The Portland Design Commission has reapproved a proposal to build a 23-story tower, the Hyatt Place and Allison Residences, in the Pearl District. The City Council – in a rare move – had remanded the project to the Design Commission on Sept. 26.

Design commissioners voted 4-0 on Thursday to return their recommendation to the City Council, which is now scheduled to hold a hearing on the project, and an initial vote, on Dec. 10.

The project from Seattle multifamily developer Vibrant Cities and hotelier The Sunray Companies of Madison, Mississippi, is for a quarter-block property at 350 N.W. 12th Ave., where a parking lot sits currently. As designed by Otak Inc., the building would have 160 hotel rooms and 113 residential units in 197,118 square feet.

The building’s proposed height of 250 feet is the tallest allowed by Central City 2035 plan guidelines. As larger buildings allowed by the 2035 plan have rolled out, residents of neighborhoods such as the Pearl District and Goose Hollow have often reacted with opposition.

Throughout the design process, the Hyatt Place and Allison Residences project has been opposed by Pearl Neighbors for Integrity in Design, a group of nearby residents and business owners. The nonprofit is not affiliated with the city-sanctioned Pearl District Neighborhood Association.

PNID representatives have characterized the project as too large for the property, and its use too intensive, with residents and hotel guests constantly entering and exiting.

Thursday’s hearing revealed several design changes made in response to direction from City Council. The middle of the building was pulled back 3 feet from the property line. The hotel entrance at the corner of Northwest 12th Avenue and Flanders Street was pulled back a total of 7 feet from the property line, providing more room for the public realm, said Gary Larson, an Otak consultant architect. Canopies were extended around the building. A cornice was lowered by one floor.

“Our objective has been to reduce the mass of the building through the setback strategy and reduce the apparent height of the building through the cornice line adjustments,” Larson said.

Carrie Richter, a land-use lawyer representing PNID, said the group remains disappointed with the minimal revisions.

“My client is truly disheartened by the lack of fundamental change that went into this remand,” she said.

But the Hyatt Place and Allison Residences would not be out of place in the Pearl District, where buildings are commonly built to property lines, Commissioner Zari Santner said.

“Pearl has a very, very eclectic identity,” she said. “This building would be a great addition to that.”

Commissioner Sam Rodriguez also complimented the design.

“I think the changes are positive and it will turn out to be a good building,” he said.

When the proposal returns to the City Council in December, the council will still be in the lame-duck period following the Nov. 3 election. Commissioner Amanda Fritz, who expressed concerns with the project, is likely to weigh in on the Hyatt Place and Allison Residences before she’s replaced in January by Carmen Rubio. Commissioner Chloe Eudaly also will still be on the council, and not newly elected Mingus Mapps.

If the design is approved by the City Council, opponents could potentially appeal to the state Land Use Board of Appeals or District Court.

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Helping Hands Reentry Outreach Centers has signed a five-year lease agreement for the former Wapato Jail building, real estate investor Jordan Schnitzer announced recently.

Schnitzer, president of Harsch Investment Properties, agreed to lease the 155,400-square-foot Bybee Lakes Hope Center for the token amount of $1 a year.

“After two years of looking for the right partner, we are now entering into a five-year lease with Helping Hands Reentry Outreach Centers to renovate and repurpose the project formerly known as Wapato,” Schnitzer stated in a news release. “Since purchasing the property in 2018, we have entertained numerous proposals from credible nonprofits to help homeless and others in need.”

Schnitzer stated that he was impressed after meeting with Helping Hands founder Alan Evans, who was homeless for 27 years before establishing the nonprofit in 2002. It’s based in Seaside, and now has 11 facilities in Multnomah, Clatsop, Yamhill and Tillamook counties.

The lease agreement is a milestone in the yearslong effort to put the never-used jail building to some useful purpose. Schnitzer had pushed for a social-service tenant, saying he would otherwise demolish the building. In October 2019, Schnitzer went so far as to unveil plans for a 314,000-square-foot warehouse. The former jail, completed in 2004, is in an industrial area dotted with fulfillment centers and other facilities.

