A creative agency has signed a lease for a 19,489-square-foot space at Field Office in the North Pearl District.

The lease by Instrument is the third lease at Field Office since October, totaling approximately 35,000 square feet, according to Colliers, which represented the landlord. The building, completed in 2018, is owned by a joint venture of Goldman Sachs and Lincoln Property Co. through a limited liability company.

“Field Office continues to attract innovative companies looking for a high-quality office experience,” said Trevor Kafoury, vice chair of Colliers, in a news release. “Instrument’s decision to relocate here reflects the building’s premier location, top-tier amenities and the increasing demand for thoughtfully designed workspaces in Portland.”

Colliers said the lease reflects the “flight to quality” seen in the office market, whereby newer, more expensive Class-A office space is attracting tenants ahead of older Class-B and below office stock.

Vacancies have continued to grow in Portland’s office market, reaching 24.9 percent in the first three months of the year, according to Colliers.

Field Office comprises more than 300,000 square feet in twin six-story buildings. It was developed by Project^, designed by Hacker Architects and built by Lease Crutcher Lewis as general contractor.

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More than a year after work began on Field Office project in Northwest Portland, the two-building mixed-use is on pace for completion in the first quarter of 2018. Lease Crutcher Lewis is building the $100 million Hacker-designed project for developer project^.

Field Office will consist of two six-story steel-framed office buildings with ground-floor retail space, a large courtyard between the buildings, and a below-grade parking garage with 384 parking stalls. The project totals around 367,000 built square feet, and is being constructed on a 2.10-acre lot along Northwest Front Avenue between 15^th and 17^th avenues.

Framing of exterior walls has begun on the east building, as has interior MEP installation. Lease Crutcher Lewis is self-performing concrete work on the project, and the last deck pour is scheduled to take place next week. A tower crane over the west building came down earlier this month, and the remaining tower crane servicing the east building will be removed in October. Crews with General Sheet Metal began installing the metal panel façade on the west building this week.

Lango Hansen Landscape Architects worked with the developer on to bring to the site a sense of refuge from its industrial surroundings. The project was driven by landscape architecture, project^’s Jonathan Ledesma told the Portland Design Commission in 2015. The building’s design is intended to bring the outdoors inside, with covered balconies on every level, outdoor rooftop space, and lush landscaping in the public courtyard.

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Work is about to commence in Northwest Portland on the Field Office project, a uniquely-designed mixed-use project with a hefty office component.

Developed by sustainable specialists project^, Field Office consists of two buildings 6 stories each, approximately 290,000 square feet total, with one level of underground parking. The project was designed by the firm of Hacker  and landscape architect Lango Hansen to be a retail and work space that “blurs the lines” between indoor and outdoor architecture, with a campus environment in an urban setting, and landscaping pervasive at all levels of the buildings, according to project^ principal Jonathan Ledesma.

The general contractor is Lease Crutcher Lewis. Work is expected to conclude in the third quarter of 2017.

The owner is National Real Estate Advisors. KPFF is the structural engineer and Humber Design Group is the civil. Office leasing is being managed by Jones Lang LaSalle and retail leasing by Urban Works.

The project^ team declined to disclose the project price.

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Field Office, a project featuring a new kind of office environment, needed little time to gain the Portland Design Commission‘s approval on Thursday, and each commissioner complimented the plans.

The development will be constructed at 2030 N.W. Front Ave., and have two six-story buildings totaling 270,000 square feet. The buildings will surround a public plaza landscaped with native plants. The design intends to bring the outdoors in with a green roof and multi-level terraces throughout the buildings.

Designed by Hacker and developed by Project ^, Field Office has been in the design review process for fewer than six months – twice for advice and one prior review – and was approved in less than an hour at Thursday’s meeting.

The commission couldn’t approve the project at its Nov. 19 meeting because of transportation agencies’ concerns about the safety of a proposed bicycle path along the Union Pacific rail line. The continuous bike path was removed from the plan, although some pedestrian paths remain, city planner Grace Jeffreys said.

Jeffreys told the commission that city staffers recommended approval with two conditions: 1, mechanical equipment on the roof be painted a warm gray, and 2, the visible wall inside the parking lot entry be “evocative of art.”

