Beaverton

[JoshYent]

Does anyone have any information on the area in downtown beaverton in the area around "the round" on either side of the max tracks

they are starting to do more street improvements, i work just a few blocks from this area and would love to see it built out...

and the already completed buildings are pretty dense and large although they dont have height........

does anyone know what is lined up for construction there? the movie theater that used to be there has been demolished, and there looks to be a new max crossing down there.....

Could we possibly by seeing some 30story buildings in downtown Beaverton?

Renders?

News articles?

Opinions on what should be built there?

Interested developers?

[MarkDaMan]

Originally Posted by Josh Yent

DOWNTOWN Beaverton

oh, you're serious. There used to be a Beaverton Round thread but I think it is gone. Couldn't find it in the search. If you find information post it here. I hardly ever read Beaverton's news...since their tallest is a parking structure I've just stopped anticipating anything decent would form.

[zilfondel]

Originally Posted by MarkDaMan

oh, you're serious. There used to be a Beaverton Round thread but I think it is gone. Couldn't find it in the search. If you find information post it here. I hardly ever read Beaverton's news...since their tallest is a parking structure I've just stopped anticipating anything decent would form.

Actually...

I rode the MAX a few weeks ago all the way to Hillsboro. The Round has around 5+ excavaators digging holes and pounding in piles for new buildings. I read something, somewhere, saying that Beaverton or the developer is building more stuff there.

However, that 8-story concrete parking garage doesn't exactly help the area. And they honestly need to hire a REAL architectural firm to masterplan it out and make it interesting. "You have to spend money to make money," as the saying goes.

Beaverton just doesn't have a bloody clue as to what they're doing - the city refuses to take the initiative in pushing anything, and as a result gets the lowest of the low in terms of developmentally risky and interesting projects: yesteryear's proven formulaic development is the norm.


On the other hand, land prices in the 26 corridor are supposedly now high enough to make "high-er" rises pencil out. So we might see some dispersed, taller, still autodependant development in various spots around the 'tron.

[JoshYent]

Originally Posted by MarkDaMan

oh, you're serious. There used to be a Beaverton Round thread but I think it is gone. Couldn't find it in the search. If you find information post it here. I hardly ever read Beaverton's news...since their tallest is a parking structure I've just stopped anticipating anything decent would form.

well if you look at the area around there, its mainly all one story buildings, empty parking lots.....i figure it will arrive eventually i read a article that said beaverton has more people per square mile than portland....they were calling it an "inbetween city" not a suburb.......hopefully they have something on the drawing board which would complement that parking garage....because i dont think it is getting that much usage from what ive seen from the occasional drive by....

[JoshYent]

Originally Posted by zilfondel

Actually...

I rode the MAX a few weeks ago all the way to Hillsboro. The Round has around 5+ excavaators digging holes and pounding in piles for new buildings. I read something, somewhere, saying that Beaverton or the developer is building more stuff there.

However, that 8-story concrete parking garage doesn't exactly help the area. And they honestly need to hire a REAL architectural firm to masterplan it out and make it interesting. "You have to spend money to make money," as the saying goes.

Beaverton just doesn't have a bloody clue as to what they're doing - the city refuses to take the initiative in pushing anything, and as a result gets the lowest of the low in terms of developmentally risky and interesting projects: yesteryear's proven formulaic development is the norm.


On the other hand, land prices in the 26 corridor are supposedly now high enough to make "high-er" rises pencil out. So we might see some dispersed, taller, still autodependant development in various spots around the 'tron.

hmmm i might take a quick little trip through the area today to check it out

[urbanlife]

I would love to see the city develop a plan to redevelop its actual downtown and push for new buildings. It actually has a great layout to be quite a cool small city with a couple towers in the teens for floors.

I have hopes for the city that they will pull their heads out of their asses and do more with their city. Right now, it feels like the city council and the people there don't care about their city.

[JoshYent]

Originally Posted by urbanlife

I would love to see the city develop a plan to redevelop its actual downtown and push for new buildings. It actually has a great layout to be quite a cool small city with a couple towers in the teens for floors.

I have hopes for the city that they will pull their heads out of their asses and do more with their city. Right now, it feels like the city council and the people there don't care about their city.

yes, i agree, beaverton is chaotic....a plan needs to be worked up

it seems as if things are just being slapped together one at a time with no actual intentions to plan for the future...


