Plans to redevelop Centennial Mills received the Portland Design Commission‘s unanimous approval on Thursday.

Three mixed-use buildings are designed for the site, at 1362 N.W. Naito Parkway, along the Willamette River. Buildings 1 and 2 will be five stories and Building 2 will be six stories; all will share 174 below-grade parking spaces. The proposal is to include a total of 272 residential units and four retail spaces in the buildings.

SERA Architects designed the project – valued at $80 million, according to Portland Permitting & Development – for Lindquist Development Co.

The project team participated in a pre-application conference in 2023 and then twice met with the Design Commission for advice. The team submitted a land use application this past August. The first land use hearing was held last month, when the commission delayed voting on the proposal.

The Design Commission approved modification requests to reduce the size of parking stalls, allow non-river-dependent exterior lights for ground-floor residential patios, and allow vehicle access along Naito Parkway. The review included allowing buildings and associated development in the River Environmental overlay zone, ramp and stair access to the river, a public trail, and four stormwater outfalls.

The commission added to the summary a note suggesting the project team acknowledge the Indigenous community in some way regarding the river access, possibly with signage, although it is not a requirement for approval.

During the previous hearing, the commission discussed the issue of human access to the river, the apparent absence of HVAC units on the rooftop, and plans for the existing water tower and a new replica.

The condenser units will be underground in the parking garage, the team explained.

The applicant, SERA Architects, added stairs and a ramp for river access. At the intersection of the Tanner Creek woonerf and plaza and the Greenway Trail, there will be an overlook of the river.

“From that overlook, we’re proposing a concrete, very gentle stair that takes you down to what we’re calling the beach area that is just riverward of the sea wall that is existing currently on the site,” SERA Architects principal Kurt Schultz said.

From that overlook area, the design team has added an accessible path, allowing pedestrians to reach the river in a different location. The path will also be made of concrete.

Commissioner Sarah Vaz asked about widening the pathway to accommodate bicyclists. A 15-foot-wide trail exists now, Schultz said. The design team sees this new path as a pedestrian promenade to the river.

The design team also added a landscaping area with trees to create a buffer against the new pathway. To make the pathway wider, the landscaping strip would have to be narrowed but would still include some trees. Commissioners Zari Santner voiced concern about reducing the size of the landscaping strip and Chair Brian McCarter said widening the pathway is not necessary.

For the water tower, the plan is to create a steel replica of the structure holding up the water tank on the roof of parcel 2. The existing water tank is intended to be salvaged and relocated to the prepared armature. If salvage of the original tank is not possible, a replica tank will be built out of metal with the same details and proportions as the original.

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Bing Sheldon founded SERA in 1968 as part of The Design Collaborative, a group comprised of landscape architects, graphic designers and other creatives. They operated on the belief that their respective crafts would be enhanced by collaboration, a value that continues to be one of the firm’s values.

Today, SERA is a 100-percent employee-owned, multidisciplinary firm that is based in Portland and has an office in the Bay Area. Its services encompass architecture, interior design, sustainable design, urban design and planning, and landscape architecture. Its staff specializes in building envelope design, lighting design, climate-responsive design metrics and modeling, LEED coordination, streetscapes and urban design, ecodistricts and civil engineering.

SERA’s projects include planning and design for mixed-use housing, hospitality, workplace and public-sector projects in partnership with a wide variety of community-based corporate, civic and institutional clients.

In this age of increasing natural disasters and a growing need for preparedness, SERA participates in Community Resilience Hubs, a coalition of 50 organizations, government agencies and communities across Oregon. With United Oregon taking a lead role, the coalition helped champion the passage of HB 2990, which provides $10 million in support of building resilience hubs through the Office of Resilience and Emergency Management.

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Construction of a three-story, 40-unit affordable housing development will start next month in the Powellhurst-Gilbert neighborhood, in the heart of the Jade District in Portland.

Gorman & Company is developing the 42,667-square-foot Jade Apartments in partnership with APANO Communities United Fund. The site is at 2905 S.E. 89th Ave., between 82nd Avenue and Interstate 205.

“What is really amazing about this project is that we were able to work with nonprofit APANO that’s been working for years in this neighborhood and had identified the site more than 10 years ago,” said Kevin Kellogg, Pacific Northwest market president of Gorman & Company. “We’re finally able to build housing on the site they wanted.”

