Delivering New Life to Post Office Site, and More from the City's Wish List

As reported in Tuesday's Portland Tribune, a realignment of downtown urban renewal districts may be in the works that could have a few significant effects. The plans are being drafted by a Portland Development Commission advisory committee.

This is also tied, I believe, to a drafted wish list for about $53 million in federal funds for eight projects from Congress as part of the "2008 Federal Agenda" that Andy Dworkin reported in The Oregonian a couple weeks ago.

One idea being considered is to River District to include up to 61 acres in Old Town/Chinatown area to go with the existing Pearl District portions. This would also guarantee millions of property tax dollars to help redevelop the main U.S. Post Office site. It's something that has been talked about for a long time, and I've long felt this property seemed like a sleeping giant.

What's more, I hope some of the existing post office building could be incorporated into a new structure. It's somewhat shabby now as a post office -- I really have to struggle to think of a post office that isn't shabby in one way or another -- but there are aspects of its mid-century modern design that are very handsome. If it could be done, I'd love to see a kind of hybrid of old and new architecture there. Why not make this a home for a public market, but a lot more as well? Then again, how about a new concert hall for the Oregon Symphony? Or a new contemporary art center? Even just a well executed mixed use project with housing or offices above retail would possibly suffice. If PDC were handling the allocation of that work, though, I'd like to see a revamping of the process to better empower great design as a priority, and not just something that meets livability and sustainability parameters. It doesn't have to be fancy, just good.

Another project included in the advisory committee plans, says the Tribune article, is a possible streetcar line for West Burnside. This, of course, is additionally tied to a re-routing of Burnside and Couch as one-way streets between I-405 to the West and 12th Street to the east.

Plenty of reasonable and intelligent people think this is a good idea, the couplet (pictured at left and below). There's an argument out there that it would foster development and more efficiently move traffic. Maybe so. But I'm still skeptical.  As I've said, it seems like a suburban solution, meant more to move cars than to be good urbanism. I think it'd make an island of blocks between Burnside and Couch like that between Northeast Broadway and Weidler, and between Grand and MLK. Perhaps it's warranted in those cases, but Burnside, I think, is different. It's the only street in the city touching SW, SE, NE and NW -- both literally and symbolically a unifying street. I think it needs to be two-way.

It also seems like the City Council is supporting this idea largely because of the attached streetcar proposal. Regardless, I also don't see how you can make such a major rupture to the traffic pattern on and around Burnside without looking at it in relation to the whole central city.

But, if you have a cool new post office project on Broadway, across from a renovated Union Station with a MAX train going by, a renovated 511 Broadway building occupied by PNCA, the Customs House remade as a boutique hotel (or its developers conceding interest to some type of arts program), and maybe even a completed Burnside Bridge construction project, and that sounds like an exciting transformation.

Hopefully it won't get lost in the mail like the last "Priority" package I sent to my sister.

Comments

[billb]

The P.O. site can be a good baseball stadium , but in a state of the art way , like the N.E. Patriots one featured in the NY Times Biz. sect.today
[weds 12/12]http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/12/realestate/commercial/12patriot.html?_r=1&ref=business&oref=slogin

[Aneeda]

Somebody suggested in one of the other postings that it is too bad that Nike hadn't found a more urban location to build its headquarters. The post office offers the scale to bring a major corporate player to downtown. Combine it with a new performance venue, housing, small post office, etc. and you start to add more "work" to the live/work equation. I hope - I REALLY - hope we don't blow it on a ball field.

[george]

problem with nike is that phil knight just doesn't like cities, no matter what his employees think.

just look at his troubles with laika and moving all the city folk out to tualatin.

[Stan]

I think a stadium on the post office site would be a very bad idea. If memory serves correctly it's only 13 acres which would make the site on of the smaller ones for a modern park. Secondly, the pearl has really blown up since this idea was proposed a few years back with all of the new construction north of Lovejoy and the increased traffic, it would make getting onto the Broadway Bridge a nightmare. Since a decent precentage of the folks going to the game would take I-5 and then use Broadway to get to the stadium.

While I think the couplet east of the river is a great idea (just undoing the mess at Sandy/Burnside/12th makes it worth), I'm on the fence on the West Burnside portion. West Burnside isn't that much of a barrier b/n Old Town and Downtown proper. I think some of the benefits that couplet boosters point to would happen anyways with some new investment in the area.

[Toni Magic]

Burnside desperately needs to be fixed, whether by a couplet or simply creating widening the sidewalk and putting in new crosswalks.

The intersection of 10th and Burnside is probably the most prominent in the City and also the most dangerous. I can’t tell you how many times I have almost been hit crossing the street in front of Powell’s. If done right that intersection could be a wonderful crossroads for the city. I also don’t see how a couplet on Couch and Burnside would be any less pedestrian friendly then any other pair of one way streets through downtown Portland. Broadway/Wielder is the wrong comparison point; I envision something more like Park and Broadway.

[RW]

I think the days of expanding or extending PDC urban renewal districts are ending despite having produced some beautiful things in the past. The demand for close in housing while slowing, is there for the long term. However it is hard to see an economically sustainable demand for projects such as a stadium or large concert hall. I think it would be unconscionable to maintain a 1-2 story building if the post office land is redeveloped. For now too, it provides quite a few jobs within reach of transit. So when in the future the land is redeveloped, and there is no rush, replace it with vertical density and good employers in the mix. Even consider extending the Park Blocks to Lovejoy!

