Ladd Tower | 240 feet | 23 floors | Complete

[urbanlife]

meh.

[tworivers]

Two thumbs down.

The base could be a disaster.

Totally not worth the loss of the classy Rosefriend.

[der Reisender]

happy to have more residential units in this part of downtown, which should be good for the area. the building though...meh...looks like they sketched it in 10 minutes and put even less time into thinking of the design. just a rectangle in the sky

[edgepdx]

From the renderings it looks like a real snore. It looks the Louisa and the Customs House building had a love child and that's not a pretty thing. We know Mr. Caroll can do better so what gives?

[MarkDaMan]

my first thought when I saw the renderings on the almost full front page of the business section in the O yesterday was, oh, the Atwater. But it wasn't...

I have high hopes for the Moyer block so I'm considering this good infill.

[sirsimon]

^ Where is the Moyer block and what (if anything) is currently proposed Mark?

[CouvScott]

The Portland Business Journal - 1:27 PM PDT Thursday
by Wendy Culverwell
Business Journal staff writer

The Portland skyline will change again, with the addition of a 21-story condominium at 1300 S.W. Park Ave. -- currently home to the Ladd Carriage House.

The Ladd Tower, being jointly developed by Opus Northwest and Carroll Investments LLC, will consist of 190 condominiums, 20,000 square feet of office space to serve First Christian Church and four retail spaces. Construction is expected to begin this fall.

The tower will be adjacent to the South Park Blocks near the Portland Art Museum and the Oregon Historical Society.

The historic Ladd Carriage House, which is on the southeast corner of the property, will be removed to a parking lot at the Sixth Church of Christ Scientist during construction. It will be returned to its original site and restored when tower construction is finished.

The developer also pledged to salvage as many fixtures from the historic Rose Friends Apartment building on the site and to turn them over to local restoration centers, including Rejuvenation and The ReBuilding Center.

The team, working together under the auspices of Opus Carroll LLC, is working with the neighboring First Christian Church, which will use the first two floors.

Carroll Investments has developed numerous residential projects in downtown and the Pearl District. They include The Eliot Tower, the Elizabeth, The Edge Lofts, The Gregory, Mckenzie Lofts and the Chown Pella Lofts. Opus Northwest is the local arm of Minneapolis-based Opus Group, a full-service real estate development company. Opus helped develop Bridgeport Village and is involved with the redevelopment of the Burnside Bridgehead with the Portland Development Commission

[MarkDaMan]

Did this tower get approved yesterday?

LADD TOWER TO BE DEVELOPED IN PORTLAND’S CULTURAL DISTRICT
Portland -

Portland – Opus Carroll LLC, a partnership of developers Opus Northwest and Carroll Investments LLC, is pleased to introduce Ladd Tower, a 21-story residential landmark planned for the heart of Portland’s Cultural District. Located at 1300 SW Park Avenue, the building will include 190 luxury condominiums, four retail tenants and 20,000 square feet of space designated for the neighboring First Christian Church. Developers expect to break ground this fall.

Located on the Park Blocks at Jefferson, across from the Art Museum and just south of the Oregon Historical Society, the primary objective of Ladd Tower is to embrace and respect the architecture and history of the surrounding buildings and green space. Ladd Tower has been designed to integrate with the celebrated architecture on street level by utilizing a traditional stone-clad, rusticated design for the streetscape levels. The building will also feature a contemporary glass tower which will provide a modern complement to the historic area. Ultimately, Ladd Tower will offer sophisticated urban living in one of Portland’s most well-established and culturally rich communities.

"With Ladd Tower it was important to look at the context of the community around this project because we didn’t want to drop a building into the neighborhood without careful consideration of our neighbors and the history of the area," said John Bartell, Vice President-General Manager, Opus. "This project gave us an excellent opportunity to revisit the history of Portland and, with that in mind, create a building that will honor that legacy and support the vitality of this neighborhood and Portland’s thriving urban center."

Commitment to History

In an effort to protect the history and character which make this Cultural District neighborhood unique, the Opus Carroll team has focused on the preservation of the historic Ladd Carriage House, currently located on the southeast corner of the project site, as a major objective of the project. In a positive, collaborative effort with Friends of Ladd Carriage House and Bosco-Milligan, the team determined that moving the Ladd Carriage House, a landmark of the neighborhood since the 1800s, during construction of the Ladd Tower underground parking garage was the best approach. The historic building will temporarily sit in the parking lot of the Sixth Church of Christ Scientist. Upon completion of Ladd Tower, it will be returned to its original site and restored.

