HomeDiagramsDatabaseMapsForum About
     

Go Back   SkyscraperPage Forum > Regional Sections > United States > Pacific West > Portland > Downtown & City of Portland


Reply

 
Thread Tools Display Modes
     
     
  #1121  
Old Posted Dec 11, 2009, 7:06 PM
2oh1's Avatar
2oh1 2oh1 is offline
9-7-2oh1-!
 
Join Date: May 2007
Location: downtown Portland
Posts: 2,471
Good lord man, a round of applause for some great shots! Do you have a flickr account? I'd love to see more. I especially enjoyed the first photo.

Thanks for sharing!
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #1122  
Old Posted Dec 13, 2009, 4:18 PM
Artist Artist is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 118
Cronked, the web cam is continually focusing and refocusing. Can't see any mist on your window that would confuse it, but we don't want it to wear out.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #1123  
Old Posted Dec 13, 2009, 5:33 PM
sowat sowat is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 422
^there's extremely dense fog out, and the camera is/was constantly trying to find something to focus on. I tried to pan it to a spot where it stopped refocusing, but now I see it's doing it again.

Not a lot of outdoor construction last week while it was 16 degrees. I think mid-Jan for topping off is optimistic with the holidays coming up.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #1124  
Old Posted Dec 13, 2009, 5:50 PM
cronked cronked is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 200
Yea, the camera is having a hard time with the fog. I panned it over to the Mirabella which is the closest object and it seems to be focused for now. It is almost 10 am and this fog hasn't lifted at all!
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #1125  
Old Posted Dec 13, 2009, 6:03 PM
cronked cronked is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 200
The autofocus is now turned off. It wasn't necessary anyhow.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #1126  
Old Posted Dec 14, 2009, 11:04 PM
sowat sowat is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 422
28th floor pour today
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #1127  
Old Posted Dec 16, 2009, 9:54 PM
cronked cronked is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 200
South Waterfront Holiday Party

A few shots from the South Waterfront Holiday Party that was last weekend. There was a great turnout. They had a live band who did a great job. There was a silent auction, interactive painting and a wine wall as well. I hear over $6,000 was raised. Overall, a great time!









Reply With Quote
     
     
  #1128  
Old Posted Dec 17, 2009, 1:33 AM
Okstate's Avatar
Okstate Okstate is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: May 2007
Location: SE PDX
Posts: 1,367
That place looks crunk!
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #1129  
Old Posted Dec 17, 2009, 10:40 AM
JordanL JordanL is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 1,004
Quote:
Originally Posted by cronked View Post
A few shots from the South Waterfront Holiday Party that was last weekend. There was a great turnout. They had a live band who did a great job. There was a silent auction, interactive painting and a wine wall as well. I hear over $6,000 was raised. Overall, a great time!
That's enough for a homeless person to live in that tower for two months!

Reply With Quote
     
     
  #1130  
Old Posted Dec 18, 2009, 11:36 PM
sowat sowat is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 422
friday update, this mild, silvery-gray day



they're working on the brick paving and landscaping in the alley way















Reply With Quote
     
     
  #1131  
Old Posted Dec 19, 2009, 12:06 AM
sowat sowat is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 422
Matisse update



note the siding for the rest of the whole block project







I'm looking forward to the small balconies being hung, they should help give it more visual interest, depth and dimension.









the framing on the curtain glass wall looks pretty good, it's very thin, and almost flush with the glass



Reply With Quote
     
     
  #1132  
Old Posted Dec 19, 2009, 6:47 PM
Artist Artist is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 118
Thanks for the photo updates. Mirabella is beginning to look like part of the community, and the community itself is so different than when I first saw it. Then it looked bleak with just a couple towers completed, and one or two more under construction, and lots of bare dirt. Now, it looks like an inviting place to be. I wonder at what point the cranes come down and sidewalks open up. That will surely make SoWa residents happy. Merry Christmas, all.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #1133  
Old Posted Dec 19, 2009, 10:43 PM
Artist Artist is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 118
What happened to the beautiful expanse of lawn in Carruthers Park?
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #1134  
Old Posted Dec 21, 2009, 8:51 PM
ad hoc ad hoc is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Minnesota
Posts: 40
what a beautiful building. thanks for the photos...
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #1135  
Old Posted Dec 22, 2009, 5:16 AM
bvpcvm bvpcvm is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Portland
Posts: 2,788
http://blog.oregonlive.com/business_..._of_portl.html

Zidell ponders future of Portland barge-building business

By Ryan Frank, The Oregonian

December 21, 2009, 6:17PM



View full size

Torsten Kjellstrand, The Oregonian

Zidell’s workers are scheduled to launch their latest barge in January.The question makes Jay Zidell uncomfortable.

When will he stop building barges on the waterfront and start building high-rises?

The room goes silent.

