Two Portland-based firms are being honored by the American Council of Engineering Companies for outstanding engineering projects. Harper Houf Peterson Righellis and Otak will be recognized at ACEC’s 59th annual Engineering Excellence Awards gala in May.

Harper Houf Peterson Righellis (HHPR) received two National Recognition Awards. The O.R. 99W: I-5 to McDonald Street project in Tigard was led by the Oregon Department of Transportation and HHPR. Crews added pavement, built new sidewalks and bicycle lanes, upgraded sidewalk curb ramps, repaired bridges,��and made��safety improvements in the��intersection of Southwest Johnson Street/Main Street with Oregon Route 99W. The project was completed in spring 2025.

HHPR’s second award was for the Southeast 129th Avenue/King Road Roundabout project in Happy Valley. A roundabout was designed to better support the movement of traffic through the intersection; the continuous, circular flow is expected to reduce the likelihood of collisions, according to the city of Happy Valley. The project was completed in 2024.

Otak received a National Recognition Award for the South 1st and Strand Street Improvements project in St. Helens. The upgrades include a new multiuse path along the riverfront to increase pedestrian and cyclist access, more clearly defined parking and circulation patterns to reduce congestion, and a new turnaround to minimize traffic disruption during community events. The project was completed last summer.

The 32-member judging panel for the awards program featured built environment leaders along with experts from government, the media, and academia. Criteria focused on uniqueness and originality, technical innovation, social and economic value, and excitement generated toward the engineering profession, according to an ACEC press release.

This year, ACEC is presenting 240 awards, including 16 Honor Awards, eight Grand Awards, and the prestigious Grand Conceptor Award for the year’s most outstanding engineering achievement. All honorees will be recognized at the 2026 EEA Gala on May 5 at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, D.C. Learn more about other award winners by visiting .

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Otak‘s name comes from the initials of founders Nawzad Othman, Ralph Tahran and Greg Kurahashi. It quickly grew into a firm with a presence across the western United States and the Middle East, with a strong reputation for smart growth planning, sustainable design and development, and innovative transportation solutions.

Over the last 45 years, Otak has built upon its multidisciplinary expertise and its services include urban design, architecture, engineering, landscape architecture, planning and construction management. With each project, Otak shares its clients’ commitment to promoting socially and environmentally responsible participation in business opportunities.

As part of its sustainability efforts, Otak has been quantifying and offsetting the greenhouse gas emissions associated with its business operations. This includes working with the Bonneville Environmental Foundation to quantify and offset its carbon footprint. Otak’s team is experienced in guiding clients in their pursuit of LEED, Envision, Greenroads, WELL and Green Globes certifications.

Otak actively seeks to partner with minority business enterprises and certified firms in the communities where it works. The company recognizes that supporting MWESBs requires a strategic approach to building relationships, cultivating opportunities and providing mentorship. Otak provides mentorship opportunities to teaming partners and students exploring paths within the AEC industry.

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PROJECT: Kirkland Place

LOCATION: Beaverton

SIZE:��three buildings on 2.89 acres

START DATE: August 2017

ANTICIPATED END DATE: September 2022

COST: undisclosed

OWNER/DEVELOPER: Kirkland Development

ARCHITECT: Otak

ENGINEERS: Otak (civil), KGA (structural), Ayres (MEP)

CONTRACTOR:��Kirkland Construction

OTHER ASSOCIATES/CONSULTANTS: Gausman & Moore, Kramer Gehlen & Associates

PROJECT SIGNIFICANCE: Kirkland Place will consist of three buildings on approximately 2.89 acres in Beaverton, at the northeast corner of Northwest 118th Avenue and Barnes Road.

Two of the buildings are being developed as commercial pads of approximately 6,300 square feet in a one-story structure and 16,400 square feet in a two-story structure; both will be served by on-site parking at grade. The third structure will be a four-story, 89-room EVEN brand hotel with below-grade parking, a fitness studio, a boardroom, an indoor dining room, and an outdoor dining area with a fire pit served by the signature EVEN bar and kitchen.

Exterior materials will include composite siding, metal panels, stone veneer and Exterior Insulation and Finish Systems (EIFS).

“Building Blocks” spotlights noteworthy projects either under construction or approaching the start of construction. To submit a project for consideration, please visit: djcoregon.com/building-blocks.

