of events can be found at .

With so many events, tough, it can be difficult to narrow down the choices. So here are a few suggestions to get you started:

Monday, April 16, 6-8 p.m. at Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA), 511 NW Broadway

A rapid-fire evening where designers will present the “next Portland” – soon-to-be-built innovative buildings and landscapes, big and small, that will shape the urban landscape presented on-stage by their designers. From radical new work space to the first high-rise school west of the Mississippi to an Oregon take on the Doric column, this event will feature the latest work by a range of architects.

Wednesday, April 18, 6-7:30 p.m. at Bud Clark Commons, 650 N.W. Irving St.

Portland is rapidly growing and experiencing a housing and homelessness crisis. Leveraging the expertise of policy makers, community activists, social service providers and affordable housing designers, this panel explores how we got here, what is being done to address it, what more can be done and how design can help. Panelists include Deborah Kafoury, Multnomah County Chair; Kevin Cavanaugh, Guerrilla Development; Kaia Sand, Street Roots; Stacy Borke, Transition Projects; and Ashley Henry, Business for a Better Portland. Organized by Holst Architecture, all proceeds from this panel will be donated to Transition Projects.

Tuesday, April 17, 5-6 p.m. at Faubion School + Concordia University, 2930 N.E. Dekum St.

Engage with the architect, principal, university faculty and curriculum designers in a talk and tour to find out how design is destiny for over 800 students and their families in NE Portland. The first of its kind in the nation, 3 to PhD was developed as a new public-private collaboration to create safer, healthier, more educated communities. Participants can experience a day in the life inside Portland’s first newly constructed school in two decades, which opened in fall 2017, and includes Faubion PK-8, Concordia University’s College of Education, an early childhood center, the 3 to PhD Kaiser Permanente Wellness Center, STEAM/maker spaces, and a food club.

Tuesday, April 17, 5-6:45 p.m. at Ziba Auditorium, 810 N.W. Marshall St.

in real life examples, this panel, co-hosted by ZGF and ZIBA, aggregates design leaders to explore how high performing, sustainable design enriches lives by promoting individual health and well-being, workforce productivity and economic resilience. Speakers include Bill Browning, co-founder of Terrapin Bright Green; Eric Park, director of business design at Cambia Health and Ziba Design Fellow; Gene Sandoval, design partner at ZGF; and Kathy Berg, partner at ZGF.

GRIT Building Solutions Green Learning Center, 919 S.W. Taylor St., Suite 800

Come see the latest in virtual reality technology for design and build in the brand new Green Learning Center opening in spring 2018. Attendees will be among the first in the market to try ICE intelligent, interactive virtual reality. It completely changes the way people experience design and ideation. Attendees will even have their own avatars to explore together and be some of the first people in the world to see this intelligent VR leap out of the goggles and onto a phone.

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Overturning its previous tentative decision to uphold an appeal and deny Lincoln Property Company‘s proposed 17-story Fremont Apartments project between Northwest Naito Parkway and the Willamette River, the Portland City Council on Wednesday voted to reconsider the application.

As designed by TVA Architects, the proposed structure at 1650 N.W. Naito Parkway would be 306,000 square feet. It would have 275 residential units above 6,600 square feet of ground-floor retail and restaurant space. A parking garage would have 152 spaces.

The project had received the Portland Design Commission‘s approval in December, but the Pearl District Neighborhood Association appealed that decision and presented its arguments at a public hearing in February. In a tentative vote last month, the City Council upheld that appeal, effectively rejecting the project.

The council’s latest vote will continue the hearing until May 10 and reopen the record. The applicant will have until April 11 to submit revisions to its application. City staff will mail notice of the continued hearing and the opportunity to submit testimony in response to revisions. Participants may submit written testimony on the revised plans, and the council will accept oral testimonies on May 10 at 2 p.m.

Mayor Ted Wheeler, who voted in favor of reconsidering the project, said he’s not concerned about the building’s height or its impact on views of the Fremont Bridge. Instead, the main issue he wants to see addressed is the width of the greenway.

Commissioner Chloe Eudaly agreed.

“My primary concern is the greenway and how this building is going to affect our built environment and integrate or not integrate into the community,” she said.

However, Commissioners Amanda Fritz and Dan Saltzman voted against the motion to reconsider, arguing that allowing the applicant to submit revisions will set up the city council to act as the city’s Design Commission. Fritz said she doesn’t think the changes requested are minor and would rather see a new application submitted from scratch.

Ultimately, the motion to reconsider and allow TVA Architects to submit revisions passed with a 3-2 vote.

“I believe that, in this instance, giving the applicant the opportunity to address the concerns we raised and redesign the project and come back to council is in the public interest,” Commissioner Nick Fish said.

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A homeless shelter, a museum, a community center, a park, a grocery store.

