A plan for a massive and wide-ranging mixed-use neighborhood near the Willamette River in downtown Portland continues to progress, though issues surrounding transportation and massing linger along with opposition from residents concerned about displacement and density.

During a second design advice hearing Thursday for the master plan of NBP Capital‘s planned redevelopment of the RiverPlace area, Portland Design Commission members, city staff and GBD Architects designers fleshed out the details of the 8-acre site.

The project would include thousands of new residential units, a possible hotel, commercial space and public open spaces between as many as six new high-rise buildings. GBD is working with Kengo Kuma and Associates, an internationally renowned Japanese architecture firm, to design the immense project.

Changes from an initial design advice hearing held in October include shifting a large public plaza from a stepped design to one that has more space at-grade, and an updated open space configuration from a single space that continues through the development to a series of smaller, “discovered” spaces scattered throughout. The proposed programming has also evolved.

“Frankly, there are just a lot more housing options,” said Agustin Enriquez, a principal with GBD Architects.

Enriquez said he envisions a “broad mix” of housing totaling upward of 1,800 units across multiple buildings. One hundred units would be condominiums, he said, with market-rate apartments and at least 20 percent affordable units, as required by the city’s inclusionary housing requirements. A senior living facility is also envisioned for at least one of the several towers on the site, along with a 219-room hotel, 250,000 square feet of office space up to 100,000 square feet of retail space. Parking for up to 1,600 vehicles in mostly below-grade space could also be included.

Allowable building heights in the 8-acre master plan area range from 150 to 325 feet.

Multimodal connectivity throughout the site remains an issue, as do building massing and the final composition of open spaces, according to a Bureau of Development Services staff report presented Thursday. Concerns persist about a possible block measuring 200 feet by 460 feet, which would likely be the site of as many as four towers. Such an unusually long block could interfere with other street and pedestrian connections, as well as a popular multi-use bike path.

“It’s used by many people,” BDS Planner Grace Jeffries told commissioners during Thursday’s hearing. “It’s not just a blank wall. At grade, that is a used area and staff is concerned about a really long site with no access through it.”

The proposed length of the block is significantly shorter than the initially proposed length of about 725 feet.

“Sending Hall (Street) through to split up the giant block was good,” said Commissioner Chandra Robinson. “We’re really happy to see Hall Street go through with a connection to Harbor Way.”

A potential pedestrian bridge stretching over Southwest Harbor Drive to connect the development with downtown would have to be considered separately from a future land use application for the RiverPlace master plan, Jeffries said. This leaves an open question going forward.

“It’s not clear whether these spaces will be public if the bridge is not part of the proposal,” she said.

Commissioners also noted that a completed traffic study of the affected streets is needed before it will be possible to judge the potential impact of the development. In addition, the intersection of Southwest Hall Street and Harbor Drive will likely need to be revamped to handle additional traffic.

“That is something we absolutely feel is necessary,” said Commissioner Zari Santner.

Enriquez also told commissioners that a plan for the “Portland Steps,” a series of cascading plates totaling over 35,000 square feet and organized into the primary pedestrian open space, will incorporate a much greater amount of at-grade space than before while still allowing for a possible bridge connection to a podium above.

“We’re trying to find the types of uses that on the podium don’t require a lot of foot traffic to succeed,” Enriquez said.

None of that helped assuage concerns of local residents, many of whom would be displaced or impacted by the proposed development. Thirty-six of them signed up Thursday to offer their testimony.

“Some of the most concerning issues have not been addressed in the revised plan,” said Carolyn Whitney, a resident of The Strand condominiums, which border the site. “We believe the density on this limited site, it’s like a tiny island between the river and the freeway with limited infrastructure, and we fear the significance of this has been underestimated.”

Other concerns raised by testimony included questions about the development’s phasing, its connection with existing infrastructure and transportation networks and the impact on local residents.

“People on a medium income have a very difficult time finding rentals here,” said local resident Jan Campbell. “So please think very carefully about how you’re going to impact the lives of people living here. I am not advocating against development, I am advocating against displacement.”

The post RiverPlace redevelopment plan continues to evolve appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

NBP Capital‘s ambitious plans for a mixed-use neighborhood in the RiverPlace area in Portland will have to overcome issues with the site and transportation challenges, in addition to complaints from hundreds of current residents who would be displaced.

