The Burnside Blog
Parking in NW Portland
You might be wondering why the site has been especially light on content this week. I started a new job on Monday, and I’m readjusting to waking up in the small numbers of the morning. Rest assured. I have a sleuth of eye candy in the pipeline, and so does Portland.
The recent downturn in real estate and development world has been tough on we skyscraper enthusiasts who became accustomed to the announcement of large-scale construction projects on an almost weekly basis. Although this hasn’t been the case for the past year or so, there have been so many small-scale projects infill projects that one almost feels a rennaissance of sorts looming on Portland’s horizon.
In my humble opinion, the two most important projects in Portland may well be Skylab’s proposed office tower on 13th Avenue and Burnside and Works Partnership’s B-Side-6. Both are unique for having tiny footprints and no underground parking, and both are located in areas that haven’t always been considered prime for new multi-story office projects.
I’m no expert on building development or design, but I’m told by friends in the business that underground parking is one of the greatest single expenses for new commercial projects. But high fuel prices seem to be making parking less of an issue. Transit ridership is skyrocketing in Portland amid the fuel crisis, and scooter and bicycle use are higher than ever in PDX, which already has the highest percentage of bicycle commuters in the country. If we can eliminate the parking from the pro forma, I imagine we’ll change the way investors and developers look at smaller infill developments city-wide.
The newest Economist addresses the US spike in alternative transport, and mentions Portland’s high bicycle ridership. The article states that one of Portland’s bridges (the Hawthorne I presume) provides passage to more than 6,000 cyclists every day. The article also mentions the increased hostility between motorists and cyclists in Portland, but if you ask me, that’s one issue that has been exploited greatly by the local media. One large daily featured cyclist/motorist conflicts on its front page for an entire week. This of course made the alleged hostility the talk of the town, but I’m not sure the coverage was indicative of anything more than a few isolated incidents.
