Let's see:
- Lots of glass and no trim
- Siding made of oxidized (rusty) metal
- Retail on bottom floor (yet another coffee shop)
- No parking
- In general looks like most of the other condo projects in town.

Yep, pretty much meets all of CoP's guidelines for dense living. Now if we can rent 1 beds for $1500/month, it'll be a success.

No sale here, I think it's pretty well done, but to me that Plaid Pantry across the street is pretty ugly. Upshot: probably no one of us should be dictating taste for the rest.

I made a point of going by there when I was in the neighborhood the last time you had a post about this building. It's even more hideous than described. What's really appalling is that it has a mate on NE Fremont in Beaumont, although I think that one is an office building.

It looks far better than the dozens and dozens of monstrous apartments from the 60's and 70's that dot the neighborhood. Do you really think those mustard yellow matchstick built hovels, even with their big asphalt parking lots (with inevitable weed-filled cracks) are a better alternative?

What few people understand is that the building honors an important artifact from Oregon History: The New Carissa.

Zach:

You apparently didn't see what they removed to build that monstrosity: the Clay Rabbit House and its grounds were truly beautiful. The huge tree with a round bench that was built around its trunk was irreplacable.

If the house had to be removed, I'd rather have seen the property turned into a park or greenspace than apartments, any day.

I drive past it every day, and don't have any problems with it. And as a correction to your first poster, I believe that it does indeed have parking. The lot is accessed on SE 26th. Also, "ruining the intersection?" Say what you will about this structure, but at the very worst it's the 3rd least offensive part of that intersection--the Plaid Pantry and the Joe Weston special are both worse.

There is on important thing to keep in mind about the Joe Weston apartments. While they are all pretty cheesy looking, they do provide housing at a reasonable price to folks who would have already been priced out of the neighborhood by the new condos and apartments. Many of the folks who live there are also the "creative class" younsters who provide so much energy to the city. Weston's places are all that stands between us and a mindnumbing yuppie monoculture.

Yes Zach I would prefer "those mustard yellow matchstick built hovels, even with their big asphalt parking lots (with inevitable weed-filled cracks)". And I don't mind the plaid pantry either. Does the whole city have to look modern and trendy?

Am I missing something here? All I get is a picture of an unfinished building? Based on that, I'd say yes it is quite ugly and outside of needing new siding or painting it would just need some period.

the Clay Rabbit House and its grounds were truly beautiful

No kidding. That it was swapped out for this thing is just mind-blowing. And for anybody to now compare it favorably with the other three corners is a bewildering defense. It's a total disaster.

Jack,

You are wrong on this one. The building is less ugly than most older cheapo apartments on Division. I do agree that the rusty steel cladding on the building looks pretty grim. Unfortunately, they probably used this as another paean to the gods of Sustainability. To get this in perspective it might be good to visit other cities around the world and look at population density and apartment life. Check out Montreal, Milan, Tokyo, Buenos Aires, and most others. More dense, more condos, less trees. The fact is that not everyone wants a big yard and a rope swing and tree house. Those folks who want to live in the bucolic splendor of the the country have ample opportunity to do so in beautiful Oregon.

TOD tax subsidy?

It's called the Clinton Condominiums and prices start at $305 a square foot and go at least as high as $396. Of course, that doesn't include HOA fees.

They imported the exterior and some of the interior wood decor from Malasia and/or Africa. That's green! The hardwood floors and cabinets are supposed to be black walnut. I suspect a veneer.

"The north and south-facing exterior is covered with Cor-Ten Steel. The vertical panels of steel will rust over time to a rich, organic patina." Rich until it rusts through. Organic is a word we want to use in this advertisement.

They brag about the floor-to-ceiling windows (how green is that?) but never show the views you actually get. "Communal hot water," meaning you pay for it whether you use it or not, so you might as well us a lot.

Twenty of the 27 units have been sold. Personally, I'd rather live in the Weston special -- both more affordable and has more of a human scale, which is what planners claim they want.

I thought that architects try to blend new buildings in with surroundings, not design sore thumbs. Maybe I'm wrong and the city should consider some new regulations.