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Otak Inc. has acquired Seattle-based Tarr Whitman Group LLC. TWG will operate as a business unit of Otak and remain focused on providing project control and related services to the full spectrum of Otak and TWG clients.

“We are seeing our clients delivering projects that are becoming larger and more complex. Project controls brings a focus on cost and schedule that is essential in completing projects on schedule and within budgets,” Jim Hamann, Otak chief executive officer, said in a news release. “TWG’s specialized data-focused services allow clients to see beyond the basic costs and schedules to gain a real view of the decisions that need to be made now to achieve their goals for completion. As projects become more complex change management is key, and TWG’s services strengthen our clients’ ability to manage the cost and schedule impacts of changes during project implementation. TWG’s services essentially pay for themselves through more efficient project delivery.”

A specialized project controls and construction support consulting firm, TWG has a long history in the A/E/C industry, with program work at the Washington State Department of Transportation, Sound Transit, and the Port of Seattle, among others. TWG’s experience in mega-projects will increase Otak’s capabilities to compete for larger program and project initiatives.

Walter Tarr, TWG’s founder, said in the news release that joining Otak positions the company well to help clients manage the increase in federal and local infrastructure spending.

“With Otak’s support our senior staff can focus their efforts on pursuing more clients, hiring quality staff and providing a greater range of services,” he said. “We are excited about the merger and think it will strengthen our relationships with our existing clients. We can now offer a wider range of integrated services that will strengthen our ability to quickly respond to our clients’ needs.”

In business for more than 40 years, Otak is an interdisciplinary planning, design, engineering, and project management firm based in Portland. It has offices in Redmond, Everett and Vancouver, Washington, and Louisville and Denver, Colorado.

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PROJECT: Patricia Reser Center for the Arts

LOCATION: Beaverton

SIZE:��43,000 square feet

COST:��$55 million

START DATE: late 2019

ANTICIPATED END DATE: February 2022 (opening March 8)

OWNER: city of Beaverton

OWNER’S REPRESENTATIVE: Gerding Edlen

ARCHITECT: Opsis Architecture

ENGINEERS: KPFF Consulting Engineers (structural), Otak (civil), PAE (mechanical and plumbing), Reyes Engineering (electrical, tele/data low voltage)

CONSTRUCTION MANAGER/GENERAL CONTRACTOR:��Skanska USA Building

OTHER CONSULTANTS/PARTICIPANTS: Anderson Krygier (environmental graphic design), Angelo Planning Group (land use), DCW Cost Management (estimating), JLC Consulting (specifications), Morrison Hershfield (envelope), Pacific Habitat Services (environmental consultant), PLACE (landscape architecture), Stantec (acoustics), The Shalleck Collaborative (theater planning and audio/visual)

SIGNIFICANCE OF PROJECT: Located near The Round between Southwest Cedar Hills Boulevard and Southwest Hall Boulevard, the Reser Center features a 550-seat theater; an art gallery; rehearsal, workshop and meeting space; a lobby; an outdoor plaza and an adjacent parking structure. The site is near a light rail station, City Hall, Beaverton Creek, shops, restaurants and lodging. This is the first facility of its kind to be built from the ground up in the Portland area in more than three decades.

Opsis Architecture sought to blend urban and natural settings in the design. The plan included not only the main structure, but parking, a pedestrian-friendly promenade with a street festival ambience, and public art. Inspired by the metaphor of a beaver dam, wood panels and long, thin wood slats or “sticks” and incision points are integrated to enable light to pour into the atrium, while blending with state-of-the-art acoustic and theatrical systems in the Mainstage Theater. With blue seats, the theater is evocative of a body of water adjacent to a creek housing a beaver dam. The facility includes 21,000 square feet of Douglas fir. The second floor has space for a variety of educational workshops, classes, rehearsals, meetings and events. The performing and presentation spaces are designed to maximize the connection between artists and audiences.

The concept of creating a center for the arts in Beaverton started in the late 1990s. Later, a study led by Opsis and Theater Consulting Group, in conjunction with University of Oregon students, showed what a world-class arts center could look like. In July 2018, the Beaverton Arts Foundation announced a pledge of $13 million from Pat Reser to launch the project. In three years, more than 950 donors – individuals, families, foundations and businesses – provided more than $12 million to exceed the initial goal by $1 million. Gifts ranged from $2 to $1.5 million. Also, the Beaverton City Council approved a hotel lodging tax to help pay for construction and provide ongoing financial support of operations.

