Project name: Terminal 1 Block A & C, Port of Vancouver USA

Location: Vancouver, Washington

Completion: 646,835 square feet

Size: October 2024

Landowner/Lessee: Port of Vancouver USA

Developer/Lessor: Lincoln Property Company

Architects: West of West Architecture & Design (design architect) DLR Group (executive architect)

Interior Designer: West of West Architecture & Design

Engineers: Mackenzie, Piper Mechanical, KPFF

General Contractor: Robertson & Olson Construction

Submitting Company: DLR Group

Other Key Participants: City of Vancouver, Portland Street Art Alliance and artists Jeremy Nichols, Hayden Senter, Ana Gabriela

Other Associates/Consultants: Cascade Electrical, GeoDesign NV5, Kittelson & Associates, Walter P. Moore, BEE Engineers, Brightworks, PLACE, Code Consultants

Subcontractors: 2 Down Services, Able Fence, Anderson Specialties, Axiom Division 7, Basco Appliances, Blankenship Equipment Repair, Building Material Specialties, Cascade Electrical, CDI Blinds, Cedar Landscape Construction, Conco, Concrete Designs, Consurco, Cornerstone Masonry, Cosco Fire Protection, Ecoglo, Flash Parking, Floor Solutions, Ground Control Systems, Huntco, Interior Technology, LaRusso Concrete, LCDA, LJP Construction, Mission Glass, Mt. Hood Steel, Overhead Door, Pacific Foundation, Pacific Stair, Piper Mechanical, Pro-Bel Enterprises, Sawtooth Caulking, Schindler Elevator, Sign Wizards, Skyline Sheet Metal, Sound Vanguard Solutions, Spectrum Woodworking & Interiors, Sunset Stucco, Vancouver Paint Group, Vancouver Paving, Vancouver Sign, Western Construction Specialties, Western Partitions, You & I Construction

The Port of Vancouver USA’s Terminal 1 Block A & C development is transforming the city’s waterfront into a dynamic mixed-use destination that honors its maritime heritage while creating new economic opportunities.

Completed in October 2024, the project features two mid-rise office towers rising nine and 10 stories above a shared landscaped podium. The development delivers 287,100 square feet of office space, 12,835 square feet of retail, and a 346,900-square-foot parking structure.

“The Launch,” a pedestrian axis that bisects the towers, recalls the site’s history as a wartime shipbuilding hub while providing sweeping views of the Columbia River and city skyline.

Lincoln Property faced significant challenges during development, including negotiating a long-term lease within just 90 days while simultaneously modifying project plans from a mixed office-residential design to an all-office development.

During the pandemic, supply chain disruptions were a major concern. The team prioritized domestic materials, partnering with a local Vancouver vendor to develop the distinctive metal exterior featuring blades and serrated edges that create dynamic interactions with sunlight.

The towers have achieved LEED Gold v4 certification, incorporating bird-safe glazing and native plantings that support pollinator habitats. The project reduces landscape irrigation by 75 percent and includes occupiable roof terraces, bike storage facilities, and EV charging stations.

ZoomInfo has established its West Coast hub at Terminal 1, leasing both towers and cementing the development’s role as a premier business destination in the Vancouver-Portland metro area.

The Port of Vancouver USA and City of Vancouver were critical to the project’s success. Their leadership is transforming the former 1920s warehouse site into an extension of downtown Vancouver with strategic freeway visibility and direct connectivity to Portland via the Interstate Bridge.

Public art features prominently, with murals by local artists Jeremy Nichols, Hayden Senter, and Ana Gabriela depicting imagery inspired by the Columbia River, Indigenous stories, and the city’s industrial heritage.

General contractor Robertson & Olson Construction completed the project with exemplary safety standards, earning multiple START Certifications from the Washington Department of Labor and Industries. DLR Group was executive architect on the project.

“The successful public-private partnership between the Port of Vancouver USA and Lincoln Property Company, spanning over five years, enabled the bold vision of constructing a Class A world headquarters for the tenant,” noted Patrick Gilligan, senior executive vice president with LPC, in the project submission form. “This collaboration also facilitated the execution of the largest lease signing in the Portland metro market in recent years.”

