While New York-based architect Jonathan Dreyfous was in Portland to judge the Design Awards for American Institute of Architects’ Portland chapter, a “Keep Portland Weird” sign reminded him what was lacking in this year’s entries.

“I was looking for some weirdness, some idiosyncratic-ness,” he said Friday during an awards presentation at the Gerding Theater.

Dreyfous, a partner with New York-based CDR Studio Architects, wasn’t the only member of the judging panel who admitted to greater expectations for the projects that Portland-area architecture firms submitted for design awards. Judges Gladys Ly-Au Young, a principal with Seattle-based Sundberg Kennedy Ly-Au Young Architects, and Los Angeles Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne said they had hoped to see more innovation, attention to urbanism and high-level design for both exteriors and interiors.

“We were looking for projects that showed tremendous social transformation – something that was more forward-thinking for Portland,” Young said.

Judges chose not to give out any awards in the unbuilt category because they wanted to see more creativity among the entries. They lamented the glut of private multifamily projects and longed for more public ones.

“We thought that side of the ledger was underwhelming,” Hawthorne said of the unbuilt category. “We were ready for projects that had a different idea for the interior. I think because so many of the projects were developer-driven they were a bit safe.”

A “tidal wave” of private multifamily development in Portland led to worries among the panel that architects were spending too much energy on projects’ exteriors to the detriment of their interiors, Dreyfous said.

“The exterior becomes the billboard for the building and we are concerned about the interior living up to the facade,” he said.

The panel’s response wasn’t all negative. One project that garnered significant praise from the judges was the Edith Green-Wendell Wyatt Federal Building renovation designed by Portland-based SERA Architects and Cutler Anderson Architects. The project received a merit award for what the judges considered a thoughtful transformation that incorporated many sustainable elements.

“We felt the designers worked really well to break up the massiveness of the building,” Young said. “You see the old and the new work really well together.”

Hawthorne said he has been following closely the debate on the future of the Portland Building, which suffers from structural issues and leaks. He noted that it could benefit from a renovation similar to the one for the Edith Green-Wendell Wyatt building.

“This was the same exercise of remaking a building,” he said. “All of those questions are being tested and examined in this project.”

The judges were impressed by several projects designed by Works Partnership Architecture. The Portland-based firm earned a merit award for the Bowstring Truss House and citations for the 33rd & Division Apartments and Overton 19 multifamily projects, all in Portland.

The judges said they were particularly blown away by the Bowstring Truss House after touring it. A former industrial building in Northwest Portland was renovated into a living space.

“A lot of the details that we were impressed with in photographs came through when we walked the space,” Hawthorne said. “It was one of the strongest projects we looked at.”

THA Architecture received a merit award for Discovery Hall – a science and academic building at the University of Washington’s Bothell campus. The judges said that consideration given to surroundings came through in the design.

“There’s not really a front side or a back side,” Young said. “All sides are well thought through.”

ZGF Architects received a citation award for Pearl Izumi‘s North American headquarters in Louisville, Colo. Young said she appreciated the unified approach.

“The interior and exterior are by the same firm so they really feel like the same hand,” she said.

The panel awarded two citation awards specifically for interiors-focused projects. The first went to Architecture Building Culture for the Lubavitch Center of British Columbia in Vancouver, B.C. They praised the understated design of the center for a Jewish organization.

“I’d like to commend the clarity of what it’s doing for the space,” Dreyfous said. “It’s very simple.”

Hennebery Eddy Architects took home the same honor for a renovation of the Shute Park library branch in Hillsboro.

“Rather than tearing down the building, it uncovered the strength of the building,” Dreyfous said.

Also at Friday’s event, Portland Mayor Charlie Hales praised the work of the city’s architecture community.

“It’s a great privilege to be mayor of a city where people appreciate excellence in urban design and architecture,” he said.

Hales then revealed the winner of the Mayor’s Award for Design Excellence: the Stephens Creek Crossing affordable housing complex in Southwest Portland, designed by MWA Architects.

“It is inviting to the people that live there and the people that will visit,” he said. “More importantly, they created a neighborhood there. This, to me, is one of the best examples of how you can create community in new projects.”

