Climbing Aboard The Rocket

Late last week I visited The Rocket at 1111 East Burnside, the new building designed and developed by architect Kevin Cavenaugh. Kevin has made a career out of developing his own projects, and I've long been a fan. (He also was the subject of a 2004 Metropolis cover story I wrote.)

The Rocket is immediately striking, and for a few different reasons. It's painted red and has an array of arcades and outer decks extending from the building, in keeping with the existing design vocabulary - lower East Burnside being full of buildings transformed into arcade spaces (the building extending over and covering the sidewalk) during a previous generation's street widening.

The building also has a very ingenious and inexpensive way to combat heat gain: exterior sun shades that tenants can move back and forth to control light and ventilation. And best of all, the sun shades all feature artwork. There may be some people out there reading this who'll think the checkerboard of moving paintings on the building is tacky. I think it's terrific.

Although mostly offices, both long-term tenant spaces (a wine marketing company) and flexible short-term small rental spaces, the bottom and top levels have bar/restaurant spaces: Chesterfield below and Rocket above. The latter space, operated by chef extraordinaire Leather Storrs (whose voice is a dead ringer for John Tuturro), occupies the top level, which has an all glass wall. As much as I love the moving art-wall sun shades and the red cladding on the rest of the building, as I sat having a beer and appetizer up there, I thought about how cool it would have looked if the rest of the building was this glassy.

But it's also important to remember that this is a building done fairly cheaply. Kevin has pulled out a lot of stops to make a bare-bones building really take off. And that's precisely what the Rocket does.

Two other bits of news: This Friday, there will be an open house at The Rocket from 5:30pm to Midnight, with all floors open to the public. (I'll be sneaking into the restaurant to abscond with some lamb corn dogs.) And Kevin has been selected for a prestigious Loeb Fellowship at Harvard University, where he'll soon depart (in the footsteps of former Oregonian architecture critic Randy Gragg) for a year's worth of study and elbow-rubbing with top creative professionals from around the world. But Kevin, promise us you'll come back after Cambridge and build some more?

Comments

[bc]

This is a nice compliment to the rock climbing building next to it. Too bad it is near one of the worst intersections in the city.

The artwork sunshades are a wonderful addition to the visual landscape.

I look forward to the open house to see how the construction and materials carry into the interior spaces.

[Aneeda]

One can only be pleased that it covers up the yellow abortion that sits behind it.

I like the sunshades as well, even if they are tacky.

[rofovnifo]

Hello

Looks good! Very useful, good stuff. Good resources here. Thanks much!


G'night

[kolas]

I think it's wonderful that kevin is taking control of both the design and the development of his projects. You are kind a hero for a lot of architects. Box one and ode to roses..i think..are great provocative design works..creating good design with limited budget. but the rocket fell short this time. Other than the shocking red color, there is nothing really worth mentioning about the project. The concrete beam are awkward and and sloppy. The paintings are just a distraction from the monotonous cheap window openings. Just like the climbing gym, they are somophoric at best. Budget is always and issue as well the location..

[ws]

Funny...I walked over there last Saturday night. I must have walked right under the arcade and not even have noticed the building. In fact, I was sure I glanced up and saw the word "Rocket" from the sidewalk below, but when I looked again, I couldn't see it. Guess I'm finally cracking up.

Since I've heard about this building, and still, seeing that top picture, it makes me think of New Orleans.

[george]

gotta second the impression that the arcade beams look sloppy. is it the design or are they a bit off kilter?

[Bob R.]

BC wrote: "Too bad it is near one of the worst intersections in the city."

Fortunately, if implemented, the eastside Burnside-Couch couplet project will vastly improve that intersection, for pedestrians, bikes AND autos.

- Bob R.

[jc]

Just to be clear, Kevin, while both a talented and great guy, is not an architect - you have to have a license to have that word attached to you name. So in the interest of fairness and without diminishing Kevin's accomplishment, the architect on the Rocket is Francis Dardis - FBD Architecture.

[Doug Klotz]

I think the building would have been better if the whole building projected over the sidewalk, not just the balcony. But, the city wasn't ready for that yet. Hopefully we can have this stretch of Burnside be the "arcade district".

For that sidewalk arcade, it's too bad the Chesterfield has blocked a lot of the sidewalk by bolting welded steel tables to it. The one at the corner, blocking access to the corner wheelchair ramp, is especially egregious. I haven't been by there in a couple of weeks, but I assume they're still there.

[Keith Daly]

An excellent example of the kind of forward thinking building the city should be focused on - and incredibly both Rocket and Box have resulted in restaurants with really wonderful spaces.

There was one thing about Rocket I thought didn't really work but then I realized it was because it wasn't done "like it's always been done" - it opened my eyes to new ideas, a mark of any successful building.

[Carreyc]

The [url=http://www.armleg.com/mastcylinder]master cylinder covers[/url] is a hydraulic control device that converts physical pressure (commonly from a driver's foot) into hydraulic pressure to operate other device(s) in the hydraulic system. The most common automotive uses of master cylinders are in brake and clutch systems.
The operated device in the clutch system is called the slave cylinder.
In brake systems, the operated devices are brake calipers and/or wheel cylinders.

[Police Sunglasses]

No doubt , Kevin is a renowned architect and his rocket building is one of his best works. And, it's good that he is implementing ways to conserve energy and to minimize the carbon and heat production.