“Building Blocks” spotlights noteworthy projects either under construction or approaching the start of construction. To submit a project for consideration, please visit: djcoregon.com/building-blocks.

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A new project in the Columbia Palisades Master Plan will be a beacon over the Columbia River with the Portland skyline’s views.

The project consists of a five-story apartment and five-story condominium building, which will sit on a basalt bluff with views of the river and Mt. Hood.

Otak is the architecture firm and Kirkland Development LLC is the developer. The site is 203,000 square feet.

The 86-unit apartment building and 51-unit condominium structure stand on two levels of concrete podium. A pedestrian plaza deck links the buildings with planters, seating walls, entry courtyards and covered outdoor amenities.

Both of the buildings feature top-floor units with double the height of living space, mezzanines, terraces and covered decks.

Underneath the building is a 231-lot parking structure where 148 of the stalls are mechanical “stacker” spaces.

The site’s high stature creates a challenge with the heavy winds coming off of the Gorge. Brian Fleener, principal at Otak, said the buildings were designed to withstand parameters typically seen on steep coastal sites, not within city limits.

Winds over 40 mph can curve up the site’s steep slope. The project’s team needed to design for structural and waterproofing complexities. There was a limitation on window sizes in order to make them durable enough and weather-proofed.

The exterior cladding of the buildings is made up of aluminum composite panels on a rainscreen.

The white cladding was chosen to create a clean, crisp juxtaposition to the bluff’s rocky nature, Chris Maykut, senior designer on the project, said. It will also distinguish itself from the rest of the development.

The bluff is part of an 84-acre rock quarry that is being made into a mixed-use development. The inception of Ledges at the Columbia Palisades started 15 years ago, Fleener said.

The area had been a rock quarry for more than 135 years. As the area’s plans transitioned to a development, flat benches were formed throughout for buildings to be placed on it.

Otak’s project team also includes Director of Design Gary Reddick, Senior Project Manager Casey McKenna, Project Architect Saretta Tillmaand, Landscape Architect David Haynes and Civil Engineer Tim Leavitt.

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A Pearl District group on Thursday continued to fight plans for a 23-story hotel and residential building that would dwarf others nearby. Pearl Neighbors for Integrity in Design pleaded its case to the Portland City Council in a three-hour hearing.

Plans for the 197,118-square-foot Hyatt Place and Allison Residences have elicited substantial opposition. The building, residents say, would interfere with motor vehicle, bicycle and pedestrian traffic, provide no on-site parking and ruin the character of the South Pearl, where low-slung warehouses mix with modern condo buildings.

The proposal, approved by the Portland Design Commission earlier this year, calls for a structure that would be the tallest in the Pearl since implementation of the Central City 2035 plan. The zoning reform raised allowable building heights around the city in a bid to accommodate more housing and growth. But the bigger buildings have sparked backlash from residents who say their neighborhoods’ character is being threatened.

PNID’s appeal was presented by Bateman Seidel land-use attorney Carrie Richter. She said the project “turns its back” on the Flanders Greenway – a future bicyclist- and pedestrian-friendly route planned by the Portland Bureau of Transportation – and introduces a “pinch point” on Northwest 12th Avenue where neighborhood traffic would encounter a loading zone for the proposed building.

The project is planned for 350 N.W. 12th Ave., on the southeast corner of 12th Avenue and Flanders Street. The property currently holds a surface parking lot.

PNID also presented a slickly produced video illustrating the evolution of the Pearl from an “industrial wasteland” into a desirable modern neighborhood. The project is “an example of extracting all of the potential development rights while sacrificing all of the adjacent area,” PNID President Patricia Cliff said in recorded testimony.

The Central City 2035 plan raised allowable building height on the site, with bonuses, from 175 feet to 250 feet.

The project is planned by a joint venture of Seattle multifamily developer Vibrant Cities and hotelier��The Sunray Companies��of Madison, Mississippi. A lawyer for the developers, Renee France, said the project conforms to design guidelines, making other objections irrelevant.

“Most of the arguments made by the appellants attempt to either ignore that criterion or impermissibly expand or mischaracterize the applicable guidelines,” she said.

France added: “This building, and this project, is exactly what Central City 2035 intended.”

