Portland Architecture

A Cloepfil-Gragg Discussion, and A Visit To Allied Works' Macleay View House

On Monday night, in the second installment of Portland Spaces magazine's Bright Lights Discussion Series, editor Randy Gragg will be interviewing architect Brad Cloepfil of Allied Works.

Not only has Cloepfil's firm finally going to be working on a major Portland project again with PNCA's 511 Broadway building renovation, as well as a more modest rehab of the school's existing Pearl District space, but Allied Works also saw completion of a West Hills home with another on the way. Then there's the projects Allied has going in Denver, Dallas, New York and beyond.

The Macleay View House was unveiled several days ago at an opening party ("Whoa, is that Gus Van Sant?") thrown by the people behind this Cloepfil-designed speculative single-family house: Wieden + Kennedy executive creative director John Jay and his wife Janet, as well as builder-developer extraordinaire Don Tankersley, whose past work includes the magnificent Rick Potestio-designed Lair Condominiums, the Jays' own Pietro Belluschi-designed, Brad-Cloepfil-renovated/expanded house, and numerous other boutique projects around town by Potestio, architect Jeff Lamb, and others.

I mention Don Tankersley also because, although the Macleay View House is unquestionably an Allied Works design, it also reminded me a little bit of the facade at the Lair Condos (pictured here) that Tankersley both developed and built from Potestio's design. The Macleay has a quite vertical feel, which is dictated mostly by the steep incline of its West Hills site and the expansive view it affords of Portland. At the same time, the interior of the house seems oriented around a series of stairway climbs from one level to another, wrapping a 32-foot atrium. The house also, as it happens, has an elevator.

I've heard it said that once an architect starts doing mostly institutional-scale work, as Allied is now, it's hard to go back to designing the much smaller single family home. Although there may be something slightly formal or a faintly institutional building feel here, overall Cloepfil and company pass with flying colors. The house is filled with gorgeous deep brown wood, a large central open kitchen, and an upper balcony covering the whole width of the house.

The Cloepfil-Tankersley partnership is also continuing with another Southwest Portland residence that's currently under construction for investor John Von Schlegell, which seems like it might be even more ambitious than the Macleay.

Meanwhile, Randy Gragg's discussion with Cloepfil will begin at 6PM at Jimmy Mak's, 221 NW 10th Avenue. Unlike when some of the club's esteemed resident jazz musicians take the stage, there is no cover charge. (Although believe me, Mel Brown and company are worth it.)

Republican Party Endorses Dozono, Every Major Newspaper Endorses Adams

As the race for Portland mayor and other local races heats up, a string of endosements have been handed out. Here's a summary of some recent ones for mayoral candidates Sho Dozono and Sam Adams:

Endorsement for Dozono: Multnomah County Republicans. "A man of proven leadership in increasing society's wealth," they say in a run-on sentence (must be the education cuts). The local Republican party has also endorsed Amanda Fritz for City Council. They cite her commitment to suspending streetcar expansion in favor of more buses. If only she were willing to eat her young.

Meanwhile, here are some endorsements for Sam Adams: The Oregonian. The Portland Tribune. The Portland Mercury. Willamette Week. "Adams is by far the most qualified to lead and most in tune with what Portlanders want," WW wrote. "If elected to replace retiring Mayor Tom Potter, Adams would restore assertive executive leadership to a city government that for three and half years has been wandering in a multitude of directions," said the Tribune.

As I said in a previous post, I'm not sure I feel entirely comfortable telling people how they should vote. But the Adams-Dozono choice seems painfully obvious to me. I mean, let's see: a longtime City Hall veteran who got his start working for a successful three-term mayor, or a travel agency owner who flubbed his public campaign funds, initially refused to pay the city for his Bush Garden rent even after it was reduced by half, and who has zero experience in government.

I haven't made up my mind about the City Council races yet. The only candidate I've met personally is Chris Smith, who is an exceptionally knowledgable guy about transportation and more. He woulnd't be nuts enough to get rid of the streetcar. In the close race for State Representative in the Southeast Portland district I belong to, I think some of the values and endorsements of candidates like Jules Koppel-Bailey and Teddy Keizer best match my own feelings, but long before the flood of political mailers began arriving in my box from those two, their opponent, Regan Gray, knocked on my door last summer to ask what issues were important to me. So I stood there in the doorway and squawked to her about design and architecture for 10 minutes and she asked intelligent questions. That experience means more to me as a voter than if Keizer and Koppel-Bailey mailed me two tons of flyers.

Who do the rest of you believe are the best design-and-architecture candidates, and who are the ones most to avoid?

Portland and the COTE Top 10 Green List

A couple weeks ago the American Institute of Architects' Committee on the Environment released its annual Top Ten Green Projects list.