The Portland developer proposes for the 8-acre site near the South Waterfront District a series of towers that would have thousands of new housing units, perhaps a hotel, retail shops and public spaces. The Portland Design Commission held a design advice request hearing on Thursday.

GBD Architects of Portland is working with Kengo Kuma and Associates, a well-regarded Japanese architecture firm on designs for the massive project. A Central City master plan is required.

NBP Capital’s plans would result in the demolition of existing buildings, including The Douglas apartments and townhomes. Dozens of residents overflowed the hearing room to give their thoughts on the project.

Much of the public testimony was organized by the Portland Downtown Neighborhood Association and residents of the Strand condos on River Drive, which border the development site.

Agustin Enriquez, a GBD Architects principal, presented plans for the site, including a Kengo Kuma concept for what’s called the Portland Steps. Renderings show a cascading series of horizontal plates organized in a 35,000-square-foot public square planted with native vegetation. Retail shops would be incorporated into the steps.

“We envision retail being in, around and actually within these Portland Steps,” Enriquez said.

The images were “obviously very early and conceptual,” he added.

Kuma’s involvement sparked buzz about the project when it began circulating at City Hall months ago. The architect responsible for the new National Stadium in Tokyo previously worked on an expansion of the Portland Japanese Garden and an interior redesign of Shizuku, a downtown Portland restaurant.

RiverPlace’s development program is not yet set and will depend on the arrangement of blocks within the site, architects and planners said. A hotel is being considered at the site’s northwest corner, Enriquez said. Multifamily development is also likely. Overall, four towers and open space are planned.

Maximum allowable building heights on the site range from 150 feet to 325 feet.

A block on the western side of the site would be 300 feet by 725 feet – more than five times the typical Portland block size – sparking staff concerns. Designers must also contend with view corridors, including one from Terwilliger Boulevard to the Willamette River that shows Mount St. Helens.

A pedestrian bridge being considered would stretch over Harbor Drive and link RiverPlace to downtown, according to the applicant’s presentation.

Neighbors were critical of plans. Phil Gilbertson, who lives a few blocks west of the proposed development, said the project would not integrate well with downtown.

“The problem is that the boxed-in building site is not reasonably accessible to downtown to the west,” he said. “RiverPlace, as proposed, has its back turned to downtown.”

Gilbertson also criticized the Portland Steps.

“The grand staircase is more of a grand impediment,” he said.

NBP Capital is a Portland-based firm backed by Los Angeles billionaire Nicolas Berggruen. It has been among the busiest real estate development and investment firms in post-recession Portland, buying the historic Multnomah County Courthouse for office redevelopment and the Sunshine Dairy site for a major mixed-use project. NBP Capital has also recently created the Woodlark Hotel via renovation in partnership with Gordon Sondland’s Provenance Hotels and Arthur Mutal, and constructed a full-block apartment building in Sellwood-Westmoreland.

The post Southwest Portland proposal receives attention appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The Structural Engineers Association of Oregon has released the names of the winning projects in the 2017 SEAO Excellence in Structural Engineering awards competition.

The annual awards recognize outstanding structural engineering efforts that feature at least one team member associated with SEAO. This year’s nominated projects were selected by a panel of judges based on criteria that included creativity and complexity of structural design, efficient use of materials, successful fulfillment of owner/client needs, and suitability of the structure for its environment.

The Titus Will adaptive reuse project, submitted by WDY Inc., was selected as the winner in the renovation and retrofit category. The 50,000-square-foot, two-story structure underwent a full seismic upgrade because of occupancy changes. The addition of moment frames to the seismic system allowed an existing large storefront to remain open. The project owner/developer was Tourmaline Capital and Irwin Development Group. The project architect was Lundin Cole Architects, and the general contractor was Korsmo Construction.

The award for buildings over $10 million went to the Q21 mixed-use project, which was submitted by Nishkian Dean. The seven-story, 202,000-square-foot mixed-use structure featured unique columns made from two 12-sided tapered steel sections. Welded together at the center, the sections created double tapered columns that formed the number XXI. The project owner/developer was Rosan Inc. The project architect was YBA Architects, and the general contractor was Andersen Construction.

The Athey Creek Christian Fellowship project, submitted by VLMK Engineering + Design, won the award for new buildings under $10 million. The judges gave the project and its engineering team top scores for overcoming a major hurdle to successfully locate concrete panels, ranging in height from 34 feet to 37 feet, on top of 12-inch-wide, cast-in-place concrete walls. The project owner was Athey Creek Christian Fellowship. The project team included David Bissett Architect and general contractor Perlo Construction.