Although Ladd Tower will be built on the site of the existing Rose Friends Apartment building, a 1910 structure, Opus Carroll will work closely with the Bosco-Milligan Foundation and Friends of Ladd Carriage House to manage the historic artifacts that will be recovered from the building, including ironwork, hardware and fixtures. The pieces will then be inventoried at local restoration centers such as Rejuvenation and The ReBuilding Center.

Opus Carroll LLC has also partnered with neighbor First Christian Church to make the development of Ladd Tower possible. Based on the partnership and the proximity of the church to the new mixed-use tower, plans were established to ensure that the first two floors of Ladd Tower will have annex areas to facilitate the First Christian Church’s growing needs.

About Carroll Investments LLC

Carroll Investments has been actively involved in the City of Portland’s effort to create comfortable, active, urban neighborhoods. Carroll Investments is responsible for the development of The Eliot Tower, The Elizabeth, The Edge Lofts, The Gregory, Mckenzie Lofts and Chown Pella Lofts projects in downtown Portland.

About The Opus Group

The Opus Group, based in Minneapolis, is a premier, full service real estate development company with more than 50 years experience. Specializing in office, industrial, institutional, retail, multifamily and government development, The Opus Group has completed more than 2,200 projects and currently has 24 million square feet in planning or development. Opus employs 1,400 people in 28 offices in the United States and Canada.

http://portland.dbusinessnews.com/sh...pe_news=latest

[dfriedman]

I'm not an architect or urban planner, but I live in the Park Blocks and I'm troubled by the many ways in which the Ladd Tower seems out-of-proportion to other Park Blocks buildings and out-of-character with the non-profit, civic institutions that surround it in the four Northern-most blocks. I've written the following and would appreciate input from those of you who are more savvy about architecture and urban planning than I am.

==========================

Concerns about the proposed Ladd Tower

1) Aesthetic and socioeconomic impact of Rose Friend Apartments demolition

Built in 1910, the Rose Friend Apartments is one of the few, remaining, early 20th Century buildings on Broadway. This elegant, brick, courtyard building is one of a handful of historic structures that lend something of a pedestrian and residential sensibility to a section of downtown that has come to be dominated by blank-wall and canyon-like concrete/steel/glass construction. Besides the demise of a beautiful, historic building, the demolition of the Rose Friend Apartments represents a further loss of affordable housing in an area in which condo conversion and rapid development have already dramatically altered the income and social class mix, squeezing out middle-income renters and creating a neighborhood inhabited chiefly by the very wealthy and the very poor.

2) Change in the character of the Park Blocks

The South Park blocks comprise not just a unique space, but a unique public space. The Ladd Tower would begin to privatize one of the country’s most successful and beloved civic spaces. With the exception of the Roosevelt at its foot, there are no residential or commercial buildings in the four Northern-most blocks. These blocks—from Salmon all the way to Columbia—are populated exclusively by non-profit institutions open to a broad public: churches, theaters, concert halls, and museums. These venues draw visitors from all walks of life to downtown Portland and help to vitalize and populate the area at night and on weekends. Residential and commercial buildings enter the mix on the two blocks South of Columbia, but public institutional uses again predominate starting at the entrance to PSU at Market Street. The combination of a beautiful, well-maintained public space with constant traffic of school-children, museum-visitors, symphony subscribers, churchgoers, and university staff and students help make the Park Blocks a cherished civic amenity and not just an adjunct to downtown commercial development. Commercial and residential development downtown are highly desirable, but locating a residential and commercial tower in an area that has heretofore been set aside for public uses, risks fundamentally changing the character of the area and the way it is used and perceived by the public.

3) Aesthetic impact

The South Park Blocks are one of urban America’s most cherished public spaces. The proposed 21-story tower would be grossly out-of-scale with surrounding buildings, the near-uniform heights of which gently frame the Park Blocks and lend a visual unity and pleasing proportionality. With the exception of the Ione Plaza (and, arguably, of Southpark Square at Park & SW Clay), all Park Blocks buildings are closely in scale with one another, none rising much higher than the treetops. With its enormous height and mass, the proposed Ladd Tower would be roughly 1.5x the height of the Ione Plaza and--at 5-7 times their height--would dwarf all other buildings with Park Blocks frontage. This anomalous, 21-story edifice risks creating a looming, dominating, overwhelming presence that will have a jarring and disorienting impact. The Ladd Tower’s hideously out-of-proportion height and mass will create a boxed-in, claustrophobic effect that will detract from the openness and symmetry of the Park Blocks skyline and the existing visual harmony of rooftops and trees.