Developer Marty Kehoe, who acquired the building from Multnomah County, sold it to Harsch for $5 million in April 2018.

The project team that will convert the jail into a shelter and reentry center was assembled by construction manager DAY CPM. Precision Construction, an affiliate of Hoffman Construction – the ex-jail’s original builder – has been selected as general contractor. Architecture and engineering services were awarded to Otak Inc.

Otak will work with VLMK Engineering + Design, Interface Engineering and Knot to provide functional architecture, way-finding and interior design.

The Bybee Lakes Hope Center will pair supportive services with transitional housing. Helping Hands will open three of the nine wings at the facility and house up to 228 beds in the first year of operation, Harsch announced. At full capacity, the center will be able to serve 525 individuals.

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The decade-long building boom’s effects on the construction workforce have been well chronicled, but effects also have reached elsewhere. Architecture firms are dealing with shortages of designers.

“(It’s) definitely an applicants’ market,” said Alan Osborne, vice president at Hennebery Eddy Architects in Portland.

The employment pool is suffering from a dearth of midcareer and, to a lesser extent, senior architects, hiring managers said. That’s an echo of the Great Recession that began in 2007 and drove workers away from the industry.

“Basically, there was a whole generation of architecture students who never started,” said Jon McGrew, a Hennebery Eddy associate principal.

Hennebery Eddy had a senior project architect position open for so long that the firm took advantage of a long-established program in Portland to borrow an architect from another firm. In this case, Bora Architects loaned a senior project architect to Hennebery Eddy for two months.

“You just can’t get enough people at that level,” Osborne said. “They’re very skilled at this point in their career, and there’s not enough of them to go around.”

Hennebery Eddy has hired more than a dozen architects in the past year, Osborne said.

Like others, Otak Inc. is struggling to find experienced architects.

“Right now we’ve been recruiting for more senior level, and I’m seeing more difficulty, obviously,” said Carol Forsberg, Otak’s talent acquisition partner.

TVA Architects is also looking for midcareer architects who can lead projects.

“There’s really just nobody in that 10- to 15-year (experience) range,” said Mandy Butler, a TVA principal who leads recruitment efforts for the 40-person firm.

TVA hires a new graduate only once every three to four years.

“There’s no shortage of brand-new graduates, and we get a tremendous number of applications from recent graduates,” Butler said.

Portland is a desirable market for architects, and there’s a substantial number willing to relocate from out of state, hiring managers said. As long as the project pipeline remains robust, firms will be hiring.

“What I’ve seen is a lot of people coming from outside this market,” including Boston and Seattle, Butler said. “They’re high quality, but sometimes the salary ask is out of alignment with where our market is at.”

The dearth of midcareer architects has pinched both sides of the divide, with younger architects playing more senior roles than usual, and older architects mentoring younger ones to accelerate their development, managers said.

Entry-level architects at major firms often do much of the actual design work. That fact and their more affordable starting salaries make them attractive to architectural firms.

“We do see quite a few firms recruiting,” said Karen O’Donnell Stein, spokeswoman for the Portland State University School of Architecture. The school expects to graduate approximately 44 undergraduate students and 27 graduate students in 2020.

“Our students are definitely in demand by architecture and design firms in the Portland area and beyond,” she added in an email. “Hiring personnel at firms frequently reach out to us when they have design jobs to fill, and our students have many opportunities to connect with professionals who participate in final reviews and other events.”

The University of Oregon holds a popular recruitment fair for architecture students and professional firms to meet. This year’s fair, on Feb. 20, has 41 firms signed up to visit with students in Eugene.

“We’ve been waiting for this strong, positive job market to end, and it hasn’t,” said Nancy Cheng, department head of the UO School of Architecture. “The outlook is very strong.”

Still, many firms are finding there are plenty of young architects looking for jobs.

“As far as entry level, I tend to see a lot of applicants,” Forsberg said.

Salaries for entry-level architects have increased, Osborne said.

“They’re on a steady climb, and that benefits us all,” he said.

