Portland Architecture

Portland Monthly story celebrates new architects generation

The new issue of Portland Monthly includes a feature by Amara Holstein arguing that "a new generation of young architects is reaching beyond the expected to blend high density, sustainability, and thrift into a bolder breed of Portland building. At last."

Holstein begins with a look at the new Ziba Design headquarters in the Pearl District (rendered above), designed by Holst Architecture and set to complete construction this summer. (Rick Potestio and Mahlum Architects were the initial designers.) "This plum commision is the payoff of seventeen years of architetural ladder-climbing, rung by rung, from restaurant remodels and office renovations to townhouses and condos," adds Holstein, a former Dwell magazine editor.

"But well beyond being a measure of any one firm's success, the new Ziba headquarters is merely the most prominent in a collection of fresh, dynamic buildings rising across the city in environs as diverse as gritty lower East Burnside Street and the bungalow-villes of North Portland. The architects--mostly younger firms like Works Partnership, Atelier Waechter, William Kaven Architeture, Path Architecture, and Seed Architecture Studio--share Holst's goals of honing Portland's longstanding traditions of eco-consciousness, lively urbanism, and thrifty building into sharper forms of architecture."

A key project Holstein notes besides Holst's work is the new Bside6 building on East Burnside (seen below in a shot by Jon Clark for Portland Monthly). "With ribbons of dark-gray metal playing hide-and-seek with sleek glass, the structure mixes sexy and stern like no other building in the city." But it's also, she notes, built on a very small budget. And that's a central aspect of the generation Holstein writes about. Given today's economy, it's a no-brainer to build affordably. But these architects were doing so when the housing boom was still in full-swing.

I also wrote an article about this new generation of Portland designers and builders for Dwell magazine a few months ago on the occasion of the 11xDesign homes tour. But my story focused on the residential side of this equation. Holstein is correct in expanding the scope to include non-residential works like Ziba and Bside6, as well as to put Holst and Works Partnership at the forefront.

Another defining characteristic of this new urban architecture, Holstein writes, is that it's sustainable without wearing such features on its proverbial shirt sleeve. Of course you'd build green. How could anyone not in this day and age? But to build a sustainable building, even if it has been hailed with a Platinum LEED rating, does not guarantee beauty or great design in totality.

The other distinction to be made here is that these firms are working almost exclusively in existing neighborhoods. Rather than being constructed in new areas like South Waterfront or the northern Pearl District, these buildings face tough tests of fitting in with the existing fabric. Not everyone thinks they do. Holst's Clinton Condominiums, for example, was controversial for replacing an existing historic house on Division Street. But for the most part, these modern works can be appreciated both for how they fit in and how they articulate a very contemporary identity within that.

Architect's Questionnaire: Brett Laurila

A few months ago Portland Architecture began a new, occasional series called "The Architect's Questionnaire", in which a local architect answers a prepared set of simple questions about his or her profession and experiences. So far architects Nathan Cooprider and David Hyman have been profiled, and the latest is architect Brett Laurila.

Laurila is a registered architect in Oregon as well as California and Nevada. His firm, BKL/A Architecture, is a two-person company run with Aleta Mekvold. Lauria's design experience includes commercial, multifamily, adaptive re-use and public architecture, as well as planning.

Portland Architecture: When did you first become interested in architecture as a possible career?

Laurila: My grandfather was a master carpenter, and my father was an engineer. As a youngster, I was able to visit job-sites in various states of construction with my grandfather in addition to my Dad's office. Dad had a few architects on staff. The architects’ desks were, in contrast to the neat and orderly engineers, messy, had kneaded eraser figurines and taped up sketches of various concepts. It appeared to me that the architects enjoyed their jobs. Every Christmas, one the architects would sketch a cartoon Christmas card. Those images left an indelible imprint in my mind. My father passed away after my 13th birthday, but my grandfather’s influence continued until he passed at 82 years young.

Where did you study architecture and how would you rate the experience?

My education was less than traditional. I entered the School of Architecture and Allied Arts at Oregon in the late 70's as a sculpture major when I didn't get accepted to the school of architecture. After completing my freshman year, I took off a year and attended a technical school to learn to draft, so that I could get a job in an architect’s office in order to support my tuition requirements. The economy in 1980 was much like it is now. There was very little work here and I needed to work to pay for school. This led me to attend SCI-Arc in January 1981 where I was able to work for an architect and attend school. SCI-Arc was a great educational experience for a me.

What is your favorite building project that you’ve worked on?

I am not going to pick a favorite. Honestly, every project has its positives and negatives. More recent projects seem to be fresh in mind, but the 2001 Cascadian Court Condominiums would have to be the most challenging effort in my career to date. You could write an entire book on the issues and complexities; personalities and conflicts that project garnered to complete. I took over a project in complete disarray, revised the design, completed the permits and worked with great general contractor to complete a difficult and contentious project, that still resembled the intent of the original designer.

Who has been an important mentor among your colleagues?

I have two that profoundly affected my career. Ted Tokio Tanaka and Gerald Lomax. While attending SCI-ARC in the early '80s, a classmate and long time friend worked for Gerry and his partner John Rock. Gerry became my mentor, by default, when I would stop by to see my friend. We would end up in long and fruitful discussions with Gerry related to the practice of Architecture. When I was looking for work, Gerry referred me to Mr. Tanaka. Working for Mr. Tanaka was an extraordinary experience. Every project there was an event to be designed and experienced.

