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.
In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention at the outset that come spring, I will move from Boston to Portland and live at the Jefferson, Deo volente.
Even if it was not the principal factor, the Jefferson's design had much to do with its appeal as a residence. To my untutored eye, the building incorporates a de rigueur modernist solid combined with a "postmodern" take on Art Deco. Modernist rigor wedded to postmodern mannerism makes for unlikely bedfellows. Indeed,
where elsewhere in Portland can a comparable incongruity be observed? If for nothing else, Vallaster & Corl deserve compliments for ingenuity. The Jefferson, though, is simultaneously eccentric and attractive, and that achievement impresses me more than mere cleverness does. That the Jefferson also offers welcome relief from the residential monoliths proliferating in Portland is more to the credit of the program, I suppose, than of the architects.
It seems odd that Vallaster &
Corl, despite a considerable body of work in and around Portland, have yet received relatively little notice. Googling their name confirms this. This could be because, unlike some better-known
local firms that flirt with design by formula, Vallaster & Corl seem to have no signature style, i.e.,
no brand recognition. The blog's
characterization of the Jefferson as "humble" might apply here as well. Look at Vallaster & Corl's
Web site and you will find work that is all over the map stylisti-
cally. Their house designs could
make you think that if you asked for the Taj Mahal, they would give you one. Yet what unites this
potpourri of a portfolio is a slightly oddball aspect and a refreshing freedom from cliché. These are the very qualities that for me distinguish the Jefferson.
I also happen to agree that the Jefferson could prove to be Vallaster & Corl's best building to date.
I will resist the temptation to discuss function. Suffice it to say that within barely 1000 sq. ft., Vallaster & Corl have given me
an efficient floorplan and forty-
three continuous feet of fourteen-
foot windows. They deserve my thanks for more than a merely attractive design.
Posted by: Cliff | December 16, 2006 at 07:56 AM