Perhaps as part of the couplet, the streetcar could be redesigned to have Eastbound and Westbound tracks both adjacent and on just one side of Burnside, in the pedestrian and parking plazas, bypassing Couch. That would mean an interaction between very low speed parkers and the streetcar, rather than traffic. Hugging the South side of Burnside, the streetcar could travel from the River to 19th by the Civic Stadium condos. There is quite a lot of property on the South side of Burnside which could be redeveloped on that stretch. Or flip it with both directions of streetcar tracks in a pedestrian and parking plaza on the North side of Burnside for an easy shot across the Burnside bridge in the North lane.

[Nikos]

I think Couch is too small to carry the westbound Burnside traffic and a couplet will destroy its character as a local/pedestrian/relatively low speed street.
A concert hall with high rise residential/commercial development at the post office site is what I would vote for. Although I kind of like the post office where it is (ok I like the 24 hr access to the automated mailing center aty the lobby, I find it very urbane). Maybe a little of the city should be left "undesigned" and spontaneous and gritty, does every little inch of pdx need to be analyzed to death?
PS A Ballpark? The horror!! Isn't enough of the culture (and money) dedicated to mindless spectator sports already?

[billb]

Baseball is not only well loved across all segments of society , it has a long tradition of deeply thoughtful writing and community building. Mindless is concert halls full of POPandRAPandALT noise. The site has regional value , and needs to be considered as a urban aggregator . not just another mediocre condo/office profit center.

[djk]

I'd like to see the North Park Blocks extended all the way to Lovejoy, whatever is done with the Post Office parcel.

If Oregon State University is interested in starting a branch campus in Portland, particularly one that is strong in science and engineering research, I'd look at the post office site. There's plenty of room there for a good urban branch campus with undergrad and graduate programs. They could start out converting the post office building to classrooms and lab space, and expand from there.

Portland could have all three of Oregon's major public universities in the core. A real benefit to prospective employers (highly trained workforce) and to the knowledge sector.

[randy]

if the post office is developed i'd like to see the street grid continued through the site and become another 8-9 blocks of typical pearl infill.

i agree its too late to put a stadium on that site, maybe 10 years ago but the area around it is now too established and ill-prepared to plop down a 40,000 seat stadium used 80 days a year. The rose garden area makes more sense, how about knocking down the memorial coliseum and building memorial stadium with views of the downtown skyline. theres no reason to have 2 arenas next door to each other.

[Anon.]

Think Baseball stadium for the Post Office site and folks riding mass transit to the games. . . and learning that going places by rail is easier than the auto.

On the site being too small take a look at the footprints of many modern parks. . . I think it's doable.

[goose]

yes. this baseball debate will be going on until we actually get a team in pdx.

the post office site could be the ideal location. it is connected by light rail, amtrak and bike paths which makes it very exciting in terms of bringing large crowds without the headache of vehicular traffic. (yes of course some people will drive, but this is portland and people will take other modes if they can.) fenway park is on a site approximately the same size and a decent sized park could be built here. fenway also has the highest numbers of spectators who get to the stadium by train and it is located in a vibrant part of town. a major league park at the p.o. could have the same vitality.

an alternative is to locate a ballpark at the end of the yellow line, which would be surrounded by parking and although connected by rail, would be less used, because its so easy to drive to that location. it would also be dead space for most of the year - this would not necessarily be the case with the p.o. location if done properly. in addition, there are one or two neighboring sites which could support high-priced real estate with views into the park.

as for the couplet, it seems as though we are planning for a quick fix. sure a streetcar on burnside would be nice, perhaps too nice. but if you think turning burnside into a one-way street is going to create less traffic you're wrong. as portland continues to grow, this solution will be outdated as soon as it is implemented. if we are going to invest this sort of capital, we need to talk about going underground. honestly, with the trains on the surface and stopping at lights every 200 feet, many people who need to get downtown from outside for quick trips are going to drive because it often takes so much longer on the max.

[Brian Libby]

I still would rather not see a stadium here. I'd rather have a place people use 7 days a week, 365 a year. I'd rather see an expansion of PGE Park incorporating the Multnomah Athletic Club, and have the MAC move down to the post office site. They could have a much better place down by the river between the Pearl and a revitalizing Old Town. And what's more sustainable than re-using what's already there? I'm not saying I like PGE Park as-is, but a great design could transform that stadium and give the re-imagined mixed use post office site a cool anchor tenant.

[billb]

pge park will not work for MLB because of access and parking. Anyone coming from I-5 n/s has to come all the way up Burnside , only to find no place to park. A new ballpark at the P,O, site can have built-in garages under it , and as I noted here [above] the new New England BPark an exciting integrated shopping mall to give 24/7 life to it. Picture Pike Place in the Pearl , w/Farmers Market.

[spopebreksdex]

thanks for letting me view your guest book and giving me all the information

[chris]

All this talk about the post office being used for MLB but not one mention about Terminal 1 North.

It could really anchor the river district and the roads are industrial width already.

[preerrugh]

What is bumburbia?

[yaport]

Add drawings please to articles. I think it will be more interesting!