The Architecture Foundation of Oregon hosted a networking event this week at 1320 Broadway, the former Oregonian newspaper building designed by Pietro Belluschi. Fortis Construction is putting the finishing touches on a $15 million core and shell renovation, designed by Allied Works Architecture, for Seattle-based owner Urban Renaissance Group.

Work on the project has included removing drop ceilings and acoustic ceiling tiles to reveal 28-foot ceilings in the building’s lobby and former printing and broadcast spaces, exposing of original concrete structural elements, addition of a ramp to the basement for parking, and new entrances, windows, bathrooms , locker rooms and shower facilities.

The building contains 165,000 square feet of open creative office space, most of which has been leased. Elemental Technologies has leased around 101,000 square feet, D+H Financial Technologies will occupy another 45,000 square feet, and Ristretto Roasters will operate in the building’s lobby. The former printing press space at street level on Southwest Sixth Avenue and a ground-level space on the south side of the main entrance on Southwest Broadway remain open. Tenant improvement work is slated to begin in the coming weeks.

The post Photos: Ex-newspaper space gains creative flair appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The 15-story Commonwealth Building, constructed in downtown Portland in 1948, has sold for $69 million.

The 216,099-square-foot building was purchased by KBS Capital Advisors, a Newport Beach, California-based affiliate of KBS Growth & Income Real Estate Investment Trust, according to a news release. Financing came in the form of a $47.4 million, five-year floating rate acquisition loan from an insurance company. The loan was arranged by HFF, which also marketed the property.

The seller was Unico Properties, a limited liability company. The property previously sold for $41 million in 2013 and $27.7 million in 2007.

The latest sale equates to $319 per square foot.

Pietro Belluschi, a notable Portland architect who died in 1994, designed the building at 421 S.W. Sixth Ave.

The Commonwealth Building was remodeled between 2013 and 2015 into creative office space. The building fronts the Sixth Avenue transit mall, and includes flexible office space, a fitness center and basement bicycle storage.

Tenants include Quantum Spatial, Kennedy Jenks, the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance and Galois Inc.

The building has a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design gold rating from the U.S. Green Building Council. Originally named the Equitable Building, it is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The sale comes amid a backdrop of strong demand for office space in Portland. Class A office space had average asking rents of $31.33 during the second quarter, and a total vacancy rate of 7.8 percent, according to Jones Lang LaSalle.

The post Downtown Portland tower sells for $69 million appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The former headquarters of The Oregonian, now being renovated, has its first tenant signed. Ristretto Roasters will operate in the lobby of the downtown Portland building at 1320 S.W. Broadway.

The 67-year-old structure, designed by Pietro Belluschi, last year was purchased by Urban Renaissance Group and Clarion Partners for $14.2 million. They are spending more to renovate the building and restore it more closely to its original design.

One of those efforts is returning the lobby’s high ceilings, Urban Renaissance Group project manager Tom Kilbane said.

“It was really a grand, quasi-public space with 28-foot ceilings and a big expanse of floor space,” he said. “Over the years it got closed in with drop ceilings involved and office space that encroached.”

Ristretto Roasters’ space will be relatively small, at 400 square feet, but it won’t be walled off and will be a primary feature of the lobby, Kilbane said.

Allied Works Architecture, architect of record for the project, worked closely with Ristretto Roasters’ director of operations, Brian Cross, to come up with a design for the café, Kilbane said.

“They had to install plumbing and a water line into the space, but decided to leave it open and make it feel like it’s part of the lobby,” he said.

Ristretto Roasters’ café will open next spring, Kilbane said, when the building is expected to reopen.

“They are a great coffee provider and we’re happy to have them come into the building,” he said.

Once renovations are complete, the building will have 40,000-square-foot floor plates and six floors of office space totaling 165,000 square feet. Also, 6,000 square feet of ground-level space will be available for retail businesses.

Renovation plans also call for creating an outdoor terrace and event space with a catering kitchen and restrooms, secure ride-in/ride-out bike parking for 200 bicycles, locker rooms connected to private showers and bathrooms, and an on-site concierge and event space able to accommodate up to 300 people in the lobby.

This will be Ristretto Roasters’ fourth Portland location. The company, which handcrafts its coffees in small batches, was founded in 2005 by Din Johnson in the Beaumont neighborhood.

The post First tenant signed for ex-Oregonian headquarters appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The Architecture Foundation of Oregon has selected Arlene Schnitzer and her son Jordan Schnitzer as recipients of its annual Honored Citizen award for 2015.

Jane Jarrett, executive director of the foundation, said the philanthropic work of Arlene and her late husband Harold Schnitzer is well known, and Jordan is carrying on that tradition.

