Plans to build a homeless shelter underneath the Broadway Bridge have been appealed to the Portland Design Commission.

A $1.6 million new construction permit for the Navigation Center was previously issued by the city, and a ceremonial ground-breaking event took place last month. Deacon is set to serve as the general contractor. But now the Design Commission will now hear the appeal on April 18. The appeal was filed Feb. 25 by Portland resident Kurt Sorensen and gives three major reasons for challenging the Type II staff approval, which was finalized just four days prior.

Sorensen contends the project: 1, does not meet the definition of a mass shelter or a temporary use and thus is not exempt from review or entitled to expedited permitting; 2, does not properly fall under authority of the city’s housing emergency declaration; and 3, does not comply with relevant city River District design standards.

“Whether characterized as a mass shelter, a temporary shelter, or a short-term shelter,” Sorensen writes in the appeal, “the proposed navigation center does not meet the code definitions and thus should not be approved.”

Oregon Harbor of Hope, a nonprofit, is looking to build the shelter on a vacant 1.17-acre parcel along Northwest Naito Parkway, slightly north of the Broadway Bridge. The 60-foot-by-150-foot, Quonset-style prefabricated structure would have a fabric membrane tent roof.

The Navigation Center, designed by Opsis Architecture, is intended to house up to 100 men for up to 100 days at a time. Plans call for dormitory-style sleeping facilities, food prep and serving areas, office space, toilets, showers and storage space. Staffers at the facility would help temporary residents “navigate” their way to social services such as mental and physical health care, housing placement and job training.

Plans for the shelter have drawn criticism from neighbors. That includes a pending lawsuit filed last year by Portland developer Jim Winkler over an environmental cleanup plan approved by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.

“The objection is not to a shelter,” Sorensen wrote. “It is to a project that is an ad hoc mixture of leased or used prefabricated structures cobbled together in a way that does not respect architectural character and land use within the neighborhood.”

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It’s back to the drawing board for a Portland architecture firm after design commissioners last week asked for revisions to the proposal for a mixed-use building.

The seven-story building on the southwest corner of Northwest 19th Avenue and Pettygrove Street would have 107 residential units above 1,150 square feet of ground-level retail space, a bike storage room and vehicle parking.

YBA Architects‘ design features ribbed and flat metal paneling, black vinyl windows, glass guardrails, steel plate canopies and planters, concrete piers, black aluminum storefronts and wood doors and seating accents.

Commissioners requested revisions to a couple of areas.

Large storefront windows open directly into the parking area. While some vertical vines are proposed to partially obscure this view, city staff is concerned that views into a parking structure are unattractive. Design review staff also found that the building setback on the west side isn’t big enough to accommodate foundations for the proposed cable-mounted vines.

Also, YBA Architects’ design called for ground-floor windows that don’t meet the minimum length required by the city. All exterior, ground-level walls that are 20 feet or closer to a public open space or right-of-way must have windows that are at least 50 percent of the length and 25 percent of the ground level wall area. Currently, the planned windows are only 40 percent of the length.

The project team is scheduled to return before the Design Commission for another review hearing on March 1.

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A new self-storage facility is on the rise in Portland’s Central Eastside. Deacon Construction is building the Mackenzie-designed project for Baranof Holdings, a Dallas, Texas-based developer that specializes in storage facilities.

The building is under construction on a half-block of Southeast Belmont Street between Seventh and Eighth avenues. The six-story structure will consist of three structural steel levels over three levels of post-tensioned concrete. Currently, crews are installing pan decking for the sixth-floor deck, which will be poured later this month. The project is slated for completion next summer.

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A new mixed-use development in the Hollywood neighborhood is going up on a long-vacant lot at Northeast Halsey Street and 43^rd Avenue. ��The six-story Laurel 42, designed by LRS Architects, will have a total of 100 residential units on five floors over ground-floor retail and parking space.

Deacon Development is developing the project for ownership consortium Hollywood Station LLC, which includes Deacon Corp. CEO Steve Deacon. The owners acquired the half-acre parcel in 2009 along with two adjacent buildings – a three-story commercial building anchored by a 24 Hour Fitness gym, and a four-story parking garage. Office and medical office buildings were considered by the developers, but they ultimately settled on mixed-use residential due in part to the site’s proximity to a MAX station and a Trader Joe’s store across the street.

Deacon will serve as the contractor on the project, which consists of one floor of slab-on-grade concrete and five floors of wood framing. Residential units will include studio, one- and two-bedroom floor plans. A club room on the building’s sixth floor will have indoor and outdoor space with a fire pit, barbecue, and kitchen. The building’s cladding will consist of brick and undulating metal panels. A total of 51 parking spaces for residents will be provided using a car lift system manufactured by Harding Steel of Warrenton, Virginia. Around 130 bicycle parking spaces will be provided, as will parking for the building’s commercial spaces.

Construction crews installed geopiers last week and are preparing to begin foundation work. The building is expected to open in October 2018.

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