Repairs to the large glass canopy at Director Park in downtown Portland are now finished – a week ahead of schedule.

Workers in September began to refurbish the 26-foot-high canopy, which covers about one-quarter of the half-acre park. The city learned last year that the wood beams supporting the canopy had moisture damage. Steel beams were chosen as replacements.

Portland Parks and Recreation spokesman Mark Ross said “notable achievements” of the project include improved durability and safety as well as preservation of “architectural integrity and look of the structure.”

The cost of replacing the canopy’s wood beams was $790,000. The city paid $188,000 for the work and ZGF Architects paid $602,000. The park was designed by ZGF and landscape architect Laurie Olin of OLIN.

Reid Blanchard, construction manager for the parks department, said that KPFF Consulting Engineers performed structural engineering for the project. ZGF was the architect and collaborated closely with general contractor R&H Construction.

“R&H did an amazing job of coordinating everything and had a great plan in place to complete the work,” Blanchard said. “We had the area (under the canopy) closed off, but outside the fence line the rest of the park remained open.”

Elephants in the Park, a restaurant that operates in the park, closed when construction began and will reopen Dec. 14, according to .

Director Park was built in 2009 at a cost of about $9.5 million. The Portland Development Commission contributed $4.5 million and the city gave $1.9 million. Developer Tom Moyer contributed $1 million and developer Jordan Schnitzer donated $1.97 million.

The park is named for Schnitzer’s grandparents, Simon and Helen Director, who came to Portland in the early 1900s, from Russia and Poland, respectively. Schnitzer wrote on the parks department’s website that his grandparents “were part of a generation of immigrants whose hard work helped build this city.”

Director Park has been recognized as a successful downtown public park that connects Portland’s Park Blocks. The Sustainable Cities Collection website has titled, “21 Reasons Portland’s Director Park is One of the Most Successful Public Spaces in the World.”

The last reason listed points to the park’s inclusivity: “Parents, kids, old people, young people, people of different ethnicities, tourists, locals, business people, the unemployed, people on bikes, people who are alone, people in groups, couples, singles and anyone else you can think of,” the article states. “This is the measure of a great public space.”

The post Downtown Portland park’s canopy repaired appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Work began this week to correct a problem at Director Park in downtown Portland. Wooden beams holding up the glass canopy at the park will be replaced with steel ones.

The canopy, 26 feet above the ground, covers about one-quarter of the half-acre park at 815 S.W. Park Ave. The park includes seating areas, a children’s splash area and a bigger-than-life chess set. An Elephants Delicatessen location, situated under the canopy, will be closed during the project.

The city learned last fall that the wood beams supporting the glass canopy had moisture damage and would require replacements, according to Portland Parks and Recreation spokesman Mark Ross.

Miller Consulting Engineers informed the city that the current system of wood beams was not suitable for the environment at Director Park, Ross said.

“Steel beams will be easier to maintain and will last for decades,” he said.

The total cost for replacing the beams is $790,000. The park’s architect, ZGF Architects, will pay $602,000, Ross said, and the city will pay $188,000 for the work, which is expected to finish by the end of the year.

The repairs are being handled by R&H Construction.

The post Downtown Portland park receiving repairs appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The redevelopment plan for Centennial Mills, in Northwest Portland, calls for creating open space, capturing history and establishing a focal point for the waterfront.

Jordan Schnitzer, president of Harsch Properties, on Wednesday introduced the Portland Development Commission to his team’s preferred plan for redevelopment of the 4.75-acre site into 120,000 square feet of multifamily units, 80,000 square feet of office space and 24,000 square feet of retail space. Of that total, 50,000 square feet would be rehabilitated space in the only two salvageable buildings.

“The good thing about this is no one has a monopoly on what happens,” Schnitzer said. “We want input from everybody.”

The development team considered several options – ranging from clearing the whole site and leaving it open space ($18 million) to restoring additional structures, and building an arena and other amenities ($207 million). Schnitzer’s team said its $115.8 million “preferred plan” includes the best of all ideas.

Harsch Properties is proposing to cover $77 million, and rely on public subsidies totaling $38.8 million.

Schnitzer’s team envisions a common area and a covered events center similar to downtown’s Director Park, a pedestrian greenway along the water, a pedestrian bridge over Naito Parkway and a dock that allows access to the river and moorage for boats. The result would be a “lyrical, fluid” waterfront, Schnitzer said.

“How we came up with the events center is we were thinking: Why are people going to be coming down here?” he said. “With the success (Portland Parks & Recreation) has had with Director Park … it shows that there’s a thirst from people who want to come to events that are covered.”

Schnitzer described a glass-covered area where people could attend summer evening movies, car shows or other events.

“We wanted to evoke the design of the wharf buildings that are no longer going to be able to be preserved in the line of the events center,” he said.

Just two of the existing 12 buildings are in a condition that allows for preservation, Schnitzer said. The Flour Mill Building would be incorporated into a new office and retail space. The Feed Mill Building would be converted into a restaurant with a “family price point.”

“A restaurant where people could drive up in their boats to come,” he said. “It would get that area activated.”

