Portland Architecture

More than a brasserie returns: Visiting the renovated Calumet building

Most Portlanders remember well the Brasserie Montmartre, a French restaurant on Park Avenue downtown where the walls were decorated with customers’ crayon drawings and jazz musicians played into the night. My first year living in Portland back in 1997, I went there for my birthday. The restaurant is now closed, or I'd have recommend the lamb rack I had that night. But both the Brasserie and the building are poised for a comeback.

The building, originally known as the Calumet Hotel, was built in 1907, part of a boom of building here in the years following the Lewis & Clark Exposition.

It was designed by noted Portland architect Joseph Jacobberger, a German French immigrant who got his start in the prominent firm Whidden & Lewis. He also designed Portland buildings like the 1920 Knights of Columbus Building, St. Mary’s Cathedral, and parts of St. Vincent Hospital.

The Calumet, which Jacobberger designed with a blend of French Renaissance and Edwardian style, rented rooms for $1 per day and offered new luxuries like private baths in every room.  The hotel’s heyday continued into the 1930s. 

The ground-floor Brasserie came in the 1970s and continued into the 1990s, but seemed perhaps a bit outdated as the farm-to-table movement rose here with restaurants like Wildwood, Paley’s Place and Higgins.

The building is being developed by Carl Coffman, who previously headed an excavation company (it’s now digging the Park Avenue West tower’s parking garage). He described renovating the Calumet, which is being re-branded as Esquire on Park Avenue, as a labor of love, but Coffman is also being sensible about the project: It is poised to earn at least a Gold LEED rating.

The renovation, overseen by Vallaster & Corl Architects of Portland and completing this spring, will create five stories of apartments from 625-950 square feet, as well as a 1500 square foot penthouse. When I visited, Coffman showed me an irresistible added feature to the penthouse: a rooftop deck with plenty of room for parties and a stellar skyline view.

Vallaster & Corl, by the way, has quietly done a very nice combination of new architecture and historic renovation over the years.

The building also includes a four-story open-air atrium in the middle of the building (with large skylights into the banquet facility), and the original steel stairs wrapping around a new elevator (it uses a fraction of the energy a normal elevator uses). There are also original Douglas fir floors that have been refinished.

Thanks in large part to an innovative heat recovery system, Coffman says energy consumption in the building will be reduced by 42% compared to traditional technologies. There is also a rainwater-recovery system which collects rain from the roof, channels it to four 1000-gallon tanks in the basement, and filters it for use in the commercial restrooms.

Coffman purchased the Brasserie Montmartre restaurant name with the building, but is exploring several restaurant opportunities. That said, when I visited, he was leaning toward bringing back the restaurant under its original name and focusing on affordable French bistro fare. (One idea I had: move Pascal Sauton’s excellent but off-the-beaten path downtown restaurant Carafe here.) Coffman expects a restaurant to open in July of 2009.  More information can be found at www.esquireapartmentsportland.com.

Team presentations tonight at City Hall for Sustainability Center from interesting mix of local and international firms

From 6-8PM tonight in the Portland City Council chambers at City Hall (1221 SW Fourth Avenue), presentations by finalists for the Sustainability Center of Excellence to be located in downtown Portland at SW Fifth Avenue and Montgomery Street. Following proposals, a project team will be selected to conduct a Development Feasibility Analysis.

One word of caution to those thinking of going: these presentations will not be about design proposals for the sustainability center. That stage hasn't arrived yet. Instead, the presentations will mostly, I'm told by Daniel Spero of the Portland Development Commission, be about the teams articulating their experience.

The finalists who'll be making presentations tonight at half-hour intervals beginning at 6:15, are teams of architecture firms, developers, and other specialists and consultants:

• Gerding Edlen Development with SERA Architects and GBD Architects

• Holst Architecture with FX Fowle, Pettigrove Venture and Equity Community Builders LLC

• Ethos Project Management with Behnisch Architects, Brightworks and Regenesis Group

• Winkler Development Corporation with Perkins + Will and LRS Architects

Of these, the Gerding Edlen partnership with SERA and GBD would be the most familiar to Portlanders, with Gerding and GBD doing the Brewery Blocks, Casey Condominiums, and Gerding Theater at the Armory and several other projects together, and Gerding and SERA previously teaming up for The Civic condo-apartment project.

