The eight-story Timberview VIII Apartments at 540 NE 99th Avenue will open to new residents in October. Currently Gateway District’s tallest building, this mass timber affordable housing project brings environmentally forward construction to a prominent section of NE Glisan Street. The bar-shaped structure elevates income-restricted housing design and features apartments for households of varying sizes up to three bedrooms. The 105-unit multifamily building will connect to the community through a ground-level food hall that will support eateries within walking distance of a housing-dense area.
The publicly accessible dining hall has four food spaces and one bar business arranged in a sawtooth pattern that provides definition for each business’s counter area. When open, guests can use the shared seating that wraps around the windowed walls or take items to go. Two restaurant units have full kitchens, while the other stalls offer smaller food prep areas suitable for deli or juice bar tenants. The building’s owner implemented the ground floor commercial space with a focus on supporting small business owners. Contractors will complete units to a move-in-ready state, so a business only needs to install their specific cooking equipment and branding. This level of buildout lowers costs for starting eateries that will not have pricey tenant improvement expenses.
Although a convenient amenity for the Timberview VIII residents, the Array Food Hall is accessible independently of the adjacent lobby and leasing area. The food hall is a community resource that bolsters the Gateway District’s walkability. Zoning density in this part of Portland is second only to Downtown, and area residents will need to rely on transit and walkable destinations. Cyclists living in the apartments can access a main-level cargo bike parking room and a basement storage area. Around 70 residences offer additional in-unit bike storage, bringing the building’s bicycle capacity to 160. This project was approved before recent code changes reduced bicycle parking numbers, and the builder chose to stick with the higher capacity. Thanks to the developer leading this project, many aspects of this building go beyond the base requirements for affordable housing.
Brendan Sanchez, Principal at Access Architecture, explained that the project’s owner, Rystadt Development, had a vision for this property early on. “One of the client’s primary goals from the get-go was that it be mass timber and affordable housing,” said Sanchez. “Our structural engineer was DCI, and they actually are the ones that connected me with the client.” Mass timber is a relatively new method of building using an engineered wood product to support a building that would often require concrete or steel. The wood-centric structure offers improved construction speed with large sections fabricated offsite, and the naturally grown materials used in the construction reduce a project’s carbon footprint.
Steel and concrete have high amounts of embodied carbon (carbon released into the atmosphere during production), so reducing those building products will have significant environmental benefits. Additionally, wood products sequester carbon, mitigating climate change. Trees pull carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as they grow, trapping carbon within their cells until the wood burns or decomposes. Buildings with mass timber products hold carbon within the structure for its lifetime. Mass timber has environmentally friendly benefits beyond the manufacturing process. The multi-layered, solid wood panels and beams weigh less than similar structural materials, allowing for smaller concrete foundations. This weight savings is also where the more expensive mass timber product can become competitive. In some soil conditions, heavier buildings require a more substantial footing, driving up an engineer’s time and construction costs. In those cases, the lighter mass timber building saves money.
The environmental considerations of this project continue inside the building, with radiant floor heating in each unit. High-end builders often install this feature in residences because it effectively distributes consistent warmth throughout a home. It is also energy efficient and should contribute to the development team’s goal of being a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum building. During planning, the project team targeted a LEED Gold rating but discovered that they could achieve higher energy efficiency with just a little more effort. This building will offer residents portable air conditioners they can install in units seasonally.
The Timberview VIII building is one of Oregon’s first type IV-C construction type (mass timber) structures permitted through a codified code path instead of through permit appeals that previously allowed this building type’s construction, explained Sanchez. “We worked hand in hand with the City of Portland to make sure that when we submitted for permit review, they were already expecting what we were going to be submitting. To the City’s credit, they did a great job. I think everyone felt good about that process.” The Timberview VIII is not the tallest mass timber building. However, it is pushing the limits of the district’s skyline. “It’s the tallest building that we have designed. It’s not technically a high rise. It came in just under high-rise heights,” remarked Sanchez. “While our building currently will be the highest, we expect that other taller buildings will come online over the next five to ten years, so we just want to make sure that we have a building that feels like it is of high quality.”