As described by the AIA, the program "celebrates projects that are the result of a thoroughly integrated approach to architecture, natural systems and technology. They make a positive contribution to their communities, improve comfort for building occupants and reduce environmental impacts through strategies such as reuse of existing structures, connection to transit systems, low-impact and regenerative site development, energy and water conservation, use of sustainable or renewable construction materials, and design that improves indoor air quality."

Considering that Portland has often been called the nation's greenest city, and at various times we've had the most LEED-rated projects in the nation, you'd think we'd be all over this list, either the new one or past lists of the top 10 green projects. Actually, though, that's not the case at all.

This year's AIA/COTE Top 10 honors projects in New York, Pennsylvania, Boston, Seattle, Wisconsin and elsewhere.  But there's not one project from Portland. And if you look back at past years of COTE lists, Portland has hardly any presence at all.

Last year, the Gerding Theater at the Armory by GBD Architects (pictured above) received an Honorable Mention, but still failed to crack the 2007 Top 10 list despite being one of the nation's first ever LEED Platinum rated historic renovations. A Eugene project with an assist from a Portland firm was on the list, the Morse US Courthouse, but legendary architect Thom Mayne is really the auteur of that project, not DLR Group.

In 2006, a Portland project indeed made the list, the Lloyd Crossing Sustainable Design Plan, but it wasn't a work of architecture and it wasn't from a Portland firm (the designer was Mithun of Seattle). 2004 had no Portland firms or projects on the list, nor did 2003. In 2002 the modest but very sustainable Bank of Astoria in Manzanita by Oregon coast architect Tom Bender made the list, but that's still not Portland. The awards began in 1997, but if you go all the way back to the beginning, there is still no accolade for local firm or project.

Meanwhile, our northern neighbors in Seattle are all over the COTE Top 10 list almost every time. This year's list includes the Discovery Center at South Lake Union in Seattle by local firm Miller/Hull Partnership, as well as the Pocono Environmental Education Center by Seattle firm Bohlin Cywinski Jackson. Miller/Hull, Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, Mahlum Architects and Mithun, all from the home of the NFL's Sea-turkeys, each have multiple AIA/COTE Top 10 finishes: Mithun for two different REI stores and the Puget Sound Environmental Learning Center, Miller Hull for this year's Lake Union project as well as past list-makers the Bainbridge Island City Hall and Pierce County Environmental Services, and even Mahlum has both Ben Franklin Elementary in Kirkland and and a building at Evergreen State College in Olympia.

So here's the question: Does the history of the COTE top 10 show that Portland is over-rated as a green building city, that it's under-recognized, both or neither? I think of landmark sustainable projects here like GBD's Center For Health and Healing at OHSU, a LEED Platinum rated design that's a whopping 50% more energy efficient than code, which is stunning for such a big building. Or the Ecotrust Natural Capital Center in the Pearl. Or the net-zero energy Rose House by SERA Architects. Or the Brewery Blocks. They're all supposed to be leading-edge sustainable projects. Are they not? Or if they are, why aren't they on the list?

Then again, maybe it's just the nature of awards and lists. I mean, other than maybe this year and a few other exceptions, the Academy Awards almost never pick the right film for Best Picture. Rocky over Taxi Driver? Oliver over 2001: A Space Odyssey? Crash over...anything? Even Kevin Costner has a Best Director Oscar and neither Alfred Hitchcock nor Orson Welles ever got one. 'Nuff said.

Even so, I'm curious whether people think COTE ignores Portland, or whether we're not as special as we think.

Welcome Sponsor

Portland Architectue is happy to welcome the sponsorship of Realtor Justin Milan Cole, who recently relocated to Oregon from California and is registered in three states (OR, WA, CA). In addition to realty, Milan (he goes by his middle name) is a general contractor. So once an architect designs something for this guy, he can build it and sell it.

PSU's Portable Classroom On Alberta

Portland State University architecture professor Matthew Bietz is teaching the first phase of an architecture studio that will be designing and fabricating a portable classroom on NE Alberta Street at 15th Avenue, on a vacant property Bietz purchased next door to his home.

The classroom will be not for Bietz’s students, but for fellow PSU professor Harrell Fletcher’s Social Practice students going for their masters of fine arts. The Social Practices program emphasizes community engagement through non-studio creative activities executed in the field. “I heard that Harrell was looking to collaborate with the Architecture department at PSU," Bietz explains, "and that his new Social Practice class has no studio space on campus. Also, [then architecture department head] Rudy Barton has been asking me to teach a design-build class for some time now, because of my experience in Mexico with Steve Badanes and the University of Washington’s design-build program.”

