P82 Storage
Three-story climate-controlled self-storage with RV and boat storage · Portland, OR
P82 is a three-story, 727-unit self-storage building at SE 82nd Avenue and Crystal Springs Boulevard in Portland, Oregon. Get Space, a repeat client, put the 1.72-acre site under contract in September 2016 and wanted to start building as soon as they could.
The zoning helped. P82 only needed a building permit (no land-use review), so the permit set went to the city that December, about fifteen weeks after the site went under contract. It opened as Extra Space Storage, with climate-controlled units inside, roll-up units on the ground floor and 45 outdoor spaces for RVs and boats.
Project Stats
Status | Completed - March 2019
Location | 8085 SE 82nd Ave, Portland, OR
Building Size | 88,500 SF
Site Size | 1.72 acres
Number of Units | 727
Stories | 3
Storage Types | Climate-controlled, exterior-access, RV and boat (45 spaces)
Operator | Extra Space Storage
Design Schedule | Sep 2016 - Jan 2017
Permitting | Jan 2017 - Sep 2017
Construction Schedule | Jan 2018 - Mar 2019
About the Design
Starting From the Owner's Sketch
Get Space started with a sketch: an L-shaped building now and a second building along the west side later. After initially reviewing the city setback requirements, we knew the building had to sit 25 feet back from both 82nd and Crystal Springs and 15 feet from the houses next door, and a strip along 82nd had to be given to the street. With those setbacks there wasn't enough room left for a second phase to make sense. So we planned one building and found a different use for the west side.
A Permit-Only Site
Self-storage was allowed outright in this zone, so there was no land-use hearing to wait on. There was no height limit either. We used that to make the first floor 11 feet floor to floor, which left room for the steel beams over the office without making the office feel cramped. The engineers had our 20 percent schematic set in November 2016. The full permit set went in on December 22.
Making the West Lot Pay
The site is within 500 feet of a frequent bus line, and in Portland that means no minimum parking. Customer parking went in the east lot by the office. The whole west lot became outdoor RV and boat storage, which pays rent, instead of a parking lot that would have needed landscape islands. On the west property line a 6-foot precast wall met the screening rule, so we didn't have to give up a 25-foot landscape strip. When the city counted the storage spaces toward accessible parking, we moved the extra accessible stall to the other side of the loading bay and kept five storage units we would have lost.
Simple on Purpose
Get Space told us this one "doesn't need to scream high design." We modeled three exteriors. One was flat white boxes with bands of color. One had angled fins under an overhanging sloped roof, and the third used the same fins with a wall of glass. The flat version was the best balance of design and cost, and it was the cheapest of the three to build. The finished building is white and black metal panel, with a glass office on the corner where drivers on 82nd see it first.
Restrooms Where the Manager Can See Them
Under the building code the restrooms would have been spread out, one set on every other floor. We filed a code appeal to put them all on the main floor next to the rental office, and the city approved it. In storage that is a big deal. With the restrooms by the office, the manager can see who is coming and going at the door, and that is a lot better than a camera.
Inside and Out
Customers load and unload in a covered bay next to the elevator. Most units open off climate-controlled hallways on all three floors. On the ground floor, units along the outside walls have their own roll-up doors under a covered walkway where the upper floors step out.
Stormwater at the Street
The street improvements included stormwater planters in the strip between the sidewalk and the road. They hold rainwater and let it soak through soil and plants. That was mostly AAI Engineering's civil work, but it's one of our favorite things on the site.
P82 went from a signed contract to a permit submittal in about seven weeks, and a schedule like that only works when the whole team moves together. Get Space and The Ritchie Group set the goals for the project. AAI Engineering turned our schematic set into structural, civil and landscape drawings in about a month, and Faster Permits got the full set through intake at the city. Perlo Construction and its design-build trades built it.
We're grateful to everyone who worked on P82. Their names and links are below.
A Collaborative Effort
Design Team
Structural, Civil & Landscape | AAI Engineering
Geotechnical | GeoTech Solutions
Energy Code | System Design Consultants
Permit Expediter | Faster Permits
Construction Team
General Contractor | Perlo Construction
Mechanical (Design-Build) | ProTemp Associates
Electrical (Design-Build) | Christenson Electric
Stakeholders
Architecture Project Management
Architecture Team
Principal & Architect of Record | Jarod Hall
Project Manager | Jeremy Larsen
Support Staff | Ethan Barley
Project Scope
Site Layout | We reworked the owner's first sketch around the city's setbacks and dedications and tested a one-building plan against a phased plan.
Building Design (SD, DD, CD) | Full building design services, from the schematic plans and unit mix through design development and complete construction documents.
Permitting | We put together the permit set, filed the restroom code appeal, and answered two rounds of city review comments with the consultants.
Construction Administration (CA) | We answered questions from the field during construction and walked the punch list with the owner's team before substantial completion in March 2019.
Looking Ahead
Get Space has hired di'velept on a long run of self-storage projects. They like that we can hit the ground running, since nobody has to teach us about storage or about Get Space's own standards. They also like how much detail goes into our storage drawing sets, because a complete set means fewer change orders.
If you have a storage site with tough setbacks or a short timeline, we'd like to help you find the layout that works and get it to permit quickly. Thanks for reading about P82. There's more of our self-storage work on the pages that follow.