Holst Architecture and developer Pettigrove Venture have worked together before; it's my understanding Pettigrove was a partner in Holst's Belmont Lofts. Pettigrove also developed renovations like the Triangle and Fitzgibbon Glass buildings. FX Fowle is an acclaimed New York firm that will add gravitas to Holst's already strong design and sustainability reputation. FX has done work in Dubai, India, China, Denmark, the New York Times headquarters (with Renzo Piano), and much more. Their design for 11 Times Square is pictured at right.

I'm not familiar with Ethos Project Management, but Behnisch Architects has offices in Stuttgart, Germany and Los Angeles. They've done a hugely impressive array of work all over Europe, Russia and the United States. Brightworks, a Portland firm providing green design services, would also be a good addition to that team.

Winkler Development is another Portland firm; Jim Winkler redeveloped the Adidas Village from the old Kaiser hospital on North Greeley, as well as a renovated building in the Yamhill historic district downtown and the DeSoto Building in the Pearl housing numerous art galleries. Winkler hired LRS Architects to do the Adidas project's interiors, and they have gained some major green building experience in China, as I reported a few days ago in a separate post. Perkins + Will is a huge Chicago-based firm with offices throughout the world. They are a previous winner of the AIA's prestigious national firm of the year award. Right now they're doing, among hundreds of other projects, what will be the nation's largest US courthouse in Los Angeles, a LEED Platinum rated skyscraper (pictured at left) with an impressively massive atrium.

Although the Portland Development Commission's RFP seemed to focus on local firms, I'm excited to see the combination of local and national/international firms involved. I haven't personally decided which of these teams I'd like to see get the job. There are naturally lots of practical considerations to be made. The Gerding/GBD/SERA team would, again, be the most familiar to Portland, but maybe they have a design in mind that's more mind-blowing than all the rest. Holst and FX Fowle would be an intriguing combination, and the job would be another step up for Holst into the stratosphere of larger-scale projects. Perkins + Will is also intriguing, and it would be nice to see Jim Winkler get the job after being on a treadmill for much of the last decade trying to get One Waterfront Place built.

Again I must ask, though: Are the parameters of the competition ideal for producing the best possible design for this Sustainability Center? Are teams of developers and designers delineating their experience the best way to pick, or should we have some sort of design competition where we're judging the building itself? I love design competitions and seeing the potential building before picking a designer. But it isn't always so simple. With the Portland aerial tram, for example, Sara Graham and her firm, AGPS Architecture, were my least favorite of the four finalists. But Graham did a superhuman job once the team was picked, ensuring that the integrity of a quality designed was maintained throughout the construction process. Other finalists like UN Studio and SHoP had me more excited, but I couldn't possibly second-guess the Graham selection now, in hindsight.

Meanwhile, do the rest of you have any preferences yet?

Skylab moving forward with Weave

For today's Oregonian I wrote about Skylab Architecture's design and co-development of the Weave Building, and how the project is tentatively poised to move forward despite the economy.

The Weave is a little different from most commercial office projects. Rather than seeking any large anchor tenant, this is a smaller boutique project for creative companies looking at their home as an expression of what they do. As Jeff Borlaug, vice president of Norris Beggs & Simpson brokerage said in the article, "they may attract different types of users than for traditional office space." Tenants looking for more traditional office space, large companies seeking a wide floorplate to put their company (instead of taking up multiple floors), may look elsewhere or, as Borlaug said, to renovated their existing spaces instead of moving to new ones.

Certainly the Weave is not the only office space under construction. However, the other ones in town seem to have begun during more hopeful economic times or are more traditional Class-A office buildings. If the Weave does get built, though, it will be competing not only with big spaces like First & Main (designed by GBD Architects) near the Hawthorne Bridge head downtown, but also smaller but bold designs like bSide-6 (designed by Works Partnership).