At the end of the meeting the condition regarding the artwork in the parking garage was left to the discretion of the owner, but with the recommendation that it be a graphic design that reflects the neighborhood’s industrial character.

But commissioners still expressed their concerns.

“One person’s subtle branding is another’s billboard,” Commission Chairman David Wark said.

“Just keep it sophisticated, OK?” Commissioner Tad Savinar said.

Another change, according to Corey Martin, a principal at Hacker, is the use of wood (instead of metal siding material) in many places on the building’s lower façade and columns. Martin said he hopes the wood will come from Centennial Mills, which is undergoing selective demolition. The Portland Development Commission is deciding how that wood will be used.

“We looked at other materials and couldn’t find anything that has the same power as wood,” Martin said. “Centennial Mills is in (demolition) right now, and that horizontal striation is appropriate (for Field Office’s design).”

Martin said the reclaimed wood panels would provide a lot of warmth in the joists, canopies and soffits throughout the courtyard, and that outdoor planters could be made of steel to carry out the industrial theme. The reclaimed wood could also be used for interior flooring, he said.

More landscaping was added to the design, Martin said. Outdoor seating and planters were added to soften the entrances and cables will spiral up exterior columns to encourage vine and foliage growth. More glazing will be added to the buildings’ corners, he said.

After discussion and before the vote, each commissioner praised the project.

“Great job,” Savinar said. “I was really struggling with the entrances and you turned them into living rooms – a sterling solution.”

Commissioner Don Vallaster complimented the design team’s efforts to meet high design standards.

“We could send it back for a month and I have a feeling you would still continue to make more improvements,” he said.

Commissioner Julie Livingston also praised the project.

“I think it is a lovely building,” she said. “The massing and landscaping are a knockout.”

Commissioner Jeff Simpson said the design was “a great job,” and Wark added that it is “a really outstanding, stellar project.”

Wark only had one admonition: The design should consider that the green roofs will attract birds and they are apt to fly into the glass windows at the corners.

“Considering bird strikes, I encourage you to look at it again … (that is) my only suggestion,” he said. “But I’m very impressed with the whole (design) process.”

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Hacker‘s design for the Field Office, a new kind of office environment that brings the natural environment into the workplace via green terraces at several levels, is close to getting approval from the Portland Design Commission.

The project planned at 2030 N.W. Front Ave. came before the commission for a final review last week; however, it was extended to Dec. 17. Plans call for two six-story steel buildings that flare away from each other with a large public plaza to the south furnished with native plants. The buildings, with a total of 270,000 square feet, will have a roof garden and “high parks” at several levels.

City planner Grace Jeffreys said the commission couldn’t vote at the Nov. 19 meeting whether to approve the project because a conflict concerning a planned bicyclist-pedestrian path still must be resolved.

According to city documents, the project site is a large, irregular parcel sandwiched between Northwest Front Avenue to the east, 17th Avenue to the west and the Union Pacific rail line to the south. A 12-foot-wide path would be located along the rail line in vacated areas of undeveloped Terminal Street.

“We still have issues regarding the bicycle-pedestrian path parallel to the rail line,” Jeffreys said. “Due to outstanding information, staff could not yet recommend approval.”

That outstanding information revolves around safety concerns of the Oregon Department of Transportation and also whether the parcel should be defined as a superblock, said Stefee Knudsen, senior associate and project manager at Hacker.

Defining the site as a superblock would affect traffic patterns, Knudsen said. A superblock is usually defined as one created when a street in the middle of two blocks is vacated, she said, but in this case the vacated street portions are at one end and not in the middle.

“So the project may not need to meet superblock requirements,” she said, “but it’s an open and active site that’s trying to bring together a lot of the uses that happen around it. I think we’ve potentially found some ways we can address ODOT‘s very legitimate safety concerns, and the city is reviewing those (superblock) requirements.”

The Field Office will bring the outdoors inside with landscaped terraces, a concept praised by design commissioners in previous hearings. Knudsen said the name also applies to the exterior skin that will create a “field” motif.

“We’ve had a lot more development of the exterior skin, which will have a dark metal chevron patterned panel and window systems at an irregular rhythm,” she said.