The project team also includes architect SERA Architects, civil engineer BKF Engineers, structural engineer Aman Structural Engineering LLC, and landscape architect PLACE. The general contractor is a joint venture – Gorman & Company’s in-house construction team, Gorman General Contractors LLC, and minority-owned GSI Builders Inc.

The Jade will include 14 one-bedroom units, 11 two-bedroom units, and 15 three-bedroom units. Five units will be regulated for households making up to 30 percent of the area median income (AMI). All other units will be for households making up to 60 percent of AMI.

The three-story building will have two courtyards with a community room in between. Other amenities will include an outdoor play area, a community garden, a secure mail and package room, a secure bike room, laundry rooms on each floor, on-site property management and resident services offices, and on-site parking.

In front of the building, a road will be constructed with sidewalks to help residents travel to bus stops on Southeast Division Street, Kellogg said.

The project is designed to Earth Advantage silver standards. Also, the building will meet the Portland Housing Bureau’s green building standards. There will be a full solar array and battery backup system, heat-pump water heaters, a high-efficiency HVAC system, and an enhanced building envelope and insulation.

“Our goal is to power the entire building, including the units, with clean energy,” Kellogg said, adding that most of the energy will be generated on-site.

The total project cost is approximately $24 million. Funding is coming from the Portland Housing Bureau via the Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund, Metro’s Transit-Oriented Development Program and affordable housing bond funds, Multnomah County general funds, and Oregon Housing and Community Services’ General Housing Account Program and Oregon Multifamily Energy Program, as well as funds from Banner Bank.

The building is expected to open in early 2026.

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The Con-way Master Plan is looking to gain a 194,274-square-foot 6- to 7-story residential building in Portland’s Slabtown neighborhood after receiving design advice from the Portland Design Commission on Thursday.

This was the first design advice request for the project. The site is in the Northwest Plan District and Con-way Master Plan area, bordered by NW Raleigh and Savier, and Northwest 20th Avenue. In total, the master plan includes 12 buildings, three of which are under construction: Freewell, Slabtown Square and Slabtown Savier.

The proposal on Block 292 East, designed by SERA Architects for owner Preg NW Portland LLC of San Mateo, California, would have approximately 166 units.

“This is our 10th block in the neighborhood,” Cairn Pacific Principal James Santana said.

It will be Cairn Pacific’s seventh block with partner Prometheus Real Estate Group.

The U-shaped building will have a courtyard that opens toward the pedestrian accessway. Half of the pedestrian way has been built out already; the rest will be built out with this project.

Katherine Sheie, landscape architect at Lango Hansen Landscape Architects, said that with the other blocks, the design pushed the idea of movement and activity. With Block 292 East, the goal was to make it feel more residential and garden-like.

“T��� really important part that differentiates this block – 292E – from other blocks is the courtyard opening to the pedway,” Sheie said.

Saltwood South, Freewell and Saltwood North all have primary openings to the south, while Block 292 East has a primary access directly from the courtyard. The design includes a meandering design with paths crisscrossing. The landscape team plans to put a signature tree at the intersection of the courtyard and pedestrian accessway.

Its lobby will be in the southwest corner of the site, facing south on to NW Raleigh Street.

The building features a large amount of red brick. It is the primary cladding for the building’s five-story massing and wraps to all four sides of the building.

The design includes a penthouse and gable roof. The gabled two-story townhouses will be on levels 6 and 7 and will be set back from the building’s edge. The material being considered for the penthouse level is currently a wood-looking siding product called Knotwood or other material such as metal siding.

“T��� other thing we’re able to do is we’re able to carve out mechanical wells inside those gabled roofs so we’re able to hide mechanical equipment,” SERA Architects Principal Kurt Schultz said.

The bottom five stories would be made primarily of red brick, with a glassy lobby and two glazed live/work units on two corners of the ground floor. The ground floor would include some residential units on one side of the building, accessed by stairs and raised stoops.

Below-grade parking will have about 128 parking spots and be accessed from NW Savier Street on the north side of the site.

A modification is requested to add a height increase of 19 feet from the allowed 67 feet to a building height of 86 feet. An alternate design meets the 67-foot height limit. Without the two-level gabled penthouse element, the building would meet the 67-foot height limit.

Options discussed for the roof included the gable roof, a flat roof or a lower-pitch roof. The lower-pitch roof would be the same height as the gable roof but would be consistent on all sides of the building.

