The Radar Patio

In recent years, Mississippi Avenue has become synonymous with good food, busy bars, and people (lots of people). Radar offers a welcome respite from the crowds and chaos of our increasingly busy city with its exposed brick interior and maritime themes, which give a tasteful nod to expansive waters and calm seas, along with friendly service, which makes it feel like home.

This year, we worked with owner Lily Tollefsen to create an outdoor patio that would offer more space while maintaining the relaxed yet polished feel that Radar has so successfully curated. After an initial consult with Owen, where Lily provided inspiration images, the design-build process began in earnest with Project Manager Marty van Dyke, who brought the concept to reality.

The end result is a simple and elegant outdoor space enclosed by cedar paneling with a covered cedar trellis above. By fencing the space in and using minimal but sufficient lighting, Radar is able to provide an intimate dining area that can be used for private parties of any kind. This multi-purpose space also allows the surrounding area to be utilized for storage, barbecuing, and prep work.

Progress Updates

Owen Gabbert, LLC has been busy with a variety of projects over the past few months. This winter, we completed an approximately 100,000-square-foot urban infill space, One North; upon completion, we’re proud to say that our work on this project was featured in The New York Times. Check it out here. 

Later this winter, we finished the North Commercial House and built an accompanying ADU that helps offset the owner’s mortgage while providing a beautiful small living space.

More recently, we completed Rudy’s Barbershop and the SW Portland garage conversation and we currently have the following projects underway: the northeast 19th addition, the northeast 25th basement ADU, southwest 66th remodel, a restaurant on NE Killingsworth, two office tenant improvements in the Karuna West building and a sushi restaurant in the Karuna East building. Stay tuned on the blog for updates and photos of these fully completed projects later this year.

A few of the projects you can expect to see from Owen Gabbert, LLC coming up include: a northwest hills midcentury remodel, northwest office expansion for a past client and the southeast 51st ADU.

Finally, we’d like to take a moment to give a big welcome to four new people who are now employees of Owen Gabbert, LLC. Welcome to the team, Marty Van Dyke, Jeff McMahon, Duff Dunlap and Angie Golleher!

North Commercial House & Additional Dwelling Unit Complete

We just wrapped a fun, new project in north Portland remodeling an existing house and adding an accessory dwelling unit. The main house was built in 1971, and hadn’t changed much since. The new owners wanted to update the home while maintaining its unique style, so we helped them do just that. The home received an updated exterior makeover, and has a much more open floor plan inside, thanks to the removal of some partition walls. This approach offers a much more modern feel and aesthetic, and will facilitate aging in place. We also helped the homeowners build an ADU, which helps offset their monthly mortgage while offering accommodations for future live-in care. The ADU is small in size, but big in character. Large windows on all sides offer ample lighting, and a south-facing patio offers outdoor enjoyment year-round.

If you want to learn more about this project, check out the project page for the house and ADU here.

Schoolhouse Electric

We recently completed construction on the 4th floor of the Schoolhouse Electric Building in North Portland. Working closely with the building owner in a design-build capacity, the project is the product of constant, ongoing communication. Design details were reviewed and generated onsite, together. The result is a fantastic new space for the Schoolhouse Electric factory that contrasts new, modern details with the existing structure in a way that accentuates both.

Here are a couple of in-progress and completed photos. More photos can be found on the Schoolhouse project page.

N Commercial

We are in the process of remodeling a 1970s ranch style house in North Portland and adding an ADU in the back. In the main house, the primary goal is to open up the living spaces to create visual and literal connection. The dining, kitchen, and living room walls were all removed to expand the kitchen and allow the functionality to bleed together. Cabinets should be arriving next week.

In the ADU, we are applying many of the lessons from the B3 Project, to create a comfortable, warm feel in a small space. Exposed ceilings and finished structural floors will be familiar details.

Empirical

Here are a couple quick shots of the Empirical office buildout we just completed. They move in soon!

Inner NE Warehouse

We are in the process of cleaning up a warehouse in inner NE Portland to bring it to market for users looking to locate in a older building that has been refurbished and repurposed for new life and use. Interior office demo and sandblasting are now complete. As usual, there have been some interesting discoveries, like a secure block room in the middle of the space and original boarded over windows. The concrete floors will be ground and sealed next.

The Commissary

We've just completed The Commissary production facility in the Eastside Exchange Building.  Despite some permitting challenges everyone worked together to ensure the project was a great success.  It was a pleasure to work with the building ownership and particularly The Commissary team.  Now that they are up and running, The Commissary will be providing fresh citrus juices, syrups, and a variety of non-alcoholic mixers to bars and restaurants. The products will be made from a combination of fresh produce, sweeteners, water, herbs and spices.  A couple of snapshots of the finished project are below.

Fremont-Williams Project Website Goes Live

Since the last post about the Fremont-Williams project, an enormous amount of work has gone into the design, permitting, and development of the project.  There are several tangible results of that work to share today; one, excavation has started on our partner project, The Radiator, and two, a comprehensive website is now active and browsable.  Groundbreaking on a construction site is always exciting for obvious reasons, but the unveiling of the website also has significant ramifications for the project, particularly with regards to leasing.  Moving forward, potential tenants will now be able to learn about the development, find the appropriate contacts to engage in further conversations, and explore which groups are already planning to move in.  To that point, the website also acts as the first announcement of our partnership with Instrument to be a primary tenant in the East building.  As a digital based creative agency, Instrument represents the type of tenant we are excited to work with.  They are a local business doing genuinely innovative work with an impressive variety of regional and national companies.  We encourage you to visit their website to learn more.  And, if you have a business looking for office space, know of one that is, or are just curious, please visit our website - onenorthpdx.com.

Borthwick 3rd Unit Progress Photos

Since the end of May, we have been dutifully working on the Borthwick 3rd unit.  In about a month it will be complete and there will be an open house so you can see everything in person.  In the meantime, here is a smattering of progress photos to whet your appetite.  Enjoy!

Fix Barbershop - Complete

The Lake Grove project is really several projects combined in one.  The space on the east side of the shopping center is complete and occupied by a new business, Fix Barbershop.  To achieve aesthetic and budget goals, much of the structural materials, including concrete floors and glulam beams were left exposed as finished surfaces. 

It was a pleasure to work with the building ownership and Fix owner Chris Casale to complete the industrial style space.  

Trees: Removal and Repurpose

Trees located on desirable urban lots often fall victim to the needs, real or perceived, of developers and homeowners looking to build.  In the case of the Borthwick 3rd unit, the original design was refined with input from several arborists to retain a significant, beautiful old Black Walnut, but a Hawthorne and smaller Black Walnut both had to be removed to make room for the new dwelling.   See before and after pictures below.

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However, in the spirit of repurposing whenever possible, sections of both trees were saved and re-milled.  The hawthorne will go to a wood obsessed, furniture building friend who brought his version of an "Alaskan Chainsaw Mill" to complete some rough milling onsite.  The black walnut was milled on site with a more sophisticated "Wood-Mizer" portable mill into 1 1/2" thick slabs.  These slabs will air dry until ready for final planing into stair treads for the new unit.

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Approved!

We picked up the permit for the Borthwick 3rd unit recently.  As anyone who has legally completed any type of construction project, large or small, will attest, the lead up to and subsequent submittal into the permit process is just that, a process.  For this project, the process was especially involved as we negotiated a building code appeal, a reconsideration of said appeal, check sheets, design revisions, and the inherently complicated nature of adding a third unit to a duplex, rather than starting from scratch.  We owe a debt of gratitude to the designer, Kai Yonezawa, for helping to guide us at each step of the way.

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