What part of the job do you like best, and as an architect what do you think you most excel at?

I love the challenges that architecture provides daily. Unfortunately, I have become known as someone to take on difficult projects and bring them to fruition.

What are some Portland buildings (either new or historic) that you most like?

Portland Art Museum, Weiden+Kennedy adaptive reuse, and the recent remodel completed by Brett & Dana Crawford [the 1310 Condominiums].

What is your favorite building outside of Portland and besides any you’ve worked on?

I can't really pick one. Every day sees a new project somewhere in the world that evokes wonder and a little jealousy in me.

Is there a local architect or firm you think is unheralded or deserves more credit?

There are a number of Architects, who do good work, that operate in relative obscurity. Portland seems to be a place that, if you want publicity, you can find it relatively easy. However, it may not be the kind of publicity that you were hoping for....

What would you like to see change about Portland’s built environment in the long term?

A less complex civic process where the different bureaus actually communicate and work together.

Would you rather live in a South Waterfront condo, a craftsman bungalow in Laurelhurst, a warehouse loft in the North Mississippi district or a mid-century ranch in the West Hills?

I love the house we are currently in - a mid century atomic modern in Milwaukie. Original with tastefully updated details, but needing a significant landscape update. I do miss, however, the vibrancy of the inner southeast neighborhood we left.

Who is a famous architect you’d like to see design a building in Portland?

Renzo Piano - something grandiose like a building spanning the freeway along the east-side waterfront addressing the river. That would be something!

Which would you rather be responsible for: an ugly LEED platinum building or a beautiful modernist energy hog?

Neither, I would hope! How 'bout a modernist LEED platinum building that is self-sufficient?

Name something besides architecture (sneakers, furniture, umbrellas) you love the design of.

This is not a politically correct answer, but... it is the automobile. Other than architecture, no single design effects us more on a daily basis. Form, function, engineering and art - beautiful and obscene at the same time.

What are three of your all-time favorite movies?

If I have to pick three - the ones that stick with me most are: Blade Runner, Fargo, Memento.

Alfred Staehli: 1929-2009

The Portland architecture and historic preservation communities lost one of their most accomplished members this week when Alfred M. Staehli passed away on Monday, May 4, six months shy of his 80th birthday.

Born in Pasadena to an immigrant Swiss woodcarver but a Portlander singe the age of 2, Staehli graduated from Lincoln High School, then received an architecture degree from the University of Oregon. After serving in the Air Force in the early 1950s, he worked for ten years at Broome, Selig and Oringdulph, which would later morph into a firm still around today, BOORA.

However, it's after Staehli went back to school for a master's degree in history from Portland State University and in Rome at the International Centre for Conservation that the architect found his calling as a historic preservationist.

Staehli would go on to play a key role in saving such Oregon landmarks as Crater Lake Lodge, the Pittock Mansion, and the Kam Wah Chung building in John Day. He was a consultant for restorations of the Capitol dome in Salem as well as for the Portland Historic Landmarks Commission. He also served on the State Advisory Committee on Historic Preservation for two terms.

"Not only was Al an incredible resource for historic preservation issues, but more important to my relationship with him was his wry sense of humor and always challenging assumptions!  I guess as an educator he never feared asking  'Why not reinvent the wheel?” on any particular issue," said Henry Kunowski, a former colleague of Staehli's, by email.

Staehli was inducted into the American Institute of Architects' College of Fellows (the profession's highest honor, a quasi-hall of fame) in 1992. He also acted as an archivist. The photos you see here of the Lewis & Clark Exposition in Portland were part of his collection.

It's through his involvement with the Fellows that I got to know Staehli in 1999 and 2000 while I worked for the AIA. I used to take notes for the monthly Fellows committee meetings he attended, and it was fun to sit in a conference room and listen to some of the most accomplished architects in the city alternately chitchat, talk shop, tell stories about the city's architectural past, or target some kind of do-gooding action like trying to help Portland State get accreditation for its architecture school.

I got to know Al better when the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Gordon House was threatened with demolition in late 2000. He and I spent a day together down in suburban Charbonneau along the banks of the Willamette near Wilsonville, where the house was originally located. The compromise for the Gordon House was that it got preserved but had to be disassembled and moved to a different location. It was a better solution than outright demolition, but the house had been designed specifically in accordance with and to take advantage of the views of the river and Mt. Hood.

Staehli asked me to act as an assistant for the day while he photographed the Gordon House with a large-format camera, the kind great, serious photographers from Ansel Adams to Julius Schulman always used. Even today that kind of camera achieves better precision than digital photography, but it takes forever just to set up one shot.

My memory of that day out there with Al is not of the things we said to each other, but the silence in between. It's rare you can stand in silence with someone, particularly if you're not already well acquainted, and have it not be awkward. But there was a kind of serenity out there photographing the Wright house on the eve of it being eradicated from its intended place. At least if it had to go, the two of us were at least lucky enough to spend a day with the Gordon House, alone.

