Following Tuesday’s open house at Providence Academy, The Historic Trust will continue the feedback process before moving to the next step in redeveloping the area around the historic building.
About 150 people attended the session in the ballroom of Providence Academy, said Mike True, CEO and president of The Historic Trust.
The nonprofit organization has already started a rehabilitation project on the downtown Vancouver landmark, 400 E. Evergreen Blvd., which the Trust acquired in 2015.
Tuesday’s open house was part of an initiative to make a piece of the 7-acre site available for redevelopment. Marathon Acquisition & Development was chosen to buy the property — now mostly a parking lot — and turn it into a mixed-use urban campus.
A February rollout of the proposal included renderings, which drew some negative feedback. But those illustrations were not intended to represent a designed building, True said. They were drawn in as generic shapes and conversation starters: “Here’s a footprint and elevation.”
The illustrations at Tuesday’s session were updated, but still are to be seen as works in progress, True said.
The open house hosts are “encouraging people to reflect on images,” True said, and if they have some feedback, “submit those thoughts online.”
Some local residents who’d critiqued the earlier renderings were still skeptical after Tuesday’s open house.
“The stuff they showed last night was a major change from the original. It still didn’t comply with codes,” said Roger Morley.
New construction should be compatible with the Academy, Morley said, and he questioned the compatibility of “a five-story, flat-roofed building sitting beside a three-story, all-brick building.”
Morley said that he did hear a full range of opinions Tuesday, from “a couple of people who thought it was horrible to a couple of people who thought it was wonderful.”
Pat Burt said he was among the people unhappy with the February rollout, and he expected to see some variations and revisions at Tuesday’s open house.
“That wasn’t the case,” Burt said. “It showed the same design from 12 different angles.”
Burt said that he understands how modern developers build big projects for economic reasons.
“I can live with that,” Burt said. He pointed to similar in-fill construction in Northwest Portland, where several apartments and condos “were done in brick and fit in with the historic buildings nearby.”
Additional input from agencies and more public comment will be forwarded to a land-use consultant. BergerABAM will analyze and summarize the material. Then it will be forwarded to the Academy Advisory Team.
After additional input, the advisory team will formulate recommendations on changes, True said.
