The Portland Design Commission on Thursday told the developers and designers behind the Koti Apartments  – also known as the Block 290 project – they are on the right track toward final approval.

The hearing served as a work session and no vote was taken, but it did give LRS Architects the chance to unveil its revised project designs to commissioners.

The site at 1421 N.W. 20th Ave. must meet Con-way Master Plan standards as well as design guidelines. The master plan calls for any development on the site to include a public square.

Exactly what is considered a square and how that square has to be configured had, until recently, confounded two architecture firms and project owner Guardian Real Estate.

In May the team presented the design panel with a concept in which the apartment building nearly surrounded the interior space with public-access walkways. At that time, commission members said they felt the design gave the impression of a private courtyard rather than a public square.

In revisions presented Thursday, the team removed part of an elevation at Northwest Pettygrove and moved the elevation on Northwest 21st Avenue toward Northwest Quimby. The change, according to the project team, provides better public access to the square from both Northwest Pettygrove to the south and the corner of Northwest 21st Avenue and Northwest Pettygrove.

The improved access came at a price, though. The design now encroaches 15 feet into a future pedestrian walkway and neighborhood park. However, the trade-off didn’t bother Commission Chairman David Wark.

“I think we have been very fair to everyone, hearing from neighborhood association (and) people from the neighborhood, and working through all those parties’ concerns,” Wark said.

Wark and commissioners Don Vallaster and Andrew Clarke previously formed a subcommittee to work with the developers and neighbors. The goal was to come to a comprise that would give the neighborhood a public square that it considered useful while also meeting guidelines and leaving developers with a financially viable design.

“It’s a set of reasonable tradeoffs, trying to get a public space integrated with development,” Wark said. “I think it meets the intent of the master plan.”

Not everyone at the Thursday meeting agreed. Three neighbors voiced their continued opposition to the project.

“This simply does not meet the standards or guidelines of the master plan,” Ron Walters, the former president of the Northwest District Association, said. “I have been adamantly opposed to any encroachment in public area, and the community has been adamant about that.”

Despite neighbors’ concerns, commission members were largely supportive of the new design direction, although they indicated they felt there were still some details – such as specifics about the square and aesthetic issues related to the structure – that still need to be ironed out and finalized.

“To get my vote, this (square) has to be a place of wonder,” Commission Vice Chairman Tad Savinar said. “It has to be a square for northwest Portland where everybody wants to go. Make this square fantastic.”

The Koti Apartments project will return to the commission on July 6.

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The NAYA Generations affordable housing complex planned for seniors and families in Southeast Portland is not Carleton Hart Architecture‘s first foray into intergenerational housing.

The Portland-based firm also designed Bridge Meadows, which was completed two years ago. The North Portland affordable housing development pairs elderly residents with families adopting children from foster care. This model has been lauded for its health benefits to seniors who volunteer to support families and as a means to facilitate the adoption of more children out of the foster care system.

Native American Youth and Family Center‘s $10.5 million NAYA Generations project was heavily inspired by Bridge Meadows. Guardian Real Estate Services is the developer, and the complex will serve a similar population with 30 housing units for seniors and 10 for families. But this project is definitely different, Carleton Hart principal Brian Carleton said.

“This is not Bridge Meadows II,” he said. “We’re taking some of things we’ve learned about intergenerational communities and bringing it to our Generations project, (but) there are some physical differences in terms of the site. It’s going to be a much denser project.”

Unlike Bridge Meadows, the NAYA Generations complex in Portland’s Lents neighborhood will focus on Native American culture. It also will include an educational component via a partnership with Portland Public Schools. In the second phase of the project, crews will construct a learning academy for kids in early preschool through kindergarten as well as an attached community center designed to look like a traditional Native American longhouse.

The Bridge Meadows model resonated with the Portland-based NAYA Family Center because of the large number of Native American children in foster care, NAYA Deputy Director Rey Espana said. Additionally, the role of elders as vital and contributing members of a community is a strong part of Native American culture, he said. NAYA Generations is geared toward attracting Native American seniors and adoptive families, but will be open to all races and cultures.