But of course he wasn't mute, either. I also took notes when we did talk while photographing the Gordon House that day, and used some of his comments in a piece for Willamette Week. Here's one of his observations published in the story:

"Wright's houses are delightful to walk into. Unlike in most McMansions (or what I call 'big-hair houses'), you don't walk into some totally inappropriate corporate-sized lobby where you feel lost. You enter this house through a small, constricted opening with a low ceiling and transition into a dramatic high-ceiling area. You always have a sense of moving through a sequence of different-scaled spaces. Wright's Usonian houses are of a scale that you can live in. I'm not the kind of architect who could design, say, a 600-square-foot bathroom, so I relate to these designs.

Wright was especially known for using wood and masonry for their color, their texture, their warmth. A lot of the Northwest-style architects like Walter Gordon and Pietro Belluschi did that, too. People here like to be able to look out the window to the trees but also have a cozy feel on the inside.

You would not find this kind of detail in most builder-made houses today--it would be too expensive and require more attention to detailing. But that's exactly what some architects are now arguing for: more modest-sized spaces but spending the money on finish and detail and materials.

We're losing landmarks monthly throughout the state. A little bit goes here, a little bit there, and first thing you know you've lost the integrity of the land. It isn't as if this was one of Wright's major buildings, but in the context of surviving Usonian homes it's actually very important. And it's definitely the only work of its kind in Oregon."

I only talked to Al Staehli once or twice in the ensuing nine years, and even then only briefly. So it's not like I knew the guy exceptionally well. But when I put together the incredible collection of buildings he is credited with helping to save and his gentle, warm, guileless personal manner, it's a major regret to have to say goodbye - or to not have done so with more reverence.

Architect's Questionnaire: David Hyman

This is the second Q&A in our series with local architects and designers. David Hyman is a principal with DECA Architecture in Portland, which celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2008. The firm, which Hyman co-runs with his wife and business partner, Sallee Humphrey, has been responsible for a number of architecture and interiors projects, arts and cultural institutions, educational facilities, retail and housing as well as furniture design and even glass sculptures.

Portland Architecture: When did you first become interested in architecture as a possible career?

David Hyman: I was in construction for 11 years. When the economy turned down in the early 80’s, I decided that it was an opportune time to change careers. I always had a passion for design and decided to pursue it. I closed my construction company and enrolled in architecture school.

Where did you study architecture and how would you rate the experience?

I attended University of Oregon. I thought it was a great education. They offered a good basic foundation in the skills required for an architectural career, but also gave you the freedom to steer your field of study in either a technical or more theoretical direction. I chose to take a lot of architectural theory and history classes and sought out studio professors with a more theoretical emphasis.

What is your favorite building project that you’ve worked on?

An International Student Center for KAIST (Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology). The client wanted a building that appealed to foreign students attending the Korean University. But, it also required developing an understanding of what that meant within the context of the Korean culture. [Note: the project is pictured at left.]

Who has been an important mentor among your colleagues?

Truthfully, my most important mentor has been my wife and business partner. She is an interior designer and has taught me so much about client relations and marketing. She also has a very fresh perspective about design. Our debates about design energize us both.

What part of the job do you like best, and as an architect what do you think you most excel at?

I love the exchange of ideas that comes from designing a project, both with team members and with clients. I have spent most of my career as a designer, but as my wife and I have built our practice, I have learned to also appreciate the role of empowering others to express their design ideas. I enjoy that role as much as designing.

What are some Portland buildings (either new or historic) that you most admire?

Central Library, Union Station, Portland Art Museum, Visitor’s Center by John Yeon, Medical Clinic by John Storrs on NW 16th Ave., Wieden + Kennedy headquarters, Woodstock Library by Thomas Hacker

What is your favorite building outside of Portland and besides any you’ve worked on?

Pierre Chareau's “Maison de Verre”. [Pictured at right.]

Is there a local architect or firm you think is unheralded or deserves more credit?

There are a number of talented small firms that have emerged in the last few years. I would keep my eye on Paul McKean.

What would you like to see change about Portland’s built environment in the long term?

As much effort as Portland has put into reinvigorating the waterfront on the east and west sides of the Willamette River, with the esplanade, Tom McCall park, OMSI, etc, we still are far short of fulfilling the potential of that resource. The greatest missed opportunity was failing to relocate the freeway on the east side when we had the chance. We should be making much more of an effort to take advantage of the river with more parks, river walks and pedestrian focused development.

How would you rate the performance of local government like the Portland Development Commission, or the development and planning bureaus?

I think PDC has taken a lot of hits over the years, some deserved and some not, but I really don’t think they are given enough credit for their successes. They played and continue to play an instrumental part in creating a vibrant and successful downtown. And, their storefront improvement and DOS programs, as well as other financial incentives have helped to jumpstart neighborhoods in North Portland, such as Alberta, Mississippi, Killingsworth and MLK.

Would you rather live in a South Waterfront condo, a craftsman bungalow in Laurelhurst, a warehouse loft in the North Mississippi district or a mid-century ranch in the West Hills?

Condo in downtown.

Who is a famous architect you’d like to see design a building in Portland?

Renzo Piano.

Which would you rather be responsible for: an ugly LEED platinum building or a beautiful modernist energy hog?

10 years ago, I would have said a beautiful modernist energy hog. But, today, I think’s that’s a false choice. I am decidedly modernist, but in recent years I have yet to meet a client who appreciated modern architecture and did not have a concern for the environment. We’re often forced to weigh the cost of sustainable solutions, but it’s a matter of degree, not choosing one over the other.

