Portland Architecture

Looking back at 2008

Earlier today I went through all the blog posts written here throughout the course of the calendar year, nominally to archive things on my hard drive but also to try and get a sense of the most important events, buildings, designs and other goings-on in Portland.

Each month had its moments of drama or interest. In January, for example, we had the first publication of Portland Spaces magazine. In March the big event was PDC's selection of California developer LAB Holding for the Centennial Mills restoration. Then in the second half of the year it was all about the economy tumbling, as well as the election of a new mayor and president.

The last decade has seen a massive building boom in Portland, largely condos and offices. Considering the deep recession we're now suffering, many have speculated that it's the end of an era. The urban frontiers of the Pearl District and South Waterfront may not expand quite so much in the near future, if at all. Meanwhile, a cluster of condos arrived anyway: they were planned and broke ground when the economy was still in better straights. 

Still, these were some of the best large condos to arrive in Portland during the boom. The Casey, a quarter-block tower in the Pearl designed by GBD Architects and developed by Gerding Edlen, became the first LEED Platinum rated condominium. The Metropolitan, designed by BOORA Architects and developed by Hoyt Street Properties, became my pick for the best looking large condo in town as soon as it opened. But that design has also been rivaled by two new condos to open in town: Host Architecture's 937 and THA Architecture's (formerly Thomas Hacker Architects) Atwater Place. In Holst's case, it's a step up in scale, but no step down in quality with its eye-catching fractal window pattern. Atwater, like TVA Architects' John Ross condos across the street, is a little dark, but ultimately an elegant piece of architecture.

When it came to new condos and apartments opening, though, I was just as excited if not more by the smaller projects in existing Portland neighborhoods by smaller firms. There was Path Architecture's Williams Five condos (pictured), row houses by SUM Design Studio and Building Arts Workshop (the latter earning LEED Platinum), Sakura Urban Concepts and DMS Architecture's Hakoya Lofts, and Ben Waechter's Z-haus. There were also commercial rehabs by Farm Architecture. And designer-developer Kevin Cavenaugh has been planning a 14-unit housing development (which seems to now be 17 units) on a hilly unwanted site under the freeway overpass, each unit by a different architect/designer. As an architecture writer, I'm most excited about this new wave of designers making their imprint on the city.

Historic preservation in Portland, like most years, had its ups and downs. In March there was the aforementioned Centennial Mills competition, in which the developer with the most hands-off approach won the day. The Ford Building in Southeast Portland transformed a former automobile factory (Oregon's only one ever built) into creative class flex spaces. Even more impressive was the Olympic Mills Commerce Center, renovated from a design by Works Partnership and developed by Beam Development, the latter of which may also get a second chance at the Burnside Bridgehead development. I also enjoyed what BOORA did to renovate its couple of floors in the A.E. Doyle-designed Morgan Building.

This fall, in what an Oregonian editorial called a "preservation triumph", the historic Ladd Carriage House was returned to its site on SW Broadway. But it now sits beside the under-construction Ladd Tower apartments instead of the historic Rosefriend Apartments. I call that one preservation step forward, and two steps back. In better news, the Leftbank building (pictured) re-opened with DiLoreto Architecture's help as another creative class flex space, seizing the energy of the famous Dude Ranch jazz club once houses there. The Doyle-designed Meier & Frank building opened late this year with a combination of Macy's and The Nines hotel, the latter featuring a striking atrium space and fantastic local art. There was also the first year of the American Institute of Architects/Portland's Center For Architecture, a LEED-rated preservation effort in the Pearl District that provides the chapter with a more vibrant, visible and flexible home. And talk has begun about what to do with local landmarks like Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, not to mention the space between the Schnitz and the Center for Performing Arts across the street.

Speaking of future potential projects, the Portland Art Museum also acquired more of the land next door, smartly securing space for future potential expansion. The Mark Building renovation was great for the extra exhibit space it created but arguably hit-and-miss in terms of the architecture. But it was conceived and executed in the old John Buchanan regime. Now that PAM is led by the more design-savvy and all-round more likable Brian Ferriso, it's exciting to imagine what, given an economic recovery and a few years to line up the funds, what the museum might do for its third building. We don't need a Guggenheim Bilbao on the North Park Blocks, but if not signature architecture in an art museum, when? Yet as far as the visual arts scene in Portland goes, the most exciting part is what's happening on the other end of the spectrum: the influx of young creative talent that will excite not just Richard Florida but Artforum too.

As current preservation efforts go, though, best of all in 2008 may be the renovated White Stag Block, now housing the University of Oregon's Portland campus. Not only does the cluster of renovated old buildings have wonderful character and picturesque riverfront views, but it will help re-invigorate Old Town.

But the year also concluded with the board of Riverdale Grade School, designed by legendary Portland architects A.E. Doyle and Pietro Belluschi, voted to demolish their historic building in favor of a newer, larger sustainable facility. Nevermind that re-use is a founding principle of sustainability. The whole episode made me so mad I accused the board of also blowing up Mt. Saint Helens back in 1980 and conspiring to demolish Pioneer Courthouse Square - neither of which were actually true, of course. But demolishing a Doyle/Belluschi school is pretty darn rotten. It still makes me wretch.

Besides the University of Oregon, many other local schools also had transformative years. Portland State University got a $25 million grant for sustainability studies and finally got approval for an accredited masters of architecture program. The Oregon College of Art & Craft unveiled an expanded new campus design by Cambridge, Massachusetts architect Charles Rose. In an interview before the design was unveiled, Rose ridiculed Portland architects by saying it was easy to build so green in such a mild climate. But his OCAC design is apparently set to only earn a Silver LEED designation. The biggest academic windfalls went to the Pacific Northwest College of Art, which unveiled the Ford Institute for Visual Education after a $15 million grant, then secured the 511 Broadway building for practically free from the federal government, and then won more financial benefaction to purchase its current site, the Goodman Building. Oh, and Brad Cloepfil has pretty much become PNCA's in-house architect. All in all, PNCA is on the biggest roll of any local school, even in a year when a lot of them were active. Even aside from the buildings themselves, PNCA through its FIVE institute has been the most compelling as a center of discourse.

But don't forget Oregon Health & Science University: they received a $100 million grant from Nike co-founder Phil Knight, announced a 'Life Sciences Collaborative' project between South Waterfront and Riverplace, and even watched as the once-controversial Portland Aerial Tram saved the day for hundreds of patients, doctors and Marquam Hill residents during the biggest snowstorm in a half-century.

In retail, it's hard to top the importance to Portlanders of Powells Books. Hell, it's like a second home to me. Although some modest improvements to the Hawthorne store (more natural light) were nicely done, the plans for a new front to the flagship Burnside store, which would add a story and feature a bolder look, do not seem to have gone over as well - at least if commenters on this site are any indication. Perhaps a revised design will ease our concerns. If one were daydreaming, I'd have loved to see some kind of design competition or charette to get the public excited and ideas generated.