SERA Architects has offices in Portland and Oakland, California. Both may soon present employment opportunities, said Valerie Williams-Hurwitz, director of human resources.

“We’re stable,” she said. “We expect to grow some in both offices.”

However, SERA respects the collegial atmosphere of the local design community.

“In Portland in particular we sort of have a gentlemen’s or gentlewomen’s agreement that we generally don’t poach from other firms,” Williams-Hurwitz said.

That said, SERA conducts open searches, and sometimes they result in an architect from another local firm being hired, she said.

Portland has the 10th-highest concentration of architects in the United States, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Among large cities, only Denver, Seattle and San Francisco have a higher concentration of architects. In 2018, the Portland-Hillsboro-Vancouver metro area employed 1,760 architects, at an average annual wage of $85,420.

Architecture firms are also beefing up their internship programs to lure young architects. SERA is working to put together a yearlong internship, which could provide participants experience in several different disciplines, Williams-Hurwitz said.

Williams-Hurwitz and other SERA representatives last week attended a career fair at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. She said students who expect to graduate this spring are eager to land a position, but don’t seem to be lacking offers.

“We don’t usually have to offer beyond what we consider the market pay, but if we have to do other creative things, like a lot of architecture firms – whether it’s a signing bonus or relocation – we can do those things depending on the circumstances,” Williams-Hurwitz said.

Hennebery Eddy has also worked to strengthen its internship program, Osborne said. The firm recently hired a former intern – a Montana State University student who graduated in December.

“Our student intern program is more important than it’s ever been, so we work hard to get in top architects,” Osborne said.

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The start of a long-planned project to create public access to Willamette Falls has been delayed as stakeholders go back to the drawing board to explore routing visitors along the river instead of through the former Blue Heron paper mill site.

The Willamette Falls Legacy Project – a collaboration of stakeholders including Metro, the city of Oregon City, Clackamas County and the state of Oregon – announced Thursday it is working with the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, which purchased the mill site last year, to consider design alternatives for the riverwalk.

A yearslong design process led by acclaimed Norwegian firm Snohetta, and including Mayer/Reed and Canadian firm DIALOG, resulted in concept plans for a riverwalk passing through the shuttered mill site, with some of the former industrial buildings being transformed and incorporated into the design.

Now, according to the Willamette Falls Legacy Project, a ground-breaking event anticipated for this year has been put on hold pending exploration of design alternatives. Project partners began working this past summer to refine plans after cost estimates revealed that available funding would be insufficient to cover the scope of work.

Legacy Project staff began working last year with design and engineering firm Otak Inc. and contractor Lease Crutcher Lewis to rein in the project cost. Snohetta projected that its designs would cost $12.6 million to build, but estimates last year by Otak and Lease Crutcher Lewis pegged the price tag at between $17 million and $33 million. The project’s budget is $12.5 million.

The Grande Ronde purchased the site while potential costs were being researched and subsequently requested that the possibility of a riverside path be explored. The cost of such an amenity is still being evaluated, and the project partners will consider additional funding options if that cost is higher than proposed originally.

The riverwalk is the first phase of a larger project estimated to cost $150 million over 20 years.

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A controversial proposal for a 23-story mixed-use building won tentative approval from the Portland Design Commission on Thursday despite opposition from Pearl District neighbors.

Commissioners voted 6-0 (Chairwoman Julie Livingston recused herself) to approve the design by Otak Inc. They will hold a final vote on Jan. 16 to adopt findings on the project.

The Hyatt Place and Allison Residences project would bring 160 hotel rooms and 113 residential units to a quarter-block site at Northwest 12th Avenue and Flanders Street. The building would replace a surface parking lot.

The 197,118-square-foot project is a joint venture of Seattle multifamily developer Vibrant Cities and hotelier The Sunray Companies of Madison, Mississippi. The project was valued at $66 million by the city’s Bureau of Development Services.

Plans were scrutinized by the Design Commission in two previous advice meetings and two review hearings, most recently in November.

Pearl District residents have objected to the project for months, lodging concerns about the planned height, mass and density for the small footprint. At 250 feet, it would be by far the tallest building in the south Pearl District under higher limits established by the Central City 2035 Plan.

