The Portland Design Commission met for more than eight hours on Thursday, and approved two Pearl District projects: a renovation, including seismic upgrades, for two office buildings; and a new 14-story mixed-use building.

The commission also extended a design review for the St. Francis Park Apartments to next month, and provided a second round of design advice for a superblock redevelopment in the Lloyd District.

510 N.W. 15th Ave.

Plans call for a renovation of two existing buildings to provide 83,000 square feet of creative office space over ground-floor retail space.

Commissioners expressed concern that a parking lot (now up for sale) on the property’s southwest corner needs to be brought up to city code. Kevin Valk, senior associate at Holst Architecture, said an upgrade to code would be a condition of purchase.

The design was approved unanimously. The only condition was that designers work with the Portland Bureau of Transportation to work out the location of an underground transformer vault, Holst project manager Mara Indra said.

“The commission was very supportive of the project and the building,” she said. “It’s really going to improve the neighborhood at the site on (Interstate) 405, where it will be really visible and a gateway to the Pearl District.”

After the meeting, Holst Architecture owner Jeff Stuhr said he hopes that construction can begin in early 2016 and finish in about a year.

530-535 N.W. 11th Ave.

Plans for a new 14-story building call for 102 apartments with 1,500 square feet of retail along the east frontage of the ground floor. A mechanized system inside the building will provide parking for 52 vehicles entering from Northwest Hoyt Street. A large basement will provide 155 bike parking spaces for tenants.

Commissioners discussed at length whether some of the parking spaces should be removed to allow for a small ground-floor retail shop, but in the end decided to leave retail at 25 percent.

Isaac Johnson, managing principal at Ankrom Moisan Architects, said a total of nine parking places would have to be eliminated to come up with about 400 square feet to increase retail to 47 percent as recommended by staff.

“I don’t think we get a lot with that extra retail,” Commissioner Don Vallaster said.

City planner Staci Monroe told the commission that two large art pieces for the ground-floor, glassed-in retail space had been proposed and that the client was working with the Regional Arts & Culture Council to select an artist.

Commissioners decided that the art pieces would qualify as public benefit to justify transferring 20,000 square feet of floor area from 530 N.W. 11th Avenue.

Eloise Damrosch of the RACC told commissioners that her group gave “a unanimous thumbs-up” to the art pieces that would form an end wall to the 675-square-foot retail space that will be visible from both inside and outside the building.

Vallaster was also concerned about the 13-foot, 9-inch height of a wall around the cooling towers on the building’s roof. Johnson said the wall height could be lowered.

In the end, with Chairman David Wark abstaining, the commissioners approved the project, striking a requirement for expanded retail and that the glass garage door be 90 percent opaque.

St. Francis Park Apartments

Plans for this project, on Southeast Stark Street between 11th and 12th avenues, call for 106 units of affordable housing on a one-acre site presently occupied by St. Francis Park. The building would hold 73,000 gross square feet, including a community room and office on the ground floor and a communal front porch. The U-shaped building would partially surround a 6,300-square-foot plaza for residents.

Residents will include women transitioning from homelessness and victims of domestic and sexual violence, according to the city staff report.

Trell Anderson, director of housing for Catholic Charities, told commissioners that the building will have 86 affordable workforce units and the rest will be for the women, whose average age is early 50s, he said.

Anderson said the city of Portland has committed $6.5 million to the project, and his agency is working with St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church and Home Forward to build and manage the units.

“This is not our first large project and our mission is to serve the community’s most vulnerable (population),” he said.

After asking for more landscaping and that the design be softened to fit better into the neighborhood, commissioners said they understand that further delays can run up costs for the project. Nevertheless, they asked MWA Architects to come back one more time, on Nov. 12.

Lloyd District redevelopment

Holst Architecture will come back Dec. 3 for a third design advice session for a massive redevelopment at 1510 N.E. Multnomah Drive.

Plans for redevelopment of the Lloyd Cinemas and the adjacent surface parking lot include construction of three six-story buildings with 980 residential units, retail with structured parking for 873 spaces both above and below ground, a diagonal pedestrian mall, and open public spaces.

After the meeting, Cassidy Bolger, executive vice president of development with Portland Lloyd Center Community LLC, said he was pleased with the commission’s response.

