Mississippi Avenue Lofts Set To Break Ground

I have meant to write about the Mississippi Avenue Lofts for awhile, both because it's a significant mixed-use project in a burgeoning close-in Portland neighborhood and because the project has seen a fair amount of controversy.

The project, designed by the Portland office of San Francisco firm Michael WIllis Architects (which also partnered with Thomas Hacker Architects on the ill-fated Fire Station 1), is poised to earn a prestigous 'Gold' LEED rating from the US Green Building Council. The first LEED-rated residential project on the east side, It consists of 32 residential units and will occupy a site just north of the commercial district along Mississippi Avenue that includes The Rebuilding Center, Gravy restaurant, Video Verite, Fresh Pot coffee and other establishments. There will reportedly be a Pastaworks store on the ground floor. The MAL project replaces an old cinder-block warehouse.

The controversy, as many know, came in December of 2005 when the Boise Neighborhood Association voted to deny support for the project. Some believe the association was hijacked by a few neighbors objecting to the height and gentrification, but that's an argument we've already had here about the neighborhood's objection to another project, the Kurisu family's residential building designed by Holst. Besides, the Historic Mississippi Business Association gave the MAL project a strong endorsement.

In the case of the Mississippi Avenue Lofts project, the original design was more of a continuous horizontal form, the idea being that it would de-emphasize the four-story height. But a revised plan for the building, breaks up its mass by emphasizing a series of smaller individual box-like forms emanating out of the larger whole.

I like how the building has turned out. One of its real strengths is the use of wood, which will help integrate the MAL project with the existing fabric of single-family homes off Mississippi Avenue while also celebrating Oregon's native materials and adding warmth to the overall sense of the building. It also features a tilt-up concrete construction method by general contractor Gray Purcell common in commercial projects but rare in residential that will help reduce construction time by 2-3 months. Additionally, the design features a coutyard plan that will provide ample natural light. And that 4th floor that seems to always freak out neighbors with these projects is set back significantly, not only giving the building a more modest presence on the street but creating a terrific rooftop deck for some lucky penthouse owners.

Developed by the trio of Bill Jackson, Peter Wilcox and David Yoho, this is a project that has had more than its fair share of hurdles to clear, but I'm told groundbreaking could come as soon as February. More and more, the land in North Portland between Interstate Avenue and Williams Street seems poised to explode with lots of new mixed-use housing projects, and many of them are turning out very handsome, such as the aforementioned Kurisu project, the and two projects developed by the Kaiser Group: Backbridge Station and the Backbridge Lofts.

Comments

[Donald Trump]

But is a 750 sq ft cell really going to sell for $290,000 ?. I noticed the other day when a drove by that only 11 of 32 units have sold ?.

[keith.d]

Beautiful building - but I have a question: Mississippi is 'close-in?' I'm still trying to get the knack of Portland's neighborhood nomenclature; recently I was firmly told that my home at E. Burnside & 78th (on the cusp of 'Northeast & Southeast,' no less) was definitely not 'close-in.'

I was standing next to a couple who were being ragged on about living in the 'burbs of Mt. Tabor' at the time...

[spin]

it would be interesting to compare the original elevation with the new one to see how it developed. i am not familiar with it, but the current one looks a bit like the old western front main street with stuck on facades.

the website indicates that the exterior wood will be ipe - a beautiful and durable wood showing up on numerous local projects (belmont lofts, firstenburg comm ctr, etc). although the ipe may recall the wood siding of the area and may be an appropriate choice, it is a south american hardwood and not really a true celebration of oregon's native materials.

[stevie3000]

The Kurisu project is not handsome. It is total yuck, as if the architect was so beaten down by the design commission that they just gave up.

[george]

yes, i admit it. i am in favor of this project for the pastaworks alone.

the height is a little scary, it will take away a nice skyline view that i get in the winter from my back alley.

but i sold my soul to the devil for a bottle of wine and some ravioli.

