The Portland Design Commission on Thursday got its first look at plans to develop Broadway Corridor‘s Parcel 6 with a 13-story mixed-use tower. The property is located at the northeast corner on Northwest Ninth Avenue and Johnson Street.

This is the second development within the Broadway Corridor Master Plan area to advance. The first, Block 4A, was presented to the commission for design advice last year and recently was approved by city staff, Portland Permitting & Development staffer Staci Monroe said.

The Parcel 6 project is valued at $95 million, according to Portland Permitting & Development.

Mithun is the project’s designer. The team also includes lead developer Related Northwest, co-developer Melvin Mark, and public partner/owner Prosper Portland.

The 140-foot-tall building would be an L-shaped concrete tower atop a three-story podium. The proposal is for 200-plus middle-income residential units for people earning 50 to 120 percent of the area median income. The building would include 4,000 square feet of retail/commercial space on the ground floor, structured parking for 100 vehicles, on-site loading space, and 100 bicycle parking spaces. Plans include the full design and partial development of the Park Avenue alley along the eastern frontage.

A net zero goal is proposed for the project. The southwest-facing L-shaped massing would reduce glazing costs and provide both sunny and shady areas for residents, according to the design team.

Exterior building materials would include metal cladding on the upper tower and brick below. Commissioner Brian McCarter said the differentiation in materials between the tower and the podium is strong and reads as a very simple material palette.

Vice chair Joe Swank said he believes the design of the tower and podium is strong on Ninth Avenue and Johnson Street but along the Park Avenue alley and Kearney Street, the brick and metal do not read as much like a podium. Team members believe the design is working so far on a conceptual level, Mithun partner Heidi Oien said, but they will explore it further. McCarter added that he believes there is good direction and as the design is refined, it will improve.

Active use is required on the ground floor along Johnson Street, where there will be widened sidewalks.

“The ground floor consists of commercial space, lobby, leasing office and back-of-house elements,” Monroe said of the proposal.

Vehicle access will be available on all frontages except for the eastern. There, the Park Avenue alley will be a 40-foot-wide public, pedestrian-only space spanning the length of Parcel 6 (Block 6) and Block 7. A creative space is planned for this area to draw people in, Monroe said; elements could include public art, plants, lighting, and materiality. Mithun is proposing an open, paved space. The design team envisions clusters of trees for shade, Mithun partner Dorothy Faris said.

Plans call for a two-way cycle track on the south side of Johnson Street and a shared bike lane on Ninth Avenue. Vehicle and bike parking would be along the frontages and in a parking garage. The garage and loading area would be accessed off Kearney Street.

The project team is proposing a modification to ground-floor window coverage along Kearney Street, because more than half of this frontage would be garage access, loading space, mechanical space and back-of-house space. The requirement is for 40 percent coverage by ground-floor windows, and Mithun is seeking a 15 percent reduction.

One portion of this frontage would be the bicycle room. The design team should seek a way to include glazing for the room but still ensure it’s private and secure for residents, McCarter said.

For public art, the master plan identifies six potential locations, two of which are adjacent to Parcel 6 – one at the northeast corner of Johnson Street and Ninth Avenue and one in the Park Avenue alley along the parcel’s eastern frontage. Public art is not identified on the proposed site plan; however, the project team plans to begin discussions with the city’s Office of Arts & Culture.

Weather protection is not yet identified in the proposal, but Oien said the team intends to provide something overhead along Johnson Street and could explore other areas if necessary. The commissioners suggested making sure canopies are adequate along Johnson Street and the Park Avenue alley.

If funded, ground is expected to be broken in late 2027.

The team will likely pursue a Type IX design review by staff, Monroe said. However, Type II or Type III are also options.

