Portland is taking a hard look at the way it enforces design requirements on new buildings after acknowledging that a significant change to the 21-story Yard project slipped through the cracks.

Commissioner Dan Saltzman said Tuesday that the Yard situation "does warrant more thought about how we make sure that decisions by the [Portland] Design Commission are actually what's reflected in what gets built."

The ordeal came to light after The Oregonian/OregonLive reported last month that the Yard building being built differs from the proposal approved in 2013 by the design commission. The project, as a result, has about 10 percent less "glazing," or glass windows, than the design commission-approved version would have had.

Many of the windows that were lost are at the top, which means the tower will be markedly darker than originally planned.

The construction is consistent with Yard's building permit. The city Bureau of Development Services missed Portland-based Skylab Architecture's changes to the approved design and issued the permit anyway. Had it caught the change, the city would have required either design revisions or a reset of the land-use review process and possibly more public hearings.

Yard is being co-developed at the east side of the Burnside Bridge by Hood River-based Key Development Co. and Portland's Guardian Real Estate Services. The builder is Andersen Construction. It recently topped out and is slated to open in July.

Saltzman, who oversees the development bureau, said Yard's construction will go ahead as planned. But he is hoping to avoid similar situations in the future.

"I think it just requires a little more scrutiny on our part," he said. He has tasked a bureau employee with providing a list of policy options and wants a solution "sooner rather than later."

The city heard "a lot from architects" after news of the undetected design changes broke, Saltzman said.

"We have to comply with design commission requirements. How come [Skylab] didn't?" was the general sentiment from the architects, according to Saltzman.

The version of Yard being built probably wouldn't have survived the design review process, said David Wark, chair of the design commission, last month.

"There's a livability issue surrouding the amount of natural light that gets into an apartment and also an overall kind of 'fitting in' with the previous tall buildings in the city," Wark said Tuesday.

Jeff Kovel, principal at Skylab, said last month that the changes were made to meet energy requirements. But Wark said "there are all kinds of ways to mitigate that...with different materials."

Saltzman is hoping to strike a balance between making sure the design commission's decisions are enforced and streamlining design review in a way that won't significantly increase costs to developers and eventual tenants.

Yard's owners will receive 10 years of property tax breaks from the city in exchange for making 57 of the 284 apartments affordable to those making up to 60 percent of the area's median family income.

-- Luke Hammill

lhammill@oregonian.com

503-294-4029

@lucashammill