Just what the neighborhood needs: another coffee shop. Isn't there a Starbucks four blocks down on 22nd and Division, as well as K&F on 26th and Clinton?

Just asking, cause that doesn't seem very economically sustainable...

Notice all the rust stains leaching out of that pigeon coop, among other gross flaws. Rub their noses in it. Too bad we can't force the planners and approvers to live there. Dense living is supposed to refer to the structures, not the people involved, or the taxpayers that foot the subsidies.

It's actually a full bakery, not a coffee shop.

Prof. Jack:

Sorry, but I'd trade your monstrosity for our monstrosity any day. You should see "Vancouvercenter" the mixed office/condo thing that Mayor Polehard erected across the street from Esther Short Park in downtown Vancouver.

You can access a photo of the old Clay Rabbit House...as well as shots of the completed condo-strocity that took its place at:

http://tinyurl.com/coedvh

___ora et labora___

-ob

Yeah, for those who are bitching about it having yet another coffee shop (though the Starbucks has thankfully been gone for months), you're simply completely ignorant because that's a full bakery (Little T) and a very tasty and highly regarded one at that. Since there are no other bakeries in the neighborhood, this is far from redundant.

That said, I don't particularly care for the look of the building myself, but I have trouble seeing it as any more of an eyesore than the heinous buildings on two of the other three corners (and the fourth is passable at best). Let's face it, SE Division is not one of the most attractive streets in town. For every Pok Pok, Pix, Nuestra Cocina, and Hedge House, there are dozens of cookie cutter APM apartment complexes, empty lots, neon-lit convenience stores, and yes, "modern" condo/apartment mixed-use buildings.

While the aesthetics are certainly debatable, the building brings a significant number of middle-income units to a growing neighborhood, while also providing retail space for a great little bakery, a yoga studio (not my thing, but probably popular in this neighborhood), and whatever else the ground floor retail space is being used for. As someone who lives within walking distance of this aesthetically questionable structure (just guessing that the majority of the ill-informed commenters here can't say that), I think overall it's a good thing for the neighborhood.

Nate: so they are middle-income units? What are the rates for, say, a one-bedroom?

I don't mind the increased density, but I do mind the fact that most new projects are renting 1 bedrooms for over $800 a month or selling them for over $300,000. That's not middle income in Portland -- not for a single person anyway.

If this particular project IS addressing that, then I have less of a problem with it.

But I'm skeptical.

"To get this in perspective it might be good to visit other cities around the world and look at population density and apartment life. Check out Montreal, Milan, Tokyo, Buenos Aires, and most others."

You're the one who needs a perspective adjustment. Guess what Portland isn't Milan.

Another thing most of those Weston specials were built 30-40 years ago how do you think these new condo towers are going to look in 30-40 years?

My wife loves the bakery. That's where we were when I first started wondering about the rusty metal exterior walls. I couldn't believe they were serious - it really does look like the hull of the New Carissa.

My conclusion: When something is new, having something old mixed in seems trendy. I've seen that with weathered wood from old barns.

But that's when everything is brand new. When the rest of this gets older it will look like a pile at the junkyard.

Locals refer to that thing as "The Gulag." Among the reviews, an astute observer who went inside and toured the thing said it's like an Ikea-ish hotel for wealthy nitwits.

Nate, nate, nate. I wonder who you work for and what you do.

1100 square feet at 390K is not middle income. Neither is 440K for 1200 square feet. And 360K at 1100 is most definitely not middle income. 560K at 1400 is pretty much unspeakable.

I feel for the folk who bought 895 square feet at 320-330 when a visit to their open house on Sun confirmed a new price of 255K. LOL!

And look how many units are still available.