Personally, I’m a strong supporter of high-rise development downtown. I’m a big fan of the new Eliot Tower (at least the 10th Street face). But, as a thought experiment, try to picture the Eliot’s huge mass and height smack in the middle of the Park Blocks, with zero setback and with three stories of ersatz-historical trim on the bottom. The Park Blocks represent a one-of-a-kind public space, like Washington Square Park in Manhattan or Savannah’s historic squares. Picture the Eliot or the proposed Ladd Tower in those settings and you get the idea about what’s at stake.

4) Disturbing precedent

The Ladd Tower would change the character of the Park Blocks. It would represent a dramatic shift from chiefly institutional, non-profit uses that attract a broad public to privatized uses. It would represent an abandonment of the current scale and aesthetic that make the Park Blocks an attractive and highly-utilized urban space. These trends are likely to be accelerated if the Ladd Tower is available to serve as a precedent. A number of the churches along the Park Blocks have aging congregations and declining attendance. If any of these churches go under, developers may well rush in with additional projects that are out-of-character with the existing Park Blocks aesthetic. A 21-story tower would set an important precedent, easing the way for further changes in the uses and relative proportions of Park Block spaces and ultimately in the fundamental character and aesthetic impact of this unique public place.

[MarkDaMan]

welcome dfreidman!

your points are well thought out, and it is a pleasure reading an intellectual argument such as yours. I don't think anyone here could accuse you of being a NIMBY.

That said, I think some of your concerns are felt by many here including myself. The proposed Ladd Tower is on church property and the size of the tower fits zoning. Even if the city changed the zoning, the church could still proceed with the redevelopment under M37 laws. There is also the probability that a large tower will be built across from the Carriage House on the Moyer 1/4 block, although that doesn't actually butt up against the park blocks. So, the development isn't out of character for the neighborhood, or at least what they expect that area of downtown to look like a few years down the road.

While I agree the area needs more rental housing, including housing for lower incomes, the trend for the next 5 years or so will be exlusively condos. Until Portland area rents rise, no company will develop anything but uber high end apartments or affordable housing with PDC assistance.

Back to the Ladd Tower, when concerns such as yours have been presented to the church leaders, specifically to save the carriage house, their answer has been, 'we are here to save souls, not architecture.' Considering they hold pretty much every card, I don't know what could be done to force the church to build a tower with step backs, as it gets higher, away from the park blocks so that it doesn't overwhelm the park.

[urbanlife]

I am not bothered much by the development of the Ladd tower. I do agree that on the side of the Park blocks the building should set back in order to be a less of a presence on the park, granted, its shadow should have little effect and the trees will do their part to make it disappear. Some set backs to its height could propose an interesting look for the building.

Again, I have to agree with Mark, regardless of what the city wants, this project is in the hands of the church, and right now I am happy they are at least saving the carriage house. Something good should be said about that.

[pdxstreetcar]

i went by this site a few days ago and there is a sign up with a rendering and across the street (on the moyer plot) appears to be a construction staging area including the contractor's trailer.

i think there are some successful places where high rises and beautiful park spaces work together like NYC's central park and the upper east side and west side but dfriedman you raise a good point, i'm not so sure if this will be the case here. there arent any other tall towers of this height lining the south park blocks. i wish it either had a smaller tower footprint or incorporated some other material partly up the tower to make the tower blend a little more and break down the scale of it, like maybe all glass facing east but a mix of limestone with big windows on the west/park side.

[zilfondel]

Friedman, interestingly, this development is scaled such as to specifically allow the existing church to remain solvent and still be able to provide services to their members and their outreach programs... things still cost money, and land in downtown is extremely expensive (luckily they don't have to pay taxes on it).

[der Reisender]

bigger developments are what is bound to happen on downtown land, and its what we have planned for. while i am not thrilled with the design, i think new residents on the park blocks can be a good thing and that the existing trees will do a lot to lessen the towers presence there. the role of the park blocks as a cluster for institutions is good, but there ought to be a good mix of retails and residential put in too. as far as historic preservation, looks like we go 1 for 2 on this, saving carriage house but losing rosefriends

[pdxstreetcar]

[cab]

I can't tell from the picture, but is the building side facing the park also tapered inward at the 2nd floor before it goes up as it is on the broadway side?