Several commissioners were in favor of the height modification, assuming there would be modifications to the ground floor activation and public realm. The building has three street frontages and one pedestrian accessway frontage. Commissioners also encouraged the design team to explore the idea of planters in front of the ground floor residential unit stoop entrances.

The project is valued at $60 million, according to the Bureau of Development Services.

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A new mixed-use building under construction in Portland’s Goose Hollow neighborhood will have 214 housing units – and all will be available at affordable rates.

But the project didn’t start that way.

The six-story structure now dubbed Tiller Terrace was previously called Alta Centric – and would’ve had market-rate apartments. The project, on half a block at 1670 S.W. Alder St., was poised to become Wood Partners‘ third in the area – following the Alta Peak Apartments and the Alta ART Tower.

However, feasibility issues blocked the project for Wood Partners. The firm then approached Guardian Real Estate Services with the possibility of it purchasing the property and turning the project into one with affordable housing (for people making 60 percent of area median income or less), Guardian President Tom Brenneke said.

“It was a fully baked project,” he said.

Plans had been approved by the Portland Design Commission. Building permits could be sought. So, in April 2021, Guardian opened a contract to purchase the rights and then proceeded with permitting. Six months later, the deal closed.

“If you know affordable projects, that’s light speed,” Brenneke added.

Financing first

Typically, such projects can require one to five years for financing and permitting to be set, Brenneke said. Tiller Terrace is unique in that it has only one public funding source – a $500,000 Metro transit-oriented development (TOD) grant because the site is located directly across from TriMet‘s Providence Park light-rail station.

The team needed to keep public funding under $700,000, Brenneke said, so the project wouldn’t be subject to prevailing wages and thus have infeasible construction costs.

Other financing came from partners PNC Real Estate and Red Stone. The project team also used Oregon Housing and Community Services tax-exempt bonds and low-income housing tax credits.

The development budget for the project is approximately $66.5 million.

A week before the deal closed, however, the builder’s risk insurance carrier lined up for the project saw a news headline about protesters in downtown Portland breaking windows and scrawling graffiti, and pulled out of the deal, Brenneke said.

Guardian Real Estate Services returned to the market to seek alternative builder’s risk insurance, but none could be obtained.

The next possible closing date for Tiller Terrace was three months away. Such a delay would have been “catastrophic,” Brenneke said, because all subcontractors were holding 30-day fixed-price contracts that would no longer be valid.

So, left with no risk insurance in hand, Brenneke got on the phone with the financing partners at 7 a.m., trying to complete the deal on the closing date.

The partners

It was the first housing deal for Red Stone in the Portland market. The investment company handles only affordable housing developments. The firm, since being founded in 2002, has financed 65,000 affordable units across the U.S., Red Stone CEO John Sokolovic estimated.

Yet Sokolovic said he couldn’t recall any previous project with a similar insurance dilemma.

“Certainly not a week before,” Red Stone Managing Director Brian Renzi added. “That’s pretty rare, obviously.”

Nevertheless, Red Stone believed it was working with the right people – an “experienced team,” Renzi said. The firm set aside money to purchase the builder’s risk insurance once it became available post-closing.

“That’s how we operate,” Sokolovic said. “If we can figure it out quickly, we will do it. The goal is to get the deal done and get those affordable housing units built. That’s part of our mission.”

Fortunately, PNC Real Estate also agreed to the plan. The deal was closed without insurance secured, Brenneke said.

The whole venture was a learning experience, Brenneke said. If an agent can’t secure risk insurance, “that’s a major issue in capital closing,” he said.

“It damn near killed the deal,” he added.

Ultimately, the project team secured a risk insurance policy (at a much higher rate), and construction crews broke ground two months after the closing date.

“Even though it was our first deal, we look to continue to be a lot more active in the Portland area on the affordable side,” Renzi said. “We’re excited to get our first transaction done and hope there is many more.”

A few changes

The six-story building will have a simple exterior of brick cladding to match surrounding historic properties such as the Commodore Lounge and Hotel deLuxe. An outdoor courtyard will face Morrison Street.

The project was originally envisioned as workforce housing, SERA Architects principal Kurt Schultz said, so there wasn’t a complete turnaround when it became affordable housing. Also, the Design Commission approved the project in March 2020, so any exterior changes became challenging.

