The Cosmopolitan on the Park (rendering courtesy Boora Architects)
BY IAIN MACKENZIE
There are few neighborhoods in Portland that have seen more changes in recent decades than the Pearl District.
Today the Pearl has evolved from what The Oregonian described in 1994 as “a decaying portion of Northwest Portland once devoted to industry and transportation” into a mixed-use neighborhood with thousands of residents, large offices and numerous shops and restaurants. Despite the huge changes, architects and developers working in the early phases of large development in the neighborhood were often responding to the historic context of one of Portland's older neighborhoods: Couch's Addition was platted in 1842; the North Park Blocks were acquired by the City in 1869; and many of the warehouses in the NW 13th Ave Historic District date back to the early 20th Century. Developments such as the Brewery Blocks or the Ecotrust incorporated historic buildings, while new condominiums mimicked their aesthetic. While little of the industry that once defined the area is left today, one of the charms of the neighborhood is the juxtaposition of high rises such as the Casey and historic low rises such as the Bullseye Glass Building.
Further north in the Pearl there was less context to respond to. Much of the developable land was former railway yards, and the warehouses along NW 13th Avenue were more often single-story concrete structures rather than charming brick buildings. As development started to cross Lovejoy—once an elevated ramp leading to the Broadway Bridge—planners and neighborhood activists started to wonder if the North Pearl might develop in a different way. Instead of the bulky full block developments that had been built on some blocks south of Lovejoy, it was proposed that the developers might be allowed to build taller, but narrower.
In 2008 the Zoning Code was amended to incorporate a provision that exists nowhere else in the City: in the North Pearl Height Opportunity Area there are no maximum building heights for buildings with narrow floor plates.
This zoning change coincided with the start Great Recession, and for the first years of the policy being in place few buildings of any height were built. When Boora Architects presented Block 15 (now known as The Cosmopolitan) to the Design Commission in April 2013 the first words spoken by a member of the Commission were “Holy Shit! We're back! We're back!” At 340' tall the Cosmopolitan will not only be the tallest building in the Pearl, but it will also be among the tallest buildings in the city. In the middle of a construction boom dominated by mid-rise for-lease apartments, the tower is also notable for selling its units as condos.
The NV (rendering courtesy ZGF Architects)
Under construction only a few blocks from the Cosmopolitan is The NV, by ZGF Architects. The building takes a similar approach, with a narrow-floor-plate tower rising above a full block podium. The tower is rotated 45 degrees from the city grid, a move that is intended to maximize views of the river from the building's northeast side.
While building tall and narrow buildings fits many of the neighborhood aspirations, it is a very expensive way to build, as Boora principal John Meadows noted in an interview with Portland Architecture. The recently completed Block 17 Apartments, also by Boora, has a more conventional and efficient parti. On the east side of the block is a medium rise brick building facing The Fields Park, while the west side is comprised of a high-rise glass tower.
Block 17 (rendering courtesy Boora Architects)
The three towers of the North Pearl all had their first hearings before the Design Commission in 2013, and since then no new towers have been proposed north of Lovejoy. There are probably few neighborhoods in the city where the chair of the Neighborhood Association would turn up to complain that a building is too low, yet that is what happened when the Broadstone Pearl has its first Design Advice hearing. The three-quarter block, six-story building had a second Design Advice hearing in August and now has a pending Design Review case. Catty-corner to it, on a site formerly occupied by Cash & Carry, will be the Modera Pearl, which has been under construction since April. Taking up a full block, with a height of up to 9 stories and 290 units the Modera Pearl is certainly a significant building, though of a different typology than was envisioned in 2008.
Broadstone Pearl (rendering courtesy Encore Architects/Merryman Barnes)
Modera Pearl (rendering courtesy SERA Architects)
With housing affordability dominating the headlines in Portland this year, the need for low-income housing has seldom seemed more urgent. At NW 13th & Raleigh, BRIDGE Housing is currently building The Abigail, which will offer 155 apartments, 127 of which will be reserved for families earning 30 to 60 percent of Portland’s Median Family Income. At NW 14th & Raleigh the City recently bought a site for a future affordable housing development, at a 13 percent discount following Hoyt Street Properties' failure to build all the affordable housing they had committed to. A Request for Proposals was issued this year, though no information has yet been made public about what will go on the site.