Name something besides architecture (sneakers, furniture, umbrellas) you love the design of.

I admire well designed housewares, particularly “Nambe”.

What are three of your all-time favorite movies?

"Brazil", "Blade Runner", "Chinatown".

Thanks again to David Hyman for being our ginny Guinea pig. In the future we will be running additional Q&As with local architects, and if you'd like to join in, simply fill out the questionnaire using the same questions and send to brianlibby@hotmail.com with a photo of yourself and a rendering or project photo.

Notes from a Cloepfil-Kundig summit

Recently two exceptionally acclaimed Northwest architects Brad Cloepfil of Portland's Allied Works and Tom Kundig of Seattle's  Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen (which I just profiled for Architecture Week), were guests for an extended conversation at The Back Room, an ongoing dinner and discussion series hosted by author Matthew Stadler and Stephanie Snyder, curator of Reed College's Cooley Gallery. Although I didn't make it to the event, held a couple of weeks ago, another freelance architecture writer, Brett Campbell, was there, and generously agreed to offer his thoughts:

For the past four years, Portland author Matthew Stadler has put together Back Room gatherings. Stadler's theory is that bringing people together over food and ideas and music gets important conversations about public issues going, and he's so sincere and idealistic about this that it's hard to resist.

On Feb 27, Seattle architect Jerry Garcia acted as interlocutor for two of the region's most prominent architects. Tom Kundig (pictured above) is a principal and partner at Seattle's Olson, Sundberg, Kundig, Allen, which was named the AIA's national Firm of the Year for 2009. His work has been published widely, including in a book from Princeton Architectural Press, Tom Kundig: Houses. Brad Clopefil (pictured below) is the founder and principal of Portland's Allied Works. His recent projects include the Museum of Art and Design, in New York, the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver, Colorado, and the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, in Dallas, Texas.  Garcia is a senior project manager at Kundig’s firm.

Probably most of the people who paid for the dinner and abundant red wine were either architects or intensely interested in architecture. I'm not an architect, so I didn't recognize many of the attendees, except fellow journalist Randy Gragg, who specializes in architecture and urban design issue. Nevertheless, even for an amateur like me, the conversation was pretty fascinating, helped in part by questions from Gragg and other audience members that kept the discussion from being too much for insiders.

One topic was the Museum of Art & Design Cloepfil recently refurbished on Columbus Circle in Manhattan (pictured at right in a shot borrowed from Flickr). Cloepfil said he was happy with the galleries. It started as a concrete box without light. He said he looked not at what Edward Durrell Stone had done but what the building should be in 2006—a true modernist attitude, it seems to me. His work at MAD involved cutting holes and letting the light in, as with Cloepfil's celebrated Weiden & Kennedy building here. He called that process a "tracheotomy," a sharp analogy. Cloepfil said he wasn't trying to make W+K iconic—just to let the light in. Cloepfil said it was a lucky break for him because getting that kind of blank slate will probably never happen again.

On developing an identity and regionalism, Cloepfil said growing up in Portland when Michael Graves was supposedly the trend, it wasn't till he saw a Richard Serra piece that he realized that that's what architecture can be. The work he saw going up in the US was "horribly meaningless" while he was in Switzerland, where he saw terrific architecture that had meaning.

Someone asked about how Cloepfil and Kundig are regarded on the national scene, and Cloepfil said that if for someone living on the east coast and someone comes in from the west, they're regarded as a cowboy coming and telling you about the frontier.

Cloepfil also says in the US regional voices get contained and stereotyped. New York, he said, loves people like him and Kundig as long as they stay within that stereotype. There are just a few strong regional voices (such as Arizona’s Rick Joy) but that he and others had to deal with the attitude among New Yorkers: "Who the fuck is he? He's from Oregon. He's not Zaha Hadid."

On the relationship between art and architecture, Garcia said he and Cloepfil share a similar obsession with art. Cloepfil said architects look to artists for courage, boldness, as "springboard to purity." Clopefil said he's inspired by Richard Serra, 60-something years old and still working so hard.

Kundig (one of whose designs from OSKA is pictured above) agreed that architecture is functional or applied art and he looks to real artists for inspiration. His philosophy of architecture is setting the stage and watching what happens. What goes on inside the building is more interesting than the architecture.

Randy Gragg [editor of Portland Spaces] asked what are some projects they'd like to do. Kundig said he’d like to do something here because he loved Portland and compared to Seattle it was kind of a pleasant-ville because it understands role of urban settings. Kundig also wishes people in Seattle would develop cultural will to do good design and address problems.

Cloepfil said he wants to work with an institution that can really inspire in a Portland way. It happened in the 1970s here but not since. "Green is good, but it ain’t gonna do it,” he said. "It's our strength, but we have to go deeper” than just green design. We have to look at evolving principles of design before just sustainability.

(Whew, all this talk about architecture is making me thirsty. And — what a lucky break! — there appears to be a glass of red wine directly in front me. I’m sure it was empty just a minute ago.)

On sustainability and good design, Cloepfil said the built environment has neglected beauty and purity of design in favor of trends and sensationalism of the last 15 years He said he'd attended Mayor Adams's talk at the city club the other day and that the talk about green design and sustainability overshadowed good design as an enduring core and ethic.

