Pearl District News

[PDX City-State]

I'd like to send a shout out to Castillonis for continually posting these great photos.

[sirsimon]

^ Hear, hear!

[sirsimon]

Nice looking little buildings.

[sirsimon]

Very cool. Thanks for providing the info about the tools you've used for some of your pics. Even with the distortion, this is still a great pic.

[Dougall5505]

thanks cas!

[MarkDaMan]

This has been discussed here somewhere but I can't find the thread.


pic from article

Honeyman lofts to add new homes
A 9-story residential and retail project is planned to replace the former horse stable that’s part of one of the Pearl District’s first loft projects
Daily Journal of Commerce
POSTED: 06:00 AM PST Friday, January 4, 2008
BY ALISON RYAN

The Metro, the Bindery, and the Cotter buildings – a Pearl District trio known collectively as the Honeyman Hardware Co. Buildings or the Honeyman Hardware Lofts – have been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1989.

And though the buildings are tied by location, their relationship is awfully standoffish.

“Those three buildings are remarkably different,” said Mark Simpson, principal at Bumgardner Architects, a Seattle firm that’s designing a new building for the block. “They don’t even try to speak to each other.”

The 1989 renovation of the buildings into residential apartments was one of the first loft efforts in Portland. And a new proposal by Security Properties would replace the Metro Building with a nine-story, mixed-used retail and residential building.

Seattle-based Security Properties Inc. bought the block, which is between Northwest Park and Ninth avenues and Northwest Glisan and Hoyt streets, in 2006. The three-building block includes 89 apartments and 28,240 square feet of ground floor retail.

Originally built as a horse stable, the Metro was almost completely demolished in 1945. In the 1980s, Simpson said, the then-owner tried to replicate what the building may have originally looked like – but zero historic references exist.

“So what’s there is more confusing than anything else,” he said.

The new design is a simple box, with hefty columns and large windows nodding to the warehouse history of the area and a more vertical language distinguishing the new Metro from the existing Cotter Building. On the Northwest Hoyt Street side, cutting a 25-foot recess will make room for a plaza that willl offer an interpretive exhibit on the city’s horse stable history.

Ground-floor retail with residential above, said project consultant Jeanne Muir of Urban Relations in Seattle, will wrap the block.

“That’s really what fits with both the River District Plan and the Central City Plan,” she said. “It could be a great addition to the Pearl, to complete the retail around that building.”

Whether the 56 homes in the new building will be sold or rented is yet to be decided. The eight upper stories will be residential, said Security Properties project manager Alexis Chartouni, but the company plans to wait and see how the market evolves before making a decision.

“Obviously, the Portland market is going through a little bit of condo upheaval,” he said.

Whether featuring condos or apartments, the project team says the new Metro Building will fit nicely into the neighborhood.

“It’ll look more like a piece of the Pearl,” Simpson said, “instead of a bizarre pile of bricks, some of which are old, and some of which aren’t.”

The project is slated to go before the city’s Historic Landmarks Commission on Jan. 14.
http://www.djcoregon.com/articleDetail.h...ail-project-is-planned-to-replace-the-fo

[urbanlife]

just another great example that the Pearl is no warehouse district...its just a big condo neighborhood. Nothing wrong with that, it is what it is.

[onebulgar]

Honeyman Hardware, New Metro Addition
http://www.portlandonline.com/shared/cfm/image.cfm?id=178910

[sopdx]

Not very inspired, but considering it has to go through the landmarks commission which tends to suck the life out anything, it makes sense.

[MarkDaMan]

Dougall, could you add the y in Honeyman to the title of this thread? It is driving me crazy every time I see my mistake.

[Dougall5505]

no prob

[MarkDaMan]

^Thanks

[MarkDaMan]

Next up for the Pearl: greater diversity
Thursday, January 10, 2008
By Stephen Beaven
The Oregonian

For a decade or so, the Pearl District has been perceived as Portland's elite urban enclave, where condos go for $2 million and it's easier to find day care for your dog than for your kids.

But Pearl District residents and the city are working to change the neighborhood's haute image. The Portland Development Commission is working on two projects, including family housing, aimed at opening the neighborhood to a broader slice of the city.

"People of all income ranges should be able to live in the Pearl," Steven Shain a development manager at the PDC says. "The Pearl shouldn't be a ghetto of high-end condominiums."