“We had a really good conversation and gave clarity to the diagonal and how it’s playing a really important role,” he said.

Bolger said it’s exciting to see the huge project finally advancing through the city process.

“We’re really excited about the Lloyd District … it’s finally bearing fruit and it feels so appropriate that this neighborhood is where we are adding housing,” he said.

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The team planning to renovate two side-by-side warehouses in the Pearl District on Thursday brought its project before the Portland Design Commission for the first time. The commission praised the design, but moved to continue the review on Oct. 22.

The office project, designed by Holst Architecture for owner Meriwether Partners, will cover a half-block at ., city planner Jeff Mitchem said. Plans call for renovating the one-story building on the lot’s east side and adding four levels to the two-story building on the west side to create a six-story building with an attached metal tower. In total, the buildings will hold 82,975 square feet. Seismic upgrades also are on tap, according to city staff reports.

On Thursday parties discussed eliminating two proposed loading docks and allowing loading to take place at a bay on Northwest 15th Avenue, lining up windows on the one-story east building, and making its northeast corner more active.

Originally, retail space was envisioned for the northeast corner, Mitchem said, but a market analysis showed that was not feasible.

Yvonne Alderman, who lives across the street from the project site, testified before the commission that she was concerned about plans for the loading areas changing.

“The original plans had two loading stalls and now there are zero,” she said. “I am asking that this be re-noticed so we have time to address this reversal from (the Portland Bureau of Transportation).”

At Alderman’s request, the record for comments on the project will be kept open until 4:30 p.m. on Oct. 8, Mitchem said after the meeting. Holst then will have until Oct. 15 to respond to comments. Comments and responses can be sent to Mitchem at jeffrey.mitchem@portlandoregon.gov.

Mitchem added that PBOT had performed a traffic study to determine where loading should be located. It’s “still a moving target,” he said, noting that the decision ultimately belongs to PBOT.

Overall, commissioners reacted positively to project plans. Commissioner Julie Livingston said the project was “nicely done” and that she liked the loading area being moved and the look of the six-story tower with lighted metal panels.

“I’m glad these two buildings are being retained and improved,” she said.

Commissioner Ben Kaiser agreed, calling it “a great project.” He added that he believes that all of the one-story building’s windows could all match in size.

Commissioner David Wark said he is still somewhat concerned about the lack of activity at the northeast corner now that retail has been eliminated.

“I think it’s very approvable, but I can’t get past that corner being sealed up,” he said.

Commissioner Jeff Simpson said he also favored the project.

“It’s a simple, clean project,” he said, “Even if it has a doom-and-gloom color.”

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Meriwether Partners LLC is getting close to starting a renovation of a former Pearl District warehouse at Northwest 14^th Avenue and Hoyt Street in The Pearl District.

The warehouse, at Northwest 14^th Avenue and Hoyt Street, was previously owned and operated by Premier Press as a specialty printing business. An entity controlled by Meriwether acquired the property last year with plans to renovate the building.

The redevelopment will offer both industrial design and office innovation. Four floors of office space will be added. Each additional floor will feature an open floor plan with 13-foot-high ceilings and nine-foot-tall windows with operable bays. The top floor will be an executive penthouse with two outdoor roof decks, one facing toward the West Hills and the other to the east, allowing for views of Mt. Hood.

When renovations are complete, the building will feature exposed wood, concrete and steel, abundant natural light, a comprehensive seismic upgrade to code, new building mechanical systems and new restrooms, and common areas with showers and bike parking.

Meriwether selected NAI Norris, Beggs & Simpson as the leasing brokerage firm. Holst Architecture is designing the building and R|Miller is the general contractor.

The construction drawings are 95 percent complete, according to Meriwether principal Robert Briscoe. Meriwether  is hoping to get through design review with the city and begin work on the warehouse as early as November, so that the project can be finished by the third quarter of 2016.

One of the challenges of the project was trying to figure out how to maintain the building’s history and create something new, all while keeping the cost in check.

“It’s tricky,” Briscoe said. “You have to get the right team in place. Most importantly, it’s taking the design characteristics of the structure and making sure the addition you’re putting on works with the current structure and the Pearl District itself. We’ve worked long and hard with Holst to really create something we think is going to be special.”

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