Portland, ME - New Construction Continued

Another new India Street proposal from the developers who are currently building the AC Hotel between Fore and Thames (labelled "lot 1" on the site plan).

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This comes from workshop materials on the historic preservation board's agenda for next week. You may recall this site as the place where the "watermark" condos were planned to be built nearly 10 years ago, right before the recession. Another early concept for the site is still on Winton Scott's website, here:

http://www.wintonscott.com/Site/EWD_2.html
 
nice investigative work to find this. not sure why the historical board needs to get involved as it's all clear and free land (they obviously ignored the ocean gateway garage). if anything, something cool and glass should go up next to the grand trunk railroad building. reason? modern and glass often compliments old and brick quite nicely (hancock tower/trinity church in boston). but overall, not bad integrating design here. this area will really be hopping when these new structures are completed. and hopefully the city wont ruin the wonderful access to this area by limiting lanes and traffic movement on the franklin arterial. Portland is such a great city because, for what it offers, it has no real traffic and parking problems. the historical board should focus on things of more importance, like the sign Portland meatball company wants to put up. now that would start to ruin exchange street. its the wrong aspect ratio and looks like something you would see at frontier land at Disneyland. when the old port and east end starts looking like Disneyland, its over, folks.
 
It'll be interesting to see if they can come up with a unique way to mask the sewage pumping station a the corner of Fore and India. It will become even more of an eyesore with new development all around it (these new buildings, the new building across the street next to the garage and the restoration of the Grand Trunk building).
 
The transformation of that large section of the waterfront is pretty impressive and continues to extend downtown Portland's traditional boundaries. From Longfellow Square all the way down to Hancock Street covers a lot of commercially viable real estate!

Upon completion of the currently under construction AC Hotel, Portland will have 11 hotels downtown for a grand total of 1667 rooms. Adding the La Quinta and the Inn at St John (downtown fringe) to the count brings the total to 1812 rooms. Boston may be the only city in New England with more lodging in the downtown business district. Will have to research Providence and Hartford.
 
I'd like to see Portland end up with about 2,500 rooms. I think that we'll see that happen over the next 5-10 years.

I really like the new India Street project design better than the last one.
 
TC_zoid said:
nice investigative work to find this. not sure why the historical board needs to get involved as it's all clear and free land (they obviously ignored the ocean gateway garage). if anything, something cool and glass should go up next to the grand trunk railroad building. reason? modern and glass often compliments old and brick quite nicely (hancock tower/trinity church in boston). but overall, not bad integrating design here. this area will really be hopping when these new structures are completed. and hopefully the city wont ruin the wonderful access to this area by limiting lanes and traffic movement on the franklin arterial. Portland is such a great city because, for what it offers, it has no real traffic and parking problems. the historical board should focus on things of more importance, like the sign Portland meatball company wants to put up. now that would start to ruin exchange street. its the wrong aspect ratio and looks like something you would see at frontier land at Disneyland. when the old port and east end starts looking like Disneyland, its over, folks.
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Historic is involved because the Grand Trunk building is right next door. They review projects within 100' of an historic building. I think that when they sold the Grand Trunk building they may have changed the property lines as well. I suspect they will want to see something modern because the Secretary of the Interior's standards discourage "fake" historic buildings.
 
I know this has been discussed, but I believe the final review for the Westerlea View Lofts at 75 Chestnut St. is on Tuesday:
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They will also be discussing an 'Institutional Overlay Zone,' described here as:

"The Institutional Overlay Zone under consideration here is the result of a confluence of factors. Maine Medical Center (MMC) wants to move forward in the near future with an expansion that would increase their footprint by about 25%. At the same time, the University of New England, over the course of recent site plan and conditional use reviews, has recognized the inherent challenges in the fact it straddles several different zones, including R5,and has engaged the city in a review of its zoning. Fundamentally, the city recognizes that these and other major institutions are keys to economic growth, not only in the city, but in the region and state. The concept behind the IOZ is to support the health of the city’s major institutions within a clear, predictable growth management structure that allows flexibility but also requires proactive planning and a more transparent and defined mechanism for understanding and addressing community concerns. As currently considered, the IOZ would only apply to the main campuses of the four major institutions."

The expansion that is being referenced is this one:
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I think these have both been on here, but I just wanted to bring it up given that they will be discussed on Tuesday
 
What's going on with Thompson's Point? It seems like that whole project has devolved into a series of relatively small renovations focusing on creating concert and recreation space.

I went to an open house at Open Bench Project this past Saturday. Right now they're located in an existing building that was originally slated to be torn down for the parking garage / events center. I had a quick chat with the founder of Open Bench and he hinted that the overall vision for Thompson's Point has "changed a bit" and that Open Bench has no immediate plans to move.
 
The last version I saw of the Thompson's Point master plan had the events center and parking garage going on the Suburban Propane property; the brick office building will become the ticket and administrative offices. Ironically, it seems the first new buildings the Point project will actually build will be the new location for Suburban out near Lucas Tree in Riverton.
 
Dr. StrangeHat said:
In case anyone missed it, the Portland Co. master plan was approved:

http://www.pressherald.com/2016/12/...d-planning-board-meeting-on-portland-co-site/
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This is a game changer for Portland. Everyone wants to be on the waterfront so they will have no problem filling or selling residential, retail, and office space. Let's just hope that the designs are well thought out because this will all be very visable.....it will change the face of how people see the city from the water.
 
The facade facing Commercial Street isn't bad, and the scale seems to fit well with the Courtyard by Marriott and the Baxter building, but the rest of that is god awful. With the prices they're going to get on those condos, then why skimp on design and the facade materials?
 
I'm wondering if the 2-level parking garage is going to be underground. If so, given that it's Commercial Street, that could be a hell of an archeological trove to go through.
 
Dr. StrangeHat said:
The facade facing Commercial Street isn't bad, and the scale seems to fit well with the Courtyard by Marriott and the Baxter building, but the rest of that is god awful. With the prices they're going to get on those condos, then why skimp on design and the facade materials?
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Agreed. I would like to see a little break in its longish, horizontal nature; perhaps five, six, seven, and six stories (matching the square footage). And why can't anyone build a roof deck on a building on Commercial Street? There is none, or if so, it's too low with obstructed views. Boston has a couple in the Seaport District, which are just awesome.
 
I agree, making the two outer buildings 5 floors in height and the two middle buildings 7 floors would improve the project visually. Maybe a little more glass and a little less brick may also help.
 
There are some additional renderings on the Historic Preservation Board's agenda for tonight's meeting. The HP board only has a minor, advisory role in advocating for better architecture here, but given the prominence of the project, the planning board might choose to give their advice some extra weight and consideration in this case.

http://portlandmaine.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/01042017-1905?html=true

It looks like the parking will be tucked into the slope of the site – roughly at grade level with Commercial Street, but below the grade of York Street, and screened behind a 55' deep row of storefronts facing Commercial.
 
Personally, I think the York Street facade looks a lot better. The Commerical St. Facade is very bland and monotonous.
 
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