Plans for extending the North Park Blocks as a Green Loop connection came under scrutiny by the Portland Design Commission on Thursday.

Commissioners held a design advice meeting for the planned parks infrastructure as a condition of the Broadway master plan, a 2019 document that governs portions of the area in Northwest Portland.

The project encompasses Northwest Glisan to Johnston streets, east of Northwest Park Avenue. City planners envision a winding, elevated path for bicyclists and pedestrians to connect the North Park Blocks to the Broadway Bridge.

The North Park Blocks would carry the Green Loop — a pedestrian-friendly and bicyclist-friendly route that will encircle the Central City.

Yet the project isn’t expected to be built for years, and the discussion Thursday was hobbled by unanswered questions regarding timing, sequencing and the feasibility of building and maintaining a linear park in the troubled Old Town Chinatown neighborhood.

Gary Datka, a Portland Parks & Recreation project manager, said construction would begin sometime after 2030.

“We would expect somewhere between 2030 and 2035 this gets developed,” he said.

That raised the question of how the parks bureau should manage the area in the meantime. The properties are owned by Prosper Portland and not yet managed by Parks & Recreation.

Some of the parcels are likely to be used for laying down construction equipment, Datka said, so it doesn’t make sense to build park infrastructure before private development occurs, only for it to be damaged by construction activities later.

Portland Parks & Recreation “doesn’t want to build a bridge to nowhere in the interim,” he said.

Commissioners suggested some sort of interim park use would be appropriate.

“It really has to be an interim park,” Chairwoman Chandra Robinson said.

Commissioner Zari Santner cautioned that Parks & Recreation must prepare now to maintain the linear park before it’s built.

Santner suggested a public-private partnership could be used to maintain the area.

“That is something very, very fundamental that the parks bureau needs to address at this time,” she said.

The bureau “has never had the funding to take care of urban parks,” Santner said.

The design itself, from Portland landscape architecture firm PLACE, drew praise and concerns.

“The ascent, the massing, for me it works,” Santner said.

She criticized other aspects of the design, saying railings play too large a role and compete with tree plantings.

Designers heard from community members that the path design should provide adequate separation between pedestrians and bicyclists. The design accomplishes that with dividers, planters and other cues, PLACE designer Miguel Camacho-Serna said.

The ascending pathway will create room for a roughly 4,000-square-foot retail space underneath, Camacho-Serna said.

Commissioners urged designers and city staff to find ways to make the park work.

“There’s so much beautiful space for passive enjoyment, but the space for active enjoyment is maybe a little bit missing,” said Commissioner Sarah Vaz, who suggested food carts or small shops could help.

“It depends on how it’s going to be programmed and what the active uses are around it,” she added.

Also on Thursday, design commissioners appointed new officers. Robinson was named chairwoman, and Joe Swank vice chairman. Votes for both positions were unanimous.

The post Extension plan for Portland’s North Park Blocks scrutinized appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

O’Bryant Square has languished for nearly four years, as the city of Portland has struggled to devise a workable, funded plan to redevelop the half-block plaza in downtown.

Now the city has put forward a proposal to redevelop the square that would rely in part on a $5 million federal grant. The city would contribute an additional $4.44 million to revitalize the park space between Southwest Park and Ninth avenues, and Washington and Harvey Milk streets.

The Portland Office of Management and Finance submitted a grant application to the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) on Jan. 28, requesting $5 million in funding from the American Rescue Plan Act. The plan was forged by three city bureaus: Parks and Recreation, Transportation, and Planning and Sustainability.

The city would use the funding, if awarded, to demolish the structurally unsound 21,000-square-foot parking garage. Public engagement, design and construction to rebuild the half-acre park would follow, according to a copy of the , which was obtained through a public records request.

The $9.44 million project budget also calls for construction of Green Loop street improvements in the area; the Green Loop is set to connect to the Ankeny West food cart pod a couple of blocks north of O’Bryant Square. Portions of the Green Loop would wrap around the square on Southwest Ninth Avenue and on Southwest Harvey Milk Street, providing pedestrian and bicycle routes as well as public space.

The city also wants to use some of the federal funding to improve and make permanent Pride Plaza – an LGBTQ-friendly area in the West End. Pride Plaza sprang up during closures resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Portions of Southwest Harvey Milk Street were closed to vehicle traffic as the pandemic took hold in 2020, and nearby businesses erected outdoor seating.

City officials abruptly fenced off O’Bryant Square on March 5, 2018, citing structural deficiencies related to the underground SmartPark garage. The public plaza has since continued to deteriorate. It’s increasingly incongruous as more than a billion dollars in new development rises nearby, including the $600 million, 35-story Ritz-Carlton tower under construction diagonally across Washington Street, and the 25-story Eleven West building two blocks west.