201- HAPPY BUT NERVOUS LLC
204- HAPPY BUT NERVOUS LLC
205- HAPPY BUT NERVOUS LLC
206- HAPPY BUT NERVOUS LLC
208- HAPPY BUT NERVOUS LLC
302- HAPPY BUT NERVOUS LLC
303- HAPPY BUT NERVOUS LLC
304- HAPPY BUT NERVOUS LLC
306- HAPPY BUT NERVOUS LLC
401- HAPPY BUT NERVOUS LLC
404- HAPPY BUT NERVOUS LLC

And local coffee bad boy, Duane, is one the the f***ed buyers. Too funny. I guess yuppie creative impresarios believe their own PDX hype.

Welll...it sucks they got rid of what was there before (big old house, big old tree, big old yard...) Ideally they would have torn down any number of ugly POSs in the vicinity....It is one story too tall... I like the rusting steel...I like the glass....nice bakery...overall I'd say oversized building in the wrong place.

This is hardly the ugliest or worst of the modern, condo/mixed use developments.

Maybe we couldn't have kept the yard and heritage tree, but we could have had a two-story setback with some kind of landscaping. Maybe we couldn't have had an all-glass facade, but we could have had something that doesn't stain your clothes.

The thing is looming and ugly, even when you are just driving by. It could have been approachable, even interesting. Why not?

I live in the next neighborhood to the east and have to pass this abomination entirely too much.

Compared to the beauty of what was there before, that thing just makes me want to puke.

It's ugly. It looks like they steel clad it in fear the the surrounding neighborhood would rise up in resistance and they wanted blast protection.

The glass? Is ugly. Particularly with that odious robin's egg blue.

And the wood? Why waste it on the concrete bunker? Put on like that, with the slats on the boards mounted side-on, is going to be a wondrous difficult medium to remove tag graffiti from...the cracks between the slats should serve quite well to allow the paint to wick down into the panels.

So...I understand that the property developer promised to incorporate the old (and I mean OLD) horsechestnut tree into the new building? I'll bet not...just another lie they foisted on the unprepared.

Also, I resent that it is called 'The Clinton'. It's not on Clinton, but Division. And 26th. There is no 'Clinton neighborhood'...it's Hosford-Abernathy. It's very name is a lie.

And that thing took for absolutely ever. They closed one entire lane of Division Street on the south side for over a year. Man, that project has got to have all sorts of problems, given what the contractor probably had to cut out in order to finish at all. As it was, I understood they went bankrupt.

Things like this are what tarring and feathering were invented for....that's what should happen to the property owner(s), developer(s), and contractor(s).

As for the other apartment buildings along Division...Some are better, but most, being Joe Weston's abominations from the sixties and seventies, are worse. Somehow, though, I don't think that justifies building even more of the same kind of s**t, only newer. Indeed, that modern piece of junk is immediately to the south, across Division Street, from a junky Weston special.

Y'know what my question is? Rather than obliterate a quaint piece of lovely real estate to build an ugly blockhouse in it's place, why not save and improve the quaint piece of unreplacable property and build the new abomination where the old abomination is located? Why not upgrade the abominations, rather than drag down the aethetics of the area?

Instead, what we get is garbage now, that will be even worse garbage than the Weston specials are, forty years down the line.

(It looks like an oversized rusty antique refrigerator that has been unceremoniously heaved off the back of some illicit disposal truck...much like Doernbecher Hospital facility looks like an oversized commercial refrigeration unit which has been ditched in some backcountry gully. It is even covered in white enameled steel plating; it needs huge magnets with notes...."NOW! With more room to sue!" "Bilk city council.")

And...There is another, and better, bakery twenty two blocks to the east. There is a patisserie at 34th, Pix!, no less, just eight blocks east. The coffee is better at Stumptown.

Bill...The new New Carissa it is!

Thanks for the astute typification.

Yuan got it right, $550,000.00 for 1400 sq ft. The kichen fans are not vented, they blow back into your face. The window latches in the units are so high that if you are under 5' 8" you can not open the window (fire hazard Randy!). The bathroom fans run at about 5.0 sones (loudness), like your mom's old vacuum cleaner did. Cheap can lighting, cheap cabinets, 9 parking spaces for 27 units, and the walls b/t units are 2x6 construction with double rock. (Noise proof walls are 2-2x4 thick with a space between each partition)

The building took too long to build, that lane was closed 2 years, not one, because they used cheap unskilled labor. No open space for pedestrians, just jammed it on the sidewalk like the Foz Tower.