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Project name: Splash

Location: Portland

Completion: November 2024

Size: 335,000 square feet

Owners/Developers: Security Properties, MetLife Investment Management

Architect: Mithun

Interior Designer: Bumgardner

Engineers: SSF Engineers, Tapani Plumbing, Patriot Fire Protection

General Contractor: R&H Construction

Submitting Company: R&H Construction

Other Key Participants: GTG Consultants, Marx/Okubo & Associates, City of Portland – Bureau of Planning and Sustainability and Bureau of Development Services, City of Portland Permitting & Development, Radler White Parks & Alexander

Subcontractors: Academy Specialties, A-Cut Above Concrete Cutting, A-Line Asphalt Maintenance, Alpha Construction, American Trash Management, Anderson Pool Works, Anderson Sandblasting, Architextures dba DLM, Authority Dock and Door, Bergelectric, BrightService Cleaning, Brix Paving Northwest, Builder Services Group dba JB Insulation, Builder’s Appliance Supply (BASCO), Canby Consulting, Concrete Inspection Services, Concreteworks Studio, Construction Specialties, CPC Equipment, Dallas Glass, DCI Engineers, Desert Sage WalL Systems, Dorothy Tester Sales, Eagle Striping Service, Frontier Door and Cabinets, Geopier Northwest, Graffiti Removal Services, Hills Wet Blasting, Interior Technology, Intuitive Engineering, IRS Environmental of Portland, Jack’s Overhead Door, Kent Crane Inspection Services, Klinger Masonry, Konell Construction & Demolition, LaRusso Concrete, Marion Construction, McDonald & Wetle, Mid-Valley, Morrow Equipment, Mt. Hood Steel & Wood, NessCampbell Crane, Northwest Scaffold Service, Ocean Park Mechanical, Oregon Commercial Painters, Pacific Excavation, Pacific Foundation, Pacific Green Protection, Pacific Stone Installers, Parker Concrete, Patriot Fire Protection, Paulson Floor Coverings, Pavement Maintenance, Performance Contracting, Pioneer Millworks, Pioneer Sheet Metal, Portland Fasteners, Proclean, Railpro of Oregon, Rapid Response Bio-Clean, Red Dog Fabrication, River City Environmental, Sawtooth Caulking, Sign Wizards, Specialty Metal Fabricators, Stealth Monitoring, Sunbelt Rentals, Superior Fence & Construction, Tapani Plumbing, Teufel Nursery, ThyssenKrupp Elevator, Tradebrothers NW, Uncommon Cabinetry, VPI Quality Windows, Westlake Consultants, Westside Drywall, Whirlpool, Willamette Building Services, WMX Construction

The corner of Northeast Sandy Boulevard in Portland’s Kerns neighborhood has undergone a dramatic transformation with the completion of Splash, the first phase of the Pop Blocks development on the former Pepsi bottling facilities site.

The Splash development is comprised of two main parts: a ground-up mixed-use building and the renovation of the adjacent Pepsi pavilion. Splash Apartments is an eight-story mixed-use building divided into two towers united by skybridges on six floors. The bridges feature a DMX controller lighting system that rotates patterns and colors every 15 minutes from dusk until dawn, creating a distinctive visual landmark. The building features 219 residential units in a mix of live/work space, market-rate apartments, townhouse units and affordable housing. The ground floor features commercial spaces.

The development includes 8,600 square feet of community plazas on the east and south sides, filled with planters, architectural wood benches and a 23-foot polished stainless-steel sculpture designed by Portuguese artist Michael Benisty. The 3,500-pound artwork, titled “Splash,” is one of the most significant pieces of quasi-public art installed in Portland in the last 25 years.

Splash was Portland’s first Planned Development and the city’s second five-over-three construction project. Project general contractor was R&H Construction and designer was Mithun.

The project preserved the iconic 1961 Pepsi pavilion, renovating the mid-century structure with its distinctive curved roof while maintaining the original architectural intent. After purchasing the site, Security Properties was given a stack of old drawings of the building, including the original architectural drawings done by Scott & Payne in 1959. Mithun was able to take that information and recreate the original design intent using modern materials. The renovated 8,000-square-foot pavilion is now lease-ready for commercial use.

