Oregon (other)

[James Bond Agent 007]

It looks like a community college.

[der Reisender]

^i thought the same, except the walls make it seem prison-like

[zilfondel]

Hey, Silver ain't nothing to sniff at. Until we start building carbon-neutral buildings that work off the grid, that is.

*edit* - whats up with the walls around it? That seems a tad strange, to tell the truth. They can't be that concerned about security, can they?
Otherwise, it seems rather appropriate for such a complex... perhaps it's the community colleges who need to get their ass into gear and stop copying office parks!

suntzu61 - we really appreciate your posting of this rendering! And welcome to skyscraperpage!

[65MAX]

So Bob Thompson makes a point of emphasizing that there's no berm, yet there's a wall surrounding the compound. How is that any better? Still anti-social IMO.

[cab]

Can anyone argue after seeing this rendering that Phil is not all about control over his working environment? This thing is filled with the strait lines of order and control, nothing deviates from the direct lines. I've always felt that creativity comes from the edge of chaos (which cities tend to be near). This thing is so far removed from the creative edge, I just don't see it working over the long term unless Phils sigular vision is enough to create a winner. Edgy creativity sure as hells not coming out of this box.

[sirsimon]

^ Valid points, Cab.

[Snowden352]

I thought a thread dedicated to developments in Oregon but outside Portland would be alright (I searched for one and couldn't find any).

So, to kick things off...here is the Lithia Motors Project in Medford.

Developer sheds more light on 'Commons' project
He says plans are too preliminary to know if some historic buildings will be lost or if 'green' construction methods can be used
By Meg Landers
Mail Tribune

Medford city officials and curious citizens gathered at City Hall Monday to learn about plans to transform Lithia Motors' downtown car lots into the company's new corporate headquarters.

Nearly 100 people came to the City Council Chambers to hear an overview description of the project called "The Commons." Formerly known as Middleford Commons, the downtown urban redevelopment project will fill the blocks roughly between Central and Riverside avenues and Third and Sixth streets with Lithia's 10-story corporate headquarters, residential buildings, retail stores and restaurants, a parking garage and three urban park blocks.

Lithia will begin relocating its dealerships to 120 acres on Highway 62 near the Medford airport later this year.

Mark Rivers, the Boise, Idaho, real estate developer hired by Lithia for the project, told the crowd he hopes to have historical murals and design treatments that honor Medford's past throughout the project. The plans call for demolishing the historic Littrell building, but Rivers said he envisions "a grand meadow for community gathering" to be named the Littrell Lawn.

Cathy de Wolfe, chairwoman of Medford's Landmarks and Historic Preservation Commission, said she was glad to hear plans to focus on Medford's history, but wondered how many historic buildings would have to be demolished.

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Rivers said there could be two or three of buildings of historical significance that might have to come down, but the final plan isn't complete.

He said the plan calls for Lithia to acquire the Southern Oregon Historical Society building, which was formerly Medford's J.C. Penney store, and restore it. Lithia now leases the building for office space. The plan also calls for restoring the U.S. Cellular building, which Lithia owns.

The presentation included renderings of an event plaza and spaces for community activities in the urban park blocks. Wendy Siporen, speaking for the Rogue Valley Growers and Crafters Market, asked if the market could be considered for space.

Rivers said it's too early in the process to make such decisions but he expressed interest in exploring the idea of moving the market.

Scott Henselman, owner of Henselman Realty & Management, asked Rivers if he planned to work with city officials and the groups that now stage downtown activities such as the Winter Light Festival, to avoid competing with events that already exist.

"We don't want to create a conflict," said Rivers, adding that he hopes to collaborate with other outdoor venues.

Sarah Koca, Medford's parks and recreation commissioner, asked if there are plans to look into environment-friendly building techniques geared toward sustainable site planning, water efficiency, energy efficiency, and conservation of materials and resources.

Rivers said there will be opportunities to explore green building in the development process.

Medford City Councilman Al Densmore asked if there were plans to link the Bear Creek Greenway to The Commons. Rivers said he's explored that idea, and thinks Fourth Street could make a good connection.

Rivers said it was too early to provide specific answers to many of the questions, and he encouraged those with concerns to contact him and work together.

"Any good development today marries the new with the old," he said.

Rivers said Lithia is ready to start the process of submitting plans. He said one of the three park blocks, the southernmost, will probably be the first piece of the project to be built, and construction could begin this summer.

Reach reporter Meg Landers at 776-4481 or e-mail mlanders@mailtribune.com.

[zilfondel]

Really awesome to know that sensitive urban mixed-use projects are in the works in other parts of the state!