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Law firm Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt is remodeling its office space after renewing its Portland office lease at PacWest Center in July. The building, owned by Lincoln Property Company, is located at 1211 SW Fifth Ave.

Schwabe has leased its office space for four decades and was the building’s first tenant. The office space spans 2-1/2 floors. Lincoln Property Co. and CBRE also played crucial roles in Schwabe’s lease resigning, Schwabe stated in an email.

The firm is partnering with project manager JLL, architect Ankrom Moisan and general contractor Lease Crutcher Lewis.

According to Schwabe, the remodel is designed to create a stimulating work environment by incorporating natural light, panoramic city views and a reconfiguration of the space to include open office areas and hallways. A variety of finishes have been selected to maintain the space, while focusing on reuse opportunities for sustainability initiatives.

The updates aim to foster collaboration among Schwabe’s hybrid workforce by reorganizing the workspace to better unite intersecting services, according to a press release.

A $9,340,119 facility permit is currently under review for the alteration with Portland Permitting & Development. Work on floors 16-19 would involve demolition of walls and construction of new ones to create offices, open office areas and hallways. The 17th floor would gain a phone room, an entry area, an IT storage/​work room, a server room, a coffee area, a file storage room and a records room. The 18th floor would gain conference rooms, a restroom, storage rooms, an AV room, a closet, a mail/​print room, a catering kitchen and a break room. It would also involve remodeling the reception area, elevator lobby, restrooms and a shower room. The 19th floor would gain a shower room, a copy room, a switch room, phone rooms, a coffee area, a storage room, a wellness room, a meeting room, a lounge, a bar area and a workroom. It would also involve remodeling restrooms and elevator lobby and connecting stairs with handrails. The work would involve ceiling, flooring, finishes, plumbing and electrical.

Construction is scheduled to start in January, pending issuance of the building permit.

The remodel is expected to be complete in the summer of 2025.

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A 175-foot-tall multifamily building project, years after surviving challenges from Pearl District neighbors, is advancing between Northwest Naito Parkway and the Willamette River.

Designed by TVA Architects for Lincoln Property Company, Fremont Place will ascend as high as 17 stories and hold 236 apartments above ground-floor retail space and amenity space.

General contractor Andersen Construction and subcontractors are getting ready to tackle the foundation. Pacific Foundation crews are installing over 100 steel pipe piles to support the building, while Andersen Structures Inc. workers prepare the necessary formwork.

DCI Engineers performed the structural engineering, which was complicated due to the riverfront location (1650 N.W. Naito Parkway).

“They are now working on the structural excavation, but we have fully excavated out to the elevation that’s needed to install all the steel pipe piles,” Andersen Construction project manager Katie Hoyt said. “We have an initial foundation permit, which is approved and signed off, and then we’re very close to getting the remainder of the building permits from the city.”

The Portland Design Commission approved the design for Fremont Place in 2018, but that decision was appealed to the City Council by the Pearl District Neighborhood Association. That appeal was at first upheld, but then reversed by the City Council, allowing the project to finally move forward.

The new building will have one level of below-grade parking featuring car stackers. The ground floor will have bike storage, two artist studios and a commercial space with an outdoor patio connected to an adjacent greenway. Meanwhile, the upper levels will have a mix of studios, one-bedroom units and two-bedroom units, with lounges and roof terraces on the second and seventh levels.

The massing, designed to minimize view obstructions for neighboring buildings to the west, steps down as the structure approaches the river. The full 17-story height is reached in the northwest corner, with eight stories on the northeast podium and six stories on the southwest podium.

Exterior materials will include brick pillars, curtain wall and storefront window systems on the ground floor, a window wall system on upper floors, fiber cement panels and metal panels.

The riverfront soil led to a unique foundation design, Hoyt said.

“From the middle of the building out to the river it’s been very sandy,” she said. “And then it starts to be a mix of sand and your typical soils we encounter right around the railroad tracks.”