Honorable mentions for the Mayor’s Award went to SERA Architects’ Marriott Residence Inn, the Reed College Performing Arts Building designed by Opsis Architecture, The Emory apartments designed by ZGF Architects and the A Dialogue Street Seat by Scott | Edwards Architecture.

This year’s AIA Portland Citizens’ Medal for Design Excellence, selected through a public vote, went to Architecture Building Culture for the Roberts Creek Cabin single-family residence in Roberts Creek, British Columbia.

Also announced Friday were the recipients of AIA Portland’s 2030 Challenge Design Awards. They recognize sustainable design and honor a challenge from nonprofit organization Architecture 2030 for all new buildings and major renovations to be carbon neutral by 2030.

Hennebery Eddy Architects’ Ash + Ash won in the single-family category. The Kiln Apartments, designed by GBD Architects to meet passive house standards, earned the honor in the multifamily category. The Edith Green-Wendell Wyatt building renovation won the office category and the Central Oregon Community College Health Careers Center, designed by Yost Grube Hall Architecture, earned the institutional honor.

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Work is wrapping up on a project started last year by the Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability to explore ways to leverage investment and maximize employment opportunities in Portland’s Central Eastside Industrial District and Brooklyn neighborhood.

Eden Dabbs, a spokeswoman for the BPS, said the Southeast Quadrant Plan’s Stakeholder Advisory Committee in January will present to the planning commission its recommendations for zoning changes in the inner east side. A public hearing will take place in March, and the commission will vote in April whether to recommend the proposed changes to Portland City Council, Dabbs said.

“The advisory committee was trying to address what the community wanted,” she said. “They wanted to come up with a hybrid plan that pleased as many people as possible.”

Portland’s inner east side – from the waterfront east to 12th Avenue and north of Powell Boulevard to the Banfield Expressway – has become one of the city’s fastest developing areas. The advisory committee met in early September and again in early October to come up with preliminary land use decisions based on input gathered over the past year from a wide range of individuals and organizations that could be affected, said Troy Doss, Southeast Quadrant Plan project manager.

“There’s going to be a demand for 9,000 new jobs in this area in the next 20 years,” he said. “Our job is to figure out how to fix things to allow for this growth.”

Doss explained that the area the advisory committee is reviewing is zoned mostly for general industrial use or for mixed development much like the Pearl District.

The proposed changes would allow new construction for industrial purposes and expand the amount of square feet allowed for retail sales.

Some business owners in the area are worried about potential changes, Doss said.

“The notion of what an ‘industrial sanctuary’ means was developed in the ’70s and ’80s when industry looked different,” he said. “We’re not seeing traditional industrial wanting to be in that area as much anymore. We’re seeing a new, different type of industry.”

Doss said that many of the businesses interested in the area are software companies, design firms and light industrial firms such as bicycle parts manufacturers.

“We need to be nimble as a district – we need to allow for a framework that can adapt to changes in industry types, production and employment that we might not even see coming right now,” said Carrie Strickland, co-founder of Works Partnership Architecture. “For someone that has done a lot of work with businesses that fit into the ‘industrial office’ category, I think that we need to make sure that the outcomes support the shift in what constitutes production space, and employment has to continue to be the main focus of the district.”

Strickland, an advisory committee member, said she’s encouraged by the progress the group has made.

“I think the greatest challenge is making sure that folks are thinking about the future and what’s best for the district as a whole, not just their personal interests,” she said.

The committee also is deciding what to do with a 17-acre plot of waterfront land – owned by OMSI – slightly north of the Tilikum Crossing and underneath the Marquam Bridge. Museum officials want the land rezoned to allow housing.

“(OMSI officials) think they need to have residential there, but I adamantly disagree,” Doss said. “Jerry Johnson from Johnson Economics ran the numbers for us to compare what OMSI proposes with what we propose. There’s just not enough land to create a sense of place.”

Doss said that with so much multifamily construction under way, by the time zoning changes take effect, demand won’t be as high and no developer will want to build.

“I say, why zone for a moment in time?” he said.