Cliff, in her video narration, invoked historical racial displacement in the neighborhood and tied PNID’s appeal to the Black Lives Matter movement. That brought a sharp response from David Dysert, who serves as co-chairman of the Pearl District Neighborhood Association‘s Planning and Transportation Committee (Dysert said he was speaking as an individual).

“We can have honest disagreements about development and design, context and code, but it is disingenuous and cynical to use the argument of racial displacement for personal concerns over height, density or use,” Dysert said. “Requiring all future buildings remain below one’s own 15th-story penthouse view has nothing to do with racial equity or honoring a people’s history.”

The appeal was filed by PNID, a 501(c)(3) group that is not affiliated with the city-sanctioned Pearl District Neighborhood Association.

City commissioners did not deliberate Thursday, and chose to hold their opinions on the appeal for another day.

Commissioner Amanda Fritz grilled Gary Larson, a consulting architect with Otak, about how the building would complement the context of existing buildings – a design guideline. Larson responded that nearby buildings have materials similar to ones planned for the tower, including concrete bases.

The Design Commission unanimously approved Otak’s design in January after a series of design advice meetings.

The City Council is tentatively scheduled to vote on the appeal on Sept. 16. The record will remain open for new submissions until 5 p.m. on Thursday.

The council could uphold, deny or remand the appeal to the Design Commission. Either side could then appeal the council’s decision to the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals.

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They couldn’t figure out where to put the valet parking.

If valet parking for a 23-story hotel and apartment building in the Pearl District were placed on Northwest 12th Avenue, it could cause conflicts with residential buildings including The Casey and street traffic.

Yet if it were placed on Northwest Flanders Street, it would interfere with a plan to turn the street into a bikeway that would run from Waterfront Park to Flanders Crossing – a bridge over Interstate 405 that crews are slated to begin building this year.

The design problems for the Hyatt Place and Allison Residences were thorny. The project from a partnership of two out-of-state developers called for a dense building on a quarter-block property in a busy part of the Pearl District.

It was the first project in the south Pearl to take advantage of several provisions of the Central City 2035 plan, including a greater height limit of 250 feet, up from 175 feet. The building will have no parking – another change from old requirements that rankled some nearby residents.

Throughout the design process, the Pearl District Neighborhood Association was involved, prodding and pushing details to be more in keeping with the neighborhood and acceptable to residents. Leaders of the group’s Planning and Transportation Committee met at least three times with architects from Otak Inc., the local design firm engaged by developers Vibrant Cities of Seattle and The Sunray Companies��of Madison, Mississippi. They wrote letters. They attended hourslong Portland Design Commission hearings, which culminated in the project’s approval on Jan. 16.

“Our whole focus is to make things better,” said David Dysert, co-chairman of the Pearl District Neighborhood Association Planning and Transportation Committee. “We have a very positive relationship with the city and with the Design Commission because they respect what we’re trying to do.”

The city’s 94 officially recognized neighborhood associations are under scrutiny like never before, receiving blame from some parties for stalling projects that would bring needed housing. A code change proposed by the Office of Community and Civic Life threatened to reduce associations’ role in the city’s public process. For now, those changes have been shelved, with Commissioner Chloe Eudaly’s office establishing a work group to consider the future of public involvement.

Dysert said the Pearl District Neighborhood Association is more diverse than detractors give it credit for, and does not seek to stop projects, but rather to shape them.

“We’re pro-development,” he said. “We’re pro-density.”

The Hyatt Place and Allison Residences offer a case study in how neighborhood associations work with designers and the city’s Bureau of Development Services.

Otak’s Casey McKenna is the project manager for the Hyatt Place and Allison Residences. He worked closely with Pearl District representatives in finalizing the design.

“It was a very collaborative experience,” he said. “We presented to them three times. The third time, they were beginning to really feel like they were part of the process.”

The neighborhood association representatives also went to Otak’s offices to puzzle over models. The group’s input helped inform the building’s massing and upper-floor step-backs, materials and ground-floor elements that will be part of the pedestrian experience, including a water feature evoking Tanner Creek that is required by design guidelines.

“It was a working meeting,” McKenna said.

Early on, Otak made the decision to move the valet parking and loading to 12th Avenue. Having trucks backing onto the Northwest Flanders Bikeway could have been managed, but was best avoided, McKenna said.

