Plans for the OMSI District Master Plan are shown, in this rendering, supplied in February 2023. The design for the proposed district will add up to three million square feet of new mixed-use buildings, up to 1,200 units of new housing, with at least 20% designated for low-income families, and collaborations with Tribal governments and Indigenous communities to restore riverfront areas, programming and public green space.
Courtesy of Gard Communications
The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry aims to create a hub for science learning, arts and culture. The plan includes a waterfront education park, more than a thousand units of housing and public green space. The proposal recently received approval from the city of Portland Design Commission. We hear more about the plan and next steps from Erin Graham, the CEO and president of OMSI.
This transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer.
Dave Miller: From the Gert Boyle studio at OPB, this is Think Out Loud. I’m Dave Miller. In 2008, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, or OMSI, announced that it aimed to redevelop 24 acres on Portland’s inner Eastside. The master plan now calls for a new hub for science learning, arts and culture, in addition to a waterfront education park, public green space and more than 1,000 units of housing. Two weeks ago, OMSI passed a major hurdle on the road to making that vision a reality when it got approval from Portland’s Design Commission. For more on this plan and the next steps, I’m joined by Erin Graham, OMSI’s CEO and President. It’s great to have you in the studio.
Erin Graham: Thank you. It’s great to be here.
Miller: So I just gave a two sentence version of this grand plan. Can you give us, just to start, your overall vision for this site?
Graham: Yes. So we really see that this can be a new innovative kind of inclusive neighborhood for Portland. And we want it to be an attraction. We want people to come and spend time there, for there to be activity 24/7, for it to be a showcase for climate solutions, for people understanding how climate solutions work, and an opportunity to really heal the land and the river. Right now it’s brown fields and surface parking lots and has been that for many years. And we look forward to re-greening the area, to creating a healthy river bank and ecosystem, and to teaching the public about it.
Miller: So let’s start closer to the water and then move inland. What’s the waterfront access going to be like? It’s one of the ironies of Portland that a river runs right through the heart of the city and it’s surprisingly hard to actually access the water for most of the length of the Willamette in Portland. Could this project change that?
Graham: Absolutely. And that’s a big part of the vision. We have just under half a mile of waterfront. And we have been working with a group of advisors including the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission and the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians to vision a linear waterfront for education park that would be rooted in traditional ecological knowledge and science. So there would be interpretation and replanting of native plants and there is an opportunity to build a public plaza for inviting the community to do events that would be right down on the river, just to the south of the existing OMSI building.
Miller: So most of what you’re talking about is south and east of the existing building?
Graham: The current OMSI District footprint runs from the Hawthorne Bridge to just the other side of the station tracks. So Portland Opera is a partner in our plan, Portland Community College and PCC. And then the district area extends back to the railroad tracks.
Miller: I mentioned that the first announcement I saw was back in 2008 for this. What’s the process been like up till now, just to get where we are? What’s been going on for the last 14 to15 years?
Graham: It’s been a really long process and a long partnership with the city. We worked really closely with the city to make sure that the Orange Line extension made sense for the future OMSI district. We then partnered with the city to help support the building of the Tilikum [Crossing] bridge and the other transportation infrastructure in that station there. And then we proceeded to hold a lot of design charrettes and make sure that our plan was embedded within the city’s Comprehensive 2035 Plan when they rezoned the city. And since then, we have been working closely with ZGF to interpret the Center City Master Plan guidelines and figure out how they could work in a district that is unique in having a museum at the center of it, but also with the waterfront and the transportation infrastructure.
Miller: So for that transportation infrastructure just in the last five years or so, we have the Tilikum Crossing, which is this bridge that the most exciting things about it are that it’s for everything but cars. It’s for light rail, for buses, for people on foot, or on bike. There’s that, then there’s also the Orange Line that goes to Milwaukee, extending light rail. What’s the vision for how those transportation nodes will fit in with this new district?
Graham: Well, this will be a first opportunity to build housing in the inner Southeast and to increase the density around those transportation nodes. We also will have bus rapid transit. The plan contemplates the extension of the Green Loop and also includes a two-way cycle track that will be installed in a new Water Avenue that will realign fast moving car and truck traffic with the railroad.
So it’s really intended to make this a more walkable friendly district for people, whether they are with their families or riding their bikes or whatever it might be and to move the faster transportation to the exterior of the district. When those big investments and transportation were made, including the Orange Line and the Tilikum, it was really imagined that there would be density surrounding it, including housing and retail and office and all of those things. And so this plan helps to really culminate those investments and make them real.
Miller: I can see how housing fits into the broader needs of the city and the state. It has been one of the key things that has been talked about for years now. But increasingly, so obviously, that the governor wants to greatly increase the number of new units. But how does housing fit into the mission of a science education-based nonprofit? Why is it OMSI’s concern?
Graham: Great question. So OMSI is not a developer. And we’re not planning to be one, even in this project. We’re partnering with Edlen and Co as our master developer. And so they would be driving the development of housing. That said, we have a real interest in families having access to learning opportunities both within OMSI and outside of OMSI. We think that has a great energy for a neighborhood and we think that this is a way that we can support the needs for housing in Portland as well as family housing in the center city.
Miller: And you’re talking about at least 1,000 units of housing, correct?
