Multnomah County Courthouse | 310' | 17 floors | Complete

[urbanlife]

I saw that coming, and in all honesty, I am not sure that building could have withstood a major construction project next to it without some serious and expensive reinforcing.

[Abide]

Originally Posted by ORNative

There is still one building on the block to the south of VQ. As I recall, it is historically protected.

Apparently, the county bought a controlling stake in the historic Jefferson Station office building south of VQ and plans to attach it to the new courthouse building.

[maccoinnich]

In the Spring 2015 the City Council voted in principle to increase the allowable heights at the Hawthorne and Morrison bridgeheads, however the implementing code hasn't yet been published (should be released on Monday of next week with Central City 2035). These wont go into effect until summer 2017 at the earliest.

I've heard independently from a few people that the County want to move faster than this, with the aim of beginning construction by the end of this year. That's certainly an aggressive schedule. One of the things they'll need to for this to be possible is to get the Zoning Map amended, as they did for the Health Dept. Apparently they're about to start the legislative process of going through the Planning Commission and City Council to get the amendment.

[Sioux612]

From MultCo.us:

[maccoinnich]

Here's the full presentation [PDF] given to the Multnomah County board last week..

[Encolpius]

Well, I like the entrance, but the elevations need more work. The position of this building is too prominent for this gallimaufry of metaphorical schlock about fluid strength and dynamic permanence and transparency/complexity. Is it a new fad to design façades with vertical elements that don't align? It may work for the Ayuntamiento in Murcia or some of Eric Parry's buildings, where the overall structure of the façade is squat, solid and coherent (and stone), but on a flimsy-looking high-rise with glazing on the corners it looks terrible.

Also, does this design reflect the new height limits along Naito, or did they make a special exception for the county here as for the Health Department building in Old Town? If this is to be the new height for buildings fronting the river... I hate it.

[cab]

Lots of blank walls. Same mistakes at the jail.

[Derek]

lol, this sucks.


The Naito facing side of the building looks like the original "HUB" proposal.


Meanwhile, in San Diego....



(I know, it's a federal courthouse but still...)

[ZigzagMan]

Another terrible design.. God what is it with this city and high rises?

[urbanlife]

I personally don't mind the design, the glass curtain wall facing east makes sense and makes me want to go there for court just to see that view. I like the use of the limestone for the blank wall potions. The lobby entrance looks very open and fluid for the need to have security.

My only concern is due to the nature of this site, the L shape will just make the building look very squat and blocky, and I don't know how much the staggered paneling will help this issue.

[rsbear]

Originally Posted by Derek

lol, this sucks.


The Naito facing side of the building looks like the original "HUB" proposal.


Meanwhile, in San Diego....



(I know, it's a federal courthouse but still...)

That San Diego building is horrible. But then, most of the modern buildings in down San Diego are bad, so no surprise there.

[Derek]

For a courthouse, it's not bad in my opinion. It certainly looks 100x better than this proposal.

[ZigzagMan]

That's horrible? So you must think the Portland proposal is utterly terrible then

[urbanlife]

Originally Posted by ZigzagMan

That's horrible? So you must think the Portland proposal is utterly terrible then

The one in San Diego isn't that great. I have definitely seen better, as for Portland, I like a lot of what I am seeing in this proposed building and it definitely could look like a good addition to that area and be a respectable looking county courthouse building.

[Derek]

Originally Posted by ZigzagMan

That's horrible? So you must think the Portland proposal is utterly terrible then

Yes, my exact words were "lol, this sucks".

[spoonman]

Both of the courthouses are bad IMO. I think there is a rule that they have to look like $hi%. As bad as San Diego's Federal Courthouse is, surprisingly it was designed by Richard Meier.

Here is San Diego's newest ugly Central Courthouse...

[Derek]

Man you guys are crazy, I like San Diego's new courthouses.


I'd rather have what's pictured above instead of the turd presented to us in this early draft.

[2oh1]

Originally Posted by spoonman

Here is San Diego's newest ugly Central Courthouse...

That's UGLY? Granted, we're only seeing one angle of it here, but it looks gorgeous to me. I assume the angles along the underside of the top are intended to reduce sound rather than having it reflected straight back, sort of like the ceiling at a bowling alley.

[spoonman]

I do like the mid century style, just not a fan of the wing-like structure at the top.

[maccoinnich]

Originally Posted by Encolpius

Also, does this design reflect the new height limits along Naito, or did they make a special exception for the county here as for the Health Department building in Old Town? If this is to be the new height for buildings fronting the river... I hate it.

The design is below the proposed 325' height limit, however as I mentioned above those haven't yet gone into effect. The architects have confirmed what I'd heard, which is that they're going to go through a legislative process to get the zoning map amended to show a increase the height on that block. (Similar to what happened with the Health Dept). This has to go through the Planning & Sustainability Commission and the City Council.

It's interesting that the only entity asking for height increases in downtown is Multnomah County. I'm pretty skeptical that the Council would approve a height increase for one single block if a private developer asked for it. When the West Quadrant Plan went before the City Council Amanda Fritz had conniptions over the height increases, stating that the plan included "spot zoning changes to benefit a handful of developers who are tight with members of the City Council." It was a pretty ridiculous claim, given that the plan that looked at the whole Central City west of the river, and had gone through half a decade of public process. Now that an actual example of spot zoning by the river is about to go before her I wonder how she'll vote.