Andersen Construction is continuing work on Osprey Apartments, a six-story mixed-use project overlooking the Willamette River in the South Waterfront. Originally known as Block 37, the 270-unit project will have a total of 270 residential units, as well as five ground-floor retail spaces and parking for 227 vehicles. GBD Architects designed the project for owner Mack Urban.

The building features two landscaped courtyards – one in the center of the building, and another terrace overlooking the river on the building’s east side. A second-floor community space adjacent to the courtyard will include a kitchen, lounge space, and a pool table. Other residential amenities include a fitness room and long-term bicycle storage rooms on each floor.

The project is slated for completion by mid-November.

Project Stats + Team – Osprey Apartments
Location: 3750 S.W. River Pkwy
Size: 281,000 square feet
Construction start date: December 2014
Construction completion date: November 2016
Owner: Mack Urban
Architect: GBD Architects
General contractor: Andersen Construction
Civil engineer: Harper, Houf, Peterson, Righellis
Mechanical engineer: Interface Engineering
Structural engineer: Kramer Gehlen Associates
Landscape architect: Lango Hansen

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Andersen Construction is building a new mixed-use project along the Willamette River in Portland’s South Waterfront neighborhood. Block 37 was designed by GBD Architects for developer Mack Urban, which purchased the 1.67-acre lot in 2014 for $7.05 million.

The six-story building will total approximately 322,000 square feet, and will contain 281 apartments and retail space, as well as a below-grade parking garage. Retail space will be on the building’s west and east sides, facing Southwest River Parkway and the Willamette River Greenway, respectively, while the north and south sides of the ground floor will have walk-up residential units. The project is slated for completion in October 2016.

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The design for a six-story, mixed-use building in the South Waterfront District that has drawn criticism from neighboring residents narrowly gained an OK from the city on Thursday.

The Portland Design Commission voted 3-2 to approve GBD Architects’ design of Mack Urban‘s $36 million development for Block 37, near the intersection of Southwest Gaines Street and River Parkway. Thursday’s hearing was the design team’s third attempt to gain city approval; plans call for the 278-unit building to include 6,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space and 225 parking spaces.

Despite revisions to the design, commissioners expressed lingering concerns – mostly regarding the potential for building stoops to encroach into public space. Commissioners Tad Savinar and Ben Kaiser voted against approving the proposed design.

“For me, it comes down to porches in the right of way, because that’s privatizing,” Kaiser said.

The commissioners’ approval came with several conditions, including creation of an outdoor furniture zone on Southwest Lane Street with benches, bike shelters and pole lights to ease the transition between public and private space.

Neighborhood residents who testified on Thursday reiterated concerns expressed during two previous hearings for the project. These included the building’s proximity to the Willamette River Greenway trail and that it would block Southwest Portland residents’ views of the Willamette River and Ross Island.

The building’s massing still does not step back enough from the greenway trail, said Melanie Diamond, a member of the Block 37 Citizens Committee, a group that opposes the design.

“The effect of this massing is an overbearing presence on the greenway,” she said. “The overall effect is a building that doesn’t fit the site, overpowers the greenway and doesn’t fit the South Waterfront design guidelines.”

In response to commissioners’ feedback given at a previous hearing, the design was modified in several ways, GBD Architects principal Katherine Schultz said. Balconies were added to enhance the north and south facades, a retail patio along the greenway trail was made larger and the garage entrance was relocated farther west of the cul-de-sac on Gaines Street to improve safety for area bicyclists and pedestrians, she said.

“The project has evolved quite a bit,” she said. “We’ve done a lot of work and feel that through all those changes we’ve got a great building.”

GBD designers also took the feedback from the neighborhood seriously, Schultz said.

“We’re well aware at this point that not all the neighbors are satisfied with our design, but we’ve worked very hard to satisfy their concerns,” she said.

Schultz noted that the building will actually preserve views to the river.

“If there is a building that provides more views at this location, it’s this building,” she said. “We could have built a tower. We didn’t.”

Commissioner David Wark said he was comfortable with modifications to the design to ease the transition between the building and the greenway trail.

“I think they’ve done a really good job of knitting it all together with our comments,” he told the design team.