Graham: The current plan calls for 1,200 units of housing.
Miller: You mentioned earlier that you want this to be a kind of model for climate-focused development. What do you mean? How is climate change affecting the way you’re all thinking about developing this land?
Graham: We’re thinking about everything from a micro-grid to battery storage, to passive heating and cooling between buildings, to stormwater management and even the materiality of the buildings. And we think that each one of those decisions, we hope, will lead us toward ultimately a net zero district. That’s the big ambitious goal and that, as OMSI, we have an ability to teach the public about it. So people can see these things as possible.
Miller: So it’s not just a place to live or work or shop. But the buildings themselves, the place will be some kind of education example of the building?
Graham: Exactly. That’s the goal, is that we’re using the district as sort of a larger education platform, if you will. And it could be about science. And we also hope it will be about the arts and innovation and restoring Tribal presence on the river and traditional ecological knowledge. And I think all of those things will have a place and a way to coexist within this district.
Miller: Just about two weeks ago, the Portland Design Commission gave its approval for this plan. So what does that approval mean? We mentioned earlier that this is year 15 of this planning. How significant is this one stamp of approval in the overall potential for this project?
Graham: It’s very significant. We are so excited to move forward in the next phase which is really figuring out the public/private partnership with the city and the state and probably federal partnership as well, to build the infrastructure. As I mentioned, there’s some surface parking lots and brown fields. And so we need to put in the streets and the utilities and all of those things to support the density of development. But we have a road map now and we have agreement on phasing. And we know, and are in lockstep with the city about, the things that need to happen first.
Miller: Where are you expecting the funding for this to come from? You just mentioned a public/private partnership, a phrase that we hear a lot. But what does that actually mean in this case?
Graham: In this case, it means that we expect, as OMSI, that we’ll contribute about a third of the cost through fundraising to the district development, that private developers developing in the district will contribute a third, and we will be looking to public sources to contribute a third.
Miller: When you imagine, say, 20 years from now - we can talk about the actual timeline - but, what’s your dream for what a visit to this place would be like, whether you’re a Portlander or somebody coming from outside of town?
Graham: That you would walk into the district and understand that you were in someplace special and different, that you would see representations of multiple cultures within the district, and a connection to innovation, and a celebration of science, that you would be able to learn about the environment. There would be outdoor play opportunities for both adults and kids. There would be things that would be surprising and delightful and make you want to come back over and over, that you would have an affinity for the river because you would be down near it and close to it. You’d understand what we all need to do to clean it up and that you would feel comfortable and welcomed, no matter your identity or your background.
Miller: Does this district that you’re talking about have a name?
Graham: Not yet. We’ve been using the OMSI district as a shorthand as we’ve been going through the planning process. But I think that’s an open conversation as we go forward.
Miller: And what is a possible timeline for this? I should say a reasonable sort of honest timeline?
Graham: Our hope is that within the next five years, we’re building some of the critical infrastructure for both the waterfront education park and the key new street that will be in the district and contain the utilities. And at that point, a lot of the progress for development will be driven by the pace of our fundraising or the pace of developer demand for office space and things like that.
We think it’s possible that the housing could be developed first. And so we’re running some financial models or I should say our development partner Edlen & Co is running some financial models to figure out what that could look like and what kind of supports might be needed to make more of a range of affordability in that housing. So we could go further than the minimum 20% affordable requirement.
Miller: What you’re describing is a massive project and a massive change to this largely undeveloped area right now or just paved area or brown fields all around this museum. Are you expecting that OMSI itself is going to change as a result of all these changes around it?
Graham: Yes. And we’re figuring out what that means for us going forward. But OMSI has always been more than a museum and we have programming that goes to every corner of the state. We actually have educators that are located in communities around the state. And so this really is an opportunity for us to expand our mission to invite more people in. I think the building itself will change at some point or the uses of the building will change at some point. But it will be driven by community and our conversations with community and what the community needs really are.
Miller: What do you see as the biggest challenge is that the things that are most likely to create roadblocks for actually accomplishing what you’re talking about?
Graham: Well, I think that Portland and the Portland area have a lot of really immediate needs that people see every day when they walk out their door and those need to be addressed. And at the same time, we have to hold a vision for the future. And it’s really hard for everyone I think to hold both of those ideas at the same time. So I’m really thinking that’s the biggest challenge. It’s not an either-or, it’s both-and. And we have to figure out both how to address the immediate needs of the city and how to have these big bold visions that help drive us towards something that’s different and more inclusive and expansive in the future.
Miller: I guess what comes to mind is, for example, someone saying, ‘why, why worry about this brand spanking new development if there’s so much unsheltered homelessness.’ Is that an example of what you’re thinking about?
Graham: Exactly. And again, I think it’s both-and because if the district can be part of the solution by creating a safer environment and housing, then we want to participate in that way. And I think that the city has a lot of opportunities ahead, obviously, to address the houseless problem.
Miller: Erin Graham, thanks very much.
Graham: Thank you so much.
Miller: Erin Graham is the CEO and President of OMSI. She joins us to talk about these plans that are in the works and have been in the works for about 15 years now, but seem to be accelerating, to develop 24 acres on Portland’s inner Eastside.
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