Splash incorporated several sustainable innovations, including a water heating system using Nyle Reverse Cycle Chiller units that eliminate natural gas and use significantly less electricity than traditional electric water heaters. The system has garnered national attention, with the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance monitoring its performance.

The development has received the largest incentive rebate check ever from the Energy Trust of Oregon and is on track to achieve Earth Advantage Platinum certification. Additional sustainable elements include 40 electric vehicle charging stations, drought-tolerant landscaping, ample bike parking and low-VOC construction materials.

Splash is the first phase of a larger master-planned redevelopment on the 5.5-acre site. A multi-modal woonerf was developed on the north side of the development, a nod to future phases of the site’s masterplan.

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A $41.9 million construction permit was issued recently by the Portland Bureau of Development Services for work at the Pop Blocks.

Splash Apartments will be an eight-story, 219-unit development at 875 N.E. 27th Ave., in the Kerns neighborhood. Two wings, in a perpendicular layout, will be connected via seven sky-bridges – one each for floors 2-8. At ground level, there will be 13,000 square feet of retail space and approximately 200 parking spaces. Forty-four apartments will be reserved for residents at 60 percent (or less) of the area median income.

Seattle-based Security Properties is the developer and owner of Splash Apartments. Mithun‘s Seattle office is handling design. The development will rise on a 61,000-square-foot parcel that also holds the prominent, 59-year-old, bowstring-truss Pavilion Building. It will be restored and become mixed-use space; a separate, $2 million permit for work there was issued in late August. The site also will gain a woonerf (a Dutch-style multimodal street) as an extension of Northeast Pacific Street.

The Pop Blocks (formerly “Pepsi Blocks”) development planned for five acres was approved by the Portland Design Commission in December 2018. Five distinct parcels were granted increases in allowable building height from 55 feet to 120 feet and floor area ratio from 3.0 to 5.0.

The contractor for Splash Apartments is R&H Construction. A construction start date will be announced soon, a Security Properties representative stated. Work is expected to finish in the first quarter of 2024.

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Though the Great Recession ended slightly more than a decade ago, Portland’s Goose Hollow neighborhood hasn’t since experienced much growth … until now.

Two buildings that until 2015 were used for printing The Oregonian newspaper on a daily basis are being replaced by a new mixed-use complex. The Press Blocks development will feature office, residential and retail space in three new buildings on one and a half blocks.

Lease Crutcher Lewis is constructing the first one – Canvas at Press Blocks – on a half-block directly east of Providence Park. The mixed-use building will feature ground-floor retail space, seven stories of Class A office space and ninth-floor amenity space; the designer is GBD Architects.

“This project means a lot to the neighborhood,” said Mike Sager, senior project manager for general contractor Lease Crutcher Lewis. “Goose Hollow is a forgotten part of the downtown area. And there’s a homeless situation here, and that contributed to what was previously undesirable real estate. This is the first big development to gentrify the area, and when they went through design review and pulled permits it was the first (post-recession) project in this area.”

The full-block portion of the development on a block east of Canvas will include a 23-story, 250-foot-tall residential tower and a three-story building with office and retail space. Those buildings are being designed by Seattle-based Mithun. Urban Renaissance Group, which is developing the project in partnership with Security Properties, will manage the entire complex upon completion.

Work on Canvas began in August 2018 with what Sager called the “super technical” demolition of the building at 817 S.W. 17th Ave. It stored rolls of newsprint, ink and other supplies used by The Oregonian.

“There were 60-foot-tall, clear spans inside the building,” Sager said. “60-foot-tall, freestanding concrete panels made up the walls, and they were tied to concrete, double-T roof panels that held each other up.”

To safely demolish the building, a temporary support structure was constructed to hold up the walls while the roof was removed. Then the temporary structure was dismantled and the walls dropped inside.