The Abigail (rendering courtesy Ankrom Moisan Architects)
In common with other neighborhoods seeing significant changes, the majority of the buildings proposed for the North Pearl are residential. Most projects in the North Pearl have at least some ground floor retail, though townhomes and live/work units are becoming the preferred program choice for the ground floor. The Design Commission has pushed for more retail, worried that ground-floor residential units will forever have closed Venetian blinds. Developers have typically responded that it is very challenging to lease retail space so far north in the neighborhood, where there is much less foot traffic than there is near Powell's Books. High ceilinged ground floor residential units may eventually become retail spaces should the market support it, but the most likely scenario is that the North Pearl will be a much less busy area than the southern parts of the neighborhood.
The most significant non-residential development currently planned for the district will be Station Place Lot 5, a new office building by developer Williams & Dame, who were heavily involved in the early phases of development in the Pearl. The eight-story building at the corner of NW Ninth Avenue & Northrup Street will include 167,000 square feet of office space, with ground-floor retail. After being very well received by the Design Commission in August, Hacker and GBD Architects have now submitted the building for Design Review.
Station Place Lot 5 (rendering courtesy Hacker/GBD Architects)
The sheer amount of work presently underway makes it almost impossible to walk along NW Pettygrove Street or the far end of NW 13th Ave, but when the construction dust settles both will emerge as special streets in the district. NW Pettygrove has been imagined as a “green street” that will link the Fields Park (completed in 2013) to Wallace Park, by way of the future park at NW 20th Avenue in the Conway master plan area. Developers who are building on the four blocks between NW 11th and 15th Avenues have the option to choose from three standards designs for their side of the street, all of which include large canopy trees, curb extensions and stormwater facilities. Since the adoption of the new standards for the street in 2012, 6 of the 8 block faces have either already been rebuilt or will be soon. The Portland Bureau of Transportation is now studying whether to relocate the nearby bicycle boulevard from NW Overton to NW Pettygrove Street.
Pettygrove Green Street (illustration courtesy Portland Department of Transportation)
Three of the new buildings going up will have faces on NW 13th Avenue, which will be built out to continue the standards established further south in the district. Buildings on NW 13th Avenue are required to either have a curbless sidewalk with bollards, or a loading dock similar to those built in the historic district. The Modera Pearl, the NV and the Abigail apartments will all have loading docks, though some have questioned whether it makes sense to append an ersatz loading dock in locations that may never have them to begin with.
The biggest unknown for the area remains Centennial Mills. The Portland Development Commission recently began partial demolition on the badly deteriorated building complex, with the goal of getting the hazardous materials out of the structure before it collapses into the Willamette. When demolition is complete all that will remain is the Feed Mill, the Flour Mill and the Mounted Patrol Unit buildings. Even the future of those buildings remains in doubt, with the Mayor's office asking the PDC to study whether the whole complex should be demolished.
With a dwindling number of buildable sites left in the North Pearl, it is now possible to imagine the end of large scale development on the former Hoyt Street railway yards. Once that happens, Portland will have largely completed the task that seemed so ambitious to The Oregonian back in 1994: converting abandoned rail yards “into a vital neighborhood for housing, business and recreation.”
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Going tall. But falling short. The North Pearl, the South Waterfront, Oregon Square... All of these "neighborhoods" will suffer from what one may call the "sterile hue of sameness". Take for example the subject of this article: all the buildings that front the most significant new park/public space in Portland--Fields Park--were designed by one firm (the very firm that was commissioned to create the North Pearl Master Plan for Hoyt Street Properties). In the Lloyd District we will have the equivalent of 8 city blocks all designed by one firm (GDB). A student of history may conclude a benevolent dictator may in fact yield a more beautiful built environment than the random haphazard and (non)collective efforts of individual property owners. While others may prefer the tyranny of private property rights and pro forma spreadsheets. But stand in Fields Park and take a good look around. If you find yourself overwhelmed in the underwhelming architecture you see, don't be too discouraged. Trees grow taller.
Posted by: David Dysert | October 15, 2015 at 10:38 PM