congratulations President Lariviere, nice compromise

5/7/2011: Lauren Fox in the RG, on the ORI building:

Details about numbers of parking spaces and the size of setbacks needed for an office building may determine whether a years-long dispute over the proposed Oregon Research Institute building ends amicably.

The question building experts are evaluating is whether the proposed 80,000-square-foot ORI building, parking spaces and landscaping can be accommodated on two parcels totaling 3.6 acres that are set far back from the Willamette River, as opposed to the long-proposed site of 4.3 acres right alongside the river.

University of Oregon President Richard Lariviere announced Monday that the UO is asking ORI and its developer, Trammell Crow Co., to evaluate the smaller site….

A broad coalition of critics have spent many months attacking the UO administration over the Riverfront Parkway site, saying it’s inappropriate to put such a large development so close to the river.

This week they said they’re tentatively hopeful about the proposed Millrace Drive site.

But if they’re happy, Lariviere hasn’t heard from many of them.

“I’ve gotten exactly one e-mail on the topic,” Lariviere said this week. “That e-mail said congratulations, nice compromise.”