According to preliminary decisions made by the advisory committee, the land where OMSI wants to build would stay EX, or mixed use, but not allow residential or big-box retail.

Strickland said she’s unsure whether housing on OMSI’s land is a good idea, but said she’s open to it.

“I think it’s still up in the air about whether housing is the key to unlocking the potential of that area,” she said. “The light rail station will obviously bring a different energy to the south end of the Central Eastside. If there are ways to mend potential conflicts between residents and businesses and the train – I don’t see why we couldn’t allow housing to play a role in that area developing.”

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Mahlum Architects has been recognized as a top Pacific Northwest firm by the American Institute of Architects.

The firm, which has offices in Portland and Seattle, recently received the 2014 Region Firm Award from the AIA Northwest & Pacific Region. Mahlum is the third firm to earn the annual honor that is open to firms with a principal office in the region or a branch office here for at least 10 years. The previous winners were Portland-based THA Architecture and Seattle-based LMN Architects.

An award jury of architects selects one firm for outstanding contributions to the architecture profession in the region, which includes Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Alaska, Hawaii and Guam. Excellence in design and a track record of community engagement were among the judging criteria.

This year’s jury members were Steve Dumez of New Orleans-based Eskew + Dumez + Ripple, Larry Scarpa of Los Angeles-based Brooks + Scarpa Architects, THA Architecture principal Jonah Cohen and Works Partnership Architecture principal Bill Neburka. They praised Mahlum’s work for “projecting a warmth and clarity of design through the use of wood and design elements.”

Mahlum’s 60 staffers have worked toward a goal of earning the Region Firm Award and are proud of the achievement, said Niki Lesko, director of marketing in the firm’s Portland office. Along with a focus on design, staffers have striven to create a positive work environment through social activities and become involved in various community organizations, she said.

“It’s going beyond doing good architecture,” she said. “It’s being integrated in the community.”

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Two Portland-based architects and an architecture professor next month will help judge a furniture design competition hosted by lighting and furniture manufacturer Rejuvenation.

Jurors for the Development Award competition include Works Partnership Architecture principal Carrie Strickland, Skylab Architecture principal Jeff Kovel and Portland State University assistant architecture professor Margarette Leite, among other Portland-area design professionals.

Rejuvenation, founded in Portland, is offering the Development Award for the first time this year, to an exhibitor at the . The will take place Oct. 1 at 380 N.W. 13th Ave. and include displays from more than 60 furniture designers.

An awards ceremony is set for 7 p.m. during the show, and the Development Award winner will receive marketing and manufacturing support from Rejuvenation to sell its products.

The Development Award ties into Rejuvenation’s participation in Design Week Portland, Oct. 4-11.

Also in honor of Design Week, the company next month will host an event to discuss collaborating with Pacific Northwest College of Art students interested in learning about lighting design. Rejuvenation designer Kristine Morich and participating students will speak about the design process and show their work during the “PNCA BridgeLab + Rejuvenation Fireside Forum” event on Oct. 5 from 1 to 3 p.m. at Rejuvenation’s office, 1100 S.E. Grand Ave., in Portland.

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All it took was one walk through a building on Southeast Yamhill Street to convince Bridgid Blackburn that she had found the new home for Cargo, the Portland-based direct import business she and business partner Patty Merrill co-own.

The building, which had previously housed an office furniture wholesale company, was rough in spots. Thick layers of paint covered fat beams. Transom windows were covered. But Blackburn, who has a background in interior design, and Merrill could see the potential.

In the time since, the paint has been removed to reveal the character of the old-growth wood beams as well as the floor. Natural light now streams into the basement. An elevator has been added; a stairway has been widened. During the next few weeks, finishing touches will be set in place to prepare the building to open Oct. 1 as the new home of Cargo.

The direct import business will fill the basement and main floor. The ground-level floor also contains a 650-square-foot micro-retail space that will serve as a new location for Kure Juice Bar. The building’s upper level has been turned into approximately 10,000 square feet of office space with its own entrance.