In the special-use structures category, the winning project was the C-Tran Fourth Plain Bus Rapid Transit Corridor and Maintenance Facility expansion and renovation. The project holds the distinction as the first bus rapid transit system in Oregon or Southwest Washington. The project owner was C-Tran. The project team included Equilibrium Engineers, which submitted the project, PIVOT Architecture and Waterleaf Architecture, and general contractors Emerick Construction, Colf Construction and Tapani.

The Portland Japanese Garden‘s Cultural Crossing was selected as the jurors’ favorite. The expansion project added four buildings, a site bridge and several site retaining walls. The owner/developer was the Portland Japanese Garden. Architects for the project were Kengo Kuma & Associates and Hacker. Hoffman Construction was general contractor.

The judging panel for the awards included Eric Thomas of the Portland Bureau of Development Services; Thomas Miller of the Oregon State University School of Civil and Construction Engineering; Judith Sheine of the University of Oregon School of Architecture and Environment; and Stephanie Basalyga, editor of the Daily Journal of Commerce.

The post Exceptional structural engineering efforts honored by Oregon group appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The Portland Japanese Garden added to its list of honors recently when Engineering News-Record (ENR) named the Cultural Crossing expansion its project of the year in the Northwest region.

ENR covers trends as well as construction, engineering and architecture efforts across the country. The organization selects specific projects in individual regions, focusing largely on engineering and construction excellence.

The Japanese Garden project, completed in April 2017, was honored for its attention to detail, craftsmanship and complexity.

“It feels pretty good,” said Chelsea McCann, a Walker Macy principal. “We are absolutely honored to be given the top honors for the region.”

Walker Macy focused on the landscaping as part of a team that included Japanese architecture firm Kengo Kuma & Associates and local architecture firm Hacker. KPFF provided engineering services for the project and Hoffman Construction was the contractor.

“It was a really collaborative project,” McCann said. “We had wonderfully supportive partners and are really happy with the way it turned out.”

ENR isn’t the only organization that has taken notice of the garden expansion. Since debuting in April, it has been honored by the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) with a people’s choice award and by the American Institute of Architects (AIA).

The AIA’s Portland chapter recognized the project with its top award in its built category. The judges called it a “serene, pilgrimage-like journey from the city to the forest, drawing each visitor into a fully immersive experience of the traditional arts and culture of Japan.”

“I think what really sets this (project) apart is that the idea was to expand beyond just being a beautiful garden,” McCann said. “They actually wanted to be able do training courses for Japanese garden design. It’s an expansion as a cultural offering.”

ENR praised the intricacies of a retaining wall as well as Kengo Kuma’s designs for buildings that included irregular geometries. Fitting all of the pieces together left virtually no margin for error. To add to that challenge, construction took place during one of Portland’s snowiest winters in years.

“It was tricky,” Hacker principal Jonah Cohen said. “Hoffman (Construction) did a herculean task.”

ENR praised the end result as “one of the most authentic Japanese gardens outside of Japan.”

“Collaborating with Kengo Kuma & Associates and garden curator Sadafumi Uchiyama was a great honor and invaluable experience for Hacker as well as for me personally,” Cohen said. “The project is a true Oregon treasure.”

The post Portland Japanese Garden project honored appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Projects by Kengo Kuma and Associates and Landry Smith Architect earned top “honor” awards from American Institute of Architects’ Portland chapter Friday night, during the 2017 Portland Architecture Awards event at Revolution Hall.

“This is an annual award program that AIA Portland has hosted for 25 to 30 years,” said Robert Hoffman, executive vice president of the Portland chapter. “It’s sort of a tradition.”

Each year, the AIA chapter recognizes its members’ top projects in four categories: built projects, unbuilt projects, small projects (under $500,000) and interiors. Honor, merit and citation awards are given to projects in each category.

“It’s like a gold, silver and bronze at the Olympics,” Hoffman said.

Also, a committee joined BetterBricks to select an Architecture 2030 award winner. The project had to meet or exceed the Architecture 2030 Challenge advocating for all new buildings, developments and major renovations to be carbon-neutral by 2030. The Yellowstone National Park Youth Campus, by Hennebery Eddy Architects, was chosen.