“They are receiving the award because of what they have done for the design and built environment,” Jarrett said. “A lot of architecture and design firms are going through transition from one generation to the next, and we felt the story of transitioning Arlene’s leadership as a philanthropist to Jordan is a good example for our members.”

In particular, she cited Jordan Schnitzer’s involvement over the years to restore and preserve the Astoria Column in Astoria, built in 1926 and embellished with the designs of Italian immigrant artist Attilio Pusterla.

“It’s a really important landmark in Astoria – a huge column overlooking the mouth of the Columbia River – and it means a lot to Oregonians,” Jarrett said. “Its whole surface mural had to be restored, and Jordan led the fundraising and provided much of the funds. He just did it because he loves Oregon and cares about what’s important to people in this state.”

The awards will be presented at a dinner on Oct. 27. Details on the dinner are on the Architecture Foundation of Oregon website at .

The contributions of Arlene Schnitzer go way back, Jarrett said, and include a $1 million one in the 1980s she and her husband made toward restoration of what is now the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.

Jarrett said naming a building after a major donor was frowned upon back then, but it helped other fundraising efforts.

“For them to be willing to put her name on it really helped raise money for the Newmark Theaters,” she said. “It also helped fundraise for other entities in arts and education – a kind of new way to do things that people weren’t doing before, when it was all very hush-hush and quiet.”

Jarrett also cited Jordan Schnitzer’s contribution to restore an old building and create the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon in Eugene.

“It was a beautiful old building to start with, but what he contributed added on, creating humidity control, storage and exhibition space,” she said.

As president of Harsch Investment Properties, Jordan Schnitzer has also contributed to the built environment, she said, citing the firm’s renovation of the Federal Reserve Bank, designed by architect Pietro Belluschi.

“Even Jordan’s business development brings art and design in a way that makes sure it is done carefully and well,” she said.

The post Schnitzers to be honored by AFO appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The decades-long friendship between the late Portland mid-century architects Pietro Belluschi and Walter Gordon will be the focus of an upcoming event to benefit two nonprofit organizations.

Proceeds from a tour on Saturday of the Jack and Betty Meier House in Southwest Portland, designed by Gordon in 1970, will be split between the historic preservation organization Restore Oregon and the Architecture Foundation of Oregon.

The event takes place from 4 to 6 p.m. and will feature a talk by Belluschi’s son and Portland architect, Anthony Belluschi. He will read excerpts from the 50-year correspondence between his father and Gordon spanning from the 1930s through the 1980s.

Gordon’s designs are lesser known than those of Pietro Belluschi, but he is also considered a major contributor to the development of the Northwest Regional Modernism style, said Brandon Spencer-Hartle, a senior field programs manager with Restore Oregon. The event will offer a rare opportunity for the public to tour one of Gordon’s residential designs before it goes on the market, Spencer-Hartle said.

Gordon and Belluschi worked together early in their architectural careers at the Portland office of A.E. Doyle. They remained close friends throughout their lives and, although they lived on opposite sides of the country, stayed in touch until Belluschi’s death in 1994.

After working for A.E. Doyle, Gordon started his own Portland architectural firm and taught at the University of Oregon in Eugene and Reed College in Portland. He died in 1997.

Tickets for the tour and talk, “Entertaining Correspondence: The 50-year friendship of Pietro Belluschi and Walter Gordon,” are $50 each. Restore Oregon’s tickets are sold out; however, tickets through AFO are still available or by calling 503-542-3825.

The post Event highlights mid-century architects’ friendship appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Residences designed by late modernist architect and Portland native Van Evera Bailey will be featured in Restore Oregon‘s Mid-Century Modern Home Tour on May 9.

The self-guided tour, scheduled from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., is a , a Portland-based nonprofit that advocates for historic preservation.

Participants in the event will have the chance to tour seven or eight homes designed by Bailey at different points of his career, said Peggy Moretti, Restore Oregon executive director. All are either in Portland or Lake Oswego and were built between the late 1920s and the 1960s.

“They’re going to see his style evolve over the decades,” she said. “You can get a very good education on modernist architecture and particularly the Northwest interpretation of it.”

Bailey, who died in 1980, is credited as one of the architects who developed the Pacific Northwest Regional Modernism architectural style. Last year, the Mid-Century Modern Home Tour featured the residential work of acclaimed modernist architect Pietro Belluschi. This year, tour organizers decided to highlight the work of Bailey, a lesser-known contributor to the modernist movement, Moretti said.

“He’s extraordinarily talented, but not as high profile,” she said. “We’re looking forward to putting a spotlight on his work.”

