South Downtown Waterfront Plan, Portland, OR

ROMA prepared a development plan for a 73-acre abandoned lumber mill on the downtown riverfront. At the time it was prepared, the plan was heralded for its innovation in extending the fine-grain urban fabric to this large underutilized parcel and advancing new vertical mixed uses with upper floor residential development above ground floor retail and restaurants facing a broad promenade along the Willamette River. The plan resulted in the River Place development which included 165 units of housing, a specialty hotel and approximately 50,000 square feet of retail and restaurant uses oriented along a pedestrian promenade, waterfront park and marina. Later phases would add significant, higher density residential and office uses. Together with the removal of a nearby freeway, this project helped to reclaim the city’s riverfront as an attractive, publicly-oriented place for recreation, entertainment and high quality living.