Kundig said design decisions now have to do multiple things on a low budget -- have to do smart things that can bring in light and at same time do things like rooftop irrigation etc.

On integrity and process, Kundig views the architect’s responsibility in context of being part of a team. Cloepfil said temporality has a purity in itself. (That sounds really deep, and at the time, that made perfect sense to me, but you see, I'm remembering this without benefit of pinot noir.) His creation manifesto is channeling cultural energy. Architecture is an assault—the initial cut is a clear cut.

Kundig differs a bit here. To him, architecture is more of a process, like jazz. Unlike Cloepfil, whom he sees holding on for dear life to his original ideas, Kundig is willing to compromise more. Every project that was most successful has gotten better after interaction with the clients, contractors, etc. He's not an artist.

You have to trust time, Cloepfil added. It's not about the process. You have to hope that you can move all those other forces, including the mayor, politics. [I think he was talking about MAD mostly here.] You have to look at things that are pure and hope that they survive cultural forces. "Edward Durrell Stone -- what were you thinking? The city has moved on." So you have to look beyond the temporal process.

Architect's Questionnaire: Nathan Cooprider

This is the beginning of a new occasional series on Portland Architecture called The Architect's Questionnaire, in which a series of architects and designers answer a basic set of questions about their career, inspirations, lessons and motivations.

Inspired by the 'Proust Questionnaire' in Vanity Fair magazine (only without ten gazillion fashion ads), the idea is for the questions each time to remain the same and then compare answers. Although there will be some firm principals invited to participate, more often than not the intention is instead to feature men and women who may be in more supporting or emerging roles at firms or people lesser known in the design community.

I have sent out the questionnaire to a handful of architects so far, and the first set of answers came from the one Portland architect I can say has been a good friend of mine for over 20 years: Nathan Cooprider. I wrestled a little bit with whether to include Nathan (pictured here with his daughter Leila) because of this personal connection; I don't want to play favorites or seem insular in my picks, and I'm sure Nathan doesn't want that either. Even so, Nathan epitomizes the kind of emerging architect I enjoy featuring, and after three years of writing the Portland Architecture blog, this is my first time mentioning 'Coop', as we from McMinnville High Class of 1990 sometimes call him.

From the time I first got to know Nathan in the late 1980s, he was interested in drawing. At his mother's barber shop in McMinnville was always displayed Nathan's drawing of Ghandi from high school in the strippling style (with small dots). Later, when the rest of us left for college, he instead spent a year volunteering in Haifa, Israel at the Bahai World Center, some of that time with a gas mask on as Saddam Hussein's SCUD missiles hit the city during the 1991 Gulf War.

A few years later, after graduating with a bachelor's degree in architecture from the University of Oregon, he got his start in the business working for venerable firms like Yost Grube Hall and Waterleaf. Earlier this decade Nathan also lived for a few years in Kauai, Hawaii working on designing houses for a firm there, DeJesusArchitecture. (The Kauapea residence at right is one of the projects he worked on there.)

Today Nathan works for Portland-based Terraforma, along with principals Andrew Montgomery and Dana Montgomery. Terraforma has been responsible for numerous homes in the Portland area and on the Oregon Coast, as well as planning. Meanwhile, here is the Q&A with Nathan:

Q: When did you first become interested in architecture as a possible career?

A: Growing up, I loved getting lost in the process of drawing and building things.  I lived abroad for a year after high school and then enrolled at the University of Oregon as a fine arts major. Not completely satisfied with the arts program, I applied and was accepted into the school of architecture.  I didn’t know much about architecture as a career at that point, but I appreciated the rigor of the architecture program, and figured that I would get a great education whether I pursued a career in architecture or not.

Where did you study architecture and how would you rate the experience?

At Oregon, the first thing I learned was not to be as concerned with the sculptural ‘object’ I was creating as with the ‘place’ I was making and the interconnected series of places which make up our world.  That perspective really broadened my view of the world and the responsibility that architects have to shape the environment.  That being said, it would have been great to have more classes dedicated to the purely sculptural quality of design.

What is your favorite building project that you’ve worked on?

The Waipaki Residence in Kauai, Hawai’i.  It’s currently under construction, and the last project I worked on in Hawaii.

Who has been an important mentor among your colleagues?

At Yost Grube Hall I worked with Joachim Grube on an additional to a church he designed with Pietro Belluschi.  Joachim is a true modernist and humanist in the sense that he sees his work as a chance to improve people’s lives.  Working with him on a Belluschi building gave me the chance to connect with the first generation of modernists in Portland.

What part of the job do you like best, and as an architect what do you think you most excel at?

What I like best – The excitement, shared with my clients, of seeing their buildings taking shape. What I’m best at - solving problems through design.

What are some Portland buildings (either new or historic) that you most like?

Belluschi’s Equitable Building, The Japanese Garden, Pioneer Courthouse Square.

What is your favorite building outside of Portland and besides any you’ve worked on?

To name a few: Jorn Utzon’s Sidney Opera House, Alvar Aalto’s Villa Mairea, and Luis Baragan’s Casa Gilardi.

Is there a local architect or firm you think is unheralded or deserves more credit?

There are many small firms out there doing high quality work under the radar: Yanni Doulis, Design Department, DAO Architecture, Reveal Architecture, just to name a few.  I am very proud of the work that we are doing at Terraforma.  There is also the local 11xDesign movement of architect/developers designing and building their own cutting edge projects. 

