Metropolis Revisits Portland Building

It may not be popular with locals, but the Portland Building continues to occupy a big place in architectural history.

For its 25th anniversary issue, on newsstands this month, Metropolis magazine devotes a feature article to each year of publication. 1982's entry, on the Portland Building, includes quotes from numerous critics, students and architects about its legacy. "Love it or hate it," says the article's author, Laurie Manfra, "the government buildings stylized cream-and-mauve facade made it a symbol of the Post-Modern style."

Here are some more quotes:

"I've always admired Charles Jencks's assertion that it is the first Post-Modern building 'to show that one can build with art, ornament and symbolism on a grand scale.' It matched Graves's own confidence as a designer. It may have given us little to look back on, but it is a lightning rod of a superconfident past." - Sara Whiting, critic and associate professor of architecture at Harvard's Graduate School of Design.

"Post-Modernism proposed architecture so impoverished and flat that it had no possibility for evolution. Michael Graves's Portland Building, while certainly a monument to the zeitgeist of the 1980s, has little to offer the contemporary world." Tom Wiscombe, Emergent (whatever that is)

"The Portland Building reminds me of the Cray-1 supercomputer from 1976 - it's a visually robust testament to its own maverick (but serious) intentions. It signifies a brutish but bold beginning." Talia Dorsey, architecture student at M.I.T.

"In all its controversy, neither praise nor criticism gave due credit to the building on a literal level. Graves (and Rossi) are masters of tweaking proportions. Their legacy is making things portly, and their audaciusness is totally inspiring at a large urban scale." Jeffrey Inaba, professor at SCI-Arc and principal with HOLA.

Comments

[Miles Hochstein]

I loved it when built... and I still love it. From what I hear, I'm glad I don't work inside it though...

Remember the original complex curvy garlands? They would have been much better than the cheaper design they went with in the end, offering the kind of "curve versus linearity" contrast that Portlandia now offers in the front. (Another example of R. Gragg's "Portland wants a first class ticket on a budget" phenomenon.)

Still and all I think the building radiates optimism and playfulness, and its look is aging well.

There aren't many buildlings that know how to smile.

[Bob R.]

I've visited this buildings dozens of times over the past several years, mostly to attend public meetings.

While I agree that it is a building that "knows how to smile", unfortunately, from the sidewalk, the public is left dealing with the buildings shoes, slacks, and waistline, and the "smile" is only apparent from a distance.

For the pedestrian, the building does not smile. It is dark, unadorned, and dreary all the way around, with the exception of Portlandia.

Perhaps the lower levels of the building were designed as a sly punishment for people who do not gaze upward.

But for a place which spends much of the year overcast, dark, dark, dark tile and shadows does not a smile make.

Don't get me wrong, I like the building. I just don't like walking around it for too long.

- Bob R.

[Justin]

Like my friend just painted his bathroom dark olive green.

Mistake!

lol

[adron]

I dig the building, but I have to say the lower color & liveliness is very lacking. There really needs to be some more involvement from the building with the street.

...and even here I read "Portland wants a first class ticket on a budget"... is it really that noticeable across multiple fields?

[AMA]

Since when do people want to work inside a Cray supercomputer?

[EdgePDX]

Like many icons of an era it works for me just because it is exactly that. Does it mean I like it from a pure design perspective, no, I think Post Modernism is gawdy trash that left the rules of good design behind and left a scar on America in the form of 80's and 90's faux Post Modern suburan apartment complexs and strip malls. Even the harsh brutalist architecture of the 1960's and 70's that it sought to replace has more appeal to me from a pure form standpoint (athough none from the urban experience standpoint). However The Portland building is a historic icon that Portland can be proud of.

[Philippe]

This Building should looked best as a concrete shell under construction.
Portlandia should have been allowed age naturally turn copper green. . .
That green and grey would have looked better. . . perhaps timeless and more weighty.