Cargo’s move to the Central Eastside area is a return to its original roots, Blackburn said. Although Cargo originally opened on Portland’s eastside, it relocated to the Pearl District approximately 17 years ago, when that area was less polish and more grit. Huge warehouse spaces could be rented on the cheap. The eclectic feel of the neighborhood was a perfect fit for Cargo’s unique mix of imports that range from 19th century Burmese altars to vintage puppets from Indonesia.

Over the years, development has transformed the Pearl into a mix of in-demand retail and residential space, and rents for renovated old warehouses have climbed, Blackburn said. So as the lease for Cargo’s building on Southwest 13th Street neared an end, Blackburn and Merrill decided to look for a new location.

“As we realized the (Pearl) rents wouldn’t be what they were when we first signed, we started looking around,” Blackburn said.

The business partners set their sights on the Central Eastside Industrial District, and contacted Brad and Jonathan Malsin, the father-son team behind Beam Development. In light of the organic way that the eastside area has grown in recent years, Jonathan Malsin felt it was the right fit for Cargo.

“…There’s a great legacy of distribution and production (in that area),” he said. “(Merrill and Blackburn) are direct importers and they do some production on the furniture side, so they’re perfect for the neighborhood.”

The search for a space eventually led to Urban Works Real Estate‘s Craig Sweitzer and the Southeast Yamhill building.

“On the first walk-through, I said sign me up,” Blackburn said. “The rawness of the space was appealing. The ceiling height was amazing; the wood structure was incredible. The basement was beautiful – all those transom windows.”

While the building had potential, it also presented some challenges that became apparent once the project’s general contractor, Lorentz Bruun Construction, began work on Works Partnership Architecture‘s design for the renovation.

“With these old buildings, there’s always something,” Schweitzer said.

In the case of the Cargo building that something was an existing footing.

“We found a giant footing, one much bigger than we thought it would be, and it was down below the water level,” Lorentz Bruun’s Erik Bruun said. “We exploded (it) and installed a new, larger footing that was incorporated into the new elevator pit.”

Another unexpected project twist, at least for Sweitzer, was the level of interest in the micro-retail space.

“We were surprised at how many people wanted it,” he said. “We had several people ask about it on a daily basis.”

Part of the interest can be attributed to the quality of the tiny space, which Sweitzer describes as “a perfect, small square of glass.” But he also thinks it is a sign that there’s not enough retail space to meet a demand that doesn’t show signs of flagging in a neighborhood that has found a balance between robust daytime activity and a healthy night life.

“I think the retailers we were talking to have a strong desire to be there,” Sweitzer said.

“You can’t fake this type of urban development, and I think that’s why people are drawn to it,” he added. “This is organic development where you get different ideas and visions coming together.

A search for tenants for the top-level office space will start once Cargo moves into the building, Sweitzer said.

Cargo’s new location is larger than its previous one, which will allow Merrill and Blackburn to add a wholesale component to the business. Cargo’s customers also will gain an unexpected benefit from the relocation.

“This (has allowed us) to … lower our overhead,” Blackburn said, “and that savings will be passed on.”

The Cargo Building

Location: 81 S.E. Yamhill St.

Owners: Cargo, Beam Development, Craig Sweitzer

Developer: Beam Development

Leasing: Urban Works Real Estate

Architect: Works Partnership Architecture

General contractor: Lorentz Bruun Construction

Structural engineer: Butler Consulting

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Two Portland-based architects next month will join a public design presentation hosted by Project Cityscope.

The nonprofit, which aims to bring the design community and the general public together, invited Works Partnership Architecture principal Carrie Strickland and Rick Potestio of Potestio Studio to participate in the Oct. 8 event in Portland. They will be joined by clothing designer Adam Arnold and former Portland mayor Sam Adams, whose mother is an architect.

The event will start at 7 p.m. at Rontoms, 600 E. Burnside St. It is part of Cityscope’s “The New Structure” presentation series to discuss historical and contemporary aspects of design, architecture and community.

The presentation will be part of Design Week Portland, and speakers will be asked to share a personal experience that relates to design in Portland, Project Cityscope Executive Director Stacey Tran said.

“It is really whatever they want to bring to the table,” she said. “It’s pretty informal.”