Many Portland architects do their most significant work out of town. Among the highest profile of these in 2008, Zimmer Gunsul Frasca appears to have secured the job designing a new city hall for the City of San Diego - if the city doesn't renovate its old buildings instead. ZGF will also have its big new tower downtown at 12th and Washington opening in the year ahead, anchored by the firm's new headquarters. TVA Architects also has the design for Matthew Knight Arena, the swanky modern palace that will replace MacArthur Court in Eugene. I like the design, but as I've often mentioned, as a hardcore Ducks fanatic I'm biased. (What will really get me excited architecturally at UO is when they expand the other half of Autzen Stadium, returning the bowl's symmetry and raising capacity to 70,000. An Ellerbe Becket design is already in place from when the stadium was expanded to 55,000 in 2002.)

A bigger cultural moment than ZGF's San Diego City Hall job or Knight Arena, though, was the opening Brad Cloepfil and Allied Works' Museum of Art and Design opened on Columbus Circle in New York, renovated from the monolithic if quaintly postmodern Huntington Hartford building by Edward Durell Stone. The new museum seemed to get mixed reviews, in my opinion based largely on after-the-fact sentimentality for the original building that scarcely existed when the Huntington Hartford was sitting empty for decades.

Cloepfil's building isn't the kind of architecture that loudly calls attention to itself in the way a building by more baroque-leaning modernists like Gehry or Zaha Hadid would have, and one could argue the prominence of the Columbus Circle site calls for some bold confection. But buildings usually last long enough to undergo a series of different critical estimations over the generations. I'm guessing the Museum of Art & Design will, if never destined to be considered a masterpiece, will at the very least stand the test of time well - and probably a lot better than, say, something outrageous like Gehry's Experience Music Project in Seattle.

As we look ahead, perhaps the biggest transformation we will see is the shift from private sector projects like condos and offices to public works projects like bridges over the Columbia and Willamette. Barack Obama's election on top of the downward spiraling US economy seems to signal a massive investment in roads, bridges and other public projects that are non only desperately needed from years of neglect, but will also provide jobs in tough times. That also means in the years ahead the engineered landscape of Portland will change, with probably a new Columbia river bridge to Vancouver (hopefully a landmark), a new MAX/pedestrian bridge between the Marquam and Ross Island Bridges by Miguel Rosales, and possibly a redesign for the dangerously decrepit Sellwood Bridge. Incoming mayor Sam Adams, who I like a lot but disagree with from time to time like any politician, also is passionate about filling potholes (good) and turning Burnside and Couch into a couplet (less good).

Because these are uncertain times, it's hard to get too excited about the recent past or future from a building perspective. We all have our fingers crossed that by this time next year things will have improved economically, which becomes the wellspring by which architecture happens. How do the rest of you see the territory we've just past, and what lies ahead?

Portland Public Market, Melvin Mark propose Morrison bridgehead project

The effort to build an indoor year-round public market in Portland has undergone several iterations. The historic 511 Broadway building, now set to be occupied by the Pacific Northwest College of Art, was one proposed site. So was the Greyhound terminus and a few other locations. Now the proposed James Beard Public Market could be located at the west end of the Morrison Bridge as part of a new highrise project with developer Melvin Mark.

The land in question is currently owned by Multnomah County, which seeks a possible sale to help raise funds for a future new courthouse.  It's right across Naito Parkway from Waterfront Park, and would also have easy parking and access by mass transit (a MAX stop is a few feet away).

In a recent email to supporters of the market, organizers Ron Paul and Amelia Hard wrote, "Picture two graceful pavilions nestled into the arcs of the cloverleaf ramps, connected by a market hall under the bridge; the design will allow for a large number of permanent vendor stalls as well as seasonal day tables...The ground floor arcade, filled with fresh food and flowers, will beckon guests toward a covered pedestrian bridge crossing the MAX tracks and leading to a grand entrance between the two pavilions."

The Melvin Mark developed highrise that Paul and Hard speak of is dependent, of course, on the market rebounding. But the rendering you see here is credited to SERA Architects. In addition to the market coming, SERA would have a major skyscraper on the downtown skyline, right in front. The public market would exist in pavilions on either side of the bridge ramp.

As if this proposal weren't bold enough, the project also proposes to move the Portlandia statue from the Portland Building and place it in front of the new building and market. That would allow the statue to face out at the river instead of being somewhat obstructed where it is. Even so, that'd be a major blemish to the Portland Building, which no matter how many Portlanders dislike it occupies a major place in architectural history as America's first major postmodern building.

It's too early to comment much on the proposed building itself, because this is apparently just one of several designs being considered. Chances are it would be a nice enough office building, admirably sustainable and somewhat handsome without being revolutionary or outright gorgeous. But there might be the possibility for inspiring and highly functional design accessed by many thousands or even millions over the years through the public market. And besides architecture or design, the market would have the opportunity to substantially reinvigorate both the waterfront and the under-developed portion of downtown between the Morrison and Steel bridges.

The Beard Public Market has had several ups and downs over the years without ever quite settling on a home. Might this be the time and place to produce the produce?

OSD seeks Green Investment Fund applicants and feedback for new High Performance Green Policy

Yesterday I spoke with Alisa Kane of the city's Office of Sustainable Development about two efforts underway there: the 2009 green Investment Fund and the city's new High Performance Green Building Policy.

In partnership with the Energy Trust of Oregon and other local agencies, the OSD is seeking proposals for its 2009 Green Investment Fund. This year as much as $425,000 will be awarded to individual projects that significantly conserve water and energy, reduce stormwater entering the sewers and recycle or reuse a substantial amount of materials.

The GIF began in 2001 to support innovative and resource-efficient building projects in Portland and has given away over $2.5 million in the last five years to 32 different projects. In 2005, the GIF evolved into a partnership between OSD and the City of Portland's Bureaus of Water and Environmental Services and Energy Trust of Oregon, Inc.

The GIF awards innovative, comprehensive and transferable projects that excel at whole building integration, energy efficiency and on-site renewable power generation; material reduction, recycling, salvage and reuse; potable water conservation; stormwater management and improving watershed health, and community connectivity.

Among the projects previously funded are the design and installation of a bioreactor at OHSU's Center for Health and Healing (designed by GBD Architects) that captures, treats and reuses 15,000 gallons of wastewater daily for toilet flushing, cooling tower make-up and irrigation. The GIF also funded the first permitted structural insulated panel home in Portland, a living wall that captures and filters rainwater, and the restoration of a historic farmhouse and surrounding property into an educational center demonstrating rainwater harvesting and reuse, on-site renewable power generation and advanced energy efficiency upgrades. Research also was supported on methods to reduce air infiltration through historic double hung windows and the feasibility of capturing and reusing excess heat from the coffee roasting process. And the GIF helped bankroll the transformation of a former gas station into a community center constructed with recycled shipping containers, reclaimed glass panels and salvaged building materials that is on track to become one of the first Living Building Challenge projects in Portland.

Deadline for applying for the Green Investment Fund: February 2, 2009.