Commissioners, city staffers and residents have also expressed concerns that traffic from the hotel and residential development would conflict with plans for the – a future path between the waterfront and Northwest Portland that would pass next to the building.

Commissioners did not directly address the largest issues. They said the building’s height and mass were within the zoning rules, giving the design panel little leeway, and potential traffic conflicts were an issue for the Portland Bureau of Transportation to resolve.

“The context issues – height and massing – are not something we can deal with anyway,” Commissioner Don Vallaster said.

The design has improved over time, Commissioner Zari Santner said.

“They have really done a great job of making the building far more coherent than it first was when it came to us,” she said.

Most recently, Otak incorporated warmer colors into the exterior palette and raised water fountains at the entrance. After objections from neighbors, the valet zone was moved from Flanders Street to 12th Avenue.

The Pearl District Neighborhood Association registered opposition to the project, as did the Pearl Neighbors for Integrity in Design – a private group that is distinct from the city-sanctioned association.

The neighborhood association, in a letter, objected to design elements such as metal cladding and the “near-blank wall” appearance of the east facade.

Bateman Seidel’s Carrie Richter, a land-use attorney for PNID, attempted to speak to the commission on Thursday. Commissioners declined to hear her testimony, saying the record was closed.

Patricia Cliff, president of PNID, said the building would bring intense use to the intersection, with valet parking and two loading docks competing with traffic from two neighboring residential buildings and the planned bikeway.

“It is not a user-friendly building, and it could be potentially dangerous for pedestrians, drivers and bicyclists,” she said.

Also on Thursday:

No vote yet on hotel project’s design

The Design Commission tackled review for the Proper Hotel, another Pearl District project at Northwest 12th Avenue and Irving Street.

Commissioners identified some issues with a vertical column, and a lack of a water feature. However, they were largely complimentary of the design for a nine-story building with approximately 170,000 square feet.

Past projects have met design guidelines for a water feature reflecting Tanner Creek with everything from poetry to sound. Commissioner Jessica Molinar said future projects should include water features that incorporate actual water.

“It’s not a deal-breaker this time, but it will be a deal-breaker for me in the future,” she said. “Please do not come back with another project that does not include an actual water feature.”

The project is being designed by ZGF Architects for Proper Hospitality, a Santa Monica, California-based company with hotels in California and Texas.

Commissioners did not vote whether to approve the project; the hearing is set to continue on Jan. 23.

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Pearl District residents gathered en masse at a Portland Design Commission meeting Thursday to protest plans for a 23-story hotel tower that would reach 250 feet in height, the maximum allowed after a new code was adopted in 2018 by the City Council.

Hyatt Place, designed by Otak, Inc. and developed by Seattle-based Vibrant Cities, is a mixed-use project that would feature 11 floors of hotel rooms and 11 floors of apartments, with some affordable housing units included. A restaurant and café are planned to sit on the ground floor.

The building would rise from a quarter-block property at Northwest 12^th Avenue and Flanders Street.

The proposal has already undergone two design advice sessions with the commission. On Thursday, the project team sought a land-use review, at which point the building could move forward with development.

Several dozen members of the public, most of them led by Pearl Neighbors for Integrity in Design (PNID), came to voice their opposition to the project, citing concerns about the sheer size of the project and the traffic it might create.

“There needs to be some serious carving of the massing,” said David Dysert, who was representing the Pearl District Neighborhood Association. He said that the volume of the building wouldn’t match the area, and that with the new code in place, any new building is going to set a precedent.

PNID President Patricia Cliff said the organization is not opposed to new development in the Pearl District, but finds the size of the project inappropriate for the south side of the neighborhood. Perhaps most worrisome, she said, is a complete lack of parking provided.

While more than 20 people signed up to provide public testimony, nearly all of them ceded their time to Carrie Richter, a land-use lawyer representing PNID.

