Portland Architecture

Oak Tower Site Re-Appraised

The Portland Development Commission has announced the results of a new independent appraisal of the quarter-block land parcel at Southwest Third and Oak downtown home to the intended Oak Tower project: $1.12 million.

As you may remember, controversy had developed over PDC's previous apraisals, including one for  negative $2.7 million. As I understand it, PDC had paid $1.2 million for the property (formerly site of a police headquarters) a few years ago based on an $850,000 appraisal, and afterward spent another $500,000 removing the building and cleaning up contamination. The property was ultimately signed over to a developer to build a 168 unit condominium project on the condition that 15% of the condominiums initially be affordable for people earning 120% of median family income.

Commissioner Randy Leonard and others have been active in seeking more accountability from PDC when it comes to deals like the Oak Tower, and it's hard to argue against the spirit of those efforts. But I also hope that we ultimately see more than PDC and its related issues when looking at the Oak Tower project. As part of the agency's Downtown Waterfront Urban Renewal Area, it's somewhat of a pioneering development - if it still happens - in invigorating this area.

Since PDC already pulled the plug on the moving of Fire Station 1 across Burnside, thereby hampering the blossoming of Ankeny Plaza, the nearby Oak Tower is all the more important. I'm certainly not advocating that the developer be given an unacceptable amount of breaks to get the deal done, but since those issues have already been brought to light and kept in the public eye, I feel motivated to stand up for both the urban planning aspect as well as the fact that the renderings seem to indicate a decent design - or at least one I'll give the benefit of the doubt since the designer is Gary Larsen, one of the city's better and more distinguished architects. I just really think this area near the water ought to be crawling with people, and I hope if this is a good work of micro and macro design that it ultimately makes it to groundbreaking and ribbon cutting. If PDC needs to be held accountable, why not view the new appraisal as a step in getting this project built the right way, not in halting the process?

Crosstown Traffic and Big S

On Wednesday evening I had to enter the belly of the beast: downtown traffic, rush hour, right amidst a series of construction-related detours and lane closures, the streets overstuffed with a toxic blend of commuters and holiday shoppers. I felt guilty adding to the glut of cars, but I had to make it over to the Governor Hotel for a surprise party for AIA/Portland director Saundra Stevens in honor of 25 years with AIA. And then I had to be back across town not long after to take my girlfriend to the airport.

The traffic on the Morrison bridge was backed up all the way back to the east side of the river. Normally I'd have steam coming out of my ears at this point (I'm sadly not a patient driver), but I happened to have my camera sitting in the passenger seat, so I pushed the window-down button and started snapping. 99% of them turned out blurry and I deleted, but a couple shots I decided to keep. But the process was fun, trying to madly focus the camera and hold still enough as the shutter stayed open for a half second.

One thing I like about keeping a camera around is it forces one to focus on visual details of whatever environment you happen to find your self in. Sitting there in stop-and-go traffic at the crescendo of the gently arcing Morrison Bridge, what struck me is how nighttime is kind to a lot of architecture. There are buildings I'm not so crazy about in the light of day that looked, at least in the wider tapestry of buildings and lights, quite nice. If you wind up crossing the Portland bridges enough that you're comfortable and can enjoy the view, I think driving across the bridges seems to always resemble a kind of live film in my mind. Maybe it's the way the crisscrossing steel beams go by on older bridges like the Broadway or the Hawthorne, in a way that resembles the flickering an old 16mm film. As a hobby I've shot trips over bridges with various super 8 and DV cameras, but I am still waiting to successfully capture it in a way that properly resembles the everyday experience - that kind of easy, brief but quietly visceral thrill of crossing the river on a bridge that's in some ways not all that different from what the Romans would have built a couple thousand years ago. I always like the sound the Morrison makes when one drives over the permeable steel middle portion of the draw bridge - it sounds halfway between a tuba and a cello.