Downtown business interests are eager to see the city move forward after years of inter-bureau wrangling and inaction.

“Obviously, O’Bryant Square itself, it’s very important that gets reopened,” said Matthew Goodman, vice president of Downtown Development Group, the developer of Eleven West. “It’s been far too long.”

Walt Bowen, CEO of BPM Real Estate, the developer of the Ritz-Carlton tower on Block 216, declined to answer questions. A spokesman, Pat Walsh, stated in an email: “A new park will greatly benefit the Green Loop.”

Development of O’Bryant Square would leave residual floor-area-ratio development rights that could be sold to a private developer, according to the city’s application. The city would dedicate any revenue from the sale of FAR to the project’s matching funds. The city estimates the project would create 205 jobs and help retain 84 jobs.

The grant process is competitive, an EDA spokesman said. Portland’s application will be evaluated by an investment review committee, and if successful, will advance to the agency’s assistant secretary for final approval.

Portland’s Hennebery Eddy Architects has done pro-bono design work to show what O’Bryant Square could become. The firm’s office in the Pittock Block overlooks the plaza.

“Hennebery Eddy is strongly in favor of moving the demolition and redesign of O’Bryant Square forward as soon as humanly possible,” Tim Eddy, president of the firm, stated in an email. “The square has been in a steady state of decline for more than three decades and is in a critical location in downtown relative to surrounding historic buildings, new development and the Green Loop.”

Design and development would begin this year, with construction scheduled to wrap up in July 2027, according to the grant proposal.

Some observers said they were frustrated by the lengthy delays.

“By the time O’Bryant Square is completely redeveloped, it will have probably been close to a decade at that point,” said Iain MacKenzie, who runs the Next Portland architecture and development blog. “Nonetheless, I think there’s a great vision there.”

Mark Ross, spokesman for Portland Parks and Recreation, stated that the lack of funding for garage demolition has held up the project.

“The proposed schedule reflects the complexity of the project and the remaining due diligence, design, resource development, engineering and engagement work required to support construction,” Ross stated. “Once funded, PP&R will work with city partners to expedite project delivery.”

Commissioner Carmen Rubio has allocated $3 million in parks system development charges to expand capacity at O’Bryant Square.

Portland should carefully consider engaging a landscape architect to turn the temporary improvements at Pride Plaza into a lasting public space, MacKenzie said.

“We very rarely do very high-quality public realm projects in Portland,” he said. “I’d love to see something that really did redevelop Harvey Milk and make those two, potentially three, blocks really a pedestrian-focused and inviting public realm that people would specifically go to, to visit.”

Food-cart advocate Keith Jones has been working to relocate carts to the area between O’Bryant Square and East Burnside Street. He sees the Green Loop improvements as part of the Cart Blocks concept, formerly known as the Culinary Corridor, connecting the Ankeny West pod to O’Bryant Square. The concept originated when more than 50 food carts were evicted from Block 216 to make way for the tower.

Jones is looking to possibly install shipping containers on Ankeny Street between Southeast Eighth and Park avenues that would host retail businesses. Another idea he’s floated is to station a double-decker bus at Burnside Street with service of coffee in the morning and alcohol at night.

“I’m looking at it as an opportunity to continue to extend resilient outdoor businesses toward O’Bryant Square and connecting it to Ankeny West,” he said.

The block has some flaws. Architects who have studied O’Bryant Square point to dead zones to the north and east: the blank walls of the Union Bank Building and a CenturyLink telecommunications building, and a small parking lot.

“If the grant’s successful, it’s an opportunity to start over with an urban park that has had a difficult, troubled history, and it’s an opportunity to enliven a part of downtown that is extremely challenging,” said Randy Gragg, executive director of the Portland Parks Foundation.

The post City officials seeking money to revitalize plaza appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

A proposed six-story hotel showed its new face to the Portland Design Commission on Thursday.

The Choice Cambria Portland would front Northwest Park Avenue, near the historic North Park Blocks, on half of a block between Northwest Davis and Couch streets. This was the second design advice hearing for the project; the first took place in August. Commissioner Don Vallaster recused himself from the hearing due to a conflict of interest.

The latest proposal from SERA Architects is better, commissioners said, but has room for improvement in how the building would relate to its surroundings.

The design team is trying to find a balance between modern expression and the Pearl District‘s urban fabric, said Jeff Roberts of SERA Architects. That was the aim of the previous proposal, but commissioners stated that it wasn’t working.

