The Al Bateen Wharf is designed as a five-star business hotel and high-rise condominium in Abu Dhabi. In addition to the main hotel and apartments, there are extensive five-star amenities such as restaurants and coffee shops. The facility also includes a large conference center, banquet hall, health club, and spa. There are a number of water features and swimming pools along with several sidewalk cafes on the waterfront promenade. The design opts for simple volumes wrapped with a fluid and transparent veil-like screen. While maintaining visual transparency, the screen creates a sustainable building through the use of diffused natural lighting, façade elements to achieve energy savings by passive cooling, and shielding from intense sun. The design also carefully considers natural and local materials in relation with marine life.
Expertise: Architecture
Dubai Creekside Redevelopment
With our collaborating partners, we have led an international design and technical team tasked with planning and designing a cultural and heritage destination comprising both sides of Dubai Creek for 1 ½ miles through the historical center of Dubai. The project consists of 143 separate buildings to include retail, residential, hospitality, cultural, and entertainment uses, connected by a network of public spaces, covered “souks,” and marinas.
Parking garages, parking access, and vertical circulation have been designed to accommodate 12,000 cars in 2 levels for the entire length of the redevelopment. In January 2008, the government mandated that all future buildings will achieve U.S.G.B.C. LEED Gold certification, and we were selected for this separate contract and to assist the United Arab Emirates to draft the “Emirates Green Building Council” documents, establishing the local criteria for LEED status. In 2008, Dubai Creek Redevelopment was considered the world’s largest LEED certification project.
Jinan Olympic Park
Jinan Olympic Park is the result of a design competition won in November of 2007. Adjacent to the Jinan Olympic venue, the 6 tower Olympic Park complex is comprised of 6 signature office buildings. The tallest building, 55 stories, is made up of both office and a 5-star business hotel. The buildings form an urban garden at the surface, with 2 underground levels of urban shopping and parking.
Kirkland Senior Living – Palisades
The project is located at the east end of Vancouver, Washington, within the Columbia Palisades Mixed Use master plan, which is a site of a former basalt rock quarry along the northwestern boundary of the Columbia Gorge. Benched into a steep-sloped triangular site, the building steps up and embraces the grade as it rises to its height at the northeast corner.
An Amenity-Rich Design for a Unique Site
The exterior design consists of modern and clean lines, gently sloping roof elements at building corners, and is clad in ceramic-coated fiber cement siding. The ground level is articulated with generous storefront windows, brick veneer, and steel canopies and trellises. It has an open lobby lounge that includes formal seating areas centered on fireplaces, casual seating areas, and a bar bistro. A lushly landscaped garden court podium is at the second level with views to the south of the Columbia River. A horseshoe pit, yoga patio and BBQ’s round out the outdoor amenities. Large windows at the second level amenity spaces provide an opportunity to blend indoor and outdoor spaces. The south and west facing units have sweeping views of the Columbia River and the City of Portland to the south.
Kirkland Senior Living – Ridgefield
Located in Ridgefield, WA, this project is sited within a large mixed-use master plan that consists of commercial and residential uses that is adjacent to a large, protected wetland and green space to the east. The building is purposefully located up against this adjacent wetland to maximize views for the east facing units above and create a green edge to the ground level garden court.
A Modern Residential Design Within a Large Mixed-Use Master Plan
The exterior design consists of modern and clean lines, gently sloping roof elements at building corners, and is clad in ceramic-coated fiber cement siding. The ground level is articulated with generous storefront windows, stone veneer, and steel canopies and trellises. Large windows on the east elevation at the ground level amenity spaces provide an opportunity to blend indoor and outdoor spaces. There is also a pool patio that opens out to views into the wetland and has great exposure to the southern sun. Finally, the “rock ballasted” low roofs of the Porte Cochere and pool are designed with artistic rock patterns to enhance the view from to the units above.
Residences at Arnada
Located on Block 77, between East 16th and 17th Streets and East D and E Streets, in the downtown area of the City of Vancouver is an addition of affordable housing in the commercial city center.
Adding Affordable Housing to the Commercial City Center
Consisting of 83 dwelling units in 2 buildings with 56 parking spaces provided through planning adjustments such as additional secure bike storage. The project includes live/work units on the ground floor and a multiple of unit types that will be designed for a mixture of 50% median income and market rate clientele. The buildings are designed to be a three-story wood framed building with tuck under parking and ground floor Live Work units and an amenity space, and a four-story wood-framed building with an elevator as well as ground floor Live Work units with tuck under parking and amenity spaces such as community kitchen, exercise facility and leasing office. Otak provided earlier phases of development including land use, preliminary design, Civil Engineering, Landscape Architecture and traffic study.
Otak Design Team Keeps History Alive at Jasmine Tower
Historic preservation often entails restoring and rehabilitating old structures. However, for Otak’s Jasmine Tower project in Seattle, Washington, the goal for preservation is instead to maintain the location’s use as a public gathering space—one that captures decades of memories while offering the opportunity to build new ones.