There will be a hands-on construction studio beginning in July, with completion and ‘arrival’ of the project on site as part of PICA’s TBA festival this fall.

The site is a 50x100 empty lot. Once on site, the project will become the base of operations and community outreach center for the Social Practice students. After a 3 to 6 month stay, it will remove itself from the site and travel to a new location in a different neighborhood to repeat the process.

The intent of Bietz’s studio is to explore architecture as a mode of social outreach through community engagement, with specific focus on portability, prefabrication and recycled and re-used materials.  The process began with 15 concepts that were then condensed into five projects. The projects range from panelized systems and tent structures to expanding shipping containers and unfolding spaces on wheels.

Bietz moved to the Alberta neighborhood in 1998 “when houses were still under $100K and an architecture intern could afford to buy a house in Portland.” A decade later, “my house has appreciated to the point that I could afford to refinance and purchase the lot next door to me, for a possible development. But with the current mortgage crisis, and no one willing to lend me 500K for speculative housing, I started looking for other ways to use the property. Put that all together and you have a pretty interesting potential project. One that needs some funding, but will no doubt be built this summer.”

In the images above, the first is the "Sliding Cube and Tent Structure" by Junior Carbajal, Hussien Al-Baiaty and Gulia Gulnara. The second is "Dynawall" by Ralph Loielo and Paul Nordlund. The third is called "Unfolding Shipping Container" by Max Dehne, Craig Moore and Olga Reuven.

New Condos In Multnomah Village

If you drive around close-in Portland neighborhoods these days it’s easy to find a new condo or apartment project going up, even in the increasingly gloomy economy. A case in point is the new Vanguard condos at SW 45th and Multnomah.

I’ve always been more a fan of the east side, downtown and the Pearl than the winding sidewalk-less streets of Southwest. But Multnomah Village is a wonderful little neighborhood that feels like the old town center it used to be when one of the state’s first railroad stops was built here a century ago. I particularly enjoy the Fat City Café for its hash browns and Annie Bloom’s books. And now, the Vanguard is increasing the density of this area, and doing so with a modestly handsome look.

Originating from the same owners who developed the brilliant Rick Potestio-designed Lair Condominiums, The Vanguard began as a project for DiLoreto Architecture but has been finished up by architect Bryce Allison and his small firm, Divergent Design & Architecture. The project features six small condo units, three garden level studios and three upper level one-bedroom units.

“This is the third project we designed for the site,” Allison says. “The first two just didn’t pencil once the bank got involved. This last version is a bit compromised as it was originally laid out as six apartments then flipped back to condos during the permitting phase. It’s a tiny yet efficient project, and the client is very excited about what we’ve created together. Nearly two and a half years ago they asked us to design them something ‘Dwell cool’. All things considered, we feel like we did a good job of getting close."

Noticeable right away is the wood exterior cladding, which seems to be what will mark this era of multi-family housing in Portland. It livens up what is otherwise a pretty boxy, simple form. Hopefully, as with other wood exteriors such as the Thurman Street Lofts and Belmont Lofts by Holst Architecture, or the B39 condos going up at SE 39th and Belmont, these facades will still look good in twenty or thirty years.

Meanwhile, congratulations to Bryce Allison as the latest young architect to take the reigns and start getting things built. I know many architects who want be designing and developing stuff, but it takes a certain breed to make it happen.

Greenworks and Ankrom Moisan-Led Team Among Metro Integrating Habitats Competition Winners

Last month Metro held its Integrating Habitats competition, and although I’m late in writing about it, wanted to touch upon at least one of the winners.

The purpose of Integrating Habitats was to generate designs that integrate built and natural environments. According to metro, winners would “redefine the current language and standards of environmental sustainability by fostering balance between conservation and development, maximizing biodiversity and safeguarding water quality for this generation and those to come."

The jury included Stuttgart/Los Angeles architect Stefan Behnisch; University of Michigan landscape architecture professor Joan Nassauer; Tom Schueler, founder of the Center for Watershed Protection in Maryland; Metropolis magazine editor Susan Szenasy; Portland developer Jim Winkler; and David Yocca, director of the Conservation Design Forum in Elmhurst, Illinois.

In the commercial category, a collaborative group from Portland was the winner. Team members came from Greenworks, Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects, ESA Adolphson, SWCA Environmental Consultants, and Bruce Rodgers Design Illustration. The submittal, which drew from Metro’s 2040 Growth Concept and Portland’s Peak Oil Task Force 2007 Report, involved a lowland hardwood forest habitat interface with a big-box green home center, parking, and remnant wetlands.

"We were drawn to Category 2 because it is a type of project (big-box) that is not typically known for sustainability," Greenworks' Jason King told me. "It was mostly a parking problem. We also asked ourselves, "How will design and development change due to peak oil?  How can we design now to respond to the future variability? Our aim was a project that could be viable, one a developer would look at and say 'We could build this.'" 

