Portland Architecture

Leeb-Designed Garage Sails to Award

The stand-alone garage serving the Station Place residential tower adjacent to the Broadway Bridge in the Pearl District, designed by Leeb Architects of Portland, has received a national award from the American Institute of Steel Construction for ‘Innovative Design in Engineering and Architecture with Structural Steel’.

I’ve been admirer of this garage ever since it was built. In fact, I find it more compelling than some of the nearby buildings. Unlike most garages, which are made of concrete, this one is, as the award indicates, fabricated with steel. It’s a more contemporary and industrial palette that relates to the adjacent Broadway Bridge as well as the nearby Union Station and its metal shed roofs and rail cars.

The garage also takes advantage of the triangular shape of the site. According to Leeb Architects Keith Pyeatt, project manager for the Station Place garage, “Each façade echoes its environment. The north façade is largely storefront, like the rest of the street. The east façade, with its four-story glass wall, faces a rail yard but is visible from across the Willamette River. And the south façade, clad with folded stainless steel panels, faces the Broadway Bridge.”

Leeb Architects doesn’t get a lot of attention in the media, but the firm has established a large portfolio that includes at least two projects I find handsome: the Streetcar Lofts (the one with the big ‘Go By Streetcar’ sign), and the Mackenzie Lofts on MLK Boulevard at Multnomah near the Convention Center.

While we’re on the point of parking garages, are there any other ones that people reading this particularly like? I’m fond of the garage downtown on 3rd near the Hatfield US Courthouses, with its colorful façade of yellow and other colors. Who says they have to just be banal eyesores?

Casting Call

About five years ago I wrote a Metropolis magazine article about a Portland-based location scout for Hollywood movies named Sara Burton. She’s scouted locations for Oregon-filmed movies like Bandits and The Hunted.

One thing I remember hearing from both Sara and another location scout was that movies, TV shows and especially commercials use a disproportionate amount of modernist architecture. "Things that are beautiful aren't necessarily filmable," scout Beth Milnick told me. "There's an elegant simplicity in most great locations."

The reason I mention this is I recently heard from Sara Burton that she’s again on the lookout for a modernist home:

“I am Location Scouting for an upcoming Kevin Costner film to shoot here in Portland. Looking for residential modern architecture like Steven Ehrlich of Culver City, CA or similar style. Hope to find the home on a little bit of land, but not necessary. Any addresses or names, street names or about where so that I can drop a note with the homeowner and see if they might be interested would be greatly appreciated. The bigger the house the better. Portland isn't known for our modern style, so this is a tall order from the director...I'd like to show him what we do have here that might work. Anyone out there have any ideas?”

Indeed, our fair city isn’t exactly dotted with modernist gems, but there are of course several houses by Pietro Belluschi, John Yeon and others. As it happens, earlier today I was at a circa-1937 Belluschi-designed house (for an upcoming home magazine article) and marveled at how light-filled and elegant the place was. I’m not sure this particular homeowner would want 50 people and their gear traipsing through his house—especially with the guy who made Waterworld in tow. But if anybody has a midcentury house they want immortalized on celluloid, now’s the chance. Just email Sara.

A First Look: The Gerding Theater

Yesterday I attended a press conference at GBD Architects involving the historic armory building near the Brewery Blocks between NW 10th and 11th at Davis that is being transformed into a theater for Portland Center Stage. It will be renamed the Bob & Diana Gerding Theater – Bob of course being the Gerding of Gerding/Edlen Development. Congressman David Wu was there to cheerlead the project, as was PCS executive director Chris Coleman.

The armory project’s publicists had touted a “major announcement” regarding funding, which they didn’t want to talk about beforehand, but which apparently was communicated to The Oregonian in light of Bob Hicks’s piece published that morning: that construction costs had gone up, but they’d also received more funding. That's OK, though, because I was more interested in the design, which GBD’s Steve Domreis was on hand to talk about.

As many know, the armory is poised to become the first historic rehab project ever to earn a ‘Platinum’ LEED designation from the US Green Building Council. That’s very impressive, plain and simple. It also makes two GBD-designed projects under construction, along with the newly re-christened OHSU Center for Health & Healing (formerly River Campus Building One) in the South Waterfront district, that figure to earn the penultimate Platinum rating. No other firm in Portland has come close to matching that.

Basically the architectural approach for the Gerding Theater is to build a modern structure inside the historic shell, a kind of small modern box inside the old brick edifice. There will be two theaters, one holding about 600 people and the other about 150.

One of the most promising things about the design is how it will help Portland Center Stage interact with the community even when there isn’t theater happening. The lobby area is intended to be a place where people can hang out and socialize any time of day. That’s an increasingly important concept in designing arts facilities, that they can be used as interior public spaces for much more than just the couple hours a week when a performance is on.