The team changed its design concept to instead embrace the trees on the North Park Blocks.

“What we looked at in detail was just the beauty and the structure of the changing seasons of the park,” Roberts said.

The form of the structure changed to a barbell, which allowed the addition of four guest rooms. Now the hotel would be 95,000 square feet and have 178 rooms.

Also, the exterior design shifted away from a dark green and tan stucco split to a brick, sandstone stucco and multicolor metal pattern envelope to represent tree bark.

However, commissioners stated it was a “fussy” number of materials.

“We go from brick, and then we set back about two feet and go to metal panels, and then we set back … maybe 10 or 12 feet,” Commissioner Brian McCarter said.

The exterior would work better with just one material, Commission Chairwoman Julie Livingston noted.

“Most of the strong context buildings are 90 percent one thing,” she said.

Materials aside, the Design Commission agreed that the proposed building concept and structure layout was improved from the previous iteration.

Due to the site location on the North Park Blocks, the landscaping fronting the park was highly debated. The hotel is the first building required to respond to the new Green Loop code, which mandates a 12-foot setback along 75 percent of the property lines adjacent to it.

The purpose of the setback is to provide a greater pedestrian pathway around the Central City. However, as stated in the previous Design Commission hearing, the setback separates people from the park. A large part of the discussion on Thursday involved the kinds of trees that could go between the park and the building to enhance the environment without shadowing guest rooms.

“What’s lacking in the park and what could these setback areas provide are truly lush landscape – a truly beautiful understory,” Commissioner Zari Santner said.

The post Team still refining design of Portland hotel appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

A proposal for an eight-story mixed-use building in Portland’s Central Eastside drew skeptical responses from members of the Historic Landmarks Commission this week.

An 85-foot-tall structure would rise at 1006 S.E. Grand Ave., and incorporate the U.S. Laundry Building – a contributing historic resource constructed in 1907. The project, valued at $9.8 million, is being pitched by ARCOA Partners, a limited liability company. Ink:Built Design of Portland is providing design services.

The project team received design advice from the Historic Landmarks Commission on Monday. Commissioners raised a number of issues with the scale, boldness and materiality of the proposal.

“I’m not against something more modern – and we have voted for more modern expressions – but not this large,” Commissioner Matthew Roman said. “It seems like it’s well out of scale with the adjoining context.”

Difficulties have arisen for heavily residential proposals in historic districts, where a need for more housing often clashes with stakeholders’ desire to maintain existing character. The Central Eastside is increasingly being targeted by developers looking to build relatively close to downtown.

Commissioners referred to precedents, including Grand + Belmont – a 131-unit apartment building nearby.

“We supported Grand + Belmont at about this height, and that was a bridgehead project, and I came around to voting for that because the applicant really sought a more compatible building,” Roman said.

Commissioner Maya Foty also said the building, as proposed, would clash with the context of the neighborhood.

“I feel like this is trying to be a statement building when it needs to be more of a background building,” she said.

The proposed height would be within the 100-foot limit for the property, but not necessarily suitable, according to Foty.

“The height, to me, it’s very large,” she said. “It’s very tall in this location.”

The building would offer studios and apartments with one or two bedrooms on upper floors. (The number of units was not included in project materials). The ground floor would have retail space, amenity spaces for residents, and mechanized, stacked parking.

Neighbors requested the building include as much parking as possible, Ink:Built Design principal architect Nate Ember said.

“The neighborhood really needs it,” he said, “especially if we have the Green Loop – we won’t have as much on-street parking.”

The building would adjoin the planned Green Loop on Southeast Sixth Avenue. That may pose an obstacle for alignment of the parking entrance; proposed access would be from Sixth Avenue. The Portland Bureau of Transportation is discouraging construction of new curb cuts along the Green Loop, said Teresa Montalvo, the bureau’s land-use review development supervisor.

“Because of the Green Loop, because we don’t have the standards yet – but we know fragmenting it all along the loop with driveways and creating conflicts is not going to give us what we have envisioned for this great park-like facility through the city,” she said. “So we’re starting to say if you’re on that frontage, and if you have another frontage you can go on, then we’re not going to permit off the top that driveway along the Green Loop alignment.”

A return for the project team before the Historic Landmarks Commission for a design review hearing has not been scheduled yet.

The post Central Eastside proposal scrutinized appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The Portland Design Commission on Thursday questioned plans for a zigzagging, elevated section of the Green Loop that would act as an artery for public movement through the massive Broadway Corridor redevelopment.

Commissioners questioned whether the Green Loop would be successful as designed.

