College Station Apartments approved

Student housing at Portland State will dramatically increase in the coming year as the result of the Portland Design Commission’s approval for the College Station Apartments. The structure was approved on May 20 by a 4-1 vote.

The College Station Apartments will be a 16-story, 280-plus room multi-use building, and will encompass an entire block, according to an article in The Oregonian.

Located at 1965 SW Fifth Ave., the College Station Apartments will provide space for an additional 900 student beds. Currently, the PSU campus only has about 2,200 beds available for students.

The building itself will be a dramatic change to the current skyline on Fifth Avenue as well. The building will be U-shaped, and will contain a courtyard on the south side. The Figo House—a Victorian house that was built in 1894—will be located in the courtyard. 

Randal Acker moved his attorney firm, Acker & Associates P.C., into the two-story house in 2005, according to its website.  From 2006 to 2008, TriMet tried to buy and demolish the Figo House in preparation for more tracks and the PSU dormitory.

Acker refused to sell the building, and his associates banded together to save the house with a combination of media coverage, buttons and pamphlets.

Now, agreements have been made to accommodate both parties. The Figo house will remain where it is, and the new College Station Apartments will be built around it. 

“This is like a little jewel box sitting in the courtyard,” Kurt Schultz, a principal in SERA Architecture, said of the Figo house in an article published by The Oregonian on Dec. 3. “It’s really a lovely building.”

Last fall, student enrollment at PSU hit nearly 28,000 students. However, Mark Gregory, associate vice president for finance and administration, said that enrollment could easily hit 30,000 students in the upcoming academic year, according to an article published by The Oregonian on May 29.

“We are getting bigger, faster than we ever have before,” he said.

By the year 2035, PSU hopes to be able to provide 10,000 beds to its student population, according to the article. 

Lindsay Desrochers, vice president for finance and administration at PSU, reported in a Daily Journal of Commerce article that the student population at PSU is indeed growing, and the university is looking for ways to accommodate the number of residents hoping to live on campus.

“Our goal is to house 25 percent of our student body in the long term,” she said. “It’s becoming clearer to the academic community that housing is key to the success of students.” 

This complex will not only house student dormitories; there will be a classroom, retail outlets and a TriMet office on the ground floor.

TriMet plans to build light-rail stops on the east and west sides of the building once construction is complete, according to The Oregonian.

PSU has teamed up with American Campus Communities, a private company based in Texas, to construct and manage the upper levels of the building that will be used for apartments.  This will be the first time PSU has paired up with this company.

While American Campus Communities will be managing and constructing, SERA Architecture will be designing the space. SERA Architecture, a Portland-based company, has worked with PSU in the past. Its website lists work such as the 2009 remodel of PSU’s Neuberger Hall and work on the Oregon Sustainability Center.

Scott Gallagher, director of communications in university relations, reported in September 2009 that the university hopes to have the building completed in 2011. However, he could not be reached to confirm if the date was still accurate.