Those were some of the ideas presented during the final session of Your Street, Your Voice – an after-school program geared to expose a diverse group of high school students to architecture and urban design.

“If there’s one problem in your neighborhood you could change through design, what would that be?” Hacker architect Jackie Santa Lucia asked the students. She taught the course, now in its second year, with co-worker Joe Swank.

“There’s a real problem in the construction industry in terms of minorities being underrepresented, not even knowing it’s a career option,” she said.

The leaders of Your Street, Your Voice are trying to address that issue. Sessions were held twice a week for a month at , a self-described “hub for child and youth creativity, education and engagement.” It’s led by a coalition featuring the Black United Fund of Oregon, Catlin Gabel School, De La Salle North Catholic High School, KairosPDX, Latino Network and the Urban League of Portland.

“All these organizations are coming together to create a space where children and youth can get the skills they need to make an impact in the world,” The CENTER Director George Zaninovich said.

The class is set up as a studio so that each student can identify an issue like gentrification or homelessness and help solve it through a building design, framed through the lens of equity and inclusion.

Bella Myers’ project called for reimagining a block on the corner of North Russell Street and Williams Avenue that used to be filled with black-owned businesses but has sat vacant for decades. Having grown up in Portland, Myers, a junior at Catlin Gabel, said she took the project very personally.

“This area has been the victim of gentrification,” she said. “One part of Portland history that we don’t talk about a lot is what used to be in Northeast Portland.”

Her project addresses that issue with a history museum, retail and office space, affordable housing and a courtyard.

Myers said she loved the creative aspect of designing a building and learning how to draw a scale floor plan. Before participating in the program, she didn’t have any experience with design. Now she wants to learn more about the architecture field.

“I loved creating something that a month ago I didn’t have,” she said.

Kira Busch, a junior at Franklin High School, chose to repurpose an existing vacant building at Southeast 67th Avenue and Foster Road. She redesigned the 1920s-era building as a museum focusing on the history of east Portland and the Foster-Powell neighborhood, where she lives.

“I just really want to generate appreciation of the neighborhood, and I want people to recognize the importance that Foster had on the development of Portland,” she said. “I want to revive the neighborhood because I know there are a lot of people living in poverty in that area.”

During the class, Busch said she loved seeing others’ ideas, and the students inspired her to think outside the box. While she’s still exploring career fields, she said she’s interested in learning more about design.

Throughout the program, Lucia and Swank invited co-workers and others to talk to the students.

The program began with a guest panel of African-American design and architecture professionals sharing their personal experiences in the industry. The speakers included Nate McCoy, executive director and operations manager of the National Association of Minority Contractors‘ Oregon chapter; architect William Hart, a founding partner in Carleton Hart Architecture; Joy Alise Davis, CEO and founder of Design + Culture Lab; and Anyeley Hallova, a partner at development firm project^.

The panel’s diversity set the tone for the program.

“It was eye-opening for them to see that,” Lucia said.

The goal is to plant seeds, especially for high school students starting to explore career options. If students want to pursue architecture as a major, they can use their design from Your Street, Your Voice as part of their portfolio.

Two students from last year’s class got architecture internships, and one started an architecture program at the University of Oregon.

“It blows my mind how conscious these students are,” Lucia said. “It makes me hopeful that we’re going to be living in super awesome cities because we’ve got younger generations that are going to be there.”

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Portland City Hall will soon have a green roof.

A proposal to install an eco-roof around the main roof’s perimeter was approved by the Historic Landmarks Commission on Monday.

“I think it’s really a great project,” Commissioner Wendy Chung said. “I think it’s really exciting to have an eco-roof right on City Hall that’s visible to all these adjacent buildings, and hopefully it will inspire other building owners to do the same.”

Also in the proposal by preservation design firm Architectural Resources Group (ARG) is the plan to reroof the building’s smaller roofs, complete seismic pinning of decorative stone balusters to the roof structure, and replace two rooftop mechanical chillers.

Portland City Hall has been the seat of the city government since it was built in 1895. The building occupies a full block downtown between Jefferson and Madison streets and Fourth and Fifth avenues, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

“Portland’s been really leading the charge on eco-roof technology over the last couple of decades,” Mayer/Reed landscape architect Tim Strand said. “Not only are they aesthetically pleasing, they also perform a number of important benefits.”

Those benefits include decreasing the amount of stormwater runoff, providing habitat, reducing the heat island effect, increasing building energy efficiency and helping extend the roofing membrane’s life by up to two times.

The project also features a number of repairs and maintenance that are exempt from historic resource review, including cleaning and repairing exterior stone surfaces, repairing wood sash windows and rehabilitating two pairs of exterior doors.

