New Omni (416 NW 5th Ave) | 15 floors | 170' | Dead

[maccoinnich]

Ankrom Moisan Architects have requested Design Advice for a project at 416 NW 5th Ave:

New 15-story, 160,000 gsf mixed-use residential development with basement parking. 430 NW 5th Ave is a non-contributing site; 416 NW 5th Ave is a contributing site both in New Chinatown/Japantown Historic District.

Should be fun seeing this go through the Landmarks Commission process.

[cab]

Whats the tear down?

[PDX City-State]

Originally Posted by cab

Whats the tear down?

From Google Maps it looks like a tiny one-story building--and the rest seems to be replacing a surface parking lot.

[Socinus]

Hopefully we see this whole section get some major movement, what with the impending Post Office site development and the currently under construction health department HQ.

[DMH]

Originally Posted by PDX City-State

From Google Maps it looks like a tiny one-story building--and the rest seems to be replacing a surface parking lot.

It appears to be the one-story building for Omni Gallery. I doubt that the HLC will block its demolition and no one will block the demo crew from taking it down. Frankly it would be very positive for NW 5th Avenue to have this proposed new building.

[maccoinnich]

On Landmarks Commission agenda for June 26th:

The proposal is for a 15-story, 160,000 sf mixed-use residential development with basement parking. The applicant also wishes to discuss the potential demolition of the historic Harper Brass Works Co. Building, a contributing resource in the New Chinatown Japantown Historic District.

[maccoinnich]

Posting Notice

[maccoinnich]

Presentation [27 MB] to the Landmarks Commission. Not much more than massing models at this point.

[maccoinnich]

Notice of a Pre-Application Conference

[maccoinnich]

DAR #2 posting notice (with image)

[downtownpdx]

Looks nice enough, nothing striking, but a vast improvement over the current parking lot, and with a little height for the area.

[johnliu]

Proposal was to retain the facade of the Omni Gallery building. Anyone know if that remains the plan? I'm hopeful this indicates an intention to design an interesting ground floor.

[maccoinnich]

Drawings [35 MB] from yesterday's DAR.

[DMH]

Originally Posted by maccoinnich

Drawings [35 MB] from yesterday's DAR.

I am happy to see a creative effort to retain the Omni building's street facade. Though it is not a super work of historic architecture, its restoration will retain the human-scaled urban frontage.

[urbanlife]

Originally Posted by maccoinnich

Drawings [35 MB] from yesterday's DAR.

It looks really good, though for some reason, I didn't realize that whole area has a what looked like a 425ft height limit. Obviously when FAR is applied, that changes things drastically.

This building overall adds a great urban presence, adds plenty of needed density to the city core, and still fits in with that part of downtown really well. I also like that they are either saving the facade or the actual gallery building, I wasn't able to tell exactly what they were doing with the gallery building, but even keeping some of it is good.

I will say, when I first moved to Portland, I remember a giant hand sculpture that use to sit in this parking lot. The way the fingers were pinched, it looked like a giant hand for a giant joint of weed.

[maccoinnich]

Originally Posted by maccoinnich

Drawings [35 MB] from yesterday's DAR.

Say goodbye to these because it's last time you're going to see them according to this summary memo.

[urbanlife]

We should get it over with and sell Oldtown/Chinatown to Disney and let them create a fictional historic district for tourists.