“I don’t think there is enough detail here for me to be confident that the Green Loop is going to work,” Commissioner Zari Santner said. “I need to be convinced.”

Commissioner Jessica Molinar said the zigzag pattern was the intent of designers, but wouldn’t necessarily be required in the final project. She said the ultimate priority should be open space, and could see a spiral design working well, as on the Morrison Bridge.

“I’m trying to imagine an alternate option to this,” Molinar said. “However this path proceeds, it needs to provide the maximum amount of space for a park.”

Owned by Prosper Portland and designed by ZGF Architects, the Broadway Corridor would bring 4 million square feet of housing and commercial space to a 32-acre area linking the Pearl District to Old Town, at a price tag of $1 billion to $1.5 billion. Continuum Partners of Denver is serving as development adviser.

The first design advice session focused on the open space portion of the site, including a park and a section of the city’s larger Green Loop. On Thursday, the design team went into detail on the massing of the buildings, and further illustrated how the Green Loop could be integrated into the site.

Renderings reveal a plan to incorporate several buildings, with one reaching a height of at least 400 feet, and others reaching 250 feet or more. There are multiple medium-sized parcels of affordable housing, which are distributed around the property, so as to avoid grouping them together.

The Green Loop enters the property from the Broadway Bridge, cutting through the Y-shaped intersection that splits into Northwest Lovejoy Street and Northwest Broadway. From there it will cross a bridge that will hang above Northwest Johnson Street, before descending in a zigzag pattern to ground level at the project’s park.

The Green Loop has been revised since the last design advice request, with the design team changing the dimensions to allow more space for sitting between the zigzags, and stairs on either end for pedestrians to separate from cyclists. Commissioner Chandra Robinson found this change to be a positive one, as concerns had previously been raised about interactions between different forms of commuters.

On Thursday, the design team also revealed a three-phase plan for the project, which sees many of the largest towers being built at the beginning, and the park and Green Loop developing at the end. Commissioners were in agreement that the schedule should be revised, and that the open space should be prioritized from the start.

Robinson said that businesses on site will depend upon the park, and Santner added that when parks are placed near the end of projects, there is sometimes not enough money left over to do a proficient job.

“The success of the park is integral to the success of this development,” Santner said.

Another main point of discussion was the massing of the buildings. With so many tall buildings clumped together, commissioners found setbacks to be an important consideration. As the plan was presented, the buildings would feature 15 feet of setback from the street.

On the northern portion of the project, the tallest buildings would lie on either side of Northwest Kearney Street, which commissioners said could create a dark alleyway. Santner said the Old Town location is already known to have social problems, and that safety will be a concern on this block if there are not enough eyes on the street.

Molinar agreed that the street would become an alley as proposed, and Vice Chairman Sam Rodriguez said the master plan doesn’t work if there is not enough light or air in the street.

The commission has not yet set a return date for the Broadway Corridor project, but the design team said they intend to seek a design review during their next appointment.

The post Issues still linger for Broadway Corridor appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

In slide shows and master plan presentations, the contours of what will become the Broadway Corridor are taking shape.

On Tuesday, the 37-member steering committee that was convened two years ago by Prosper Portland met for the 20^th and final time. Earlier recommendations by the committee led to the hiring of Continuum Partners of Denver as development adviser and the selection of the “Play” concept from three development scenarios put forth by ZGF Architects.

A master plan for the 14-acre U.S. Postal Service site is in the design review process, with the Portland Design Commission scheduled to meet with the project team for the second time on July 18.

A few things are becoming clearer, including a general layout for the larger 32-acre area bridging the Pearl District and Old Town Chinatown. A large-scale office development could be located in the north end of the Broadway Corridor, near the Broadway Bridge and Union Station. Mixed-income housing, with a substantial complement of affordable units, would be built in the south section.

Northwest Johnson Street is emerging as a main street through the Postal Service site that could be lined with commercial uses, said Nolan Lienhart, director of planning and urban design for ZGF Architects.

The North Park Blocks would extend through the site, with the city’s Green Loop running along the west side of the Park Blocks. As the Green Loop heads north, it would begin to zig-zag and elevate, climbing toward the Broadway Bridge as a viaduct. Bicyclists could also take advantage of a cycle track on Ninth Avenue.

At the north edge of the Broadway Corridor, the street grid would terminate, providing a large site that could be used for a major office development. “It means it is very flexible from a development perspective,” Lienhart said.

The development potential of the site is far larger than at any other location in Portland. The Postal Service property alone is planned to host 3.8 million square feet of development, with 2,400 households and 4,000 jobs, according to the 2015 framework plan.

