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  #261  
Old Posted Jan 14, 2008, 3:26 AM
joeplayer1989 joeplayer1989 is offline
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lol, so much for green roofs!

These "towers" aren't very pointy.
dont bitch at least we got em
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  #262  
Old Posted Jan 14, 2008, 7:49 PM
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What do you think will or should be done about public parking down there? i know that almost everyone on here is anti-car but realistically it seems like they'll have to put some sort of parking garage(s) down there...I'd also LOVE to see that gap filled in between the OHSU tower and the condos. Not holding my breath for biotech
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  #263  
Old Posted Jan 14, 2008, 8:54 PM
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OHSU is required by contract to build a parking garage. I think it is planned for the lot against I-5 that was the staging area for tram construction. Construction is supposed to begin by 2010 or something? Possibly with affordable housing on top?

It'll be interesting to see what happens with auto access. Getting in and out of the neighborhood, even with the new access from the south that is planned, will be a challenge. The critical mass for car congestion seems to be very low, parking garages or not.

With the amount of land OHSU has to develop down there, combined with their apparently dim financial prospects, I think it'll be many, many years before we see any movement on those blocks, barring a sell-off. I think those parking lots are supposed to be gone by a certain date, but I wouldn't be surprised to see that renegotiated at some point.
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  #264  
Old Posted Jan 14, 2008, 9:23 PM
joeplayer1989 joeplayer1989 is offline
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Originally Posted by tworivers View Post
OHSU is required by contract to build a parking garage. I think it is planned for the lot against I-5 that was the staging area for tram construction. Construction is supposed to begin by 2010 or something? Possibly with affordable housing on top?

It'll be interesting to see what happens with auto access. Getting in and out of the neighborhood, even with the new access from the south that is planned, will be a challenge. The critical mass for car congestion seems to be very low, parking garages or not.

With the amount of land OHSU has to develop down there, combined with their apparently dim financial prospects, I think it'll be many, many years before we see any movement on those blocks, barring a sell-off. I think those parking lots are supposed to be gone by a certain date, but I wouldn't be surprised to see that renegotiated at some point.
i think you are underestimating south waterfront.
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  #265  
Old Posted Jan 14, 2008, 9:24 PM
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I hope you are right.
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  #266  
Old Posted Jan 15, 2008, 2:59 AM
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I believe the PDC bought rights to build housing on top of the OHSU garage. I can't imagine why the wouldn't.

OHSU is in transition. Since Kohler left, the new president is taking the university in a different direction, if not a new focus altogether. I think it will take three to five years for that vision to become apparent, and new construction will start thereafter. They already have $40M promised towards a new building, and from what I've heard, that will start in 2009 or 2010. A build out of 20 years seems like forever to us, but in the lifetime of the city, it isn't that much time. We were lucky to get the Pearl built so fast. I'd rather see SoWa, and the surrounding land, built over SEVERAL years so we have varying architecture, and multipurpose buildings next to each other. The slowdown in the housing market, and the refocus of the university might not be all that bad in the long term.
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  #267  
Old Posted Jan 15, 2008, 4:23 AM
zilfondel zilfondel is offline
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Don't forget that around 30-40% of residential growth in Portland is occurring in SoWa and the Pearl...
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  #268  
Old Posted Jan 15, 2008, 6:52 PM
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Ross Island group propels planning for urban oasis
Friends of Ross Island hope to use a “straw proposal”
Daily Journal of Commerce
POSTED: 06:00 AM PST Tuesday, January 15, 2008
BY ALISON RYAN

Half of the buildings in the city of Portland were built using sand and gravel pulled from Ross Island. Now it’s the city’s turn to give back, says a group working to plan the future of the island.

“The island gave to the city, now it’s time for the city to rebuild the island,” said Mike Houck, the executive director of the Urban Greenspaces Institute and a member of Friends of Ross Island, an ad-hoc group that’s producing ideas for the future of the Willamette River island.

Among the edgy comfort and modern-architecture-in-miniature of the South Waterfront Discovery Center last week, Houck, Audubon Society of Portland’s Bob Sallinger and Willamette Riverkeeper Travis Williams laid out the past, and potential future, of Ross Island.

