City of Roses (aka The Northwood Apartments) from the back.

While the residents of that small house south of the development are probably pretty sad that four floors of people on the south side of the development can look into their back yard, their sadness might pale in comparison to the residents of these two houses, who have many windows looking upon them for all time.  (Or until either the houses or the apartment complex is torn down.)  I never saw the original City of Roses Motel, it was torn down before I moved to the neighborhood.  But I’m willing to be it was only one story, or perhaps two.  Until the build out of this new complex these houses had the sunset.  Now they’ve got some morning sun and that’s it.  IMG_4677

Incredibly small props go to the builders for including any parking at all.  Mostly they don’t.

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I wonder what the going rate for one of these parking spots is?

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I have emailed the leasing office, explaining I’ve been covering the building’s construction and would love to have a tour, but they have not replied.  So I suspect this will be it for my City of Roses posts.

Improvised window treatment

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No blind for the door in the live-work unit?  Fine, I’ll make one myself, said the renter.  (Update from the future: matching blinds have now been added to the doors of all the live-work units.)

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Here’s something I’ve not seen in my eight years of living in Kenton:  people parking on this stretch of sidewalk.  When it was an empty lot, no one needed to park there.  But now that there are multiple units with not much parking, this has morphed into prime territory.  Especially for those live-work units.

City of Roses: floor plan

Floor plans have been posted in the window.  Let’s look at what we’ve got.

Too bad they don’t list the square feet.  This seems to be a nice studio.  Notice it has a place to hang your bike.  I wonder if that is built into every unit, or just shows the potential.  Also, I don’t know what that thing under the window on the right is.

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The Denver is the loft-style one bedroom. I’m interested to know what that partition looking thing is.  It’s not a solid wall, but it must be something because the bike rack holder is attached to it.IMG_4540

Here’s the one-bedroom with doors.  I wonder if the square footage is bigger for this unit? It seems to pack a lot more into the space.  Interesting pass-through closet space.

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Notice how the two-bedroom has two bike hooks?

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City of Roses Ground Floor

Now that I can walk on the sidwalk in front of the Northwood Apartments, we can take more pictures.IMG_4518

One of the things I find interesting about the ground floor is the weird configuration of some of the spaces.  This unit (C) has a weird protrusion through the middle of it.  I’m interested to see how this space is used. It’s supposed to be a live-work unit.IMG_4519

Unit B has this room that is both kitchen and living space and then it also has a bedroom/bathroom/closet part.  There’s another ground-floor unit with the same configuration. I think I would have trouble decorating this as a residential unit.  The kitchen area is too long and takes over the space.  As a live-work unit, I guess it would work if your work has something to do with a kitchen taking over most of the space?IMG_4520

These are the windows that were the last to be installed.  And you can see there is landscaping now.IMG_4521

Too much glare on this picture, but this is the lobby area with a mural and a couple of cushy hang out spaces. I will be very surprised if I ever see anyone hanging out in the spaces.IMG_4522

The corner unit, with the visible big slabs of wood.  No one has leased it yet.IMG_4523

Some information about the property.IMG_4524

From the Max station approach.IMG_4525

It has a (vastly out of scale, in my opinion) neon sign.IMG_4526

City of Roses inching closer to completion

The sidewalk area has been shaped for the pouring of a new sidewalk.IMG_4319

Temporary doors have been installed where eventually permanent ones will go.

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And, in other news, this picture marks the demise of my camera.  Two parts fell off behind the fence and out of reach. I decided it was time to buy a new camera, instead of continually nursing this one along.

 

City of Roses Motel. Stucco.

Ooooooooo! I said as I caught my first glimpse of the stucco siding.  So pretty!  And it will look great against the grey skies of winter.  Assuming it ever rains again in Portland, Oregon.

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The other thing I have noticed is that all the windows have been installed except for this set.  I assume they are leaving them open for easier access.

 

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