See the Work
Pearl Family Development
A Home, Community Center, and Center for Children in the Central City
“The preliminary design Ben has created to date has given the team a high goal to shoot for and shows how the many challenges of an affordable, mixed income, urban family housing project, combined with a community center, can be achieved. Translating this vision to a reality will be more daunting than the community development phase, but Ben gives the rest of us confidence that we will be successful.”
— Richard Harris, Executive Director, Central City Concern
A new project in Portland, Oregon’s Pearl District is positioned to transform a highly livable downtown neighborhood into one that is also family friendly. Through the construction of a mixed-use, high-rise development, the project will provide a home for diverse families, a public community center, and a child-care facility.
The project’s comprehensive vision was the result of targeted community engagement. Working closely with neighborhood stakeholders, Ben and Central City Concern identified the most needed family amenities in the neighborhood — affordable housing, child care and a community center. These amenities have been integrated into the building’s conceptual design over the past year through continued collaborative work with the neighborhood, city, and project stakeholders, including families and children.
Although earlier, city-adopted neighborhood development plans placed a high priority on the construction of these amenities, they remained un-built. With few remaining development opportunities in this rapidly growing district, this timely, pioneering project will solve an enormous need, positioning the Pearl District neighborhood as one of the nation’s preeminent family-friendly urban centers.
Project Summary
- Location:
- Portland, Oregon
River/Pearl District Neighborhood - Program Scope
- 150-200 affordable rental housing units
- Community center (30,000 sq ft)
- Child-care facility (10,000 sq ft)
- 2 common residential amenity rooms
- Common courtyard/terrace
- Retail (5,000 sq ft)
- Structured parking
- Project Status
- On-the-boards (April 2008 anticipated completion)
- Location:
- Portland, Oregon
River/Pearl District Neighborhood - Project Scope
- 38,000 sq ft gross site area
- New construction
- High-rise building
- Program Scope
- 150-200 affordable rental housing units
- Community center (30,000 sq ft)
- Child-care facility (10,000 sq ft)
- 2 common residential amenity rooms
- Common courtyard/terrace
- Retail (5,000 sq ft)
- Structured parking
- Residential Unit Profile
Affordable units serve extremely low, very low, and low income households.
Studio 360-400 sq ft 1 BR 540-600 sq ft 2 BR 720-800 sq ft 3 BR 900-1,000 sq ft 4 BR 1,125-1,250 sq ft - Green Benchmarks
- Green Communities (anticipated)
- Living Building Challenge (anticipated)
- Project Status
- On-the-boards (April 2008 anticipated completion)