The lobby will include a multi-story circular open portion that allows one to see the mammoth arching rafters of the roof and take in just how colossal this open space is. That’s great, because the armory was probably never more impressive as a structure than at that moment in construction when it was gutted out and you could stand in a space that felt wide as a football field and tall as a multi-story building, all without any interior columns. I think it’s a very important design concept to create this multi-story open space. There will also be what’s called a ‘Sliver Park’ and an interactive media wall that will add to the theater’s integration with the public.

Local design firm The Felt Hat, in partnership with other designers like Randy Higgins and Stuart Emmons, conducted lots of research and community outreach at the developer’s behest (Gerding/Edlen and Portland Family of Funds) to get people’s opinion’s on how this space should be put together. Not only that, but they did some conceptual design work that I was very impressed with. So much so, in fact, that some of their renderings of what this lobby space could be seemed better than what I saw in GBD’s renderings, with a wider and more dramatic public area than the now-finished circular opening. GBD is indispensable to this project in light of their experience with LEED and handling big projects, but I wonder if this theater might have been even better had Felt Hat and its partners been brought on as a co-designer.

That said, the Gerding Theater as we’re ultimately going to see it will, I think, be a very special place. It wasn’t long ago that the armory was facing either demolition or being transformed into a national chain health club. That it’s going to be a Platinum-rated public theater where the community is welcomed throughout the day and evening is a real victory for Portland.

Daydreaming in a Rainy Rush Hour

Earlier this afternoon I found myself driving southbound on Interstate 5 between Alberta Street and the Morrison Bridge. It was the early stages of rush hour, and traffic was stop-and-go.

It’s practically always gridlocked around the Rose Garden even in non rush-hour times because it’s  essentially the intersection of three different freeways—the 84, 5 and 405—within a quarter of a mile. So while getting stuck in traffic like this usually makes pretty me frustrated and impatient, this time I accepted the crawling pace and focused on the view.

It was as if the slowly passing urban landscape became its own kind of cinema. And the rainy weather made an ideal atmosphere: Instead of the glamour of LA’s palm trees and sunny skies, we’ve got ominous clouds and rain-soaked streets: Portland noir. I'm usually more Travis Bickle than Forest Gump about such things, but today I was into it.

In fact, it occurred to me that even though I and countless others would love to see the east bank of I-5 moved away from the river for urban planning reasons, during our time while the freeway is here, it at least provides a nice view to look out from (since of course the freeway itself isn't in view).

That said, the freeway is not without its beauty.

Traffic had first halted right at that point above and just a couple hundred feet north of the intersection of North Russell and Interstate. Photographers have long documented the sculptural beauty of intertwining freeway overpasses. That’s not to question the unfortunate nature of historic neighborhoods being bulldozed to make room for them. Nor does it change that the Eisenhower-era optimism about these huge Robert Moses-type public works projects never lived up to the optimism with which they were built in terms of solving traffic problems. But viewed from certain angles, these concrete forms can be quite beautiful.

More practicaly speaking, I did also wonder while sitting in traffic if at some point in the distant future, maybe fifty years for example, Portland might look at some kind of underground tunnel for through traffic. I'm not saying in place of mass transit, of course - just the opposite - but I think traffic will eventually get so bad that every kind of belt-widening infrastructure endeavor might ultimately be needed. (And as one frequent Portland Architecture comment section guest likes to remind us, some decent inter-city high speed rail will also be a must.)

Before and after the Rose Garden on I-5, one also gets a picturesque glimpse of downtown from a more or less northeast angle. While driving one can usually only afford to steal a quick glimpse. But today I was able to stare a little more. I enjoyed the juxtaposition of grittier aspects from the landscape, such as that huge shipping/port structure between the Rose Garden and the Steel Bridge (and another one just north of the Broadway Bridge) against the sleekness of certain downtown architecture. The whitish outline of the otherwise glassy Fox Tower stood out today. And often I find the curve of the Hatfield US Courthouse caught my eye as well—even though when I’m near it downtown I feel it’s not aging very well compositionally.

And while one may not be particularly fond of certain building exteriors from this purely aesthetic point, collectively they go together in combination with each other and with the West Hills in the background. It’s funny: the quintessential postcard view of Portland is almost always looking east in order to incorporate Mt. Hood or Mt. Saint Helens, but I think in some ways the skyline is more compelling viewed from this angle.

In and of themselves, Portland’s downtown buildings often seem squatty. But viewed as part of the landscape the thinking behind them makes more sense—not so much to preserve views as to preserve access to the light.

More and more, we’re seeing taller but thinner buildings on the landscape. And while that’s scary to some people, to a large degree it’s good. After a generation that tried to supplant buildings that respond to their environments with air conditioning and fluorescent lights, we’re returning to the fundamental premise of architecture driven by its surroundings, whether that means daylighting inside spaces or minimizing shadows outside.

Lloyd Crossing Wins AIA Honor Award

The Seattle firm Mithun has won the 2006 American Institute of Architects Honor Award for Regional and Urban Design for the Lloyd Crossing Sustainable Urban Design Plan. Lloyd Crossing was one of eight projects selected from approximately 65 entries worldwide.

