Right-Sizing on a Historic Block

 

(TVA Architects)

A developer who had proposed building a glassy, 23-story apartment tower on the historic Honeyman Hardware block in Northwest Portland has scaled down the plan to a 12 story building sitting on half of the block at 555 NW Park Ave.

 “What we heard loud and clear…it was simply too big and overwhelmed the remaining block,” Eran Fields told the Portland Historic Landmarks Commission on Sept. 26.  The revised plan reduces the total number of apartments from 223 units to 123, and the total building height from 250 feet to 135.

The commission holds design review authority because the full block is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  At an earlier meeting, the commission showed no interest in the taller tower, shown below. 

The earlier plan (TVA Architects)

The proposed building would sit adjacent to the Honeyman Hardware warehouse built in 1912 that has since been converted to housing.  The new structure also would hover above the two-story bindery building that was part of the Honeyman complex of three buildings.  The quarter-block stable building, dating to 1903 and heavily changed over the decades, would be demolished.

Landmark commissioners still have concerns about the development scheme, but they expressed consensus for accepting the 12-story, half-block building.  “We really appreciate the scale of change,” said Landmarks Chair Kristen Minor.  “We’re really just focusing on the details now.”

 After two advisory meetings with the commission, the developer will return for a third and possibly final hearing at a date yet to be determined.

 The new building would essentially hover over half of the bindery building, the insides of which would be substantially demolished to provide structure for the new building.   One of the challenges raised by the landmarks commission is to what extent the rest of the new base should look like the adjacent bindery building.

As part of the project, exterior details of the bindery building are to be cleaned and restored, as well as the historic exterior elements of the former warehouse, now known as the Cotter building.

The new building would face a block – now used for parking – that is planned to become a new addition to the North Park Blocks. 

 Robert Thompson, a principle of TVA  Architects, said the design of the new building reflects the “very clear, simple expression” of structure common to other buildings dating to the early 20th Century in what was then primarily an industrial neighborhood.  The plan calls for underground parking on two levels for approximately 120 cars.

 Several neighborhood residents and business people testified in favor of the revised plan.  “It’s amazing to see the reduction in program to make it more contextual,” said David Dysert, speaking for the Peal District Neighborhood Association’s planning committee.  Unlike many developers, Fields had met more than once with residents and business owners on the block. 

 Honeyman Hardware was a leading Pacific Northwest hardware dealer for many years a century ago.  Although built at different times, the three buildings on the block were linked together for commercial purposes.  The full block was added to the National Register of Historic Places in regard for its commercial importance in the era.

 ----Fred Leeson

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