Developer Kevin Cavenaugh’s latest brainstorm – a proposal for a 14-unit residential project in the Nob Hill neighborhood – got a hearty go-ahead from Portland’s Historic Landmarks Commission on Monday.

DAO Architecture designed the Unicorn Bed Apartments, two three-story buildings, for Cavenaugh’s Guerrilla Development. The complex will occupy a 5,000-square-foot lot at 2171 N.W. Glisan St., and drawings suggest it will strongly resemble the type of wood-clad walk-up commonly found a century ago.

“I like the simplicity of the design and I like the more modern interpretation of a historic design, including the iron railings,” Commissioner Matthew Roman said just prior to the unanimous vote to approve the proposal. “It’s putting a modern building together that still has the warmth and human scale; it just feels like it’s not just a machine-made monster unpacked from someplace else.”

An existing triplex is set back from the street on the lot, with a small surface parking lot in front. The building will be demolished to make way for the new development, which will feature 13 two-bedroom units approximately 600 square feet each. The 14th unit is intended to provide residents with a day care space, but it could be converted into another residence.

At least one of the ground-floor apartments will be fully accessible for persons with disabilities as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Exterior materials will include a concrete foundation, wood lap siding, aluminum-clad windows, standing-seam metal roofing, and ornate, laser-cut metal railings.

Commissioners approved requested modifications to building height, side setbacks, landscaped areas and pedestrian path width.

The proposal calls for bicycle storage in the building’s basement, but no motor vehicle parking.

The building is geared to serve single mothers with young children, and the on-site day care space is intended to attract such tenants. The plan is for rents to be “affordable.”

“Existing zoning would allow a much larger structure here, but our client and landowner have prioritized a different direction to fit a special population of tenants,” DAO Architecture principal David Horsley said. “We believe it’s this program and the architectural features of the project that have garnered such positive feedback from the neighborhood association.”

Guerrilla Development has gained much attention for its colorful, bold projects such as the Fair-Haired Dumbbell and Tree Farm. But the Unicorn Bed Apartments, at a glance, does not follow suit. The neutral color palette, siding and metal railings all hark back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when multifamily buildings came in many more shapes and sizes than typically are found in Portland now. The surrounding neighborhood features a mix of historic single-family and multifamily structures.

“We wanted to create a modest, welcoming, dignified project for families that blends into the neighborhood context,” DAO Architecture principal Joanne Le said.

The commission did not spend a long time deliberating. Instead, the jovial discussion ended up in laughter.

“It fits in so well,” Commissioner Derek Spears said. “I can see that the building in that spot fits in perfectly. One thing, and humor me here, but I don’t see any unicorns on the side though.”

Roman quickly answered.

“Some,” he said with a chuckle, “argue affordable housing in a historic district is a unicorn.”

But maybe not.

The post ‘Unicorn’ due to arrive in historic district appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

A massive $790 million capital bond measure approved by voters in 2017 is paying for a lot of improvements at facilities operated by Portland Public Schools. One construction project that began this past summer is the modernization and expansion of Madison High School, at 2735 N.E. 82nd Ave.

The 62-year-old school is being mostly demolished, save for a pair of two-story classroom wings. The remainder will be renovated into modern educational space (including Career Technical Education space), while a new 1,700-seat gymnasium, new commons and new performing arts center will be built by general contractor/construction manager Fortis Construction.

Opsis Architecture and DAO Architecture collaborated on the design.

In total, the renovated school will hold 292,000 square feet of usable space and be able to accommodate as many as 1,700 students. Over 170,000 square feet will be new construction.

Recently, crews from NorthStar, Finish Line Concrete Cutting and other subcontractors utilized an array of machinery to take down the reinforced concrete structures that comprised former gymnasium, auditorium and administrative spaces.

Project completion is scheduled for summer 2021, in time for the facility to be used for the 2021-22 school year.

The post Out with the old to prepare for the new appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Finding Portland’s Chinatown is a challenge for area residents and visitors alike.

“One of the more popular questions we get is: Where is Chinatown?” said Scott Steele, director of marketing and communications for the Lan Su Chinese Garden. “We always talk about the restaurants that are still nearby and Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (CCBA). But we also talk about the Jade District out at (Southeast) 82nd (Avenue).”

The Lan Su Chinese Garden, at 239 N.W. Everett St., is one of the few buildings in Portland’s Chinatown that has a distinct Asian flavor. Many of the buildings around it bear little difference from other structures in the city.

“(The gardens) are designed to incorporate the Chinese architecture,” Steele said. “We were truly built for the location we are at. It is really designed to complement the buildings around it.”

Yet few of those surrounding buildings resemble architecturally what many people consider Chinese. Plus, more Asian businesses and residents in Portland now occupy the Jade District than Chinatown.

That isn’t likely to change much under the proposed design guidelines for the Chinatown/Japantown Historic District. The Portland City Council is set to vote in August whether to approve the guidelines, which have been in the works since early 2016. The proposed standards emphasize a more flexible attitude toward signage, balconies, open courtyards and rooftop amenities like gardens. However, architectural changes won’t be drastic.