Admission to the event is free, but donations will be accepted. Attendees must be 21 or older.

Registration is available online at: .

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After Kevin Cavenaugh, managing member of Portland-based Guerrilla Development, purchased a century-old former horse barn in Southeast Portland, he decided to convert the industrial-style building with no windows and 24-foot-tall ceilings into four residential lofts.

The challenge included peeling away a portion of the roof to create a central courtyard that lets light inside.

“It’s fun because it’s an experiment,” said Cavenaugh, a designer. “It was more about: Can anybody live in here? Can I make this thing habitable?”

Now the building, called Dr. Jim’s Lofts, is where Cavenaugh and his family call home.

Dr. Jim’s Lofts is one of eight urban infill developments that will be featured Oct. 11 on a hosted by the American Institute of Architects’ Portland chapter.

“For the most part, they’re really creative uses of old lots,” said Dave Otte, president-elect of the AIA Portland board, said of the structures included on the “” tour.

A committee of AIA members selected the homes – all completed either this year or last year – as prime examples of custom urban infill projects designed in harmony with inner Portland neighborhoods. Several of the homes strive to bridge the gap between residential and commercial areas. Others balance out contemporary designs by taking cues from nearby structures.

Designs by Portland-based Works Partnership Architecture for the Bowstring Truss House and Overton 19, adjacent developments in Northwest Portland on the tour, fit their surroundings, Works Partnership principal Carrie Strickland said. The live-work lofts blur the line between industrial buildings across the street and townhomes to the west, she said.

“I think it works really well in that neighborhood because it’s sort of a transition neighborhood,” Strickland said. “You set up a project scale that helps blend that transition line.”

When Portland architect Rick Potestio was tasked with helping turn a Southeast Portland parking lot into a contemporary three-story apartment building, he took a close look at the neighborhood first. His design for the Gragg Apartments, including the home of University of Oregon John Yeon Center for Architectural Studies Director Randy Gragg, will be featured on the AIA Portland tour.

The concrete base of the apartment building uses materials that are common in the neighborhood and colors that are compatible with nearby structures.

“I designed the base of it to reflect the rest of the buildings on the block,” Potestio said. “That’s actually my philosophy is work with your context.”

Like the Bowstring Truss House and Overton 19 projects, the Gragg Apartments sits between industrial and residential areas. It’s one reason why Potestio said he decided to incorporate a large covered porch into the top-floor unit.

“The porch is a homage to the big covered porches on the residential side,” he said.

Another home on the tour, the Pavilion House in Northeast Portland, matches the setbacks, massing and scale of neighboring single-family homes, said Portland architect Ben Waechter, who designed the project. Yet it’s distinctly contemporary.

The design features an open central room on the first floor with a second-story “pavilion” supported by pillars around it.

“The house could be described as having a second-story body that’s supported by four legs kind of like a table,” Waechter said. “The idea was to place these legs strategically in places where they create privacy within the room that aside from these legs is all glass.”

Along with taking cues from surroundings, designs for Dr. Jim’s Lofts and the Bowstring Truss House take advantage of the context within the existing industrial buildings.

Preserving the open warehouse feel of the Bowstring Truss House was important, Strickland said.

“We didn’t want to interrupt that visual continuity across the space,” she said. “None of those walls go all the way to the ceiling, so you can always see over them.”

When Cavenaugh opened some of the roof of Dr. Jim’s Lofts, he left the truss system in place. This created a dynamic setting, he said.

“It’s take-your-breath-away space, and I have nothing to do with that,” he said. “The building, I just let it go.”

If you go …

What: American Institute of Architects Portland Homes Tour: Crafted + Creative Urban Infill

When: Oct. 11 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Where: Eight contemporary Portland homes. Participants in the self-guided tour will receive a printed booklet with maps and descriptions of each home.

Cost: Tickets are $40

More information: aiaportland.org/aia-portland-homes-tour-2014

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A contemporary design for a 10-story mixed-use building in Portland’s Burnside Bridgehead area has gained city approval.