King also, in his email to me, quoted the landscape urbanism theorist Charles Waldheim: "Landscape replaces architecture as the basic building block of contemporary urbanism... Landscape has become both the lens through which the contemporary city is represented and the medium through which it is constructed."

Among the plans are for unwanted yard and food wastes to be brought on site and transformed into compost. Stormwater collected and cleansed with technologies that replicate wetland processes and habitats. Economically, they explain, “our development model taps into Portland’s leading market for sustainable building practices and lifestyles, and fosters community by creating service- oriented building centers near regional and town centers to meet the challenges of post peak-oil conditions. Through daylighting, façade articulation and site responsive features, the architecture provides a contrasting experience that will attract nearby shoppers from adjacent big box developments for the engaging experience the site will offer them.”

To me this isn't a radical re-invention of the big-box store. It's really just about breaking down the bulk of the store, stopping the roof from being an eyesore and a heat island by landscaping the top and sloping one edge down. And then it's making the surface parking lot softer around the edges.

I wonder if an even greener solution, which for all I know the competition brief didn't allow, might be to put another store next to the big box where the surface parking lot would go, and have the two side-by-side stores share the cost of putting parking underground. You could still integrate nature in but get rid of that ugly surface car lot instead of window dressing it.

Having said that, I would love to pull up at this instead of the hideous, life-sucking environment of the Jantzen Beach Center Target store and its sea of asphalt I visited a couple weekends ago. There are empty buildings all over there, and to walk from Target to, say, Barnes & Noble or Old Navy next door, there's no place to go for a pedestrian except for over grass berms and along the asphalt right next to the cars. If they could clear out all the people and valuables first, I'd have no problem with them demolishing almost the entire Hayden Island shopping area and start over...with stuff like this (and connected by MAX).

You can read more about this winning commercial entry on the Greenworks site. Also, the winning entries for the competition were on display in the Bureau of Development Services at 1900 S.W. Fourth Avenue throughout April, and I believe they'll be shown somewhere else in May - more on that shortly.

A Narratorium Forum

Portland lacks a proper contemporary art museum. There is also an argument to be made for a design museum. But professor Clive Knights and his Portland State University architecture students have something different in mind. Continuing their explorations of the relationship between urban environments and storytelling, these Vikings are forging onward with discussions of an institution built around verbal storytelling: the Narratorium. Knights and his department are hosting an upcoming event to take the idea forward:

You are invited to participate in an open public discussion to consider the viability of a new form of civic institution for Portland dedicated to the art of storytelling and the traditions of oral history: The Narratorium. Sixteen architecture students proposed many different versions of such an institution this recent Winter term and this work will act as a prompt for conversation and strategizing.

We will be asking: Is storytelling significant enough in contemporary experience to warrant its own institution? Are we failing to nurture and sustain an important dimension of our culture, that embodied in the recital of a tale? Have we lost contact with mythic experience and the power of narrative to articulate our shared values? Does Portland need an oral archive? How can the interest of public and private agencies be stimulated? Can feasibility be examined by learning from precedents such as the Scottish Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh?

The Narratorium Forum is open to the public and will discuss the actual possibility of such a place here in the Rose City. The meeting will be held this Saturday, May 3, at 2PM in the Department of Architecture's temporary home, the Unitus Building (2121 SW Fourth Avenue), 3rd floor.

Emmons Architects' Deschutes Brewery and the Magic of Chainsaw Art

Last week at architect Stuart Emmons' invitation I visited the new Deschutes Brewery brew pub on Southwest 11th Avenue near the Brewery Blocks. The building was a familiar one: the former Jim Stevens Auto Body building, where my car was repaired a few years ago after being hit by a Tri-Met bus. I was very happy with the body work, but I think most people will get more out of this building now that Deschutes is here. The pub is right next door to Portland Center Stage's Gerding Theater at the Armory, so this would make an ideal pre- or post-theater stop. (As would, admittedly, any number of other nearby outlets from Sushiland to Henry's Tavern to Pizza Schmizza.)

The goal, Emmons says, was to create a brewpub that was in between two other local pubs' styles: the sleekness of Holst Architecture's Bridgeport brewpub remodel and the homey, lived in quality of McMenamins' approximately 10,000 local pubs. And inside, that's how it seemed. You could tell there was a real architect behind the design in terms of the spatial arrangements. There is lots of character to the place, but I had a sense of the vast wide open space being divided into a series of room-like smaller spaces without the overall sense of light and vastness being taken away.