Meanwhile, since December 4, the OSD has also been seeking public comment on the draft High Performance Green Building policy (the comment period closes January 20, 2009). The proposed policy provides incentives and technical assistance for new construction and existing buildings that incorporate advanced green building measures.  Leveraging a commercial and residential 'feebate' system to promote green building practices for new construction projects and disclosure of building performance measures for existing commercial buildings, the draft policy seeks to cut carbon emissions from buildings, reduce energy costs for tenants and homeowners and accelerate the growth of local green jobs.  The draft green building policy was developed by OSD staff with input from stakeholders in the design, development, construction and real estate sectors. It's also a toned-down version of the policy first announced by Commissioner Dan Saltzman at the Greenbuild conference in Chicago in 2007.

There will be a presentation of the policy proposal to the public on Tuesday, January 6, from 3:00 pm to 4:30 pm, in the Portland Building Auditorium, at 1120 SW Fifth Avenue. 

Of course the OSD is set to transform under the Sam Adams administration into the Bureau of Sustainable Planning and Development. Of that move, the OSD's Kane told me, "I feel very positive about it. I think our initiatives will be better integrated into the planning of the city. I think there'll be some learning on both sides, but it will only strengthen us in the long run."

The city that works

Today as I write this, the sidewalk outside my house has a foot and a half of snow. The only people who have gone by on foot were wearing skis. Practically the only vehicle to drive by in hours was a postal service truck wrapped in tire chains. My dad's restaurant is closed. The steel mill where my mom works is closed. Just about everything in the city is closed. But you know what isn't? The city of Portland.

Here's the official announcement on the city's website:

"City of Portland offices will be open. All city employees are expected to report to work at their regularly scheduled times. If any employee is not able to report to work on time at their regularly scheduled start time, they must use accrued leave (management leave, compensatory time, or vacation leave) to cover their absence or with supervisory approval and consistent with city rules and collective bargaining agreements, work a flex schedule to cover any missed time.  Employees are expected to notify their supervisor if they are unable to report to work or if they are going to be late."

So not only is the city at work today, but if you fear for your safety and want to stay home -- as any reasonable person would today -- you're going to lose vacation time. I have a fair number of friends who work for the City of Portland, and I feel sorry for them having to unnecessarily risk their safety to make it to work.

If my memory serves correctly, a couple years ago someone at Multnomah County tried to give city employees paid time off for not coming in during dangerous blizzard conditions and a bonus if they did come in. That plan received a lot of criticism, which seems ludicrous to me. But is there something I'm not getting about this? Of course those providing essential services for the city need to be there, people like police and firefighters, people driving snowplows. But does an administrator in a city bureau really need to be pushing papers today? It'd be curious to know who decides for city employees what constitutes a snow day. At almost two feet of snow, what threshold have we not yet reached? Just what is this person trying to prove, and what part of Antarctica did this decision maker come from?

In an op-ed published yesterday in The Oregonian, mayor Tom Potter talked about his legacy of "always putting people first." I can't tell you definitively who told city workers to come to work today, but I believe Potter heads the city's human resources office. Hmm.

UPDATE: This just in from the City as of early this afternoon:

"Due to worsening weather conditions and Tri-Met's reduction in transit service, all City offices are closed effective immediately. All non-essential employees are released from work. All employees who reported to work today will be paid for their entire work day. Employees who did not come to work today must follow the City's inclement weather policy and use accrued leave to cover their absence."

So, you're not in trouble if you didn't brave the blizzard unnecessarily this morning, but you still have to take vacation. Achtung, Little Beirut!

Riverdale demolition: "vandalism", says Oregonian

Today's Oregonian includes an editorial about the planned demolition of Riverdale School set in motion by its recent school board vote.

The editorial focuses primarily on explaining Doyle's historical significance. "If you ask knowledgeable Portlanders about the architect who did the most to compose the city's early style, you'll hear about A.E. Doyle," they write. "He designed some of the most significant buildings and features in the area, from Multnomah Falls Lodge to the Benson Bubblers." And Central Library, and the Benson Hotel, and Meier & Frank, and tons of others.

In the last two paragraphs the editorial gets down to business:

"The trouble with history is that it can cost money. Buildings develop leaks and dry rot, old boilers shudder to a stop, tenants decide they need more room or different configurations. But communities benefit when they can maintain the historical fabric and take pains to integrate it with the new."

"Dunthorpe -- and all of Portland -- will be a poorer place without Doyle's Riverdale school. Not only will the students in that district lose a living link to Portland history, but the character of the neighborhood will be eroded in favor of charmless efficiency. That's an unfortunate lesson for us all."

When I went to the OregonLive.com website to find the article for linking in this post, there was already a comment from someone saying that the editors displayed "a lack of focus on...the students."

Well, let's look at this from the students' perspective. Sure, we want them to have a school designed to optimal green building standards. Luckily, that can be done by renovating the Doyle. And re-use of the existing structure is a paramount principle of green building. Others commenting on my previous post have discussed cramped surroundings inside the old school. But nobody is saying liberties can't be taken with significantly altering the inside of the building. Renovate it any way you want, wider hallways or whatever. And part of educating students is indoctrinating them to the fabric of local history that exists all around them. It's a huge privilege for them to be learning in a work of historic architecture by the city's all-time two favorite sons of architecture.

I and others who are passionate about saving Riverdale have perhaps done some unintended harm to the process by vilifying the school's board and decision makers for approving the demolition. After all, these are parents and community members who want the best for their kids. At the same time, the fact that a groundswell of support for saving Riverdale continues to gain steam throughout the community is an encouraging sign that the spirit of preservation remains in Portland - even if one of its toniest enclaves has its historical blinders on.

Earlier today I happened to peruse the Riverdale website to see about goings-on at the school. Now here's some irony for you: According to the most recent Principal's Newsletter, principal Jeremiah Patterson writes, "I'm thrilled to be back in the classroom, teaching an elective for 7th grade students called 'School Design.'  Right now we are studying changes in the American schoolhouse throughout history." How about studying the architectural pedigree of your own school, the one that your own board has voted to demolish?

Looking at his picture here, Patterson looks like the kind of fresh-faced enthusiastic person one would want leading a grade school. Deep down, I wonder what he thinks about tearing down the historic building where he works, and if his students succeed in learning about school design and architectural history in that class, what they will remember about what their parents tried to do.

Riverdale board votes to demolish school by legendary Portland architect

In the words of Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now, "The horror. The horror."

Four of five board members at Riverdale Grade School, which was designed by the great and seminal Portland architect A.E. Doyle, have voted to tear the one-of-a-kind historic building.

If I were speaking only in symbolic terms, I might as well write that the school agreed to impale itself. My goodness what an outrageous display of short-sightedness, of irrevocable damage to the community, to the architectural history of Portland, and to the past, present and future kids studying there.

