Weekly Roundup: Block 216, The Woodlark, 21 Astor, and more

Block 216

The 35-story Block 216 tower will rise to a height of 460′ and include retail, office space, hotel rooms and residential condominiums.

The Design Commission last week approvedBlock 216writes the DJC. In a late change by the applicant, the tower will now have one less office floor and one more hotel floor, bringing the number of hotel room from 232 to 249.

After years of construction work, The Woodlark hotel, which combines two historic buildings, opened downtown. The Oregonian took a first look inside, and previewed Bullard, ‘Top Chef’ finalist Doug Adams’ Texas-inspired Portland restaurant.

In response to “quite sobering” forecast for Portland building trends, the Bureau of Development Services last week laid off four employees, writes the Oregonian. 

Closed for two and a half years, Taiwanese restaurant Ling Garden has reopened in the the 21 Astor building, reports the Portland Mercury.

Portland is poised to spend revenue from lodgings and rental car taxes on services to help homeless people, reports the Willamette Week. The money is needed to help fill a funding gap in the recently passed Metro housing bond.

Oregon could become the first state to eliminate single family zoning, under a proposal by Speaker Tina Kotek. The legislation would require that allow Oregon cities of 10,000 people of more allow duplexes, triplexes or fourplexes, according to the Willamette Week.

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13 thoughts on “Weekly Roundup: Block 216, The Woodlark, 21 Astor, and more

  1. Mark my word that skyscraper won’t be built or if it does it’ll be much shorter..

    For whatever reason during this building boom any tall building over 21 stories in this town doesn’t get built. It either gets cancelled or becomes dramatically shorter..

    See 11West, Oregon Square, 4W, Press Blocks, just to name the few tall buildings proposed latley and what happened to them..

    This won’t be anywhere near the way it’s being proposed

    This is stumptown

  2. Reviewing the NEW drawings, I like the building and the choice of glazing materials, the ref. to the Bank of California is interesting. Good to see a local Architectual Firm doing the work. . . . . the taller the better in my book . . that pool on the 19th floor will have some nice views for the hotel guests . . .

    I hope there is a temporary place for the food carts in the works . . GBD always builds people friendly projects with good quality materials . . . good to see Portland growing up . . . now if we can get that MLB team and a New Stadium built . . .

    Portland Native

    • I’d love to see the city create a more permanent home for food carts by closing a couple of street blocks downtown to car traffic & renting out the parking spaces. The old system worked well to revitalize dead surface lots when nothing else would be built, but this solution was temporary by design.

      The city is growing, surface lots are (thankfully) disappearing, but the culture of street food is a huge part of the culture of Portland now. Time to let it grow up.

        • I’ve been keeping an eye on this & hope it goes forward. But I also hope it’s viewed as a pilot program and implemented elsewhere around the city.

          Frankly, we have more roads than we really need downtown. Might sound far-fetched but I can easily imagine a Barcelona-ish model of vehicular superblocks with pedestrian alleys. Couch + Davis in the Pearl don’t need cars. The Park Blocks – north and south – don’t need cars. NE Holladay has the Max and doesn’t need cars. & so on & so on.

          • Through the Better Blocks group I have been advocating for smaller pedestrian-only interventions in small-scaled zones such as SW Ankeny/Broadway/Park where the N. Park Blocks start, and SW 4th to Naito along SW Ankeny, for instance. A start on that happened when Mayor Sam Adams transportation guy closed down one block of Ankeny between 2nd and 3rd. Certainly we should be pedestrianizing SW Park and 9th in the MidTown Blocks. These are intimate-scaled streets that would rapidly become embraced by humans as cars are kept out. Yes, access to loading docks and garage entrances would have to be managed, but I have observed these situations managed well in foreign countries.

        • Thanks DMH, I sure hope City Hall takes the need for Food-Cart options SERIOUSLY. They add so much life, festive sights and aroma’s to Portland’s Streets and Avenues . . . time will tell . . .

      • I’d really like to see the old trolly building at 28th and burnside converted back to a garage, and then lined with food stalls, kind of like a food cart meets food court concept.

        You could even have a old trolly car on rails in the middle as a coffee bar or brewery.

        You could easily fit 20 or so in that space, and it would be a much more historically authentic use than it’s current split level office rental space setup.

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