There was also a lot of fun had on this project in terms of textures and accoutrements. Numerous light fixtures are of the vintage, wrought-iron variety. Like a salon-style art gallery show or the tons of mirrors on the walls at traditional French brasseries, Deschutes is covered with tons of gilded frames, some with historic photos of the building and Portland, others with kitschy drawings and artifacts. What I particularly enjoyed was how even the air ducts were enclosed in gilded frames at their wall openings. There is also lots of raw Douglas fir used throughout the space to give it an appropriately rustic feeling without seeming chintzy. This brewpub feels new, but lived in.

The best part of the new Deschutes brewpub, though -- besides their copious supply of Mirror Pond ale -- may be the cornucopia of chain saw carvings on the entry to each dining room. Emmons tells me the artist works without any drawings or guide; he merely creates with his chainsaw in an impromptu fashion the array of owls, goats and other wildlife. I can't say it's the most sophisticated, refined sculpture I've ever encountered. But God help me: I love it. There are actually some pretty delicate, artful carvings to these chainsaw works. Maybe next the guy could do a chainsaw Portlandia, or perhaps a statue of Tom Potter as a going away present.

Meanwhile, look for Emmons Architects to have an increased presence in town. Educated at Harvard's Graduate School of Design, Stuart has long been one of the better architects in town; his Fire Station 1 design competition entry with Hennebery Eddy was terrific, and now the firm is designing a courthouse in Gresham. Gerding Edlen is actually a co-developer of the Deschutes site; here's hoping Emmons may eventually be designing one of their condos when the market comes back. The Deschutes looks terrific, but Stuart should also be doing bigger better jobs than brewpubs - the brilliance of the accompanying chainsaw art not withstanding. Actually, though, can't you just imagine some of this artwork in the lobby of some ultra-modern condo?

Joslin vs. Sauvie Island's Oversized Dump

Most people in the local architecture and building community know Jeff Joslin for his role as the Land Use Manager for the City of Portland, overseeing design review and historic landmarks review. But he's also a property owner on Sauvie Island, and Joslin has a bone to pick with his neighbor, the industrial dump that is looking to expand.

Joslin's property, which contains wetlands listed on the National Wetlands Registry, sits next to a 25-acre property owned by ESCO, and industrial foundry in Northwest Portland. Since 1977 ESCO has dumped foundry by-products like furnace brick and glassy slag there. (I just love the phrase "glassy slag".) As reported by The Sentinel, a North/Northeast Portland paper, last year the company applied for a conditional-use permit to raise the permissible height of its dump by 14 feet.

Joslin and his neighbors argued that the dump was a non-conforming use on land currently zoned for agriculture. The site currently also drains water into Joslin's protected wetlands. He argues it could also begin leaching contaminated groundwater. In fact, Joslin spent $25,000 of his own money on consultants (hydrologists, land-use, engineers, lawyers) to create evidence against the expansion. City employees must be better compensated than I imagined, because Joslin apparently sold his 1997 Porsche 911 to pay for the consultants.

But Multnomah County disagreed. Last month they approved ESCO's request to hugely increase their Sauvie Island industrial dump. County officials cited the fact that while Sauvie Island is zoned for agriculture, it can be used as a dump as long as it is in continuous use as one. In other words, the dump shouldn't be there, but it's been grandfathered in. And because of this idiocy, not only did poor Jeff just gave away a supercar for nothing, but the beautiful sanctuary that is Sauvie Island is gearing up to become a bigger landfill.

Maybe in some future autumn, instead of a corn maze at local farms, they can have one made of glassy slag.

Now Joslin is gearing up for an appeal. We're with you here at Portland Architecture, Jeff!

Visiting PNCA's 511 Broadway Building

Today I took a tour of the circa-1916 federal building at 511 NW Broadway that is being taken over by the Pacific Northwest College of Art with the school's president, Tom Manley, and communications director Becca Biggs. The tour was a few minutes late getting started, which actually was good news, because after passing through the security x-ray machines, I was free to peruse the ground floor lobby a little bit on my own.

511 is going to be a magnificent space for PNCA, which was evident as soon as I entered the thin but cavernously high-ceilinged lobby. There is marble everywhere, lots of ornate detailing, and even ceiling panels that have tons of artful workmanship put into them. Upstairs doors and door panels are clad in unpainted stained wood; the doors even have these frosted-glass windows that look they should have the name "Philip Marlowe" stenciled on them. And there is lots and lots of space here. PNCA ought to have plenty of room to grow.

Wherever you go in this building there are wonderful little tarnished gems. It looks pretty drab and dreary right now, of course. The building has federal agency offices upstairs and some Department of Immigration services on the ground floor. The main activity in this grand entrance area, though, is chitchatting between security guards, building maintenance and housekeeping staff. Plenty of working offices still remain here; those were off limits. But there are lots of empty rooms and spaces that we were able to see upstairs - dark places with low ceilings walls that will be removed.

