What Homer Simpson Can Teach Jack Onder

There’s an episode of The Simpsons that reminds me of the 150-foot tower proposed by developer Jack Onder near 23rd and Burnside.

In the episode, Homer Simpson discovers he has a long lost half-brother named Herb who is CEO of a big auto manufacturer. Herb decides Homer perfectly represents the beer-swilling American everyman, and decides to build a car according to his half-brother’s specification. The car is filled with every bell and whistle a car could ever need or want. And what happens? Like the Edsel, it’s a complete disaster and bankrupts Herb’s company.

The final look of Jack Onder’s tower has been arrived at in a manner resebling Homer's car. It's piecemeal design. Granted, much of that was unavoidable. Considering Portland’s path toward density, a busy intersection like nearby 23rd and Burnside is a suitable place for a tall tower. But the nearby Northwest District and Hillside neighborhoods are worried about their views. There was bound to be some conflict.

Yet I can’t help but believe that if Onder had worked with a great architect to produce a really compelling design from the start, the neighborhood wouldn’t have been quite so up in arms.

The firm Onder did hire, Ankrom Moisan, deserves praise for modifying their design so many times. I imagine the firm gets hired so often because they’re adept at providing that kind of service. But what if from the start Ankrom had been paired with a smaller, design-oriented architect or firm that could craft a real unified, compelling vision for this building while Ankrom backed them up?

Maybe it’s just the architecture geek in me, but if I had a choice between looking at Mount Hood some fifty miles in the cloudy distance or a great building a couple blocks away, I’d be fine with the building going up. That said, however, it couldn’t be just any building. And being skinnier towards the top and well integrated at street level wouldn’t be the only criteria for its success. In fact, that would be secondary in my mind to the overall importance of the building being of poetic, captivating design. I don't mean the kind of trite showiness of the Portland Building, but an elegant modern structure that locals like Brad Cloepfil (Allied Works), Rick Potestio, John Holmes (Holst), and Mark Engberg (Colab) know how to do.

If we look at the drama surrounding Onder’s building and see only the individual design issues that have occupied neighborhood activists and the Design Commission, we’re missing the larger point. Even Homer Simpson could tell you that.

Comments

[Mike Thelin]

I would love to see Holst, Colab and host of other smaller more talented firms take on condo projects, however, I wholly disagree that a more compelling design would have saved Mr. Onder any trouble. In fact, I believe good design would have made it worse for the embattled developer. Any architect or developer who has ever been unlucky enough to work in NW Portland can tell you how uneasily the local residents adapt to any change. They want everything to be squatty, brick, conforming and not more then four stories in height. They want their boring little neighborhood to stay the same forever.

Seems to me the design presented to them is exactly what they want, but they're objecting to it because it's too tall for their liking and therfore out of character in a historic neighborhood visually dominated by Victorian and Craftsman styles.

If I were Jack Onder, I would be pretty frustrated. He's been trying to please the neighborhood for more than a year, and hasn't been able to save this prime site from its current use: A surface level parking lot for a secondary retail strip center.

[John]

Yeah, Mike, how dare those pesky NW residents want to preserve the character of their historic neighborhood? They should just shut up and accept 15 stories of ugly modernist shit! The sooner every building in NW looks like the tower on 19th or the one on Northrup the better.

[Mike Thelin]

John,

You can have it both ways. Good design doesn't have to be 'modernist shit' as you say. And some modern buildings work well with existing historic structures. Take Allied's building on 23rd and Glisan.
And I wouldn't exactly called Ankrom's proposed tower 15 stories of, again, 'modernist shit.' There's really not much overtly modern about it. It may be tall, but it seems to hint at the historic aesthetic of the neighborhood at its base, and it's certainly better than a strip-mall parking lot. Just curious: What would you suggest for this site? What exactly does the neighborhood want besides saving a treasured wisteria vine?

[jr]

Do you believe that a design oriented firm must necessarily be smaller", and if so, why? Does this apply everywhere, or only in
Portland?

Thanks.

[Brian]

Of course when we differentiate between design firms and service firms, it's a matter of generalization. And that also goes for the notion that design firms are smaller and service firms are larger. It's not to say there aren't big firms with impressive design talent. But it's been my observation that more often than not you'll find the biggest firms are more mainstream and bland in their designs. There are big exceptions to this, like SOM in the middle part of the 20th century. So the point is well taken but I don't think it disproves the thrust of what I'm talking about either.

[David Kwon]

I think the author is missing the general point of the debate of Mr. Onder's development. Jack did not call for a rezoning of the area, the city had already rezoned the area and Jack was taking the opportunity to give the neighborhood much needed density which Portland lacks, granted it is growing at sometimes too rapid of a pace. Jack has some design integrity as you can see in the other development he is constructing on the south east waterfront (Strand). Much of the aesthetic problems that the author speaks of is irrelvant to this development considering that the neighborhood wanted a contextual development for the neighborhood. The primary disagreements of the development were the neighbors at the street level of the develop. They were concerned about the shadow cast of the condo and the effects it would have on their property, but most of that has been solved thus construction has begun. If the author is upset about the design of Jack's development, he/she should not show resentment toward Jack, but rather the residents of the neighborhood that have pushed for the final contextual design.