“(The Portland Bureau of Transportation) didn’t want it; the neighborhood didn’t want it,” he said. “We moved the loading dock.”

Conversations between Otak’s architects and the neighborhood association leaders required some give and take, McKenna said.

“Overall, I think we would see it as a pretty positive experience,” he said. “There was some contention, certainly, in some of the earlier meetings. As an architect, sometimes you have to listen, and let them talk and listen to what they have to say.”

At times, neighborhood association leaders had to be told certain design changes would be impossible under city codes, McKenna said.

“There are just so many competing elements with a complex project like this,” he said. “Often the public doesn’t understand why things are the way they need to be. There are times where you have to say, ‘yeah, the code doesn’t allow that to happen.’”

Moving the dock and valet parking was eased by the building’s design, which places the main entrance at the corner. Some building systems could simply be swapped to the other side.

Otak also worked closely with Bureau of Development Services staffers Art Graves and Tim Heron.

Throughout, the project was challenged by another group of Pearl District residents: the Pearl Neighbors for Integrity in Design. The nonprofit group, led by Patricia Cliff as president, fought the project for months with the help of a land-use attorney.

At one early Design Commission meeting, Cliff called the project “vertical sprawl,” and the group paraded around the room with hand-drawn pictures of a maple tree at the corner of 12th Avenue and Flanders Street that will be axed to make way for the building.

The competing priorities of Cliff’s group and the city-recognized neighborhood association have led to much consternation in the Pearl District. Adding to the issues, Cliff also serves on the neighborhood association’s Planning and Transportation Committee led by Dysert and Reza Farhoodi as co-chairmen.

“We’re kind of dealing with it,” Dysert said. “We haven’t had this before where someone has built a separate organization that is in some way parallel to what we do.”

Cliff could not be reached for comment Friday. But she said in the aftermath of the Jan. 16 approval that she still has concerns about the Hyatt Place and Allison Residences.

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

The project team hopes to break ground in the fourth quarter of 2020, McKenna said.

The building will have approximately 160 hotel rooms on floors two through 11, and 113 studio and one-bedroom apartments on floors 12 through 23. The developers have opted to satisfy Portland’s inclusionary housing requirements with affordable units on site, rather than pay a fee in lieu, McKenna said. The precise number of affordable units is still to be determined.

“It’s certainly something that we’re super proud of,” McKenna said of the project. “We’re blazing a new trail.”

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A Dallas-based developer’s plans for a five-building redevelopment of property in the South Waterfront District have a long way to go to gain approval, the Portland Design Commission indicated on Thursday.

The development would sit on four blocks near the Willamette River. Portland Bureau of Development Services staffers raised questions regarding access to the Willamette River, traffic impacts and the layout of a greenway through the area.

The project’s first review hearing before the Design Commission was Thursday. Commissioners were nonplussed by Alamo Manhattan‘s proposal, saying they were unsure how to even begin evaluating what one commissioner described as an incomplete land-use application for a massive redevelopment.

Alamo Manhattan proposes to build approximately 1,232 residential units, 20,000 square feet of retail space and 965 parking spots. The design would locate two high-rise buildings closest to the river, with three mid-rise buildings on the two western blocks, in contrast with city guidelines that call for building heights to step down to the river. The buildings closest to the river would rise to 244 feet, 9 inches, just below the 250-foot maximum height. The interior block buildings would be approximately 72 to 73 feet tall.

“This is very unusual that we’re reviewing five massive buildings and a greenway,” Commissioner Zari Santner said. “How come the bureau accepts an application that is so insufficiently complete?”

“The applicant can deem it complete,” BDS planner Staci Monroe replied. “There is nothing in the code that prohibits it.”

Monroe agreed that it was not typical to review several buildings and related infrastructure at once.

“It’s an insane amount of work to put this into one land-use case,” she said.

Santner suggested the developer’s plans were not close to meeting guidelines.

“There’s nothing that stops us from asking the applicant to keep coming back until we get to something that’s approvable,” she said.

Alamo Manhattan President Matt Segrest offered no indication that the developer would break up the land-use application into smaller parts.

“I recognize this is a huge chore here,” he said. “It is. There’s no way around that. We want to get this approved as soon as we can as well.”