Although this is a historic building to which certain strictures will apply in terms of preserving the original structure, it has already been changed numerous times. I believe originally the building was for the Postal Service. Both on the ground floor and upstairs, there seem to be many, many opportunities to knock down walls and raise ceilings. In fact, to do so would appear to better honor the original architecture than the current interiors do. Over time this grand building was made into somewhat drab offices. But the bones here are incredible. In fact, there's plenty of flesh and skin to go along with it.

While it's a big heavy building that will hold its thermal mass well (staying cool in the summer and warm in the winter), and it can seem imposing from the street with a lack of transparency, this is actually meant to be a building teeming with natural light. There are numerous huge skylights that were actually covered during various renovations; all of which, needless to say, will be made back into skylights.

There is also quite a nice view or, to be more specific, many different view corridors and framed looks at Portland. That includes a rooftop that could someday be a spectacular hangout or party spot, and which my tour guides and I got to glimpse for a few minutes. One side looks down on the post office across Hoyt Street and Union Station just across Broadway, with the Broadway Bridge, the Willamette River, and the Pearl District in the background. The other side looks toward downtown. Even though it's really just some leftover space adjacent to the rooftop mechanical systems, this could be a special little place to have a party or woo a potential donor (or both).

Merely a serviceable renovation of this building as a new building for PNCA would be great news for architecture in Portland on its own. It's got a lot of great stuff to keep. But as previously mentioned, the architect for 511's renovation will be Allied Works and Brad Cloepfil, which makes the notion of a modern building emerging from this dusty, hulk of an old building an extra intriguing one. As Manley and I were walking down a marble back stairway talking about what Allied might do, I said, "This could be Wieden + Kennedy 2." Manley corrected me and said, "No, this building has a lot more to the original than the Wieden + Kennedy building ever did." So it will be interesting to see how Brad and Allied bring the building alive and how much of that is just opening and cleaning it up versus introducing certain material or spacial modernity inside as well.

511 occupies a strange presence, or at least it has until now. It's a wonderful early 20th century work of architecture on one of the more prominent streets in the center of the city. Yet because it's been closed to the public for so long and kept a very discreet profile, it seems a whole generation has gone by without even the architecture enthusiasts and practitioners among us noticing much that the building is really there. In a few years, that's going to change in a big way. And with the post office being vacated, freeing up that land to re-development (although hopefully some of the original building stays), with a MAX line soon to be going nearby, this whole area seems poised to really go through a metamorphosis over the next decade.

Of course the Portland Public Market had also sought 511 Broadway as a home for itself, and I hope there is a place for them in this area. That said, having now been inside this grand old building, I don't see it as a place for a public market with produce and salami and artisan goods for sale. As has been bandied about in the comments following some of my previous posts about this issue, I think a better home for the public market would be the current Greyhound station two blocks east of 511 - contingent, of course, on the bus company's willingness to move. Or if not the Greyhound station, it seems there are a lot of other nearby parcels with potential for the market, which I'll bet a lot of hungry PNCA students would like to patronize, as would the condo residents.

And as I understand it, in addition to PNCA being able to renovate the 511 building itself, the back parking lot is eventually going to be converted to a new segment of the North Park Blocks. The budget doesn't appear to be there for it now, but if the funds were to become available, what kind of landscape architectural wonder might be conjured there, between PNCA and a renovated post office site at the new edge of the Park Blocks?

Congratulations, PNCA. You've just won a landmark of a new home, and then some.

A New Book of Architect Interviews from PSU

Portland State University's Department of Architecture has published a new book of interviews with several architects called Verge: Between Education and Practice. There are Portlanders represented here such as Jeff Kovel of Skylab, Logan Cravens of SERA Architects, Robert Frasca of Zimmer Gunsul Frasca, and Brian White of Architecture W. There are also several prominent designers from Seattle, Vancouver, and a few other places in the region.

I've been perusing the book over the last few days and thought I would pass on a few random questions and answers. Mostly the conversations tend to focus on design education and running one's practice, but there are a few random other ones as well. For example, Brian White has an interesting answer when asked what his favorite building is right now:

"On this hill on Northwest Broadway, right when you cross the highway and you start to go up the hill. It is to your left, an assisted living building, I-shaped. It is green, [and] the columns are on the exterior and it is [by] a no-name architect. I like it as a mark in the landscape, actually a very beautiful building with landscaping. It is similar to what a lot of people are doing in Europe now, in terms of very simple commercial and the way it is expressed. The glass is green, but there is something very nice about it, kind of like the Christian Science Reading Room downtown. My office is down underneath a bridge. And it is pretty cool. It is not a piece of architecture but an architectural space."