Richter said the lack of parking, combined with a 12-foot loading zone and a quarter-block site, makes for a dangerous situation. She cited a nearby Hampton Inn with a hundred-foot loading zone and an 80-percent block space, which she said was deemed insufficient by transportation experts.

With no vehicle parking, the building should be “ground zero” for cyclist-supportive housing, but falls short in this regard as well, Richter said. She said the spaces for bicycle parking are too small, the entrance to the parking is awkward and the building lacks outdoor temporary parking.

“Bicycling is a complete afterthought in this building,” Richter said. “This is not celebrating the bicycle by any stretch of the imagination.”

For their part, commissioners discussed more nuanced aspects of the project, and didn’t address the most pressing concerns presented by the opposition related to height and traffic.

Commissioner Brian McCarter was one of several who took issue with black bands that separate the base of the building from the tower, saying that design works better with shorter buildings. He also criticized the building’s mass on the small parcel.

“It’s got a lot of issues for me,” he said. “I can’t overlook the scale and massing problems.”

Commissioner Jessica Molinar took issue with using metal panels as cladding material, although other commissioners expressed approval. Molinar said she didn’t find the material suitable for the size and location of the building, and said it would make more sense on Burnside Street.

“The metal does not work in the context,” she said. “I think part of that is the scale.”

As far as the neighborhood is concerned, most commissioners didn’t find the building to be out of place, saying the Pearl District is already eclectic in its makeup.

“There are so many different kinds of buildings in the Pearl that I don’t think, contextually, this is out of whack,” Commissioner Zari Santner said. “I like the idea of variety and diversity of style.”

Based on public opposition, the design team decided to postpone the vote for a future meeting, at which point they will provide counterarguments to opponents of the project.

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Multifamily investors are looking anew at underserved midsize markets in the Willamette Valley.

In Salem and Corvallis, in particular, strong rent growth, low vacancy rates and growing populations are driving sales of multifamily properties and some sizable new development projects.

It’s a natural outgrowth of the long economic expansion, said Greg Frick, co-founder and partner of Portland brokerage HFO Investment Real Estate. Portland and Eugene saw waves of multifamily investment in recent years. Now, it’s smaller cities’ turn to attract capital.

“Investment dollars are really trying to get down there,” said Frick, who added that he frequently hears from investors interested in the mid-Willamette Valley.” You’re just seeing capital looking for investments and having to expand their horizons.”

Two major multifamily projects are under construction in Corvallis, where Oregon State University has driven growth. Enrollment at OSU reached 30,986 in fall 2018, up from 20,320 students a decade earlier.

Gilbane Development, based in Rhode Island, is building a 228-unit multifamily complex called Sierra next to the campus. The project is in a mixed-use industrial zone, and includes small storage structures to satisfy zoning requirements. The site, known as Washington Yards, was home to a feed store and a fruit company.

“They had to have a minimum square footage of industrial use, which they satisfied with those (storage units),” said Jared Voice, a senior planner with the city of Corvallis.

Construction of Sierra began recently.

Gilbane Development Director Andrew Ang said he was not authorized to speak on behalf of the company.

The other large project under construction in Corvallis is Witham Oaks from Corvue Holdings, a Chicago-based developer. The 292-unit complex is also student-focused; it’s scheduled to open in the fall, Voice said. Townhomes would follow in a second phase.

Otak Inc. of Portland designed the Witham Oaks master plan and also provided project management, civil engineering and landscape architecture services. The public improvements have been completed, and construction of the residential buildings is under way.

“It’s really going up quick,” said Brian Fleener, Otak’s director of architecture.

Witham Oaks comprises 29 buildings. Units have four bedrooms each. Every bedroom has its own bathroom, but the four units share a kitchen and living room.

Corvue took over the development from Campus Crest after buying several of the latter company’s properties.

Corvue did not respond to messages seeking comment.

A proposal from a local group to build a 125-unit multifamily development in the Timberhill area of Northwest Corvallis has not moved forward.

Deals in Corvallis typically show strong occupancy rates and rent growth, but survey data on the city’s multifamily market is scarce, Frick said.

