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.

“The 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.

The post Slabtown housing project gets green light appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The Portland Design Commission on Thursday got its first glimpse of one of the last remaining pieces of the Con-way Master Plan. Slabtown Savier will be a two-block development in the northeast corner of the Slabtown neighborhood.

The north building, on Block 261, at the corner of Northwest 20th Avenue and Savier Street, would be five stories and hold 138 residential units. U.S. Route 30 is directly north of the site. Across from Savier Street, Block 262 would have a six-story building with 214 residential units.

Thursday’s hearing was for design advice. The applicant, Kurt Schultz of SERA Architects, filed the request on behalf of project owner LMC (Lennar Multifamily Communities).

As submitted, the buildings would be designed in quarter-block and eighth-block segments to break the massing down. Varied heights and an exterior brick skin would be used on the different segments to emphasize this more.

“The goal is really to break this façade (20th Avenue) into really what feels like a variety of buildings that meet the street in a different way,” Schultz said.

The project is early in its design phase, Schultz said, and was brought to the Design Commission to work out kinks early.

The most concern and conversation surrounded the required pocket park between Block 262 and its neighbor to the east, St. Patrick Catholic Church. The Con-way Master Plan stated a “breath” of room was needed between the two properties. The pocket park would be on private property and serve as a community space.

Commissioner Brian McCarter expressed concern over security of the park and its proximity to the highway.

“There’s a lot of social problems underneath the freeway,” he said. “It’s a continual thing that moves for a few weeks, and then it reappears. I hear comments about this courtyard becoming public and who’s going to occupy it – what kind of activities are going to happen out there.”

The pocket park was proposed as a 30-foot-wide space with large trees to help buffer the building’s height in comparison to the church. Father Tim Furlow, representative of St. Patrick Catholic Church, said that the new building should step back and the park should be widened to 50 feet.

“I think the idea of expanding the open space to give it more breathing room – it’s sort of a double-edged sword,” Commissioner Zari Santner said. “Given the social problems that exist in that area – whether to what extent do you want to make the design of this space look, as public as it can get.”

If the design team were to widen the park, then a significant massing shift would be needed to accommodate the units lost in that space. All design commissioners were in agreement that moving the units to the top of the 20th Avenue face would widen the park and benefit the overall development.

Further discussions are needed between the design team and St. Patrick Catholic Church representatives to decide on the public versus private nature of the pocket park.

The post Slabtown project team receives design advice appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.