Prosper Portland is planning to issue its first requests for proposals for on-site work later this year. The work will include relocating the post office’s retail operation, demolition and environmental remediation. It’ll be the first significant construction spending for the project.

“We’re still fine-tuning the procurement strategy and timelines,” said Sarah Harpole, Prosper Portland’s project manager for the Broadway Corridor.

Continuum Partners is expected to begin serious talks with Prosper Portland this summer on how to develop the site.

“Now that the plan is better defined, we can begin a more concrete conversation with Prosper about a vertical development strategy, and that process will unfold over the next few months,” Mark Falcone, Continuum’s CEO, said in an interview.

Falcone said Prosper Portland’s process has been sound, and Continuum is moving forward toward a memorandum of understanding with the agency.

“We’re pretty excited about it,” he said. “I think it does have an opportunity to create an iconic project for the city that creates a new kind of space that doesn’t really exist there right now.”

Continuum’s commitment could be critical to the project’s success. In recent years, developers have courted major public-private projects with Prosper Portland only to walk away prior to signing a development agreement.

Falcone acknowledged there are “challenges” working with a government agency that has a prolonged public process. Continuum Partners was selected as development adviser in April 2018 after a competitive application.

“We’ve got a lot of time invested in this, and hopefully we’ll find a path forward together,” Falcone said.

Prosper Portland spokesman Shawn Uhlman said Continuum Partners has been “actively engaging” in planning for the Broadway Corridor.

In May, Prosper Portland’s board endorsed the “Play” concept, carrying a $50 million price tag for public realm improvements, including open space, the Green Loop, streets and public utilities.

“We’re far from being done with the project,” Lienhart said. “We’re closer to getting done with this phase of planning.”

Planners are considering how to make active, welcoming spaces underneath the Broadway Bridge, looking to precedents in other cities. Lienhart said a combination of public art, landscaping and activation is being considered underneath the bridge.

In a central open space, a flexible athletic court that could accommodate basketball, futsal and other activities is envisioned.

Alongside development planning, Prosper Portland is planning to forge a community benefits agreement that would guide work at the site.

At Tuesday’s meeting, steering committee members reflected on the two-year process.

“It took a long time to come to details,” said Jeremy Simer, a representative of Service Employees International Union, Local 49.

Neil Lee, vice president of the Oregon Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, said he would have liked to hear more from Continuum Partners. “We saw a lot of the architect, but we didn’t see enough of the developer here,” he said.

Paul Vanderford, director of green markets at Sustainable Northwest, said the planning process had proved fruitful.

“I do like the design we ended up with,” he said.

The post Broadway Corridor plans take shape appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Designers for the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry campus development are still wrestling with basic questions relating to transportation circulation and open spaces on the Southeast Portland site.

Plans for OMSI‘s 18.5-acre property went before the Portland Design Commission for advice during a meeting on Thursday. OMSI is seeking approval for the master plan under Central City 2035 plan rules.

Many of the questions facing OMSI’s proposed redevelopment concern how it relates to its surroundings, including a bicycle artery, the city’s Green Loop concept, the Willamette River to the west and Union Pacific railroad tracks to the east.

The Green Loop would go through OMSI’s site, but the precise alignment is undetermined.

OMSI proposes to reroute Water Avenue to the east, and use old Water Avenue as a “pedestrian-oriented main street” through the site. Also planned is a loop road throughout the campus to connect developable properties.

OMSI’s plans include a bridge over the Union Pacific railroad tracks to connect the campus to Southeast Portland neighborhoods. The bridge would be built by the city of Portland.

“We believe such a bridge can become an iconic, identifying development for the district,” said Allison Rouse, a project manager for ZGF Architects.

Old Water Avenue would have a two-way cycle track to accommodate bicyclists. Planners discussed how to slow bicyclists a bit in keeping with a family-friendly mixed-use street, but not so much that cyclists abandon the route for the Eastbank Esplanade.

Designers with ZGF and Mayer/Reed are working with Gerding Edlen, the master developer selected by OMSI in July 2018 after a competitive bidding process. An early master plan for the site was laid out by Snohetta, an international design firm.

The campus encompasses seven developable parcels ranging in size from 0.69 acres to 4.49 acres. Maximum building heights with bonuses reach 250 feet.

Commissioner Jessica Molinar expressed concern that the loop road could feel like an alleyway if it doesn’t have enough active uses.

“It really depends on what’s going to happen there, which is architecture,” she said.

Commissioner Zari Santner asked if old Water Avenue should be a woonerf – a Dutch-style shared street that places less emphasis on auto traffic.