[MarkDaMan]

Carriage house finds a savior
Landmark to be moved to church parking lot, then returned to site
By JIM REDDEN Issue date: Fri, Jun 16, 2006
The Tribune The historic Ladd Carriage House will be preserved at its current location at 1331 S.W. Broadway under a new plan worked out by the developers of the Benson Tower condominium project.
The plan now calls for the 122-year-old structure to be moved two blocks west to the parking lot of the Sixth Church of Christ, Scientist at 1312 S.W. Park Ave. An underground parking garage will be dug and constructed under the site of the house, which then will be moved back to its original location and restored.
As recently as three months ago, volunteers hoping to save the house were considering moving it to a site at Southwest First Avenue and Gibbs Street, where it might have been remodeled and opened as an English-style pub. But since then local developer John Carroll has worked with project manager Opus Northwest LLC to incorporate the house into the overall project, which will remake three-quarters of the block between Broadway and the South Park Blocks.
“The stars just lined up,” said Carroll, who praised Opus for understanding the importance of preserving Portland’s history during downtown renovation projects. Carroll estimates that the company — which is a member of the Minneapolis-based Opus Group — will invest at least $500,000 in the house, including bringing it up to current structural standards and restoring the exterior to its original look and condition.
John Bartell, vice president and general manager of Opus Northwest, laughed when he heard Carroll’s estimate.
“I wish it would only be half a million,” Bartell said. “Whatever the cost, it’s the right thing to do.”

Church happy to help

The house is owned by the First Christian Church, which sits on the southwest corner of the development block and will remain there during the project. According to Carroll, after the decision was made to save the house, the Sixth Church of Christ, Scientist was contacted and agreed to have the house moved to its parking lot during the construction phase of the project. It will be moved back after a new foundation is poured on top of the underground garage.
The change in plans was made possible by the willingness of the Christian Science church to allow the house to be moved to its parking lot for at least 18 months while the parking garage is built and a new foundation for the house is erected on top of it.
Local Christian Science church President Janet Holt said the congregation supports the restoration project and is glad it could help.
“What’s the big message, love thy neighbor? We’re happy to be helpful,” she said.
The Christian Science church owns half of the block where it is located, including the parking lot that is about one-quarter block in size. According to Holt, the house is expected to take up about one-third of the 60 parking spaces on the lot.
After the house is moved to the lot, it will be secured by sealing up all of the doors and windows and erecting a fence that will surround it.
Robert Mercer of Friends of the Carriage House called the arrangement “a miracle.” The volunteer group, which includes local architects and historic preservationists, was formed more than one year ago when it looked as though the house might have to be demolished. According to Mercer, although the group had identified the site in the Corbett-Lair Hill-Terwilliger area as a possible location for the home, moving costs appeared overwhelming, in part because the power lines for the Portland Streetcar would have to be dismantled at two locations.

Preserving history

Mercer said the house is the last remnant of the huge mansions that used to line downtown streets, including the park blocks. As the name suggests, it originally was built as the carriage house of the mansion owned by city father William S. Ladd that occupied the block where The Oregonian building now sits.
“William Ladd was a philanthropist who helped start the art museum, the library and the school system. Losing this connection to him — and to Portland’s past — was unthinkable,” Mercer said.
The house has been repeatedly remodeled over the years, serving as the headquarters for Hoffman Construction Co. and the first office for Portland lawyer Des Connall after he served as Multnomah County district attorney in the 1970s.
“The interior is far from original, but up in the attic, a lot of the early horse and carriage equipment is still there,” Carroll said.
The 53-unit Rosefriend Apartments must be demolished to make way for the 21-story tower, which will include 190 market-rate condominiums and a number of ground floor retail spaces. The tower — designed by Ankrom Moisan Architects — will feature stonework on the ground floor to match the historic feel of nearby buildings and extensive glass on the residential floors to minimize its size.
A city design review hearing on the project is set for Wednesday. Construction is expected to begin in September and be completed within two years.
Opus Northwest also is involved in the Burnside Bridgehead project at the east end of the Burnside Bridge.
Email Jim Redden

[MarkDaMan]

interesting, this article mentions the Moyer tower.