The crowd – three-quarters of which, by a show of hands, were South Waterfront residents – was hooked. As Houck flipped through Rorschach-like black outlines of how the island’s form has changed in the 80 years since active mining began, the room began to buzz.

“They’ve whittled down Ross Island, as you saw, dramatically,” he said.

The bottom line for the group, according to Houck, is restoring four islands in the river, including Ross Island, to ensure their long-term ecological function. Everything else that’s part of the effort – from creating beneficial relationships between people and the island to preserving and interpreting the islands’ natural and cultural histories – flows from the restoration and management effort.

Ross Island, which Robert Pamplin Jr. in September donated to the city of Portland, is the most important ecologically, said Audubon conservation director Sallinger.

“It’s also the piece the city could accept without strings attached,” he added.

Ross Island as a public space was first floated by John Charles Olmsted, who in 1903 proposed a park in the middle of the Willamette.

“This is an idea that’s been in place for a long time,” Sallinger said.

And it’s an idea that Friends of Ross Island wants to see move forward. The group – driven by the efforts of people like Houck; Sallinger; Williams; landscape designers Christina Frank, Melissa Medeiros, Mike Faha and Mike Abbate – is planning a series of meetings with community and neighborhood groups. Ultimately, Houck said, the group will come out with a “straw proposal,” a vision for the island that’s hoped to contribute to – and speed up – the public process.

“Can you imagine a more incredible site in the heart of the city?” Houck said.
http://www.djcoregon.com/articleDeta...a-straw-propos
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  #269  
Old Posted Jan 21, 2008, 4:32 AM
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  #270  
Old Posted Jan 21, 2008, 6:48 AM
RED_PDXer RED_PDXer is offline
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I was thinking some diversity of height would be a good thing for the south waterfront. SoWa is so carefully planned that it's appearing to be incredibly sterile. There's no history incorporated in the neighborhood and every proposal occupies a full city block, like a bunch of similarly styled cakes neatly separated in a refrigerator display.

I agree that the lack of green features and affordable housing in this proposal is unfortunate, but there is at least a significant amount of ground floor retail and office space, which that are desperately needs.

Is the neighborhood association composed of Lair Hill residents as well? Wouldn't they prefer shorter buildings to preserve their views?
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  #271  
Old Posted Jan 21, 2008, 5:31 PM
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Red_PDXer, the association does consist of the Lair Hill residents.

Dougall, thanks for the post and your updates. As a new resident of SoWa, we appreciate all the news as we are sometimes left out of the loop.

I agree that the design does not seem to meet the standards assigned by the community. Since block 49 is one of the first blocks in the district if one enters from the south, I feel it needs to be a representation of the entire community.
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  #272  
Old Posted Jan 21, 2008, 6:56 PM
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I agree that the lack of green features and affordable housing in this proposal is unfortunate, but there is at least a significant amount of ground floor retail and office space, which that are desperately needs.
I don't think there is any office space in this building. And I agree that height diversity is good, my main concern is the overall design is truly lacking.
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  #273  
Old Posted Jan 29, 2008, 12:20 AM
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I am curious as to how they will give people access to the island when it is ready. Right now you need some kind of boat to get there.

Presumably they could build a connection from the trail that runs on the east side of the river.
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  #274  
Old Posted Jan 29, 2008, 12:55 AM
pdxf pdxf is offline
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I hope that they leave it as float-only destination. I think there is something to be said for having a little piece of somewhat inaccessible wilderness(?) in the heart of the city. Put in a nice dock, perhaps a couple trails on the island, and let people paddle to it! Give some of us that are willing to work a little harder to have some adventure. I hate it when I hike up a mountain, only to find that Ihave to cross a parking lot at the top overflowing with drive-in gawkers. Kind of ruins the adventure of it all.
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  #275  
Old Posted Jan 31, 2008, 4:52 PM
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anybody know where the block 49 thread is?

Group protests 'cheap' plan
Neighborhood - The South Waterfront association says an affordable housing project is wrong for the area
Thursday, January 31, 2008
ANDY DWORKIN
The Oregonian

They didn't like the tram and complained the South Waterfront's glass condo towers were too tall. Now a group of neighbors is objecting to a new housing project, this time because they say it's too small with not enough affordable places for families.

