5 MLK | 200' | 17 Floors | Complete

[maccoinnich]

Drawings [PDF - 95MB] and memo.

[innovativethinking]

God why do they love bulky so much in this area now for these high rises

[NESteve]

It's a shame they're not incorporating the Fishel's corner façade somehow. That would have been a way to preserve some of the old Portland fabric that is disappearing by the day. So sad.

[MOPIdaho]

This building is going to look like a hospital.

[eric cantona]

a couple of design related comments:

• PLACE does a nice job of laying out an intriguing planting concept for the "landscape terraces" representing the "PNW Ecotone" but then completely loses it with the plant palette, which is mostly non-native, and a layout that does not follow their diagram on pg 14. The cascading terraces represent a perfect opportunity to separate the typologies vertically in similar fashion to how they occur naturally.
  
  
• on page 23 GREC show the facade concept, which I found very compelling and interesting. but then when you get to the renderings on the following pages the upper pattern gets completely lost. it ends up looking more like a suburban office facade with punched windows. yuck. pull back the horizontal banding and allow the vertical to be the primary visual element. please.
  
  I do like how they've broken up the massing. it's interesting without being kitchy.

[petcarpdx]

These are the first drawings we're seeing, and they look a lot better than other great projects' first drawings. There's work to be done, but I think this will end up being a great addition to the bridgehead by the time it gets through design review.

[innovativethinking]

What's going on with the 19 story former wood material building that was suppose to go up near here

[daroon]

Originally Posted by innovativethinking

What's going on with the 19 story former wood material building that was suppose to go up near here

Sadly, it's no longer wood. But I think it's still moving through the process.

It's thread is here.

[tworivers]

Mixed feelings here.

It is massive -- wish they could save Fishels and go higher/leaner. I think a project that incorporated the Fishels building would be inherently more interesting visually. I do like the terraces, though. Curious to see how it progresses through design review.

It definitely has a "OHSU South Waterfront" feel to it.

[RainDog]

I'm looking forward to seeing how this project will develop. There are many interesting elements here, though I don't feel like this first draft is very cohesive. When it is all flushed out this project could be very exciting. I especially hope that they maintain the massing shown here. I know that its not a tall, slender and sexy tower, but I find the relation between this building and the yard quite visually interesting. This rendering below is a good example of what I am talking about.



The two buildings together form a giant mass that Burnside pierces through. It reminds me of one of the many waterfalls in the gorge and how the water etches through giant masses of stone. The moving vehicles and difference in grade at this location also would ad to this effect.

[Derek]

Oh man, this is like Yard 2.0. Not that this building is nearly as bad as the Yard, but I can already feel the hate this thing is going to get by the "Portland is turning into a playground for the rich!" and the "save old Portland" crowd.

[Tykendo]

Portland's firms seem to be mired in a "same design scheme, different day" mode. As stated earlier, the massing is always the same, short & wide. You'd think an occasional point tower would get mixed in, but instead, it's like a built to the street wall effect. Are these stubby, bulky structures that much cheaper to build? Just curious. Obviously cost is a factor, but the finishes seem to get blander by the day. Leaning almost to old fashion Eastern Bloc architecture.

[eric cantona]

Originally Posted by Tykendo

Portland's firms seem to be mired in a "same design scheme, different day" mode. As stated earlier, the massing is always the same, short & wide. You'd think an occasional point tower would get mixed in, but instead, it's like a built to the street wall effect. Are these stubby, bulky structures that much cheaper to build? Just curious. Obviously cost is a factor, but the finishes seem to get blander by the day. Leaning almost to old fashion Eastern Bloc architecture.

the architect is out of Chicago.

[innovativethinking]

This is a stump town tower at its finest my goodness

[2oh1]

Originally Posted by RainDog

The two buildings together form a giant mass that Burnside pierces through. It reminds me of one of the many waterfalls in the gorge and how the water etches through giant masses of stone. The moving vehicles and difference in grade at this location also would ad to this effect.

This radically changes the Burnside bridge, and not necessarily for the worse. I mean, hey, we're stuck with the Yard. This balances the east end of the bridge, and it does create a sort of gateway which RainDog referred to as a waterfall effect.

I sure hope it goes through some major revisions though, because as is, it's meh. And that's being kind. I'm not a fan of the podium at all, and the tower itself looks like a hospital. Then again, it's next door to what looks like a prison, so it's better by default.

[urbanlife]

I am disappointed the Fisher building won't be saved since I was under the initial impression that it would be.... I will say I do like that this building is a lighter color, that area could use something that isn't black.

[Tykendo]

Originally Posted by eric cantona

the architect is out of Chicago.

My bad, I shouldn't have assumed this was done by a PDX Firm. That being said, it is a PDX SOP Design that is same stuff different day.

[maccoinnich]

Whether the architects are based out of Chicago or Portland, they are working with the same set of constraints. In this case the site has a lot of FAR available (12:1), that the developer clearly wants to make use of. For that much FAR, the height limit (200') is relatively low. There isn't an architect in the world who can take those two numbers and come up with a point tower.

[RED_PDXer]

That's a ridiculously low height limit for that amount of FAR. Should at least 300', but preferably more.

[eric cantona]

Originally Posted by Tykendo

My bad, I shouldn't have assumed this was done by a PDX Firm. That being said, it is a PDX SOP Design that is same stuff different day.

which is probably true for 99% of the development in urban areas in the United States.