Heads turn.

Zidell, the third generation to captain Zidell Marine Corp., shifts uneasily in his chair.

"That's something that we're constantly weighing," he says finally. "Part of it will be driven by the market for barges. Part of it will be driven by the market for development."

Oregon power brokers have nudged the Zidell family for decades to do more with their prime Portland real estate. With 30 acres, the family is South Waterfront's biggest landowner. Zidell's clean-up would finally make it possible for earth movers to roll there, but the timing of any construction will be at least partially dictated by the future of Zidell Marine Corp.

In the 1970s, Gov. Tom McCall called Jay Zidell's late father, Emery, to suggest he stop adding industrial buildings. As Jay Zidell has told the story, McCall said: "We have big plans for the waterfront."

But even today, Zidell Marine Corp. remains a going concern.

The yard has a little more grit than the glassy, 30-story condo buildings to the south. But Zidell employs 30 administrative staff and 55 workers along a river that's regularly losing those jobs.

Zidell's clean-up plan would allow him to continue making barges. All signs, though, point to an inevitable end for the corporation at that spot. By 2015, it will be wedged between condos, a university building and a light-rail bridge.

The question of "when" remains for Zidell.

The company has work to keep busy through 2011, said Len Bergstein, Zidell's lobbyist.

Then there's the question of how will Zidell develop.

The family has had hot and cold relationships with its South Waterfront neighbors.

At times, Jay Zidell sparked redevelopment talks.

In the 1990s, the family paired with the Schnitzers and former governor Neil Goldschmidt to lobby for a light-rail line. Jay Zidell then pledged $50,000 to recruit architects for the tram.

Other times, Zidell has been icy.

A Zidell family company sued Portland in 2004 to protest the company's $2.2 million contribution for the aerial tram. The company has since settled.

More recently, Zidell and his consultants took part in talks about how development will unfold between the Ross Island and Marquam bridges. Zidell and Oregon Health & Science University -- which was donated the land from the Schnitzer family -- own most of that area.

Zidell owns 30 acres but about half of it will be taken up by streets, a riverbank greenway and other public projects. Zoning allows for offices, hotels, apartments, condos or a school.

But it's impossible to predict what types of real estate will be in demand in three years.

Bergstein, the lobbyist, said one option would center development on the west edge of Zidell's property along Moody Avenue where the streetcar now rolls. That could allow Zidell to build barges to the southeast.

Zidell explored moving the barge work to North Portland, but he said it was too expensive.

Unless another site opens up, the blue-collar workers could slip away with the last barge.

-- Ryan Frank



© 2009 OregonLive.com. All rights reserved.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #1136  
Old Posted Dec 22, 2009, 5:17 AM
bvpcvm bvpcvm is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Portland
Posts: 2,788
http://blog.oregonlive.com/environme...illamette.html

Portland's Zidell Marine unveils big Willamette River cleanup plan

By Scott Learn, The Oregonian

December 21, 2009, 9:10PM




View full size
Torsten Kjellstrand, The Oregonian

The grit of Zidell's barge building facility and the glint of South Waterfront condos provide a window on Portland’s past and its present within a few blocks. Zidell, the longtime Portland barge builder, is pursuing one of the biggest Willamette River cleanup plans to date, a $20 million project that would address decades of contamination, improve 3,000 feet of rubble-strewn shoreline and open up highly prized South Waterfront land for development.

But federal biologists are questioning whether the company's long-awaited cleanup plan will help or hurt the threatened salmon and steelhead that use the area, considered critical habitat. They want Zidell to dredge out the contaminated sediment instead of capping it and leaving it in place.

Federal biologists, the city of Portland and local environmentalists also want a much more gently sloped bank and shallows that would add more habitat.

Both changes could jack up the cost but provide more room for riverside plants and ideal resting and rearing areas for salmon.

"It's a once-in-a-century opportunity to re-create the habitat that was lost," said Dean Marriott, director of Portland's Bureau of Environmental Services. "I don't want to see that opportunity lost for generations to come."


View full size


Zidell filed for federal and state permits on the plan last week, despite the city's preference for hashing out an agreement beforehand.

To meet the terms of a court settlement with Oregon regulators, Zidell's contractors must be working in the water by summer 2011. The company also wants to tie the work into TriMet's construction of a light-rail bridge that will cross Zidell's land.

The work would free up about 15 acres in the upscale South Waterfront neighborhood for development and set the stage for construction of the neighborhood's greenway along the river.

Zidell and its consultants say they believe the draft plan -- endorsed by Oregon's Department of Environmental Quality -- will significantly improve the river and the bank. It includes planting thousands of native shrubs and about 200 trees, cutting off 2,100 old dock pilings, and capping 16 acres of contaminated sediment and soil.

