The Casey's "Ski Resort" Panels

About 10 days ago the always entertaining Matt Davis of the Portland Mercury's Blogtown expressed shock and dismay at new cladding going up on a Pearl District condo.

The cladding, Davis said, "makes it look like a 1970s French ski resort, closed down for the summer off-season" while also comparing the material to "curry, puke" and "puke curry". Pardon me, by the way, if this is spoiling your lunch.

The condo in which this cladding appears is The Casey, designed by GBD Architects and developed by Gerding Edlen, the team that also brought you Brewery Blocks one through five as well as the Gerding Theater for Portland Center Stage at the renovated Armory.

Looking at the under-construction Casey and its cladding on the Mercury blog, I at first thought it was a wood paneling system - perhaps because of Matt's "French ski lodge" comment. But it turns out that this is not wood but a new terra cotta paneling system. I got the following description from GBD:

The Casey exterior skin material is a one-inch-thick, pre-cast panel tensioned with stainless steel wire.  This is a brand new pre-cast panel system designed and developed by Brian Blount with Arcis.  The material is locally fabricated, just outside of Portland, with local materials.  The Casey exterior skin is a true rain screen system with primary and secondary barriers for water intrusion and contains, through the wall, flashing every three floors and weeps above windows, which allows water to drain out of the skin cavity if any gets in.  The wall type assembly has two inches of rigid insulation on the exterior side of studs, thus thermally performing better than a metal stud wall with batt insulation within the cavity.  The pre-cast attachments are G200 (highest quality) - a galvanized clip system meant to last the life of the building.

The inspiration for the panel scale and texture was inspired by the "Bank of California" building on SW Broadway and Washington.  The design intent with the color of the panels was to bring a little color to the neighborhood with its varied ocre hues. The subtle variation in hues was intended to bring a dappled pattern, which playfully interacts with the varied size punched windows on some of the elevations.  Due to the fact that the north elevation has to respect the adjacent building's potential to build up one day, we felt added texture and interest to this elevation was the utmost importance to get away from just a blank wall.

It's also worth mentioning that The Casey is poised to become the first LEED 'Platinum'-rated condominium building in the United States. Along with contractor Hoffman Construction, the GBD/Gerding Edlen team has certainly formed a group that can churn out remarkably efficient and sustainable buildings. They're not always the strictly prettiest buildings, at least not in my subjective viewpoint, but as Mark Edlen of Gerding Edlen once told me, some of these big projects need "a whole cadre" of people to make them so efficient, and they've certainly been leading the nation in that regard.

The building will also make ample use of Bullseye Glass, which I mentioned in a review in today's Oregonian of a new showing of glass works from architectural projects at Bullseye Gallery.

Regarding the terra cotta panels themselves, I really like the fact that the team is trying this kind of new-old material. If you look at downtown Portland from Courthouse Square, most of the surrounding white buildings by the great A.E. Doyle as well as the Jackson Tower are clad in terra cotta. The Casey is harkening back to that tradition but doing so in a forward-thinking way. And while the form of the building seems for the most part to me no better and no worse than most condos of this era, I like the fact that the architects and larger building team are trying to make their building more unique through its materiality. I think what Matt may be responding to is the natural brownish-orange color of the terra cotta, which is painted in most scenarios but not here.

Getting back to Matt's question, though, you tell me: Is this cladding system beautiful, hideous, or somewhere in between?

Comments

[Carlo]

I think it's really beautiful. And believe me, I care a lot, because I see the Casey all day, every day, from my apartment a few blocks away.

[Scott]

I actually like it...I think it's much better than most of the bland condos that fill the pearl...particularly the horribly sterile Metropolitan. The variation in color among the tiles is pleasing, and it just seems bit more inviting.

[pdx2m2]

i think the exterior panels are precast concrete and not terracotta although they look like terracotta.

i'm all for adding color into buildings so don't have a problem with the material or the color. i especially like the variation in the color of the panels.

that said this wouldn't make my top list of beautiful buildings...it's competent...good but not great.

[chris]

I like it too. The slight hue difference between each panel has a really nice organic effect. I'm glad it's terra cotta for long term color and tactile experience.. Wood would have aged poorly I think.

I can understand the Matt Davis reaction. The first time I saw it in person I was a little shocked myself, the color is very radical from everything else in the neighborhood. Which is great and helps us all think just a little different.

[Anon.]

The color in itself is not a problem. People will grow to like it on a gray winter day.

A painting often benefits by pulling a color subtly around a picture. Other developers should consider pulling this ocher color to some degree or other into new projects in that area and no doubt it will blend in to the fabric of the city.

[Aneeda]

It looks like an improvement over the HIDEOUS yellow used on GBD's buildings in the South Waterfront District.

I'm not a big fan of this building however. To me the material just looks really cheap and probably will look much worse in a few years. Bright cheery colors don't work well in this climate because of the rain. The water staining and moss take their toll.

