Thank you couvscott for all the updates :)

No problem.

This one looks like it will have a nice shape for the waterfront with some curved corners. Plus, I believe this is 2 stories taller than we first thought, maxing out the 250' limit. Also, Promethius will build their own sales center across the street on block 44.

Do we know which architecture firm is doing 41?

Ankrom Moisan

Not sure if I have done this correctly and my photo skills are not near that of Dougall5505 but here you go.

http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailsh...607/t_=6433607
http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailsh...607/t_=6433607

Not sure if this was posted before. I looked but didnt see it. A south waterfront panorama:

South Waterfront

edit: I didnt take this or anything - just saw a link to one for seattle and thought you would enjoy.

⤴ Cool! Tks!

Wow, that pano is trippy. Thats awesome

^^^ Wow, that's really cool. Thanks for posting it!

Took me a minute to figure it out......good find!

interesting... nothing below the picture! must have taken it from a helicopter?


More importantly, why is there still a giant hole next to the 3720?? Only 1/2 block... shouldn't they fill it in with a parking garage?

I wonder if the Hoffman crews will speed up, now that their CEO has moved in to the John Ross...
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...kwardshome.jpg

Very cool link, thanks. Love those 360 degree cams. There's one on the McMenamins website of the inside of the Crystal Ballroom, for all of you who appreciate what a beautiful room that is.

City envisions veterans' housing
Planning - It's taken longer than hoped, a city leader says, but the South Waterfront will get its first low-cost homes
Monday, October 29, 2007
ANDY DWORKIN
The Oregonian

The first affordable housing in Portland's South Waterfront district would focus on homeless or low-income veterans under a plan pushed by city Commissioner Erik Sten.

Sten and his staff would like to get veterans into 84 of the 210 units of low-income housing planned at one end of the Portland Streetcar line. That would allow them to ride two stops to the aerial tram station connecting to OHSU and the adjoining Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

"The VA hospital is right there. And what could be a more civic use of the tram?" Sten said.

The site, several blocks south of the district's new condo towers and Oregon Health & Science University's office building, now holds little more than parking for the nearby Old Spaghetti Factory.

The city and Williams & Dame Development have committed to erecting a five-story building with affordable housing by 2010 in what's called Block 49, southwest of the intersection of Lowell Street and Bond Avenue.

All the units are aimed at people earning less than 60 percent of Portland's median family income (that's less than $28,500 for one person or $40,750 for a family of four). At least one-tenth of the units must be for people earning less than 30 percent of median income.

Sten's plan would add more units for those poorest residents: 42 of the vet-focused units would be "permanent supportive housing" aimed at ending chronic homelessness by integrating subsidized housing with social services, from job skills to addiction treatment. Another 42 units would be targeted at vets earning 31 percent to 50 percent of the median family income.

The idea has interest from city and private developers. But challenges loom.

The city and developers need extra money to increase the number of units aimed at the lowest-income residents. It's illegal to limit housing to vets, so planners must craft a legal way to HOUSING E2

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/orego...110.xml&coll=7

What is Sten, the commissioner of trendy fads?? He just can't decide whether affordable housing should support artists, low-income families, veterans...

and they've built like what, 1 building in the whole city? Kind of pathetic attempt...

Anyways, I think the city should focus on families and low-income people more. The Feds really need to take care of vets, and hopefully after the next national election they will actually step up to the plate.

I know one guy who's arm got blown off by an IED - the feds paid him $300 a month for disability. Kind of a pittance, I guess.

^I just realized it the Oregonian cut off 2/3rds of the print story. I'll see if I can find the entire thing on Oregonlive...

The stupidest part of the article was Homer saying something about needing to building housing for the working poor, those making $30-40K annually.

:previous:
300 a month disability!!??!!??....that's pitiful. Shame on the feds. Seriously.

Pamplin completes transfer of a portion of Ross Island to city
 

Ross Island transfer is a go
Eight years in process, Pamplin gives land to city
By Nick Budnick
The Portland Tribune, Nov 2, 2007

After years of on-again, off-again negotiations, the gift of a portion of Ross Island to the city of Portland became a reality Wednesday morning.

