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?

Comments

[Brad Cooley]

Obviously, this has been one of the strongest points in history for Portland's building sector. The built environment has shaped a new image and feeling for the city and it's neighborhoods. I hope it continues a more broad era of investment in the future of the city.

Portland has done a great job of establishing areas near downtown both to the North in the Pearl and to the South in South-Waterfront where growth can continue as needed. We were treated with vertical growth that will be hard to match as a discussion of floor to air ratio (FAR) actually became an important aspect of development.

Not only was the downtown strengthened but neighborhoods were tethered more strongly with new development in the N, NE, and SE. I think there is tremendous potential established that now must be backed up with real job and industry creation.

I look forward to the new year and the place Portland has established itself in these difficult times.

[Colleen]

Thanks for this-- I didn't know about the new no-cars bridge over the Willamette. I've posted about it at FosterPowellPDX.com, and linked to your site as one of my faves. Keep up the good work!

By the way, anyone can post at FosterPowellPDX.com-- we'd be honored to have you as a guest writer there. I'd be especially curious to learn which are your favorite buildings in SE? My fave in Fo-Po is the flat-iron building shown here.

[Valentij]

Of all the buildings completed in 2008, the Casey is my favorite. It has a great street presence that makes the immediate neighborhood feel all the more hip and active. The overall design aesthetic is my favorite to come out of Portland. It maintains a great balance of being a very forward modern design, while fitting in and building upon the urban fabric. It helps that it is close to GBD's other Brewery Blocks designs. All those buildings have a very similar clean, geometic aesthetic that fit together in a way that I like. However, the Casey breaks from the feeling of being too corporate and conservative by lighting up the skyline with a bright yellow and white. Portlanders always say we want brighter buildings and we seldom ever get them. What makes the Casey especially is that the color is executed so well. The materials are impeccable and taste level is extremely high. And I haven't even mentioned the unprecedented LEED Platinum rating yet. No wonder Gerding Edlen executives built this to be their own home. I sometimes question the glass art installations, but hey, why not? They certainly are fun and, like most good art, easily become a topic of discussion. The largest downside of the project? The price. On the other hand, I like that these were built to last and have a larger standard footprint than the typical Pearl 800 sqft loft. I feel like real (albeit affluent) families could do condo living and urban infill in a building like the Casey, which means less SUVs and more shared heat and resources in these energy efficient homes. Aside from the grand opening, it will be a long time until I could afford to enter this building again. However, I greatly appreciate it’s addition to our skyline and urban development.

[Brian Libby]

Valentij, I agree the Casey is a very well done building, and I think your points about the geometry and color are accurate. However, I did hear a rumor that one of Gerding's executives has traded in a Casey condo for a unit in Atwater Place, the Gerding-developed, Thomas Hacker Architects-designed South Waterfront condo.

[boom trucks]

It is truly amazing to see the effort put forth by a country in need. in these trying times the best thing possible is to keep moving forward and to keep building and progressing to a better tommorrow. Construction is the cornner stone of our foundation that makes this country what it is.