What would you like to see change about Portland’s built environment in the long term?

Keep building our green infrastructure.  Plant more trees, convert surface parking lots into parks and plazas, extend light rail lines to southeast and southwest neighborhoods, improve and increase the city’s sidewalks/bike paths, schools, and parks.

How would you rate the performance of local government like the Portland Development Commission, or the development and planning bureaus?

Not only has the city created guidelines for smart and sustainable growth, they have also created programs which motivate citizens to improve their city.  So it is an example of not just good planning but also good follow through.

Would you rather live in a South Waterfront condo, a craftsman bungalow in Laurelhurst, a warehouse loft in the North Mississippi district or a mid-century ranch in the West Hills?

I’d love to design my own home – but for now we’re happy in our light-filled 50’s ranch in a pedestrian friendly southwest neighborhood.

Who is a famous architect you’d like to see design a building in Portland?

Sverre Fehn.  He is 85 years old and still practicing in Norway.  He is a very sensitive modernist who would understand our climate.

Which would you rather be responsible for: an ugly LEED platinum building or a beautiful modernist energy hog?

First of all, it’s hard for me to see this as “either – or”.  One thing architects are trained in is to reconcile seemingly contradictory requirements.  Architects aren’t purveyors of style, we are problem solvers – and to respond to the environmental crisis, and to do so in a profound and poetic way is one of the greatest challenges facing us today.  To me, beauty is the highest objective of architecture.  We should surround ourselves with a built environment which uplifts and inspires.  Conserving our natural resources is everyone’s responsibility.  There is only one earth, and we need to take our stewardship seriously.

Name something besides architecture (sneakers, furniture, umbrellas) you love the design of.

Surfboards.  Like a building, a surfboard is a man-made object through which we experience nature.  Every surfboard is handmade and unique, and the surfboard shaper and glasser pour their hearts into their craft.   It’s another example of how art is a critical part of the human experience, and that not all things can be mass-produced.

What are three of your all-time favorite movies?

"8½", "Baraka", "Buena Vista Social Club".

Thanks to Nathan for playing along. If you are a Portland architect and would like to have your own answers to the Architect's Questionnaire published, feel free to email them to me at brianlibby@hotmail.com. Coming up will be Q&As with architects Michael Great, Brett Schulz, Richard Brown and David Hyman.

Saul Zaik: mid-century master and Energizer bunny of Portland architects

This month Portland Modern, realtor Bob Zaikoski’s website, is featuring a profile that Bob and I wrote about architect Saul Zaik, FAIA.

Portland Modern is a sponsor of this site, but this post is not intended to be extra promotion. Rather, I’m writing this to spread the word about Zaik, an 82 year old architect of great significance who, despite still coming to work everyday, confesses to feeling like an “invisible man” compared to the presence he once had on the local architectural scene. If I were a young architect, I'd be taking this guy out to lunch and soaking up Zaik's knowledge like it was au jus for my French dip sandwich.

Zaik has practiced continuously here since 1952, creating a portfolio that’s extensive as it is impressive. Early in his career, he was influenced by legendary local architects like Pietro Belluschi, John Yeon, Van Evra Bailey, John Storrs and others. Zaik was part of the “14^th Street Gang”, a group of practitioners in the generation immediately following Belluschi and Yeon who distinguished themselves with exceptional mid-century modern houses.

The article is too long to reproduce here, and Bob has a huge collection of photographs that were taken and digitized from Zaik’s personal collection, so it's worth going to the source. Even so, I’d like to share a few extra thoughts.

Zaik has had a few different partners over the years but has always run or co-run some kind of small firm, save for the start he got working in the Portland office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill not long after graduating from the University of Oregon.

Single family residences and vacation homes have comprised the majority of the Zaik portfolio, and a couple of houses are particularly celebrated.

Best known of these is probably the Zidell House, which was designed and built in 1970 for shipping magnate Arnold Zidell. It’s octagonal in shape and built around a 48-foot ship’s mast (seen at left in an archive photo).

“He was a crazy guy, Zidell,” Zaik told us for the article. “The mast idea was his. He came in with that thing and said, 'I want to make it round.' It was built like an umbrella or a ski-lift tower—just bolted on. At one point he wanted to make it rotate.”

An earlier house from 1956, the Feldman House, is also a gem; it was included in last year’s Street of Eames tour and is pictured below in a shot I took earlier this year while visiting with Zaik, Zaikoski and a group of designers from Path Architecture.

 

Originally built for Philip Feldman, heir to the Mt. Hood Borax Company, the structure has a cantilevered, low-pitched gable roof and cedar siding. Its combination of ample glass and broad overhanging eaves is quintessential Northwest Modern in the tradition of Zaik’s forebears, Belluschi and Yeon.

The same could be said of Zaik’s own house, built in 1959, which the architect and his wife still occupy. (The picture below was taken the same afternoon as the Feldman House visit.) Nestled into a northwest Portland hillside near Skyline Boulevard, it has two distinct boxy spaces connected by a walkway, allowing light to permeate the space and retain a human scale to the residence.