Along the building’s east face, closest to the river, deep soil mixing was used to construct the below-grade retention wall. On the south and the west there is standard shoring and lagging walls; on the north there is a laid-back wall. Shotcrete will be the main material for the vertical walls below grade.

“And we have over 100 steel pipe pile, which per design are supposed to go down 106 linear feet,” Hoyt said, noting that the piles arrived on site via a barge equipped with a crane. “But it’s going 25 or 30 feet beyond that so that it hits bedrock.”

Initial excavation started in October 2020. Crews are expected to require 25 months to reach substantial completion. Westech Construction did the excavation work. Subcontractors currently on site include Ocean Park Mechanical, Bergelectric and Patriot Fire Protection. All are performing below-grade work at present in preparation for the first of three large foundation concrete pours.

“They’re putting sewers in, getting conduit ready for electrical – that kind of stuff,” Hoyt said. “And our (project engineers) are working on submittals for all the exteriors.”

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Fremont Place won preliminary approval after design changes satisfied earlier objections from Pearl District residents and the Portland City Council.

The council voted 4-0 Thursday to reject an appeal from the Pearl District Neighborhood Association of prior Design Commission approval.

In response to earlier council opposition, TVA Architects and the developer, Lincoln Property Co. of Dallas, reworked the design of the 275-unit mixed-use building. The redesign pushes back the building façade an additional 15 feet from the seawall, to 32 feet, 9 inches away.

The additional space allows for a wider (now 20 feet) Willamette River Greenway between the building and the river. The revised design reduces bike parking from 206 spaces to 140. It does not change the number of residential units.

The 17-story building reaches 175 feet in height, includes 305,936 square feet and uses 84 percent of the allowable floor area ratio. Designers worked to preserve neighbors’ views as much as possible, said Tim Wybenga, principal at TVA Architects.

“Although the council has made it quite clear that views are not a consideration, they were a design factor,” he said. “And so a lot of the massing of this building and the way it’s pushed has to do with consideration of views and sight lines of Pearl District neighbors.”

Fremont Place will not include any affordable apartments; the project entered into the city’s approval process before inclusionary housing rules took effect.

Commissioners praised the redesign.

“The revised plan feels less cramped,” Nick Fish said. “It’s more open, more airy.”

The changes “have satisfactorily addressed the concerns of the Pearl District Neighborhood Association,” said Stanley Penkin, president of the group.

“The applicant has made significant improvements to the greenway, which now better serves the neighborhood and the city,” he said.

Commissioners, responding to criticism from one Pearl District resident, defended their role providing a final check on the Design Commission’s decisions.

“I don’t think this is the right forum to constantly second-guess the Design Commission,” Fish said. “But in the rare instances we’ve done that, I actually think those conversations were quite principled.”

Fish suggested the City Council should raise the bar for appeals of Design Commission decisions. The council could change city rules to choose which appeals to take up, much like the U.S. Supreme Court does, instead of automatically taking each appeal, he said.

Commissioner Amanda Fritz objected to that idea.

“If we narrow who gets to appeal, or how those appeals happen, that means that some people are left out, and the whole process here in Portland is about having people have their say to their elected officials,” Fritz said.

Thursday’s vote was preliminary; a final vote is scheduled for May 31. Commissioner Dan Saltzman was absent from Thursday’s hearing.

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For developers contemplating multifamily projects in Portland, the City Council‘s appeals process represents a perplexing puzzle.

After the City Council upheld the Pearl District Neighborhood Association‘s appeal of the Design Commission’s approval of the Fremont Apartments, developers began to wonder where the council stands on new housing projects.

“It’s chilling for anyone who goes down the fairway with entitlements,” Cairn Pacific principal Tom DiChiara said.

The City Council reconsidered its decision to uphold the appeal and opened the door for further discussion. Now the council is scheduled to revisit the appeal on May 10.

In the case of the Fremont Apartments, if the development team were required to go back to the drawing board, the project would change substantially. The proposed 17-story tower would no longer be vested under pre-inclusionary housing rules, so any new application would have to include affordable units.