The existing roof assembly, which was installed about 20 years ago, has begun to fail and allow moisture to seep inside, said Matthew Davis, an ARG principal. A limited amount of weight can be added to the roof, so the number of plant species able to be used also is limited.

Commission Vice Chairwoman Kristen Minor said she hopes the roof repairs and seismic pinning will allow the stone to last another hundred years.

“This is one of those examples where you want to hire somebody who really knows what they’re doing, and I do have trust in this applicant,” she said.

The eco-roof will be a layered cinder system assembled on site. The cinder and sedum planting will be five inches deep and be made up of a drain mat, a filter fabric and water retention layer, a growing medium, cinder mulch and plants.

The roof will feature a mix of 12 species of plants from one to six inches tall – including sedum cuttings and some bulbs native to the Pacific Northwest – that can withstand the varying amounts of direct sunlight, indirect light and shade from adjacent office towers.

The plantings will be predominantly green with purple hues in the spring, green and yellow in summer, rust-colored in the fall, and green and brown in winter, Strand said.

Commissioner Matthew Roman asked if the green roof will have to be maintained once it’s installed. Strand said it will require some maintenance, but not as much as a decorative planting. Also, the team recommends that fertilizer not be used.

“I think the biggest obstacle to saving buildings is making sure that they remain usable, so I support this proposal,” Roman said.

Overall, commissioners praised the eco-roof design and building repairs and voted in favor of the project.

“This is a perfect example of a historic building that everyone knows and loves,” Minor said. “There are a lot of opportunities and vantage points from higher up to look down on this and really appreciate the change in seasons.”

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A schematic design for the School for Deaf Children facility in Les Cayes, Haiti, will be presented to the public during a critique session on Wednesday at the AIA Center for Architecture, at 403 N.W. 11th Ave., from 6-7 p.m.

Architects Without Borders-Oregon volunteers from the fields of architecture, engineering, interior design and landscape architecture have been working on a design. The project team will give a brief presentation of its design, including some interactive visualization components – renderings and virtual reality walkthroughs – geared toward audience participation.

The goal is to showcase the design thinking and to get critical feedback to guide the final design development phase before construction documents are produced. The project deadline is scheduled for early June.

The public is invited to attend the meeting and give the team feedback. Snacks and drinks will be provided. Doors will open at 5:45 p.m.

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Portland design commissioners agreed that exterior alterations proposed for the PacWest Center are headed in the right direction, but not yet ready for approval.

“I think it’s a very sensitive intervention of a very interesting building,” Commissioner Samuel Rodriguez said during a design review hearing on Thursday.

Construction of the 30-story PacWest Center finished in 1984. It’s part of the transit mall, on the block surrounded by Southwest Madison and Jefferson streets and Southwest Fifth and Sixth avenues. Lincoln Property Co. owns the skyscraper.

Plans call for remodeling the Fifth Avenue entrance, removing the canopy at the Sixth Avenue entrance, removing and replacing granite planters, sidewalk material, steps and landscaping by the Fifth and Sixth entrances as well as the east corner of Madison Street, and altering the third-floor roof terrace.

“This is an important project for the city,” Vice Chairman Tad Savinar said. “This is a fantastic building that serves fantastic tenants. It’s a dream and we’re fortunate to have it.”

The project goals are to create presence through the entries, cultivate and activate the ground-floor experience and enhance the landscaping, according to GBD Architects‘ Dustin White.

“We’re trying to offer better opportunities and enhance opportunities for pedestrians,” he said.

Along the main entrance on Fifth Avenue, designers proposed removing the existing one-story entry vestibule and partially removing the existing metal panels and glass at the second level façade, and then adding a two-story vestibule and a new metal canopy above it.

They also proposed removing the granite planter that is partially in the sidewalk and replacing it with two smaller planters in an effort to open up the pathway to the entrance.

“We feel that it struggles because the sense of identity as an entrance is not there,” White said about the existing layout.

The design team also wants to replace the large canopy over the office entryway along Sixth Avenue and a portion of the storefront with a new all-glass entrance. However, commissioners didn’t approve the proposed change to pavement material on the sidewalk adjacent to the building.

For the corner retail space along Madison Street, the team proposed removing the brick planter, stair and railing, and installing a granite planter, retaining wall and glass railing.

Retail has struggled in the building for quite some time, White said, so the goal is to highlight the retail space by increasing the visibility and improving the entrance.

However, commissioners didn’t like revisions to the Madison Street corner and asked for the design team to come back with alternatives.

“I think in general the concept is a good idea, but not the execution,” Commissioner Jessica Molinar said. Commissioner Andrew Clarke agreed, saying he doesn’t think the alterations create a successful retail space.

For the third-floor terrace, the design team proposed replacing the existing planters and landscaping with new metal planters, wood benches and lighting.

