Pearl District residents on Thursday voiced concerns to the Portland Design Commission about the height planned for a new 15-story residential tower in the neighborhood.

Neighbors and others who testified at a design advice request for Seattle-based Security Properties‘ Block 136 development said a 150-foot tower would be inconsistent with shorter surrounding buildings.

“It will dominate the neighborhood,” New Traditional Architecture principal John Czarnecki told the commission.

Seattle-based architecture firm Mith?n sought the commission’s advice on preliminary designs for a two-building, mixed-use development on the block bound by Northwest Kearney and Johnson streets and 12th and 13th avenues. The block currently is home to the Pacific Northwest College of Art, which is planning to relocate to the 511 Federal Building later this year.

The two new buildings planned for the property would be separated by a public courtyard connecting Kearney and Johnson streets. A five-story building with ground-floor retail space and either office or residential space on the upper floors would be located on Northwest 13th Avenue. A neighboring residential tower, also with ground-floor retail space, would be located on Northwest 12th Avenue. The proposal also calls for below-grade parking for 222 vehicles.

The two buildings will have distinctly different designs, Mith?n associate principal Heidi Oien told the commission. The shorter building will share elements with historic Pearl District structures nearby while the tower will be more like new developments in the neighborhood’s north end, she said.

“Those two areas have really inspired our design,” she said.

In response to the public testimony, design commissioners said they were OK with the height of the taller building and the overall concept for the development. Commissioner Ben Kaiser noted that taller buildings are being proposed in the Pearl District to keep up with demand for housing there and meet city desires for urban density.

“I think the general idea is fantastic,” he said. “I think it’s a good idea to have height when you can have it. I think the neighborhood will be just that much more livable because of the diversity (of buildings).”

Commissioner David Wark advised the design team to better define the relationship between the two buildings.

“I keep looking for the binding element between them,” he said. “They’re so different, but should they be that different?”

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Like any renovation of a historic building, the $33 million project to update the 511 Federal Building for the Pacific Northwest College of Art has been a creative leap of faith.

After several months of demolition work, the project team is starting to see formerly hidden portions of the 95-year-old building come into view, said Chris Bixby, associate principal of Allied Works Architecture, which designed the renovation on Portland’s North Park Blocks.

“One of the primary actions we’re taking with this building is to remove the layers of history that blocked the natural light that originally illuminated the work space,” he said. “What we’re really doing is peeling those layers away and bringing the natural light back into the building.”

That involved redesign of the building’s north end to become a more connected, communal space. The north end previously served a variety of uses, including mail sorting for the U.S. Postal Service to daytime detention for U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.

Crews are now completing form work and pouring slabs for the new mezzanine that will help define four major public spaces on the ground floor – a library reading room, an atrium, a multiuse space and an object study library. The mezzanine will be supported by thin cables.

“It was the major move we did to the building,” Bixby said. “The rest of the project is about editing out 60 years of bad renovation work.”

For PNCA President Tom Manley, the project will stand out because contemporary architecture and a historic building are being fused.

“The way the (renovation) was designed was to create unity in (a) building in a way that respected the historic architecture,” Manley said. “I think they did a fantastic job.”

Many unknowns were uncovered, said Doug Greenwalt, senior project manager for Howard S. Wright, the project’s general contractor.

Most of those surprises have come from a demolition process to restore some of the building’s original look and open large, functional spaces that had been buried by two previous renovations. Workers had covered transom windows and north-facing sawtooth skylights, which were common in industrial buildings and now are highly coveted by studio artists.

Additionally, marble-paneled walls and terrazzo-style flooring were revealed in the Grand Corridor and each of the six floors in the tower. They were hidden for years by old plaster and orange carpeting removed during demolition.

Howard S. Wright had performed a similar job at Portland State University’s Lincoln Hall, so it knew what it was getting into with the PNCA project, Greenwalt said.

“We put hours and hours into cleaning this up,” he said. “It was pretty hammered when we got it.”

Wading into the unknown meant creating various mock-ups for building elements including classroom spaces, windows, doors and the air conditioning system. A new HVAC system will be installed to improve energy performance.

Also, a new viscous damper system will provide greater seismic strength. Only a few structures in Portland feature viscous dampers, which are chevron-shaped devices that absorb the shock of an earthquake rather than resist it. The dampers had to be purchased 40 weeks in advance; they will be delivered in August.

Installation of the system will require precision at a micron level, Greenwalt said. Using Building Information Modeling will allow Howard S. Wright to test exactly what the system will look like and ensure that pins fit perfectly through the holes, he said.

“The tolerances are very small for each damper,” he said.

The contractor also created a 3-D model using BIM to ensure that all mechanical and electrical elements would not clash with the original structure, Greenwalt said.

“We need to keep the duct work as tight as possible,” he said. “It’s nice to have clash detection because we want to be certain at installation time.”

Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Center for Art and Design

Location: 511 N.W. Broadway, Portland

Cost: $33 million

Construction start date:��January 2014

Anticipated construction completion date:��January 2015

Owner:��Pacific Northwest College of Art

Developer:��Gerding Edlen

Architect:��Allied Works Architecture

Engineer:��KPFF Consulting Engineers

General contractor:��Howard S. Wright

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Demolition is slated to start this week on the 511 Federal Building, which will undergo a $32 million renovation to become the new home of the Pacific Northwest College of Art. The building opened as a federal post office in 1919, and in more recent years was home to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and�� U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Carpets, acoustical ceilings, and drywall installed during a 1960’s renovation will be removed to reveal original wood and terra cotta flooring, massive arched windows, and decorative millwork. Partitions added to the ground-floor grand corridor will be removed to allow light to fill the large space. The project’s designer is Allied Works Architecture, and the contractor is Howard S. Wright.

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A renovation of the 93-year-old 511 Federal Building designed by will let the consolidate most of its facilities and give it a presence in downtown.

Construction of the $19 million project is expected to start in January 2013 and finish in August 2014. The location will help the school grow, said Chris Bixby, senior associate at Allied Works.

“Being by the park blocks is going to be huge,” he said. “They really want to become the north anchor in the way (Portland State University) captures the south park blocks. There will be a symbiotic relationship between the park and the school ultimately.”

Also, a vacant property on the western side of the building, owned by the city, is expected to be developed into a park, according to Bixby.

The renovation will give PNCA students more space to operate. Presently, the school leases multiple spaces around town – and the total square footage isn’t sufficient to accommodate the school’s growing student population.

The bulk of the PNCA’s curriculum will be taught in the 129,000-square-foot 511 Federal Building, though the school will continue to operate out of its facility on Johnson Street in the Pearl District. The former post office will be fitted to hold painting studios, a multiuse theater space and a gallery space. The building’s center will feature a large atrium where students will be able to gather and socialize.

Because the building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, its exterior will not change in appearance and only be restored and cleaned.

“We are doing a sensitive infusion of new architecture to contrast the old with a light touch,” Bixby said.

The project is presently in the design review process.

“On the Boards” is a weekly feature that spotlights local firms’ best design work. Submissions from architectural and engineering firms are encouraged. Please call 503-802-7240 or email ontheboards@djcOregon.com.

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The Portland Development Commission believes the 511 Federal Building, constructed nearly a century ago, can become a link between two of the city’s distinct districts: Old Town/Chinatown and the Pearl District.

The PDC Board of Commissioners on Wednesday approved a $740,000 grant to help the Pacific Northwest College of Art pay for predevelopment costs to convert the building, at 511 N.W. Broadway, into an educational facility.

“It’s exciting for us because the school has a growing presence in town and we believe (it) can help substantially with our long-range plans along the Broadway corridor,” said Anne Mangan, a spokeswoman for the PDC.

The 511 Federal Building was formerly a federal post office; it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. The school plans to transform it into office space, classroom and studio space, a resource center and a black box theater able to be used for lectures, installations and performances. The building will add more than 100,000 square feet of space to the campus; the school expects to be able to nearly double student enrollment and add about 50 employees in the coming years.

Gus Baum, director of institutional research for the PNCA, said the school became interested in the building because of the city’s plans around Northwest Broadway.

“With a park being planned in the parking lot of the building by the parks department, and the potential redevelopment of the nearby post office buildings, the location of this building couldn’t be better,” Baum said. “We hope to be the catalytic project here and help get the area going.”

The PNCA acquired the rights to redevelop the building, owned by the federal government, in 2008 after the General Services Administration listed the building as surplus property. The school was selected in a competitive proposal process.

The building is being used by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as the Portland offices of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It’s planning to move to a building in the South Waterfront District, and the deed of the 511 Federal Building would then transfer to the PNCA at no cost as long as the school uses it for educational purposes for at least 30 years.

The PNCA must match the grant, which is coming out of the River District Urban Renewal Area. The school will use the $1.48 million over the next year to conduct all due diligence before acquisition of the building, prepare 20 percent construction documents for the project and begin developing a conceptual master plan for further expansion – including possibly a PDC-owned block across the street.

Mangan said the school plays a big role in the area, and is the type of entity the PDC likes to partner with. Plus, she said, all the money is contingent on a number of conditions being met. For instance, the PNCA must start its work before the end of the year and finish within 12 months.

Redevelopment of the 511 Federal Building is expected to cost approximately $26 million, but that amount could change because predevelopment work isn’t finished. The school has hired Howard S. Wright as the contractor, Allied Works Architecture as the architect and Gerding Edlen to oversee the project. The construction timeline is dependent on when the existing tenant moves out; however, school officials hope to occupy the building by 2014.

John Jay, executive creative director with Wieden + Kennedy, agrees with Mangan and Baum that the PNCA plays a vital role in redevelopment of the area, and the connection between Old Town and the Pearl District.

“In my opinion, PNCA and the 511 project is the catalytic development that will finally bridge the raw and dynamic energy of Old Town with the newly developed Pearl District,” Jay wrote in a letter of support for the project. “In addition to PNCA itself and (its) students, many arts, education and design partners across the city, state and region will benefit from the expanded programming the 511 Building will provide.”

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