The PDC is planning an apartment building at Northwest Ninth Avenue and Overton Street that will offer affordable housing for families, possibly with on-site social services. A request for proposals from developers is expected to go out early this year.

The redevelopment of the old Centennial Mills site is also being promoted as a project that will provide riverside access to all comers.

A Safeway is under construction at Northwest 13th and Lovejoy, adding a grocery other than pricey Whole Foods. And a loose-knit group of parents is working to bring together the smattering of families in the Pearl.

All of this is good news for Pearl District residents who want to see more diversity.

Affordable family housing is especially important for Nancy Davis, who lives in the Pearl with her husband and their young son. Davis and a friend have formed River District Families, which now has an e-mail list with parents who together have more than 30 kids. They gather for play dates and other activities to build a sense of community.

"There is an incredible dearth of two- and three-bedroom units in this neighborhood," Davis says, adding that she hopes the PDC's effort will spur additional development. "It will put even more pressure on this area to develop day care, a community center, a school and an indoor play area."

The PDC hasn't ironed out all the details for the apartment building. It's not clear, for instance, how many units will be built or what income levels will be targeted. But initial discussions suggested at least 75 apartments, Kim McCarty, a PDC housing project manager, says. Shain says owner-occupied homes could be added among the rental units.

But not everyone in the Pearl favors low-income apartments.

"I pay a lot of taxes here, and I expect my neighborhood to look good," Terri Williams says. "I think people who own generally take more pride in their home than people who do not."

Details on the Centennial Mills project will be clearer this month, when three firms are expected to return to Portland with redevelopment proposals for the nearly five-acre site along the Willamette River.

The PDC owns the property and has said that creating open space, strengthening connections between the river and nearby neighborhoods, and providing a focal point for the community are three goals of the redevelopment.

The message city and neighborhood leaders are sending with both projects is none too subtle. They want to change the perception that the Pearl is only for rich people. They point out that there is already low-income housing in the neighborhood, including Pearl Court, the Sitka Apartments and Lovejoy Station.

But it's more than just a perception. Two-bedroom condos go for a half-million dollars and more. And there's no public school; kids in the Pearl attend Chapman Elementary School on Northwest 26th Avenue.

Parents from throughout the city visit the Pearl with their children, especially during the summer, when the fountain at Jamison Square is packed. Buying a home, however, seems out of reach for many.

"Right now, I don't think I could afford what I'd want," says Dana Sullivan, who lives in Southwest and recently brought one of her two children to the play area at the Pearl's Sip & Kranz coffeehouse.

"My taste would lead me to something I couldn't afford."

Stephen Beaven: 503-294-7663; [email protected].
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/orego...ortland_news/1199219103288890.xml&coll=7

[MarkDaMan]

Community, family spaces part of proposal for north Pearl FAR
Added bonuses for more bedrooms and places like libraries and day cares are on the table
Daily Journal of Commerce
POSTED: 06:00 AM PST Monday, January 14, 2008
BY ALISON RYAN

Tweaks to the floor-area-ratio bonus system could bring more family-friendly housing and community-pleasing features to the largely undeveloped north Pearl District.

The North Pearl District Plan, set to be published by the city in February, will cover future building in the now-development-dormant area stretching north from Northwest Lovejoy Street to the Willamette River. The Bureau of Planning, the Portland Development Commission and the Office of Transportation have been at work on the plan for about a year, pulling stakeholders like local developers and neighborhood associations into the process.

The plan, which the Portland Planning Commission got a look at last week, proposes changes to FAR, which controls the overall density allowed on a development site, for the area.

Most north Pearl properties have an FAR of 2:1. Borrowing to add density to other Pearl projects has left developers – most notably, Hoyt Street Properties – with less. What planners now recommend is a 4:1 base FAR, with at least 3:1 additionally available through bonuses.

And a maximum of 9:1, if PDOT finds the transportation system can handle the density, is a possibility.

Changes to the FAR bonus system would realign how developers can grab extra density.

What’s proposed is adding bonuses ranging from 1:1 to 2:1 for building housing with two-, three- and four-bedroom units and onsite common areas for families. The number of kids born in the area has doubled between the 1990 and 2000 census, city planner Troy Doss said, and many families see the Pearl as home.