[der Reisender]

maybe the thread should get renamed, using Oregon instead of Portland as the reference point. My first thought was it would be projects in Gresham or Hillsboro

[Snowden352]

As soon as I figure out how to change the name, I will.

[PacificNW]

Eugene, Oregon:

http://www.registerguard.com/news/20...ion=cityregion

City keeps Broadway developers in running
By Edward Russo
The Register-Guard
Published: Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Rather than select a single developer for West Broadway, a divided Eugene City Council on Monday kept two developers in the running.
City Manager Dennis Taylor had wanted the council to endorse KWG Development of Portland as the possible developer for the two West Broadway blocks between Willamette and Charnelton streets. But half of the council wanted to get more information from other out-of-town developers before they settle on picking one or more of them to work on a public-private partnership to redevelop the underused area.
Councilor Alan Zelenka led the charge against giving the nod to KWG, saying it was an important decision that needed further study.
"I don't think it's prudent to lock into one developer at this time," Zelenka said.
KWG's initial concept, which probably would undergo changes, includes more than 400 condos and apartments geared for different income levels, a grocery store, multiscreen movie theater and shops.
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KWG also said it is interested in exploring the conversion of the vacant Centre Court building to a hotel, and that it would consider renovating the adjacent Washburne building.
Beam wants to renovate the Centre Court and Washburne buildings, constructing ground-floor shops and above-floor offices. The firm said it would remove the Centre Court's stucco facade and install historic windows and other period features.
Beam, KWG and two other development firms last month responded to the city's request for interest in West Broadway. The developers' responses were reviewed by the city's Redevelopment Advisory Committee, an advisory group to city planners.
The group jointly endorsed KWG and Beam. Committee members liked KWG's ambitious plan, particularly its housing elements, and Beam's expertise in renovating historic buildings.
Zelenka said he did not want to delay West Broadway redevelopment, but added: "I feel that we need more detail, more competition, more public education" before deciding which developer or developers to select.
KWG might ask for millions in financial assistance from the city, Zelenka said. "If it's $30 million to $40 million, are we prepared to do that?" he asked. "Is the community prepared to do that?"
Zelenka's motion to ask for details from KWG, as well as Beam Development of Portland and Midtown Development of Orem, Utah, resulted in a 4-4 deadlock.
Councilor George Poling said KWG was his top choice because of its financial strength and track record of successful developments.
The Redevelopment Advisory Committee and city staff who endorsed KWG "made the right recommendation," he said. KWG is "proposing exactly what the city wants to see downtown."
Mayor Kitty Piercy, who favored getting more information from two firms, not three, voted against Zelenka's motion.
He then dropped Midtown Development from his proposal, which then got the council's support.
KWG principal Tom Kemper attended the meeting.
Afterward, he said he was disappointed in the council's decision because it's difficult for developers to work together in the same area. Kemper said it's important to have adequate land to work with, and that he fears losing some of the "critical mass" to Beam.
"If you piecemeal it off, you jeopardize that chance for success." he said.

[JoshYent]

The KWG concept seems like it would be better for downtown....condos above and retail space mixed with a little bit of height....although i think they should be going higher!

[zilfondel]

KWG is Bruce Wood - with Opus did Bridgeport Village. He is teamed with Mulvanny, however. Too bad their proposal is to tear down two nice old historic structures (including a 6+ story ~100 year old brick building)

Beam just fucking rules.

I hope Beam gets to rehab the older buildings and KWG can teardown and build new stuff across the street.

[mcbaby]

i vote for beam!

[der Reisender]

thought we had a suburban developments page but i couldnt find it...

anywho, off the Myhre Group sit is a new project planned for bustling downtown Milwaukie, now that North Main Village is just about finished. A five-story side fronts McLoughlin, while on Main Street it will slope down to three levels. Says there will 76 residential units and 16,000 sq ft of retail. Creatively referred to as Milwaukie Town Center on the website



Location


I'm left impressed with Milwaukie's efforts to spruce up their main street. I was down there last week and it looked attractive and busy. Now they just need light rail connecting it to the region!

[MarkDaMan]

Anyone have more information on the Myhre Group? There is a ton of press for Rapaport and Holst, but the Myhre Group is driving the urban infill, tons of projects proposed or underway, and I know nothing about them and have read nothing about them. I do know their expertise and range of smaller infill projects are impressive. From the much maligned (on this board) Overton to the super modern City Plaza these peeps are changing our city and not even the WillyWeek have given them press.

http://www.myhregroup.com/index_port.html

[der Reisender]

here are some shots of the North Main Village project. I just couldn't get enough Milwaukie for some reason

Fronting Main Street


some semi-public space between buildings


old and new (i think the left building is a masonic lodge or some other thing like that)

[der Reisender]

from the Sunday Oregonian

In Milwaukie's city center project, there's no Dark Horse candidate
Sunday, April 01, 2007
RANDY GRAGG

Imagine a business more than 100 employees strong, filling six downtown buildings and ready to take on more. It makes books, films and products with an international audience. The staff is the "creative class" every town in America is aching for.

