Benson Tower | 27 floors | Complete

[MarkDaMan]

The rendering behind Joe of the Benson Tower is magnificent! Between the John Ross and the Benson Tower, I think Portland's architectural style is going to quickly evolve from Big Box towers into world class designs. I'm pleased that the architects can provide a better looking tower while still significantly adding to the street level experience.

[MarkDaMan]

not sure if this has been posted yet or not
http://bensontower.com/

the big hole is finally covered and the building is going up. With such a small footprint it should be pretty speedy. They still say move-in will be early 2007

[pdxstreetcar]

the showroom for the benson is located on 5th Ave. across from the Portland Plaza Tower and in the building that the downtown DMV is in

[dkealoha]

These are the prices the Benson sales office sent me:

One Bedroom Condominium:
Floors 2-25
$190,000 to $410,000

One Bedroom with Den Condominium:
(2 bedroom option available in many plans):
Floors 2-25
$301,000 to $790,000

Two Bedroom Condominium:
Floors 15-25
$464,500 to $540,000

Two Bedrooms with Den Condominium:
Floors 2-25
$415,000 to $790,000

Penthouses:
Floors 26&27
Starting at $791,000

[MarkDaMan]

The Benson Tower is out of the ground!!!!

check out more pics atwww.bensontower.com
from this

to this; check out the Eliot almost complete back there...


Construction guy standing in living room for Unit A, 2nd Floor

[pdxstreetcar]

I just checked out this building and was amazed by just how small the tower's footprint is. The tower footprint is much smaller in dimension than the already small plot of land...



This is going to be a great addition to the skyline with its slender size.

The garage entrance is to the side of the tower (on the left side of the picture, right behind the orange traffic sign)

[MarkDaMan]

I took some pics this weekend of the site, and the Eliot too (f'in gorgeous project) I hope to post as soon as I can figure out the uploading thing.

The Benson Tower is super tiny! It is going to be amazing rising into the air with that small of a base.

Coming down the 405 from the Fremont Bridge right about level with the Edge, the Eliot looks huge. Having the Benson rise another 50 feet or so behind it is going the make the back end of downtown feel so much more together.

[pdxstreetcar]

^
Personally, I was a little disappointed by the Eliot Tower. I'm not a big fan of those dark green panels on the south side of the building or the much of the west side. I think the east side looks good however.

That Madison Place office building has shot up fast.

[Justin Stranzl]

^ The Eliot actually doesn't seem tall enough to me. Because of its volume, it begs for another four or five stories.

[MarkDaMan]

^I found height to be its major weakness too! If they are allowing the ZGF tower to hit 325, why didn't the Eliot go 10 floors higher?

[pdxstreetcar]

I also get the sense the eliot isnt tall enough. it feels really stubby to me more so than even some of the low rise buildings because it is such a massive and wide building that a few more floors would give it a vertical tower feel. its the gregory with a glass skin

[Justin Stranzl]

The Benson when completed might change my attitude toward the Eliot. If you get off 405 onto 10th, the Eliot's the tallest building on the skyline there and begs to stand out more. But maybe when the Benson grows up and fills that role, the Eliot'll be a much more attractive and complementary piece. It's a noticeable design, and it'll still stand out even when the Benson towers over it.

[MarkDaMan]

1200 Park will be a few blocks over and so will Weston's building on the old Chevron site, which is tiny too, now that it is fenced off.

That part of downtown is going to be sweeeeet!

[pdxstreetcar]

Originally Posted by MarkDaMan

...and so will Weston's building on the old Chevron site, which is tiny too, now that it is fenced off.

whats the latest on this project? when will this project become official?

[MitchE]

Originally Posted by MarkDaMan

^I found height to be its major weakness too! If they are allowing the ZGF tower to hit 325, why didn't the Eliot go 10 floors higher?

This weakness you are talking about is because of the west end's 250 foot maximum building height. The Eliot rises to 220 feet. At the most I think they would only be able to add 2 floors...which still doesn’t defeat the short and fat issue.

While it's generally a beautiful building, I am disappointed with the way it interacts with the street on 11th Ave. I feel like the entire orientation of the building is built to face 10th Ave and it has turned its back on 11th. I wish they would have made the 11th Ave side look like the 10th Ave side.

[mSeattle]

Great photo update! Thanks!

[MarkDaMan]

This weakness you are talking about is because of the west end's 250 foot maximum building height. The Eliot rises to 220 feet. At the most I think they would only be able to add 2 floors...which still doesn’t defeat the short and fat issue.

Isn't the Benson 275 or 300 ft? 1200 Park is going to be taller than 250'. Did the limits change recently or are the developers getting height bonuses.

whats the latest on this project? when will this project become official?

not a clue. The Chevron closed pretty quick and the land was cleared and leveled in what seemed like just a week.

I'd imagine if the height limits in the West End are still an issue, maybe he is trying to get them raised for his building. He also is working on the rest of the Pearl and the Broadway/PPS area while completing the Benson and has some interest in the Metropolitan. I doubt he is taking a break, but it will be interesting to see what his next move is.

[MitchE]

^ No, The Benson is 250 feet including the "water feature" FAR bonus. The maximum building height for 1200 Park is 300 feet.

Besides maximum building heights, all central city zoning includes FAR limits which tend to limit the actual building heights more then maximum height limits do. The FAR for the west end is 8:1. The area where 1200 park is 6:1.

I'm not sure what's going on at 1200 park for Bonus FAR, but here's the story (more or less) behind the Benson bonus w/ math for the nerds.

Because The Benson Tower only uses 1/4 block (the lot is 13,000 sq feet), it means under FAR zoning the building can only utilize at most 104,000 sq feet of floor space (13,000 x 8). Since the building is using about 90,000 sq feet of footprint (slightly less then the entire footprint of the lot at 100 x 90), it means the building under FAR zoning can only have a maximum height of about 12 stories (104,000 / 90,000). The water feature FAR bonus allowed the Benson to increase up to the maximum building height which means it about doubled the FAR ratio, the Benson is around 26 stories.

The interesting thing about FAR is that it encourages skinny design to achieve maximum building heights. That's why we're going to see a lot of skinny buildings in the West End (or ones that are fat and short like the Eliot).

[brandonpdx]

Originally Posted by MitchE

This weakness you are talking about is because of the west end's 250 foot maximum building height. The Eliot rises to 220 feet. At the most I think they would only be able to add 2 floors...which still doesn’t defeat the short and fat issue.

While it's generally a beautiful building, I am disappointed with the way it interacts with the street on 11th Ave. I feel like the entire orientation of the building is built to face 10th Ave and it has turned its back on 11th. I wish they would have made the 11th Ave side look like the 10th Ave side.

I agree that most of the 11th Ave side looks like the back of a building, much like the library on 11th. However, I like how the Eliot gets narrower for the top 3 "penthouse" floors. I also like the fishbowl units where the Eliot only rises a few floors on 11th & jefferson. What do you guys think about those units?

[MitchE]

^ I'm going to continue my post in the Eliot Tower thread since we are starting to get a bit off topic for this thread.

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ht=eliot+tower