A below-grade tunnel used for moving materials and supplies between the two old buildings is being used during construction of Canvas. The tunnel will remain and connect parking areas.

“Across the street was the press building originally and on this side it was used for paper roll and ink storage for the printing operation,” Sager said. “They’d deliver stuff and store it in this building and drop it down onto robots on an underground tunnel on 17th (Avenue) and then over to the other building.”

Canvas is being constructed with post-tensioned concrete decks and reinforced concrete support columns. The exterior will predominantly be pre-cast concrete panels made by ARCIS Technology. The panels have deep window boxes that don’t articulate but provide a deep return leg to add texture and depth to the exterior. It’s a look intended to resemble the previous buildings.

“They wanted to honor the original building,” Sager said.

Lease Crutcher Lewis is using 3-D modeling extensively for this project. The contractor is using a robotic tool station to lay out building components as needed.

“In the last five years that’s been cutting-edge, and some people are doing more of that,” Sager said. “We’ve been doing it for a long time, and basically we take the design team’s model and take it over at a certain point. Then we re-detail the concrete and generate our own drawings, extract points from the embeds and export it all to the robotic layout equipment so our crews can efficiently lay out the building.”

Completion of Canvas is expected in late spring 2020. The construction schedule for the 23-story residential tower and the three-story office building will be determined once financing is secured.

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The Portland Design Commission on Thursday declined to hold a vote on a land-use permit for the Pepsi Blocks development’s first phase because of unresolved issues with the Portland Bureau of Transportation. From a design perspective, commissioners favored plans; however, staff advised them to push back a vote until PBOT approves a loading zone and woonerf – a shared street designed primarily for pedestrians.

Located at 2505 N.E. Pacific St., near the Sandy Boulevard corridor, the development would arise on land that previously was long occupied by a Pepsi bottling plant. While most of the existing facilities will be destroyed, an iconic bow-truss structure at the entrance will be preserved; it is to become one or two restaurants.

A Seattle-based team has been working on the Pepsi Blocks for some time now, with owner Security Properties bringing in Mithun to design the 230,000-square-foot expanse of mixed-use buildings and KPFF Consulting Engineers handling the civil engineering duties. The project received its first design advice hearing in May, when it was met with mostly positive reception from the commission.

The first phase of the project involves construction of an eight-story, 87-foot-tall building with 219 residential units and 15,000 square feet of retail space. The first phase also includes two levels of below-grade parking, a landscaped public plaza with art and the woonerf.

Two problems are primarily keeping the project from moving forward. First, the applicants requested an adjustment to loading zone requirements. A main loading zone is required on-site, but the owners requested to place it off-site on an adjacent right-of-way.

Another issue is the woonerf. The city of Portland has only a few examples of precedent for the feature, which is a somewhat new trend adopted from Europe. Since many of the city’s codes predate the woonerf’s use in Portland, the designation is currently for a public street, which makes it liable for several other strict codes.

The applicants are trying to change its designation to an “on-site vehicle area.” That more accurately represents the woonerf’s purpose because it is designed primarily for pedestrians, but there must be vehicle access in case of an emergency.

PBOT has not yet approved these adjustments, and because of that, the Design Commission cannot vote unless it issues a denial, which would greatly delay construction. For this reason, commissioners opted not to vote, and instead rescheduled a future land use review. Then they used the time allotted to talk more about the actual design guidelines.

The Pepsi Blocks’ design was universally lauded. Special praise was given to the project’s integration within the neighborhood, as commissioners said it would create a lively and pedestrian-friendly environment that Sandy Boulevard hasn’t seen in a long time – perhaps ever.

“Public realm is where this thing is quite exceptional,” Commissioner Don Vallaster said. “It gives more back to the city than any project we’ve seen in a really long time.”

Commissioner Brian McCarter said the project sets a very high bar for the potential future of Sandy Boulevard, and Commissioner Jessica Molinar said she wished the project was built already. A few minor criticisms were directed at project aspects such as window tint and certain colors, but commissioners said they would not hesitate to approve the project following resolution of its more pressing issues.

