Project location: Portland, OR
Project type: Independent living – Senior living
Completion date: 01/2024
Area: 370,000 sq ft
Construction Cost: ~$120,000,000
Design time: 18 months
Construction time: 28 months
Client: Terwilliger Plaza
Awards earned: Named among the DJC Oregon’s 2024 Top Projects
Merit Award in Engineering News-Record‘s Northwest’s 2024 Regional Best Projects competition
Credit: Youssef in collaboration with LRS Architects.
Disclaimer: After leaving LRS Architects, the design was value engineered, changing exterior cladding and few items design, here below the rendering reflects Youssef’s version of the design. While finished pictures shown below the final executed design.
Parkview at Terwilliger Plaza is a transformative senior living project that sets new urban standards, seamlessly blending innovation, sustainability, timeless elegance, and community integration. As the largest certified Passive House on the West Coast, this 10-story high-rise, which provides 127 independent living units, serves as an urban gateway, embodying the spirit of continuous care and offering an unparalleled living experience. It celebrates nature-inspired design, energy efficiency, and a commitment to community.
Project Challenges:
Situated just outside Portland’s downtown, Terwilliger Plaza, a residents run continuous care community senior living community, faced the challenge of expansion. Acquiring land across a busy street in a hilly neighborhood, the client aimed to connect existing campus and new buildings seamlessly. Engaging residents from both existing and new buildings, who might tend to segregate, demanded thoughtful design. The commitment to sustainability, Passive House certification, and a desire to honor breathtaking views of Mount Hood, Terwilliger hills, and downtown Portland added layers of complexity to the project.
Views maximized
The design team approached each challenge with creativity and determination. The U-shaped floor plan maximized privacy and views, with a courtyard facing the existing campus. All units have large balconies and are positioned with expansive windows to provide copious natural light and some of the best views Portland has to offer, from the east Mount Hood, from the south a neighboring Park Terwilliger hills & from the north down-town Portland
Design successes
The façade incorporates three textures of terra cotta rain screen siding, creating visual intrigue in the interplay of sunlight. Window sun shading, designed for passive heating load alleviation, seamlessly enhances the architectural character. This intentional integration exemplifies a harmonious blend of aesthetics and sustainable functionality. The visionary approach further extends to integrating solar panels with roof penthouses, reinforcing the project’s commitment to sustainable design. Transforming the garage exhaust shaft into a sculptural masterpiece adorned with a fireplace has bestowed upon the courtyard a captivating focal point of unparalleled elegance, showcasing another aspect of the project’s design success.
Biophilia and wellness
Biophilic elements like living green walls, a green roof, and expansive windows brought nature indoors, creating a serene mountainscape-inspired interior. All of those elements helped enhance the well-being of residence.
Pushing the limits: skybridge
Connecting the new building to the existing campus across the street via a sky bridge, which was tapered to gradually merge with the lounge space in the new building blurring the line between bridge and lounge. and making the bridge an art gallery -which in itself became a destination that would pull both existing and new residence which will help maximize their integration together. Also designed as an urban gate to Portland downtown
Sustainability: Pioneer in Passive House
Parkview at Terwilliger Plaza stands as the second-largest building Passive House certified project in the U.S., the largest in the Western U.S., the largest Senior living building in the US, and a beacon of sustainability. Is poised to use 50% less energy than current energy compliant buildings. The client being dedicated to sustainability have thought to design the building to be Passive house certified and is a path to Net Zero certified building, to comply with these principles, the team worked on reducing the energy use of the building through a tight and well insulated envelope, thermally broken connections, rain screen façade system and fenestration solar shading, in addition to the use of energy efficient plumbing and lighting fixtures. The solar panels contribute 30% of the building’s power, affirming the commitment to a sustainable, resilient, and energy-efficient haven.
Parkview at Terwilliger Plaza is a living testament to the power of design to enhance lives, foster community, and create sustainable, awe-inspiring spaces for generations to come.
“You helped us create an extraordinary example of what senior housing could and should be”
“Youssef managed to help us take one of the cherished characteristics of the existing campus: the art, creating and transpose that into the skybridge in a meaningful and beautiful way making it an art gallery and a destination”
“The view from the older towers was to be obstructed by the new building. The approach to minimize the “damaged” view for the customers in the older buildings was multi-layered. From using technology to help people see what it would actually look like out of their apartments looking at the new building, to ensuring the new building’s “U shaped” courtyard and the building itself were something attractive to look at. Helping set realistic expectations to existing customers, and helping remove much of their negative perceptions on the front end of the project was extremely helpful. It was a very challenging situation and Youssef’s calm; methodical and creative approaches were a wonderful support to the team who were dealing with lots of angry neighbors”
Rob Hays
Former COO of Terwilliger Plaza
The bridge design, when presented to the design commission who were anti-bridges for the last decade, they not only approved it but commented:
“This design sets the standard for skybridges in Portland.”
Portland Design Commission