“The focus is really for people,” she said.

OMSI’s designers said there are practical obstacles to such a design.

“We very much would like it to look like a woonerf, Zari, but we have had some conversation with (the Portland Bureau of Transportation) about the difficulties of that,” said Carol Mayer-Reed, a principal at Mayer/Reed Inc.

Santner also said the campus needs to better relate to the river.

“The whole district, the plan, is inward-looking,” she said. “It’s not really embracing the river.”

Both city and private planners have expressed some frustration regarding the vagueness of the Green Loop – a linear-park concept through the Central City. There are two options for the Green Loop’s alignment, and it must meet other segments of the loop north and south of OMSI’s campus.

“There’s two routes it could follow, and it’s really not up to OMSI to decide which it should follow,” said Ben Nielsen, a senior planner at the Bureau of Development Services. “It’s a continuing conversation at this point.”

Nielsen acknowledged the Green Loop could be better defined.

“It’s not as codified yet as it should be to be a real thing, but it’s in process,” he said.

The OMSI master plan is scheduled to return before the Design Commission in August for more advice.

The post Street uses, Green Loop at issue in OMSI master plan appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The Portland Design Commission on Thursday gave its first design advice on plans for the Broadway Corridor – a massive redevelopment effort near the southwest end of the Broadway Bridge, at the site of a former U.S. Postal Service facility. Commissioners gave mixed reviews on the public realm aspect of the plan, praising the change it would bring to the area but taking issue with the intended use of the city’s Green Loop.

The 4-million-square-foot mixed-use project is expected to consist of housing, commercial space and open park space, and link the Pearl District to Old Town. The development is expected to cost between $1 billion and $1.5 billion.

Prosper Portland‘s endeavor, designed by ZGF Architects, is intended to accommodate 4,000 jobs and 3,100 residents – with 25 percent of the housing being affordable units. The design is meant to be inclusive for all neighborhood residents, with spaces where people can “just be” and not need a specific task or purpose.

Apart from buildings, the designs of which will be revealed at a later commission meeting, the space is to be dominated by an expanse of open green land in the center. Situated on an incline, the open space will become a park of sorts, framing nearby Union Station and other historic buildings as viewpoints.

The Green Loop intersects at the top and cuts through the open space, running in an inclined zig-zag pattern where cyclists and pedestrians can stop and take in new views of the city.

“I think the variety of street sections you’re proposing is great,” Commissioner Jessica Molinar said. “It really enhances the beauty of Union Station.”

Commissioners were mostly on board with the general development plan, and agreed that it would be a good use of space that currently is going to waste. They also said that creating a connection between Old Town and the Pearl District is important, and that enhancing the area to make it feel safer should be a priority.

The Green Loop, however, was universally rejected by commissioners as unsafe and not well thought out. While the design team said the loop’s placement was intended to “activate” the open space, commissioners weren’t receptive to that idea.

“I, for the life of me, don’t know how pedestrians going through there and bicyclists are going to activate this park,” Commissioner Zari Santner said. “We just have to take a leap of faith right now to accept that it would be something wonderful.”

Santner suggested that the loop run alongside the site on Northwest Ninth Avenue, and said she doesn’t understand why it’s important for it to take up open green space.

Commissioner Don Vallaster said the design team seemed to be presenting the loop as the focal point of the project, when it should only complement the rest of the design.

“We need to take a serious look at alternatives,” he said.

Commissioner Samuel Rodriguez said Prosper Portland and ZGF will have to come up with alternatives or a successful defense of the Green Loop ramp at the project’s next design advice request hearing, which is scheduled for July 18. At that time the team will also submit renderings for the project’s buildings.

The post A mixed bag for Broadway Corridor plan appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

If only Portland urban planners and developers could latch onto a concept that would further deter drivers while providing ample space for pedestrians and bicyclists to move through the city.

If only Seattle could have done it first, repeatedly and well.

If only it could originate in the Netherlands, lending the concept a sheen of Dutch good-government cool and a funny name.

Enter the woonerf.

At some point this year, Portland urbanists began talking about woonerfs – a shared-street concept popular in the Netherlands. They’ve hardly stopped since.

The word, pronounced “voo-nerf,” has injected itself into plans for two major developments. The concept is unfamiliar enough that planners and designers still say it with uncertainty. Woonerf, pronounced with an American accent, sticks out like a stroopwafel at a donut shop.

Woonerfs slow vehicle drivers and provide room for bicyclists, pedestrians and even riders of Portland’s proliferating fleets of scooters. Woonerfs, typically narrow streets with park-like amenities, tend to activate adjacent spaces; ideal placement would be beside food markets or other high-traffic retail spaces, or open spaces.