Zaik has also designed apartments and condominiums, banks, shopping centers, schools, medical buildings and commercial buildings. When Nike was first looking to build a campus in the 1980, the company came to Zaik with a location near Wilsonville in mind (the job later went to Thompson/Vaivoda, now TVA Architects, and a location in Beaverton was chosen instead). Zaik also designed lots of homes and buildings at two forward-thinking landmarks, Sunriver and Salishan.

Although he has always worked in a contemporary architectural language, Zaik also has a special touch when it comes to fitting in with historic architeture. In 1968 his firm designed an addition to Timberline Lodge (pictured below in an archive photo) that is vastly more congruent with the original then the Wy’ East Day Lodge constructed later. Zaik has also done lodge buildings at Crater Lake that, like the Timberline work, express historic forms with a contemporary palette of clean lines. Restoration has also been a specialty. Zaik helped oversee the restoration of historic Vista House at Crown Point in the Columbia Gorge.

It’s patronizing to remark how an 82-year-old guy still has a lot of energy, but during the several visits Bob and I had with Zaik at his office, I always noticed how he practically would leap for a ringing phone, palpably excited at the prospect of a new client. Zaik could have sat at home collecting Social Security since before the Clinton administration began, but he has a contagious enthusiasm for architecture. Last week when I was on the 11xDesign homes tour, there Zaik was checking out all the houses; he’s a big fan of the emerging architects and firms. And lest that comment about his lurching for the phone paint a picture of a designer merely hungry for business, it was equally clear that Zaik was happy as a clam talking architecture with us for hours.

But it needn’t be over, especially if you ask Saul. Anybody need a house designed by an outright living legend of Portland architecture?

(Meanwhile, here are three more shots of Zaik's home and two more of the Feldman.)

Holst on Holst

For today's Oregonian, I wrote a profile of Holst Architecture, the firm behind (most recently) the 937 condos, the Clinton Condos, the new Ziba Design headquarters, Hotel Modera, and much more.

In newspapers you almost always generate more material than will fit into the article. Below are some additional comments from John Holmes and Jeff Stuhr, the founding principles of Holst. One point I also want to make here, which may not have come through in the original story, is that besides John and Jeff there is a whole team of talents at Holst. I also did not give a comprehensive mention of all their projects. Besides the aforementioned ones, they've also got the Sunrose Condominiums at Southeast 28th and Burnside, they're doing the controversial parking garage finally approved for NW 23rd Avenue, collaborated on the AIA Center for Architecture, and are designing a retrofit and facelift for one of my favorite local buildings, at 415 SW 10th.

Here are Holmes and Stuhr's thoughts about Holst's place in town and the current economy:

Holmes: "Now for us you’ve got two minds. You’ve got the overall economy sort of going like this (motions downward), but because of our development as a firm we’ve sort of gone like this (motions upward). It’s less steep for us, but it’s definitely not going down. Not yet. I think part of it is we have some significant work being completed now. Hotel Modera, I think that was a real successful project. Clinton is finally wrapping up. And 937 is a big deal."

Stuhr: "With 937, what I like is the patterning. It’s fairly normal throughout the district. And ours sort of breaks that pattern. And I think that’s a good thing."

On Holst style and use of materials:

Stuhr: "Certainly there’s a tendency we already had toward a more kind of focused modernism, I’d say. That’s always been our natural tendency. But if there’ some thing a lot of buildings in Portland do, it’s having too many things going on, especially on the façade. If people would edit things down and keep the richness, that’s what I think we’re striving for.

Stuhr:"It’s a very collaborative process and we’ve got a great staff that works with us here. As we’ve grown up and as you’ve grown older and you’re…I feel like John and I are like, ‘Here’s the concept of the building.’ John may tend to draw and I may tend to more critique, but what’s good in our marriage, so to speak, is that we bring out the best in each other. As I got involved with the policy a bit more, it’s not that John doesn’t.

Holmes: "I think through drawing. Drawing actually helps me think. I’ll draw something, almost like a scribbled mistake, and it helps me get an idea. I don’t think that’s necessarily the way Jeff approaches it. But I would say the best work that we do, I would say there’s a real exchange between Jeff and I. he can make a comment and it’ll make something click in my head. I just really respect that level of feedback.

"I also think what has changed in the last few years is we’ve built up this strong group of people we work with. It’s 18 people now. We’re both in position of directing people more now. Jeff or I might draw something, but three other people might be too. In a weird way it’s becoming more collaborative."

Stuhr: "There are so many facets to the creative process in business. The romantic idea is someone is out in the monastery driving out their vision. That’s the myth. The world’s so much more dynamic now. Especially with computers now, it just moves so fast the things you can do. It’s like you come to this point where Clinton or 937 is finally built, you can render these things so completely now that we feel like we’ve seen the building before it’s come to fruition.

Holmes: "Profession-wide the computer has changed the process. Our upstairs is full of models. That’s how you used to work, literally building it. But with the 3d programs that we have now, and more and more evolving from this physical hard to build thing to a computer, we can experiment ten times more and flip it around and be inside of it.

"I know for myself early on in my career I would draw a perspective sketch before I would draw a floor plan. That’s kind of opposite of how people were taught, especially in my day. Now I think when people come out of school they’re doing it more like I did it years ago. They’re more spatially oriented than the computer. It’s a more 3-d exercise than it used to be. It’s an exciting time to be an architect in that regard. It’s a very rich time. I think modernism is finally in a way finding its kind of true place.