Corvallis has historically had a high barrier of entry for new construction, with annexations requiring voters’ approval since 1977, according to the Corvallis Gazette-Times. A state law limiting cities’ ability to vote on annexations was challenged by Corvallis and Philomath, and the Oregon Court of Appeals is expected to issue a ruling in the case in coming weeks.

In Salem, vacancy rates have hovered near 4 percent with 4 percent annual rent growth, according to Multifamily NW‘s fall 2018 report. The trade group for landlords will release its spring 2019 report on Monday.

Prices show some appetite for new multifamily product in Salem. A newly built 56-unit apartment building in Salem sold for $166,071 per unit last year. On average, Salem multifamily buildings sold for $95,426 per unit.

More supply is coming. Koz Development of Snohomish, Washington, plans to build a 146-unit multifamily project at 260 State St., a vacant lot in downtown Salem. The building will have small, affordable rental units targeted at 20-somethings.

The project is in the late stages of development, and the team is on track to break ground in late May or early June, said Cathy Reines, Koz’s president and CEO.

The project is backed by local capital investors in Salem, Reines said.

Koz had initially considered a small grocery store as a possible use for the building’s ground-floor retail space, but the developers are reconsidering that concept, Reines said. The average age of tenants in Koz buildings is 26.

“As we’ve talked to younger residents, they’re ordering their groceries online and having them delivered,” Reines said. “We’re starting to challenge ourselves whether a market makes sense given who we believe the resident will be.”

Investors have taken notice of signs of life in downtown Salem, including projects to revitalize historic buildings and the pending purchase of the former Nordstrom building. The department store closed in April 2018.

“It just seems to be more vibrant than it has been historically,” Frick said of Salem. “And I think you’re seeing that across the board with some of these tertiary markets.”

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An unremarkable quarter-block surface parking lot in Portland’s Pearl District seems an unlikely place for a project proposal to cause a neighborhood controversy.

Yet it has. A group, the Pearl Neighbors for Integrity in Design, has formed to fight plans by Seattle developer Vibrant Cities to build a 23-story Hyatt Place hotel and residential tower at Northwest 12th Avenue and Flanders Street.

At a recent Portland Design Commission meeting, neighbors paraded around the hearings room with hand-painted pictures of a maple tree at the site they want to preserve. One resident, Patricia Cliff, who started the opposition group, called the project “vertical sprawl.”

The Hyatt Place project is the first Pearl District proposal to enter the city’s design hearings process under the Central City 2035 zoning rules that raised height limits. The zoning changes enacted by the City Council in June 2018 raised the height limit at the property, including bonuses, from 175 feet to 250 feet.

The 250-foot-tall proposal offers a glimpse of the Pearl District’s future under the new zoning rules. It’s part of a broad policy choice, backed by Mayor Ted Wheeler and other city leaders, planners and urbanists, to encourage dense development in Portland’s urban core.

“Compared to a lot of American cities, we’re not that tall and that dense,” said Troy Doss, Central City planner for the Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability. “For us to achieve our employment goals and our density goals for the Central City, we need to get the most out of the land.”

It’s not going over well in the Pearl.

“It’s a monstrous building,” said Cliff, a real-estate consultant and neighborhood preservationist.

Cliff painted the project as an attempt to maximize private profits at the expense of the neighborhood’s character.

“If all of these carpetbagger out-of-town developer people buy something and air rights, then you’ve got 23-story buildings all over the south Pearl,” she said.

Cliff objects to the proposed dual uses – hotel and residential – and lack of parking. She would not object to a smaller tower of about 12 stories, she said.

The higher height limits allows the Hyatt Place building to include approximately 110 residential units, including a to-be-determined number of rent-restricted inclusionary housing units, said Brian Fleener, vice president and director of architecture at Otak Inc., the Portland firm designing the building. When first proposed, the building had only 12 stories, all dedicated to the hotel.

Opposition to the Hyatt Place project follows the 2018 fight over the Fremont Apartments, a 17-story tower that survived an appeal by the Pearl District Neighborhood Association. It’s unlikely to appeal the Hyatt Place project if approved by the Design Commission, said Stan Penkin, the group’s president.