The main design change was done post-permit. The switch in development type meant that inclusionary housing requirements no longer applied, and all the three-bedroom and four-bedroom units could be converted to studios, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units. That allowed the number of units to increase from 203 to 214.

Apartments will range from roughly 470 to 700 square feet. Some will be two-story townhomes – a configuration not often found in market-rate or affordable housing developments – on the top floor.

In addition to the apartments and courtyard, Tiller Terrace will have 3,500 square feet of retail space, a community room and classroom space, according to Guardian Real Estate Services’ website.

R&H Construction is serving as the general contractor for the project. Completion is slated for March 2023.

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Construction of one of the final projects within the Con-way master plan has begun in the Slabtown neighborhood of Northwest Portland.

Freewell, a 265,000-square-foot development, is being brought to market by Cairn Pacific LLC and Prometheus Real Estate Group. A seven-story building will host 192 apartments, ground-floor retail space and underground parking. A bridge will connect to a two-story pavilion building with amenities.

The project site is Block 291 East, at 2030 N.W. Raleigh St. Freewell will front a future park to be developed by the city of Portland.

The Portland Bureau of Development Services last week issued a $44 million construction permit for Freewell. However, construction costs have increased so much since a permit was sought nearly a year ago that they’re expected to be around $60 million, Cairn Pacific principal Tom DiChiara said.

Freewell is the eighth project for Cairn Pacific in Slabtown. SERA Architects designed the development – the firm’s third for Cairn Pacific in the neighborhood; Saltwood and Saltwood North are the others.

SERA also designed Greystar‘s Slabtown Savier, which was approved by the Design Commission in December 2021. That project will occupy blocks 261 and 262.

“T��� Con-way master plan provided a blank slate to design and develop an entire neighborhood from the ground up,” SERA Architects principal Kurt Schultz stated in a press release. “Our approach when designing at neighborhood scale is to design buildings that are unique but also in harmony with the surrounding context.”

Freewell will feature brick, wood and natural materials, and the pavilion building will be constructed of mass-timber. Materials were chosen as an ode to the neighborhood’s past, when it was filled with warehouses, Schultz stated.

The 20-acre neighborhood previously was owned by the Con-way trucking company. The master plan called for creation of a 24-7, mixed-use area for people to live, work and play.

There are 17 development parcels within the Con-way master plan, and projects for 16 of them are completed or in development. The remaining block, 292 East, is a Prometheus Real Estate Group property. At this point there is no project planned for 292 East, DiChiara said, but developers are hoping it will become senior housing or something other than multifamily.

Over the past nine years, Cairn Pacific and Prometheus Real Estate Group have partnered on five mixed-use projects in the neighborhood. Freewell, their sixth joint venture, will “add a finishing touch to the district,” DiChiara stated.

R&H Construction is the general contractor. Construction is expected to finish in spring 2024.

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A 90,000-square-foot hotel is set to rise in the Pearl District‘s south end near the historic North Park Blocks.

Choice Cambria, designed by SERA Architects, was approved by the Portland Design Commission with a 3-2 vote on Thursday. Commissioners Jessica Molinar and Chandra Robinson voted against the project. Commissioner Don Vallaster was not present; he had recused himself previously due to a conflict of interest.

The six-story building will rise on a half block on Northwest Park Avenue, between Northwest Davis and Couch streets. The project is the first for Denver-based HighSide Development in the Portland market.

The design has come a long way from earlier iterations, commissioners said Thursday. A new face for the 178-room hotel was revealed – a façade of brick instead of multiple materials, above a black ground floor.

The hotel entrance will now be at the center of the building, rather than an edge, and on the northwest corner there will be a lounge lobby multiuse space where plans previously called for a meeting room. Also, a minimal massing shift on the secondary setback enabled rooms alongside the courtyard to turn into suites.

“We’ve delivered a simple, refined building that fits with the contextual character of the neighborhood,” SERA Architects principal Jeff Roberts said. “It’s simple in its geometry, but has refined details, especially at the human scale down at the street level.”

However, Molinar, Robinson and a Pearl District Neighborhood Association representative criticized the proposal. It won’t stand out in the neighborhood, they said.

“This is an adequate background building,” said David Dysert, co-chairman of the PDNA’s Planning and Transportation Committee.

Molinar added that the design neither contributes to the North Park Blocks’ diversity nor reinforces its identity.