“The idea that they should have to leave once their kids leave school age seems far-fetched,” he said.

A new bonus for community amenities like a K-8 public school, community center, day care, and library is also proposed, and it would allow the FAR for the community-oriented space to not count toward the total FAR available.

“The timing for it couldn’t be better,” Planning Commissioner Don Hanson said. “It helps the district evolve.”
http://www.djcoregon.com/articleDetail.h...-Added-bonuses-for-more-bedrooms-and-pla

[MarkDaMan]

Commission asks for Honeyman design changes
Proposed teardown and rebuilding of historic Pearl District building doesn’t get Landmarks approval just yet

POSTED: 06:00 AM PST Wednesday, January 16, 2008
BY ALISON RYAN

Refine the design, the Portland Historic Landmarks Commission on Monday told the team that’s creating a new piece for the Pearl District’s historic Honeyman Hardware block.

A nine-story, mixed-used retail and residential building is being developed by Seattle’s Security Properties Inc. to replace the Metro, a low-rise building that’s part of the Honeyman Hardware Co. Buildings at Northwest Hoyt Street and Park Avenue.

Commissioners said they stumbled over the details of the design, including corrugated metal siding planned for the building’s south side and a glass “cube” element, an oriel window that connects the new piece to the existing buildings.

“It calls so much importance to itself,” Commissioner Brian Emerick said, “and then it turns out, when you look at the plan, it’s just part of one of the units.”

Historically, the project is a tricky one. The removal of the Metro building is to be an alteration rather than a demolition because the other two buildings can’t function without it being there.

And because the three buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic places as a block, the register nomination would have to be amended to reflect two contributing and one non-contributing structure.

As such, commissioners said, they’d like to see the addition defer to the contributing buildings.

“I don’t think the Cotter and the Bindery have the prominence they should with the new building,” Commissioner Carrie Richter said.

Transition of the block into lofts and retail in 1989 was one of the first such efforts in Portland.

The residences in the existing buildings are warehouse-style, with high ceilings and open layouts. What’s planned for the replacement, Bumgardner Architects’ Mark Simpson said, is more traditional units with defined spaces and lower ceilings.

John Baymiller, an architect and neighbor to the project, said he’s happy to see the existing Metro and its “shanty-town” addition replaced with a substantial new building that respects the past while moving forward.

“We deal with the reality of the present and the need for higher density,” Baymiller said.

No vote was taken. The project is scheduled to reappear before the commission on Feb. 25.
http://www.djcoregon.com/articleDetail.h...n-and-rebuilding-of-historic-Pearl-Distr

[MarkDaMan]

Powell's to expand flagship store
Portland Business Journal

Powell's Books will expand and update its flagship store, Powell's City of Books.

The independent bookstore has hired architect Ernest Munch to create a store design that adds at least one floor of retail space at the corner of West Burnside and 10th Avenue, it announced today.

Powell's said the corner could grow by as many as three stories.

Demolition of the Green and Blue rooms is tentatively to begin in two years, with plans to reopen that section of the store in November 2010.

The store and World Cup Coffee and Team will maintain regular business hours during construction.

The additional space will become the new home of Powell's Technical Books, currently located two blocks to the east on the north Park Blocks.

"I'm excited to present the Burnside Store improvements in 2010. My hope is to continue inspiring and amazing visitors of the City of Books for years to come, an experience that my grandfather began and my father has cultivated for the past 37 years," said Emily Powell, Powell's third-generation leader.

The proposed redevelopment follows a previous addition in 2000, when Powell's added three stories to the Orange room at the corner of Northwest Couch Street and 11th Avenue.

http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2008/01/21/daily16.html?f=et75&ana=e_du

[pdxman]

Great news! I can't wait to see what it will look like..

[sopdx]

Good news, finally they will rip off that nasty aggregate.

[urbanlife]

well not much info on the architect, but he is a local architect and very much into environmental design, so I am assuming this will be a very green addition for the bookstore.

with this happening, the old bath house building soon to be redeveloped, the zgf tower going up, the potential skylab building to be built, this is going to be one very modern section of Portland.

[Dougall5505]

and this opens up this space formerly occupied by Powell's technical books and that ugly firestone store at park and burnside for possibly another tower.