Access Architecture designed the building to show off its unique structure and become a showpiece for the surrounding community and its residents. “We wanted to highlight the use of mass timber. On the exterior, we’ve carved away the building facade to reveal the structural system. It starts at the ground floor, where the public spaces are. Then that carveout wraps up the building on the South facade and terminates at the top level community room’s outdoor patio that has views towards Downtown and Mount Hood,” said Sanchez. Exposing the supporting frame of any building to the elements can weaken it over time, especially for wood products. “That’s a little bit difficult to do in the northwest. It takes additional consideration because of our weather and just the amount of precipitation we receive. So we were intentional about where we exposed the mass timber, and then in other areas, we wrapped it in a wood siding that still has the look of wood but is protecting the structural material,” explained Sanchez. Crews covered the exposed mass timber in a wood veneer product that uses natural wood glued on a panel with a protective coating. That product’s manufacturer warranties it for 20 years of outdoor exposure while still presenting the wood structure forward. “So that’s what we’ve used in the areas where we wanted to express the structural frame, but we didn’t want to have the actual structural frame exposed to the elements,” said Sanchez.
The exposed timber became a key element within the building as well. “We tried to expose as much wood as possible with biophilic design principles, utilizing the natural beauty of the Doug Fur cross-laminated timber as ceilings,” said Sanchez. This design left many mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems exposed to residents that tradespeople took care to keep organized along corridors. Lighting in this building is usually attached to the walls to avoid running electrical conduit over the wood panels. The LED lighting design creates softer illumination throughout the units and hallways in stark contrast to the sometimes harsh lighting used in other buildings. Residents will also benefit from significant natural light through tall windows in each unit and an eighth-floor amenity space that is all about the scenery. “We knew that it would be, at least for now, the tallest building in the area. So we have some great views and wanted to take advantage of that,” remarked Sanchez. The designers used part of the top floor for a community room and outdoor terrace where all building residents can enjoy a penthouse vista.
Many affordable housing buildings place community space on the ground floor, where having bedroom windows close to the sidewalk would make people uncomfortable. In this building, they split communal space between the top-level views and a ground-floor coworking space off the main lobby. This choice also provided more floor area for the public food hall, which should bring people from the neighborhood into the building. Diners within that space will activate this corner of NE Glisan and 99th Avenue, creating a lively streetscape that feels safer and attractive to those passing by. That effect is thanks to its tall glass storefront and rollup doors that can open in the summer. However, Sanchez explained maintaining human-scale design is critical to creating an attractive pedestrian space. The designers intentionally avoided a long glass wall around the first floor by using the building structure to create smaller compartments. “One of the unique things we try to do with this project, compared to some other projects, is you’ll notice the mass timber columns on the ground floor are pulled away from the building facade. When you’ve got large expanses of glass along a sidewalk, studies show that our brain starts to get anxious, and someone will walk past it a little bit faster because a long storefront can feel cold,” said Sanchez.
Additionally, people at the base of the building will benefit from steel awnings attached to the mass timber frame, providing rain coverage and sun protection. In the summertime, the glass-paneled rollup doors can expose the food hall to the street and allow seating to extend outside. This indoor-outdoor connection should further connect the building with the community and make NE Glisan a lively space for people walking the streets.
The Timberview VIII Apartments will have six three-bedroom and 15 two-bedroom units, meeting a considerable need for family-sized affordable housing. “It’s hard to make family-size units pencil, but that was another commitment by the developers to have family units included, so we’re lucky to get a nice full range of unit types,” remarked Sanchez. The largest apartments feature two bathrooms and in-unit laundry hookups for those residents who want to use their own machines instead of the shared laundry room. Architects place the three-bedroom units on the south side of the building and offer expansive views of the street below.
Window placement in the Timberview VIII Apartments brings a tremendous amount of natural light into the building while shaping the outward design. “We have a tall and wide building, especially on the West facade, and so we wanted to break that up and introduce a little bit of playfulness on that facade by staggering the window openings. If you look at the elevation design, many of the Windows stack. We have two window types, a larger one and then a narrower one next to it. That narrower one creates a stepping visual as you go across the facade. It steps diagonally down to bring your eye down to the main southwest intersection,” explained Sanchez. The window openings within the siding also added to the texture of the structure. The designers used furring material to lift the metal panels out past the windows, creating the appearance of thicker walls with set-back glazing. Sanchez noted depth adds to the building’s visual interest and creates subtle shadows that people pick up on.
Cascade Management is currently accepting applications for units in the Timberview VIII Apartments. To qualify, residents can only earn up to 60% of the Median Family Income (MFI). In 2024, that means making less than $49,560 per year for an individual or $70,800 for a family of four. Units currently range from $1,168 to $1,760 per month. People will move in later this month, with the project team planning a grand opening ceremony in November. Expect to learn more about the food hall tenants as construction wraps up in that commercial space.
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