No Ordinary Boathouse: Mulvanny G2 Unveils Waterfront Portland City Storage

It was over a year ago that developer Derek Hanna announced plans for a unique dry boat-storage structure shaped like a long cylindrical tower overlooking the Willamette from a riverside spot just south of OMSI on the east bank. The single-tower was a mere rendering based on a German auto storage tower by the Palis company. Now, Hanna's architects at Mulvanny G2 in Portland have revealed the real design.

It's not a single tower anymore, but Portland City Storage has the opportunity to occupy a very prominent if not iconic position along the waterfront. Meeting yesterday with lead designer Eric Cugnart of MG2 (lead designer of the Adidas Village and One Waterfront Place for BOORA before switching firms) as well as principals John Flynn and Gary Larson, I learned the 350-boat facility's design has gone through five or six iterations. "We sort of discovered the program as we went," Flynn told me. The project now consists of two towers, with the front of each tower set back at the front corner.

Cugnart is particularly proficient when it comes to facades, such as the colorful Adidas design and some work for BOORA on the Hatfield US Courthouse. For this project, the budget was much lower. It's also a transitional building between industrial warehouses and something more ambitiously architectural. The Portland City Storage boat storage buildings will be clad in a transparent polycarbonate and layers corrugated translucent fiberglass. For the most part, the structures will be translucent but not transparent. But there will also be glass portions that allow viewers to peek inside at the boats stacked about 100 feet high on several levels with a giant forklift. Larson cited a building by the great Herzog & De Meuron for a dance company in London as an inspiration, with its "partial revelation" of the goings-on inside, which will also include office spaces and a cafe.

The project is also shooting for a Gold LEED rating and one of its distinguishing features is a series of vertical wind turbines and hopes to achieve a "net-zero" energy metering. The project also will harvest its own rainwater to save 20,000 gallons of potable water per month, which will also be a visible part of the project as the two cut-out portions of the front facade will feature collecting pools for the rainwater that recall the upcoming World Trade Center memorial, "Reflecting Absence". It's also much better environmentally for the Willamette River to not have these boats rusting and leaking away in the water.

Also noteworthy is that the river's greenway trail will be continued to cross the storage buildings at the front in an elevated path overlooking the river. The boat launch will be directly underneath the elevated path, so you can stand there and watch the boats slipped down mechanically.

There are other large boat-storage facilities throughout the United States, but this project is unique in how it's also a real work of architecture that people and not just boats will occupy. It will be situated beside the Ross Island Bridge (just across from the undeveloped area north of South Waterfront) between Ross Island Sand & Gravel to the south with the Portland Opera headquarters (formerly KPTV studios) and OMSI to the north. Groundbreaking is expected for this summer with complete buildout in summer 2010.

Comments

[billb]

IT is absurd that one would address the environment ,when operating a facility to store conspicuous consumption high pollution machines.
Lipstick on a pig , eh

[pdx2m2]

I tend to agree with the above post....this is lipstick on a pig....

No amount of methodological sophistication can give life to a sterile idea. A huge storage facility for power boats cloaked in sustainable design stories makes no sense. Neither does building a storage building on this relatively urban section of our river. We deserve better...not just better architecture but in this case much better land use.

Aside from the huge waste of riverfront I"m surprised at your singing the praise for this design...it must be a slow news day.

[chris]

While true that motorboats are pigs. I welcome the opportunity to add more sailboats/kayaks/sculls to the river.

[Non-Enviro_hippy]

So one should totally disregard the environment when creating something that houses or is used by high polluntant machines? Seems to me that even though it is such a storage place for high pollution machines that it should try and balance things out if not an even balance at least attempt. Of course that is resonable thinking.

[Chuck]

This will be a great project so long as they use the right type of glass and don't value engineer the windmills right off the top.