Now imagine the city where this business lives wants to build a new "town center" with retail and condos -- and some expansion space -- across the street from a planned new waterfront park.

Sound like a dream project for an enterprising developer?

You sure wouldn't know it from the proposals three developer/architect teams submitted for Milwaukie's Town Center Project.

One would add to Milwaukie's eclectic collection of architecture. One is unbuildable. One is simply generic.

None of the developers even attempted to incorporate downtown Milwaukie's greatest creative and economic force -- Dark Horse Comics, the $30 million-a-year producer of such legendary cartoon and movie titles as "The Mask" and "Sin City."

Too bad. The Town Center project has all the markings of being the proverbial "tipping point" in downtown Milwaukie's revival. This is a place 10 minutes from downtown Portland by car (or just 30 minutes by bike on the beautiful Springwater Trail). A light rail connection to Portland, though still distant, is almost certainly on the way.

The city of Milwaukie and Metro Regional Government joined hands to buy an old Texaco station next to City Hall and across the street from the waterfront park. Metro sees this as a marquee project in its ongoing "Centers" effort to seed higher-density mixes of housing and retail in the region's existing downtowns. For the winning developer, the land likely will be substantially discounted.

There's still no shortage of risk. The site may overlook the river, but it sits right on Southeast McLoughlin Boulevard, aka Oregon 99E. Downtown Milwaukie's commercial rents are about 75 percent of what will be necessary to pay for new office construction. Condo prices are still so low that anything beyond wood-frame construction is a stretch.

Yet, by the time this building opens, the new park could easily be under construction and the coming of light rail confirmed.

A leap of faith could be grandly rewarded.

The three proposals could not be more distinct, both architecturally and in how they seem to see downtown Milwaukie's future.

Costa Pacific Homes, known for its work at Orenco Station and Villebois, went to Boise for its architect -- Mark Sanders of The Architects Office -- who, in turn, freely concedes his best ideas come from Portland's Pearl District. It shows. Costa's Pearlish, five-story, 71-condo scheme is a brick dream that, from its corner turret to its five stories sitting atop underground parking, is an almost-certain financial impossibility.

At the other end of the spectrum is Winkler Development Co.'s scheme, which offers its 63 condo owners a river view over an eco-roof. But for this downtown gateway site, it would face McLoughlin and the future park with a parking garage.

Falling between those two mostly brick schemes is the team of KemperCo and Myhre Group Architects, which are proposing a wood- and metal panel-clad building with 76 condos. It's by far the smartest urban design and, last week, got the initial nod from the Town Center's project management group. With the parking tucked in the middle, it faces McLoughlin with small offices and downtown with future stores and restaurants.

At a recent open house, many Milwaukians argued the Myhre Group's architecture won't fit in. But from its jaunty Venetian-style Masonic Lodge to its sharply soaring Modernist St. John the Baptist Catholic Church to the blinking lights of its Wunderland arcade, Milwaukie is a crazy quilt that only grows richer with each bold new patch.

Yet the absence of space for Dark Horse Comics is sad -- for Dark Horse, the city and this project.

Neil Hankerson, Dark Horse's executive vice president, says the company is close to capacity in its existing space. He and founder Mike Richardson are tired of having critical creative functions split between buildings. They dream of 25,000 square feet of contiguous space.

"You miss the water cooler conversations," Hankerson says. "It's easier to keep the sense of being a family."

With construction prices soaring, building the type of space Dark Horse could rent or buy is a tough deal, for sure. Metro, Milwaukie and the developer would need to stretch to make it work. But given how hard cities elsewhere in the world are working to lure companies like Dark Horse, it sure seems like a good idea to work a little harder to help a home-grown one grow some more.

Calling Gov. Kulongoski: If ever there was an opportunity to tell the world what Oregon economic development is about, it's here.

Randy Gragg: 503-221-8575; randygragg@news.oregonian.com
http://www.oregonlive.com/oregonian/...430.xml&coll=7


there were pictures of all three proposals in the paper too, but i got no scanner, so sorry on that front.

[MarkDaMan]

Mixed-use project aims for LEED’s highest score
Ankrom Moisan designed Independence Station, billed as world’s greenest building
Daily Journal of Commerce
POSTED: 04:00 AM PST Wednesday, March 4, 2009
BY SAM BENNETT

When finished in 2010, Independence Station will represent a feat in green building engineering, but also an accomplishment in perseverance.