“You’ll see more balconies, rooftop spaces and a more subtle change to the built environment,” said Brandon Spencer-Hartle, senior planner for Portland’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability. “You won’t suddenly see a lot of pagodas and tile roofs. We are looking to keep what makes our Chinatown a little different.”

Rather than encouraging a radical redesign of the area to make it look more like other Chinatowns, the guidelines aim to create a more streamlined aesthetic, according to Spencer-Hartle. The rules will focus on allowing more flexibility on the first three to four floors and allowing alterations that may have been shot down in the past.

This plan is OK with many district stakeholders.

“We want to protect the integrity of the buildings,” said Helen Ying, board member of the Portland Lodge of the Chinese American Citizen Alliance. “We want to tell the history of what our Chinatown is.”

The core of Portland’s Chinatown ranges from West Burnside Street to Northwest Glisan Street and from Northwest Third Avenue to Northwest Fifth Avenue. The area features a large gate, including a pair of sizable lion sculptures, at Fourth Avenue and Burnside Street. Also, ornate streetlamps help give the area an Asian feel.

Nevertheless, Chinatown looks much different from those in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle. Aside from the gate, the streetlamps and a smattering of buildings with tile rooftops, little in Chinatown differentiates it from any other part of Portland. While classic Chinese architecture often has covered walkways, rooftop gardens and open courtyards, Portland’s Chinatown is just as likely to have a parking lot or a tech startup’s office.

“It’s more diffuse,” said Joann Dao Le, principal at DAO Architecture. “From a physical aspect, it is not packed with Asian or Chinese businesses.”

Spencer-Hartle added, “The casual passerby won’t know they are in a different district. A hundred years ago there would have been definite change. Not so much today.”

Prior to World War II, the area now considered Chinatown was dominated by Japanese who began immigrating to the area in the late 1890s and lived in structures built by early European immigrants. The city’s Chinese population largely lived to the south near what is now Keller Auditorium.

“During (World War II), Japantown was decimated by the internment policies,” Le said. “Slowly the Chinatown moved north of Burnside. Especially Third and Fourth Avenue became known as Chinatown.”

The area also has served as home to large Jewish, African-American, Greek and Italian communities. The hodgepodge of communities that have called the region home has left the area with a largely European architectural aesthetic.

Even once the city’s Chinese population migrated to the area, few people actually lived there largely because of a lack of residential units and a reputation for crime and homelessness.

“Other cities’ Chinatowns have a lot more people living there,” said Suenn Ho, principal at Resolve Architecture + Planning. “That makes a big difference.”

Ho contributed to projects in 2006 to improve the streetscape along Third and Fourth avenues. She designed bronze plaques highlighting the history of the area.

“This is not just a Chinatown,” Ho said. “Each of the plaques was located in specific areas that reflect the place that was referenced. They intended to talk about the diverse cultural history of the area.”

The project designers looked to incorporate the important Asian history of the area, and improve its use. Many cities’ Asian areas, for instance, have alleyways that serve as secondary retail areas for small family businesses. Portland’s streetscape doesn’t allow that kind of design, so planners settled for removing curbs from streets and using plazas to reference what a typical Chinatown would be.

“We wanted it to be a welcoming Chinatown,” Ho said. “The area can be utilized in a multitude of ways.”

While efforts to retain Chinatown’s history will continue, no one should expect the area to ever look like the districts that permeate much of the West Coast, Ho said. Many cities’ Chinatowns were created via efforts to attract non-Asian tourists rather than pay homage to authentic Asian architecture.

“Dallas wanted us to come and build a Chinatown for them; they didn’t have one,” Ho said. “The touristy nature of San Francisco is where the gate is. The money is coming from tourists, which perpetuates its own touristy thing because people want to make money.”

In Portland, Chinatown is likely to look more like the rest of the city as areas become gentrified and redeveloped. While it won’t have pagoda roofs and dragon décor, the goal is to make an experience that will be unique to the area and respectful to its history.

“We are not wanting to make it pretend like it’s Disneyland,” Ying said. “We want to tell the history of what our Chinatown is. That is what we want to focus on, not attracting tourists.”

The post Preserving a Chinatown unlike others appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Station 162, an affordable housing project geared toward individuals with physical disabilities and seniors, is under construction in Gresham.  Walsh Construction Co. is building the DAO Architecture-designed multifamily project for QUAD Inc., a Portland-based nonprofit whose mission is to help those with physical disabilities live independently.

The four-story, 44-unit building was designed to accommodate the needs of people in wheelchairs, and features 25 fully ADA-accessible units and 19 adaptable units. Accessible design elements include roll-in showers, roll-under kitchen and bathroom counters, and appliances mounted low and with easily accessible controls.

The building has been outfitted with two heavy-duty hydraulic elevators, and each floor has a community laundry room. The building also features a ground-floor meeting room, manager’s office, and a common room with a community kitchen and fireplace, and a surface parking lot with multiple ADA-compliant spaces.

Work on the project began in late December 2015, and is expected to be completed by mid-December of this year.

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