The HAND Board rolled over for the developer who said he couldn't make a profit without the variance to go higher.

The Clay Rabbit house was moved on a snowy December day over to it's new lot off Powell Blvd.

The bakery has very little bread and baked goods to offer, kinda like a Russian nekaphr. And the acoustics in there are atrocious.

The white window mullions are especially egregious in contrast to the rust, running red and staining sidewalks, cars and yoga mats.

Nate said:

Yeah, for those who are bitching about it having yet another coffee shop (though the Starbucks has thankfully been gone for months), you're simply completely ignorant because that's a full bakery (Little T) and a very tasty and highly regarded one at that. Since there are no other bakeries in the neighborhood, this is far from redundant.

Well, Nate, welcome to SE PDX. I hope you enjoy your visit here from Planet X.

Please be advised that there is no shortage of bakeries either in 'the neighborhood' or in the nearby area. The neighborhood being Hosford-Abernathy, I'll note that a cursory look reveals the following bakeries located in Hosford-Abernathy:

- Redwing Coffee & Bakery
- Newhouse Cheesecakes
- Alessio Baking (formerly Pierre's)
- Bakery Bar
- Broadway Bagels
- Kettleman's Bagels and Bakery
oh, and the ever-popular
- Grand Central Bakery

Just outside the neighborhood boundaries, I've already noted Le Petite Provence, and Pix!. Well, there is also le Petite Frances, and Kung Fu Bakery, as well as the fine baked good section at nearby New Seasons. Also, there is no shortage of good coffee spots not only in the neighborhood, but within not just walking distance, but crawling distance.

So...That's yet another lie about the abomination.

Next on Division....

SE 38th Avenue, south side of Division, east side of 38th.

They say they are going to swing the current structure 90º, so that it faces 38th and hems in the house to the south very tightly, after tearing down the garage and carriage house. After they do that, they intend on building two four-story structures on that property and the one to the east (which will have the little house torn down). The result is expected to be 27 apartment units, ground level retail, and NO PARKING. Indeed, by destroying the two garages on the property, they will eliminate all off-street parking associated with the project and probably act to reduce even on-street parking on SE 38th at Division, just to make the intersection safe.

The projected units are, so far as I understand, all studios or one bedrooms....with outrageous rental rates. The people who rent these things are going to have cars. They will put them where? Those who drive Division, allow more time to pass through the bottleneck at 39th, as it is about to get much worse.

It has been obvious from communications with the designers/developers that not a single one of them read the neighborhood plan...they made that clear by what they presented to the neighborhood association. Full blown ignorance.

Again...There is a Weston eyesore directly across the street. Why tear down a decent old large, home when there is a piece of crap across the street. Across 38th is an even bigger eyesore, and next to it, along Division, is an empty lot which used to be the street's biggest and most glaring residential eyesore. So, with those kinds of choices, they picked the property with an elegant, usable, aethetically pleasing older residential structure to screw up, rather than two immediately adjacent pieces of crappy junk.

Again, Nate...

While the aesthetics are certainly debatable, the building brings a significant number of middle-income units to a growing neighborhood, while also providing retail space for a great little bakery, a yoga studio (not my thing, but probably popular in this neighborhood), and whatever else the ground floor retail space is being used for. As someone who lives within walking distance of this aesthetically questionable structure (just guessing that the majority of the ill-informed commenters here can't say that), I think overall it's a good thing for the neighborhood.

You must be kidding.

The aethetics suck big time, there is no debate about it.

Bringing more middle-class units into a 'growing neighborhood'? This is a mature, stable neighborhood, not a growing one. For one, it also is a park deficient neighborhood and more 'middle-income residents' with no cars are going to want recreational opportunities within walking distance. So...where are the parks?

More residential units are not what this neighborhood needs. Instead, it needs to have the city make good on provision of adequate public services, like parks. Projects like this abomination at 26th and Division just exacerbate the existing failures of the city, not improve the neighborhood.