[mississippi resident]

As an architect and resident of the neighborhood, I can tell you much of the controversy surrounding this project was how it was presented to the community. While the developers did come to many neighborhood meetings and present their project, input from the community was not actively sought until late in the project's development. As the first of what will likely be several mixed use condo developments, neighbors were wary of a larger residential project in what has been until recently a neighborhood of mostly single family homes.

I think many neighbors were concerned about a variety of factors including height of course, but also parking,(as the neighborhood becomes more developed it is becoming harder to park in front of one's own house, and this development's limited number of parking spaces for residents of the building threatens already limited street parking in the area) and alley access (the project shares an alley with single family homes).

If the developers had worked harder to notify the community of the buildings development earlier in the process and actively sought and responded to neighborhood concerns, I think there would have been less controversy with the project. Not everyone would have been happy, but a greater majority would have felt their voices had been heard, rather than ignored, which was the mood in the later neighborhood meetings where a larger number of residents were notified.

in response to keith d.: I think many consider close-in neighborhoods to be those inside of 39th on the east side (just my opinion) mississippi while in north portland, is comparable in proximity to downtown with irvington. It takes me about 5-10 minutes by car and about 15-20 mins by bus to get downtown.

[ws]

This is a small neighborhood. Underground parking should be encouraged for these large housing structures.

[Brian Libby]

Seems to me with parking they're damned if they do and damned if they don't. If they build a building that includes enough parking for everyone, it becomes a bigger structure and would set off neighbor concerns about size. But if they cut down on spots and emphasize use of mass transit, which incedentally is a perfectly laudable goal, then they're taking spots on the street away. To me these are the standard growing pains that seem to happen with a lot of multi-family housing projects sprouting up in existing neighborhoods of single-family homes.

As for involving the neigbhorhood, I think it's always nice if it happens, and probably a good strategic move to avoid trouble later. But they're also not obligated, nor should they be.

[ws]

Does the building get bigger if the parking is underground? I suppose they might have to go deeper if they wanted a basement too, but underground parking utilizes mostly unused space where almost nobody would want to live. Seems like that would help to keep a building from needing to be bigger.

And obviously, if say for example, the Mississippi Av lofts doesn't have a big parking space in the back of the building, then that space will be available for other desperately needed building amenities such as lawn, play area, garden, and so forth.

Of course developers would not like to endure the burden of installing underground parking because that would lengthen the time in which it would take for their investment to pencil out. Given that this is a neighborhood where people hope that a high quality of life will continue to be available, it only makes sense that their concerns in that respect would be worthy of more than an optional congenial gesture on the part of developers with plans for the limited supply of land in the neighborhood.

[Bill]

Keith, if you can ride a bike into downtown Portland within 15 minutes (at a reasonable person's pace) of your home, you are "close-in."

Or, perhaps the walking test: can you get from downtown to your home in an hour?

[mississippi resident]

As for involving the neigbhorhood, I think it's always nice if it happens, and probably a good strategic move to avoid trouble later. But they're also not obligated, nor should they be.

Of course they aren't obligated, but like I said, as the first larger scale mixed-use development on the street, there was going to be some resistance built in to the process. By getting the input of the residents earlier in the process, the resistance would have likely been lessened.

I agree that encouraging public transit is a laudable goal, but I think many area residents feel that the clientele moving into newer developments like this one are going to be more wealthy, more likely to have more cars, and less likely to use public transit. They may walk to local businesses, but it remains to be seen how many of the residents will actually ride the bus to work, no matter how convenient. This isn't the developers fault, just a general opinion of those in the neighborhood. (I hate to speak for everyone, but that was the nature of the comments at some of the neighborhood meetings.)

[keith.d]

Thanks for all the responses to the close-in question, I'm still trying to get used to all the variations in addressing parts of the city.

As for the other part of this discussion, I'm in a neighborhood that would love to have the kind of developer & city involvement that Mississippi (and others) has, I wonder if that aspect is given any consideration?