Williams & Russell Project

Project Type: Affordable Housing
Homeownership
Mission
Office
Retail
Role: Fee Developer
Partners: W&R CDC
Prosper Portland
City of Portland
Portland Housing Bureau
Legacy Health Services
PCRI

The William & Russell project will create a place of opportunity for Portland’s African American community. This opportunity can come in various forms—through business enterprise, career development, art and expression, or simply being able to call this place home.

The genesis of the site starts and ends with wealth creation for the Black community: in the form of multigenerational real estate ownership, in passing wealth of knowledge on to the next generation, supporting small businesses, community reparations, and in wealth through health and restorative justice.

This project provides a unique opportunity to house this positive energy into one block, providing the benefits of co-location and amplifying synergies. This can be achieved by delivering on the priorities that were identified through the community engagement process led by the W&R Project Working Group (PWG), priorities that center on strengthening the home, work, and life of the Black community.

In 2023, the project team partnered with the National Association of Minority Architects (NOMA) to utilize the Williams & Russell Project as the site of their Student Design Competition.

Values: Design Excellence, Development Innovation, Educational Advancement, Environmental Stewardship, and Equitable Outcomes.

Conceptual Rendering of the Williams & Russell Project (Image courtesy of Williams & Russell CDC / LEVER Architecture)

Conceptual Diagram of the Williams & Russell Project (Image courtesy of Williams & Russell CDC / LEVER Architecture)

W&R Project Leadership (Image courtesy of Williams & Russell CDC)

Williams & Russell Project Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signing on September 5, 2018 (Image courtesy of Lisa Norwood, Prosper Portland)

A community-led effort from 2018 to 2021 set the Williams & Russell Project’s mission (Image courtesy of Lisa Norwood, Prosper Portland)

The intersection of North Williams Avenue and North Russell Street served as the downtown for the City of Albina which was merged into the City of Portland, Oregon in 1891. Photo taken in 1910 in the historic Albina district (Image courtesy of City of Portland (OR) Archives)

The onion-shaped cupola was removed from the Hill Block building, located at North Williams Avenue and North Russell Street in Portland Oregon, in 1971 during its demolition by Emmanuel Hospital as a part of urban renewal. The site has sat vacant since (Image courtesy of City of Portland (OR) Archives, AP/69670)

Net Zero Fellowship.

The Energy Trust of Oregon Net Zero Fellowship aims to address technological, financial, social, and other market barriers to net-zero energy buildings and to grow the community of practitioners advancing commercial net-zero energy development in Oregon and Washington. Anyeley Hallová of Adre is a 2022 Net Zero Fellow researching - “The Williams & Russell Project: Developing a Framework for an Ecodistrict and District Energy Microgrid”.

Learn more

Project Details

Program: Apartments
Homes
Office
Solar Array
Location: Portland, OR
Completion: 2027
Building Area: 156,000 SF
Cost: $115M (estimate)
Sustainability Goal: LEED v4 Gold
MWESB Goal: 30%
Status: In-Progress