Anyway, for once at least I could live with the traffic. And I even got a parking spot within a block of the Governor! Saundra (or "Big S" as she's been affectionately known at the AIA office) seemed genuinely surprised and touched by the surprise party, which was held in the 'Library Room', one of the renovated series of large meeting spaces, ballrooms, etc. It felt a little like being in the Library in the board game Clue, only with a touch of convention center thrown in. Lots of firm principals there, various city officials and a couple of newspaper writers. (What am I, Jonathan Nicholas now?) Anyway, cheers all around to Saundra, my former boss, who is definitely worth fighting a little measly traffic for. And I promise I'll take the bus next time in gratitude to the parking gods who shined on me with an easily found, conveniently located parking spot tonight.

Murase Lives On

Last year legendary local landscape architect Robert Murase passed away suddenly after a heart attack. With a preternatural gift for poetic natural designs of rock, wood and other natural materials, Murase and his eponymous Portland firm were responsible for a host of noteworthy designs: the Japanese American Historical Plaza at Waterfront Park; the Garden of Remembrance in downtown Seattle, the Nike World Headquarters, the Benaroya Hall Garden of Remembrance, also in Seattle; the Sumitomo Museum in Kyoto, Japan; and, more recently, Esther Short Park in Vancouver.

"The positioning of stone in the landscape is an ancient and sacred tradition and has always interested me," Murase has said, "from the stone walls and megaliths in Europe - to stone gardens in Japan."

But Murase's firm is still working. This summer saw the opening of Town Center Park in Wilsonville, with an interactive water feature made from beautifully poured concrete. The firm involved community members in the design significantly to create a multi-functional space, but it's also got the simple elegant beauty of Murase's work. A portion of the park has been named for Robert Murase: Murase Plaza at Memorial Park, which is also connected to the superbly landscaped Wilsonville Water Treatment Plant.

Meanwhile the firm has continued to craft quality design work through the efforts of Robert's son Scott Murase and his team. Most notably, Murase Associates designed the Sliver Park on the north facade of the renovated Armory/Gerding Theaters. A water feature collects rainwater from an underground cistern an runs it artfully along the side of the building into a bioswale. There is also a wooden boardwalk wrapping the buillding, which adds texture to the site of this old stone monolith while minimizing the use of non-permeable concrete for the sidewalk.

It must have been tough for Robert Murase's family and staff to continue on after his passing, but there is reason to believe the future remains bright for the firm.

Buildin' On Up: Vallaster and Corl'sJefferson Condos

One of my favorite pet topics in architecture the last few years has been firms that develop their own projects. I wrote about local architect-developer Kevin Cavenaugh a couple years in Metropolis, and I always like the idea of firms that make their projects happen. And with the proliferation of high density housing, these days more and more firms seem to be doing it.

Like Vallaster & Corl, which has developed and designed the Jefferson Condos at Southwest 18th & Jefferson, just behind Lincoln High School's football field and beside the Goose Hollow MAX station. It's got 49 units including 6 live/work spaces at street level in addition to 3,000 square feet of retail space.

The project is currently under construction and includes what appear to be two separate structures, a nice move on the architects' part to diffuse would otherwise have been an overly bulky form. The smaller portion on 18th is more contemporary: boxy with a palette of glass, metal and concrete. The larger section is clad mostly in brick, but has floor-to-ceiling glass on both the ground floor and upper penthouse units. It helps create the illusion that there is merely a brick band around what's otherwise an all glass building (something the energy codes all but prevent). The window patterns along the curving brick facade are also look interesting in the attached rendering and model photo: they help to emphasize a horizontal plane in this portion, while the windows in the penthouse and on the other separate volume are more vertical.

Vallaster and Corl did the mixed-use condo project on Southeast Hawthorne that houses Dosha salon and American Apparel on the ground floor, all on the site of the former Arby's that nearly became a McDonald's before community activists (understandably) chased the franchise away. Aside from its diagonal roof sections, which evoke dumpster lids too much in my mind (maybe it's just me), I liked most of the other forms and materials of that project. I like seeing an unabashedly modern building become part of the Hawthorne fabric.

