The architects designing the 35-story building for Block 216 have requested a number of changes to their proposal since it was approved by the Portland Design Commission.

The changes would add approximately 6,708 square feet to the building, bringing it to more than 850,000 square feet in total. That will exceed the base and bonus floor-area ratio allowed on the site, requiring the developer to transfer additional floor-area ratio rights, according to the Bureau of Development Services.

Proposed alterations include:

• replacement of two revolving doors into the building from the plaza at the corner of Southwest 10th Avenue and Washington Street with a window system that could fold up during warm weather,
• addition of canopy lighting and exterior lighting at roof terraces on floors three to eight,
• new in-ground lighting on the east elevation, on private property along Southwest Ninth Avenue,
• catenary luminaries and wire attachments over Ninth Avenue,
• reduction in the amount of bird-friendly glazing (the proposed bird-friendly glazing would no longer cover the entire podium, but would meet minimum requirements),
• changes to landscape design and decking on the terrace, and
• a new stair enclosure.

The Design Commission in December 2018. The proposed post-review changes are being evaluated by Bureau of Development Services staff in a Type II review.

“Generally speaking, the only way we’d go back to the Design Commission is if the applicants file another design review application or file appeal of decision,” said Ben Nielsen, a senior city planner at BDS who is evaluating the Block 216 alterations.

Reconsideration by the Design Commission can also be triggered if an applicant appeals a condition of approval, Nielsen added.

Typically, architects and city staff reach agreement on post-approval design changes that never draw public attention. On occasion, however, such changes cause controversy – most notably in 2015-16 when than anticipated. Some observers even likened the building to the Death Star from “Star Wars.”

Block 216’s developer, BPM Management, declined to comment on the requested changes through a representative. Also, a request to interview GBD designers was denied.

The building will occupy a full block in Portland’s West End, and include a Ritz-Carlton hotel, condominiums, office space and retail space. Construction is under way with Howard S. Wright serving as general contractor. BDS on Jan. 31 issued a building permit for the concrete foundation, core, superstructure and below-grade parking structure.

The post Changes sought to Block 216 tower design appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

A massive skyscraper proposed for downtown Portland’s West End is already giving rise to questions as the first test case of a major project governed by the city’s new zoning rules.

The tower would replace dozens of food carts and a surface parking lot on Block 216, which is bounded by Southwest Ninth and 10th avenues and Alder and Washington streets. The building will be the first large project governed by the city’s newly adopted Central City 2035 plan.

The project was the subject of a Design Commission meeting Thursday. Conversations between the project team and commissioners revealed the nascent project remains at an early stage despite an aggressive development schedule.

A second design advice meeting will be held in August. The project team plans to proceed to formal Type III design review in October with a goal of breaking ground in May 2019. “That’s pretty fast for a project of this scale,” said Phil Beyl, president of GBD Architects.

Yet Beyl confessed the design team had been engaged on the project only “a couple of months.” Architects showed only early massing drawings, not realistic renderings. A landscape architect has not yet been hired.

The 782,000-square-foot tower would top out at 35 stories, approaching 460 feet – the maximum allowed on the property. That’s up from earlier plans for 33 stories. The additional height was made possible by the removal of a view corridor as part of the zoning changes.

GBD Architects is designing the building from developer Walter Bowen of BPM (Bowen was not available for an interview, a spokesman said). The block is owned by the Goodman family’s Downtown Development Group through various limited liability companies.

The property is the last undeveloped full block in downtown Portland. The project comes as a remarkable run of economic expansion, locally and nationally, shows few signs of losing momentum.

The project would include a luxury hotel, office space and residential condominiums. Retail use totaling about 10,000 square feet would occupy much of the ground floor. A spa is planned. The building would include four floors of underground parking.

Total floor-area ratio on Block 216 would reach 18.75-to-1.

No affordable housing is planned on the site. Instead, the project team would satisfy the city’s inclusionary housing rules with a $7.5 million fee-in-lieu payment to the city’s housing fund.

Given construction costs for tower projects, more affordable housing could be provided off-site, Beyl said. “”We can do a far better job of spurring affordable by paying into the fund,” he said.

Chair Julie Livingston responded, “I’m an affordable housing developer, and I agree with you.” Funding for affordable housing construction is difficult to obtain, she said.

City staff and the development team are tackling unexpected issues related to the new zoning regime, which was adopted Wednesday by the City Council. Among them: The Green Loop, a newly adopted and loosely defined concept to link downtown and the Central Eastside with bike and pedestrian-friendly streets. The Green Loop would run beside the tower along Ninth Avenue, requiring 12-foot setbacks along 75 percent of the property line on the tower’s east side. It’s unclear what other changes the Green Loop would bring.

“It seems the Green Loop is so not baked – it’s impossible to see how this is going to influence the ground floor,” Commissioner Sam Rodriguez said. “And it seems it’s not going to get baked for a long, long time. I don’t know how you can expect the design team to react to something that’s not fully thought out.”

The skyscraper would tower over a number of notable adjacent buildings, including the Governor Hotel, Galleria Building, Woodlark Hotel, the Stevens Building, the Morgan Building and the Pittock Block building (Disclosure: The Daily Journal of Commerce’s office is in the Pittock Block building). At 460 feet, it would be slightly shorter than Park Avenue West, which reaches to 502 feet in height.

Architects are working to minimize the shadows cast by the building. They’ve rotated the top of the tower into a north-south orientation, a change from earlier plans, to reduce shading on O’Bryant Square.

The project would displace the city’s largest collection of food carts that has itself become a tourist attraction. Several food-cart owners testified Thursday, urging the project team to find a way to accommodate food carts.

O’Bryant Square was raised as a possible home for food carts. The developer hopes to purchase floor-area ratio allowances from the closed plaza and transfer the FAR to Block 216, Beyl said. That could pay for improvements to the plaza, which has been closed since March because of structural issues related to a small parking garage underneath the north side of the square.

It’s unclear if Portland Parks & Recreation, which controls O’Bryant Square, would be amenable to moving food carts onto the public space. The plaza is also half the size of Block 216 and includes structural elements that would reduce the amount of space available to food carts.

“We are not blind to the consequences of a project like this to the food cart community, which is near and dear to our hearts,” Beyl said.

Jane Kim of No. 1 Bento said she purchased the cart a year ago from a friend who had owned it for more than a decade. Visitors from around the world stop by to eat bento there, she said. Another woman said her family’s cart paid her way through college.

Suzanne Lennard of Portland said the development would be out of place. “Portland does not need a Trump-style luxury hotel with condos,” she said.

Design commissioners said they were on board with a large, contemporary building on Block 216.

“This isn’t an infill building,” Rodriguez said. “It’s a main actor building, and it needs to be a main actor.”

The building could be an architectural landmark of its time, Commissioner Zari Santner said.

“You have an opportunity to make a statement – a statement about who we are right now,” Santner said. “I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with.”

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