[pdx2m2]

I think no amount of cool glass and windmills can change the fact that this is a dumb project that will scar the riverfont for decades...long after recreational motorboats are the rage. This project seems like building a 3 car garage for your SUV's at a time they make no sense for life on the planet.

The concept of the building is fundamentally unsustainable...maybe it could be used to store 1000 kayaks althouhg it seems like that isn't the real market.

[Lance Lindahl]

Recreational motor boats have been "the rage" for about 75 years now. Personally I prefer canoes , but I don't think that motor boats are going to go completely away anytime soon.

[pdx2m2]

SUV's have also been the rage...Horses used to be the rage....the planet is changing and the culture will change with it. I doubt motor boats will vanish soon although that doesn't mean we should get all excited about our future with them. This will be a giant elephant on the riverfront even with it's cool motor boats...maybe it could be a museum someday?

[k]

i think you guys are missing the point (or boat) - a point of denial does not preclude the need for a storage facility. if you are going to have to build one, which seems a better use of the river than more and more marinas with key card access that take up river frontage now gated off. Any boat sitting there seeping potential fluids into the water whilst not used or watched. Face it, people with excess can afford a boat to begin with, unless they are the ugly neighbor with one in the driveway next to the RV. So better to be stored up and out of the water than sitting there nine months of the year rusting, seeping into the river. So if you do build, at least do so with a small impact. that is exactly what they are trying for. Additionally i would echo an earlier comment that this city really does not take full advantage of the river - we need more recreation, and how about water taxis. i of course want to measure that we keep the river clean, but we don't take advantage, not to be confused with corruption, but rather engage at all scales. This will all happen over time, so denying a project's worth b/c it does not fit a vegetarian lifestyle is ignorant. The shift from the horse and carriage to the auto was a matter of technology. So when cars go with fuel cells or hydro, guess what folks - so will the boats.

[Ice Man]

Shoot, I'll just keep "Bessie" the bass boat out back in my yard under a tarp. No need for fancy glass and wind turbines for Bessie.

[ws]

I've been pretty much reconciled to the idea that a monolith like this will be plopped on the banks of the Willamette, so, if one must be there, you at least hope for something in the way of a consolation. The building looks no worse than a lot of other modern style structures today.

The 'green' thing is welcome in this building, even if it is mainly just a way to win approval. Those wind generators on the roof look really funny in a good way.

At least this building's team was smart enough to provide for continuation of the greenway trail and its own operations, unlike the completely idiotic obstructionism of SK Northwest (do a search for SK Northwest on bikeportland.org)for more about their misanthropic odyssey.

I'd love it if this project sunk like a rock, but what are you going to do? If rich people (will anyone but this class be able to afford or keep a boat there?) have the money and want to blow it on fantasy boats, the city seems prepared to allow the riverscape to be sullied by projects like this, just like it did to the city in another instance with approval of the Ladd Tower on the Park Blocks and Moyer's next monolith on PB4.

[Andrew]

Monolith along the river: Tate Modern

[Aneeda]

Hideous.

[pdx2m2]

Much of the conversation about this posting ended up about whether it was size to be building huge temples to gas guzzling boats.

Brian's original posting was more about the design and I agree with Aneeda that the project design is 'hideous'. I would like to see wind turbines on more buildings although they do not turn a dog of a building into something better.

[goose]

is it just me, or are those birds flying straight toward the turbines? seriously, the willamette is part of the pacific flyway used by migratory canadian geese, among other birds and those turbines look like lollipops of death. i'm just looking out for the rest of my flock, but it seems that more thought needs to go into the turbine design.

[sut]

Maybe it's just the way the rendering is done - devoid of real context and looking up from below - that makes this design seem ostentatious and too monumental. But I doubt it. I have to applaud the green features, though, even for not so green users. Good point about the birds - here's a link to some new 'bird safe building guidelines' from the Audubon Society: http://www.nycaudubon.org/home/BSBGuidelines.shtml for anyone interested. I'm not sure what, if anything could be done to reconcile the wind turbines with bird safety, though.