Jasmine Tower sits in the Chinatown and Asian District of Seattle and was the former site of a community building that was first constructed in 1942 as a one-level brick building. Two levels were later added and the site became home to a restaurant and lounge called Bush Gardens. Through the years, the location was the site of numerous weddings, parties, and significant events that many in the community now remember fondly.
With this history as the backdrop, Otak was contracted to create a design reflecting the site’s former uses, while adding new housing opportunities and helping rejuvenate this area of the district. The client, Vibrant Cities, has offices next door to the site, as well as family history tied to the neighborhood, making this a personal legacy project for both the client and Otak. Getting the formula for this endeavor just right requires numerous meetings with multiple project stakeholders, including Seattle’s International Special Review District board and the community to ensure the integrity and dignity of the neighborhood remain intact.
“Our clients have trust in Otak. Our design team had previous experience working through these kinds of challenging processes. We have experience with that type of building and we can take charge and guide it through the design process. There are lots of meetings with the community as well as the board, and if we’re not paying attention to that large constituency group, then we’re not going to be successful,” says Gary Reddick, the project’s Director of Design. Gary was joined on the Otak team by Li Alligood, Senior Planner, Casey McKenna, Senior Project Manager, and Ron Dean, Senior Designer.
The community originally wanted to preserve the building and Otak set about surveying the property to see if rehabilitation was possible. Unfortunately, the building proved to be structurally unsound and nothing was salvageable. “What we’ve really heard at the meetings with the public is that they want the legacy of Bush Gardens to continue. Our job has been to show that the happy memories were more about the experience than the building. There are so many memories embedded in the site and we know if we keep a part of the new building as a community gathering space, those memories can be retained and new ones created,” Gary comments.
That input from the public has reshaped the original design for the first two floors which were initially intended to be mostly residential. Now, that space will be occupied by a restaurant and retail on the first floor and office space on the second. A large community event room will also occupy much of the second floor and serve as the new place for building memories. In a nod to the history of the space, old photos and artifacts from the site’s days as Bush Gardens will be featured throughout. The remaining fifteen floors will be residential and there will also be a three-level parking deck underground.
Along with capturing the history, the design of the building is also the first in the district to take full advantage of the 170-foot zoning heights. Strategic massing, where the ground levels will be given more weight than the upper levels, will help maintain the neighborhood feel of 3 or 4-story buildings. “Otak is experienced as the first development group to take advantage of height increases in other areas (see Hyatt Place). Being the first to reach for those heights requires additional explanation and meetings to build comfort,” Gary comments.
With at least three more meetings to go, Gary says construction is not likely to begin for another year or possibly two. But he knows the end result will be a building that embodies the community spirit. “It’s not the building, it’s the container for the memories. We’ve honored the container in our design and the building will add value to the whole district and bring people back.”
The Byway at Wood Village
Located on the former site of City Hall in Wood Village, Oregon, The Byway adds 184 multifamily units and retail development across 135,000 square feet. The mixed-use project at the corner of NE Halsey Street and NE 238th Drive includes 8,400 square-feet of leasable retail space.
Regionally Inspired Design for Multi-Use Development
The overall design highlights a Cascadian architecture style, prevalent on the path to the base of Mount Hood, and is highlighted by a signature tower element and pedestrian plaza that anchors the street corner flanked by retail buildings. The remainder of the site consists of seven multifamily buildings, a clubhouse, pool amenity spaces, and playgrounds. The Otak-led design and planning takes advantage of the topography by incorporating stepped three and four-story buildings into the slope. Buildings at the low end of the site include top floor “townhouse” units with views of Mount St. Helens and the Columbia River.
HQ Plaza
Master planning, including the reclamation of a 98-acre quarry, and layout design for numerous residential and mixed-use buildings form HQ Plaza. In leading the planning and refinement of the quarry, Otak also prepared building concepts and site renderings to be consistent with the envisioned redevelopment of the site.
Master Planning and Building Design for a Reclaimed Site
The HQ Plaza master plan includes over 2,000 multi-family residential homes, numerous mixed-use buildings of office, retail, hospitality, residential, and light industrial uses. Due diligence in the refinement and reclamation plan for the quarry involved a number of teams, including planning, urban design, civil design, and landscape architect team members. The architecture team contributed to the site plan and roadway layout from a building layout and design perspective, and prepared concept building and site renderings.
Renaissance Boardwalk
Overlooking the bank of the Columbia River, the Renaissance Boardwalk represents a cornerstone connection for a revitalized Vancouver waterfront. Close collaboration between the City of Vancouver, Department of Ecology, and multiple design disciplines of Otak contributed to the design of this iconic waterfront project.
Designing a Dynamic Mixed-Use Waterfront
In linking Waterfront Gateway and Terminal 1 to the east to Waterfront Park to the west, reestablishment of the boardwalk also serves as a center for cultural activity along the water. The waves of the nine-story residential building reflect the current of the river below, while commercial uses line the boardwalk, anchoring the development to the riverbank. This 400,000+ square foot mixed-use project provides 217 residential units along with 100,000+ square feet of commercial space including entertainment, restaurant, hospitality, and office uses.