“It’s really a roadway that shifts the priority off the use of that space for cars or vehicles to pedestrians and bicyclists,” said Jake Woland, a woonerf designer with HEWITT in Seattle. “So cars are allowed on the woonerf, but (drivers) are meant to understand that they’re subordinate in that space and it’s for pedestrians and bicyclists.”

Woonerfs align with many of Portland’s stated goals, from cutting carbon emissions to reducing the number of drivers commuting into the central city. Woonerfs also are a piece of Portland’s efforts to make itself less car-centric.

The Portland Design Commission has been ground zero for the woonerf discussions. So far, two woonerfs are on the drawing boards in Portland.

Seattle developer Security Properties plans to build a woonerf at the Pepsi Blocks redevelopment along Sandy Boulevard. The woonerf would cut through the four-block site, continuing Pacific Street westbound with a slow-speed, one-way route. It would run adjacent to an open lawn. The large, flexible lawn could “spill into” the woonerf, with the goal of activating both spaces, Dorothy Faris, a landscape architect with Mithun of Seattle, told the Design Commission.

The woonerf would form the circulatory system for the 4.7-acre site, which is expected to have five buildings, beginning with two multifamily structures totaling 335 units and 28,500 square feet of retail space.

The second woonerf planned in Portland would be built downtown on Southwest Ninth Avenue between Washington and Alder streets. Part of the city’s Green Loop, the woonerf would run past the proposed 35-story Block 216 mixed- use tower and the newly renovated Woodlark Hotel.

The Block 216 project includes a planned food hall that would open onto the woonerf along Ninth Avenue, replacing existing food carts. The development team is led by Walt Bowen of BPM Real Estate Group.

The onset of the woonerf era has developers and city planners scrambling to figure out how to adapt the concept to local streets and regulations.

Woonerfs can be closed to auto traffic for festivals and other special events. But typically, they are open to auto traffic. Curves and narrow lanes provide visual cues that discourage drivers from entering.

“We do that for a couple of reasons – so that any cars on the cross streets get the sense that at the very least they need to slow down, but if they have another option that feels more direct, they need to take that,” Woland said.

Don Vallaster, a member of the Design Commission, indicated he would support keeping the Pepsi Blocks woonerf open to auto traffic.

“I don’t think you want to get rid of cars on the woonerf,” he said during the Sept. 6 meeting. “I think that’s part of the urban context also.”

So far, the woonerf concept has attracted enthusiastic support from city planners, developers and advocates of non-motorized transportation.

“They are a really good way to go where there’s a low volume of auto traffic and high volumes of other users,” said Jillian Detwiler, executive director of The Street Trust, a nonprofit group that advocates for bicyclists and other nonmotorized road users. “It makes for a very flexible space for people.”

Plantings, seating areas and low curbs are commonly used to provide a welcoming atmosphere for pedestrians.

“It really becomes a place for congregation as well for people on the street,” said Lori Mason Curran, spokeswoman for Vulcan Real Estate, a Seattle developer that is building two woonerfs.

One of Vulcan’s woonerf projects is for Facebook in the South Lake Union neighborhood. The woonerf will be on Eighth Avenue North between Thomas and Harrison streets.

“It is a street, so there will be cars, but they won’t be able to go very fast,” Curran said.

The woonerf will be pinched by twin buildings with 390,000 square feet of office space and ground-floor retail space amid a canopy of mature sweetgum trees.

Google will also have a woonerf in Seattle between two office buildings at Block 31, located at 625 Boren Ave. N. in Seattle. The through-block woonerf will connect Terry Avenue North and Boren Avenue North.

Tech clients are supporting the woonerf concept, Curran said.

“It is a design feature that Vulcan is very keen on,” she said. “As we sit down with these tenants on build-to-suit projects, it doesn’t take any time to get clients on board and to see the benefits for them and their employees.”

Another Seattle woonerf is Bell Street Park, which opened in 2014 in the Belltown neighborhood. Bell Street Park is an example of taking a street from cars and creating a park-like public space, Woland said.

“Where real estate is really expensive, the city always owns the roadway, and you may find a place where a woonerf is appropriate,” he said.

Seattle University also has a small woonerf situated between ballfields.

Pike Place, along the world-famous market, has one-way traffic over cobblestones, with cars proceeding at a crawl as pedestrians freely stroll in the street. The historic thoroughfare has all the characteristics of a woonerf, Woland said.