That effect will give emphasis to those green balconies, or “high parks,” Knudsen said.

“The exterior skin starts to create a field that highlights those high park features,” she said. “The whole building is about creating a new way of work, a more natural environment.”

At ground level the building will provide restaurants, retail space and 92 long-term bicycle parking spaces. Approximately 350 motor vehicle parking spaces will be built below grade.

The entire project was driven by landscape architecture, said Jonathan Ledesma, who is heading up the project for developer Project^. At a previous design review meeting, Ledesma said that Jane Hansen of Lango Hansen Landscape Architects played a major role in the design for the vacant lot near the Willamette River.

“We have the ability to do things architecturally that you could not do in the city center,” Ledesma said during a previous design review. “We are bringing in the experience of the landscape that creates a new way to work in the city.”

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A new kind of office development presented last week to the city’s Design Commission brings the outdoors in.

The project proposes two office buildings with a total of 270,000 square feet on what is now an open grassy field at Northwest 17^th and Front avenues.

The steel-constructed buildings will feature large glass windows and glassed-in lower floors that will flare away from each other toward the south and surround a large public plaza furnished with native plantings. The building also will have landscaped terraces at several levels to continue a theme of bringing the outdoors in.

Although commissioners said they were pleased with the overall project, which is tentatively being called “Field Office,” they had some concerns about the type of skin that will be used, where loading docks will be located, and vehicle access.

Jonathan Ledesma is heading up the project for developer Project ^. The design is being led by architect Corey Martin of Hacker (formerly THA Architecture).

After the review panel meeting on Thursday, Ledesma said the project will be unusual because the landscaping, by Jane Hansen of Lango Hansen Landscape Architects, plays a major part in the design.

“This is a landscape-driven project and we have the ability to do things architecturally that you could not do in the city center,” he said. “We’re not building from property line to property line, but (we) are bringing in the experience of the landscape that creates a new way to work in the city.”

Hansen told the commission the landscaping will use meadow grasses and trees to create an environment resembling the edge of a forest.

“It’s a good metaphor for the entire site,” she said. “We could continue prairie planting all the way to 17^th (Avenue) and can tailor the prairie mix to the dominant species, such as red and blue fescue.”

A major design feature is the way the buildings are splayed away from each other to allow ample sunlight into the plaza area and into the buildings, Martin said.

“In the Northwest, light is a serious driver and any opportunity to get southern light on winter days will have unexpected light filling the street,” he said.

Although landscaped, portions of the plaza area could be used for special events, outdoor fitness classes, food carts or other activities, Ledesma said.

“It will be a public space, but still sheltered from the street,” he said.

Martin added that the design of the plaza may also include shelters from the weather such as canopies, pavilions or outdoor tables.

“You could move your office outside,” he said.

The project’s appearance in front of the design panel had been rescheduled twice because of a heavy load of projects before the commission. Another design advice review will probably be scheduled again in November.

Although this was the first design advice review for the project by the commission, city planner Grace Jeffreys said she thinks the project will likely move forward with few hitches. She said some traffic access issues remain to be worked out with the Portland Bureau of Transportation.

“They (the commission) were very supportive of the direction they’re going, creating a blending of the outside and inside,” she said. “I generally think they’re ready to get in a land use application.”

The main focus for Ledesma was for the commission to approve the massing of the two buildings, each of which will be between four and six stories tall, and how they connect downtown to the riverfront.

The building, situated between the Union Pacific railroad tracks and the river near the Fremont Bridge, will sit on a lot with an area of 91,450 square feet. The project will feature restaurants and retail on the bottom floor, with underground parking and bicycle storage. A bike and pedestrian path will run on the west side of the project between the buildings and the railroad track.

Near the end of the meeting, Commissioner Julie Livingston praised the project design.

“I appreciate the fact you have urban buildings, but in (a) landscape that is south-facing and with open land,” she said.

The skin of the building was also discussed, and Martin said brick or weathering steel might be use to keep with the industrial feel of the neighborhood.

Livingston said she did not feel strongly about what the exterior skin should be, and Commissioner Jeff  Simpson praised the overall project.

“I think the parti (big idea) is awesome,” he said.

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