The Casey: Lost Opportunity?

Recently Gerding/Edlen Development announced a new 16-story residential project at Northwest 12th and Everett, adjacent to the Brewery Blocks. The Casey, as it’s called, will be the first quarter-block highrise building in the Pearl and is slated to meet LEED ‘Platinum’ standards, potentially making it the greenest residential building in the country.

All of this is good news. What troubles, me, though, is that The Casey is being designed by GBD Architects.

As evidenced by the Brewery Blocks, Belmont Dairy and numerous other projects, GBD does good work. But they already have designed five other buildings in the immediate area. My beef isn't about their capabilities of their firm. Rather, I believe it's time for Gerding/Edlen to patronize another firm that will complement GBD's existing Brewery Blocks work with a different visual presence.

Over the last few years Gerding/Edlen has arguably become the city’s most important architectural patron, with a central role in both the Pearl District and South Waterfront. The developer has particularly done an excellent job in promiting sustainable design and pedestrian-friendly urban spaces.

Going with one firm for the entire five Brewery Blocks was understandable given how risky and not no so clearly a sure thing the project was when Gerding/Edlen began. But today it's a different story. The developer has a reputation of fitting their business model to greater civic goods. In talking with Mark Edlen, I know his company also takes seriously the virtue of supporting a variety of firms. That's why I was expecting Gerding/Edlen to venture out of their comfort zone with The Casey.

Clearly GBD is Gerding/Edlen’s firm of choice, and to a large extent that's OK. The two companies' offices are in the same building--a Brewery Block they built together. The two firms have a very strong working relationship, and a proven track record of success. There's undoubtedly a useful kind of shorthand that's developed between them.

Which is why no one can question Gerding/Edlen's post-Brewery Blocks use of GBD as the architect of record on a succession of South Waterfront projects in which another firm serves as lead designer: Peter Busby, Thompson Vaivoda and Thomas Hacker.

With The Casey, I expected Gerding/Edlen to again let another firm show what they can do, and then have GBD be the architect of record. Of course GBD need not be relegated to this more compromised position every time. But they have had several trips through the buffet line already, and other people are hungry. And Gerding/Edlen holds one of the biggest serving spoons.

Two of the other biggest developers in Portland focused on residential buildings, John Carroll and Hoyt Street, already show tremendous favoritism towards another architecture firm, Ankrom Moisan. Between these three developers there have been somewhere along the lines of 15 different buildings to go up over the last decade in the Pearl District alone. It’s not healthy for the neighborhood or the city for a mere two architecture firms to be designing virtually all of them.

For all I know, GBD’s design for The Casey will be spectacular. But that’s not the issue. This is not a matter of talent or track record, but of opportunity.

Comments

[Craig]

The NW Examiner has a picture of the Casey in this months issue. It looks a lot like the Henry, basically a box.

[Mike Thelin]

I agree that we need more variety. It's sad to me that some of our best designers are doing their most noteworthy work outside of Portland. We could use the inspiration and notoriety locally.

[Cab]

The thing is it not like Portland firms are doing bad work here, its more they tend to stick to a certain style that works well within the city. The Casey will be a fine addition a fit right in, but once in a while it would be nice for some architects to push the bounds a little without trashing the fit in part.

[Sherman McCoy]

The Pearl is rapidly becoming an urban ghetto reminiscent of LeFrak city in NY. I've lived here 9 years, and am moving out. They should rename the Pearl "PoodleTown", because you have to own one to fit in. It's a crowded, kid unfriendly, ostentatious caricature of what an urban neighborhood should be.

[Katie Zemtseff]

http://www.djc.com/blogs/BuildingGreen/

[Katie Zemtseff]

http://www.djc.com/blogs/BuildingGreen/2008/05/30/what-does-green-developer-gerding-edlen-think-is-next/