In previous design advice hearings, commissioners had urged the project team to simplify the design. Commissioner Brian McCarter said the applicant listened and returned with a design that is calmer, with higher-grade materials.

The design “looks good,” but could be better, Robinson said.

“It just needs a little bit more … to be on the (North) Park Blocks,” she said.

The main entry, courtyard and program elements were praised by commissioners universally. But exterior elements became sticking points.

The brick appeared to be applied like a paint color, Molinar said, and McCarter was troubled by the black brick cornice dragging over into the red brick. Eventually two conditions of approval were added: 1, the color of the cornice line in the brick massing must be red instead of black, and 2, a bull-nose transition must be included between the red and black brick at the ground level.

A straw poll at the end of the discussion period revealed that Molinar and Robinson would not vote to approve the project. The Bureau of Development Services gave the applicant an option to return in one week with updated graphic renderings and potentially gain unanimous approval. Roberts indicated that he and the client would like to move the project forward. A vote was called, and Choice Cambria was approved with the two conditions attached.

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The Portland Design Commission on Thursday unanimously approved a two-building multifamily proposal to add 363 apartments to the Slabtown neighborhood.

Greystar‘s development, designed by SERA Architects, includes a five-story, 149-unit building and a six- and seven-story, 214-unit building. The two structures will be split by Northwest Savier Street between Northwest 19th and 20th avenues.

The project, known as Slabtown Savier, on blocks 261 and 262, will neighbor U.S. Route 30 to the north and St. Patrick Catholic Church to the east.

Commissioners had seen the project in two previous design advice meetings and had few quibbles with the final design.

“T��� building’s looking great,” Commissioner Sam Rodriguez said. “From a public realm perspective, they nailed it. It’s a great infill building with very thoughtful articulation.”

Slabtown Savier is subject to the Con-way master plan, which was enacted in 2012. As such, the development is not required to provide rent-restricted inclusionary housing units.

Greystar and SERA worked with St. Patrick Catholic Church officials to ensure the development would not loom over the 130-year-old church, a landmark on the National Register of Historic Places and the oldest structure in the neighborhood. SERA did a “radical re-massing of the site to give St. Patrick Church more space and more breathing room,” principal Kurt Schultz said.

Slabtown Savier will be marked by a pocket park between Block 262 and the church, ground-level live-work units and front stoops. The brick exteriors will feature Juliet balconies on each side.

Some neighborhood residents had pushed for a taller building that would block views and noise from U.S. Route 30. But Chairwoman Julie Livingston said there’s nothing in guidelines to require that type of development. She called the project a “gigantic win for the neighborhood.”

“This development looks as if it really does have the potential to take back this street (Savier) and take back this neighborhood and restore some of the church’s dignity,” she said.

Greystar, based in Charleston, South Carolina, scooped up the property from Lennar Multifamily Communities, going under contract in March. Greystar’s Portland office most recently completed the Sawbuck Apartments next to Providence Park.

Slabtown Savier won exemptions from the Design Commission for building height, parking space widths and bicycle parking. Commissioners granted a modification for Block 262 to ascend to 83 feet, above the limit of 67 feet.

The project previously was the subject of two design advice hearings, in February and July.

Design commissioners praised the team of SERA’s Schultz and Lango Hansen Landscape Architects principal Kurt Lango.

“I would say Kurt and Kurt are the dream team,” Commissioner Zari Santner said.

Santner lauded the project team for “not just following, but listening and coming up with their own options to really respond to the core of the commission’s concerns.”

Doug Burges, Greystar’s director of development in Portland, said the firm wanted to honor the city’s process.

“We took the process seriously and used the process to better our design and get feedback along the way,” he said in an interview.

Greystar plans to break ground in October 2022, likely using its in-house construction arm, Burges said.

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The city of Eugene and private developers are working on a series of significant projects near the banks of the Willamette River in a bid to revitalize the long-neglected waterfront.

Walker Macy is designing a 4.5-acre riverfront park for the city of Eugene. The aim is to link downtown Eugene to the river with a newly constructed multiuse path.

“It’s a really exciting opportunity to connect the people of Eugene and visitors with the water,” said Chelsea McCann, managing principal of Walker Macy. “T��� Willamette is important to the city. It’s hard to get to, right? We’re trying to remedy that, at least to the extent that we can, and create easier transitions and pathways for people to get from the urban core to the water.”