“The building, as far as the height goes, meets code,” he said.

Unlike the Pearl District Neighborhood Association, the Pearl Neighbors for Integrity in Design is not a city-recognized neighborhood group and cannot appeal Design Commission approval to the City Council.

The neighborhood association opposed the Fremont Apartments design because of the building’s proximity to the Willamette River and a pedestrian greenway, and its position blocking bridge views, Penkin said.

Penkin, who like Cliff came to Portland from New York, said he does not object to tall buildings in the right locations. Resistance to the changing skyline in the Pearl District is not a case of not-in-my-backyard, or NIMBY, politics, he said.

“Being a neighborhood person and a city person, I’m concerned about the larger context,” he said. “It’s easy to call somebody a NIMBY. But I also think there’s nothing wrong with not wanting the character of your neighborhood changed. If that makes you a NIMBY, fine.”

The Hyatt Place proposal could proceed next to a formal design review hearing, or Vibrant Cities could opt for another advice meeting. The developer did not return messages seeking comment.

The building would stand near several residential high-rises, including The Casey, The Louisa and The Henry. Those buildings are all nearly 175 feet tall. There are even taller buildings at the Pearl District’s northern edge, including NV and the Cosmopolitan.

Demand to live in Portland’s urban core is strong, amid a long economic expansion, healthy job creation and in-migration. At the same time, Oregon’s system of urban growth boundaries contributes to a need to accommodate building within them.

Downtown Portland seems to be seeping into both the Pearl District and Goose Hollow – both neighborhoods adjacent to downtown that have seen an explosion of growth.

“We’re an extension of downtown,” Penkin said.

Goose Hollow’s neighborhood group did not object to a 21-story residential tower that received Design Commission approval in November.

The Pearl District is undergoing a natural progression from the initial residential wave of rehabilitated two-story warehouses, to a generation of mid-rise condo towers, to today’s high-rises, said Joe Cortright, an economist and writer on urban growth.

“There’s clearly demand for it,” he said. “From an economic perspective, there’s a really strong desire that people have for great urban environments. The Pearl District in particular is a very desirable place to live, and more people want to live there than we have housing for. As a practical matter, the only way to provide more housing there is to build up.”

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Plans for a 23-story hotel and apartment tower in the heart of the Pearl District drew strong opposition from neighbors who filled the Portland Design Commission‘s meeting room on Thursday.

The proposed building from developer Vibrant Cities of Seattle would replace a quarter-block surface parking lot at Northwest 12th Avenue and Flanders Street. The structure would ascend to 250 feet – the maximum allowed by Central City 2035 zoning adopted by the Portland City Council in June 2018.

The proposed height would allow inclusion of affordable units, said Brian Fleener, vice president and director of architecture at Otak Inc., the Portland-based firm designing the building.

A Hyatt Place hotel would occupy 11 floors of the building, with 173 hotel rooms. Apartments on 11 floors would total about 110 units, including a to-be-determined number of affordable units to meet inclusionary housing rules. A restaurant and café are planned for the ground floor.

The developer is considering the inclusionary housing option that would provide 8 percent of the units at 60 percent of area median income, Fleener said. That would yield approximately eight or nine affordable units.

Several dozen neighbors filled the hearing room for the project’s second design advice meeting. Those who testified said the tower would cause congestion of the surrounding streets, the loading area would interfere with pedestrians and the building would loom over the surrounding low-slung condos enjoyed by residents.

“No other building in the Pearl has this intense vertical sprawl with two distinct uses,” said Patricia Cliff, a retired New York real estate agent who has lived in a nearby condo for 12 years.

Neighbors also decried the planned removal of a century-old silver maple tree that occupies the corner of Northwest 12th Avenue and Flanders Street. At one point, the residents paraded in front of the Design Commission with hand-painted portraits of the tree. Preliminary designs for the building show smaller, newer trees would be planted on both frontages.

Commissioners and city staffers said they had no authority to limit the size or use of the building if it falls within zoning parameters.

“We can’t require a less intensive use,” Commissioner Jessica Molinar said.