.or MAYBE there is something in the works that is unknown to all of us....

[pdxskyline]

I think I can help you out with finding info on the Round and other projects. I think you'll find a ton of info at the City's Economic Development Department's redevelopment page:

http://www.beavertonoregon.gov/depar...redevelopment/

The sidewalk improvements are part of the Hall/Watson beautification plan that has been going on for a couple years. Also the Round is supposed to get 4 more buildings, and they are supposed to start this year iirc.

[JoshYent]

Originally Posted by pdxskyline

I think I can help you out with finding info on the Round and other projects. I think you'll find a ton of info at the City's Economic Development Department's redevelopment page:

http://www.beavertonoregon.gov/depar...redevelopment/

The sidewalk improvements are part of the Hall/Watson beautification plan that has been going on for a couple years. Also the Round is supposed to get 4 more buildings, and they are supposed to start this year iirc.

nice! so there is something in the works....

8 buildings total eh? thats wonderful!

hopefully after these are completed, they will come in and start redeveloping the older lowrise buildings

[Drmyeyes]

A lot of why downtown Beaverton is such a mess has to do with the major thoroughfares that criss-cross what would be its heart if it had one in the form of a defined grid like downtown Portland. An area the size of downtown Portland, overlaid on Beaverton, say Broadway (in Beav) north to Walker Rd (encompasses Cedar Hills Crossing mall) has about 4 major thoroughfares cutting it up. All of them carry as much and more than W Burnside.

This area of Beaverton doesn't have a grid with evenly spaced regularly shaped blocks like Portland. And of course, Beaverton isn't the major commercial center that Portland is, so there's comparatively less money invested in Beaverton. Designing an appealing, workable downtown for Beaverton out of this mess will be an enormous challenge.

[Snowden352]

Ha! I knew I could find an article on the Round (actually I was looking for another article about the company which went bankrupt building the Round, and its replacement contractor). At any rate, here's the article:

Two Round at Beaverton Central buildings on the drawing board
Project nears completition with sixth and seventh structures
The Beaverton Valley Times, Aug 24, 2006, Updated Aug 24, 2006

Dorn Platz and Co. is beginning work on two more buildings at The Round at Beaverton Central.

Representatives of the Glendale, Calif., developer met with city planners in July and again Wednesday to discuss plans for a six-story, 129,624-square-foot commercial building/parking structure and a five-story, 86,000-square-foot commercial building.

Both of the new buildings will be constructed on two half-acre lots north of the westside light-rail tracks near the intersection of Southwest Crescent Street and Rose Biggi Avenue.

They would be the sixth and seventh buildings in the estimated $120 million nine-building structure (including a parking garage) that will eventually have 64 condominiums, 80,000 square feet of retail space and about 450,000 square feet of office space, with 800 parking spaces in several-story garages.

Plans for the new buildings are preliminary, but Dorn Platz is anxious to get moving on the projects. The company hopes to start construction of one of the new buildings in the next couple of months. Work on another 45,000-square-foot building (known as Building E) should begin in about 30 days.

“We’re going 100,000 miles an hour,” said Lisa Stroud of Dorn Platz office in Beaverton.

Stroud said the company expected to be finished with the entire Round project in about a year. There are three commercial buildings and a parking structure on the site, and the next three buildings will nearly complete the project.

Planning for The Round began in May 1997 with designs for a housing, commercial and retail center along the westside light-rail tracks. The project hit some rocky stretches, with the bankruptcy of the original developer that set the project back a couple of years.

Dorn Platz entered the picture in 2001, taking over the project and working with the city to complete the development.

Even that didn’t go as smoothly as hoped, with two lawsuits and a settlement in June 2005 that led to the ambitious requirement that the project be completed by 2008.

On the drawing board are buildings F and G. Building F is a five-story structure that will house retail and commercial space. Stroud said Dorn Platz already has a tenant for about 35,000 square feet of the building. She declined to name the tenant.

The development already is home to tenants such as 24-Hour Fitness, Coldwell Banker, Qsent, Washington Mutual Bank, Wausau Insurance Co., Liberty Mutual Insurance, the Open Source Development Labs, Typhoon!, Mingo and Mio Sushi.

Building G is a six-story structure with 118,463 square feet of parking space, 11,161 square feet of retail space and 7,219 square feet of commercial space.