Later, Holst Architecture co-principal John Holmes is asked what he thinks should be focused on for students in architecture programs:

"Drawing is very, very important, being able to think with a pencil. It doesn't necessarily have to be careful or pretty, but being able to think three-dimensionally and being able to draw that. You draw something and then you react, then you draw another thing. It's not that I did my drawing and here's my idea, it's more like I did a hundred drawings and here's the best one. Each one of those drawings is fast and encompasses a lot of thinking...

The other thing is being able to understand money when you draw something. People come out of school very talented, but it takes a long time for that person to understand money. When you are in school, you don't have to deal with that, but that's really where I think a lot of people fail in the profession. It takes another level of creative thought to take a more discerning and disciplined approach."

And finally, Daniel Mihalyo of Seattle's Lead Pencil Studio talks about the challenge of integrating place and regionalism into one's work:

"I definitely used to think that was of primary importance, especially coming out of [the University of] Oregon, which has a very powerful learning structure based on regionalism...In the grand scheme of things, though, I feel like the economy is ridiculously powerful and crushes the weaker force of regionalism. The pace at which things are being built and the scale that change is happening makes it impossible to produce enough regional work to really create a lasting influence. I see a lot of firms that attempt to create regional work but it's being lost in this giant machine that's churning out millions of square feet a day. Even so, we feel it's really important that all architects get the basic grounding for understanding how to build work that's appropriate for the climate and to understand that the sensibility of light and orientation to the landscape is completely different in the Northwest than it would be in Phoenix."

Verge: Between Education and Practice is available through the PSU Department of Architecture and (I believe) at the AIA/Portland Center for Architecture.

Zooming to A New Art Center

A couple years ago, while attending a Third Angle classical music performance, I met a woman named Carole Zoom and her husband Brett, both recent Eugene transplants. We've stayed in touch since then, which is easy because they're culture vultures who enjoy making it to plays, film screenings and concerts. Brett is also an accomplished journalist who has written frequently about architecture for publications like the Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times, for whom he did a nice Thom Mayne profile last year.

Back in Eugene, Carole did something terrific for the local arts community. She bought a building, rented it out (at a reduced rate) to local nonprofit arts organizations as the Midtown Art Center, and then negotiated to sell them the building. (Carole is also an artist and photographer.)

And now, Carole is looking to do the same in Portland. In a recent email she writes:

In Eugene in 2005 I purchased a building with my personal nestegg in order to consolidate eight arts organizations under one roof, allow them shared infrastructure so that they could use more of their money for their missions. The Eugene Ballet took leadership on the nonprofit side and pulled together the tenants for the 14,000 sqare foot building. Our arrangement allowed them reduced rent for 3 years so that they could do a capital campaign to purchase the building from me in 3 years. That building is now used by the Eugene Ballet and seven other arts organizations, and they are purchasing the building from me this summer.

I am searching now for tenants in Portland for a similar set up. My goal is to buy a building in summer large enough for numerous nonprofits to use and work together to raise funds to purchase it from me as their fundraising allows. I am not rich and am not able to give the building to nonprofits, but I want my investment to work for justice in the community.

She wrote me recently asking if I knew of a building that might be suitable. My immediate first thought was the downtown building on SW 10th Avenue with the colored checkerboard panels. It's been vacant for years despite an ideal location; I've heard it's not in great shape, but I still think for the right tenant it could be a real landmark. Carole looked into it, but found the building has been taken off the market. (Does anyone know the story?)

Another thought I had was for Carole to partner with Oregon Ballet Theater to expand their building on Southeast Morrison between Belmont and Morrison, as originally planned several years ago in a Holst Architecture-designed plan. All these years later, OBT is still occupying the same drab old former bank building with nothing to indicate an arts organization is there save for the sign on the side. It's a great location: just a block away from Grand Avenue (where a streetcar line will eventually be) and the Morrison Bridge east terminus, yet with a little bit cheaper real estate than you'd have across the river on the west side. And yet this area is already well on its way to transforming into a denser and more vibrant urban place.

Carole Zoom is no millionaire philanthopist, but it's clear she's ready and able to make this project happen. Her project could end up being some simple conversion of an old building, as was the case in Eugene. But it could also be something more. What site and architect might best work with Carole to provide not only a home for some worthy art nonprofits, but do so in a wonderful package?

I'm afraid I missed writing this post before Carole's informational meeting about the building held last Wednesday. But I will pass on more information from Carole as it becomes available.

Two Lectures and a Fountain

This week the University of Oregon and Portland State University each will host a prominent architect for a lecture.