Commissioner Samuel Rodriguez, a developer who has performed projects in the Pearl District, said the neighborhood context is flexible.

“I truly believe that the Pearl District is a truly eclectic neighborhood,” he said. “The context is very diverse.”

The project faces design challenges related to the scale on a small footprint.

In response to earlier comments from commissioners, loading was moved to Northwest 12th Avenue from Flanders Street. Entrances for the residents and hotel guests are on the same side of the building, but they must be separate – a common requirement of hotel brands.

The project is part of a trend of developers combining hotel and residential programs, much like the recently approved 35-story Block 216 project in downtown Portland and the Hotel Indigo and Kirkland Tower condominiums at The Waterfront in Vancouver, Washington.

For the Pearl District project, UEB Builders will serve as general contractor. DCI Engineers is also on the project team.

Preliminary designs show large concrete structural columns and extensive glass. Metal panels climb the building. Exterior balconies are designed with a simple extended slab topped by clear glass railings.

More specific information regarding materials must be provided by the applicant, said Arthur Graves, a Bureau of Development Services planner.

After the meeting, Fleener said the design team will work to enliven the corner façade and differentiate the hotel and apartment entrances, perhaps with a fountain between them.

Thursday’s meeting was the first for the commission’s newest member, Brian McCarter of ZGF Architects. The landscape architect and urban planner replaces Tad Savinar, who was not reappointed by Mayor Ted Wheeler.

Chairwoman Julie Livingston recused herself from the Hyatt Place project discussion because of a potential conflict of interest that she did not specify. Molinar filled in as acting chairwoman during the meeting.

Also on Thursday:

Grand Avenue project approved

The Portland Design Commission approved designs for an eight-story mixed-use building near the intersection of Northeast Grand Avenue and Davis Street.

The 151,600-square-foot project from San Diego developer Fairfield Residential will bring 170 apartment units to the fast-developing area near the Burnside Bridge’s east end. The project will provide affordable units subject to the city’s inclusionary housing requirements.

Ground-floor retail spaces will be on the Grand Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard frontages.

Ankrom Moisan Architects is the project’s designer.

The project was subject to three design review hearings that yielded numerous revisions as commissioners expressed concerns about design coherency and quality of materials. The design had been significantly simplified to improve coherency, according to a staff report.

Commissioners voted 6-0 to approve the project.

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The city of Camas, Washington, is seeking a contractor interested in removing its outdoor public pool at Crown Park.

The pool was built in the 1950s by the Lions Club and later donated to the city. However, public input and financial impacts led the city to pursue a replacement project. That isn’t defined just yet, but it’s expected to include a pool, a splash pad, new restrooms, a picnic shelter, a playground, a sports court and an amphitheater as part of a grand renovation of Crown Park.

Funding for those amenities is still uncertain. But in the meantime, the existing pool will be demolished. Bidding for that work is now under way.

This project will include removal of the municipal pool, an office building that includes locker rooms, and the bleachers in Crown Park. It will entail removal of approximately 700 cubic yards of concrete, 1,200 linear feet of metal pipe ranging from two to eight inches in diameter, three large metal tanks, a 10-foot-tall boiler, 112 square yards of asphalt, 56 linear feet of concrete curbing, 20 fluorescent lights, a set of bleachers measuring 12 feet by 40 feet, and around 80 linear feet of metal railing.

Afterward, a new sidewalk will be installed and the grounds will be graded and seeded.

Plans and specifications may be purchased from the city of Camas in an electronic format for $25 plus sales tax by contacting Ronda Syverson at rsyverson@cityofcamas.us or 360-817-7256.

A pre-bid conference is scheduled for 10 a.m. on Jan. 3, 2019, at the Camas Municipal Pool site, 120 N.E. 17th Ave. Unauthorized or unscheduled visits to the site are prohibited by the city.

All bids must be submitted before 10 a.m. on Jan. 9, 2019, to Camas Administrative Services.

For more information contact Mark Warren of Otak Inc., at mark.warren@otak.com or 360-737-9613.

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