Around the curve: a visit to The Encore

Last week when I arrived at The Encore condos, developer Hoyt Street Properties’ latest building in the former Hoyt Street Yards parcel being converted over the years into Pearl District urbanity, there was a freight train stuck just a few yards from Union Station, keeping traffic on either side of the tracks backed up for a half-hour.

Perhaps that was a fitting omen, for The Encore has had some rotten luck. It was conceived during the housing boom and now, as the economy tumbles, has had difficulty filling the building with sales and occupants. There was also a construction worker killed injured in an accident on the job during the summer, and a water leak that pushed completion back. Hoyt has put on hold the condo building across the street, slowing the development of a neighborhood outside the Encore. And then there’s that train. When I was there, the horns and bells were pretty loud. Luckily Hoyt Street has lobbied the government to create a “quiet zone” in which trains aren’t legally required to blow their horns upon arrival, but that effort is a red-taped work in progress. (Update: The quiet zone been approved and will begin in Fall 2009.)

Even so, there is plenty to like about the building. At 16 stories with 177 units, it’s one of only a few in Portland defined by its noticeable curve, calling to mind Zimmer Gunsul Frasca’s Bonneville Power Administration headquarters in the Lloyd District or the Marriott Hotel along the waterfront near the Hawthorne Bridge.

Designed by BOORA Architects, the Encore’s curving shape looks better to me from what I’d call the back of the building, the outer curve facing what will be The Fields park and the Pearl District. Here the large balconies, which buyers will enjoy because they stretch from bedroom to living area, give the building a pleasing geometry of moving planes. I’m not as crazy about the building’s look facing Naito Parkway and the riverfront, however. There are high quality materials being used, but somehow the look feels heavy and perhaps a little too much like a corporate or institutional building.

This is the second building that BOORA has completed for Hoyt Street, following The Metropolitan. If this were a beauty contest based solely on exterior aesthetics, The Metropolitan would get my vote without a moment’s hesitation. When I first saw the Encore during its final stages of construction a few weeks ago during a tour of the nearby Ziba headquarters being built, my first impression wasn’t very good. But I’ve warmed up since taking a closer look at the inside and outside.

Not only are the units nicely appointed inside, as you’d expect for lofts and condos selling in this prime Pearl District real estate, with nearly ten-foot-high ceilings and rich, elegant materials, but the views are stellar. The Encore looks out at the river, the Fremont Bridge, the coming Fields park, and Centennial Mills to one side, and the river and downtown on the other. I was particularly struck, standing there inside one of the units in my socks (so as not to blemish the wood floors), it felt like I could reach out and grab the old Mills. When renovation is complete on those historic structures, the view will be even better. What’s more, because it sits on the park, the view won’t be diminished by future post-recession buildings.

Right now the Encore sits on the Pearl’s frontier, where hard hats are still more common than trendy newsboy caps. Yet this will someday be a corner of the Pearl with its own distinct feel. Hoyt, working with a BOORA master plan, ultimately intends to create a cluster of taller, more contemporary buildings here than they built previously in the more industrial-aesthetic Pearl. In that way, I think the Metropolitan and the Encore both represent a sort of Pearl within the Pearl that is still coming together. Not everything has gone according to plan, whether it’s the economy or the traffic circle Hoyt Street wanted for where Naito Parkway meets the Encore and its other condos. Even so, it’ll be interesting to see how this neighborhood comes together.

Comments

[dennis]

you definitely wrote some nice things about this building, but I have always been far from impressed with it. The only thing it has going for it is the shape of the building. Actually, I have really been disappointed with BOORA's work for a while now.

[GLV]

They really should call those "no horn zones." A rumbling train and wailing gate bells are anything but "quiet."

[billb]

What Park ?
What C.Mills Renovation ?
this is the dead end , nothing will happen here for 10 years. The condos have not sold at all ,this baby is going back to the bank , and on to big discount buyers and or lawsuit city.
On the plus side the 'park' elevation is beautiful , and I can't wait to rent an apartment in there for 700 a month.

[Brian Libby]

Bill, the message I'm getting from you here is, "The sky is falling." We're in a recession, but things will improve economically within a year. Portland's increasing densification will continue. It's true the Encore may be somewhat of a dinosaur if it's conceived as luxury and sold/rented as middle class housing, but the building will continue. Portland won't stay frozen forever, by snow or housing futures.

[anon]

Brian,

Your comment above sounds really naive to me. Work for just one day at any architecture firm or really any company involved in the building industry and I think you would come away with a very different perspective.

[Brian Libby]

Anon,

What's naive about expressing optimism that the economy will continue the same cyclical, rise-and-fall, fall-and-rise pattern it has for centuries?

Obviously I realize things are really tough out there right now. I know architecture firms are getting very little if any work right now. Perhaps I didn't express enough empathy for what people in the industry are going through right now.

I don't mean to be too touchy or defensive about your comment. I want to consider the point you're trying to express, and not the sense of insult I might feel from accusations like naivete. A voice inside my head is going, 'If I'm so naive, why are you reading this blog? It must not be worth anything to you.'

But I'm trying to be less defensive, so I respect the fact that you want to point out something more important: that this downturn may not be just another downturn, that it may be significantly worse than that.

[chris]

The bubble bloggers would love to see every pearl/sowa project implode so they can pay their projected "$700" rent. I'll stay optimistic and say they will be wrong.

What was the issue with the traffic circle?

[Crank5000]

You mention Hoyt's master plan for the Pearl frontier near The Encore with a cluster of taller, more contemporary buildings. Where will those buildings go? To the NW and W of The Fields and NW 11th?

[ws]

The economy may, or hopefully will rise again, but a good question seems to be, 'What is the economy now going to rise to?'. Since the war is going bye-bye (with some consistency from Obama's word), that revenue source is going away. Maybe the next economic upswing will ride on a thorough revision of our own country's infrastructure to one that's leaner, greener, easy to get around in without a personal motor vehicle. There probably are a lot of potential jobs in that kind of effort.

This building looks pretty good in the pictures above. Not really my thing, but if others like it, fine.

Unrelated note: notice that Steve Duin in today's O gave thumbs down to the proposed building height variance being considered for Skidmore/Old Town Historic District.

[pdx2m2]

The Hoyt Master Plan includes over 3 million square feet of new mixed use space. Most of this is north of Overton and west of 11th and the Fields Park. The Master Plan includes land all the way to the Freemont Bridge.

[chris]

Crank5000 and pdx2m2 touch on something I have thought about that may fit a future discussion. "The Fields" has the potential to be boxed in by tall buildings. I realize there are height restrictions but this is no central park. What effect will the building to park ratio have on the local architecture?