The Portland Design Commission on Thursday voted 4-1 to give the go-ahead to the $24.5 million Block 75 project designed by Works Partnership Architecture. Plans for the development at 111 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. call for ground-floor retail space, offices on the second through fourth floors and 75 apartments on the fifth through 10th floors. A pedestrian path and a courtyard space are in the works to connect Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to Third Avenue.

Commissioners reacted positively to the proposed design, which features an undulating facade with window frames that vary in size. They did, however, say that the building’s ground-floor commercial entrance on Northeast Couch Street could be more inviting.

“It captures the plainer quality that you’re after, but what does it do for the pedestrian?” Commissioner David Wark asked.

In response, the Works Partnership Architecture design team proposed stepping that part of the building back. Most commissioners agreed to this change.

Commission Chairwoman Guenevere Millius voted against approving the proposed design because she felt the team should spend more time improving that commercial entry.

The project’s “bundle of tubes” design concept stems from an effort to reflect the variety of uses in the building, Works Partnership Architecture principal William Neburka said.

“We’re equating the nature of the space – where you work, where you live, where you socialize – and using that to define the building,” Neburka said. “Our goal is to really represent this view of a larger community.”

Commissioner Tad Savinar praised the team’s ability to gain commission approval after one design advice request hearing and one design review hearing.

“It’s just really great to acknowledge that design review does work and can work,” he said.

The project is being developed by Block 75 LLC. Members include representatives of Urban Development Partners, Beam Development, Neburka and fellow Works Partnership Architecture principal Carrie Strickland.

Yorke and Curtis crews are scheduled to start construction in October and wrap up in time for the building to open in May 2016.

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Architectural models of a planned mixed-use building in Old Town Chinatown line the windowsill and clutter the table in a small conference room at Ankrom Moisan Architects‘ Portland office.

Senior associate Matt Janssen enthusiastically points out details on the models or refers to renderings and inspirational photos that coat the room’s bulletin board.

“It’s going to have that old warehouse feel,” he said. “You want to have an honest building, and we thought that structure fit with that concept.”

The $37 million project has particular significance for Janssen and other staffers working in Ankrom Moisan’s Portland office. When the six-story building on the corner of Northwest First Avenue and Davis Street is complete, it will become the firm’s new home.

Since determining that the site would suit the firm in its quest to leave Southwest Portland and move closer to downtown, Ankrom Moisan has worked with the project’s developer, Portland-based Gerding Edlen, on design. The architecture firm will occupy about 40,000 square feet on the third and fourth floors of the approximately 130,000-square-foot building. Plans also call for 16,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space, 20,000 additional square feet of office space on the second floor and 58 units of workforce housing on the fifth and sixth floors.

The Portland Development Commission since 2005 has owned the 29,100-square-foot Block 8L – next to the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine and the University of Oregon Portland campus – where the project will be built. Last fall, the city agency awarded Gerding Edlen first rights to acquire and redevelop the L-shaped property now a parking lot and dirt. The sale is being negotiated and likely will become final this fall, PDC senior project manager Eric Jacobson said.

Gerding Edlen Vice President Jill Sherman said the developer worked with Portland-based Works Partnership Architecture on initial design of the mixed-use project, but hired Ankrom Moisan to take over in May as part of an agreement for the firm to move into the building.

“When they approached us interested in the location, their interest was in being a tenant, but also an architect of a new building,” she said.

Creating a contemporary Old Town building that responds to the historic architecture that surrounds it has defined the design process so far, Janssen said.

“We started looking at something very modern because we’re architects,” he said. “Then we stepped back and we thought about it long and hard and we said, ‘This is a historic district.’ We wanted to be respectful of that, so we tried to make a building that fits into that vocabulary but still is understood as a building that was built today. That’s a really delicate balancing act that we’ve been trying to ride.”

The project’s design team has twice sought the advice of the Portland Historic Landmarks Commission, which will review the plans and potentially request modifications before granting city approval. Ankrom Moisan staffers have a third design advice request hearing with the commission scheduled for later this month; they plan to seek design approval in October.