I also find the Weave interesting because of its context. It would also address the southern edge of West Burnside, which has lagged behind the real estate across the street such as the Brewery Blocks and Powell's Books. The Weave, along with the under construction and much larger 12th & Washington project (developed by Gerding Edlen and designed by Zimmer Gunsul Frasca) could act as a beachhead of sorts in bringing the success of the Pearl District across Burnside. I also enjoy the mix of contemporary and historic architecture the Weave adds to. It would be located on a small, 5,000 square foot swatch of land between two historic buildings occupied by McMenamins outlets: the Crystal Ballroom and Ringler's Annex.

As often happens with stories and interviews, the quotes from architect Jeff Kovel represent a small portion of our talk. Here are some additional comments from Kovel about Skylab, the Weave and the economy as well as two more renderings of the project:

"I wouldn’t sit here and say we’re not feeling the effects of the economy…but it becomes a question of what you do with it. Our model is good in that we’re small and we’re diverse in terms of projects. Single-family residential work is very quiet, but other types of corporate work are doing well. We’re looking to actually change. We’re working on a Skylab prefabricated system and whole project delivery, like design and construction. Those are two ways we’re trying to address the market."

"You can make a lot of rationalizations for things when you don’t have the work. On one hand Skylab stayed small and I can say it was purposeful. But it was also just a matter of responding to the opportunities we had. If every project were like the weave building it would be different. For larger firms doing larger scale you need expertise in house to be able to complete the required scope. But that said, we’re able to execute something like the Weave Building with a smaller firm. I think that scale tips more on universities, hospitals."

"We spent a lot of time designing this project from the ground up in a really holistic way. We see the weave concept as not being just architectural but a concept with urban implications and also networking implications for the businesses within the building. We look at the weave as tying together the pearl and the west end, the interface between tenants and creating a stronger cohesive group than the independent parts. And then the building itself is a real integrated form consisting of different parts.

"Before we knew it was going to be office space over retail, we set out to make a building that stretched our understanding of the typical developer-driven arch approach, which I’d describe more as a decorated box than an integrated sculptural form. So in setting out to design this building, I was really interested in making the form represent the dynamic requirements of the function. Things like balconies and shading, view corridors: all those things are integrated into a single design solution."

"The sculptural pattern allows opportunities for those things to be resolved without it feeling like appendages. Part of that is in response to…people generally think that architecture needs to come at a higher cost. I think that if you are intelligent about how you mobilize all the varying components that you can create design interest through those relationships, not necessarily through expensive finishes or detailing. Part of this was about expressing the rawness of the constructed elements and using them to create the design interest. Part of what’s been successful is we’ve been able to use more off the shelf components than the way it appears. That’s been a big way to control cost, by employing typical systems in a not unusual manner."

LRS Architects designing world's largest LEED Platinum building in China

As Amy Hsuan reported in Tuesday's Oregonian as part of a five-part series, LRS Architects of Portland has been working on a design for the Zhangjiang Semiconductor Park that, if built, would be the largest LEED Platinum building on the planet. "The floring alone could cover 17 football fields," Hsuan writes.

Founded in 1976, LRS opened its Shanghai office in 2007. But the firm has never designed anything this big. But then again, how many firms have? Still, it's a way for the firm to step up in scale. 

"In Portland, we never would have been considered for South Waterfront," Paul Frank, a principal at LRS, told Hsuan. "We just don't have that kind of portfolio."

However, LRS has amassed a broad array of work in the Portland area, including the Hillsboro Civic Center and interiors for the Adidas Village as well as upcoming projects like the Havasu Memory Center in Arizona and a medical center in Bend. They also designed a mixed-use project at Martin Luther King Blvd. and Fremont Street for the Portland Development Commission that I think is less successful visually than maybe urbanistically - it looks like a concrete lighthouse. But there's no question there are very capable architects on staff. And besides, I like the look of some of these buildings, especially in the shot above. (These two renderings I got from the LRS website.)