Jurors called Lloyd Crossing “…a brilliant technical analysis of urban ecosystems. Ecological analysis provided unique perspective which we hope will be more broadly adopted in future urban design and planning. Density done in sustainable way needs to be taken in the context of Portland’s growth boundary.”

“This award not only brings attention to an important cutting edge project, it furthers awareness of what is possible with sustainable design at the city level,” said Bert Gregory, president of Mithun.

Lloyd Crossing offers a 50-year blueprint for changing existing infrastructure into new space that will in turn, reintegrate natural habitat, leverage public transportation opportunities and live within natural water, solar and carbon budgets as density increases fivefold. The $225,000 plan, funded mostly by the Portland Development Commission, plan outlines outlines not only the creation of an entity to manage the public-private financing partnerships necessary to realize the design strategies—but also how it will work.

With that in mind, I wanted to find out what kind of progress is being made toward tangible implementation of Lloyd Crossing. Sloan Schang, PDC’s project manager for the project, explained via email:

“We are continuing to discuss with Lloyd District property owners ways that we might implement the vision and strategies of the plan.  As you can imagine, this is a complex and lengthy process that begins with mutual agreements to simply explore the next steps. “

“It's very likely that the first item to be implemented from the plan will be modest, perhaps as simple as a small bio-filtration swale in an urban intersection.  As a test case for this kind of improvement, PDOT and BES have prepared a design for an enhanced pedestrian crossing on NE 9th avenue near Multnomah St. that incorporates the kind of swale facility envisioned in the plan.  This particular improvement may or may not move forward, pending approval from the adjacent property owners.”

This speaks, I think, as to why Lloyd Crossing is a wonderful endeavor that the public is yet to really get excited about. The long-term vision that makes it so impressive is also what accounts for the fact that everything the AIA is honoring will…happen sometime way down the road. I’m certainly not bashing PDC for this. Quite the contrary, in fact. If there’s any part of Portland proper that needs to change, it’s the Lloyd district.

Portland’s Condo Builders Do Los Angeles

You may have heard that Portland developers Gerding/Edlen and Williams & Dame, already collaborators in South Waterfront in addition to separate successes in the Pearl, have teamed up on a handful of projects in downtown Los Angeles. Currently they have a whopping five buildings in the works.

And they’re all designed by Portland firms.

Three of the mixed-used condos will be located within one block near the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles, in a neighborhood known as South Park (no relation to the TV show or Portland restaurant).

There are Elleven and Luma, both designed by Ankrom Moisan, and Evo, which is designed in tandem by TVA Architects and GBD Architects. (I do not yet know which of these firms is the principal designer, but hope to update this post soon with that information.) These three buildings will account for 1.5 million square feet of residential and commercial space, with over 700 new condos and 27 live-work townhouses. The overall budget exceeds $350 million.

TVA and GBD have also collaborated on the design of South Figueroa, which consists of two towers, each 34 stories with 324 total condos. Construction is slated to begin in May with occupancy in 2008.

As I understand it, all of these projects will also seek LEED certification—no surprise considering Gerding/Edlen’s track record.

What do you all think of the architecture? Although none of the buildings seem extraordinary to me, at first glance I think all are very solidly designed. And that's really in most cases all that you can ask for with this building type.

I like how Luma features a thinner modern portion on top growing from the more pedestrian dark masonry lower façade. How the form and balconies move in and out of the exterior plane to break up the mass also is more successful to me than on previous Ankrom projects like The Elizabeth.

The twin towers of Figeroa South are curved similarly to the very popular TVA design for The John Ross (and that other GBD project planned there which I can’t remember the name of). They’re thinner and taller than the John Ross, which is nice, but lack the undulating exterior forms of that project.

Evo, also by TVA and GBD, is more monolithic, but I don’t necessarily mean that in a bad way. It’s simple, and the lighter exterior material may be more appropriate for Southern California.

At 13 stories, Eleven, by Ankrom Moisan, is the smallest of the bunch. I like the extending roof, although to me the overall design is slightly more pedestrian—but again, this is based on staring at a thumbnail-sized rendering, so it’s certainly no kind of official verdict.

As Williams & Dame and Gerding/Edlen gain more sure footing in Los Angeles with these projects completing in the next couple of years, I wonder what kind of opportunity there might be in the future for these developers to collaborate with other Portland firms.

Thomas Hacker Architects has already done one building in South Waterfront; could they do a tower in LA? BOORA Architeccts has been on the verge of a South Waterfront commission and meanwhile has two big projects underway for Hoyt Street Properties in the northern Pearl. Or perhaps the developers could take more of a risk on exceptional design quality and look to partner a smaller firm like Holst, Colab or Emmons with a larger service firm. Or why not Allied Works? They haven't done any condos, but I'm sure Brad Cloepfil is more than capable.

Meanwhile, it’s encouraging to see two Portland developers take the smart-growth model to the American city that probably needs it most of all.

Three By Waterleaf

Although the firm does not receive a lot of media attention, I’ve always admired the work of Waterleaf Architecture, dating back to the mid-1990s when a high school pal of mine worked there. I associate Waterleaf with some of the beautiful coastal homes the firm has designed, but actually there is a wide variety to their portfolio: wineries, medical labs, mass transit, even a ranger station.