Inclusionary housing rules require developers to either set aside 15 percent to 20 percent of multifamily units as affordable units or pay a hefty fee. Fremont Apartments was part of a flood of multifamily projects – totaling 19,000 units – that were submitted for city approval before inclusionary housing rules took effect on Feb. 1, 2017.

The developer of the Fremont Apartments, Lincoln Property Company of Dallas, did not respond to interview requests.

The back-and-forth regarding the Fremont Apartments has added to a sense of uncertainty for multifamily projects that come before the City Council. The council also voted to allow a height increase for NBP Capital‘s proposed multifamily towers in the RiverPlace area; that project has not been examined by the Portland Design Commission yet. Instead, NBP Capital reportedly circulated project information at City Hall.

The uncertainty comes amid broader signs of oversupply in luxury apartment housing and increased costs for land and construction. Developers have expressed concern that the economic expansion, now in its ninth year, can’t keep going forever.

Rents have declined in Portland, slipping 0.6 percent in March compared to a year earlier. Many managers of new luxury apartment buildings have taken to offering concessions.

“There is a lot of fear and hesitation and challenge to keep our development cycle going,” Brad Malsin, principal of Beam Development, said at a City Council meeting in March. “Land prices are escalating, construction prices are escalating and people are fearful – developers are fearful that (with) inclusionary zoning, we can’t make a lot of projects work.”

Malsin began to criticize the City Council’s initial move to uphold the neighborhood association’s appeal of the Fremont Apartments, but he was cut off by Mayor Ted Wheeler.

“That process is not closed,” Wheeler said. “Move on.”

In a subsequent interview, Malsin added that allowing neighbors to halt a project at City Council sends a bad message to developers.

“I think it’s problematic, and you’re sending out mixed messages,” he said. “The Fremont Place Apartments are a prime example of people – citizens – intervening at the wrong stage of the development process.”

The public has ample time to comment on development proposals during early stages, Malsin said.

“To have people come in at the last minute and have people say you’re blocking my view, I find that incredibly disturbing and undermining public process and public planning,” he said.

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Overturning its previous tentative decision to uphold an appeal and deny Lincoln Property Company‘s proposed 17-story Fremont Apartments project between Northwest Naito Parkway and the Willamette River, the Portland City Council on Wednesday voted to reconsider the application.

As designed by TVA Architects, the proposed structure at 1650 N.W. Naito Parkway would be 306,000 square feet. It would have 275 residential units above 6,600 square feet of ground-floor retail and restaurant space. A parking garage would have 152 spaces.

The project had received the Portland Design Commission‘s approval in December, but the Pearl District Neighborhood Association appealed that decision and presented its arguments at a public hearing in February. In a tentative vote last month, the City Council upheld that appeal, effectively rejecting the project.

The council’s latest vote will continue the hearing until May 10 and reopen the record. The applicant will have until April 11 to submit revisions to its application. City staff will mail notice of the continued hearing and the opportunity to submit testimony in response to revisions. Participants may submit written testimony on the revised plans, and the council will accept oral testimonies on May 10 at 2 p.m.

Mayor Ted Wheeler, who voted in favor of reconsidering the project, said he’s not concerned about the building’s height or its impact on views of the Fremont Bridge. Instead, the main issue he wants to see addressed is the width of the greenway.

Commissioner Chloe Eudaly agreed.

“My primary concern is the greenway and how this building is going to affect our built environment and integrate or not integrate into the community,” she said.

However, Commissioners Amanda Fritz and Dan Saltzman voted against the motion to reconsider, arguing that allowing the applicant to submit revisions will set up the city council to act as the city’s Design Commission. Fritz said she doesn’t think the changes requested are minor and would rather see a new application submitted from scratch.

Ultimately, the motion to reconsider and allow TVA Architects to submit revisions passed with a 3-2 vote.

“I believe that, in this instance, giving the applicant the opportunity to address the concerns we raised and redesign the project and come back to council is in the public interest,” Commissioner Nick Fish said.

