Tag: Portland

Coming to Where I Used to Work: A Large Hotel

Walking by what used to be The Emerson School at the corner of SW Park and Couch, I saw that that building will soon be no more. It’s slated to be torn down.

Interestingly, this project doesn’t appear on the NextPortland Map. But I was able to find out about it on the city’s website.

Type III Design Review for a new, approximately 69-foot tall, six story hotel with 178 guest units. A large lobby/reception area and combined lounge/restaurant/bar area are found at the central portion of the ground floor facing NW Park Ave. A 1,700 square foot retail space at the ground floor anchors the corner of NW Park Ave and Couch St. A 1,400 square foot multi-purpose room will be located at the corner of NW Park Ave and Davis St. One Modification is requested to the Required Building Lines standard, and one Adjustment is requested to the number of loading spaces provided.

It looks from the plans like both the Emerson School building and the building on NW Park and Davis will be torn down. It’s not a surprise. When I worked for the school, we kept our fingers crossed that the very elderly owner wouldn’t die, because we figured his heirs would want to knock down both buildings to make way for something more lucrative. And both buildings are the types that won’t deal well with a massive earthquake. When I worked there, I had my earthquake plan all figured out. It involved hiding under my very sturdy 60s metal desk and hoping that the much taller building on the other side of the block collapsed away from my building.

There are huge old-growth timbers on supporting the ceiling of the second story of my old building. I hope they find a new home.

Not Going into Work Tomorrow

There are some parts of the country where snow on April 11 isn’t weird. But Portland is not one of those places!

And unlike every other Portland snowstorm where forecasted snow is the talk of the town for a week straight, I had no idea this was coming. The morning of, I somehow missed noticing the snow when I opened my bedroom shade, and even as the radio announcer was saying “Snow in Portland right now,” I though he just meant the West Hills.

So you can imagine my surprise when I opened the curtains and, Wow! Snow! In April!

That bush in the picture leaned right over. I think it was the weight of the snow on the leafed-out limbs plus the fact that the ground wasn’t frozen. Once the snow melted, we hammered in a post and pulled it right back into place, so no harm done there.

Needless to say, I put off my plan to go back to the office until the next Tuesday.

6607 N. Montana Ave 18 Units, Coming Soon

I’ve always liked this house at the corner of Montana and Liberty Street. But it looks like the days are waning.

Next Portland tells me that there are 18 units coming soon.

PortlandMaps.com isn’t connecting so I have no details about the house at this moment.

And now PortlandMaps is working! It was built in 1948 and the main level is just over 1000 square feet, plus the basement. It was sold in January of this year for $556,675. The previous sale was in March of 2021 for $555,000. Before that it last sold in 2002 for $138,000 (those were the prices when I first moved here! Affordable!) And prior to that, someone bought it in 1996 for $82,000.

No word on who built the concrete planter out front, though.

I-5 Closed All Day

It’s not unusual for traffic to back up on Interstate Ave outside our house. During the evening or morning commute there can be a line at lights for an hour or so. But it’s not usually much more than an hour. And it is never on both sides.

It turned out that this situation was caused by a carjacker who was shot by police. His crime spree started in another neighborhood and traveled, so it was a very complex situation that meant that neither side of I-5 was free flowing for most of the day.

Alas, this was also the day the plumber came to fix our dripping faucet. He had to go and purchase a new one, and I suspect our bill took a big jump due to how much longer it took to get to Lowe’s.

But the drip is fixed!

Two Houses Headed for the Chopping Block

This pretty house has the chain link fence of death around it.

This is at 6305 N. Montana Ave. It’s 1622 square feet, built in 1928. It was last sold in December of 2019 for $599,036 and is owned (strangely) by a person giving that very address. However, NextPortland says that a permit has been issued:

A project at 6307 N Montana Ave has been submitted for building permit review by Fosler Portland Architecture: Construct new 3 story 19 unit apartment building with associated site work

https://www.nextportland.com/category/6307-n-montana-ave/

So it’s coming down for sure.

This little guy is at 6820 N. Montana Ave. I really love this stretch of houses bordered by the Fred Meyer, Rosa Parks Way, Interstate Ave, and I-5. There’s a bunch of small houses on big lots that are just cute. And I’m guessing in 20 years, they will all be gone.

This is an 881 square foot house built in 1927 that was last sold in October of 2021 for $320,000. It’s owned by a developer in Vancouver.

Reporting from the future, I can say that it appears they have been fixing this house up, rather than tearing it down. And there’s nothing in NextPortland. But a developer in Vancouver owns it, so my guess is that this doesn’t have much time left. It’s also got empty lots on both sides, so I wonder if they are just biding their time waiting for another property.