The staff report did not recommend approval – a routine stance in the early stages of a land-use application. However, the staff report details at least 29 distinct guidelines not yet met by the proposal. Furthermore, the city’s environmental services and transportation bureaus, as well as the BDS site development section, stated they were not able to support the application.

The design team includes WDG Architecture, HLR Architects, landscape architect��Linda Tycher and Associates��and engineering firm��Otak.

The property is slightly north of The Old Spaghetti Factory, and bounded by Southwest Bond Avenue, Southwest Lane Street, Southwest Lowell Street and the river.

Two design advice hearings for the project took place in February and August. The project team is scheduled to return before the Design Commission on Feb. 6, 2020.

Also on Thursday:

OHSU expansion wins approval

The Portland Design Commission unanimously approved plans for Oregon Health & Science University’s 14-story hospital expansion on Marquam Hill.

Commissioners praised the proposal presented by the design team of NBBJ, based in Seattle, and Mayer/Reed, which handled the outdoor plaza.

“The response that we’re looking at today is significantly stronger than when this building (design) came into the room,” Design Commission Chairwoman Julie Livingston said at Thursday’s hearing.

The building will be located slightly west of the Elks Children’s Eye Clinic, which was also designed by NBBJ.

The plaza and outdoor spaces were a focus of the Design Commission’s attention throughout the review process. The designers responded to earlier criticism that the plaza’s pathways weren’t well integrated and lacked separation between pedestrians and cars. The final design expanded outdoor seating, added street trees and also created a landscape buffer between the sidewalk and street.

“Your collective feedback has greatly improved the hospital design as well as the public plaza,” said José Sama, a principal with NBBJ, which recently opened a Portland office.

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The Portland Design Commission has delayed making a decision on a proposal for a 23-story hotel and multifamily project that has raised opposition from neighbors in the Pearl District.

The design by Otak Inc. has improved from earlier iterations, design commissioners said. But they opted not to take a vote at a Thursday hearing, leaving the record open for more written testimony.

The proposed tower would be the first in the Pearl District under Central City 2035 zoning that raised height limits. The developers plan to use the full height limit, with bonuses, of 250 feet – an increase from the previous limit of 175 feet.

Neighbors have objected to the height and bulk of the Hyatt Place design. The building would be constructed on a quarter-block lot at Northwest 12th Avenue and Flanders Street.

“The central problem here is there is too much mass and too much height and it is not contextually appropriate,” said Carrie Richter, a land use attorney representing the Pearl Neighbors for Integrity in Design, a community group that has challenged tall building projects in the area. PNID is distinct from the city-recognized neighborhood association.

The Hyatt Place project comes from a development team of Seattle developer Vibrant Cities and The Sunray Companies of Madison, Mississippi.

The 197,118-square-foot building would hold 160 hotel rooms on floors two through 11, and 113 studio and one-bedroom units on floors 12 through 23. The project was valued at $66 million by the city’s Bureau of Development Services.

Otak’s Gary Larson said the design team had used setbacks and other architectural moves to reduce the apparent mass.

“We have created a dynamism here with also the goal of bringing the height of the building into the context of the neighborhood,” he said.

Richter told design commissioners that they should follow the previous zoning rules because the Central City 2035 plan was remanded in August by the state Land Use Board of Appeals. The city lacked a factual basis for the height limits, LUBA said.

“The tallest building that you can approve is 175 feet,” Richter said.

City officials said they would follow the 250-foot height limit, which has been declared effective but not formally “acknowledged” – the final step of approval by the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development.

Architectural changes made since previous meetings with design commissioners won praise. Reza Farhoodi, a resident representing the Pearl District Neighborhood Association, said the design appeared “more cohesive.”

“This project will set a precedent for height in the Pearl District neighborhood, so it’s important to get the design details right,” he said.

Design commissioners said a required water feature was better integrated into the ground floor façade. They also praised the stouter appearance of the building’s base, which was criticized in earlier designs as too weak.

“The base-middle-top expression is a clear improvement over earlier expressions,” Commissioner Brian McCarter said.

McCarter, however, voiced one significant concern.

“My one disappointment is urban street trees,” he said. “It really bothers me in a quarter-block building that we’ve set a precedent for one street tree in a hundred feet. … To have a single tree in a hundred feet, it seems like we’ve got to do better than that.”

The project team will return before the Design Commission for final deliberations and a decision on Jan. 9.

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