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Portland design commissioners agreed that exterior alterations proposed for the PacWest Center are headed in the right direction, but not yet ready for approval.

“I think it’s a very sensitive intervention of a very interesting building,” Commissioner Samuel Rodriguez said during a design review hearing on Thursday.

Construction of the 30-story PacWest Center finished in 1984. It’s part of the transit mall, on the block surrounded by Southwest Madison and Jefferson streets and Southwest Fifth and Sixth avenues. Lincoln Property Co. owns the skyscraper.

Plans call for remodeling the Fifth Avenue entrance, removing the canopy at the Sixth Avenue entrance, removing and replacing granite planters, sidewalk material, steps and landscaping by the Fifth and Sixth entrances as well as the east corner of Madison Street, and altering the third-floor roof terrace.

“This is an important project for the city,” Vice Chairman Tad Savinar said. “This is a fantastic building that serves fantastic tenants. It’s a dream and we’re fortunate to have it.”

The project goals are to create presence through the entries, cultivate and activate the ground-floor experience and enhance the landscaping, according to GBD Architects‘ Dustin White.

“We’re trying to offer better opportunities and enhance opportunities for pedestrians,” he said.

Along the main entrance on Fifth Avenue, designers proposed removing the existing one-story entry vestibule and partially removing the existing metal panels and glass at the second level façade, and then adding a two-story vestibule and a new metal canopy above it.

They also proposed removing the granite planter that is partially in the sidewalk and replacing it with two smaller planters in an effort to open up the pathway to the entrance.

“We feel that it struggles because the sense of identity as an entrance is not there,” White said about the existing layout.

The design team also wants to replace the large canopy over the office entryway along Sixth Avenue and a portion of the storefront with a new all-glass entrance. However, commissioners didn’t approve the proposed change to pavement material on the sidewalk adjacent to the building.

For the corner retail space along Madison Street, the team proposed removing the brick planter, stair and railing, and installing a granite planter, retaining wall and glass railing.

Retail has struggled in the building for quite some time, White said, so the goal is to highlight the retail space by increasing the visibility and improving the entrance.

However, commissioners didn’t like revisions to the Madison Street corner and asked for the design team to come back with alternatives.

“I think in general the concept is a good idea, but not the execution,” Commissioner Jessica Molinar said. Commissioner Andrew Clarke agreed, saying he doesn’t think the alterations create a successful retail space.

For the third-floor terrace, the design team proposed replacing the existing planters and landscaping with new metal planters, wood benches and lighting.

Overall, most commissioners said they like the direction of the proposal, but want to see some revisions.

“What you’re proposing is waking up that area, that whole pedestrian experience,” Clarke said. “You’ve been able to add a lot more usable space for the tenants and a lot more spaces for people who have to walk around this whole entire building and experience it from a whole block perspective.”

The design team will come back on April 26 to present design alternatives.

Also on Thursday:

Pearl District storage facility design approved

The Design Commission voted 5-0 in favor of a proposal by developer Hoyt Street Properties to build a new 129,520-square-foot self-service storage facility in the Pearl District, on a vacant site at Northwest Savier Street and 14th Avenue.

MCA Architects‘ design calls for a six-story, 97-foot-tall building with an 8,400-square-foot plaza and six ground-floor retail spaces. A 20-foot-high rose sculpture by artist Ivan McClean has been proposed within the plaza.

The building’s upper stories will be clad in metal panels, with alternating gray tones, and glass. Entry to the storage facility and surface parking area will be along 14th Avenue.

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Pearl District residents unhappy about plans for the Fremont Apartments project, between Northwest Naito Parkway and the Willamette River, took their complaints before the Portland City Council on Wednesday.

TVA Architects‘ design, with several modifications, received the Portland Design Commission‘s approval in December with a 3-1 vote. But the Pearl District Neighborhood Association (PDNA) appealed that decision, and got its opportunity to present initial arguments.

The hearing will continue at 10:15 a.m. March 7, when the City Council will have three options: deny the appeal and uphold the Design Commission’s decision to approve the proposal, deny the appeal and approve a revised proposal or grant the appeal and deny the proposal.