"I believe replacement is fundamentally the best option," board Chairman Chris Hall (no relation to Neville Chamberlain) told Kimberly Melton in an article from today's Oregonian. He said renovation would expose the school to too much financial risk. According to the article, renovating the structure would have put the district at least $500,000 over budget. "I see more potential with a lower number that gives us the most flexibility and starts us fresh from a campus perspective."

I'm especially troubled if the $500,000 is the sticking point. Riverdale is situated in one of the most affluent neighborhoods in the Portland metro area. And besides that, America is about to see one of its biggest influxes of public works spending from the incoming Obama administration in order to save the downward spiraling economy. Is Riverdale's board really saying that half a million is the difference between preserving irreplaceable architectural history and erecting a cookie cutter new campus? Besides, this is a school that just approved a $20 million bond in November.

Is it possible to impeach a school board?

Riverdale understandably wants a state-of-the-art sustainable school that will give students there the best possible environment for education, with ample natural light and more efficient use of energy or other resources. But whether it's designed by Mahlum Architects (the firm hired to do the job) or anyone else, they can't replicate the past.

The board has made its decision, but I urge everyone in Portland's architecture community to contact Riverdale and urge them to reconsider. It's not just their school; it's the community's. Riverdale School can be reached by phone at 503-636-4511. The principal's name is Jeremiah Patterson and he can be reached by email at [email protected].

Meanwhile, maybe we had better start keeping a sentry of some sort at Portland's other architectural landmarks, in case a Riverdale board member comes threatening the Portland Art Museum, or the Doyle designed Central Library, or Pioneer Courthouse Square. After all, if this is their attitude about historic preservation, what's to stop them from blitzkrieging the rest of our treasures? At this point, I'm thinking they may have been in on that eruption that destroyed Mt. St. Helens back in 1980.

Despite my rhetoric of anger, shock and frustration, obviously the people volunteering for the school board at Riverdale aren't actually bad people. I'm sure they want the best for their children and the community. They no doubt believe they're discarding a dusty old relic to create a proper learning environment. They've seen the evidence that sustainable schools foster better learning. They want all the best amenities for the school and the most flexible, efficient use of space, not to be caretakers of some chilly old brick schoolhouse of yesteryear. They're just, in my obviously biased opinion, tragically wrong. Their decision reminds me of a quote by Mark Twain: "Education is the path from cocky ignorance to miserable uncertainty."

Portland has enjoyed a long history of historic preservation that has seen buildings in places like the Skidmore and Yamhill historic districts preserved. In recent years, though, that track record has become spottier. This Riverdale demolition is another decision that, even if the current school board is firm on board with, their grandchildren will regret.

A murals town hall

Apologies for the short notice on this, but today from 5:30 to 7:30pm at City Hall's council chambers there will be a town hall meeting on how murals are permitted. The intent is to facilitate more community-based art murals without opening the flood gates to crass advertising.

One of the related issues, a friend in the planning bureau tells me, is how murals should (or should not) be regulated in design overlay districts.  That is, in places where we  have design review, should murals be subject to some extra rules to ensure they don't negatively impact the architectural character of buildings?  Are there ways to integrate murals into architect-designed buildings without undoing the architectural vision of a building or a district?  The law is tricky on this: we can't regulate speech and we can't apply different restriction to those whose murals are selling something. So any such rules would be about the size, location, and process, rather than the content of murals.

This has been an ongoing issue and balancing act for Portland for a long time. Murals were exempted from the city’s sign code for many years, until legal challenges left no choice but to reluctantly discontinue the exemption in 1998.  As a result, for several years the production of community murals came to a near standstill. Under Mayor Vera Katz a compromise was developed wherein the Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) became empowered to approve murals through the city’s Public Art Program.  These discussions, city leaders hope, will create an alternative process for the City to consider community murals for those who may not choose to apply for funding through RACC’s Public Art Mural Program.

Anyone who drove west over the Morrison Bridge a couple years ago noticed the egregious electric sign there. But murals are also a wonderful urban phenomenon. How do we pull of the balancing act?

Adams announces changes to city bureaus: Kelly out, planning & sustainability offices combined

Asreported by The Oregonian's Mark Larabee, mayor-elect Sam Adams has announced a series of changes in both the makeup and management of several city bureaus.

Most significant to the design and construction community may be that the Office of Sustainable Development and the Bureau of Planning will be combined into the Bureau of Sustainable Planning & Development. Adams told the Oregonian the move is meant to ensure sustainable principles are at the center of all city planning and building. The bureau will be headed by Susan Anderson, who has heretofore headed the Sustainable Development office. Planning director Gil Kelly is being laid off.

What do the rest of you think of Kelly being gone and the merger of bureaus? According to various reports, his departure had been rumored for awhile. Anderson is a very capable manager, but in a city famed for its planning, should there be concern that the new planning bureau is not being run by a planner? It's natural (if you'll pardon the pun) to want sustainable principles to inform every planning decision, but did sustainability just eat planning? Perhaps I'm over-reacting. But just as with architecture itself, I worry that the very necessary sustainable movement has the fervor to overtake previous concerns. Not every aspect of design and planning has to do with ecology and energy efficiency. You tell me: will we still have strong planning in Portland in addition to strong sustainability leadership?

In other changes and assignments announced by Adams, the Bureau of Housing and Community Development will be split up, creating a new Bureau of Housing and moving development functions to the Portland Development Commission. This seems like a more than reasonable consolidation. At the same time, PDC takes a lot of flak sometimes, and they are now the city's only development force. Also new will be an independent Office of Healthy Working Rivers, staffed by members of the Bureau of Environmental Services and Planning.

As many readers here already know, the city has had a fairly convoluted permitting process. Requests for development can sometimes go through seven different bureaus before finally approval - way too slow. Adams announced that all permitting will now go through the Bureau of Development Services. There will also be a feasibility study conducted regarding establishment of a one-stop customer service center where all city services can be accessed.

Around the curve: a visit to The Encore

Last week when I arrived at The Encore condos, developer Hoyt Street Properties’ latest building in the former Hoyt Street Yards parcel being converted over the years into Pearl District urbanity, there was a freight train stuck just a few yards from Union Station, keeping traffic on either side of the tracks backed up for a half-hour.

Perhaps that was a fitting omen, for The Encore has had some rotten luck. It was conceived during the housing boom and now, as the economy tumbles, has had difficulty filling the building with sales and occupants. There was also a construction worker killed injured in an accident on the job during the summer, and a water leak that pushed completion back. Hoyt has put on hold the condo building across the street, slowing the development of a neighborhood outside the Encore. And then there’s that train. When I was there, the horns and bells were pretty loud. Luckily Hoyt Street has lobbied the government to create a “quiet zone” in which trains aren’t legally required to blow their horns upon arrival, but that effort is a red-taped work in progress. (Update: The quiet zone been approved and will begin in Fall 2009.)

Even so, there is plenty to like about the building. At 16 stories with 177 units, it’s one of only a few in Portland defined by its noticeable curve, calling to mind Zimmer Gunsul Frasca’s Bonneville Power Administration headquarters in the Lloyd District or the Marriott Hotel along the waterfront near the Hawthorne Bridge.