It's apparently no guarantee that the complex will be built, but that could be said about a great many projects. In the meantime, it's worth noting that LRS won a design competition to earn the 2.2 million square foot Zhangjiang job over firms from Japan and Germany. The project's signature feature is a central lagoon that retains stormwater and acts as a 'heat sink' for cooler temperatures. I hope the China job comes through for them.

Part of the theme of Hsuan's story was that while Portland firms currently enjoy a competitive advantage in China when it comes sustainable design expertise, the Chinese are likely to catch up quickly - the rate they seem to do everything there. Is this a window of opportunity poised to ultimately close, or do Portland firms have a long future in the land of Mao and Yao? 

11xDesign slideshow

The 11xDesign homes tour seemed to be a smashing success. When I visited Atelier Waechter's Z-Haus a little after noon (two hours into a seven-hour tour window), a few hundred people had already stopped by.

The same was true at Path Architecture's Park Box (pictured at left) and the other residences I visited, like SEED Architecture's SIPs residence and William Kaven's North House (pictured below with architect Daniel Kaven). 

People didn't even seem to mind that a good portion of the houses on the tour were still under construction. At the North House, I watched scores of people climb a flimsy ladder to see the second floor.

I'd like to apologize to those houses I didn't make it to, such as Web Wilson's Tabor Residence and Design Department's Tanzamook. It's hard to visit 11 residences in one day, you know? (Especially when you're working all weekend with writing deadlines.) But hopefully all stops on the tour experienced the same good crowds.

Meanwhile, Dwell magazine is running this slideshow of photos I took on Saturday's tour. Congratulations to all the firms involved.

And as always if you're an architect or designer with a project you'd like to show off, Portland Architecture is always looking for more to showcase, regardless of firm size or reputation. Please feel free to email me ([email protected]) for more details.

11xDesign tour this Saturday

In numerology, the number 11 has huge significance. It is a "master number" that can signify change, revelation, and inspiration. Maybe it's just a coincidence that the group of designer-developers putting on the 11xDesign homes tour this weekend ended up with that number of homes on the tour. But I feel more tempted than usual to see symbolic value in 11xDesign because it represents for me a wave of emerging talent in the city.

I wrote an article about the 11xDesign tour for Dwell magazine's blog that was published today, and you can read a more extensive account of the homes and designers there. But for those interested in the practical details, here they are:

11xDesign is a free self-guided homes tour from 10AM to 5PM Saturday (no tickets necessary) put on by the people who designed and have built them. The firms involved, such as Path Architecture, Atelier Waechter, SUM Design Studio, Seed Architecture, Reworks/Penkin Development, Building Arts Workshop, Brett Crawford Architecture & Planning, William Kaven Architecture, Webster Wilson Design, are diverse. Yet a connecting thread is their desire to create contemporary architecture in Portland's historic neighborhoods. It's often a trickier proposition to fit in with historic bungalows, Victorians, and Queen Anne homes than it is to build in former industrial areas like the Pearl District and South Waterfront. Granted, these are vastly smaller projects that don't require the capital of a major condo or office tower. But I've been very impressed by the design acumen shown by the 11xDesign homes, most of which I've previously visited, and the designers behind them.

Besides the projects themselves, which include Ben Waechter's exceptional Z-Haus (pictured at right), Path's Williams Five condos and Park Box house, Crawford's 1310 condominiums, Seed Architecture's SIPs Residence, William Kaven's North House, Sum Design's SUM-thing New Condos (pictured at top), BAW's Orchid Street Cityhomes, Design Department's Tanzamook, the 11xDesign group is also forging a kind of hybrid relationship in which they remain as independent firms, but also help each other by sharing ideas, research, marketing and other resources.

“People are more willing to do that here,” Waechter says in the Dwell article. “First to strike out on their own at all as architects, but then to develop their own projects and then to collaborate with their competitors. Our architect friends in other cities don’t have that as much.”

It's very Portland, somehow. And yet that spirit didn't begin with the 11xDesign group, either. Recently I wrote a long profile of 82-year-old architect Saul Zaik, a legend of Northwest midcentury modern architecture and a contemporary of local architects like Pietro Belluschi, Van Evra Bailey and John Yeon. Zaik and many of his colleagues got their start in the 1950s as the '14th Street Gang', which similarly collaborated and cooperated with their small firms.