TribTown: Planned high-rises rival treetops
Some wonder what condo towers will do to South Park Blocks
By JIM REDDEN Issue date: Tue, Jun 20, 2006
The Tribune Some downtown residents believe that two planned condominium towers along the South Park Blocks will harm the quaint character of the area, home to the Portland Art Museum and a number of historic churches.
When finished, the towers will be located side by side on the 1300 and 1400 blocks of Southwest Park Avenue, part of the tree-lined stretch running from Portland State University to behind the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Work already is scheduled to begin on the 21-story, 190-unit Ladd Tower on the northern block by the end of the year. No details have been released on the tower planned for the other block, which is owned by downtown developer Tom Moyer.
Several neighbors at a June 12 meeting of the Downtown Neighborhood Association — the officially designated neighborhood organization covering the city core — expressed fears that the towers will overwhelm the park blocks. Ladd Tower developers John Carroll of Carroll Investments and John Bartell of Opus Northwest LLC attended the meeting to answer questions about their project.
“I’m very troubled by the mass and height compared to the other buildings that will be around it — it’s way out of proportion and will change the symmetry of the park blocks, which are legendary around the country,” resident Dan Friedman said
Bartell responded by pointing to architectural renderings showing that the base of the tower was designed to be integrated with surrounding buildings, including the First Christian Church. Glass also is being used extensively on the residential floors to reflect the sky and minimize the impact of the tower, he said.
In discussions with the Portland Tribune, Bartell said city policies are encouraging his company and other developers to build similar residential buildings downtown.
“The city wants more people to live downtown. They want downtown to be more active, more hours a day and on weekends. We may never become another New York or Las Vegas, but Portland is recognized across the country as a city working to revitalize its downtown,” he said.
In fact, several new downtown residential towers are either under construction or in the planning stages. They include the 26-story, 143-unit Benson Tower condominiums at 1500 S.W. 11th Ave. and the 18-story, 223-unit Eliot Tower condominiums at 1221 S.W. 10th Ave.
Not every downtown resident who attended the meeting was upset by the coming changes along the park blocks. Pat Moss said she plans to welcome the new neighbors, predicting they will breathe life into a part of town that is frequently deserted in the evenings and on weekends.
“Portland is a great city, and we shouldn’t be surprised to learn that more and more people want to live downtown,” she said.
Despite that, Moss said she believed renters — especially those on low or fixed incomes — were in danger of being squeezed out. For example, the 53-unit Rosefriend Apartments must be torn down to make way for the Ladd Tower. In addition, a little farther east, the three-tower Portland Center Apartments complex at 200 S.W. Harrison St. was sold last year and is being converted to condominiums, which many of the previous residents could not afford to buy.
“I’m most concerned about renters, especially the elderly. These are some of the very people who give the park blocks their flavor and color,” she said.
Carroll replied that he understood Moss’ concerns but pointed out that more than 20 other downtown buildings offer subsidized rates through a variety of affordable-housing projects.
“Our studies show there is a range of housing available downtown,” he said.
Carroll and Bartell both noted that the Ladd Tower is a private project that is not subsidized by the Portland Development Commission or any other city agency. Units begin at $250,000.
“The city needs all income levels living downtown. Businesses need people who can afford to shop in them. If the city wants Nordstrom to stay, it needs Nordstrom’s customers living downtown,” Bartell said.
Despite the serious tone of the meeting, Carroll provoked laughs when asked what businesses were going into the retail spaces in the ground floor of the Ladd Tower.
“We’re recruiting Starbucks and Fantasy Adult Video,” he replied, continuing, “No, just kidding. We don’t know yet.”
The association hopes to decide whether to take a stand on the tower before a city design review hearing on it set for Wednesday.
Email Jim Redden
http://www.portlandtribune.com/archview.cgi?id=35810

[pdxstreetcar]

“The city needs all income levels living downtown. Businesses need people who can afford to shop in them. If the city wants Nordstrom to stay, it needs Nordstrom’s customers living downtown,” Bartell said.

Has there been rumors of Nordstrom moving?

[PacificNW]

At one time there were discussions of tearing down the Smart Park Garage and building a larger Nordstrom in that location. The Meier & Frank was being enticed to move to the Nordstrom location. Nothing happened.

I see a new retailer, such as Neiman Marcus, putting a store in the parking lot across from the Galleria with a office/condo/or hotel tower on top but I think that lot is being considered for a new symphony hall.