While it's obviously too early to render a verdict without seeing the built version, I see in The Jefferson a nicely humble but quietly elegant fabric building that could represent a positive step forward for the firm's design acumen. I see an ample touch of Dutch design here, and I like it. Part of me wonders if it could be just a little more simple and stripped down aesthetically, but I also like the complexity of some of the window patterns - maybe it's the roof I'm less sure about. As always, though, I'm talking just from a visual standpoint whereas function is key - function that as a non architect I can't pretend to grasp. And again, judgment needs to be withheld until after construction. But I think that corner and the city could do lot worse (and has) than what seems to be coming in the form of The Jefferson.

Jacobs on Portland: Big Towersand Skinny Houses

Last month esteemed architecture critic and Dwell magazine founder Karrie Jacobs swung through Portland (along with Seattle and Vancouver, BC) to promote her new book and make a couple appearances. Now that visit is described in her Metropolis magazine column.

Jacobs credits the three Pacific Northwest cities for being places where "the progressive power of urban planning is taken very seriously, and concepts like livability and sustainability dominate the local civic culture to such an extent that to visit all three in rapid succession...is to drop in on another country. It's not the United States or Canada, but more highly evolved combination of the two." Dude, thanks eh!

In describing Portland, Jacobs first touches briefly on the South Waterfront neighborhood and the "spectacular aerial tramway" as an ideal example of a major urban development "that promised to refresh the urban landscape in conspicuous ways." But interestingly, a greater portion of Jacobs' attention is devoted to the Living Smart program for narrow-lot homes.

Living Smart, for those who don't remember, began with a design competition a couple of years ago to address the problem of hideous housing on lots less than 36 feet wide. The city was almost prepared to ban them, because builders were tearing down existing homes to build two in their spots. But the creation of homes through Living Smart is aiding density by allowing the homes (along with a corresponding ban on developments for five years on lots where a single-family home has been torn down) but encouraging better design through a streamlined permit process associated with winning designs.

The only problem, Jacobs contends (as I and others also have) is that the first two permit-ready houses "are traditional even though the catalog of winners contains a range of styles." Project manager Anne Hill told Jacobs, as she's previously said, that the first two plans were chosen for "mass appeal", and that one of the next two will be contemporary.

Jacobs also offers her critique of the first two Living Smart permit-ready homes. "One, a steeply gabled 1,779-square-foot existing house by local architect Bryan Higgins, is essentially a shotgun house that grew two extra stories. The other, designed by Berkeley, California architect Roxana Vargas-Greenan with a side-facing gable and fussy detailing would put it squarely in the tradition of Seaside [the Disney-sponsored new urbanist development with lots of neo-historic flourishes]." In Higgins' case, though, I think he deserves some credit for being a pioneer and making his house happen before Living Smart even started.

Jacobs closes by revisiting the age-old question of whether restrictions inhibit good design as much as they encourage it. "I take it as a reminder," she says, "that while careful vetting may keep out the bad, it can also suppress the good." That's certainly true, but it's a dilemma that could go on forever, and I don't blame the city of Portland for taking a stand and using the power of law to encourage good design. Will that prevent some good ideas? Of course. But like the old Hollywood production code, those restrictions can also foster an all the more subtle brand of creativity in the right hands.

The Tram: First Look

Today AIA/Portland held a tour of the aerial tram, including its upper and lower stations as well as the connecting tower. Architect Sarah Graham of Angelil/Graham/Pfenninger/Scholl led the way. In her opening remarks, spoken through a cool little portable electric "Mr. Microphone"-type device, Graham said, "Our intention was to build as minimal an intervention as possible." [Architects seem to love using the word 'intervention', by the way.] "It was not our intention to build an icon, as the previous mayor, Vera Katz, had called for. We believe Mt. Hood is your icon. We wanted something as subtle as possible." But then again, a good modernist might argue that only by designing something functional and sincere can the architecture/engineering achieve the kind of sincere beauty that has the capacity to become iconic. At any rate, it was a refreshing attitude for those who aren't fans of Michael Graves's Portland Building, a building that very much did aspire to be iconic.

