The Portland-Vancouver BC MindMeld: Is Price Right?

A few of years ago at an AIA conference I met Gordon Price, who was then a city council member in Vancouver, BC and is now the director of The City Program at Simon Fraser University (and whose disembodied head appears at left). He's also a frequent visitor to Portland.

Recently Gordon emailed me with news of a paper he'd written, the title of which seemed intriguing: "Mutual Appreciation: How Portland and Vancouver Exchanged Looks".

The just of his discussion outlines how, as we know, the increasingly tall and thin towers going up in the South Waterfront, northern Pearl and West End are greatly influenced by Vancouver's. What may be less well known to Portlanders, though, is how Vancouver has increasingly begun to embrace the kind of lower-rise buildings more common to the older portions of the revitalized Pearl. Price writes:

Just as Portland was being persuaded of the benefits of the Vancouver style, Vancouver was looking for alternatives to the green-glassed point-and-podium tower. With the redevelopment of the city-owned property in the southeast corner of False Creek as a sustainable neighborhood, a new vision was put forward. In a letter to Council in April, 2004, nine prominent members of the design community argued for a 'town' form of development, "with buildings that are principally low-to mid-rise in height, defining street frontages."

Something, in other words, rather like the Pearl District.

Ecotrust even proposed a re-use of the historic Salt Building as a Natural Capital Centre, specifically modeled after their operation in the Pearl.

In this race to build a new generation of condo towers, has Portland neglected the virtues of the low-rise areas between, say, the north Park Blocks, I-405, Couch and Lovejoy?

As I'm sure Gordon would probably agree, I think a city needs both. Ultimately we want more density here than a city of entirely low-rise buildings could support, and done well a point tower can be magnificent. But there is an intimacy that comes with a more village-like, low-rise setting of two to four-story mixed use buildings. That Vancouver and Portland to some extent have traded styles may be not evidence that one city abandoned the proper path while the other has switched over to finally get it right, but that both cities are completing themselves.

Comments

[Phil]

As anyone who has been to Europe would know... you can do density without jumping to 20 or 30 stories. And it's cheaper to boot, which (ironically!) makes it more affordable, as long as the land isn't too expensive.

Interestingly, the reason that the city wants taller towers is so we can hit our density targets while preserving most of the city as single-family dwellings. (this according to the city's main planning docs).

This would leave basically two main building typologies: SFD's and high rises, but little in between. That, to me, is more than a wee bit strange... particularly since the two aren't so compatible.

Luckily our city has warmed up to lower-rise apts/condos (the 4-story mixed use buildings that are popping up around the eastside), as well as skinny houses and rowhouses.

You also forgot to mention how Vancouver, BC is learning from Portland's transit system - they are planning a new streetcar for their downtown, and building new extensions for the skytrain (with much of it to be a subway).

Go figure? We're in the same region, baby... great minds think alike.

[Keegan]

The mid-rise buildings are some of my favorites - it really is a more human scale, and to me the towers are just punctuation points. A skyline is one thing, what's happening on street level is what really makes the city.

I love the Cascadia region! We're aware enough of our amazing setting to say that we want to take pains to preserve it. I don't mind growth, I just want the people that end up moving here to appreciate what many of us have come to appreciate.

[Jon]

^
Amen to that Keegan!!
I live in one of these low-mid rise Pearl District urban fabric condo buildings, and I really wish we would see more of these going up. Not that I'm against towers by any means but this typology works well with the street and creating great neighborhoods like the area around Jamison Square. I'd also like to see a few more townhome projects modeled after the Johnson Street Townhomes.