Dorn Platz has not yet applied for a permit or received city approval for either of the new projects.

[Dougall5505]

wait...beaverton has a downtown?

[Drmyeyes]

Dougall or some of you other people...actually been to Beaverton and really walked around? Not just near the round, but to Beaverton's original downtown (Broadway and Farmington, split by the railroad tracks), Beaveton Town Sq, then over to the new library where they have the farmer's market? Not forgetting Cedar Mills Crossing where there's a big new modern cinema, starbucks, Old Navy, Best Buy, Office Depot up a big Beaverton block. All those areas together represent the ingredients for a potential downtown. Some viable plan for linking them together is the major obstacle to establishing a cohesive downtown. Great ideas are welcome.

[zilfondel]

Originally Posted by urbanlife

I would love to see the city develop a plan to redevelop its actual downtown and push for new buildings. It actually has a great layout to be quite a cool small city with a couple towers in the teens for floors.

I have hopes for the city that they will pull their heads out of their asses and do more with their city. Right now, it feels like the city council and the people there don't care about their city.

I think it needs a park and a masterplan for starters. And a whole shitload of residential & mixed use buildings. All with ground floor retail. The Cedar Hills Mall (or whatever its called) should be torn down for phase I.

[JoshYent]

Originally Posted by Drmyeyes

A lot of why downtown Beaverton is such a mess has to do with the major thoroughfares that criss-cross what would be its heart if it had one in the form of a defined grid like downtown Portland. An area the size of downtown Portland, overlaid on Beaverton, say Broadway (in Beav) north to Walker Rd (encompasses Cedar Hills Crossing mall) has about 4 major thoroughfares cutting it up. All of them carry as much and more than W Burnside.

This area of Beaverton doesn't have a grid with evenly spaced regularly shaped blocks like Portland. And of course, Beaverton isn't the major commercial center that Portland is, so there's comparatively less money invested in Beaverton. Designing an appealing, workable downtown for Beaverton out of this mess will be an enormous challenge.

Maybe as Hillsboro fills in, and since beaverton is land-locked in, and really doesnt have much more room to grow compared to some of the outter cities.....they will come in and all along the 217 area on either side redevelop and put in towers...maybe 10-20 stories tall

[JoshYent]

Originally Posted by Dougall5505

wait...beaverton has a downtown?

Yes, in a way, its not very extensive

[JoshYent]

Originally Posted by Drmyeyes

Dougall or some of you other people...actually been to Beaverton and really walked around? Not just near the round, but to Beaverton's original downtown (Broadway and Farmington, split by the railroad tracks), Beaveton Town Sq, then over to the new library where they have the farmer's market? Not forgetting Cedar Mills Crossing where there's a big new modern cinema, starbucks, Old Navy, Best Buy, Office Depot up a big Beaverton block. All those areas together represent the ingredients for a potential downtown. Some viable plan for linking them together is the major obstacle to establishing a cohesive downtown. Great ideas are welcome.

The block that Ceder Mills Crossing is on, used to be the Beaverton airstrip, although i have never seen any pictures or maps of what it used to look like

[JoshYent]

Originally Posted by zilfondel

I think it needs a park and a masterplan for starters. And a whole shitload of residential & mixed use buildings. All with ground floor retail. The Cedar Hills Mall (or whatever its called) should be torn down for phase I.

The mall is currently being redeveloped, they wont be tearing that out for along time....

although your idea would work pretty nicely in the area north of the Max tracks between Hall and Cedar Hills blvd

[der Reisender]

seems like part of Beaverton's problem is the impression that there is no downtown, and that the downtown area it has is gutted by Farmington and Canyon Roads, which don't make for a friendly environment for any people who would be living there. That said, maybe they should start with office and retail buildings, since the road access is fairly good and the traffic counts (which most retail stores can't seem to get enough of) would be nice and high.

Once you put in some taller buildings of that sort and an appreciable density of employment develops, then add in a residential component. Its not like there is a land shortage with all those parkings lots around.

[MarkDaMan]

The problem with DT Beaverton, or potential DT Beaverton is the CAR DEALERSHIPS...they are everywhere chewing up and cutting off tons of land. Beaverton has that creek that is buried under parking lots only surfacing behind the Round and Beaverton TC. Around the library is a good place to start with mixed use housing, there are bones for a neighborhood and a street grid, they just need two or three medium projects to kick start the area.