At first I was really bummed out, because I mistakenly had thought we'd be able to actually take a ride on the tram. I mean, if you sign up for a 'tram tour', wouldn't you think it'd include a ride? But the cars are still being tested, and one certainly doesn't want to be hasty about taking a ride hundreds of feet in the air without it being safe. Luckily the accompanying infrastructure itself was fascinating to see.

We started at the lower terminal next to OHSU's new Center For Health & Healing building by GBD Architects. This was also the first time I'd been in this building since it was under construction last year, and it seemed very nice. I only made into the lobby, so I'll plan to write a separate post once I've taken a longer look. But the lobby was a triple-height atrium with lots of glass, a very pleasant and quietly dramatic space. It was perfect for watching the tram cars land and the streetcar curve by. This is a mass transit geek's paradise. I felt like I was in Holland or Scandinavia, at least until I remembered a freeway was also a few feet away.

And as if the tram, trains and automobiles weren't enough, there is also the Zidel shipyard right next door. I watched two men standing at the back of a ship being repaired ("the bow?") and pointing up at the tram cars. Part of me thinks it's so cool to have that old shipyard right next to all these new buildings in South Waterfront, and part of me thinks, 'What are these guys still doing here?' The Zidel facility, by the way, gets very loud.

The lower station is enclosed on three sides, but a transparent metal skin that allows the drama of the incoming and outgoing tram cars to reveal themselves. It's not quite as cool as Angelil/Graham's original idea, to have the lower tram terminus underground and the cars appearing to disappear and reappear, but still interesting to see. And the cars themselves look cool, with a cuvy skin of teel-tinted glass and reflective aluminum.

Next we went downstairs into the underground engine room. A gentleman from the city's Department of Transportation showed us all kinds of big mechanical equipment including two diesel-powered backup power systems. I wish all the technical jargon I heard had stuck in my memory banks.

After that, we took a hike uphill to the tower beside I-5. I'd have thought it was solid concrete, but the tower is actually hollow, and we were able to go inside. Apparently the tower is mostly made of reinforced steel plates but also lots of concrete at the base. The tower leans east slightly, which has something to do with staying perpendicular with the upper station.

Then we all piled into a chartered bus (ironically, the very means of transportation tram opponents advocated for OHSU/South Waterfront transit) and wound up Sam Jackson Park Road to the upper station at OHSU.You can't see the station from where we entered it going through the Kohler Pavilion building's 9th Floor main entrance across from the Shriner's Hospital. But the tram's upper station has a very striking presence. It's a completely separate structure from Kohler Pavilion, with short a frosted glass bridge serving as connection.

In their design competition presentation, Sarah Graham and Marc Angelil spoke of the upper station using the metaphor of a dancer standing on one leg, and that actually seemed apt as I looked at the almost-finished product today. There is a tall, thin concrete shaft going up (the palette of which Graham said they were OK with being kind of rough-looking), and then a series of diagonal reinforced-steel structural elements going diagonally upward. Not everything about it is beautiful, but you get a sense of it being a pure kind of engineering. Everything you see has a roll in keeping that station together.

I don't want to make any sweeping judgments before the project is finished, or before I've had time to ponder it more. But my first impression was something along the lines of, "Cool!"

Sakura Urban Concepts Busy In North, Northeast Portland

Every once in awhile there emerges a developer that acts as much like a designer as his or her architect. Such seems to be the case with Taka Nakagawa and his company, Sakura Urban Concepts. Working with architect David Spitzer, Nakagawa has conceived a host of new projects in North and Northeast Portland that Sakura is now making a reality.

Recently completed are the Wygant Lofts, at the corner of North Vancouver and Wygant Streets between the Alberta and Boise-Elliot neighborhoods. I have not yet seen the project in person, but the photography seems to indicate a thoughtful contemporary take on classic row homes.

In January Sakura will be breaking ground on the Shizen condominiums, which have set the bold but very laudable goal of net-zero energy usage – in other words, generating all of its power onsite. It doesn’t seem to be quite as compelling visually as some of Sakura’s other work. It’s a more traditional looking building, and I’m told the design evolved a lot through neighborhood input. But overall, particularly considering its green features, it seems like a positive addition to the neighborhood.

