Port Storage
Three-story climate-controlled self-storage · Portland, ME
Port is an 842-unit, three-story self-storage facility on Riverside Street in Portland, Maine, a few minutes off I-95. We designed it for Patagon Ventures and The Boyer Company, and it opened as Life Storage.
The site is a long wedge of about 3.6 acres, with soft clay under old fill. We explored a number of options, including a two-story building with drive-up storage spread across the site, a two-story building with bigger floors, and a single three-story building that used the full floor area the zoning allows. Ultimately we and the owner decided on a three-story building at the front of the site.
Project Stats
Status | Completed - August 2020
Location | 150 Riverside St, Portland, ME
Building Size | 101,966 SF
Site Size | 3.60 acres
Number of Units | 842
Stories | 3
Storage Types | Climate-controlled interior units, plus 36 drive-up units
Operator | Life Storage
Design Schedule | Nov 2017 - Jul 2018
Permitting | Jul 2018 - Aug 2019
Construction Schedule | Jul 2019 - Aug 2020
About the Design
Two Stories or Three
The first layout we drew in November 2017 was a two-story building with drive-up storage spread across the rest of the site. It worked, but it covered a lot of ground. The alternative was one three-story building that used the full floor area the zoning allows, on a much smaller footprint. After weighing the options with the owner, we went with three stories.
Why Three Stories Paid Off
Portland's zoning caps the floor area on this lot, so a two-story building wasn't going to hold any more storage than a three-story one. Stacking it three high did a few things for the owner. The smaller footprint left room on the site for stormwater detention. It also meant less footing, and less of the slab work under the footings, on soft ground. Every unit ended up closer to an elevator. And there's open land left over that could be built on later if the city's zoning standards ever change.
Foundations on Soft Soil
The site has soft clay under a layer of old fill, which is a problem for a heavy building. Based on the existing soils, the design team looked at a few foundation options: piles, a crawl space with a raised ground floor, and lightweight cellular concrete. We settled on lightweight cellular concrete.
Starting With the City
Jarod Hall went to the first pre-application meeting at Portland City Hall in January 2018, along with Sebago Technics, the civil engineer. Planning, zoning, public works and traffic were all in the room. We used that meeting to start two conversations early. The first was parking: the base zoning called for a lot more parking than a storage facility needs, so we talked about a traffic study to justify fewer. The second was restrooms, which we wanted only on the office level. The city told us they liked the building's look, its location and how it sat on the site.
Planning Board Review
Port went through the city's major site plan review with the Planning Board. At the workshop in October 2018 the team dropped a parking area at the back of the site, which cleared up several stormwater issues and made for a smoother review. After a neighborhood meeting that November, the Planning Board held the public hearing in February 2019. Sebago also worked out the street work with the city: a rebuilt sidewalk with a grass strip, a short sidewalk extension and a right-in, right-out entrance, instead of repaving the full width of Riverside Street.
Restrooms by the Office
Building code would normally put restrooms on more than one floor. Self-storage customers expect to find the restroom next to the office, so we asked the city to allow them only on the first floor by the office, and the city accepted it at the building permit.
A Wedge-Shaped Lot
The lot narrows toward the back, and one side runs at an angle to the street. The building follows that angled property line with a slanted wall instead of stepping in a sawtooth.
Insulated Metal Panels
Port was the first time this client used insulated metal panels on the exterior. The panels are white, black and blue, with yellow canopies over the entries, in Life Storage's colors. Two glass corner towers face Riverside Street, and at night you can see the storage unit doors through the glass on the upper floors. A darker panel runs along the base on the back sides, where white panels low on the wall would be hard to keep clean.
Inside and Drive-Up
Most of the 842 units are climate-controlled interior units on three floors, reached by elevator from a covered loading bay. The ground floor also has 36 drive-up units with roll-up doors along the outside of the building.
Patagon Ventures and The Boyer Company set the goals and ran the development. Sebago Technics handled the civil work and much of the back-and-forth with the City of Portland, R.W. Gillespie & Associates sorted out the soils, and Boardwalk Storage Solutions built it.
Thanks to everyone who worked on Port. Their names and links are below.
A Collaborative Effort
Design Team
Structural | RBE Consulting Services, LLC
MEP | GnA Engineering
Civil | Sebago Technics
Geotechnical | R.W. Gillespie & Associates
Construction Team
General Contractor | Boardwalk Storage Solutions
Stakeholders
Architecture Project Management
Architecture Team
Principal in Charge, Architect of Record & Project Manager | Jarod Hall
Designer | Jeremy Larsen
Support Staff | Ethan Barley
Project Scope
Site Studies & Options | We tested the site as a two-story building with drive-up storage and as a single three-story building, and studied foundation options for the soft soils.
Approvals | With the owners and Sebago Technics, we took the project through the City of Portland's major site plan review with the Planning Board, then through the building permit.
Building Design (SD, DD, CD) | Full building design services, from the first schematic layout through design development and a complete set of construction documents.
Construction Administration (CA) | We stayed with the project through construction, answered questions from the field, and walked the site for the final punch list.
Looking Ahead
Patagon Ventures and The Boyer Company have hired di'velept on a lot of self-storage projects, before Port and after it. They tell us it's because we know storage, we work through hard sites, and we answer fast.
On Port, more building on the ground wasn't the answer. The zoning set how much storage the lot could hold, so the real question was how to fit it. If you have a site with a floor-area cap, soft soil or an odd shape, we'd like to help you test the options and find the one that pays. There's more of our self-storage work on the pages that follow.