Fewer developable properties remain in Portland’s Pearl District than can be counted on the fingers of one hand.

One of the last sizable projects under way there is at the corner of Northwest 13th Avenue and Quimby Street. Crews are making rapid vertical progression on the 16-story Holden of Pearl, a 237-unit senior living facility designed by Ankrom Moisan Architects for Alliance Residential. Ground was broken in March, and general contractor Walsh Construction is expected to finish in August 2023.

Holden of Pearl tenants will have access to a huge range of amenities as they age in place.

“There’s going to be a lot of green space and courtyard space so that residents can play at chess tables; there’s even going to be a giant chessboard,” said Laura Waddick, a Walsh Construction project engineer. “There are barbecues, water features. There’s a double-sided fireplace on the first floor. It’s going to be a good spot for people to come and visit their grandparents.”

The building will have 16 stories of post-tensioned concrete and a single level of below-grade, tandem parking. A three-story podium will support a narrower tower with the bulk of the residential units – including luxury penthouse units at the top.

The building’s ground floor will have a double-height, arched entryway off of 13th Avenue. Memory care units on that level will serve residents with dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. A porte cochere (essentially a circular driveway) off of Quimby Street will be used for valet parking and access to the parking garage.

The second and third levels will feature assisted living units, while the fourth floor will host shared facilities such as a dining area, a yoga studio, a bistro, a nail salon and more. A massive rooftop patio on the fourth level will hold a barbecue area, a dog run and the aforementioned giant chess set. The remainder of the brick-clad building will host studios and one- or two-bedroom apartments.

Because of low soil quality at the site, the engineering team of Kramer Gehlen & Associates and Harper Houf Peterson Righellis chose to employ auger cast piles to shore up the foundation. Pacific Foundations used a massive drill.

“It’s bored out and they pour concrete in and pull the drill out,” Walsh Construction assistant superintendent Abigail Anderson said.

“Our deepest one was 117 feet,” Walsh Construction superintendent Mario Hernandez added.

Other work was required to allow Westech Construction crews to proceed with excavation.

“This is the lowest elevation part of the Pearl District, and we had to do some pretty extensive waterproofing,” Waddick said. “We are in the flood zone, and we had to ‘bathtub’ the entire basement.”

While many Portland project teams have had to deal with radon mitigation, the Holden of Pearl team also had to deal with methane seeping from the ground.

Though no sustainability certifications will be sought for the building, it will have a large eco-roof as well as bird-safe glass on the floors with outdoor amenities. Because birds are unable to see standard transparent glass, bird-safe glass has patterns of dots or stripes.

“It’s basically around all of the courtyard green spaces,” Anderson said. “It’s just around the fourth-floor roof and then there’s a courtyard on first, second and third where the residents can just go out there and have lots of green space, so they put bird-safe (glass) all around that – anywhere where birds land.”

Currently, crews with RDF Builders, Walsh Construction’s carpentry and concrete division, are constructing formwork and piecing together shoring for what will be the fourth-level PT deck. Other crews from Ocean Park Mechanical, Bergelectric and Patriot Fire Protection are installing mechanical, electrical and fire suppression systems, while ironworkers with Timberland Inc. are handling structural steel.

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