The home tour will be held in conjunction with a lecture, on May 8, discussing Bailey’s architectural career. “” is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Belluschi-designed Central Lutheran Church, 1820 N.E. 21st Ave. in Portland. Speakers will include Belluschi’s son, Portland architect Anthony Belluschi; THA Architecture managing principal Becca Cavell; and Jack Bookwalter, a freelance architecture writer and retired planner.

Home tour tickets are available now to Restore Oregon members through the organization’s website, but will be available to the general public starting on March 20. The cost is $35 for Restore Oregon members and $45 for nonmembers.

Tickets to the May 8 lecture are on sale on Restore Oregon’s website. Prices are $10 for members and $15 for nonmembers.

The post Late Portland architect’s work will be in spotlight appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

For the new owners of The Oregonian‘s former headquarters in downtown Portland, moving the structure into the future will mean returning it, in part, to its past.

Clarion Partners and Urban Renaissance Group spent $14.2 million to purchase the building on Southwest Sixth Street. The partners will spend more money to renovate the building in a manner that will pay tribute to its place in the history of Portland architecture.

Designed by Pietro Belluschi and constructed in 1947, the building in its heyday was “a gentle, shimmering mass of glass, marble and granite” that stood as a tribute to the architect’s design finesse, according to an article in the New York Times written when Belluschi died in 1994.

With an eye toward restoring some of that original glory, Clarion Partners, which has headquarters in New York, and Seattle-based Urban Renaissance Group plan a multimillion-dollar renovation for the building under the design direction of Allied Works Architecture.

The lobby ceiling is slated to return to its original 28-foot height, which will allow natural light to enter the space from clerestory windows on the side of the building bordering Southwest Broadway.

Additions and revisions to the building over the years will be removed to reveal long-hidden details of Belluschi’s design.

A tunnel that was used by trucks will be revamped with windows to create a connection between the street and the interior lobby area.

The building also will receive a new entrance, and basement space will be converted to car and bicycle parking.

The building boasts more than 165,000 square feet spread across six floors, which the owners say could be attractive to tenants with large-scale operations.

The post BLOG: Downtown building’s future tied to its past appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

When Scott | Edwards Architecture principal Peter Grimm started designing mid-century home renovations several years ago, he was immediately struck by the architectural style.

“A lot of that stuff is kind of cool again,” he said. “It’s an interesting aesthetic. It’s kind of fresh … The geometry is really serving the occupants.”

Homes in pockets of the Portland-metro area are now considered historic because they were built during the 1950s and ’60s in mid-century modern style. As the properties age, renewed appreciation for the style and demographic shifts in ownership are driving a surge in renovations. Commercial and public buildings from the era also are being renovated so that original architecture is preserved.

“It is a remarkable era, that post-war 1950s and ’60s,” Grimm said. “(Building owners) have high-quality space that is due for an update or a restoration.”

Mid-century buildings are younger than most historic properties, but Portland-area architects who’ve contributed to their renovations say they still need plenty of work. Insulation is either slim or nonexistent and single-pane windows often need to be replaced. Many properties have never had their interiors or mechanical systems upgraded. Some of the building materials were experimental and have begun to deteriorate; others, like composite asbestos panels, are now considered hazardous.

“These were the first use of these materials and some of them worked and some of them didn’t,” Hennebery Eddy Architects principal David Wark said. “Then it’s about finding an appropriate substitute material.”

The Portland-based firm’s work with mid-century buildings includes a renovation and a penthouse addition to The Reserve. The downtown Portland office building, formerly the Federal Reserve Building, was designed by renowned modernist architect Pietro Belluschi.

FFA Architecture and Interiors, meanwhile, has worked on upgrades of mid-century buildings for the National Park Service, associate partner Barbara Clement said. One, the Hoh Rain Forest Visitor Center in Olympic National Park in Washington, was built in the early 1960s during a building boom for the federal agency, she said.

“It’s a building that’s being treated as historic even though it’s considered mid-century modern,” she said.

Restoring the original building materials is much more important in renovations to older historic properties than mid-century modern structures, Clement said.

“It’s not about the material as much as the form of the architecture, preserving that modern character,” she said. “That’s been an interesting change of how we’re working as historic architects.”

Restore Oregon, a Portland-based organization that advocates for preservation, has spent a lot of time educating people about the historic value of mid-century properties, Executive Director Peggy Moretti said. It’s still rare for a mid-century modern building to be on the National Register of Historic Places, and Restore Oregon is encouraging more home and commercial building owners to get their properties listed, she said. A listing qualifies a building’s owner for federal tax credits that can help pay for a renovation that preserves historic character.

