Fostering a strong sense of community
Designed and built by Green Hammer, Tillamook Row includes five buildings, each with front porches and balconies oriented around a central courtyard. There is also a 2,000 square-foot common house where, before the pandemic, residents used to gather to watch Timbers games, host parties, work out, and watch movies. The common house was a big attraction for Katrine and other residents of Tillamook Row. Yet with access to it being limited during much of the last year, the shared outdoor gathering spaces, such as the courtyard and community garden, became all that much more important.
Since the start of COVID-19, Katrine, a doctor, has faced many of the same challenges other working parents are experiencing, including finding reliable childcare. Her next-door neighbors, who remain in her “pod,” have been helping care for her 9-month-old son. “They are like grandparents to him.”
“The central courtyard at Tillamook Row has become its most valuable asset,” says Colin McLean, of BCMC Tillamook, LLC. As the developer, he’s had the opportunity to watch the community take shape and adapt to residents’ needs. Colin says he originally set out to build a small community of modern, energy-efficient homes for Portlanders looking to downsize and age in place. After meeting with Green Hammer, his vision for the project grew into something much bigger.
When it was completed in late 2018, Tillamook Row became Portland’s first zero energy community for renters. It includes four residences and 12 apartments, ranging from 750 square-foot 1-bedroom, 1-bath townhomes to 1,430 square-foot 4-bedroom, 2-bath townhomes, allowing for people of all ages and different family sizes to live there. It’s received numerous accolades, including an Honorable Mention in Fast Company’s Design for Innovation Awards in 2019.
All five buildings at Tillamook Row were designed to meet Passive House standards and produce all or most of their own energy through an 82-kilowatt solar array spread across the rooftops of the residences. With a super-insulated, airtight building envelope, triple-pane windows, state-of-the-art, energy-efficient technologies, and Green Guard and Living Building Challenge Declare-certified materials used throughout, a unit at Tillamook Row uses a fraction of the energy and water of a typical home.
Tillamook Row’s environmentally friendly attributes were a draw for Katrine, who says the indoor air quality and comfort of her apartment are far superior to her previous home. During the wildfires of 2020, Katrine says the air quality rating inside her home was considerably better than the rating of the outside air. And she says her home remained “perfectly warm” during the unprecedented power outages that affected Portland in February 2021.
Surpassing expectations
Vacancy rates at Tillamook Row have been consistently low, with a long waiting list, underscoring the community’s immense success. Tillamook Row is also meeting its zero energy goal, generating as much electricity as it consumes through its 82-kilowatt solar array.
The community hasn’t been without challenges. During the pandemic, the way residents used the common building and outdoor spaces shifted considerably. Social distancing meant less room and more constraints for interacting with neighbors, whether indoors or outdoors, and as more residents began working from home, it changed their energy use, their relationship with their space, and the ease with which they could socialize with others.
Even so, the community has exceeded expectations, not just for the developer, but for tenants and the entire design-build team, who have learned a great deal along the way. Whether it’s enjoying a sunny afternoon in the courtyard with neighbors or tossing a Frisbee for the block’s resident border collie, the tenants of Tillamook Row have found a place to call home at a time when home has taken on a new level of importance in our lives.