And like so many Portland firms, Waterleaf is also getting involved in the high-density residential/mixed-use building boom.

The Beaumont Village Lofts, situated at Northeast 50th and Fremont, are currently under construction and will be completed this fall. It’s hard to view the enclosed watercolor rendering with great precision, but what’s readily apparent is that the design leads your eye to the corner. That’s a very common strategy here in Portland, but the square masonry and glass portion at Beaumont Village I find particularly striking. The rest of the structure seems pretty straightforward, but I don’t necessarily mean that in a bad way—you’re not going to reinvent the wheel on a project like this.

Another project, the 20th & Everett Apartments, are tentatively set to break ground soon at (you guessed it) Northeast 20th and Everett. It’s great to see somebody building rental apartments in light of all the condos going up. This building’s overall form seems compelling to me in how, after the first couple floors, the structure appears to get wider as it goes up.

You may have read about a third Waterleaf project in this morning’s Oregonian without realizing it. Vindalho, an acclaimed new Indian/south Asian restaurant, has just opened in Local 49, a retail building at the corner of Southeast 20th and Clinton. The building is more or less in my neighborhood, and I’ve passed it many times on foot. The exterior wood cladding gives the building a sense of warmth, contrasted by the metal cladding that adds modernity. And like the 20th & Everett project, the exterior seems to move outward slightly as it goes up. It’s a simple but effective gesture.

Waterleaf is actually one of the older architecture firms in Portland; they first set up shop in 1952. Although lots of different personnel have come and gone, I think this is a good example of a relatively small firm that’s carved out a successful niche with dependable design and a nicely diverse portfolio.

From Neutra to Belluschi

Earlier this week I met Jeff Belluschi, grandson of Pietro, the patron saint of Portland architecture. (Jeff was kind enough to seek out a copy of the photo atop this website, which I’m enormously humbled by.)

Jeff acts a kind of caretaker for his grandfather’s architectural legacy, keeping watch over Belluschi buildings. He lamented one owner of a Belluschi home who painted over the natural cedar siding the architect favored. He also explained how his grandfather favored gravel driveways for their Zen-like quality (that sound of crackling rocks) and how they can mark an important transition between public world and the privacy of home. Most of all, Jeff talked about Pietro as a renaissance man who loved painting and the outdoors as much as architecture.

One historic tidbit Jeff also brought when we met was a copy of a letter that Pietro Belluschi received on March 11, 1953 from legendary architect Richard Neutra, known best for his ‘Case Study’ houses in Los Angeles as well as the Lovell House and Kaufman House.

The letter (with Neutra's underlining) goes as follows:

Dear Pietro

This is written in bed, in a hotel in Eugene, in fact in the Eugene Hotel. Yesterday some boys took me to your Presbyterian church in Cottage Grove. It is really wonderful!! I talked with the Pastor and he is a happy client. The whole thing makes me happy although I am only a bystander – and not particularly a churchgoer. It is great what sincere architecture can do to a soul! There is perhaps no other profession like this. Often we have – I have – no time to think about it. But here I lie in bed and think. Everybody loves you here I have talked to. This is as it should be. An architect should be loved by the people and he should have deep sympathy for them. You are and you have. I am deeply glad to know you Pietro, and to have had a chance to see this third church of yours which makes me feel so good – with its warm earnestness, and with this inscription rock! I stood with the pastor in the sun under the still wintery trees. One day I hope to see you while I’m yet alive. Everything good to you.

                                    Cordially

                                    Richard

Kudos to Jeff Belluschi for keeping the flame of his grandfather, to whom Portlanders still feel an enormous degree of affection, marvel, and gratitude.

PDC’s Amy Miller Dowell on Ankeny Plaza, Saturday Market and Fire Station 1

Recently I spoke with project manager Amy Miller Dowell of the Portland Development Commission about Ankeny Plaza and its two corresponding issues/projects, Saturday Market and Fire Station 1.

“The urban renewal district is sunsetting,” Miller Dowell explains. “We have a set amount of dollars with the downtown waterfront projects. PDC has devoted significant future budget and current budget to implementing this revitalization around Ankeny Plaza and Skidmore Fountain as a catalyst area. What we’re hoping to do is use a certain amount of public dollars to attract private investment.”

Regarding Saturday Market, Miller Dowell says after the public was invited to vote on a handful of potential sites to which the market could be moved, “Everybody’s first choice, and we’ve heard it loud and clear, is that they want it in that area.” Over 500 people have weighed in thus far. She also hopes PDC will not be vilified for proposing a move for Saturday Market. “If the commission did nothing, it would probably die.”

Apparently the proposed public market is still on track to become a reality, and the Skidmore building remains a distinct possibility as its new home. Red tape aside, this endeavor in particular seems like a no-brainer. Let’s make it happen!