Holmes: "Modernism started out as very rational, almost an outgrowth of science, this belief that rational thought was the be-all end-all of human existence. Well it’s not, it‘s just one piece. Architecture has to be a reflection of who we are more completely.

Stuhr: "This morning I flipped over to 89.9 and they said art is of the heart and of the mind. And architecture is that way. It’s rational and it’s structure, but if it stays in that realm, it misses that whole chance to affect how you feel.

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.

Audience With Higgins

Last week I caught up with Randy Higgins, a designer who always fills my brain with ideas and theories about architecture.

Randy first gained notice in the ‘90s working at Holst Architecture. Although not registered as an architect, he worked on projects like the Pacific Northwest College of Art and the Edge Lofts. But just as Holst was really taking off, Randy left to do his own thing.

In the last few years, he has designed the Elizabeth Leach Gallery’s new space, a Mario’s boutique clothier at Bridgeport Village, and came up with the incredible exterior paint job at PNCA (I wrote about it for Metropolis magazine in June 2005) in which a Rimbaud poem is literally translated into a language of yellow, gray and white rectangles.

No matter what he’s doing, though, Randy is like an academic in that he devotes a lot of time to research and theory. He reminds me of something I heard Thomas hacker say about his time working in the great Louis Kahn’s office: that private architectural practice should always be intertwined with the academic side of design. Not only is there a fountain of youth there, with new young designers always arriving each year. But even more importantly, there exists the freedom to pursue ideas with much more time and deep scrutiny than the pace of the building industry realistically allows. Design can’t advance in the private sector alone. There has to be a laboratory for new ideas. But a private practice does itself a disservice by being too completely severed from that kind of inquiring intellectual environment. (“Inquiring minds want to know!”)

Perhaps ironically, to be able to approach design this way, Randy increasingly works outside traditional architecture, and more in the sub-field of retail and experiential design. The multidisciplinary design firm he’s working at now, Vizwerks, is more akin to a Ziba Design than a traditional architecture firm. Yet these kinds of firms are increasingly getting involved with designing the built environment and not just graphics, Internet, consumer products, etc.

As we talked over lunch at Gotham Tavern--and by the way, don't let me make him sound like some Buddhist monk of design; he's very easygoing--I was making a case to Randy that I thought because of various trends over the last decade, from sustainability to the condo boom to the influx of many young creative people, the overall caliber of design being generated here was improving. While not disputing the basic premise, Randy played the kind of devil’s advocate role I imagined and wanted to hear.

Randy laments that so much of the architecture filling the skyline is speculative. When the project is a condo or office buildings, in most cases instead of architects designing for clients who will occupy their spaces, they’re designing for the person who will sell them. “Without a more direct relationship between the public and architects,” he asked me later over email, “then how can the few (architects) truly know the needs of the many (public)?”

Major developers like Gerding Edlen have grown more and more sophisticated about how they market their spaces. On projects like the new Cyan condos downtown by Thomas Hacker Architects, for example, the developer hired Ziba Design to come up with a concept, from the blue-green color the building is named after to the concept of the potential occupants aspirations and values far beyond the countertop they choose.

Randy also had something interesting to say about what we often call modern architecture: that it’s no longer really modern in the sense of modernism, but more like a postmodern building—the exterior having very little to do with the interior functions—only dressed in a classic modernist language.

I don’t know what it is about people named Randy in the Portland design community. There’s writer/editor Randy Gragg, developer Randy Rapaport, and the aforementioned designer Mr. Higgins (who is not pictured in these attached shots). It reminds me of a children’s book read to me many years ago, “Randy’s Dandy Lions”. I guess, then, that maybe this trio would be our Dandy Randy Lions.

Seed Architecture Ready to Sprout

Along with major trends like sustainability and condo building, the rise of more studio-sized firms in Portland over the last several years has been encouraging.

One of the latest to take root is Seed Architecture, which is headed by Darin Dougherty, whose resume includes two other first-rate local firms, Skylab Design and Architropolis. His business partner Greg is a contractor, so Seed anticipates being able to handle both design and construction, a very enticing package. As if that weren’t enough, Greg also has founded on the side a sustainable surface (counter tops, tile) manufacturing company, Fuez.

Seed also is one of the few smaller firms you’ll find that’s invested in BIM software, which allows them to design with real-time budget information. “A big issue I often ran into working for other architects was designing way past a budget,” Dougherty says. “Some times double or triple even. Being able to see your budget change every time you change design is a powerful tool.”

Although the company is only a few months old (the house at left is one of their first projects), they currently are working on an office remodel and, on a larger scale, a modern development of 12 single family homes located in Beaverton. If this winds up happening, it ought to be huge for Seed—and Beaverton.  The firm also owns on North Greeley near the Adidas campus, which they’re developing into a sustainable mixed-use home for Seed’s office and other tenants. And Seed may be involved with building a housing development in St. Johns involving shipping containers.

The firm has also been to design and build a project on a rural twenty-acre site in Anacordes, Washington shooting for net-zero or off-grid energy use. That would be significantly beyond LEED platinum. They also had an entry in the city's recent courtyard housing competition, seen at left.

With a little luck, the firm will soon outgrow its own name. But then again, Mature Plant Architecture doesn’t quite have the same ring to it.