Sometime in April or May Sakura expects groundbreaking for Hakoya, a mixed use building at Shaver & Williams with condos above and ground floor commercial. The condos are each two-story lofts, so they could also function as live-work spaces. A lot will be dependent on the quality of the materials, but I like what I see from this rendering. It’s a simple box, but one enlivened by geometry in its windows and exterior façade. It also is a contemporary building that seems to have a lot of warmth to it.

One of the overriding trends of this period in Portland architecture is the proliferation of small, high-density condos and mixed-use buildings in historic neighborhoods. It’s not always an easy proposition, with numerous hurdles involving design review and occasionally opposition from residents in nearby single-family homes. But I love the blend of old and new in these neighborhoods when the projects are done well. Congrats to Nakagawa-san and Sakura on what has the potential to be a very fruitful effort in North and Northeast Portland.

Number of the Beast: 37

In today's Oregonian the editorial page takes on Measure 37, the property rights law passed two years ago that allows individual landholders to sidestep land use planning laws - to build subdivisions in ancient forests, strip malls outside urban growth boundaries, and so on.

The tenor of the editorial made me wince a little bit. According to the editorial, "...the rush to file Measure 37 claims before today's deadline shows it wasn't so much about righting wrongs as it was about razing farms and forests and enriching developers."

Well duh!

Today marks the two-year deadline for filing claims under Measure 37, in keeping with a clause that was part of the original bill's language. Does that mean the damage is over? Nobody seems quite sure.  According to an Associated Press article from November 20 I read, landowners with claims can still file after December — they'll just be facing more paperwork.

There's been a fair amount of hand-wringing in the media about Measure 37 and how it's raping the state's heretofore acclaimed land use laws. But in the two years since the ballot measure was passed, I don't feel like I've seen anyone, from elected officials to community activists, pick up the fallen flag and say, "Let's do something!" Maybe I don't understand politics well enough, but why hasn't there been an effort to repeal this f---ing thing? I remember hearing that the legislature was reticent to repeal something the voters had passed, but I think they ought to realize the voters were duped. Might things change now that the Democrats have regained power in Salem and Ted Kulongoski has been re-elected?

I can't imagine why battling the cancer of Measure 37 isn't Kulongoski's top priority. I defy anyone to prove succictly and believably that this new law benefits the people of Oregon. It reminds me of a line from one of those crappy Star Trek movies (I think it was The Search for Spock) about the "good of the many" versus the "good of the few". There is no other issue in Oregon politics that makes me angrier than knowing that Measure 37 is alowing a select few landowners to ruin a land use system that we've spent decades building.

Why is there not a task force, a protest march, or petition drive to combat this law -- hell, a frickin' bake sale! I know it's all too easy for me to just sit here at my computer typing away and accuse others of not doing anything. But I sure wish somebody with the power and the pulpit to do so would take on this menace and rid us of these subdivisions and saws hacking away at Oregon's beauty.

Familiar Modern/Historic Debates in Tribune Architecture Survey, and A Personal Musing on Favorites

A few weeks ago the Portland Tribune surveyed local architects for a list of the five best and worst buildings in Portland. In an article by Peter Korn on October 24, the winners were listed: the 2281 Glisan Building by Brad Cloepfil's Allied Works, the Belmont Lofts by Holst, the Portland Art Museum by Pietro Belluschi, the US Bancorp Tower by Skidmore, Owings, Merrill (with Belluschi), and the Mark O. Hatfield US Courthouse by Kohn Pederson Fox and BOORA.

I'd certainly agree with the first three. While I definitely like the US Bancorp building (a.k.a. 'Big Pink') a lot, I'm not so sure it would be singled out in larger cities. And I have mixed feelings about the Hatfield. That curving roof is so mid-90s, and the building is pretty bulky. Would it be handsome without the expensive materials?

The larger argument, though, has turned out to be a modern versus historic architecture debate, which already is playing out here very often as modern condos begin to occupy old neighborhoods. The Tribune received so many angry letters about the top 5 list of best local buildings, Korn wound up writing a follow-up article on November 16 about it. (The paper also published several letters that are worth a look.)

