The project must achieve a high standard of excellence in all areas – design, construction, economics, marketing and management.
It must demonstrate relevance to the contemporary and future needs of the community in which it is located.
The project must be worthy of emulation.
For over 30 years, the Urban Land Institute’s Awards for Excellence have celebrated significant, innovative projects that demonstrate visionary urban planning, improve communities, promote economic development and take a leadership role in environmental responsibility and urban revitalization.
Sounds like the Burnside Rocket.
Challenging assumptions for mixed-use buildings
On the first warm and sunny spring day in April, two jurors representing ULI visited the Rocket to evaluate it against the awards' standing criteria. Project designer Kevin Cavenaugh led a tour for jurors Jeff Mayer, placemaking expert from Southern California, and noted architect Greg Baldwin of Portland's Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects, while providing a running narrative on the unique features of the Rocket from the lobby-free entrance to the rooftop garden.
"Creating an open-air stairwell instead of a traditional lobby challenges the assumptions of what a building is supposed to be," says Cavenaugh. While there is an elevator, the accessible stairwell offers health benefits and cost savings. "There are no janitorial expenses of maintaining a lobby that would add to the tenants' costs. A staff person from the restaurant on the top floor sweeps down the steps at the end of the day as part of his closing duties."
Metro's Transit-Oriented Development Program invested in the four-story mixed-use project in 2007 from both TOD funds and the program's green building fund. Built on a narrow lot only 38 feet wide, the project has no onsite parking. As a result, it generates an additional 66 daily transit trips as compared to a one-story office with surface parking on the lot.
Innovation and energy-savings through design
Small lot size aside, the bright red building is impossible to miss on its corner at East Burnside Street and Northeast 11th Avenue. When even a four-alarm red exterior takes a backstage to a slate of innovative features, you know you have a contender.
Outdoor corner terraces on floors 2 through 4 encourage interaction with the street scene. Operable exterior art panels act as shades to the building's 24 windows. An "edible rooftop" supplies the top floor restaurant with produce and herbs. A no-walls shared workspace offers architects and designers a desk, a view and the camaraderie of their peers for $330 a month. Together, the elements generate a vibe closer to that of a creative community than a building at capacity with interesting tenants. And it's one of the few buildings in the city to earn a LEED® Platinum Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.
"I didn't know where to stop," says Cavenaugh of taking every opportunity to turn the functional into the creative. A sliding door separating the common office space from another room was fabricated from a reclaimed ODOT-green directional sign for Sandy Boulevard that was removed from East Burnside when the space was developed.
An open-loop geothermal system that draws from an ice-age aquifer 300 feet beneath the building supports the building's heating and cooling systems. It operates by an extraction and injection well and provides water for all the building's needs. The energy-saving system earned the building extra points toward LEED® platinum certification and, hopefully, will warrant bonus points on the jurors' scorecards.
Changing the world through smart, urban development
The Urban Land Institute's Awards for Excellence seek real estate development projects with a touch of the visionary about them. They look for best practices, yes, but with features that inspire, innovation that surprises, and efficiencies in design that reflect a conscious intent about how land, space and resources are used.
"I have a crazy idea to change the world 3,000 square feet at a time," says Cavenaugh. Projects like the Burnside Rocket provide new comparables for the area and can give lenders confidence the next time a similar project comes along by demonstrating a demand for transit-oriented developments – with a flair for the creative. "In guerilla style," says Cavenaugh, "that's how you change swaths of city blocks."
The Burnside Rocket is one of 20 building finalists for this year's Urban Land Institute's Awards for Excellence. The awards will be announced at the ULI Spring Council Forum, May 18 to 20, in Phoenix, Arizona.
Transit-oriented development, like the Burnside Rocket, helps support the region's six desired outcomes by creating vibrant communities and safe and reliable transportation choices that enhance the quality of life for residents of the Portland metropolitan area.