The main point of contention is the proposed height – the building would top out at 175 feet, exceeding the maximum allowed height of 100 feet. This requested modification met approval because the lower floors of the building extend out, which design commissioners found allowed for a better view of the Fremont Bridge than alternatives.

“This project does set, if approved, a very dangerous precedent for riverfront development in this area, which will wipe out the view of the Fremont Bridge,” said PDNA’s attorney Jeff Kleinman, who prepared the appeal. “There will be no further argument against such development if it is approved.”

As designed, the proposed structure at 1650 N.W. Naito Parkway would be 17 stories and include 306,000 square feet. It would have 275 residential units above 6,600 square feet of ground-floor retail and restaurant space. A parking garage would have 152 spaces.

The proposal also calls for a 60-foot-wide pedestrian plaza on the north side, and reconstruction of the greenway trail on the site. Currently, the parcel is serving as a surface parking lot.

“The Design Commission found that the proposal supports the river and greenway trail, has a massing concept that takes the view of the Fremont Bridge into account, incorporates a similar scale and massing as other developments in the North Pearl, and incorporates balconies, large areas of glazing, active ground-floor spaces and large plaza which reflect the North Pearl context in orient towards the river,” senior city planner Ben Nielsen said.

The appeal contends 13 design guidelines are not being met, and challenges six of the seven modifications. The PDNA’s appeal states it wasn’t mandatory for the Design Commission to approve any of the requested modifications.

“Basically what we’re talking about in a nutshell is a project that might work elsewhere on a city block removed from the river,” Kleinman said, adding that the height and massing are inappropriate for the site. “The application depends upon several modifications, none of which can be justified.”

The appeal isn’t the first hurdle for the project’s developer, Dallas-based Lincoln Property Company. In November, the Design Commission heard from neighboring residents unhappy that the building would block views of the bridge.

Patrick Gilligan, Lincoln Property Company executive vice president, said at the hearing the company owns about 50 buildings in Portland.

“We’re very committed to Portland and making the city a better place as much as we can through our projects,” he said.

The proposal has an inappropriate massing concept that doesn’t reflect the identity of the Pearl District neighborhood, according to Peter Gramlich, owner of Gramlich Design and Planning and an instructor at Portland Community College.

“This proposal violates the most basic principle of design: first, do no harm to your surroundings,” he said. “It detracts from the character of the waterfront area rather than reinforcing it. It seals the Willamette River greenway off from the neighborhood and the public as a whole, effectively seizing it for private benefit.”

The proposed building, Gramlich said, would not complement existing ones in the neighborhood.

“The case of the Fremont Apartments represents a crucial decision point for Portland,” said George Galster, professor of planning at Wayne State University.

Galster argued that the modifications approved by the Design Commission do not meet city design standards, such as increasing access to sunlight along the greenway, facilitating access along the riverfront, creating opportunities for views of the river, and ensuring bonus height granted to sites next to the Fremont Bridge not affect views of the bridge.

“The Design Commission essentially approved modifications that allow the Fremont Apartments to be taller and fatter than are permitted by code,” he said. “This development will set in motion a long-term development pattern that will be the poison pill for the Pearl.”

Dozens of people, mostly Pearl District residents, testified at the hearing. Many said the view of Fremont Bridge from Fields Park is iconic and would suffer from construction of the proposed building. Others agreed with attorney Kleinman’s slippery slope argument.

“I love our views, our mountains, our bridges, our waterway,” said Jeanie Coates, who said she has lived in the Pearl District for four years. “I want to call upon you to look for what is right for the city of Portland. Use your vision. Use your power. Let’s get this project redirected.”

Tim Wybenga of TVA Architects said there is no protected view of Fremont Bridge from Fields Park, but the company recognizes the view is important to residents.

“This is an important part of Portland, so from the beginning we said, ‘Let’s see what we can do from a good neighbor standpoint from day one of this project,’” he said.

Architects studied the mass of the building to take the view of the bridge into consideration in the design, Wybenga said. TVA Architects staffers have met with the PDNA several times throughout the design process, he added.

