The Pearl District is a former railroad yard and light industrial area a few blocks north of Downtown Portland.  It resembles the light industrial areas of many southern cities in that it was characterized by simple single-story brick buildings quite smaller than the big multi-floor warehouses and factories common in the east coast and rust belt cities.  It's most obvious Ohio parallel is the Arena District in Columbus, but it is much, much larger.  And there's no arena or stadium in downtown Portland, or convention center.   

 

The Portland Streetcar's original phase opened in 2001 through this area, and it has since been the scene of development on par with similar areas of the Brooklyn, NY waterfront.  It's now a forest of midrise apartment buildings and a spectacular, devastating, undeniable counter-argument to the anti-streetcar crowd. 

 

Some of the first buildings from around 2002-03 are low-rise, but all of the more recent buildings are 6-15 floors and very high quality.  The streetcar has not only attracted development to this area, it has allowed developers to build buildings with fewer parking spots than would be possible otherwise.     

 

The inbound and outbound streetcar tracks run on parallel streets, on block from each other.  The line makes a 90 degree turn in the middle of the district, and there is absolutely zero flange noise from the wheels, as has been a concern of streetcar skeptics.   

 

I don't think these photos come close to illustrating just how massive the scale of the housing construction has been in this area.  But the feeling when you're there is that this area is compelling an awful lot of suburban-minded transplants to consider living in the city -- in short it sells itself.   

 

 

 

Looking down a road viaduct...the streetcar crosses this view but I was too lazy to wait around for it to scoot by:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The light is poor in this photo, but this is one of the 3 standout condo towers:

 

Probably *the* symbol of the Pearl District, this new condo tower built in the art deco style:

 

This incredible new building is one block west of the streetcar line:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fantastic photos Jake!

 

 

We need one of those great, red, neon signs.

Beautiful! Even beneath gray sky. Love that Pacific Northwest density.

This is exactly the kind of development that would be great for Broadway Commons.  Build off of the historic nature of Over-the-Rhine and NE Downtown, and compliment it with a bevy of new midrise infill as seen here.  Boy would that be fantastic.

The Pearl District is much larger than Broadway Commons, which is roughly 1,000x1,000 feet.  The Pearl District is roughly 3,000 x 1,500 feet, so several times larger and nearly completely built-out.  Many of the original single-floor industrial buildings have been redeveloped into restaurants or shops and will likely be replaced by larger buildings in the future.  But there aren't any vacant buildings in this area.  Zero.  And the redevelopment quite clearly falls off at a two-block distance from the streetcar line, even though some of that is waterfront property. 

Great series of threads. Much appreciated.

Wonderful buildings, density and street presence. But I'm surprised there weren't more pedestrians out. Perhaps it was cold/windy?

It was Sunday at 9am. 

Ah, comprendo. Most pics I've seen of Portland have a healthy dose of peds in them. I enjoyed your photos and encouraged people on an All Aboard Ohio discuss list on Yahoo to view them.

Portland does it right.

Portland does it right.

 

Agreed... I lived down the road in Eugene for a brief period, and was able to visit Portland a few times. If I weren't currently living in NYC with a decent job (no small thing in this economy), and if I didn't have family and sentimental connections back home in Cincinnati, PDX is probably where I would end up.

Wonderful shots.

 

I haven't been in Portland since 1995, when only the original segment of the light rail was open, and they were running two or three Gomaco trolleys on a downtown segment of the light rail track during limited daytime hours. I thought the city was fantastic then, and the changes are stunning.

whats really incredible is that modernism aside, this is how all american cities used to look. portland is back to the future.

This pic is amazing, thanks for posting Jake:

 

http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j231/jmecklenborg/pearl-122.jpg

 

Awesome pics, thanks for the tour.

Thanks!

whats really incredible is that modernism aside, this is how all american cities used to look. portland is back to the future.

 

That's a really interesting point.  If I lived in Portland, The Pearl definately looks like a neighborhood I would enjoy living in.