The MorningStar at Laurelhurst memory care center project won approval on Thursday via a 4-1 vote by the Portland Design Commission.

The five-story, 118,685-square-foot development will be built on a 42,757-square-foot site at Northeast Sandy Boulevard, 31st Avenue and Hassalo Street. The project is from MorningStar Senior Living of Denver. Ankrom Moisan Architects is designing the building, and Pence Construction is on board as general contractor.

Design commissioners attached several conditions of approval that will have to be met in a staff review. The conditions involve architectural details such as requiring louvers to have more body around them. A loading bay was required to be covered by a canopy. Canopies along Sandy Boulevard were required to project out at least 4 feet from their piers.

The project team previously appeared before the Design Commission for a hearing in January.

“It’s always an interesting process, and we always appreciate the commissioners’ time,” Ankrom Moisan Architects project manager David Howard said.

The building will be clad primarily in brick and stucco with metal panels. Structured parking will provide 65 spaces.

The project team is on track to break ground late this year, Howard said.

The property is owned by a limited liability company in La Jolla, California.

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The Portland Design Commission on Thursday returned a design proposal for a five-story senior memory-care facility for facade changes and other refinements.

MorningStar at Laurelhurst would provide 114 units for seniors in a massive structure bordered by Northeast Sandy Boulevard, 31st Avenue and Hassalo Street. The building would stretch approximately 300 feet along Sandy Boulevard – 100 feet longer than envisioned in city design guidelines – with a largely unbroken facade.

“It’s not blending into the neighborhood,” Commissioner Chandra Robinson said. “It’s giant – super long.”

The design is by Portland’s Ankrom Moisan Architects for Denver-based owner MorningStar Senior Living. The Northeast Portland project is part of a major expansion push for MorningStar, which has opened senior living facilities in Beaverton and Happy Valley in recent months.

This new project received its first design review hearing on Thursday, and design commissioners said strides have been made, but changes are needed to break up the facade and improve articulation.

One aspect commissioners hammered on was exterior vents that function as ornamental design elements. Architects typically seek to quietly incorporate mechanical systems into the façade.

“A vent that is expressed in this way and is styled as an ornament is as close to a nonstarter as it can be,” Chairwoman Julie Livingston said.

Livingston expressed concern that if the Design Commission were to approve the vent system, other design teams would copy it.

“It would reappear again and again in the hearing room,” she said. “It’s a precedent-setting expression of the mechanical system.”

Commissioner Jessica Molinar said she has issues with the proposed facade length.

“Overall, the design isn’t meeting the intent to break these superblocks up, because this building feels huge,” she said. “It’s too homogenous for such a large building, and that’s leading to this weird feeling of scale.”

The proposed white brick and dark stucco façade, described in a previous design advice hearing as too busy and complex, has swung too far the other way, Robinson said.

“It’s oversimplified now, and it’s way less interesting than it was before,” she said.

Commissioners complimented the building’s south elevation as well as the ground-floor experience for pedestrians on Sandy Boulevard. Plans call for the fifth story to feature a rooftop terrace for residents.

The building incorporates a lobby, a bistro, offices, a salon and a theater, along with indoor and outdoor amenity spaces with landscaping. Structured parking with approximately 70 spaces would be accessible from Hassalo Street. Loading would be located midblock on Sandy Boulevard at the building’s northeast corner.

The project comes amid a building boom on Sandy Boulevard – a rapidly gentrifying four-lane thoroughfare. Nearby, Innovative Housing Inc., a nonprofit developer, plans to convert the historic Mann House into 88 units of affordable housing with help from Portland’s affordable housing bond. Excavation and building permits are under review for a four-story Lexus dealership at Northeast 31st Avenue and Sandy Boulevard; the Design Commission approved plans in February 2019. A 206-unit multifamily project is under construction at 2869 N.E. Sandy Blvd. And close behind are a pair of large multifamily projects on separate properties that were formerly occupied by PepsiCo and Sunshine Dairy.

The MorningStar at Laurelhurst project team will return Feb. 20 for a second design review hearing. Bureau of Development Services staffer Tim Heron said the project could be approved at next month’s meeting.

“I think they’re at the 5-yard line and ready to go,” he said.

Also on Thursday:

Pearl District hotel project advances

The Design Commission voted 4-0 to approve the Proper Hotel proposal. The nine-story, 170,000-square-foot hotel is planned at 1202 N.W. Irving St. in the Pearl District. ZGF Architects is designing the project for Santa Monica, California-based Proper Hospitality.

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