In December, Portland's Design Commission approved plans to build five stories of apartments over a floor of retail and office space on a block that is now a parking lot for the Old Spaghetti Factory.

Designs call for a brick-and-glass U-shaped building with a green, open courtyard surrounded by more than 200 housing units -- the first affordable housing in an area where developers have long promised moderately priced digs.

Developers pledge to target at least 42 units to disabled or homeless veterans with federal housing vouchers; they could ride the nearby streetcar and tram to the Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

But the South Portland Neighborhood Association, which vocally opposed that tram, asked the City Council on Wednesday to reject the planned affordable housing. Appealing the design commission's decision, the neighborhood group wrote that the planned building "looks cheap and is cheap."

"The comparative squat stature of the building is so radical as to label its residents 'Other' within the district," wrote the group.

And the group complained that "the project fails to provide affordable family housing" because its largest units have only two bedrooms.

The neighborhood group isn't opposed to having poor people or veterans move in, said Jim Davis, its land-use committee chairman. The association's real worry is that the building won't attract families with kids, he said.

"This is not a NIMBY situation for our neighborhood," Davis said. "We're asking for more affordable housing, more family housing."

South Portland used to have many affordable homes, public schools, gas stations and other amenities, Davis said. But the area has been gentrifying for decades, and rising home prices have squeezed out families. Today, he said, no public schools sit in the association's waterfront boundaries, and the area has just one filling station.

"We are essentially just a bedroom community with white, relatively wealthy people," Davis said. "How the hell can you have a neighborhood without families, without kids, without schools?"

City Council members agreed with Davis' desire to have more families in the South Waterfront but questioned the target of his appeal -- a building designed to house some of Portland's estimated 1,800 homeless vets.

"I think there is an urgent need for veterans housing, and I think there's a once-in-a-generation opportunity to put it here," Commissioner Sam Adams said. "I also am very impressed with the quality" of the building.

Commissioner Erik Sten, who drove the plan to house vets in the building, said it's impractical to design a moderately sized building that can house lots of children as well as veterans who need social services. While developers should build more family-friendly, affordable homes in the area, Sten said, "this is the right project for this spot."

The council voted 5-0 to uphold the design commission, which called the building "a straightforward housing block" with "pleasant compositional simplicity." Developers Homer Williams and Dike Dame hope to start construction by spring.

Andy Dworkin: 503-221-8564; andydworkin@news.oregonian.com
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/orego...980.xml&coll=7
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  #276  
Old Posted Jan 31, 2008, 10:22 PM
zilfondel zilfondel is offline
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wow. just wow.

I've been spending a few weeks down in teh CTLH neighborhood (not SoWa), and everyone tells me that families don't live in the area anyway - and I have yet to see a kid down there.

this is ridiculous - smacks of political maneuvering by the SP n'hood ass to block unwanted projects. I'm betting they want higher home appreciation = $$$
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  #277  
Old Posted Feb 1, 2008, 12:19 AM
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This is ridiculous. It will be the first building people see when they enter SoWa from the South. Nice representation of the neighborhood. Brilliant move commissioners.
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  #278  
Old Posted Feb 2, 2008, 1:27 AM
zilfondel zilfondel is offline
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blink

Last edited by zilfondel; Feb 2, 2008 at 7:08 AM.
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  #279  
Old Posted Feb 2, 2008, 3:16 AM
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Originally Posted by zilfondel View Post
well fuck you too, buddy. I assume you have millions to plunk down on the expensive condos they have been building? have a nice day.

Warm up the rest of your extensive vocabulary because I agree with Diffbean; the quality of gateway buildings are important. A squat, cheap looking suburbanish apartment building isn't ideal for that location.

And before you ask, no, I don't have millions to plunk down on anything.

Have a wonderful evening.

Last edited by rsbear; Feb 2, 2008 at 4:26 AM.
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  #280  
Old Posted Feb 2, 2008, 4:15 AM
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Zil, I am only against the design not against who is living there.

To answer your question regarding millions, that would be a NO. Just a modest middle class dual income with no kids. The main reason we moved to SoWa is so that we were not stuck sitting in traffic for half the day getting back and forth from work.

Have a great weekend and I think you need to re-assess your thoughts on the neighborhood.
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