hollywoodHUB Receives Portland Design Commission’s 2024 Design Excellence Award

Holst is thrilled to announce that hollywoodHUB has received the Portland Design Commission’s 2024 Design Excellence Award! The award celebrates good design and recognizes the project's important role in positively shaping the public realm. This is Holst’s 4th time winning Project of the Year, with Fora Health winning in 2021, the Hazel Ying Lee Apartments (formerly 3000 Powell), winning in 2022, and Street Roots winning the award from the Historic Landmarks Commission in 2023.

Transforming an underutilized site into a thoughtfully designed transit-oriented development

A collaboration with BRIDGE Housing, TriMet, and Holst Architecture, hollywoodHUB will provide 222 units of affordable housing to Portland’s Hollywood District. The project, which is part of a larger transformative redevelopment of the Hollywood Transit Center, embraces the site, its history, and the Hollywood District as a hub for transit, equity, and community. The development is geared towards families earning between 30-60% of the Area Median Income (AMI), with 60% of the homes being two- and three-bedroom units.

Adjacent to the Hollywood Transit Station, hollywoodHUB will deliver affordable housing, improved accessibility and maneuverability for pedestrians and bikes, as well as quality public placemaking strategies. The project incorporates a central courtyard, with the site’s design reinforcing connection between Halsey Ave, the Hollywood Max Station, and the Laurelhurst neighborhood. The building is sculpted to reinforce site and visual corridors along this public connection while providing visual interest and weather protection for pedestrians. Design Commissioner Brian McCarter stated “We feel that HollywoodHUB is the most robust TOD project that the Portland region has ever taken on.”

The design team gracefully navigated a variety of challenges of the project, particularly when it came to the constraints related to the site’s orientation. Early design reviews ended up being key to the project’s success, highlighting improvements that needed to be made to initial designs. This feedback gave the design team the opportunity to find innovative design solutions. The result is a thoughtfully designed building that will be a valuable part of the new, modern, community-sensitive Hollywood Transit Center.

We are honored to accept the Portland Design Commission’s award and excited to be part of a project that will have a lasting impact on our built environment and set a new standard for transit-oriented development in our community.