[Matt Davis]

Puke curry.

[John]

I like the panels. Nice fresh change to the buildings in that area. I thought they were wood until I read this.

[chris]

hehe.. I have never become sick after curry. So I'll have to take your word for it.

As far as I'm concerned, bright colors are worth fighting for in portland.

[Craig]

I like this building. The scale is just right. The quarter block at 16 stories gives the building a true tower form. A nice contrast next to all the Portland slab buildings going up. The panels themselves, especially up close, look interesting and different. They have a nice quality look to them. Its a very nice project.

[jond]

I really began to enjoy the look of these panels and the entire building skin. The thing that kills the look (to me) is the face sealed caulk joint being installed throughout the facade. Because of its lighter color the caulk show tons of mistakes made in the hanging and execution of the skin. It's a really poorly thought through detail followed up by a bad installation.

It is a really nice project, but not a 10 for me anymore.

[Otis]

It is too early to tell for me. I also had somewhat of a "shock" -and not all positive- from the color. I think it will ultimately depend on how all the elements of the finished building come together, and then with their setting. Let's say I am willing to wait and see.
Re Europe, I know something about their world view. I am always struck (usually positively after some initial resistance) to the often "retro", even 70's, look of many places there. Yet, we all know how charming that can be. Let's wait and see how this turns out. A bit more "soul" could be good.
Lastly, re the Metropolitan, the stone on the ground level looks retro to me too. I think it works, but I struggle just a bit with it. Better judgment than mine prevailed, and I think the Metropolitan is sleekly beautiful.

[nrv]

I agree with previous comment, bright colors age poorly here and this will look no better than the cheesy french vanilla stucco found on so many cheap projects downtown. the moss will surely add an unexpected green quotient

[zilfondel]

Perhaps, but some people like moss.

I am very pleased that someone has thought outside the typical concrete, brick and steel material choice for this building's facade. However, it is still pretty darned conservative.

[Double J]

My first rection was instant dislike but I want to give it a little time and wait till it's done. Kudos for taking some chances and the platnum rating though.

[hdr]

How many condos are enough? However, GREEN this building is suppose to be an existing building needed to be torn down. This will only be affordable to rich out of towners since the median income in Portland is not going to be able to afford any unit in this new condo.

[Carlo]

How many condos are enough, you ask? If the article I saw recently in the Portland Tribune is correct, the city expects 125,000 ADDITIONAL residents in the next couple of decades and will need 55,000 additional housing units -- that's 11 additional projects the size of the South Waterfront -- to accommodate just the newcomers.

Since 11 additional projects like that are not likely to happen in the city, there seems to be only one obvious solution: More condos, in much taller buildings, spread throughout the city, especially in the Pearl and downtown. And if that kind of development doesn't happen, just watch the cost of housing here climb to Seattle-like levels. You can't beat the laws of supply and demand.

[Jane]

I'm coming late to this conversation, but I've been observing those panels since they first went up. I, too, thought they were wood at first. But having recently enjoyed a tour of the Casey, I can confirm that they are concrete..the kind where the pigment is put in before it dries. To me, the slight variation in color gives the material -- and the overall building -- a richness lacking in much of its neighboring structures. I'm reminded of the Lincoln Building on SW Oak between 4th and 5th, where the beautiful old (I assume terra cotta) panels, though they had admittedly seen better days, were recently painted over. Now, instead of a rich, deep, dappled surface, the building is simply flat. And it looks like those bright California colors that don't wear well in the Northwest, as referenced here by others writers. The predecessor panels, however, had been in place and looked good for decades.

[Joseph]

I often feel disappointed as buildings are completed and the choices for the skin, its detailing and ornament (if any) becomes apparent. This is true of the Casey to less of a degree; it holds together pretty well.
But the concrete panels are not the right color for the Pearl District of for Portland. Good buildings should look right in all of our seasons, not just winter or summer.
My biggest gripe with the panels is quality control. The panels have the inevitable warp that is a function of their manufacture. The uneven quality is particularly noticable in the raking light that the north and south elevations recieve morning and evening. I wisht that there could have been better quality control - and "flatter" panels. Alternately, there could have been even more variation designed-in to each panel so that the maks of manufacturing would feel more appropriate and the variation from panel to panel would be similar to the variation in color - a subtle blend of individual elements creating a whole.

[ws]

Somebody above has described these panels as being bright in color. Having seen this building's panels at least several times, I don't see what they're talking about. The panels may be light in tone relative to plain grey concrete, but not what could be described as bright colors.

If anything, the lightness should help out here in Oregon's dismally dark, rainy months.

[a]

I agree with ws. Having viewed the panels from the north side of the building, I have to say that I think the coloring is lovely and warm. Not shocking in any sense.

[MC]

I work at W+K across the street. The panels look great! I love the subtlety (they aren't "bright" in the way I know the word) in variation and the way they form different window opening schemes on the west side for each floor is pretty cool.