“We want to reduce the number of native children in the foster care system,” he said. “The second part is our agency’s commitment to education.”

One advantage of the NAYA Generations project following Bridge Meadows is that the Carleton Hart team can apply design elements that worked in the previous development and avoid those that are less effective, Carleton said.

Like Bridge Meadows, NAYA Generations will have a central shared courtyard and other communal space geared to encourage interaction among residents of all ages. One lesson learned from Bridge Meadows is that not all residents felt that they had easy access to the courtyard, Carleton said. The four two-story residential buildings of NAYA Generations will have porches that face a series of sub-courtyards as well as a central courtyard to equalize connections to shared outdoor space, he said.

“The design work that we’re doing with the Generations project is being very careful to make sure everyone has access to the community spaces,” he said. “You have to physically support that with the design work … It’s making sure that everyone feels like an equal member of the community.”

Throughout the project, the Carleton Hart design team is working to incorporate various elements that evoke Native American culture. This will be most apparent in the community center that is directly inspired by Native American longhouses, Carleton said.

“We’re using that traditional form so it’s going to be heavy timber construction with an open ceiling,” he said. “Throughout the learning academy and longhouse we’re trying to use indigenous materials.”

This was an especially important aspect of the project design for NAYA leaders, Espana said.

“It’s really to see what native and Northwest features can be incorporated into the design to really add that flair of native peoples in our area,” he said.

When complete, the development will encompass nearly three acres – the entire site that houses the former Foster Elementary School, which will be torn down to make way for the early learning academy. So, housing buildings had to be much more compact than at Bridge Meadows, Carleton said.

“It’s going to be a more attached housing approach where even the families will be in townhomes,” he said.

A big design challenge, Carleton said, has been finding ways to connect the development to the neighborhood because the site feels isolated and is surrounded by backyards. But the project team worked with the Portland Bureau of Transportation to create a new street that will cross the northern end of the site and connect to surrounding residential streets. Also, a nearby alley will be developed into a bike and pedestrian path.

These efforts impressed Portland City Commissioner Dan Saltzman, who oversees the Portland Housing Bureau, another project partner.

“I’m particularly pleased with the design of NAYA Generations and how it fits into the neighborhood,” he said. “You see a lot of Bridge Meadows in the NAYA proposal. I think it’s got a great feel to it. It’s a community within a community.”

Construction of the first phase – approximately 35,000 square feet of housing – is scheduled to start in summer 2015 and require about a year. Ground is slated to be broken on the second phase – the approximately 32,000-square-foot early learning academy and community center – in 2016 and wrap up in 2018. LMC Construction is the general contractor.

NAYA Generations (first phase)

Location: 5205 S.E. 86th Ave., Portland

Estimated cost: $10.5 million

Anticipated construction start date: summer 2015

Anticipated construction completion date: summer 2016

Owner: Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA)

Developer: Guardian Real Estate Services

Architect: Carleton Hart Architecture

General contractor: LMC Construction

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The Burnside Bridgehead – a four-acre, four-block chunk of property purchased by the Portland Development Commission for $11 million in several deals between 1998 and 2006 – originally was going to be developed by now-defunct Opus Northwest. When it was unable to get large-scale development off the ground, the PDC opted to let several other developers pursue it in smaller increments. One of those projects could finally get a green light next week.

The Portland Bureau of Development Services has recommended approval for Myhre Group Architects‘ design of a six-story, mixed-use building at 419 E. Burnside St. for Seattle-based Trinsic Residential Group. Plans call for 157 residential units, two live-work units, ground-floor commercial space and rooftop terraces.

Also, the development will hold 50 residential parking spaces – including 11 tandem spaces – and 12 spaces for the adjacent building, according to a BDS staff report.

At a Design Commission meeting on Sept. 4, the developer and commissioners discussed moving the proposed location of a garage gate from Northeast Grand Avenue to Couch Street. The commissioners believe an entrance on Couch Street would be better suited for in-and-out vehicle traffic, because Grand Avenue has been identified in a Central Eastside design plan as a street best suited for pedestrian-friendly retail.