Nearby, developer Atkins Dame is planning for the first buildings on a former Eugene Water & Electric Board industrial site.

Atkins Dame is led by Jim Atkins and Dike Dame, two developers who have left their mark on Portland by revitalizing neighborhoods such as the Pearl District and the South Waterfront District. They also teamed up to build two condo towers and a hotel in Los Angeles’ South Park neighborhood.

Atkins Dame has closed on the land and acquired equity for the first two Eugene buildings, Dame said. KPFF is advising the developers on the new streetscape, and consulting with Walker Macy on the riverfront park.

“This is something that Eugene has been trying to make happen for a long, long time,” Dame said.

In the first phase, Atkins Dame will construct two multifamily buildings with approximately 228 units. The buildings will not include retail space, but that is planned as the neighborhood grows, Dame said.

“I don’t see office in the cards,” Dame said. “It will primarily be multifamily and neighborhood-serving retail, but the retail will also be attractive to people coming to the neighborhood for the new park.”

SERA Architects is designing the first two buildings, and Essex General Construction of Eugene is on board as contractor. (SERA completed a master plan for Atkins Dame in 2018).

“We’ve acquired about 360,000 square feet of property, so over time there will be a number of other projects,” Dame said. “T���se are just the first two.”

A separate development team, led by Mark Miksis of deChase Miksis and Mark Frohnmayer of Arcimoto, is negotiating with the city of Eugene to redevelop the EWEB steam plant. The Miksis-Frohnmayer group has unveiled adaptive reuse plans that call for inclusion of office space.

Construction of the waterfront park is well under way. Crews are working to complete the project ahead of the World Athletics Championships, a 10-day track and field competition set to take place in Eugene in July 2022.

The multiuse path will connect to Fifth Avenue, a street in the heart of downtown Eugene that is home to the Fifth Street Public Market and other restaurants and shops. The trail will include amenities to serve pedestrians and bicyclists, McCann said.

The project is part of a nascent movement to create access to the river in Willamette Valley cities that once used it primarily for heavy industry. Albany is at work on its own project to connect downtown with the Willamette River, which currently is blocked by a street, parking lots and thick foliage. In Portland, some activists are lobbying for greater access to the river from the Eastbank Esplanade.

In Eugene, Walker Macy is restoring the riverbanks along the trail.

“We’re planting with native species, but throughout this area we’re also trying to be really cognizant of plant scale,” McCann said. “We want to keep the views open.”

Trail users will have ample opportunities to linger.

“T���re’s lot of spots to sit and enjoy the river,” she said.

McCann said people were discussing what to do with the EWEB property when she was studying landscape architecture at the University of Oregon in the late 1990s. For years, the trail has been a narrow path, fenced off from the river, with few amenities.

“We’re excited to have it finally open up and having people using it,” she said.

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PROJECT: The Overland

LOCATION: 11990 S.W. 72nd Ave., Tigard

SIZE: 256,760 square feet

COST: not provided

START DATE: August 2020

ANTICIPATED END DATE: November 2022

OWNER: Dartmouth Project LLC

DEVELOPER: SKB-DIG Dartmouth LLC

ARCHITECT: SERA Architects

ENGINEERS: DOWL, Froelich Engineers

CONTRACTOR: Essex General Construction

OTHER ASSOCIATES/CONSULTANTS: Innovative Air, Porter Electric, Tapani Plumbing, Jet Industries, Timber Technologies, Primo Construction

NUMBER OF WORKERS EMPLOYED: 350

SIGNIFICANCE OF PROJECT: This mixed-use project is expected to spur redevelopment within the Tigard Triangle Urban Renewal Area. The Overland will feature two six-story buildings with 219 apartments, a shared parking structure and voluminous retail and commercial spaces. Amenities will include a covered rooftop terrace, an elevated courtyard and workout facilities.

Exterior materials such as brick, wood and metal siding are intended to provide longevity in a Northwest style. Abundant bike parking will far surpass city requirements. The wood-framed buildings will be on concrete podiums.

One of the main challenges facing the project’s design and construction team was the topography of the site. There is a slope of nearly 30 feet from the north side to the south side, and it impacted the two apartment buildings, retail spaces and multiple parking areas. The various elevations step down from surface parking to apartment units and then to retail space at the southern end. Design, cost and constructability all influenced the final design; the project team spent significant time coordinating these aspects in order to meet overall goals.

“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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