For about an hour, City Council chambers hosted a chorus of mutual thanks, congratulations, appreciations and praise, ending with Mayor Tom Potter signing a donation agreement that already had been signed by Robert B. Pamplin Jr., owner of Ross Island Sand & Gravel Co. Pamplin also owns the Portland Tribune.

Potter said the 45-acre gift of sensitive habitat, which later will be joined by 15 acres of reclaimed habitat, would remain a prized area a century from now, and will anchor a “world-class urban wildlife refuge.”

Pamplin thanked environmental leaders, elected officials and city staff for helping “create history.” He also presented the city with a check for $100,000 for future maintenance of the island.

Ross Island actually is two islands that were joined artificially 80 years ago, creating a stretch of 175 acres of land that nearly surrounds a 106-acre lagoon created by gravel mining. Mining was halted on the island in 2000.

The lagoon now serves as a rest stop for endangered salmon, while the island itself provides nesting areas for bald eagles and other birds.

“This is a critical spot on the Willamette River,” said Travis Williams of Willamette Riverkeeper during the meeting.

Starting in 1903, Ross Island periodically has been floated as an ideal site for a city park. In about 1926, Ross Island Sand & Gravel set up an aggregate mining operation on the island. In 1976, the Pamplin family purchased the company.

In 2001, Mayor Vera Katz and Pamplin announced a handshake deal to turn over a portion of the island to the city, pending negotiation of the details.

Earlier this year, Pamplin announced that the deal was off, blaming city foot-dragging, legal wrangling, unidentified “interest groups” and personal attacks in the media.

Environmentalists, current and former city officials, and others complained that Pamplin was reneging on his deal — and may have meant to do so all along.

In June, Pamplin unexpectedly invited three environmental leaders to join him in one last try to hash out their differences. The three were Mike Houck of the Urban Greenspaces Institute, Bob Sallinger of the Audubon Society of Portland and Willamette Riverkeeper’s Williams.

The subsequent session , the environmentalists said after Wednesday’s meeting, was a turning point. The four men eventually went through a proposed legal agreement line by line until they had forged something mutually acceptable.

“It really does sound like a cliché,” Houck said, “but when you sit down eye to eye across a table, it becomes harder to demonize someone.”

Pamplin also backed down on his stated plan to go it alone as far as preserving the habitat on the island. In May, he said that he would hire a nationally recognized consultant and preserve the habitat better than the city could.

Now, however, not only will the city prepare a management plan for the donated portion of land, but Pamplin will prepare a habitat plan for the land he retains with the participation of the same environmental “interest groups” he once criticized.

Pamplin, after the meeting, stressed that over the eight years since he first discussed the idea with the city, his goal has been to balance preserving 650 family-wage jobs while also doing the right thing for the environment.

Asked to discuss the earlier heated disagreements, he declined, saying, “Everything is wonderful.”

The only audience comment on the agreement was made by Sara Culp, who had staffed the donation talks early on in the Potter administration but no longer works in the mayor’s office.

She called Ross Island “a real gem,” and described a day years ago when she was paddling near the island with her family as “the moment when I realized I had truly fallen in love with the city of Portland.”

nickbudnick@portlandtribune.com
http://www.portlandtribune.com/news/...95234413982700

Block 46 work
 

There was equipment moving dirt around on Block 46 when I passed by there today. It could be staging for other projects, but there is a construction trailer on the NW corner of Block 49.

I've had this recurring hope/wish for the Zidell site. That whoever buys it or gets the land, keeps the warehouse, guts and cleans it from the inside out and then convert it into the Portland equivalent of Pike Place Market. Heck, it could take over for Saturday market and THEN some. We could have a permanent Farmer's Market in there as well. Don't know how financially feasible it would be as it seems like every piece of land in SoWa has been earmarked for condo/apt usage. Oh, and a water taxi stop right in front would be perfect, with stops at the downtown waterfront, the Waterfront Pearl, the Rose Garden Arena, and then OMSI. Thoughts?