Regarding Fire Station One, Miller Dowell says, “there is a chance” that the new project (moving the station out of Ankeny Plaza to a new home designed by Thomas Hacker Architects via a mid-2005 design competition) won’t happen at all.

“Let’s put it this way,” she says, “It’s over budget. Everybody’s really worked on getting those numbers down. But they’re still $5 million over in hard costs and $7 million overall.”

“Now we have a couple choices: finding more funds, changing programs, or Fire 1 goes back and renovates their current site if we can’t figure out some options that allow us to go forward. But it’s not dire yet.”

I sure hope so. The failure of Fire 1 to become a reality would be a blow on several fronts: to the future of city-sponsored design competitions in Portland, to one of the city’s best architects, and to Ankeny Plaza itself, which is counting on the former Fire 1 site as a catalyst for future residential development.

Like the controversial tram between Marquam Hill and South Waterfront, Fire 1 is in part a victim of circumstances: the skyrocketing cost of construction due to steel and other material prices becoming more scarce as China and other countries develop. As with the tram, I think it’s important we recognize that while these cost issues could have been handled better by all parties involved, it isn’t a case where project managers have failed to do their jobs. Both Fire 1 and the tram should still happen.

One thing I meant to ask Miller Dowell is about the possibility of, rather than asking Hacker’s office to continue diminishing their design in order to get it under budget, instead getting the city to increase it. Considering that market circumstances are mostly to blame for the budget gap, I think it’s the budget itself that should be altered, not the building. But I suppose there’s probably no chance of the city coughing up more money.

On Thursday, January 19, PDC will be sponsoring the Ankeny Burnside Development Framework Design Charette at the commission’s headquarters (222 NW 5th) to explore urban design alternatives for the area. Community members are encouraged to attend and weigh in on the future of the district. Be there or be square--or should I say 'plaza'?

The Tram Is No Scam

In today’s Oregonian both columnist Steve Duin and reporter Ryan Frank cover the tram between OHSU and South Waterfront, particularly the threefold increase in cost from the original $15 million estimate to the $45 million cost today.

There is a lot of carping going on, and much of it deservedly so. But I think it’s important we delineate things here.

One issue is the ignorance and possible deception that happened, however unwittingly, with the original $15 million estimate. Obviously that was a ridiculous figure from the start. I don’t blame people for being very upset and feeling taken advantage of. That the city and OHSU and the developers are arguing over who should cover the costs is completely understandable.

But another issue altogether is whether we want the tram. And the answer to that is still, at least in my view, decidedly yes.

Lets forget for a moment how the cost estimates have ballooned and go back a couple years ago to the original issue of how the tram would act as a lynchpin for the South Waterfront development, which will bring thousands of jobs and residents to a blighted stretch of prime riverfront.

If the tram cost had been estimated at $45 million back then, I wouldn’t have hesitated to support it. If it’s good for the city, it’s good for the city. And if South Waterfront does indeed become the high-density neighborhood and the home of a revitalized world-class OHSU campus, then not only would $45 million be worth it, but $90 would be too.

This controversy is similar in many ways to Boston's "Big Dig", which also saw several delays and frustratingly huge cost increases. People there, and even nationwide to an extent, ridiculed city leaders for embarking on such a boondoggle. But you know what? Today Boston is better for the tunnels they built there. That doesn't mean people were wrong to complain about the rising costs and delays. What I'm getting at is it's one thing to complain about a process that experiences problems. It's another to advocate killing a project people agreed should happen.

I think what this comes down to is that cities don't embark upon massive transportation projects quite as often as they used to in the Robert Moses era. Clearly Portland, like Boston before it, needed to learn some lessons the hard way about what it takes to deliver such a project with acceptable efficiency. Again, though, that's a conversation about process, not about the validity of the product.

Duin suggests, as others have, that it’s time to “pull the plug” on the tram. Of course I disagree vehemently and unequivocally. It’s certainly necessary that we investigate the unfortunate process by which the tram’s cost estimates tripled. But if we want the tram then we want the tram. I still can’t wait to go for a ride.

Village People

In yesterday’s Willamette Week, Julie Sabatier interviewed Laura Brown, who has lived at the Dignity Village homeless camp under the Freemont Bridge for the past year and a half.

The time has passed for debating whether Dignity Village should exist. City leaders are on the verge of approving a formal lease for this self-governing community through 2010. Whatever issues of property or crime may accompany it, we know Dignity Village gives homeless people a place to live besides a streetcorner.

What I found interesting about the Q&A was Brown’s descriptions of the bonifide sense of community that exists at Dignity Village.

Knowing there could be sex offenders around [the camp does not discriminate on the basis of background], do you feel safe?

There are 35 or 38 people living here right now and only nine or 10 of them are women, but I've felt safe since I very first got here. I don't feel that on the streets; it's very scary. And, here, it hasn't been scary at all. I know that at any time, if anybody messed with me here, there'd be 20 guys to my defense in a second.

Why do some people who have the ability to move on choose to stay here?