A data processor and architectural enthusiast named Matthew Slick was quoted in Korn's latter article saying, "What planet are these architects on? I was appalled to find that I hated almost everything that these architects said that they admired.”

It's a hyperbolic quote, which journalists often have a hard time resisting (myself included). Does Slick really hate the Glisan and Belmont buildings? Or Pietro Belluschi's Portland Art Museum? Come on.

However, the larger thrust of the article made a valid point, that 4 out of the 5 buildings that architects chose for the list were modern ones. But some of the city's most treasured architecture is its historic buildings. Arguably the heart of the city is Central Library, the warm, elegant work of Georgian-styled architecture by the great A.E. Doyle. There is also the Jackson Tower (pictured) overlooking Pioneer Courthouse Square with its signature clock. The city also has lots of great old churches and single-family homes.

And Matthew Slick even rings in later to make a more thoughtful point about modernism's lack of ornamentation. "A lot of times you’re eliminating, eliminating, eliminating," he says of contemporary design. "And then you get this thing that is not very interesting. I can deal with unremarkable. The Pearl District is totally unremarkable to me, with a few exceptions, and the few exceptions actually have ornamentation on them.”

Done right, modern architecture is sublimely simple and poetic. But the opposite side of that coin is plain and boring, which a lot of contemporary buildings are.

Still, when today's buildings add ornamentation it often feels ham-fisted to me, like the ye-olde English style railings on the otherwise modern Elizabeth Lofts. Oy, fancy some eel pie, guv-nah? But some people love that stuff. A lot of this debate comes down to personal preference.

One reader emailed me to ask for my top 5 list of favorite buildings. It's a hard question, becuase probably the best thing about Portland design-wise is the city itself. And in terms of iconic structures, Mt. Hood is really our Eiffel Tower, so to speak, and Mt. St. Helens the Arc de Triumphe. But the leading candidates for my faves list would probably be the very ones previously mentioned on each side of the debate.

I love Central Library, so much so that I wouldn't even trade it for the famous Rem Koolhaas designed library in Seattle. But I also love the 2281 Glisan building for its gorgeous sculptural simplicity. I continue to marvel at the interior of the Wieden + Kennedy building, but so much so I find the exterior warehouse to be a bore.

Of course there's Pietro Belluschi's Equitable Building (now called the Commonwealth), which was exceptionally innovative for its time (1946) and has a timeless elegant geometric look that still inspires.

And in a completely different way, I've also more recently come to love The Rebuilding Center (pictured) and its facade of used windows and planks. I also love the Gilbert Building downtown, a humble little brick job on SW Second. I love the vacant multicolored checkerboard facade building on 10th mentioned in previous posts. I really like the two Brewery Blocks along Burnside. The Jackson Tower and various old white brick AE Doyle buildings are great, and I even am fond of the Portland Plaza apartments.

This summer I also visited the Pietro Belluschi-designed church at the University of Portland and was astounded by its beauty. Look for a separate post about that buidling down the road.

After the controversy surrounding the pending demolition of the Rosefriend Apartments, that buidling has become a favorite. Luckily we have a similar building, the Ambassador Apartments (pictured), nearby, which is another favorite, as is the empty Solomon federal courthouse it sits around the corner from. Oh, and Thomas Hacker's libraries are very nice, particularly the Woodstock and Hillsdale branches.

But I think my current favorite among Portland buildings would have to be the Standard Plaza (a.k.a. Standard Insurance Building), one of two buildings called the 'Standard' within a couple blocks of each other. I'm talking about the one with lots of glass, and curtains in all the windows. It was built in 1963 by S.O.M.

Incidentally, one of the most reviled buildings in Portland, the Union Bank of California building (downtown on broadway), is the subject of a new short film by my filmmaker friend Andy Blubaugh, whose last film played at the Sundance Film Festival. Andy's got an interesting take on the building, and you can watch the film online, complete with commentary by yours truly.