Kengo Kuma and Associates’ Portland Japanese Garden Cultural Crossing took the honor award in the Built Project category. Hacker was the architect of record on the project. The Cultural Crossing was honored for creating a “serene, pilgrimage-like journey from the city to the forest, drawing each visitor into a fully immersive experience of the traditional arts and culture of Japan,” according to an AIA statement.

Landry Smith Architect won an honor award in the Small Project category for its display framework for the Josef Albers exhibition in Eugene. The AIA chapter recognized the lightweight, flexible framework’s ability to display a wide range of works in galleries at the University of Oregon and other institutions.

This year’s installment of the AIA awards event drew 62 entries from chapter members. That number is down from past years, Hoffman said, in part because many architects have heavy workloads and little time to vet projects for awards.

“We have had as many as 80 to 90 projects in a year,” he said. “There is some great work out there.”

This year projects were judged by a jury of architects from the San Francisco Bay Area. They included: Allison Williams, principal with AGWms studio; William Leddy, principal with Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects; and Zoë Prillinger, principal with Ogrydziak Prillinger Architects.

“A lot of our jurors have roles in academia,” Hoffman said. “That is helpful when they talk about the projects.”

Each winning project was critiqued by the jurors during Friday’s ceremony.

Over the years the chapter has tried to broaden the appeal of the event, Hoffman said, by inviting speakers. This year, U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer addressed the attendees.

“We want the public there as well,” Hoffman said. “We have added live music. We want everybody and anybody to attend. We want people to feel like this was something to celebrate.”

Other award winners not mentioned above were:

Built Projects

Merit – The Pavilion, Bend, by Opsis Architecture

Merit – L’Angolo Estate Winery, Newberg, by LEVER Architecture

Citation – Doppelganger, Portland, by Works Progress Architecture

Citation – Olympia Place, Amherst, Mass., by Holst Architecture

Citation – U.S. Embassy Compound, Paramaribo, Suriname, by ZGF Architects

Citation – Jane Sanders Stadium, Eugene, by SRG Partnership

Citation – Pearl West, Portland, by Hacker/GBD Architects

Unbuilt Projects

Citation – Sunnyside Veterinary Hospital, Happy Valley, by Guggenheim Architecture and Design Studio

Small Projects

Merit – Laura’s Place, Portland, by Architecture Building Culture

Citation – Treeline Stage, Happy Valley, by PSU School of Architecture, Diversion Design-Build Studio

Interiors

Citation – Roosevelt Middle School, Eugene, by Mahlum Architects

The post AIA Portland honors exceptional projects appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Kengo Kuma and Associates is in exploratory discussions with the city of Portland regarding a South Waterfront project that would provide a combination of affordable housing, optimized open space and a living environment, according to a company statement.

Renderings published by Willamette Week are only “preliminary images” that were meant for internal use only, according to the internationally renowned Japanese architecture firm. The height limit for the site would need to increase in order to accommodate the proposed structure.

“Preliminary images meant for internal discussion do not depict a fixed final design; rather they are intended to be a demonstration of what an increased building height limit would allow,” firm principal Kengo Kuma stated. “The images were shared with the public prematurely. The project anticipates a design process that should and will involve multiple iterations, discussion, revision and review at appropriate stages.”

GBD Architects and NBP Capital would also be involved in the development, which would stretch from Portland State University to the Riverplace Marina and Tom McCall Waterfront Park.

Despite involvement in multiple projects in Portland – including the Portland Japanese Garden and Shizuku by Chef Naoko restaurant – Kengo Kuma and Associates is not looking to establish an office here.

“KKAA continues to operate out of its headquarters in Tokyo, and has no plans to expand its overseas locations,” Kuma stated.

The post Waterfront skyscrapers pitched by Japanese firm appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

A private residence designed by renowned Japanese firm Kengo Kuma & Associates, architect of the recent Portland Japanese Garden expansion, is under construction in Happy Valley. The home, called SUTEKI, is one of five being built for the annual N.W. Natural Street of Dreams home showcase.

The 4,739-square-foot home features an L-shaped footprint, designed around a landscape of oak and cedar trees and a stream running through. The sides of the home that face the gardens, which were designed by Portland Japanese Garden garden curater Sadafumi Uchiyama, have large sliding windows that provide a fluid connection between indoors and outdoors.

The home is also the first American build for Suteki, a Japanese firm that specializes in wood building construction. The Street of Dreams showcase runs from July 29 through August 27.

The post Photos: Home designed by famed Japanese architectural firm appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.