My kids live in Utah. They want me to come back really bad. They have an apartment, an extra bedroom, and they'd help me find work there.... [But] I want to stay around for a while…I want to see it grow. I want to see it succeed, not just for me, but for all the people that are going to come after me, all the people that are out there right now in the doorways. Every day that I'm here and I'm warm and I crawl under my covers, I think about those people out there. And it's raining and I know that their blankets are getting wet and they're sitting there shivering and they're crying and they're cold and the police are coming and harassing them and chasing them. And this isn't the ultimate, best place to be, but it's much better than where they're at.

The design and construction community has done a lot over the years to help charitable organizations like Habitat For Humanity—and that’s great. But I wonder if there’s more we could do to enhance a place like Dignity Village.

If this is indeed a quasi-permanent establishment, then the skills of, say, some young up-and-coming architects or builders, could really do some good creating very rudimentary but solid individual shelters that could improve the lot of these people.

I’m not suggesting some fella in slacks and a mock-turtleneck duck out of his client meeting in a glossy downtown office tower, hightail it to a homeless encampment and exclaim, “Hey everybody, what can I build for you today?’ But these people would really benefit from a little ingenuity and elbow grease from the building community. Dignity Village is doing just fine by itself, thank you very much, but I’ll bet what these people call a step up could become a stairway.

Density's Growing Pains

In today’s Portland Tribune, Anna Johns reports that a weekend landslide in the West Hills has residents questioning the viability of a planned 36-unit condominium planned for nearby.

According to experts quoted in the article, the landslide on Southwest Cardinell Drive does not necessarily have anything to do with the suitability of the condo property. But I’m not interested in that particular project per se so much as it being another in a long line of growing pains that many residents are experiencing as Portland grows ever more dense.

The landslide incident also reminds me of a battle that developer Randy Rapaport is having with residents of the Clinton neighborhood. Rapaport, who developed the superlative Holst-designed Belmont Lofts project, is planning a new condo project on Division Street and 26th, but the neighbors are fighting him on the grounds that a historic home on the site would have to be moved. I think it’s not the individual home they care about, however, so much as the notion of a modern high-density building coming to their neighborhood.

Whether it’s Laurelhurst, Beaumont, North Mississippi, Ladd’s Addition or Overlook, Portland’s neighborhoods are a real treasure. The array of Craftsman bungalows, Victorians, Queen Annes and other single family homes indeed form the very fabric of Portland. And I don’t blame homeowners or other interested parties for feeling protective of these environments.

That said, I think many residents are denying reality.

Portland is growing, and as a city we’ve made the decision to grow up and in—to densify—rather than sprawling out endlessly like they do in Phoenix or Atlanta or Houston. That course is not without its difficulties, driving up the cost of living and forcing everyone to share a more finite amount of space. But it’s the best alternative we have. Besides, density in many ways is a very good thing, for it’s the foundation upon which a vibrant urban culture (or an array of cultures) is built.

Part of Portland’s inevitable future is that we’re increasingly going to have residential neighborhoods of single-family homes abutting multi-unit condo and apartment buildings at key streets and intersections. But that’s not a bad thing. They may bring added traffic, but they’ll also be accompanied by a greater emphasis on mixed-use environments that mean you can walk somewhere for your cup of coffee or tube of toothpaste instead of driving.

And in many cases, these new buildings joining clusters of old homes will be designed in a contemporary style that reflects our time, our era. When the Craftsman was first introduced, it too was viewed by many traditionalists as a radical departure from existing design. But the Craftsman is now a welcome part of Portland’s collective architectural identity.

Whether it’s in the West Hills, Clinton, or elsewhere in Portland, I think we’ll continue to see neighbors’ opposition to new high-density developments. And that’s part of the long process of growth and transformation. But let’s be clear that whether it’s landslides or moving old homes or other reasons cited to fight these projects, the underlying issue is change, both the threat and the promise it brings. And I for one am excited to see what’s coming.

Remembering James Freed

You’ll have to forgive me, because this post stretches the notion of what constitutes Portland architecture. But I wanted to acknowledge the recent passing of architect James Freed, principal with the New York firm Pei Cobb Freed & Partners. (He worked alongside the legendary I.M. Pei for nearly 50 years.) For both myself and, to a greater extent, local architect Eric Cugnart of Mulvanny G2, Freed’s passing brings pause.

James Ingo Freed is best known for designing the national Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. It was a very personal project for Freed, who was born Jewish in Germany in 1930 and fled the country at the age of nine to escape the camps. But Freed also designed numerous noteworthy projects like the San Francisco Public Library, on which Cugnart worked, as well as the Jacob Javitz Convention Center in New York.

I came to know James Freed briefly when he spoke as part of a lecture series that I helped put together on behalf of AIA/Portland in 2000. I was the one who picked him up at the airport, and over the two days he was here acted as his liaison.

The other thing you should know about Freed was that over the last several years of his life, the architect suffered from severe Parkinson’s disease. When I first met him, it constantly seemed like he was about to fall down. His pace resembled someone perpetually struggling to regain his or her footing after tripping. But Freed in no uncertain terms refused a wheelchair.