On Wednesday, April 23 at 6PM, PSU will welcome Canadian architect Gregory Henriquez to Lincoln Hall (1620 SW Park, room 75). Henriquez's firm, Henriquez Partners, has been around for 34 years in Vancouver and has been responsible for a host of different project types. But the architect is best known for several pioneering mixed use and social housing projects. In his book, "Towards An Ethical Architecture", Henriquez explores the role of ethics, activism and critical commentary and argues that architecture must be a poetic expression of social justice."

Thursday the University of Oregon welcomes one of its former architecture instructors, Thomas Hacker, to its new Portland Center and White Stag building (70 NW Couch Street) for a 6PM Lecture.

As I've written about frequently, after studying at the University of Pennsylvania, Hacker got his start in the Philadelphia office of the great Louis Kahn. At the UO, Hacker and other professors espoused the spiritual modernism of Kahn, and the idea that each design endeavor is a search for how to express the essence of each client and program. When he left UO for private practice in Portland, Hacker also gave prominent local architects of today like Rick Potestio, Brad Cloepfil and John Cava their start. An OHSU building on Marquam Hill has the unique combination of Hacker, Cloepfil and Potestio's mark.

Then there's all the very fine buildings that Hacker's firm has done in the last decade or two: the superlative Woodstock, Beaverton and Hillsdale libraries, numerous university buildings, and now a South Waterfront condo (Atwater Place) and a new headquarters for Mercy Corps. Sometimes when I talk to the most talented younger architects in town, they tend not to get as excited by Hacker's work as some new firms such as Skylab, Holst, or Works Partnership. But I rate the firm's work very high.

Finally, in case you hadn't heard (I sure hadn't), April is Landscape Architecture Month! It's also the 20th anniversary of the Salmon Street Springs Fountain at Waterfront Park. This Thursday, the local ASLA (American Society of Landscape Architects) will hold a festival at the fountain from noon to 1PM. (Wow, an hour-long festival!) Portland Architecture has also learned that a temporary art installation entitled "Spin" will incorporate large red pinwheels assembled around the fountain.

Regardless of whether you or I make the trek to Salmon Street Springs Fountain this Thursday (but I know the pinwheels have piqued your interest), it's worth remembering the stellar landscape architecture that exists in Portland - a pedigree arguably stronger than that of our architecture.

PNCA's At It Again: Going From Rent to Own at Cloepfil-Redesigned Goodman Building

It's another week, time for the Pacific Northwest College of Art to secure ownership of major Pearl District real estate at little or no cost. They can't keep it up at this pace, surely, but fresh off the news a few days ago of securing the 511 Broadway building, the school has reached an agreement with the family of the late Edith Goodman, the building's owner, to purchase the school's home since 1997 on an full block between Northwest 12 and 13th Avenues, Johnson and Kearney Streets. The agreement is accompanied by announcement from PNCA of accompanying financial news, summarized thusly (as Alton Brown would say) by DK Row:

The college also publicly launched a historic capital campaign targeting $32 million in pledges by the end of June 2009, when the college celebrates its centennial. The campaign, which has quietly raised $26 million, went public Saturday with the announcement of three lead campaign gifts of $1 million each from PNCA board president Al Solheim, the Harold and Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation and the Maybelle Clark MacDonald Fund. The MacDonald donation is a challenge gift, contingent on whether the college raises an additional $3 million.

Renovated a decade ago by Holst Architecture, the Goodman Building has always been a nice environment, I think, particularly its huge open space in the middle. I've been to award ceremonies there, Japanese DJ concerts, a French philosopher's lecture, a design forum, art exhibits, but all the while the renovated old warehouse itself, with its exposed structure and simple white aesthetics, is itself a particularly nice piece of any experience. From an artist's or curator's standpoint in some of the exhibit spaces, maybe there is more that could be done, but I still like the building a lot. And that's before we even talk about the exterior paint job created by Randy Higgins (above), which is a transcription of an Arthur Rimbaud poem into a language of differently sized squares and rectangles.

According to D.K. Row's Oregonian article, Allied Works will oversee design for the $12 million "light" (says PNCA) re-renovation. That's on top of Brad Cloepfil's firm already being selected by PNCA for the 511 Broadway building (pictured at left). So in effect, for all of the huge commissions that Allied has received over the past several years, for art museums in St. Louis, New York, Seattle, Ann Arbor and Denver, not to mention the Wieden & Kennedy job before those, PNCA will be the Cloepfil client with repeat business for his firm. And though it may not be for a few years, I'm betting PNCA isn't done acquiring buildings with these two, wonderful a foundation (pardon the pun) as they may be. How about a ground-up building for PNCA on some of the post office's surface parking lot in the back? Or perhaps something further north, out by the Fremont Bridge and Centennial Mill?