Waterfront condo boom in Portland continues with planned Atwater

Gerding/Edlen and Williams and Dame Development have plans for South Waterfront's newest condo high-rise, Atwater Place.

The planned 22-story, rectangular tower is expected to feature 212 condominium units, five of which would be town homes. Unit sizes would range from 1,100 square feet to 3,700 square feet. Most of the units would have views of the Willamette River and Mt. Hood.

The planned building would also feature 10,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor. Its design calls for gardens and eco-roofs and targets silver certification under the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system.

Sustainable aspects of the building include stormwater management to mitigate run-off, high-performance glazing to reduce heating and cooling needs, low-flow shower heads, faucets and dual-flush toilets, nontoxic finishes, and local sourced materials with high percentages of recycled content.

The building was designed by Thomas Hacker, principal of Thomas Hacker Architects. The design also includes work done by GBD Architects.

Mark Edlen, managing principal of Gerding/Edlen, said that because the buildings are so complex, given the magnitude, size and height, along with intertwining home with parking and retail, keeping GBD as a constant partner in South Waterfront is a good idea.

This is the first time Hacker has worked with Gerding/Edlen. Not so for GBD, which designed the development company's Brewery Blocks efforts and the Casey, a 12-story residential building planned for Northwest 12th Avenue and Everett Street, and served as project architect on three Gerding/Edlen projects in the South Waterfront District: the John Ross, the Meriwether and Oregon Health & Science University's River Campus One.

We interviewed a number of firms and have always been impressed with the purity of (Hacker's) forms, Edlen said. He had a special appreciation of what could occur there and recognized how rare the waterfront property is in the city. He embraces the notion of South Waterfront meeting the natural environment and urban environment.

Atwater Place offered us the opportunity to design a building that celebrates the changing beauty of the natural environment while providing residents sophisticated and elegant living spaces.

The design calls for the tower's sculptured faces to be crafted in glass for a prismatic effect, Hacker said. Cut into the facade, the balconies would be staggered recesses in the shear glass plane of the building's face. It would also have a raised courtyard and ground-level plaza.

Hoffman Construction crews will spend the next six months preparing the site for building and will begin excavating for the foundation and placing structural supports in late December. Cranes are expected to go up on the site in spring 2006.

Atwater Place will be located on Southwest Gaines Street, directly south of the Meriwether condo towers, now under construction in the South Waterfront. It is the third residential project in the central district of South Waterfront.

Realty Trust is the real estate broker for the condominiums. Sales are scheduled to commence in the spring of 2006.

An interest list for Atwater Place is available at www.atwaterplace.com.

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