He could only speak in the slightest whisper. I remember him talking in the car as we toured different Portland buildings—Freed wanted to see the work of Bob Frasca, whom he knew—and with great embarrassment had to ask him to repeat everything he said several times. But if you could penetrate the external complications of the Parkinson’s, Freed was exceptionally lucid, articulate and intelligent. The audience that came for his speech gave him a standing ovation, and not just because he was ailing.

Cugnart, who worked under Freed for three years in New York after emigrating from Paris and later, in Portland, designed or co-designed projects in Portland like the adidas Village and Mark Hatfield US Courthouse (both for BOORA), says he has the late architect to thank for opening his mind to architecture as more than just style.

“When I came to New York, I was like a lot of French architects: a priest of Modernism,” Cugnart remembers. “Jim could be that way too, but he also knew how to respond to the context and the purpose of a project. Not many architects have that, and he really opened the door for me.” Cugnart remembers on the San Francisco Library how Freed balanced contemporary architectural manner with the more decorative Beaux-Arts style.

With the Holocaust Museum, Freed walked a fine line between evoking the horror of the concentration camps yet not recreating them in a cartoonish way. And the critics took notice. "This is an architecture that sears the memory and invades the dreams," wrote Blair Kamin of the Chicago Tribune. In The New York Times, Herbert Muschamp called it "a work of such enormous power that it defies language."

Freed only spent a couple days of his life in Portland. When Cugnart told him he was leaving Pei Cobb Freed to move here, Freed asked, “Do you like fishing?” But for those of us who crossed his path, the passing of this excellent architect—this great man—deserves commemoration.

Welcome Sponsor

Portland Architecture is proud to welcome as a sponsor the Quent Cordair Fine Art gallery in Burlingame, California (near San Francisco). This month Cordair, which specializes in romantic realism, is featuring the work of painter Bryan Larsen, many of whose works prominently feature architecture. Thanks to Cordair for advertising on this site. And for anyone interested in joining the party, ads start for as little as $20 (per week, or $40/month) to reach audiences of 400-plus per day. Operators are standing by!

PDC, Parcel 8, and Design Excellence

In today’s Oregonian, Dylan Rivera reports that the Portland Development Commission is seeking bids for a 1.1 acre tract it owns in the RiverPlace area along the downtown waterfront.

Originally, Rivera reports, PDC imagined this as an office building. But now, with the office market remaining largely stagnant and demand for housing continuing unabated, the project is now poised to become a mixed-use building with green building techniques and condos or apartment.

PDC deserves praise for recognizing the need to shift programs, and no one can really argue the importance (and value) of sustainable materials and methods. What’s more, a statement in the article by Kia Selley of PDC that the agency is not just looking for the highest bid is an encouraging one.

But I’m still frustrated by what I’ve read.

Rivera reports that, “…the PDC also has reason to seek high-dollar bids for the tract it calls Parcel 8: The agency needs money from the sale to help pay off the debt for the Portland Streetcar extension to RiverPlace, which opened last spring.”

Maybe it’s naïve, but I don’t think getting the highest bid should ever be the criteria of a public development agency like PDC. That’s what we have the private sector for. I want PDC to be concerned first and foremost on every project with the caliber of what gets built.

Yes, PDC has budget issues that figure in to how it manages its development portfolio. And no, we can’t expect the agency to disregard its own balance sheet. But I still think PDC must have the absolute highest standards when it comes to the architecture it commissions -- no matter what.

And while I’ve said it before, I remain frustrated that public projects like this one mandate green building but not design excellence. Securing a LEED rating or otherwise displaying sustainable materials and methods is indeed something we should require of all public buildings. But why stop there?

At the federal level, the GSA has garnered widespread praise for its ‘Design Excellence’ program that has produced a nationwide array of first-rate architecture by the likes of Thom Mayne and Richard Meier. But the names of the architects aren’t important so much as the fact that the GSA mandated exceptional design.

I think the Portland Development Commission should be doing the same.

It’s not that PDC doesn’t build decent buildings. And of course the agency has many criteria to meet beyond architectural aesthetics, particularly when it comes to the process by which the project goes forward. PDC has to make sure the community is involved at all stages, that equal opportunity is given to those vying for the contracts, and that the project is urbanistically sound with proper pedestrian access and integration with the surrounding fabric.

But time and time again, I don’t see a priority made of design excellence, with the most talented designs and designers given a chance to flourish. And as much as I respect the notion of public meetings and such that PDC works hard to make part of an open process, I'm not sure that's going to resolve the issue.

The city already has a Design Commission in place, yet often by the point they see a project, it's far too late to change very much after the developer and architect have been selected. I think an institutional committment to achieving first-rate design on city projects has to start a lot sooner in the ballgame, when PDC awards the contract.

All this said, as always your input is welcome on this. Do you think PDC is doing enough to sponsor quality design? If not, what should they do about it?

