The Burnside Blog
This Week in Portland Design
Monday January 14th
Expect the (1900 SW 4th Avenue, Room 2500-A, 1:30 pm) Historic Landmarks Commission to have kittens as the body hears plans by a Seattle-based developer to demolish a four-story portion of the Honeyman Hardware Lofts to make way for a nine-story mixed-used building. They ought to be critical because this project will one day front a one-block extension of the North Park Blocks, also facing what will likely become the Pacific Northwest College of Art’s permanent home in the historic 511 Broadway Building one block east. One half-mile in the other direction, the commission will confer with developers of a proposed five-story apartment building on NW 19th Avenue and Johnson.
Tuesday January 15th
Gum Day
Wednesday January 16th
Are you concerned about the future of Ross Island? A Portland Group called the Ross Island Vision Team has a few ideas in its hopper and will host a bring-your-own-sack-lunch meeting this Wednesday at noon at the Portland Building (1120 SW Fifth Avenue, 2nd Floor Auditorium). Media and gravel tycoon Robert Pamplin Jr. owns the island, but plans are in place that he will one day transfer it to the city. The Portland Parks and Recreation City Nature Program will host the event.
Design Within Reach (1200 NW Everett, 6:30 pm) is a museum, and its glossy catalogs are furniture porn to Eames fans. Starting this Wednesday, DWR enters the realm of civics as its Pearl District branch (which happens to be the largest in the DWR chain) hosts the inaugural “Designs on Portland,” a new bi-monthly architecture and lecture series courtesy of DWR. Join Randy Gragg, the editor-and-chief of Portland Spaces in Architecture, Urbanism and Making the Media Matter. The event will be moderated by Portland-based author and journalist Brian Libby, who’s best known for his blog. Specifically, Randy and Brian will discuss Portland’s emergence as a center for architecture and the media’s role in the entire affair. As for the rest of us, who doesn’t love an excuse to head to the DWR showroom to sit in a Womb Chair and pet Hoover, DWR’s resident pooch?
Thursday January 17th
The Design Commission meets Thursday (1900 SW 4th Avenue, Room 2500-A, 1:30 pm) to review Ankrom Moisan’s latest project, a 24-story condominium project in South Waterfront. I haven’t seen renderings of the tower, but Ankrom Moisan, which has also designed the burgeoning district’s next couple of projects (Block 49== and the Mirabella=) should easily pass muster with the commission. Members of the Bureau of Planning and Bureau of Development Services will brief commission members on South Waterfront’s Greenway Development Plan Design Guidelines. The Greenway, a 1.2-mile riverfront public space to include beaches, bike trails, and fountains along the Willamette River in South Waterfront, is considered a lynchpin to the district, but has been seen in a more critical light since the Oregonian’s Ryan Frank reported in November that its projected costs had nearly doubled—from $32 million to $56 million.
Back on the mainland, the Myhre Group will present its design for this attempt to energize the busy corner of NW 14th Avenue and Lovejoy Street in to this six-story, 150 unit apartment building. We sincerely hope the build-out is more inspiring than the renderings.