“This is a great thing for the city of Portland,” Design Commission Chairwoman Julie Livingston said. “This is going to be a really great addition to the neighborhood.”

Pepsi Blocks plans will return before the Portland Design Commission for a land-use review on Sept. 19.

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Redevelopment of the former PepsiCo bottling plant in Northeast Portland inched closer to fruition Thursday, when the first part of the project went before the Portland Design Commission for advice. The development, led by Seattle firm Security Properties, was approved as a whole by the commission in December, but each step of the building process will undergo its own design review process.

The first phase of the project, in the site’s southeast corner, will involve constructing the first mixed-use building, redesigning the iconic arched-roof Pepsi pavilion for restaurant or retail space and constructing an outdoor plaza that extends southeast to Sandy Boulevard. The initial construction will also involve creation of the woonerf, a Dutch-inspired one-way shared street that will run between buildings for pedestrians, cyclists and slow-moving cars.

Seattle-based Mithun is the architect and landscape architect for the project. Commissioners carefully deliberated on the various details of the development’s first phase, and were overall excited about the plan, and criticism was mostly given to some of the more particular details.

Commissioner Jessica Molinar expressed concerns about the scale of the development, with the residential towers expected to come in at 87 feet tall. At such a contrast to the surrounding area, it might not blend well into the neighborhood, she said.

Molinar was also skeptical of the proposed plaza, which she said might be too far away from the main intersection at Sandy Boulevard to attract other residents of the area. Commissioner Samuel Rodriguez likewise said plans for the plaza need to be more developed, but said he understood that it was in preliminary stages and would be more thoroughly planned later.

The plaza was otherwise acclaimed for its planned structural and water features, which will go beyond aesthetics and help drown out noise from Interstate 84 nearby.

Another major point of consideration was the mixed-use building itself. While housing about 200 residential units, it will also feature retail spaces at ground level. Several commissioners said they were unconvinced that a work/life balance could be maintained in such a space.

A final suggestion was made to move the location of a loading space currently planned along the woonerf. Commissioners suggested that large trucks moving into such a place would distract from the public realm.

The commission praised plans for materials and manufacturing details.

The mixed-use building will be made up of two distinct towers, which will form a large “L” shape. One each residential floor the towers will be connected by an open-air bridge. The facades of the towers will contrast as they face toward the pavilion and plaza, with one to be made of metal and the other a stucco/cementitious material.

Balconies will not protrude from the building but will instead be recessed, allowing residents to enjoy the outside while being free from inclement weather.

The Pepsi Blocks development team is expected to seek a land use review by September, with construction to commence as soon as possible following approval.

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Demolition of a building formerly used by The Oregonian newspaper is under way in Portland’s Goose Hollow neighborhood. In its place will rise a mixed-use building, Canvas at Press Blocks, with 8,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space, seven stories of office space and a ninth-floor tenant amenity space. The building is one of three being constructed as part of the Press Blocks redevelopment; also planned are a 23-story residential tower and a three-story office-and-retail building one block east.

Staton Companies is demolishing the 175,000-square-foot building, located at 817 S.W. 17th Ave., for general contractor Lease Crutcher Lewis. The structure formerly held large newsprint rolls, which were moved through the building by a large gantry crane and transported by tunnel to the full-block printing space on the adjacent block to the east.

The warehouse was constructed of double-T precast wall and roof panels, some of which are being supported through the demolition sequence by shoring braces installed by Omega Morgan; it’s performing welding work and crane assistance for Staton. The building’s concrete wall panels are being saw-cut at the top, after which the remaining gantry crane rail is cut and the loose panel is laid down on the ground and crushed on site. The removal of roof panels involves demolishing the concrete webs on either side of the double-T panel beams, and then cutting the beams to allow them to drop.