Wark said he felt the stoops were an asset to the design and not an encroachment on public space.

“Stoops create a streetscape that we’re always asking for, pleading for from other (design review) applicants,” he said. “I think that’s a fair trade when it comes to what we’re gaining in the pedestrian environment.”

Although other commissioners praised the addition of a corner retail space near the greenway, Savinar said he wished the project would go further.

“Look at all that space where retail could be added on Lane (Street) side,” he said. “There’s a difference between squeezing it in and making it thrive.”

Andersen Construction crews are scheduled to start work on the project in October.

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Despite revisions, GBD Architects‘ design for a six-story mixed-use building planned in the South Waterfront District still needs work to gain city approval.

City planners, design commissioners and South Waterfront residents at a Portland Design Commission hearing Thursday expressed lingering concerns about Mack Urban‘s $36 million project for Block 37, near the intersection of Southwest Gaines Street and River Parkway.

GBD Architects, which previously proposed a design for approval in May, revealed its latest for the 278-unit building, which would include 6,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space and 225 parking spaces. Commissioners on Thursday did not vote whether to issue approval, but instead scheduled a hearing for Aug. 21 to allow project designers time to make additional revisions.

The building needs a more engaging facade with balconies or bays, commissioners said. They added that it could be better integrated into the surrounding neighborhood and that the parking garage entrance should be relocated.

However, commissioners appreciated that in the new design the building steps back slightly from a nearby riverfront bicycle and pedestrian path, and an added ground-floor retail/patio space faces the Willamette River.

GBD Architects principal Katherine Schultz said the design team made a concerted effort to respond to neighbors’ and design commissioners’ concerns that the building would crowd the Willamette River Greenway trail. Designers also worked to smooth the transition between the private development and public path.

“We went through the design guidelines,” she said. “We didn’t just do one of them; we did every single example in the design guidelines. We feel like it’s a graceful transition and addresses the design guidelines.”

Neighborhood residents who testified at Thursday’s hearing reiterated concerns expressed during the one in May. These included the building’s proximity to the trail and that it would block Southwest Portland residents’ views of the Willamette River and Ross Island. South Waterfront residents also suggested that the building have an eco-roof instead of a rooftop rock garden and that the parking garage entrance be relocated farther west of the cul-de-sac on Gaines Street to improve safety for bicyclists and pedestrians.

“The location (of the garage entry) is a pinch point of the cul-de-sac and greenway. It’s a high pedestrian and bike area,” South Waterfront resident William Savery said. “I think it’s a disaster waiting to happen.”

South Waterfront resident Robert Nunn said neighbors would like to see additional articulation on the building’s north face.

“As you look at the elevation, there is not a lot of variation,” he said. “It is significant massing that we think could be softened with the right design.”

Design commissioners agreed.

“I think what would be more successful would be the integration of more balconies,” Commissioner David Wark said. “It would activate the facade.”

Schultz said it would be tricky to add balconies, but that the design team would investigate the possibility.

“I will say it will cause dramatic changes in the floor plans of our units,” she said. “My gut is it’s going to be a very hard thing to accomplish.”

Moving the garage entrance closer to River Parkway would be more convenient to building residents because they would spend less time traveling on Gaines Street, Commissioner Jeff Simpson said.

“If I live there, or I was a visitor, I would prefer that resident traffic getting off the street early,” he said.

Commissioner Tad Savinar said he is still worried about how the building responds to the context of the neighborhood.

The design is very conscious of nearby buildings, GBD Architects designer Craig Mendenhall said.

“It’s about creating a contemporary building,” he said. “The South Waterfront is full of contemporary buildings. It’s really contemporary in style with a connection to nature. That’s been the theme.”

South Waterfront Block 37

Location: 3700 S.W. River Parkway, Portland

Cost: $36 million

Planned construction start date: October 2014

Developer: Mack Urban

Architect: GBD Architects

General contractor: Andersen Construction

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The design for a six-story mixed-use building planned in the South Waterfront District deviates from a string of nearby towers, and that bothers neighbors.