Relocating the garage entrance changed the building’s overall orientation, which now features a primary residential entrance on Grand Avenue and a continuous arcade along East Burnside Street.

The Design Commission will meet Dec. 4 to review the staff report and hear testimony from the applicant and any concerned citizens. The commission will then be able to adopt, modify or reject the proposed development.

Meanwhile, construction of a $58 million, 21-story tower at Block 67 is under way. The project team – Guardian Real Estate Services and Hood River-based Key Development Corp., Skylab Architecture and Andersen Construction – put together a development that will include 20,000 square feet of commercial space, 284 apartments and 200 parking spaces.

Andersen Construction began site work in October, and Brad Nile, a project executive with the contractor, said vertical construction will begin in January and require approximately 22 months.

Also, Key Development is planning to develop Block 76W, a small piece of land on the west side of the Couch Street couplet, with a two- to three-story commercial building that will mirror the larger tower.

Developers of a 10-story, mixed-use project on Block 75 – 111 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. – on Nov. 18 submitted permit applications to the BDS. The Design Commission in August approved Works Partnership Architecture‘s design that calls for ground-floor retail space, office space on the second through fourth floors and 75 apartments on levels five through 10.

The project development team includes representatives of Beam Development and Urban Development Partners as well as Carrie Strickland and William Neburka, both principals at Works Partnership Architecture.

Expectations are for Beaverton-based Yorke & Curtis General Contractors to finish the project in time for a May 2016 opening.

The Fair-Haired Dumbbell, two six-story buildings connected by sky bridges, is the first speculative office complex proposed for development at the Burnside Bridgehead. Guerrilla Development owner Kevin Cavenaugh, designed the buildings with a Florentine pattern wrap to resemble gift boxes.

Guerrilla Development collaborated with Fundrise to raise more than $5 million from 1,200 accredited investors to pay for the project, according to Katie Brotherton with Norris, Beggs & Simpson.

Carter Beyl, a broker at Norris, Beggs & Simpson, said the building “epitomizes the tech pilgrimage to Portland,” with its open space, timber-frame construction, expansive wood floors and robotic, stacked parking system.

Crews are expected to break ground in the second quarter of 2015 and finish by the end of the year, according to Brotherton.

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The Portland Design Commission on Thursday reviewed three mixed-use projects, approving two and offering design advice for the other.

Commissioners unanimously approved both Carleton Hart Architecture‘s design for Miracles Central, a six-story, mixed-use building at 1306 N.E. Second Ave., and SERA Architects‘ design for the Goose Hollow Apartments, a six-story, mixed-use building at 1501 S.W. Taylor St. They also advised the YBA Architects design team working on Front 17, a two-building development at 2030 N.W. 17th Ave.

Thursday’s meeting was the second design review hearing for the Miracles Central affordable housing development. Crews with general contractor LMC Construction are scheduled to break ground in May 2015 on the $7.8 million project led by the Miracles Club, a nonprofit that supports individuals recovering from addiction, said Ben White, design director at Carleton Hart Architecture.

The Miracles Club is partnering with Central City Concern and Guardian Real Estate Services to build the new permanent housing complex that will cater to individuals recovering from alcohol and drug dependency. Plans call for 47 residential units over a community room and peer mentoring services on the ground floor. The units will be available to people earning 50 to 60 percent of the area’s median family income via $7 million in tax increment financing from the Portland Housing Bureau.

The L-shaped building will have a courtyard on the northeast corner, loading space on Northeast Second Avenue and bike parking spaces on all floors.

Design commissioners were pleased with minor design revisions made since they previously reviewed the project in October, White said.

“We really simplified the forms and materials (and) really simplified the massing,” he said. “We were looking at some of the details more so than the composition. They all complimented the changes we’d made.”

Meanwhile, the SERA Architects design team returned for a second design review hearing for the Goose Hollow Apartments after seeking approval in October for a new mixed-use building between 1501 and 1517 S.W. Taylor St.