Again...H.A.N.D. and Richmond should be demanding a moratorium on permits for all additional residential units in the neighborhoods, until the city can assure an equivalent amount of park space per neighborhood resident within walking distance and without having to cross a dangerous arterial street.

Godry and a few other posters: We aren't quite a total socialist or communist country yet. The social body can't, yet, select which lot, house, apartment house to tear down, and then replace it with someone's, or socialist committee aesthetic conscience. Maybe Joe Weston doesn't want to sell or redevelop his property, yet. I hope you all are not suggesting the poletariat determines our fate.

The HAND Board rolled over for the developer who said he couldn't make a profit without the variance to go higher.

Not true. The HAND Board --I'm on it-- opposed the height variance, and the developer, Randy Rappaport, withdrew the variance request. There was no height variance.

The real irony was that the property had earlier been rezoned to "save" the Clay Rabbit, not to see its carriage house destoyed, and the green space lost to our neighborhood.

The recently expanded Grand Central Bakery is an 8 minute walk away. Little T reeks of yuppie creative entitlement. And have you looked at the prices for a frakking loaf of bread!

I own a house 5 blocks away off clinton. The condo is fine and the bakery is a nice addition to the area.. I'd prefer it was built on top of the plaid pantry rather than an old house, I suppose.

"To get this in perspective it might be good to visit other cities around the world and look at population density and apartment life. Check out Montreal, Milan, Tokyo, Buenos Aires, and most others."

I think that many people like Portland because it provides the amenities of the city while having an arboreal quality to it. I happen to be one of those people. I like the "urban forest" of Portland, and would never exchange it for a Paris, where six story apartment buildings with no setbacks dominate the landscape.

Regarding the ten-plex across the street: while that wouldn't be my first choice of dwelling, I don't view it as a blight upon the landscape, and I also see it as serving a valuable purpose. Buildings of 2-10 can be built with a footprint no larger than that of a single family house (if a large house). They leave room for trees and greenery, which can compensate for the aesthetic faults of the building itself. Additionally, they are cheap to build, and are thus affordable to ordinary people. I'd be in favor of capping the number of units per building at ten.

High-rise and even low-rise condo complexes have high-construction costs, and are only "profitable" when subsidized or in the imaginations of the myriad developers who have foolishly overestimated people's housing budgets throughout the course of the last decade.

Hmmm, I don't think it is that bad.

This is much easier on the eyes than lots of condo and apartment projects.

I lived in the HAND and Richmond neighborhood for over ten years. I liked the Clay Rabbit and shopped at the Clay Rabbit. Frankly, I'm surprised it made financial sense to redevelop it and move it, but apparently it did. I like old homes.

I live in an old home and prefer the style of older historic homes and neighborhoods, but that is a personal choice. Just as many people like the sleek modern style. And Division is such a hodge podge of buildings that a modern building can fit in. It isn't like there is some style that it is contradicting or clashing with.

What you think is a montrosity, could easily win a design award somewhere else. It is subjective. Instead, this sounds more like the regular NIMBYs that don't ever want their neighborhood to change. And, that is just unrealistic.

Frankly, I'm happy about the brand new home going in next to my 1910 home, and am even OK with the crappy 70s apartments I look at from my back porch. You live in ever changing neighborhoods. If you don't like it, move to a tract home burb where everything was built in the same year.

Jack, clearly you're not "cool":

http://www.coolhunting.com/archives/2008/12/best_of_ch_2008_1.php

We attended the HAND meeting where the very smug architect and developer responded to the neighborhood's objections for this building design by saying, "things usually go better in these discussions if the community just sticks to telling us where they'd like the bike racks to go".

Developer Randy Rappaport could not have cared less about what the neighborhood thought about this building, his destruction of a heritage tree (he smugly suggested that it would be "sensitively milled" and used in the lobby of the building) and his replacing a significant historical building. But, above all, the owners of the Clay Rabbit enabled this monstrosity by selling him the land. They sold their neighbors out for their own personal monetary gain.