Designed by BOORA Architects, the Encore’s curving shape looks better to me from what I’d call the back of the building, the outer curve facing what will be The Fields park and the Pearl District. Here the large balconies, which buyers will enjoy because they stretch from bedroom to living area, give the building a pleasing geometry of moving planes. I’m not as crazy about the building’s look facing Naito Parkway and the riverfront, however. There are high quality materials being used, but somehow the look feels heavy and perhaps a little too much like a corporate or institutional building.

This is the second building that BOORA has completed for Hoyt Street, following The Metropolitan. If this were a beauty contest based solely on exterior aesthetics, The Metropolitan would get my vote without a moment’s hesitation. When I first saw the Encore during its final stages of construction a few weeks ago during a tour of the nearby Ziba headquarters being built, my first impression wasn’t very good. But I’ve warmed up since taking a closer look at the inside and outside.

Not only are the units nicely appointed inside, as you’d expect for lofts and condos selling in this prime Pearl District real estate, with nearly ten-foot-high ceilings and rich, elegant materials, but the views are stellar. The Encore looks out at the river, the Fremont Bridge, the coming Fields park, and Centennial Mills to one side, and the river and downtown on the other. I was particularly struck, standing there inside one of the units in my socks (so as not to blemish the wood floors), it felt like I could reach out and grab the old Mills. When renovation is complete on those historic structures, the view will be even better. What’s more, because it sits on the park, the view won’t be diminished by future post-recession buildings.

Right now the Encore sits on the Pearl’s frontier, where hard hats are still more common than trendy newsboy caps. Yet this will someday be a corner of the Pearl with its own distinct feel. Hoyt, working with a BOORA master plan, ultimately intends to create a cluster of taller, more contemporary buildings here than they built previously in the more industrial-aesthetic Pearl. In that way, I think the Metropolitan and the Encore both represent a sort of Pearl within the Pearl that is still coming together. Not everything has gone according to plan, whether it’s the economy or the traffic circle Hoyt Street wanted for where Naito Parkway meets the Encore and its other condos. Even so, it’ll be interesting to see how this neighborhood comes together.

TriMet and Rosales narrow Willamette Crossing to two options: cable and wave

Although the Columbia River Crossing has received the most attention, another Portland bridge project—the Willamette Crossing, a span for MAX and pedestrians north of the Ross Island Bridge and south of the Marquam Bridge—is at a more critical juncture. As Randy Gragg reported recently on the Portland Spaces Burnside Blog, TriMet and the bridge’s Boston designer, Miguel Rosales, have narrowed their search to two designs: It’s a cable stay vs. a “wave” bridge design.

Reading Randy’s interview with Rosales, posted earlier this week, it seems abundantly clear  that the “wave” bridge is by far the best choice for Portland. I don’t mean it’s merely the one I like best. It’s the one practically everybody does. At the same time, that selection seems to be the underdog because of its uniqueness. It’s simply easier for engineers and bridge builders to do what they’ve done before.

Obviously the cable-stay form conjures notions of great bridges like the Golden Gate. There isn't something like it in or downtown Portland, and it's naturally dramatic. Yet, the cable-stay selection, Rosales tells Gragg, is also, somewhat surprisingly, the more off-the-shelf choice. This is a design-build process, and the contractor (perhaps the client too) favors keeping costs down as the highest priority. Building the cable-stay would allow the contractor to basically copy the other bridges of this sort. No surprises for them.

But the cost estimates making the cable-stay option may be inaccurate. The cable bridge would be longer than the wave bridge, and the longer it is, the more costly.

What’s more, the cable-stay bridge would be inappropriately tall. Rosales says its pair of 250-foot high towers would rise higher than the Marquam Bridge. (Which is very tall.) And its towers would have more environmental impact than the wave bridge because they’d be built on the shore or shallow water instead of deep water.

The designer adds of the cable option, “If the details are not done well, it can be very unattractive. Have you seen the details on the Sauvie Island Bridge for the arch? They are terrible. All the connections of the cables are very awkward. Basically, there is no finesse in any of the details. A lot of the new cable-stay bridges built through the design/build process they are terrible looking. This bridge will be design/build, [and] there is enormous pressure to cut costs.”

The wave would be the first of its kind: “Typically the undulating, parallel, steel waves providing the structural support are solid,” Gragg explains. “Rosales’ version would be an open web.” That means when you’re standing on the bridge, the outer railings would be see-through. On the cable bridge, they wouldn’t (see accompanying images).

“The cable-stay would be completely different than anything you have in Portland,” Rosales said. “But in this context, it will not look very good with the other bridges. It’s a completely different scale. It’s very monumental. The bridges next to it are kind of low key. I think it will clash. To me, a cable bridge creates the sense of a gateway into someplace. But this bridge is more a connection between the two sides of the river. It’s not really a gateway into anything. It’s about flow from one side to the other.”

Rosales and TriMet have continued to go forward on the wave design. “There have been a lot of studies done on the wave bridge because TriMet’s engineers keep asking, ‘What about this detail or that? They’re trying to figure it out,’ Rosales told Gragg. ‘We’re way into the design now. It’s more than preliminary design, very detailed. We could go farther, but everybody is keeping their distance. I don’t know what’s behind that the decision.’”

“When you do a bridge that is more unique, a lot of the details have to be figured out more carefully,” he added. “You cannot take them off the shelf. They cannot be copied from another bridge. If the preliminary design is done well and the details are resolved correctly – which would be our hope given how many hours we’ve already spent working on the wave bridge already – it’s harder to change. Engineers won’t change something that hasn’t been done before without further calculations because that’s a risk.”

“But you know, it’s not always terrible to be the first to do a design. At least three of the bridges I’ve designed were the first. They were not the cheapest of all the choices, but we kept them within the final bid amount. And they have brought a lot of attention to the places they were built. Does anybody regret them? Not at all. But did the agency take a risk? Yes.”

TriMet surely wants to do the right thing: deliver a beautiful, most functional bridge at a reasonable cost to taxpayers. There are some people focused more on cost and efficiency of construction—the short term concerns—and others looking more at the long-term value of having the right bridge by the right designer for the right place. As the transit agency’s advisory board has shown them, the wave may be the right long-term choice: a quality bridge in the tradition of the Hawthorne Bridge or the Broadway Bridge. Will they go ahead and make it, or succumb to the kind of regrettable thinking that delivered the eyesore of the Marquam? It's certainly not to say a cable bridge would be an eyesore. I'll bet we'd most all come to like it. And while it's in some ways more off-the-shelf, Morales and others could also help assure that the details and overall quality are high. But particularly as long as the Marquam is there, I'm not sure a cable bridge here, even in the best designed scenario, would be the right fit.

What do the rest of you think?

White Stag sign: preserving a tradition since 1995 (and PSU's insecurity)

Over the last several days I've received a few emails from readers asking what I think of the developing controversy over the University of Oregon's proposal to change the text of the "Made in Oregon" neon sign that overlooks the Willamette from the top of UO's new White Stag block to "University of Oregon".