Overall, most commissioners said they like the direction of the proposal, but want to see some revisions.

“What you’re proposing is waking up that area, that whole pedestrian experience,” Clarke said. “You’ve been able to add a lot more usable space for the tenants and a lot more spaces for people who have to walk around this whole entire building and experience it from a whole block perspective.”

The design team will come back on April 26 to present design alternatives.

Also on Thursday:

Pearl District storage facility design approved

The Design Commission voted 5-0 in favor of a proposal by developer Hoyt Street Properties to build a new 129,520-square-foot self-service storage facility in the Pearl District, on a vacant site at Northwest Savier Street and 14th Avenue.

MCA Architects‘ design calls for a six-story, 97-foot-tall building with an 8,400-square-foot plaza and six ground-floor retail spaces. A 20-foot-high rose sculpture by artist Ivan McClean has been proposed within the plaza.

The building’s upper stories will be clad in metal panels, with alternating gray tones, and glass. Entry to the storage facility and surface parking area will be along 14th Avenue.

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With the emergence of autonomous motor vehicles and the surge in e-commerce, city planners are starting to ask important questions about how these technologies will impact the future of urban design.

, a University of Oregon initiative exploring these effects, has been awarded $1 million over the next five years. The grant from the Presidential Fund for Excellence will allow Urbanism Next to establish a new center, expanding on the work to examine the changes that could come with the growth of autonomous vehicles, e-commerce and the sharing economy.

Urbanism Next started about two years ago as a project under the Sustainable Cities Initiative (SCI) at UO. The creation of the center will build upon the research and partnerships already established through the initiative.

Urbanism Next lead and SCI co-director Nico Larco said the group started to realize there was research being done on the impacts on transportation, but not on the secondary effects such as street design and city planning.

“When we started looking into this and realizing the impacts these technologies are going to have, this become more of a ‘we need to get everyone thinking about this.’” he said.

With the increase in funding, the program will be able vastly increase its capacity. The center’s primary focus will be on interdisciplinary research and helping to inform public agencies, private firms and collaboration with local and national partners.

“We’re thrilled to have the support from the university,” Larco said. “There’s a strong interest in making real-world change, and it shows a strong commitment to this area of need.”

Earlier this month, more than 500 people from across the country attended the first Urbanism Next Conference. It was created through a partnership between SCI, the Oregon chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects, the American Institute of Architects – Portland, the Oregon chapter of the American Planning Association and the Urban Land Institute Northwest.

It’s the first time those four organizations have come together to talk about these topics, Urbanism Next program manager Becky Steckler said.

“We thought there was a pent-up demand for this type of thing, and we were absolutely right,” she said. “Even a year ago, this all felt like science fiction and now we’ve quickly made the transition. These are going to affect our communities.”

The new technologies are changing transportation systems and city layouts, Larco said. The work at the center will largely focus on how those changes will affect land use, street design, parking, housing and densification.

With the introduction of autonomous vehicles (AVs), one estimate says the need for parking could be reduced to 10 to 15 percent of current needs, Larco said. With so much land being made available at the same time, there could be a drop in property values with the sudden increase in supply.

On the other hand, curbside management will become an important topic, as vehicles will pick people up and drop them off throughout the day.

Larco has been leading a Portland-based emerging technology group made up of partners such as Metro, the Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, the Portland Bureau of Transportation, TriMet, the Oregon Department of Transportation and the governor’s office.

The city of Portland has already been looking into the potential effects of autonomous vehicles. Last year the city launched a (SAVI) – a long-range policy on outcomes the city wants to see, including regulations for AVs.

That initiative will soon be incorporated into the city’s transportation plan, said Art Pearce, manager of Portland Bureau of Transportation policy, planning and projects. He oversees a group that guides transportation ideas through the long-range planning and policy, project development and construction stages – including discussions surrounding AVs.

“What do these new ideas and new technologies mean for creating a great city of the future?” Pearce said. “We’ve been working with (Larco) on developing a better understanding on where our focus should be.”

With the new regulatory policy, officials want to be explicit about the city they’re trying to build. With AVs, Pearce said there tends to be two visions of possible outcomes. In one, it will mean more vehicle miles traveled overall, causing more traffic and congestion and more people sitting in vehicles longer. The second possibility could be a future in which streets are used more efficiently with people in vehicles going to similar destinations and a reduction in parking needs.

“We’re looking at new technologies with open eyes with how they might impact our future city and the people in our city,” Pearce said.

The rise in Uber and Lyft usage could provide insight into how AVs will be used in the future, he added. To help with planning, the city will be funding a study of whether car-sharing networks cause an increase or a decrease of traffic and congestion.

“These emerging technologies are really going to direct the way we’re operating right now, so we’re going to have to (identify) these impacts and how … we respond,” Larco said.

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