One way that the project could acknowledge the neighborhood’s history will be through display of cast-iron rods from historic Old Town buildings that were demolished, Janssen said. The rods, part of a collection that the PDC has acquired over the years, would be incorporated into a plaza space on the part of the property that faces Northwest Naito Parkway and Governor Tom McCall Waterfront Park.

“One of the fun things about this site is we’ve got this enormous right-of-way on Naito. It’s almost like a gateway,” Janssen said. “We thought it would be fun to create an outdoor museum.”

The building will feature heavy timber construction on a concrete base to give it the appearance of a warehouse. The facade will invoke the feel of the historic district with tall windows and strong vertical lines, he said.

“Everything (in the district) is really vertical in nature, so we’re trying to pick up on that,” Janssen said.

Ankrom Moisan has occupied space on Southwest Macadam Avenue for more than 20 years. However, officials sought a location allowing easy commutes by bike or public transportation, Janssen said.

Firm staffers also are excited about working in a mixed-use building – one of the most common projects Ankrom Moisan designs, principal Murray Jenkins said.

“This was an opportunity to live what we’re doing,” he said.

General contractor R&H Construction is scheduled to start work on the project at the end this year and wrap up by early 2016. Ankrom Moisan plans to move into the space in January 2016. The firm currently has 185 employees in its Portland office. The new office space is designed to accommodate up to 250 employees, Jenkins said.

The Old Town office space will have a much more open floor plan aimed at encouraging collaboration, Janssen said. The stairs will be located on the perimeter instead of in the middle, and give staffers easy access to a central courtyard, he said.

“We want to have a lot more internal communication,” he said. “It frees up the plan on the inside of the building to be extremely open.”

Block 8L mixed-use building

Location: 60 N.W. Davis St.

Cost: $37 million

Anticipated construction start date: late 2014

Anticipated construction completion date: early 2016

Site owner: Portland Development Commission

Developer: Gerding Edlen

Architects: Ankrom Moisan Architects, Works Partnership Architecture

Landscape architect: Lango Hansen Landscape Architects

Structural engineer: DCI Engineers

General contractor: R&H Construction

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Early concepts for a large mixed-use development in Old Town Chinatown call for blending past and present.

“A big focus is compatibility with the existing historic buildings in the district,” said Jill Sherman, a vice president at Gerding Edlen. “We’re not trying to match them or copy them, but do something that … stands alone so it’s compatible but clearly (is) a modern, contemporary building – and reads as such.”

Gerding Edlen and Works Partnership Architecture recently requested design advice from the Historic Landmarks Commission for a $19.8 million development planned for the L-shaped block that wraps around the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine. In November 2013, Gerding Edlen announced that the Portland Development Commission had awarded it the rights to acquire and redevelop the vacant property.

The developer’s proposed six-story building would include 102 residential units, nearly 51,000 square feet of office space and approximately 4,600 square feet of retail space. To inject a touch of modernism, the building would incorporate architectural themes in the Skidmore/Old Town Historic District.

While the windows, doors, porches and other features would be built to the size and scale of those in historic buildings nearby, their articulation would be varied. For instance, the window openings would be set in a somewhat irregular pattern, while the traditional off-white brick facade would be sloped slightly at varying angles as it ascends to the roofline.

Also, deep cuts in the building would be included to break up massing and help generate a rhythm and interest in the facade. As envisioned, the development would create a multiuse alleyway between the new building and OCOM’s building at 75 N.W. Couch St. to encourage pedestrian activity.

And while commercial workspace would be oriented toward Northwest Naito Parkway, the residential units would be oriented toward the alleyway in an effort to play up the pedestrian experience there – a significant challenge for the project, and indeed the somewhat blighted neighborhood.

“It’s just really important to bring market-rate residential units to the district,” Sherman said. “One of the things I think will help is having more people there, more of the time – more eyes on the street, more people taking ownership of the neighborhood. That will contribute to addressing some of the things that people who live and work there are trying to figure out how to improve.”

Sherman said Gerding Edlen is still looking at options for debt and equity project partners, and working with Apex Real Estate Partners to secure preleases of office space. Conversations with several interested parties are in progress.

Sherman said the project, if it were to move forward, would be the first new market-rate construction in the neighborhood in more than two decades.

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