Zidell is wary of adding costs and risks to what would be the largest privately financed cleanup project on the Willamette to date. But the company will work with regulators on improvements, said Len Bergstein, Zidell's public relations consultant on the project.

"We're trying to figure out how we can accommodate them," Bergstein said. "The difficult position for us is we can't be left down the line without a plan that can satisfy DEQ."


Part of legacy is toxic
Like many industrial sites on Portland's stretch of the Willamette, Zidell's carries a legacy of ample production and extensive contamination.

Industrial activity began in 1916. During World War II, Zidell's predecessor helped build ships for the Navy. Afterward, Zidell transitioned to dismantling ships on a long string of docks.

Since the 1960s, the company has built more than 300 huge ocean-going barges, slicing steel panels with plasma torches and welding them to make ships that slide on rails into the river once the work is done.

There were dozens of oil spills on the site from the 1960s to the 1980s. Fires burned docks and buildings.

Ship dismantling included salvaging transformers full of toxic PCBs and burning PCB-laden wire insulation to salvage the underlying copper. Debris was buried in open pits. The riverbank was shored up with scrap metal, asbestos, basalt ballast blocks from salvaged ships, and other debris.

The contaminants, toxic to fish and people, now lie in soil along the bank and in sediment up to at least 10 feet deep. The bank, a steep cliff in some places, is lined with blackberries and butterfly bush.


Clean fill or sand?
The federal government will cover up to 35 percent of cleanup costs. Zidell sued the government, successfully arguing that the Navy should share in costs. Zidell will still pick up the bulk of the tab.

The plan includes improving and reducing the rock "armoring" of the shoreline, dredging hot spots of contamination along the bank and capping contaminated sediments and soil with 194,000 cubic yards of fill.

The company would replant four acres along the bank with more than 15,000 shrubs and 200 trees. The rock armor lining the banks on the northern half of the property -- valuable shallow-water habitat in quieter waters near the Marquam bridge -- would be covered with clean fill, Zidell says.

The plan is to use relatively small, round rock, six inches or less, to anchor the cap in that part of the river. Clean sediment washed down the river should quickly cover the rocks, making it better habitat for salmon, said Paul Fishman, Zidell's environmental consultant.

"We're isolating contaminants so there are no pathways for them to get in fish," he said. "We're also adding a tremendous amount of native vegetation that will benefit salmon."

Zidell has filed for permits with Oregon's Department of State Lands and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The National Marine Fisheries Service, which oversees the Endangered Species Act, advises the corps.

The rock that Zidell will use to anchor its sediment cap is more likely to attract small mouth bass, pike minnow and other fish that will compete with salmon for food, said Ben Meyer, chief of the service's Willamette basin habitat branch.

The service would rather Zidell dredge the contaminated sediment, then top the dredged area with clean sand.

"The salmon are going to like that a lot better than a bunch of rock," Meyer said.

The fisheries service, the city and Bob Sallinger, the Audubon Society of Portland's conservation director, would also like Zidell to make shallower slopes, adding more space for trees and salmon-friendly beach habitat.

"What's been proposed is completely inadequate," Sallinger said.

The contamination is widespread, which would make for a large dredging project -- earlier estimates put the cost of dredging the sediment at 10 times the cost of capping it.

-- Scott Learn

Building barges to building towers: When will Zidell switch to development?





© 2009 OregonLive.com. All rights reserved.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #1137  
Old Posted Dec 23, 2009, 7:41 PM
mcbaby mcbaby is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Portland, OR
Posts: 587
the buildings are nice but as a collection, they look more like compound and less like a neighborhood. all the buildings look alike. same colors and materials. would be nice to see something planned that just stood out. the pearl has the benefit of older pre existing buildings and retrofitted structures that add interest. when i look at all the new development in the south waterfront, it looks like it not only could have been designed by the same architect but part of the same complex.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #1138  
Old Posted Dec 24, 2009, 4:05 AM
ProTram ProTram is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jun 2009
Posts: 99
I just hate how all the buildings now and planned are all essentially the same exact height. How BORING! Change it up a little!
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #1139  
Old Posted Dec 24, 2009, 4:33 AM
Sioux612's Avatar
Sioux612 Sioux612 is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 539
I agree. A PAW type of tower, in terms of height, would definitely break up the row of 325-footers.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #1140  
Old Posted Dec 29, 2009, 2:45 AM
Okstate's Avatar
Okstate Okstate is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: May 2007
Location: SE PDX
Posts: 1,367
Updates?
Reply With Quote
     
     
This discussion thread continues

Use the page links to the lower-right to go to the next page for additional posts
 
 
Reply

Go Back   SkyscraperPage Forum > Regional Sections > United States > Pacific West > Portland > Downtown & City of Portland
Forum Jump


Thread Tools
Display Modes

Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 11:29 AM.

     
SkyscraperPage.com - Archive - Privacy Statement - Top

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.