Meanwhile, Portland, ever sensitive to preserving its reputation as a leading city for urban planning, is sending a delegation of transportation officials to Seattle to learn more.

So as the trend catches on, is Portland about to become a series of intersecting woonerfs? Not likely.

Wide streets, for one, do not make appropriate woonerfs, experts said. A Portland street such as Broadway or Burnside is unlikely to ever go Dutch.

The other major stumbling block is that the infrastructure of American cities was not built with woonerfs in mind. Streets are designed so buses and fire trucks, with their wide turning radiuses, are able to enter them.

Designers must also be mindful of the maze of utilities that lies underground.

“The other challenge that we had pretty consistently is utilities are installed in roadbeds early in a city’s life and they have a rigorous logic that expects a rectilinear road grid,” Woland said. “If there’s a water main problem, the utility has to be able to get to that water main no matter what.”

Portland planners are working through the issues. The Design Commission devoted an entire meeting to the proposed Green Loop woonerf adjacent to Block 216. Then at another Design Commission meeting on Sept. 6, the Pepsi Blocks woonerf was discussed in passing. Some planners were hoping for more.

Kurt Krueger, development review manager for the Bureau of Transportation, left the hearing table as commissioners moved onto other topics.

“I was more interested in the woonerf,” Krueger said as he decamped.

The post The wonderful world of woonerfs appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Portland design commissioners signaled Thursday they may be flexible in interpreting a 12-foot setback requirement for new development fronting the Green Loop.

Designers for the Block 216 project, along with city officials, are working to interpret new city standards for the Green Loop – a six-mile route in the Central City. The proposal from developer Walt Bowen and GBD Architects for a 35-story mixed-use building is the first along the Green Loop to undergo design review since the Central City 2035 plan was enacted.

A key question is how to enforce a guideline requiring 12-foot setbacks along 75 percent of the property line facing the Green Loop. The Block 216 tower would adjoin the Green Loop on Southwest Ninth Avenue between Washington and Alder streets.

Several commissioners said they would be open to a modification for the Block 216 project.

“I’m not going to be really a stickler on the 12-foot setback requirement; it’s going to be more about the environment you create,” Commissioner Andrew Clarke said. “I think you’re going in the right direction.”

If the Design Commission approves a modification of the setback requirement, it could open the door for developers of future projects to argue they, too, deserve an exception.

“I do believe this is precedent-setting for the city as well,” Commissioner Don Vallaster said.

Phil Beyl, GBD’s director, said the Design Commission’s decision on the Block 216 project does not need to bind the commission in the future.

“What’s developed here does not have to be a precedent for all other block faces,” he said.

The setback would require the building to give back approximately 1,800 square feet along the ground-floor property line. That would render some projects undevelopable, Beyl said.

“From a plan development standpoint, it’s an extremely difficult condition to accommodate on our small blocks,” he said.

Beyl said if he’d been aware of the rule when it was being considered, he would have been “screaming from the rooftops.”

Bowen is proposing a food hall fronting the Green Loop. Early designs indicate large trees, benches and other outdoor seating would be installed where the Green Loop and building meet.

Commissioner Tad Savinar suggested the Design Commission should see what the landscape architect comes up with before the commission prescribes what the Green Loop frontage should look like. PLACE Studio principal Charles Brucker is leading the landscape design.

“I’d like the landscape team to go crazy on this first,” he said. “We want it to be fantastic.”

Commissioner Zari Santner suggested plants may be the way to go, recommending clematis and trellises. “It would be wonderful if you could treat these as gardens,” she said.

Commissioners said they can’t be sure the Ninth Avenue side of the building will always be a food hall. The design must meet guidelines regardless of future tenants.

“This could be a Walgreens,” Commissioner Jessica Molinar said.

The Ninth Avenue frontage was being designed with small-scale tenants in mind, Beyl said.

“We certainly can’t guarantee that it will never become a Walgreens,” he said, “but it’s highly unlikely.”

City officials are also weighing whether to remove curbside parking spaces on the east side of the block fronting the Green Loop. Several commissioners said they favored removing the parking spaces to help create a Dutch-style woonerf, or shared street.

City officials have not decided if motor vehicle traffic will continue to be allowed on that stretch of Ninth Avenue.

“In the near term, it may need to accommodate vehicles,” senior planner Mark Raggett said. “Long term, we may want to take advantage of the opportunity to remove vehicles entirely.”

The Block 216 project is scheduled to return for another design advice meeting on Sept. 13. Beyl said the Design Commission discussions were helpful.

“We’ve advanced our critical issues a long way and understand what we need to do to finish up,” he said.

The post Possibly willing to bend for a loop appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.