Our Approach To Multi-family Housing Design In Portland, Oregon

Portland, Oregon is a beautiful place to live, and thus a desirable city to relocate to, for people across the country and around the world. It is projected that there will be 400,000 new residents in the Portland Metro Area by 2035. As residents and architectural design professionals, we watch Portland housing trends, zoning changes, and population projections with great interest as it affects our work and can reflect future growth for our profession and firm.

What we've been noticing, is that the projected population growth will vastly outweigh the existing housing supply, and we aren’t building fast enough to accommodate the new people moving to the region.

We’ve written before about housing and some strategies for accommodating increased housing demand. We shared our knowledge of Accessory Dwelling Unit development in “5 ways Portland, Oregon Community Development Corporations (CDCs) can Benefit from the ADU Craze.” In “Why Affordable Housing is Important to the Quality of Living for Communities,” we discuss the importance of diverse housing types.

As multi-family housing developments pop up around the city and sometimes take over entire streets or neighborhoods, we’ve watched with keen interest. We’re not opposed to mixed-use apartment projects and believe that increased density brings a lot of community benefits. We’ve been involved with many multi-family projects in Oregon and California, including projects that located along NW 23rd and SE Hawthorne Street. However, it is vital that these projects are designed with the community in mind, and contribute to a good pedestrian focused urban environment.

If you notice one theme that runs through our philosophy and work at Propel Studio, we hope it’s that we have a deep love and concern for our community. At the heart of our work is the desire to make our city a better place for people. This means we design with a tripple-bottom line philosophy, where our buildings address environmental, social and economic sustainability for our clients, the tenants and users of our projects, and for the community at large.

Market-rate housing is much needed in Portland, as proven by the high demand and skyrocketing rental rates. As a city we need to continue to build and prioritize housing projects in all neighborhoods. However, we also know that in order to sustain and even thrive, our communities need more diverse options, and the market won’t always deliver the variety of unit types that are needed. While we understand there is a financial model developers use as they consider the value of each available parcel they pursue, we as designers, residents, and community members also want to think about the impact of these projects on our neighbors.

We’re excited by the prospect of creating multi-family projects that consider and fit into our neighborhoods. For instance, there is a lack of units with multiple bedrooms and the space needed for families. There is also often a lack of response to context and scale in the design of new developments. We enjoy the challenge of designing within an urban context, in a way that respects the past but provides the needs of current and future generations.

The truth is, not everyone needs or can afford the 1-bedroom or studio apartment units that make traditional pro-formas work. That’s why we enjoy being part of the conversation where we combine our expertise in creating efficient dwelling spaces for a variety of family sizes and lifestyles with our experience in designing multi-family and mixed-use housing projects.

We’re passionate about bringing our commitment to durable, high-performing, sustainable designs to projects that build value into a community. That theme that runs through Propel Studio, the thread that binds our work together, drives us towards projects with strong community components, affordability, and shared public spaces.

Let’s talk about ways to help Portland continue to grow, but let’s do it in a way that strengthens and supports our neighborhoods and all our neighbors. Let’s do it in a way that we’ll all be proud of for decades to come. Let’s do it in a way that prioritizes people, and makes places that welcome both newcomers and existing residents.

If your mission includes fostering community and improving the quality of life and housing options for all our neighbors in Portland, we’d like to talk. Let’s make Portland better, together