I was uneasy about commenting because of my own bias: I am the world's biggest Oregon Ducks fan. Granted, my football/basketball team of choice has little to do with what an old sign in Portland says or doesn't say. But I'm just nuts enough to make it a factor.

For those of you who don't know, the sign has a long history - of change.  Its current moniker only dates to 1995. Before that it said, "White Stag", after the long defunct company previously residing in the building. Before that it said "White Satin" for the sugar company previously residing in the building.

So a legitimate argument could be made that if UO wants to preserve tradition, a change to the sign is a better execution of that principle.

I happened to read a column about Brad Cloepfil's Museum of Art & Design this morning in the Wall Street Journal by the legendary architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable, and one thing she said seems fitting here: "I part company with those who believe that copies and replicas are acceptable substitutes for the real thing. Once the original is gone or beyond salvation you are faking it; when it's lost, let it go and move on. Blind sentiment and perverse tunnel vision kept the argument going."

Before reading Anna Griffin's Oregonian column this morning, I was prepared to say that UO doesn't need to change the sign, that their presence is already solid enough here in Portland and that, while "Made in Oregon" signifies a store that doesn't reside there any more, the phrase can easily be taken to constitute not a brand, but an idea of home-grown pride.

But in Griffin's column I started reading the ridiculously asinine comments of those opposed to the sign. Chief among them is Ethan Seltzer, head of Portland State University's urban studies department. In Griffin's column, he is quoted as calling the proposed change a form of "civic plagiarism" and refers to the UO White Stag campus itself as "Potemkin University".

Anna sidestepped the comment, saying "If I knew what that meant, I'd probably agree." But as you can read on Wikipedia, Potemkin refers to two principal things. First there is a series of fake villages resembling stage sets that a Russian minister erected to impress empress Catherine II during her visit to the Crimea in 1787. It also refers to the landmark Sergei Eisenstein film, which documented the Potemkin uprising of 1905 by Russian sailors against their tsarist superiors. (I guess actually that's three things.)

In other words, Seltzer is calling UO Portland a fake village and a brutal regime.

Ethan, what in the world are they putting in your Seltzer?

It's one thing if people don't want the sign changed. But a neon sign on a University of Oregon building being changed from the name of a store no longer there to the name of the current occupant is no crime. It's not even in bad taste. And yet to hear PSU people tell it (at least if Seltzer and PSU student body president Hanna Fisher are representative), the changed neon sign would reverse all the decades of work that Portland State has done to transform itself from a middling commuter school to a thriving urban university. Is PSU's success really that fragile that a little neon would hurt their itty-bitty feelings so much to flip out like that?

Quite honestly, I have to confess that I really don't care all that much whether the sign says "Made in Oregon" or "University of Oregon". It'll still have the trademark White Stag deer with the Rudolf nose during the Holidays either way. If anything, I have to confess that I'd find an Oregon State University neon sign pretty darn ugly. (65-38: tee-hee!) But if the criticisms continue this way, I'm going to put a giant neon duck on Lincoln Hall.

Leftbank has the right idea

After the annual Time-Based Art Festival concluded in September, I didn’t expect a return visit to the decaying old cluster of buildings by the Rose Garden where TBA located its temporary Works bar and performance space. But as it happens, there’s a lot more to Leftbank than just TBA. It’s about to become the next big renovation of an old Portland warehouse into a Mecca for the creative class.

Leftbank consists of three buildings that sit on a kind of automobile island with the Rose Garden to the south, Vancouver Avenue and an I-5 offramp to the east, Broadway and the Portland Public Schools parcel to the north, and the river (and Broadway Bridge) west. This is actually the most frequently seen architecture in Portland because of the amount of cars that pass Leftbank regularly. Yet it’s for the last several years or even decades been the kind of boarded-up architecture one goes right past and doesn’t even notice.

Leftbank’s most notable architecture is clearly the Hazelwood building, which was built in 1923 and designed by legendary Portland architect A.E. Doyle. The Hazlewood is notable outside for its arched windows, and has a very colorful past. Doyle, along with Pietro Belluschi, is Portland's most accomplished and important architect. Particularly as Riverdale School goes forward with its ludicrous, ill-advised, backward-thinking, hopelessly bad idea to demolish its prize Doyle-designed school, it's very refreshing to see a developer take a Doyle building with less pedigree and in worse physical shape and make it sing for generations to come. The people behind Leftbank could "school" Riverdale's board on civic history and preservation.

Doyle's Hazelwood building first housed a fashionable restaurant of the same name with a bakery, creamery and confectionary above. The City Club of Portland used to hold some of its earliest meeting there. A decade later, it transformed into a beer parlor and was later occupied by a variety of tenants: the Home Owners Improvement Co., Century Metalcraft Corporation, and St. John’s Welder Supplies. But it’s in 1945 that the real fun came via its new occupant: the Dude Ranch, which would become Portland’s premier jazz club. In his book Jumptown: The Golden Years of Portland Jazz 1942-57, Robert Dietsche writes,

“There never was and there never will be anything quite like the Dude Ranch. It was the Cotton Club, the Apollo Theater, Las Vegas, and the Wild West rolled into one. It was the shooting star in the history of Portland jazz, a meteor bursting with an array of the best Black and Tan entertainment this town has ever seen.”

After the Dude Ranch closed a few years after its opening, Mutual Wholesale Drug Co. bought the two existing buildings and added a third structure in the L-shaped leftover space made by the other two buildings, and opened connections between them. It’s been a few more companies’ home since then, but has largely sat empty.

I visited Leftbank a few days ago with Andy Powell, who is not the building owner but acting as a kind of hybrid developer-designer in collaboration with the owner, Daniel Deutsch. DiLoreto Architecture is the architect of record in a renovation that will see a variety of tenants representing new, cool Portland: a microbrewery, a bicycle frame-building school, and so on. The developers have been strategic and deliberate about finding not just any tenants, but ones that will comprise a vibrant community in the building.

If all goes according to plan, Leftbank will upon completion have the same rich but rough-around-the-edges feel of warehouse renovations into creative flex space like Beam Development's Eastbank Commerce Center and Beam's Olympic Mills Commerce Center with Works Partnership. Powell stresses that this project is "mission-driven" rather than "commerce-driven," however.

Indeed, Leftbank is an intriguing rabbit warren of spaces given how three buildings have been connected. In one building, for example, you see what was once an outdoor advertisement for a motor oil company before more space was added on. There are stair treads re-milled from old Douglas fir in the floors and beams. There is exposed brick everywhere and, even better, a palette of unique clay blocks that give the interior an unexpected texture. There are also dramatic wide-open spaces at Leftbank, free of columns and revealing huge unfettered floor plans.