If there are readers out there who feel I've focused too much on some of these small studio firms doing this tour and/or developing their own projects, please know that I'm equally willing and wanting to cover whatever it is you think I've neglected in terms of architects and projects. I've mentioned some of the 11xDesign people numerous times, while still not covering the work of other architects in town a single time. One commenter in a previous post of mine accused me of cronyism by mentioning a select group of firms often and, assumedly, playing favorites. I thought the cronyism accusation was unfair (to say the least, bucko), but I also want to be open and desirous of as wide a variety of quality designers and projects as possible.

Meanwhile, please consider visiting one, 11, or any number of these projects. It's a tough economy for every sized architecture firm, but these small firms that have stuck their necks out to build something, even as the housing boom came crashing down, deserve our attention and praise.

Code and urban renewal wars

Two stories from today's Oregonian point to battles over where to build, what funds to do it with, and by what standards they should be kept.

First, Mark Larabee reports that a pair of lawsuits against the city are freezing its ability to go forward with the Resource Access Center, the $48 million homeless shelter and day center designed by Holst Architecture of Portland, as well as redevelopment of the US Post Office building downtown by the city.

One suit is challenging the City Council's vote last summer to spend $19 million in urban renewal funds for the River District on building an elementary school in the David Douglas School District in outer, outer southeast Portland. The other suit is challenging the expansion of the River District approved by the council that increased tax revenue available for projects from $225 to $583 million.

Who is filing these suits? According to Larabee's article, it's an unnamed group of 10 people who call themselves Friends of Urban Renewal. Former Portland Development Commission general counsel Oliver Norville is one of them. He told Larabee the main concern is over the idea of David Douglas as satellite for the River District. But even if the city reverses course on the school, the increased River District funding is still a concern to the Friends group, who see the expansion there as "not proper expenditures of tax increment funds," in Norville's words.

Norville also says the city has been unwilling to negotiate with the Friends of Urban Renewal, and that's why the lawsuits have gone forward. Commissioner Nick Fish, however, had harsh words for the group, saying "they took the River District hostage and poor people are paying the price."

So, who is the good guy and who is the bad guy here? This is not a rhetorical question. I'm still trying to figure it out myself. I lean so far towards being against the lawsuit because of its effects but in at least partial agreement about some of the issues involved. There ought to be a better way to settle this.

The idea of these hardball legal tactics preventing the much-needed Resource Access Center for Portland's homeless from getting built is pretty stinky. So is the idea of freezing other River District renewal funds during this terrible economic downturn. We don't need delays on these project--we need them fast tracked.

Still, I personally agree that it's wrong to give River District urban renewal funds to David Douglas or any place outside the River District. And I at least can't disagree with the Friends' other assertion, that added urban renewal funds for the River District might be better spent elsewhere in the city. On that second point, I'm really still in deliberation mode. I also am still trying to decide if the Friends of Urban Renewal name is apt or if it's ironic.

Meanwhile, firebrand Commissioner Randy Leonard is at it again. As Lisa Grace Lednicer reported today, Leonard has helped create a code-enforcement task force that targets and actively goes after some of the city's worst code violators. Some are complaining because of the secrecy associated with the group, and others because the enforcers don't necessarily just target the worst code offenders uniformly - they pick and choose based in part on anecdotal evidence.

Even so, I had to laugh seeing that they'd put the kibosh on Greek Cusina, the rowdy downtown eatery that continually seems to flip its nose at anyone that would question their way of doing things. Leonard's team found some 50 code violations at Greek Cusina, yet its owner, Ted Pappas, still found the gumption to complain that he was being persecuted. This is the same Pappas who tried to organize a boycott of Willamette Week a few years ago when one of its writers, Caryn Brooks, had the audacity to write a particularly unfavorable review of another eatery.

