The Oregonian
on May 20, 2013 at 4:57 PM, updated May 20, 2013 at 7:12 PM
BY: MIKE ROGOWAY and TED SICKINGER
Quote:
Portland mobile technology startup Urban Airship is catching a breeze, moving its headquarters into the glossy Pearl District offices of Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas.
The move illustrates the divergent fortunes of the two companies.
Urban Airship has been lifted by fevered demand for smartphone apps, while Vestas has been buffeted by turbulence in the wind energy market.
They'll share space in Vestas' offices, a former Meier & Frank warehouse that opened last year after a $66 million remodel by developer Gerding Edlen ...
One of the city's best-funded and fastest-growing startups, Urban Airship is helping lead a renaissance among Portland entrepreneurship. Its core technology enables "push" notification inside smartphone apps to alert users to breaking news, special deals or promotions. ...
Regarding public art...with Portland's mediocre, if not embarrassing, history in that realm, we're probably lucky there's no art, especially with the neighborhood involved throughout the design process. We probably would have ended up with some sort of giant glass bong-looking thing in the shape of a golden retriever...
OK, the Fields isn't going to win any design awards. It's a big green oval surrounded by plants. However, I think it needs to be seen as the final piece of a public realm masterplan that has taken years (a decade?) to complete. The City could have decided to have one giant central park for the Pearl, but instead did something a little more interesting. They created three parks, all with very different qualities which complement each other, and are physically linked by a continuous boardwalk.
The fact that Tanner Springs Park is a block away isn't some kind of mitigating factor; it's actually the point. In the summer I'll be sitting in Tanner Springs Park reading The New Yorker, and I'll be happy knowing that there's a place where people can throw a Frisbee nearby.
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"Maybe to an architect, they might look suspicious, but to me, they just look like rocks"
This is my favorite project in Portland currently under construction. The use of daylight corridors, the shimmering exterior that reflects the changing seasons in the North Park Blocks, the dark brick at the ground level that reduces glare and encourages the pedestrian to look up. Even the way the building delicately and unassumingly cantilevers over the sidewalk... all in all... this is probably the most well designed/ well placed building in my personal opinion. If more quarter block developments were this thoughtful, we would have come out of this real estate upswing with some dynamic additions to the urban fabric.
Developer Gerding Edlen is purposing a nine-floor mixed-use building; dubbed as the Janey II in the Pearl District. The location is block 78, at NW 11th Avenue and Everett St. Currently the site is an abandoned one-story warehouse constructed in 1906. The neighboring original Janey project was completed in September 2012, and was just six floors and 50 apartment units. The Janey II will be 62 market-rate apartment units at nine floors.
I like the Janey a lot but actually wish the Janey II had a different exterior to get more variety in the streetscape, afterall they are two separate buildings with 2 separate cores, it would be nice if they read that way from the exterior. One of the nice things about the 1/4 block buildings are the fine grain of urban fabric you get, each with their own façade. So often we see 1/2 block and larger buildings trying so hard to read as a bunch of smaller buildings on the façade (i.e Tanner Place, Mississippi Lofts, etc), yet here are 2 separate buildings trying to read as 1 big one.
I do also really like how despite being a separate building it will use the existing Janey garage entry so as to not put an entrance on the main streets of NW 11th or Everett. Smart!
Portland zoning code requires 1.5 dedicated long term bicycle spaces per unit in the Central City. Are they also proposing bicycle storage in the units themselves? (Not a terribly good idea, in my view).
__________________
"Maybe to an architect, they might look suspicious, but to me, they just look like rocks"
I like the Janey a lot but actually wish the Janey II had a different exterior to get more variety in the streetscape, afterall they are two separate buildings with 2 separate cores, it would be nice if they read that way from the exterior. One of the nice things about the 1/4 block buildings are the fine grain of urban fabric you get, each with their own façade. So often we see 1/2 block and larger buildings trying so hard to read as a bunch of smaller buildings on the façade (i.e Tanner Place, Mississippi Lofts, etc), yet here are 2 separate buildings trying to read as 1 big one.
I do also really like how despite being a separate building it will use the existing Janey garage entry so as to not put an entrance on the main streets of NW 11th or Everett. Smart!
Or if it is going to have the same exterior, it should of been much taller. If Janey II was 15-20 stories tall, it would make the original building look more like a base of the second building.
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