Jahn pictures the DNA of Oregon design

In the last few years Jeff Jahn has quickly risen to become one of the leading voices in Portland on contemporary art. He is a jack of all trades, acting as the co-founder and a leading critic for the visual arts blog Port as well as a working artist and a curator, in the latter case both with his own organization, Organism, but also in a guest role at other galleries. Jahn has also been involved on a volunteer basis with the Portland Art Museum.

Originally from the midwest, Jahn is also a cousin of famed architect Helmut Jahn, and perhaps for that reason, Jeff has a strong interest in architecture and design (particularly bridges and transit projects), which often figures into his Port writings. He is also, just as I might say of myself to a lesser degree, a really fervent talker with a great deal of stamina. Nor is this pony-tailed multi-tasker lacking in confidence, smarts or chutzpah.

Recently Jeff sent me a quartet of his photos with accompanying commentary by email. He talks about trying to capture the "DNA," or in other words the essence, of a design in a manner that straddles abstraction without crossing over fully. This first shot, of the Portland Aerial Tram, is included in the Visual Chronicle of Portland. Of the tram image and his architectural photography in general, Jahn says: 

"I’m essentially using photography to turn architecture into paintings... a kind of anti-architecture (a la Gordon Matta Clark) based on finding the compelling design DNA of a building and letting it exist visually without any function or physical load bearing... essentially turning a building into a visual philosophy. For this work I’m uninterested in being a documentarian and tend to present disorienting space more like an object that is both emptied and complicated for the purpose of contemplation. I like Todd Eberle too but he's way more documentary in focus, even his abstract stuff is less spatially confusing and more documentary. You can tell I’m a painter and also have made art deco-style stained glass windows as a kid (age 7+). You can really see it in the composition."

This next shot is of the Standard Insurance Building (also known as the Standard Plaza), built in 1963 and designed by Skidmore, Owings, Merrill.

In a piece for The Oregonian I seem to recall ran in late 1999, Randy Gragg listed this as his favorite Portland building, and I think it might be mine as well. "I agree it's underrated," Jahn says. "I love the escalators and the plaza around the building." 

The photo here depicts part of the open plaza design that SOM employed to give the ground level a better integration with the street. You don't see many tall buildings in Portland today where the ground floor just kind of disappears. It's always storefront retail for a mixed-use affair. The Standard stands out in this way as did many buildings by Mies and other architects of this period did.

The Standard, says Bart King's Architectural Guidebook to Portland, was also ahead of its time in having underground parking and a fireproof interior stairwell. 

The next two photos are of the Mt. Angel Abbey Library, designed by the legendary Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, and Pietro Belluschi's Equitable Building  (now called the Commonwealth). 

"I love the plate tectonics of this," Jahn says of Mt. Angel. This was Aalto's last building in the United States (and one of only two along with Baker House at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts), completed in 1970 just six years before the architect's death, and his next to last project of any kind (predating only the Essen Opera House in Germany). 

The wood detailing you see in this picture is a key attraction of the interior - it's not surprising that Aalto also designed furniture. I was also blown away visiting Mt. Angel a couple years ago by the plethora of natural light. It is organized around a central, open circular well, and then ringed by curving reading tables and radiating stacks. Even though the library is nearly 40 years old, it feels like a small Utopian society of the future.

Looking at his photo of Belluschi's Equitable Building here, the look we know is not to be found. After all, the building owns a place in architectural history as the world's first aluminum-clad structure. Jahn says of his picture, "Since the mechanicals of this building are massively important I thought I'd focus on the part of the building that houses and vents those mechanicals.  We take things like air conditioning for granted and how many buildings have good looking mechanical housings?"

Comments

[chris]

I have family that work at The Standard building and I have to agree about the submerged plaza. The below street level fountains are like a small secret spot for me and the 60's era feel is oddly refreshing in the sea of modern contemporary designs.

[DoubleJ]

The Standard Plaza image is one of those photos that those few who have seen a lot of my shots always gravitate towards. It's a wonderful building and the view of Portlandia in the lobby atop the escalators is really great.

About 95% of my shots are building outside Oregon, we dont have anything by Mies, Rem, Calatrava or HdM. In comparison to those architects that Standard Plaza has similarly great details, and in that era escalators held such iconic power. Even MoMA's previous incarnation made extensive use of them.

If you want to see the actual photo, it is still at Pulliam
Deffenbaugh Gallery, just 2 blocks from AiA. The tram image is there too.