Schnitzer outlined a building schedule that calls for the design and permitting process to continue into early 2016, with construction beginning in the second quarter of 2016 and finishing in the third quarter of 2018.

But Schnitzer and the PDC seemed to agree that reactivating a 100-plus-year-old former mill site that has sat vacant for more than a decade will require some immediate repairs.

“Having walked through it today and having walked through (it) two and three years ago, I was really struck by the deterioration,” Commissioner John Mohlis said. “I have some concern about waiting until 2016, just from a public safety perspective, because it’s pretty shocking what’s happened over the last few years.”

The roof of the Flour Mill has partially collapsed, the roof of the Feed Mill has localized areas of damage, and many wharf pilings are completely rotten.

“There’s got to be some way we could go to the City Council and get a declaration of emergency,” Schnitzer said. “Because if half that building falls into the water it’s not going to be good for any of us.”

On a site tour – hard hats and flashlights required – on Friday, the deterioration was evident: visibly listing support beams, gaping holes in the ceiling and standing water pooled on the concrete first floor of the six-story Flour Mill.

“I was just here (three days ago) and already I can see changes since then,” said Susanne Orton, vice president of marketing and communications for Harsch Properties.

The PDC didn’t make any decisions at Wednesday’s work session, but agreed that something needs to be done to stop deterioration, salvage what can be saved and keep the project from becoming more complicated by starting demolition as soon as possible.

The next step, Orton said, will be to hold public meetings to get feedback on what people want to see on the site and how much they want to spent on development. No meetings have been scheduled yet.

(Click here to view photos from a recent hardhat tour of Centennial Mills)

The post Time ticking for Centennial Mills appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The Urban Land Institute named the 2011 winner of the Amanda Burden Urban Open Space Award today: St. Louis’ Citygarden, which won a $10,000 cash prize. Two parks in Portland were finalists for the award.

Jamison Square, designed by Peter Walker and Partners Landscape Architecture, and Director Park, submitted by ZGF Architects and the Portland Parks and Recreation Department, were named among the five finalists for the award last month.

The award recognizes “well-used public open space that has spurred regeneration and the transformation of the surrounding community.” Citygarden, the winning space, is a landscaped sculpture garden funded by the Gateway Foundation.

“Citygarden is a stunning example of what great public open space design can do for an urban area,” said Amanda M. Burden, a New York City planning commissioner. “The interplay between art, landscape, imaginative seating and water features has a universal appeal and creates a new focal point for St. Louis’ downtown.”

The Urban Land Institute is an international nonprofit that promotes education and research dealing with land use.  The announcement was made at the ULI’s Real Estate Summit in Phoenix.

The post Jamison Square, Director Park passed over for parks award appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Two Portland parks are in the running for a national award that recognizes the outstanding use of open public spaces in urban settings.

The Urban Land Institute, a worldwide nonprofit focused on research and education associated with land use, announced on Tuesday that Northwest Portland’s and downtown’s were selected as two of the five finalists for the .

Also selected were in St. Louis, as well as and the , both in Houston.

The finalists were selected by a jury of 12 urban planning and architecture professionals from around the country, including Burden, a New York City planning commissioner. The award, which comes with a $10,000 cash prize for the group most responsible for the park, is intended to “recognize an outstanding example of a public open space that has enriched and revitalized its surrounding community.”

Detroit’s Campus Martius Park, a 2.5-acre green space created on a desolate downtown parcel, received the 2010 award.

Urban Land Institute officials will announce the winner at their real estate summit, which is set for May 18-20 in Phoenix.

Photo courtesy of via Flickr

The post Two Portland parks selected as finalists for national award appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Southwest Ninth Avenue between Yamhill and Taylor streets is being renovated as part of the Director Park construction. The street and adjacent sidewalk is being lined with the same granite as the park. The 44,000-square-foot park has a fountain, a café, a glass canopy, outdoor seating and landscaping. Brant Construction is the general contractor renovating the street.

The post Director Park appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The official opening for the granite oasis of Director Park in downtown Portland took place in October, but crews from Brant Construction are still working on the park’s perimeter.

A shipment of granite from China several months ago was delayed. It pushed the date for the end of construction from October to late November, according to Portland Parks and Recreation construction manager Susan Watts.

“Customs and other things can hold up the ship that transports the granite,” Watts said. “I don’t think there is a global reason for the delay, it’s just how it worked out. You can’t always predict these kinds of delays.”

Though granite work on the open space has been completed, sidewalks along Ninth Avenue between Yamhill and Taylor streets are still under construction. Watts said the $9.5 million park project was incredibly complex, with “a million challenging details” to consider throughout construction.

“There was so much granite,” Watts said. “We were building from face to face with it, and had different pieces that needed to be fabricated and installed.”

Brant Construction received an exemption to the city’s downtown construction moratorium, and expects to finish sidewalk construction in a couple of weeks. Tenant improvements at the park’s glass-encased café building, Violetta, are ongoing. – Nathalie Weinstein

The post Contractor given exemption for Director Park work appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.