Langley Investment Properties earlier this year purchased a 15,262-square-foot office building at 1501 S.W. Taylor St. for $2.6 million and announced plans to demolish it and develop multifamily housing.

Plans submitted to the city call for 121 apartments, approximately 900 square feet of commercial space, a roof deck and 65 below-grade parking spaces. Exterior materials will include concrete, stucco, fiber cement panel, black vinyl windows, a black aluminum storefront and steel garage doors.

As for Front 17, commissioners in a three-hour discussion issued overwhelmingly positive comments on YBA Architects’ design, city planner Mark Walwood said.

The project involves redevelopment of an industrial site at 2030 N.W. 17th Ave. into a mixed-use complex with two six-story buildings – one with residential units and the other with offices. The residential building will have 220 apartments and 14,714 square feet of ground-floor retail space. The second building will hold 53,039 square feet of office space and 3,506 square feet of ground-floor retail space.

The design team is planning to next seek design review approval, but hasn’t scheduled a hearing yet, Walwood said.

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Site clearing and excavation for the $58 million Burnside bridgehead mixed-use tower began Monday.

The Portland Development Commission on Friday issued the foundation permit for a 21-story building to be constructed on block 67 in Southeast Portland. When completed, the development will feature 20,000 square feet of commercial space, 284 apartments and 200 parking spaces. The permit paperwork indicates that the project will be a 16-story tower atop a five-story podium.

Project executive Brad Nile of Andersen Construction said Skylab Architecture will submit the building permit later this week.

“The deep shoring and foundation construction will take the next two months,” he said. “In January we will start going up with the vertical structure.”

The project team – Guardian Real Estate Services and Hood River-based Key Development Corp., Skylab Architecture and Andersen Construction – has been working on the effort for the past three years.

Nile said construction of the entire development would take about 22 months.

Also, Key Development purchased Block 76W, a small piece of land on the west side of the Couch Street couplet, with plans to erect a two- to three-story commercial building that will mirror the larger tower.

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A year after ground was broken, one of Northwest Portland’s newest apartment buildings is filling up fast.

The Addy, a 104-unit building on the corner of Northwest 18th Avenue and Northrup Street, opened at the end of February and is approximately 55 percent leased, according to Meghan Hill, director of marketing for Guardian Real Estate Services, which is managing the property. The $15 million project was Seattle-based Lake Union Partners‘ first in the Portland area, though it started looking for a second property shortly after acquiring the one for The Addy in January 2013.

Hill said The Addy was 25 percent pre-leased before it was completed. The building benefits from a location pushing the boundaries of popular nodes along Northwest 23rd Avenue and the Pearl District, she said.

“That’s what we’ve been leveraging from a marketing standpoint,” she said, adding that the streetcar runs directly in front of The Addy. “We’re perfectly situated between Northwest 23rd and the Pearl District, and you can really walk to both.”

Hill noted that the units are slightly cheaper than nearby apartments like the Franklin Ide or the Savier Street Flats; that’s because they’re also slightly smaller. Studios range in size from 418 to 593 square feet, and $1,125 to $1,545 in price; one bedroom units range in size from 543 to 635 square feet, and $1,350 to $1,600; and 779-square-foot two-bedroom units are going for $1,950 to $2,935.

The most popular unit has been the Macleay – a 418-square-foot studio with a tiny sleeping nook set aside from the main unit.

“It just flew off the shelf,” Hill said.

Meanwhile, the second location of Boke Bowl – a popular eatery based in Southeast Portland – is set to open in The Addy on April 30. Owner Brannon Riceci said he liked the location for the same reasons that Lake Union Partners started the project.

“It (is) a great space, and we think this is the right time for this neighborhood,” he said. “We really like this neighborhood, and we like that it bridges the gap between the Pearl and the Alphabet (District).”

Other nearby eateries and watering holes include Le Happy, Slabtown Bar, the Bent Brick and Justa Pasta.

“There are a few things down here; we’re excited to have some neighbors close by,” Riceci said. “But at the same time, there’s definitely room for more – and we’re going to be one of the more.”

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