10th & Yamhill SmartPark set (tentatively) to become Carroll-developed tower

As reported in today's Oregonian by Brent Hunsberger, the Portland Development Commission has approved a preliminary agreement with developer John Carroll to replace the downtown SmartPark at SW 10th Avenue and Yamhill Street with a new garage (slightly smaller) topped by 20 stories of offices, condos or hotel rooms.

The city currently has about $11.5 million to contribute, but under the plan approved Wednesday would contribute about $30 million out of the $160 million budget. The public contribution would come from urban renewal and parking funds.

This is a rather ugly concrete garage that has been very useful but is now past its time. It's been in the news most recently because ground-floor tenant Peterson's convenience store, which was almost evicted because of the unpleasant environment outside its doors.

Personally, even though the point will eventually be moot when the garage is rebuilt, I was glad to see Peterson's survive. Certainly improvements such as added security could be made, as the owner has agreed to. But unfortunate as it may be, this is a common problem with convenience stores, and it's not entirely the owner's fault. And we need to have a simple convenience store like this downtown considering there are relatively few of them.

And while those hanging out in front of the store and the MAX stop outside are often rough-around-the edge kids and/or vagrants, that's part of life in the city. I mean, I hate the giant black Chevy Suburban with a "NOBama" bumper sticker I see every time I go to the accupuncturist. (She's in the same building as a realtor.) But hey, bad taste isn't a crime, nor is bad hygiene. I'm no expert, but I'll bet something as simple as playing classical music outside Peterson's could change that environment and discourage sitting or lying without killing somebody's small business or harassing people who look grimier than you and me. Am I opening Pandora's box commenting on this?

Regarding the tower's preliminary agreement, this is the next big development for John Carroll following the Ladd Tower. In that project, as many will recall, Carroll was instrumental in saving the adjacent historic Ladd Carriage House. But the Ladd Tower, co-developed as a half-block condo with Opus Northwest and the landowner, First Christian Church, also brought about the demolition of the Rosefriend Apartments on that same block, a beautiful brick courtyard apartment building dating to 1907. And now, with the fledgling condo market, the Ladd Tower has turned into rental apartments. Architecturally, the Ankrom Moisan-designed building has a traditional-looking masonry base and a more modern glassy upper portion.

Although the Ladd Tower is still under construction, I think a better example of his work will still turn out to be Carroll's previous one, the Zimmer Gunsul Frasca-designed Eliot Tower behind the Portland Art Museum. That building, which Ankrom did the interiors for, is one of the prettiest of the large-scale condos in the city; I meant to include it in a recent post about The Metropolitan and the new class of better-looking big condo towers (although the Eliot is a couple years old now).

Carroll also developed two block-sized Pearl District condos, The Gregory and The Elizabeth (both by Ankrom). The Gregory is a cartoonish art-deco style, but its look has grown on me over the years. And I've heard it's one of the most popular with the public (you know, not architecture geeks like us). The Elizabeth, like The Gregory, is short and squatty -- not very flattering proportions -- and is a dreary gray brick with small hints of ye olde Britain, and maybe just a touch of Frank Lloyd Wright. It's not a favorite of mine, but in time may benefit from the contrast of more ubiquitous tall glass buildings around it as the Pearl fills out.

The 10th and Yamhill garage project at one point seemed like it might go to Gerding Edlen development, who would have contributed leading-edge expertise on sustainability and urban place-making, the latter of which would have been particularly useful in re-invigorating this under-utilized twin block area with The Galleria. Carroll's company, on the other hand, has long been adept at seizing projects along the streetcar line.

One thing I'm not clear about after reading the Oregonian article is whether the new garage would be above ground, with the human-inhabited portion only beginning above that (and the ground floor retail). Why not just expand the underground garage next door even more? After all, should we be building any above-ground garage in the central city anymore, even one making better use of space with a tower on top? I think the current garage is a testament to the drawbacks aesthetically we'd get from even a fancy new above-ground garage/tower combination.

Comments

[Levi Cohen]

si se puede!

[Douglas K.]

I just find this frustrating. Tom Moyer purchased the Zell block to put a tower there. Now the city wants to replace the Smart Park with another tower.

It should have been fairly simple to combine both blocks into a single development with 1 1/2 blocks of underground parking, a tall building on Tenth, and a plaza between Ninth and Park. One more step in finishing Dan Lownsdale's promenade. The timing would have been right, and Moyer had previously expressed support for completing the promenade.

But instead, we're getting a 37 story tower that pretty much ends any chance of ever finishing the promenade.

[ws]

It was completely stupid for the city to stand aside and let Moyer build a tower on PB4, even praise him for doing it, especially now that it's announced that, after all, the concrete bunker of a parking garage on 10th will in fact become a tower itself. Removing the buildings on the Zell block opened up a beautiful light and sky filled view, with the one vintage building on PB3(yellow-tan brick, arched windows)making a particularly nice background. Now, for 100 years perhaps, that's going to be all gone with the arrival of another tower on PB4.

There shouldn't be any question that parking should go underground. Why waste the lower levels of a building on storing cars? Cars don't need windows to look out of or for daylight.

[ben]

carroll also developed the edge lofts. any word on who will design the 10th and yamhill project?

[crow]

it is also worth mentioning that carroll is not a part of the Ladd Tower project since its conversion to apartments. smart guy - the building is pretty ugly.

[Jamie]

My only question is why blocks like this get torn down and redeveloped before any of the MANY surface parking lots. Seriously. Is it because they are privately owned and the owners aren't interested in developing their plots? Haven't we reached the critical mass where our downtown is dense enough to price-out these wastes of space?

[ben]

ask mark goodman.