I’m very interested in Leftbank’s location as well, not only the challenges it faces today but the promise this site holds for the future. As we all know, the Rose Quarter needs to better integrate into the urban fabric; it’s even more of an island than Leftbank. But having people working and hanging out here will help, as will the eventual redevelopment of the Portland Public Schools land across Broadway. Moreover, the ugly concrete Rose Garden parking garage could eventually be torn down and, along with the Coliseum’s surface parking, be turned into a new high density residential or office building. There is also the dilapidated old hotel across from Leftbank and the Rose Garden that has previously housed its employees and now, I believe, is used by Central City Concern to house the less fortunate.

All told, this is a huge amount of untapped potential. Given the proximity here to downtown, to the river, to both Northeast and Southeast as well, to two freeways and a MAX line nearby, the area surrounding Leftbank ought to eventually become a much more vibrant, pedestrian oriented area that’s thriving not only with basketball games and monster truck pulls, but a distinct place where people live, work and play. Right now Leftbank’s location is somewhat of a hindrance, but in the future it will be a gold mine.

I took the photos you see above during my recent visit, but here are some historic shots of the building, provided by Andy Powell and Leftbank...

John Jay and Old Town/Chinatown

In Sunday's Oregonian D.K. Row interviewed John Jay, who is not only executive creative director at Wieden + Kennedy (more or less the #2 guy to Dan Wieden), but also is playing an increasing role as a developer - particularly in the Old Town/Chinatown neighborhood.

Jay and his wife, Janet, have teamed with Andy Ricker Richter, owner of Pok Pok (purveyor of some of the tastiest food I've ever tasted), to create a new restaurant called Ping in the old Hung Far Low lounge site at 4th and Couch. But Jay also has his hands in numerous other efforts. He hired Brad Cloepfil to renovate his Pietro Belluschi house two years ago, and then wound up collaborating with Cloepfil on the spec Macleay View House in the West Hills. Jay has also been supporting and following efforts to bring the Uwajimaya grocery store to Old Town Chinatown.

I've written about John Jay a few times in the past and find him an incredible personality. The guy never seems to sleep. If he emails you, chances are the message was sent in the middle of the night. He flies back and forth constantly between Portland, Tokyo, Shanghai, Amsterdam and New Dehli to Wieden's offices, and even at 60 has vastly more energy than I do at 36. Plus he can tell you anything about the most obscure graffiti artist, an early-80s hip hop group, high fashion trends in New York and Milan, and a vast array of contemporary art.

Here are some questions and answers between DK and Jay that I found interesting:

Row: Why should Chinatown be important?

Jay: Chinatown represents both the past and the future. It may well be potentially the most interesting and influential neighborhood in the city waiting for reinvention. It sits on the edge of Broadway, an area of creative energy with the Museum of Contemporary Craft and other galleries in the DeSoto Building. Then there's the 511 building owned by the Pacific Northwest College of Art that's poised to be the new incubator of artists and designers. From the Pearl, Chinatown leads to Old Town, which will evolve with the emergence of a rejuvenated White Stag building and its focus on architecture and design.

So, Chinatown sits in the middle of an emerging creative corridor.

What group of people will decide the fate of this area?

I wish I knew. I don't know. I hope the city will have a vision. I hope people at the Portland Development Commission understand that there are wonderful things happening in Old Town -- the White Stag building, for example, and much more. But that's not Chinatown.

What will Chinatown look like in the future? 

The growing prominence of Asian creatives in the world at large is huge right now. That's intersecting with the fact that there is this place called Old Town/Chinatown on the verge of being remade by someone -- by the city, by ground forces. And what does that future look like? The future may be a very contemporary expression of what used to be a Chinatown that is a multi-Asian ethnic neighborhood that includes a lot of creative forces. When you think about the early days of the Pearl, about TriBeCa and SoHo, it was always the arts that drove them. But this opportunity here is based on Asian culture, the importance of Asian culture and China and Tokyo. (Note: the above photo is by Michael Rubenstein.)

How do you keep this part of town distinct from the Pearl District?

This is wishful thinking but I would like to keep the area a little more affordable and younger. It's hard and difficult, of course: I can't blame developers because for them to make things work financially, they have to build luxury condos. We need the city's help. I remember talking to Sam Adams before he was elected. We were talking about the enthusiasm in Chinatown. He was very positive and supportive of the creative businesses in this town. I think he understands how important this area is.

Historically, what held the area from progress?

Well, the 900-pound gorilla is the presence of social services. I think those who live here have to embrace that because it's the authentic DNA. But whether or not the area can absorb more or not is up to the city. It's an area that's been down on its luck for a while -- businesses open, then close, and some people haven't felt entirely safe. Young people, however, don't fear that. I go back to my business and think about an encounter with Jay Chiat, who opened the advertising firm Chiat/Day. I saw him one time on Fifth Avenue in New York. He had just moved his offices there in the 1980s. I said, "Congratulations." He said, "Yeah, yeah, but we should be over on 10th and 11th avenues, where it's more shady and dangerous. This is a creative company. We shouldn't be that comfortable."

That is SUM condo

For the last several years, the corner of SE 45th and Stark has been a surface parking lot. Today it's three new townhouse style condos designed and developed by Matt Loosemore and Eric Hoffman's SUM Design Studio.

The site slopes slightly to the south, which enabled the architects to place parking in back discreetly; the parking area also acts as a bioswale (with native plants) collecting rainwater runoff from the building.

In the front, "We created a design theme of wrapping materials across different planes throughout the exterior and interior of the building," Hoffman said by email. That includes 4½-inch clear cedar siding wrapping corners of the building, concrete wrapping horizontally and vertically up the façade and metal parapet that wraps horizontally across the top and vertically down the front.

Hoffman also says SUM made a point of using construction that would stand the test of time. For example, plywood instead of oriented strand board under the exterior siding.  The units also feature double wall construction with double-layer insulation for sound insulation, steel reinforced walls and floors.

Although not LEED certified, the project includes numerous green features (beside the rainwater collection and added insulation with dual-pane windows), such as low-VOC paint, bamboo floors, permeable driveway pavement, and a 94% efficiency HVAC system.

Like the work of many emerging small firms, SUM have created a nice little fabric building, something modern that nevertheless fits well into its surrounding context of neighborhood single-family homes, even as, on a busier residential street, it provides added density. Lots of modern housing projects in Portland's historic neighborhoods earn criticism because neighbors don't like the extra height or the look of the design. This project ought to earn kudos.

Meanwhile, keep an eye out for Hoffman and Loosemore in the future, and not just because Loosemore has a faintly Brad Pitt quality. These guys epitomize modest but high quality infill design-development.

Beam him back to Burnside Bridgehead

Oregonian columnist Steve Duin reports today that Brad Malsin's Beam Development may be in the running to eventually kick-start the moribund Burnside Bridgehead project. 

Beam, as you may remember, was recommended back in 2005 by an advisory group to the Portland Development Commission  for the Bridgehead commission, but PDC's board instead selected Opus Northwest, an offshoot of Minnesota-based national developer Opus Corporation. (Kind of like choosing a McDonald's burger over one from McMenamins.) But Opus abandoned the project after the economy turned. They had some quality architects working on the plan, such as Gary Larsen and company at Mulvanny G2. But it was not to be.