“Where we are as an organization is in that awareness mode of, first of all, think of your building as historic (and) then you can tap into historic tax credits,” she said.

More mid-century properties are receiving historic designations. About a year ago, the Oak Hills neighborhood in Beaverton was added to the national register as an excellent example of a 1960s master-planned community. In 2009, Portland’s Veterans Memorial Coliseum, completed in 1960, was saved from demolition and added to the register.

Portland architect Peter Meijer pushed for the listing for the coliseum. He is president of the Oregon chapter of Docomomo, a growing organization that advocates for the preservation of buildings, sites and neighborhoods exhibiting modernism.

“Mid-century modern is in the mainstream now,” he said. “There are several generations of modern architects who were trained in the modernist movement. There is a real surge in affinity to that type of architecture.”

Today’s architects have a much easier time relating to a modernist’s building than a much older historic one, Meijer said.

“The spaces themselves lend themselves to current architecture, so that’s why you’re seeing a renewed interest (in renovations),” he said. “When you get mid-century modern where the lines are clean, the renovations are much more compatible.”

Grimm said he’s designing several mid-century home remodels in the Portland area. He expects more such work as aging homeowners sell the structures to young families.

The open floor plans and airiness of mid-century modern homes remain desirable, Grimm said. They’re also easier to expand than are houses from other eras, he said.

“I’ve done a couple additions where we were able to do some fun geometry,” he said. “It’s hard to add onto a Cape Cod or a colonial (home).”

Work with mid-century homes has enlightened Grimm.

“It’s so different to live and work in a mid-century building than a prewar building because they really released the structure,” he said. “For me as an architect, it’s a great lesson.”

The post Preserving a historic aesthetic appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Six Portland-metro homes designed by acclaimed architect Pietro Belluschi will be featured in Restore Oregon‘s Mid-Century Modern Home Tour on May 10.

The , scheduled from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., is a fundraiser for Restore Oregon, a Portland-based nonprofit that advocates for historic preservation.

Belluschi, known as a modernist, spent the early part of his career – the late 1940s and early ’50s – in Portland designing many homes. After a stint as dean of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Architecture and Planning, he returned to Portland, where he lived until his death in 1994.

The upcoming tour will be the first time a collection of Portland-area homes designed by Belluschi will be open to the public, Restore Oregon Executive Director Peggy Moretti said. The tour will include the Burkes-Belluschi House, the last house where Belluschi lived and the current residence of his son Anthony Belluschi, who also is an architect.

“We really enjoy the opportunity to shed light on the now historic modern architecture in Portland,” Moretti said. “It’s the next generation of our preservation efforts. We work from the pioneer era all the way to the modern era.”

In addition to opening his home for the tour, Anthony Belluschi plans to give a lecture titled “Living in a Work of Art: the Architecture of Pietro Belluschi,” on May 9 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Portland Art Museum. He will discuss his efforts to restore homes his father designed.

Anthony Belluschi said he and his wife spent about four years restoring the Northwest Portland home his father designed and bought from its original owner in 1973.

“The houses are really gems, and to see six in one day is really unique,” Anthony Belluschi said. “I think people will get a new appreciation.”

The cost of the home tour is $35 for Restore Oregon members, or $45 for nonmembers. The lecture is $15 for nonmembers, or $10 for members.

Tickets for both events will go on sale to the general public starting March 17; they can be purchased online at restoreoregon.org or by phone at 503-243-1923.

The post Home tour will feature Pietro Belluschi designs appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The Oregon Historical Society recently opened an exhibit on Pietro Belluschi, one of the most famous architects to ever live and work in Oregon.

The exhibit, curated by Belluschi’s son Anthony at the Oregon History Museum in Portland, shares an overview of the architect’s work through models, pictures and artifacts. All of the models are of Belluschi’s work in Oregon, which include the Portland Art Museum, St. Thomas More Church and the Commonwealth Building.  His work was recognized as being innovative for its mix of modernism and organic architecture. He was also known and respected as a philosopher and educator.

“Pietro Belluschi was not only Oregon’s most historic and influential architect. He was also one of America’s,” said Kerry Tymchuk, executive director of the society. “(The museum) is very proud to feature this beautiful exhibit, which highlights Pietro’s remarkable body of work and his lasting legacy.”

Belluschi was originally born in Italy, but his architectural career began as a draftsman in Portland. Eventually, he went on to be the dean of the MIT School of Architecture and Planning and a collaborator for many high-profile projects, including the Pan Am Building in New York. He passed away in Portland in 1994, shortly after receiving the National Medal of Arts for his lifetime achievements.

The post Belluschi exhibit on display in Portland appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.