If Pappas is complaining, others, like those living in fleabag residence hotels downtown, are thankful. (Such as George Rumbley of the Westwind Apartments, pictured above in a fine shot by The Oregonian's Fredrick Joe.) From cockroaches to broken boilers, chipping paint to carpet first lain in the Eisenhower administration, Leonard's bunch has succeeded in improving conditions for those living there, and they've been thankful. Nice work, fellas!

Sifting Portland and metro area population data

Last Thursday's Portland Tribune had an interesting feature by Peter Korn that displayed some common myths about migration here.

Among Korn's findings, based on IRS data, are that about as many Multnomah County residents have left for California as have left the Golden State for here in the last several years. Portland also does not, Korn found, attract an unusual amount of people from other states. "Many other states and most western cities have higher rates of migration than Oregon and Portland," he added. Seattle, for instance, gets much more Californians and people moving there overall. 

In fact, for most of the past decade, more people actually left Multnomah County to live elsewhere than moved here. The reality is different in suburban Washington and Clackamas Counties: they've gone up in population.

But Korn notes that trend has changed: "Tax returns for 2006-07 (the IRS groups the migration data in two-year segments) show 3,601 more people moving into Multnomah County than leaving. 

Another finding: "Portland residents aren't moving to the suburbs anymore, but out-of-staters have taken up the slack." For much of the last several years, the article says, the demographic trend has been for out-of-state residents to move first to Portland and then, after a few years, to move to the suburbs of Clackamas, Washington and Clark counties. Now, however, the number of people moving into Washington County versus a decade ago, while roughly the same overall, is made up 19.6 percent Portlanders versus 24 percent ten years ago.

What should we make of some of this data?

It's hard to draw concrete conclusions because there are a lot of complicating factors. Sometimes we may tend to see population increases as indications of which places people like best, and what cities are therefore the most pleasant to be in and experience. In reality, though, it may be more of an economic indicator, or maybe even climate.

After reading Korn's article, my Google search of fastest-growing US metro areas found this CNN article from a year ago listing the Dallas, Atlanta, Phoenix and Houston. Notice a theme here? Sprawl. Having an urban growth boundary like Portland does, and combining it other statewide anti-sprawl measures, means the added quality of life is (perhaps inevitably) tied to increases in the cost of living. Take away those restrictions, and you have cheaper land. The divide between rich and poor has become greater in America over the last decade, and over a broader period, central cities and suburbs have to some degree traded places as coveted and cheap destinations, respectively.

I'm probably just being too sensitive or seeing mirages, but I wondered if the paper had a bit of an agenda . The headline for the story, in big bold type on the cover, asked, "Nirvana? Possibly Not." Is it possible the Tribune's owner, the conservative Doctor Robert Pamplin Junior, might get a little extra satisfaction in taking Little Beirut down a peg?

Even if so, however, the numbers are there in plain sight. The tidal wave of Portland immigrants may indeed be a myth. But ultimately if there is a competition between Portland and its suburbs, or between the Portland metro area and those in other regions, our strength lies not in quantity but quality.

Street of Eames tickets go on sale Monday

The annual Street of Eames modern home tour is returning this April 18 with a slate of both new architecture and classic midcentury houses, all benefitting after school enrichment programs for homeless elementary school kids in Portland.

The tour has always had a limited number of tickets, and fewer than meets the demand. But it takes a lot to convince some of these homeowners to let all these people come traipsing through. There are again 1,000 tickets available this year. But considering it's a substantially pricey ticket, at $50 apiece ($40 for students), that may bring demand more in line with supply. (But whoa, baby! What is this, a Springsteen concert?)

There are seven homes included in this year's tour. Pictured above is one, a 1979 house designed by architect William Church, a veteran local designer who was named an AIA Fellow several years ago for his contributions to local architecture. As you can see in the photo of the public sun room that's part of this multi-house development, there is a different in look and feel from either the earlier 20th century homes designed by the likes of John Yeon, Saul Zaik, or Pietro Belluschi; it slightly resembles a barn in form, but has a natural wood exterior and enough glass to take up almost an entire facade. 

Path Architecture has the Butler house in Southeast Portland (pictured at right), which I visited last week with designer Corey Martin as the final pre-move-in touches and finishes were being applied.