Developer Steven Ribeiro of Aldeia LLC, who in 2004 bought the property in Independence, was relentless in his pursuit of funding after initial backing for the $15 million, mixed-use project fell through in the early phase of construction in 2005.

Ribeiro said he made hundreds of inquiries to Oregon banks, but eventually convinced Mass Mutual in New York to back the project. “I exhausted Oregon first and then went nationwide, and even internationally, in my search,” he said. “It’s sad I had to leave Oregon to get financing.”

Construction is moving along on schedule for the 57,000-square-foot Independence Station – at a time when new condo construction and retail developments have slowed to a crawl. The building, designed by Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects, is located in Independence, about 12 miles southwest of Salem. With about 8,000 residents, Independence is a small town in which to build what Ribeiro bills as “the greenest building in the world.” The development will feature an upscale restaurant, office space and high-end condos in the $300,000 to $600,000 range. The 13,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space will be offered to “micro retailers,” who will use several hundred square feet to sell their goods – a format similar to small retail spaces in Europe.

Ribeiro said he hopes to sell the 15 condos to people as passionate about green living as he is. “I’m looking for 15 certified energy efficiency nuts like me,” he said, also referring to potential buyers as “21st century Oregon Trail pioneers.” He said he recently began marketing the building and is working on finding retail tenants and prospective condo buyers.

Ribeiro hopes to market the building as earning the most LEED points from the U.S. Green Building Council ever. He is also pursuing the Living Building Challenge, so that the building reuses all water collected on-site and generates all its own electricity. Such eco-friendly credentials could help lease office space, sell condos and attract customers to the building’s restaurant and virtual wine mall, Ribeiro said.

He is targeting LEED platinum certification by earning about 65 out of 69 possible LEED points. The building will use bio-diesel fuels and photo voltaic panels to provide electricity and heat, rainwater for toilets, laundry, water hoses and green roofs. Rainwater storage tanks will hold 90,000 gallons.

Green roofs will be incorporated into two decks. Residential units will feature radiant floor heating and cooling systems. The anticipated annual utility savings is 92 percent, compared to typical code compliant buildings of this size and type.

The building will have a 120-kilowatt installation of photovoltaic panels to produce energy to run the building and store extra energy in a large battery bank for night use, as well as feed power back into the grid.

In cooler, less sunny months, the building will use a tugboat engine named Mabel, which will run on used cooking oils and be connected to a generator creating electricity. The building will have radiant floor heating and cooling, and a water-based, ground-source heat pump. In evenings during warm months, a system will create ice to be used during the day to cool the building by running cool water through pipes in the floors and ceilings.

The basement will feature a virtual wine mall, in which visitors can speak with wine experts around the state live on flat-screen TVs in booths for different vineyards. In a separate area, visitors will sample the wines after inquiring about them.

The second level will feature a space for conferences in person as well as “virtual office space.” It will cost $375 per month. Users can have their business addresses and phone numbers based at Independence Station, and calls will be forwarded to the businesses anywhere in the world. That would allow businesses to use Independence Station for what he called a “trophy address” to boost business.

Ribeiro moved to Independence in 1997, after years of renovating residential buildings in Southern California. He said he “fell in love” with the small town and had his eyes on the corner property where Independence Station will be.

http://www.djcoregon.com/articleDeta...ion-billed-as-

Additional information/renderings

http://www.independencestation.com/index.shtml

[MarkDaMan]

Water park going up at McMinnville museum
POSTED: Monday, April 19, 2010 at 03:39 PM PT
BY: Nick Bjork
Daily Journal of Commerce
Tags: McMinnville

A $25.3 million water park is under construction at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in McMinnville.

The system development charges have been paid, the building permit has been issued and the support structure is currently under construction. Next up, the 190-ton, 225-foot-long Evergreen International Aviation 747-100 airliner will be lifted and placed in its new home as the centerpiece of the water park.

The museum paid $225,200 in system development charges for the water park, $150,700 of which is being ear marked for future sewer system improvements by the city, said Doug Montgomery, McMinnville planning director. The remaining $74,500 will go to future transportation infrastructure improvements, he said.

Hoffman Construction of Portland is the general contractor on the project. They hope to place the plane into its final resting spot by the end of May.

All of the water slides for the water park will be built around the plane once it is set. Each slide will start in the plane and end in a pool below. The pool will be surrounded by educational information and activities that deal with buoyancy and the differences between air and water.

In addition to the 60,000-square-foot water park, the museum will also be adding a new 90,000-square-foot lodge with 90 rooms, conference space, a wine bar, a restaurant and a gym. The water park is slated for completion in spring 2011.

http://djcoregon.com/news/2010/04/19...nville-museum/