Demolition work is about halfway complete. The building will be taken down to grade by December, at which point shoring pile and deep foundation subcontractors will install temporary shoring so the site can be excavated for a single level of below-grade parking. The contractor estimates coming out of the ground around March 2019, then taking about 10 months to build the eight floors of post-tensioned concrete. A ninth-floor with amenity space, a terrace and mechanical penthouse will be constructed using structural steel. Substantial completion of the project is slated for mid-2020.

The site’s constraints – TriMet MAX lines to the west and the north, a bus line to the east, and occupied buildings on the block’s southern half – will require the project team to carefully orchestrate deliveries of materials.

“It’s about as just-in-time construction as it gets,” said Mike Sager, senior project manager with Lease Crutcher Lewis. “It basically comes off a truck and goes in the building. It’s all about logistics on this one.”

The Press Blocks project is being conducted in partnership between Security Properties and Urban Renaissance Group, which previously acquired and redeveloped The Oregonian’s headquarters building at 1320 S.W. Broadway. Invesco Real Estate is serving as an investment partner. GBD Architects designed the Canvas at Press Blocks building. Mithun is the architect of the two buildings on the full-block site, which does not yet have an anticipated construction start date.

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The Portland Design Commission‘s role has grown as development has boomed in the city center.

In 2017, the commission approved 37 Type III cases, up from eight in 2010.

Type III cases are generally larger buildings where the Design Commission approves or denies the proposal. Type II cases are decided by staff in the Bureau of Development Services.

Design advice requests, where commissioners critique architectural plans but do not issue a decision, rose to 23 in 2017, up from five in 2010.

The Design Commission, composed of volunteers who are typically architects or developers, meets most Thursdays. The commission met on 42 days in 2018.

Commission Chairwoman Julie Livingston presented an annual report to the City Council on Wednesday.

The commission’s workload prompted Bert Gregory, an architect at Seattle design firm Mithun, to suggest the city consider splitting the workload with a neighborhood design review commission that would review projects outside the Central City.

The Design Commission’s decisions can be appealed to the City Council. That happened in seven cases in 2017. Of those, only the denial of the Ankeny Apartments proposal was reversed by the council. In three cases – the Next Hotel, Vibrant! Apartments and the Studio and Guild Theatre buildings – conditions of approval were removed or modified by the council.

In three cases, neighborhood associations’ appeals of projects approved by the Design Commission were denied. Those were the Press Blocks tower, the Fremont Place Apartments and the Block 290 apartments.

Livingston warned the council to expect more appeals.

“Appeals are commensurate with our workload,” she said. “When we hear more cases, there is more risk of appeal.”

BDS makes a greater effort to reach neighbors than in the past, she added.

“It’s not unreasonable to assume that moving forward there may be more appeals because there is more public participation in the process,” she said.

Design review has improved over time, said Anyeley Hallova, a partner at Portland developer Project^. She asked city officials to give staff members more discretion to grant changes after design review approval to account for fluctuations in materials’ costs and availability.

Commissioner Nick Fish said the Design Commission’s work helps ensure quality architecture and permanent building quality.

“We have our critics,” he said, “but thank you for reminding us we’re building a city for future generations.”

The Design Commission currently has a vacancy. Tad Savinar’s term expired Sept. 30. He is not being reappointed, Sophia June, spokeswoman for Mayor Ted Wheeler, stated in an email.

The city is accepting submissions expressing interest in the vacancy. Forms can be submitted at the Office of Community and Civic Life.

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Vacation rental property management firm Vacasa has moved into a new office at the recently completed Heartline development in the Pearl District. The firm occupies all 61,000 square feet of Heartline’s office space, with four floors of office and conference areas, a ground-floor lobby with a coffee bar, and a sprawling rooftop deck. The tenant improvement was designed by GBD Architects and built by Swinerton Builders. The Heartline project, which also includes a 15-story mixed-use residential tower, designed by Mithun and built by general contractor Andersen Construction for developer Security Properties.

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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.

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