[Kristin]

Shouldn't this be on the west side?

[doc]

Tate modern? Ouch. If you are going to do a storage shed, try to do a compelling storage shed (think Peter Behrens in the 21st century maybe?)- not a building scaled like the latest addition to an Outer Mongolia office park...with boats.

[doc]

No offence to Outer Mongolia, of course.

[doc]

Crap, sorry..."offense"

[sid]

i agree with the outer mongolia office park.. this is crap.. and it will impose it's will on that body of water. i want to mention that I've been reading here (of all places) that waterfront park should have more "people" places, and this is accomplishing nothing at all in regards to the greater good. the greenwashing with those little turbines on the roof is killing me softly, people. enough already.. those particular types of turbines don't function very well as drawn. look them up. a little research would be great to see...

http://www.aerotecture.com/projects_mlh.html

[BrianLibby]

Sid, they're doing wonderful things with decaf nowadays.

[jmn]

Kudos to the folks pushing this project forward. The idea of keeping motorboats stored in a way that they do not leak fossil fuels into the Willamette should be applauded. Face it, folks - you aren't going to get rid of the motorboats until gas prices are so high that no one will want to recreate on the river in such a way. So store 'em in a way that uses less space and keeps the river cleaner. When all the motorboat owners can no longer afford the fuel, there will still be this awesome facility to store kayaks, rowing shells, canoes and dragon boats - human powered recreational watercraft. What a concept...

And as for the aesthetics, have any of you nay-sayers seen what it there NOW? A garbage dump would be an improvement. Really. I row by it almost daily, so I know.

[sid]

brian - when you stop jumping bandwagons before they have time to incubate, i'll switch to decaf, i promise.

[Jon]

I agree, the design is terrible. Likening the polycarbonate to Herzog and Demurons Laban Centre for Contemporary Dance in London is weak.

What I really want to address is the notion that somehow this building is going to save us from "fluid leaking" boats being tied up on the Willamette. I'll be the first to say my line of thought is based on an assumption, but here goes. Most likely this facility will house a typical family boat and not the yachts tied up along the waterfront which would be too large to be picked-up with a mechanized forklift and essentially placed on a shelf. So if one agrees with this assumption I don't understand how this facility is protecting the river (or anyone) from these "leaky" boats as these boats would most likely be on someones boat trailer in their driveway when not in use. One doesn't see many personal watercraft moored along the shores of Willamette do they? What this project does is open the floodgate to those who don't have a driveway or garage...namely those across the river in South waterfront or similar.

I just don't buy the argument that this storage facility is keeping the type of watercraft off the Willamette that wouldn't already be when not in use.

It appears the only redeeming feature is the continuation of the greenway trail. I sure hope they've considered the ease with which the building can be remodeled for another purpose in the future.

[HK]

I agree with most here who don't love the design, but it could be worse. take a walk through the neighborhood if you want to really see hideous.

Apparently there will also be retail & office space included:
http://www.djcoregon.com/articleDetail.htm/2008/05/08/After-two-redesigns-waterfront-towers-are-now-ready-to-build-Portland-City-Storage-project-will-feat

Considering that the lot borders a gravel processing facility on two sides I think it's an impressive project for the location. It pushes the limits of the IH zoning, in a good direction.

I bike by there a couple times per week and see this as an improvement.

[keith.d]

Knowing what this architect was capable of with the Addidas campus - a project many felt didn't fit in, was a play to corporate greed, etc., etc. - and seeing what a wonderful addition it has been to my neighborhood, I can only be excited about this project.

No doubt as it evolves towards completion it will too be considered an asset we didn't know we were missing.

[eenie]

jesus that's ugly.

I'll believe they're really including a greenway trail through it when I see it. my understanding is that there's a long-running lawsuit over the question of getting the trail along the water any further south than it is now, although I may have missed something.