ZGF's Tower and Transformation

A few weeks ago Zimmer Gunsul Frasca unveiled its initial rendering of the mixed-use tower the firm is designing for Gerding/Edlen Development, just a couple blocks across Burnside from the Brewery Blocks.

Although this is not the final design, and as always you can only tell so much from a rendering, I like what I see so far.

What do the rest of you think?

Recently I met with ZGF architect Eugene Sandoval, who is a key designer of this project as well as the Eliot Tower behind the Portland Art Museum, which is nearing completion. The word I remember Gene using numerous times to describe various projects is “crystalline”. And when you look at this new tower, I think that’s one of the primary strengths of the project. As with the Eliot, one also sees the non-glass squares making a noticeable, almost signature pattern.

ZGF has gone through a real transformation in the last few years, adding many younger staff members and seeking new commissions increasingly by entering design competitions. Having been the city’s largest architecture firm for many years (although I think Ankrom Moisan may have overtaken them in sheer numbers by now), ZGF can probably get plenty of business churning out solid but unextraordinary work for clients seeking service firms with lots of experience. But to ZGF’s credit, the design acumen is definitely there.

Time to Build the Donuts

In today’s Oregonian, Steven Carter reports on a mock school classroom prototype designed by the University of Oregon’s G.Z. “Charlie” Brown with Heinz Rudolph of BOORA and Mike Hatten of SOLARC. I had the occasion to visit the prototype several months ago and came away very impressed.

The prototype, which sits in a warehouse at Mt. Angel Abbey and was funded by BetterBricks, features a 10-by-10-foot skylight with electric louvers that modulate the amount of light let in and a “halo” hanging from the skylight that distributes light into the perimeter of the space. (Brown more unceremoniously calls it a “donut”, which I refuse to let die.)

In the article, Carter outlines how this prototype and other green building measures can help our cash-strapped schools save lots of money in operating costs. At the middle school in The Dalles, which Rudolph and BOORA designed (and I wrote about for Metropolis in March 2003), for example, it’s estimated they’re saving $50,000 a year in energy costs. And this project didn’t even have the donut!

Specifically with respect to the daylighting prototype at Mt. Angel, it occurred to me when I visited, and when reading today’s article, that it needn’t be restricted to schools. When you think about it, practically any single-story space would benefit from such a design: retail, residential, office. It saves money on energy bills, but perhaps even more importantly, the natural light—particularly when it’s modulated by louvers to keep a fairly steady and agreeable light level—simply works better than artificial light.

Studies show that workers are more productive and need fewer breaks when they work in a naturally lit spaces. Retailers have registered more sales. And human physiology responds to natural illumination with more wakefulness and less risk of seasonal depression.

If I had my way, Charlie’s donut would be sweeping the nation faster than Krispy Kreme.

New Year’s Resolutions,Inquiries, and Hopes

First of all, Happy New Year to all of you who have taken the time to read this blog. Second of all, in the spirit of renewal that accompanies the calendar change, I think it’s not just an empty tradition but also a useful activity to look ahead and talk about what we want from the next twelve months or beyond. In other words, what are our resolutions for architecture in Portland over the next year? Our hopes, our fears?

There are numerous large-scale building projects that will see completion before 2006 runs its course, such as the Meriwether Condominums and the OHSU Center for Health & Healing (formerly known as River Campus One), both in the South Waterfront district. Right now that area is a flurry of construction and lots and lots of mud. It will be fascinating to see it begin to become a real place in the months ahead. The very promising Eliot Tower will also be completed soon, and the tower cranes remain busy in the Pearl District as well.

Other projects are still in their development stages, such as Burnside Bridgehead. There was such a battle over how that project would take shape and who would be granted to job to do it. And yet it’s been months since the contract was awarded and we still don’t know what’s going to be built there and exactly who all will design which portions. I can only assume that will become clearer in 2006.

But beyond such big projects, there are countless smaller ones—in many cases of greater or more compelling design acumen—that will be coming to a street or neighborhood near you. What are some of those? I know of a few of them, but urge anyone with information on projects to email me here. I’ve spent plenty of time talking about big projects on this blog, and will continue to do so. But it’s also very important that smaller projects and firms be featured as well.

And then there’s government. The Portland Development Commission has seen its leadership at the top replaced, and we’re all hoping some of the negative publicity generated is in the rear view mirror. At the same time, though, I think it remains important that PDC become not just an economic development agency, but a patron of good design.

Meanwhile, Mayor Tom Potter will move his visioning project into high gear, seeking as many as 100,000 different Portlanders to weigh in on reshaping city government. Regardless of whether you think this visioning is a good idea or not, this is an opportunity for those interested in good architecture and planning to see that they have an important place in the future.

But I’ve said enough. For those of you still reading, what or whom are you excited about in the world of local architecture over the next year? What are you worried about? What are the ideas, the projects and the people we should be talking about?

I imagine many of us are a little groggy back at work on this post-holiday morning. But give it some thought. It’s important we take stock of things once in awhile, and what I have to say should really be the tip of the iceberg. Or, better yet, the basement of the tower.