South Waterfront residents and business owners attended a Portland Design Commission hearing Thursday to express concerns about Mack Urban‘s $36 million project for Block 37, near the intersection of Southwest Gaines Street and River Parkway. The building, as designed by GBD Architects, would crowd a riverfront bicycle and pedestrian path, and block Southwest Portland residents’ views of the Willamette River and Ross Island, critics said.

GBD Architects staffers sought design review for the 278-unit building, which would include 6,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space and 225 parking spaces. Commissioners did not vote, but instead scheduled another hearing for June 19 to further review plans and hear more public testimony.

Commissioners agreed with some of the neighbors’ concerns, including the building’s proximity to the Willamette River Greenway trail. Block 37 should step farther back from the trail and provide a smoother transition between private development and public space, Commissioner David Wark said.

“I don’t think a sliver of landscaping that’s two to five feet meets the spirit of this,” he said.

GBD Architects principal Katherine Schultz told commissioners that the Block 37 design takes into account both the trail and river east of the property.

“We are allowed by code to be on the property line,” she said. “Remember, we are not a tower. We sit more gently on the greenway.”

In response to commissioners’ advice given this past summer, GBD Architects redesigned the building’s eastern facade to gradually step away from the river.

“I think it does provide connections,” Schultz said. “We feel we’re achieving that by how we erode the building as well as providing stoops. There’s a transition of not only the trail, but the landscaping and the street.”

Another connection to the greenway, GBD Architects designer Craig Mendenhall said, is a lobby near the cul-de-sac on Gaines Street adjacent to the riverfront path.

“We wanted that ability of the lobby to spill out onto the greenway,” he said.

The building will be too close to the greenway, said George Crandall, principal of urban design firm Crandall Arambula. He addressed the commission on behalf of a group of South Waterfront residents and business owners who reviewed the Block 37 design.

“The amount of time the architect spent talking about that tells you that is a problem,” he said. “We say they’re crowding the greenway and we say it doesn’t really step down to the greenway.”

The development also would deviate from a view corridor established along Gaines Street where all buildings line up to preserve a view to the river, Crandall said.

“The promise was made to the people of the west hills that there would be view corridors,” he said. “I think this project sets a very dangerous precedent.”

Commissioner David Keltner agreed.

“It’s not fair to the other buildings that were built anticipating other buildings having that setback,” he said.

Commission Chairwoman Guenevere Millius said she didn’t mind that Block 37 would look different than other South Waterfront developments.

“I’m OK with varying the design,” she said. “I think a little difference in palette down there is OK.”

Commissioner Tad Savinar said he had an overarching concern with the design.

“Why design this building in this place?” he asked. “I feel like everything is compromised a little bit. Those things are a symptom of a larger approach to the project.”

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A group of heavy hitters in the nation’s real estate industry have zeroed in on Portland’s South Waterfront District.

Mack Urban – a partnership between New York-based Mack Real Estate Group and Los Angeles-based Urban Partners LLC – and New Jersey-based Connell Real Estate and Development have purchased 1.67-acre Block 37 from an affiliate of Williams & Dame Development Inc. for $7.05 million. The group plans to build a six-story building with 281 apartment units and 50 parking stalls.

News of the development broke in April 2013, when Harbor Urban – a Seattle-based development company – applied for early
assistance from the Portland Bureau of Development Services.

Harbor Urban was folded into Mack Urban, which derived from the Mack family. Its members helped found AREA Property Partners, an international real estate fund manager with investments valued at $70 billion; and Mack-Cali Realty Corp., one of the nation’s largest real estate investment trusts.

Richard Mack, CEO of Mack Real Estate Group, said his company is focusing on Portland and the South Waterfront for numerous reasons. Among them is the metro area’s high barrier to entry, employment base, and a quality of life that attracts a young, talented demographic. He pointed to Oregon Health and Science University, and the soon-to-open Collaborative Life Sciences Building as evidence.

“You have leading scientists and doctors in the field of medical health that are a doorstep away from us, and we think that’s going to contribute to the vitality of the entire Portland market, and provide jobs for people that are excited about enacting change in the world,” he said. “What a great place to be a developer. That’s why we like Portland.”

Jones Lang LaSalle helped broker Mack Urban’s property acquisition.

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