Mayor-elect Sam Adams told Duin, "Hindsight is 20/20," referring to that decision. "But I wonder if it would have been different if they'd chosen Brad."

Obviously no construction will begin anytime soon given the current economy. And PDC cautioned in Duin's article that talks with Beam are "...very preliminary." If the talks go well, a development agreement might be signed in late 2010.

Even so, once the economy rebounds, Burnside Bridgehead is such a prominent site that it needs to go forward. On the other side of the bridge to the west, the University of Oregon's White Stag block and the new Mercy Corps headquarters, as well as a new Saturday Market site, are invigorating the area. To the east of Burnside Bridgehead, the lower Burnside area is home to a cluster of popular restaurants and retail, including three of my absolute favorites: Le Pigeon, Simpatica, and Biwa, as well as Doug Fir and the Jupiter Hotel. Then we'll also have a new streetcar line going along Burnside over the bridge. If it's not the time to build on the bridgehead, it's at least time to start planning again.

The slower, more natural pace of development in the lower Burnside area may have actually benefitted from the delays to the Bridgehead project. The cluster of businesses here haven't been dwarfed. Even so, that's not a proper argument to halt Bridgehead. Eventually they will grow together. After all, there shouldn't really be any under-utilized land this close in. The days of low-density industrial sanctuaries without any housing in central cities will ultimately end, whether it's over thirty years or ten or three. That's true in Portland just like it's true in Cleveland or Manchester.

A separate Oregonian article today by Ryan Frank also confirms that Danish wind-turbine manufacturer Vestas has agreed to locate its North American corporate headquarters in Portland. The company is eying South Waterfront for its planned office building, which will hold several hundred employees (if not more). Vestas would be a huge gain for South Waterfront, where OHSU's bio-science campus plans are not as ambitious as they once were. But wouldn't Vestas perhaps be better off in the heart of downtown -- maybe overlooking the Willamette from the east side of the Burnside Bridge? After all, part of why this development has fizzled in recent years, beside the economic downturn itself, is the inability to secure an anchor tenant. What anchor could be better than Vestas? If they do end up in SoWa, though, that'd be great too. (And with apologies to locals, I'd be intrigued if they brought a talented Danish architect in to design their SoWa office tower.)

With the possibility of PDC gearing up to eventually re-start the Bridgehead process, I also wonder if their way of going about it merits some question. Is the Portland Development Commission in the best possible position, through its requests for proposals, requests for qualifications or other processes, to assure not only that something gets built, but something of lasting architectural quality? Is it right to always be selecting a developer for these jobs, and then allowing the developer to select the architect? When I look at PDC projects around town, I see some noble efforts to spur economic development, but I also see some ugly buildings. Take a look at the concrete-block lighthouse of a mixed-use building at Fremont and MLK and you'll see what I mean.

When it comes to Burnside Bridgehead or any other big city-funded project, it's not enough just to get something built or to do so with a transparent, open process. More than ever when taxpayer dollars are involved, we need to build quality. But luckily, this is something Malsin and Beam Development understand. The developer's experience comes mostly from renovation of old Central Eastside buildings, like the Olympic Mills Commerce Center or the Eastbank Commerce Center. Yet Malsin's recent collaboration with fellow developer Randy Rapaport and white-hot architecture firm Works Partnership suggests that he knows something about creating compelling new architecture as well. If PDC does choose Beam, it's a good move. If only someone had told them that in the first place!

More from the Williams corridor: Visiting Sakura Urban Concepts' Hakoya Lofts

Although we all know the market for condominiums is not what it was a year or even six months ago, many projects were well underway as the housing market and broader economy began sliding. But while it's not the best fiscal climate for projects like the Hakoya Lofts on North Williams Avenue at Shaver, which recently completed, the array of small housing and mixed-use projects in this area of close-in North Portland's Boise-Elliot neighborhood continues to impress. This is the most active area in the city for small architecture firms and development companies to make projects happen.

The Hakoya Lofts, intended as condos and now rental apartments, were developed and more or less designed by Sakura Urban Concepts. The head of Sakura is Taka Nakagawa. Born and raised in Nagoya, Japan, Nakagawa relocated to the United States several years ago, first in Los Angeles and now in Portland. Initially here he was the general contractor for Quality Homes, which renovated numerous historic houses here, particularly in the Irvington neighborhood. Nakagawa is not an architect, but he acts as the creative director for Sakura and comes up with the look of their properties, which are then completed with the help of a separate architecture firm, DMS Architects.

Visiting the Hakyoa Lofts recently with Nakagawa and colleague Eli Haworth of Sakura, I was struck by the simplicity of this mixed-use building. I like this project a lot. A favorite feature, which doesn't necessarily show up well in the photos, was how the upper stories are gently cantilevered over the nearly all-glass first floor. Not that Hakoya is at this level, but it reminded me just a little of the seminal Villa Savoye by Le Corbusier, outside Paris.

Ultimately the Hakoya Lofts lack that level of refinement, not only in comparison to a legend like Corbusier but also in comparison to the work by other small firms rising in Portland, such as Path Architecture's Williams Five condos. The Hakoya Lofts aren't clunky, but perhaps the fact that the design concept has to be translated, more or less, from Nakagawa to DMS, means that the ultimate level of detail and refinement is hard to achieve. I don't know much about DMS (their portfolio is mostly single and multi-family housing), but I wonder if either having an in-house architect at Sakura or a veteran architect to help guide Nakagawa's concepts might help Sakura's projects take that extra step. At the same time, DMS may be just as much of an up-and-comer as Sakura. And any criticism I may have of the tiny details comes within the context of liking Hakoya and Sakura without reservation.

The upstairs units have one window that actually is a glass garage door, allowing the space to be flooded with natural light and fresh air. The Hakoya Lofts, like most all of of Sakura's work, is sustainably designed with energy efficiency in mind. There are solar hot water heating panels, radiant floor heating, dual flush toilets, all natural linoleum and bamboo flooring, and low VOC finishes.

Hakoya also has completed a few other projects in the area. On Martin Luther King Boulevard near Russell Street is the Black & White Building, with 10,000 square feet of renovated retail/commercial space from an old concrete box of a building. Behind that is the Mado House, a four-plex that offers a residential scale and rich materials in keeping with the neighborhood, but adds needed density. Sakura also has done remodels of older homes, and Oregon Home magazine named their house in Irvington as one of its best renovations of 2006.

Sarkura, which also comes with its own YouTube video courtesy of realtor (oh, sorry, "Realtor") David Krause, could easily be included in the new wave of architects and developers coming of age in Portland, such as the aforementioned Path Architecture as well as William Kaven, Seed Architecture, Kevin Cavenaugh, Architecure W, and several others. For all the large condo towers that have risen here in recent years, I'm most excited about what's happening at a smaller scale in Portland's existing neighborhoods.