“We’ve spent a lot of time on this with the neighbors, and we did so not as a requirement but because we wanted the neighbors to be on board and we wanted to get that input,” he said.

As a result, architects redesigned the public plaza and greenway portion of the site to encourage use of the riverfront, Wybenga said. Trees on the site in its current condition block views and access to the river, he said, adding the proposed L-shape of the building steps down toward the river.

“This tower belongs in the Pearl,” he said regarding testimony that the proposed building doesn’t complement the neighborhood. “Most towers in the Pearl are substantially larger than this.”

Following testimony, the council agreed to leave the record open for 14 days before it votes. The record for new evidence is open to both the architect and the appellant until Feb. 28 and rebuttals to new testimony is open until March 6.

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Context and massing are the two issues keeping TVA Architects‘ design for the Fremont Apartments from getting the go-ahead from the Portland Design Commission.

The commission couldn’t hold a final vote during a hearing Thursday because a revised city staff report hadn’t been prepared. The previous staff report on the project, planned at 1650 N.W. Naito Parkway, was issued in September and recommended the design be rejected.

Four commissioners were in attendance Thursday. Both Don Vallaster and Andrew Clarke indicated they would vote to approve the proposed design, but Chairwoman Julie Livingston indicated she would not. Only Jessica Molinar was unsure.

“For me, I am on the fence,” she said. “I feel like there must be a solution, but we haven’t seen it yet.”

The sticking point is a portion inserted onto the eastern facade of the L-shaped structure facing the Willamette River. A push to maximize floor area ratio for developer Lincoln Property Company drove that portion of the design, according to Tim Wybenga, a TVA Architects principal.

“Our intention in that piece is we believe, and have studied it quite thoroughly, that a mid-tower piece like that gets us to the FAR that gets us to the net rentable (units) that is needed to make the project viable,” he said. “It’s less intrusive than if we put the additional floor or two back on Naito Parkway, which would still keep us under the 100-foot limit on Naito Parkway but becomes a much more imposing mass.”

As designed, the proposed structure would be 17 stories and include 309,000 square feet. It would have 275 residential units and ground-floor retail space.

Livingston said she believes the project’s design is being determined by the pro forma statement, and not city guidelines.

“The pro forma is not a guideline,” she said. “The pro forma that you have needs to be able to respond well to those guidelines.”

The dimensions of the site presented designers with a variety of logistical hurdles in their work to provide the desired number of units, they said.

Designers also had to include a public plaza between the structure and the river in order to meet greenway specifications. Meeting all of the conditions required the project team to ask for six modifications to zoning code development standards.

“The massing of the building is performing a lot of gymnastics to make the pro forma work,” Livingston said. “Those gymnastics require a long laundry list of modifications. Typically, to receive those modifications, every bucket of guidelines needs to just hit it out of the park.”

While questions about the massing were a major sticking point, the commission expressed that it believes the public plaza is designed well to give access to the Willamette River.

The design team also received praise for its use of quality materials, although some commissioners said they feared wooden canopies would be tough to maintain. Molinar also questioned whether the L-shape would be appropriate for that part of Portland.

“The L is not ideal because I don’t think it responds to the context properly,” she said. “It does benefit views from other areas in making the actual shape of the building not block as much of the bridge. It really does come down to that extra piece.”

The design team will return before the commission on Nov. 30 with modifications. A final vote could potentially take place at that time.

Also on Thursday:

11th and Clay

SERA Architects‘ plans for a new 16-story, mixed-use structure was approved by the Design Commission with a 3-1 vote. Molinar cast the lone dissenting vote.

The main sticking point for the College Housing Northwest development at 1110 S.W. Clay St. was its response to the area’s context. The new building will replace an existing six-story, brick apartment building built in 1909 that provides one of the few remaining ties to the area’s past. While Vallaster, Clark and Livingston shared Molinar’s concerns, they believed it would be unfair to impose new requirements at this point in the process.

The lone condition attached to approval was to add a canopy to a fourth retail bay on the ground floor.

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