The house is three stories and draped in an elegant combination of glass and wood. The back of the house has a two-story high dining room space that opens up onto a patio, garden and sauna. Designed for a professional mountain biker and her husband, the house has incredible views of Southeast Portland, downtown, and even a couple Cascade peaks on a good day.

The house has a boxy form and is cantilevered slightly over a glassy first floor. Inside, Path makes the spaces sight lines a playful experience. No matter where you are, there is a panorama of windows, but not always in the symmetrical places one might expect.

The Eames tour also includes a unit in the 1310 Condominiums, which won for its architects, Brett Crawford and his wife Dana Diana, the top Honor Award at this year's AIA/Portland design awards (along with Allied Works Booker T. Washington High School in Dallas). I've already posted about the 1310 Condos recently, so I won't say as much here, but the project is certainly worth a look. It's a rare example of practically hand-made architecture, in which the Crawfords found the property, completed the deal, designed the renovation, oversaw and even performed much of the construction.

There is also a new home completed last year and designed by Matthew McCarthy; I believe this home was also on the Build It Green home tour in 2007. This spec home, as McCarthy told the Daily Journal of Commerce at the time, was envisioned not to be an ultra-green-everything house with an out-of-reach price, nor to be a regular house masquerading as green with a few add-ons.

Giulietti/Schouten Architects of Portland has quietly been designing house after house here for well over a decade, earning a reputation for design quality in a segment of the building industry where real registered architects aren't always doing the work. This house, originally built in 1959, was expanded renovated by the firm in 2007, which is actually the second time the place was added on to. Brett Schulz was the architect for a 2002 remodel, which included the addition of a 700 square foot master bedroom as well as the house's new entry. As Tim Schouten said, each expansion left the original portions of the house more or less intact. Here's what it says about the design on Giulietti/Schouten's website:

"We expanded the existing living room by removing the deck and building out 300 square feet. The integrity of the existing house was maintained by carrying over the existing roofline to the addition. New clerestory windows enhance daylight access to the space. A small, but elegant steel balcony located at the far end of the living room creates a physical connection to the outdoors while maintaining views from the inside with an unobtrusive steel guardrail. A stylish steel staircase with floating mahogany treads connects the upstairs to the Asian influenced 400 square feet downstairs. Tatami mats recessed into the stained concrete floor and sliding shoji screens enclosing the toy storage area are central to the room’s Asian influence. Sliding doors open onto a 200 square foot concrete terrace where family and friends can enjoy a warm summer’s West Hills evening."

The head principal at Colab Architecture, Mark Engberg, has his own recently completed house on the tour as well, a renovation of a 1969 home. Colab has always had a diverse and interesting portfolio. On the residential front, their Brandon House just west of Mississippi Avenue is among Portland's most striking houses, and was featured on HGTV as a "Dream House". Colab has also designed at least two large towers in Dubai, although they're as yet unbuilt, and they also crafted ABC's Times Square studios in New York.

Finally, there is the classic Swann House designed by the great John Yeon in 1949. If you're new to this blog or to architecture in Portland, know that Yeon is easily among the three or four greatest architectural designers Portland has ever produced. Also deeply committed to ecology and conservation before they were fashionable, his designs come in gentle integration with the landscape.

I visited and blogged about Yeon's Swan house about a year ago with realtor Bob Zaikoski and was profoundly moved by its simple elegance. If you go there, notice not just the quintessentially Oregon look to the house, but its small details, like the air vents that open out of the wall.

If you can't make the Street of Eames tour, in this economy I'll bet several of these architects (except Yeon, of course) would be happy to take a potential client to see any of these properties. And there is also another homes tour coming up later this month (and which I'll be blogging about shortly) called the 11xDesign tour for which admission is free. Meanwhile, though, consider taking the Eames tour and supporting homeless kids.

Note: My mention of Brett Schulz as an architect involved with a previous expansion to what's now a Giulietti/Schouten project on the Eames tour is a later addition to the post. Schulz has an intriguing portfolio of his own, which I recommend checking out. A note to readers on this point as well: if there's ever information you feel I've left out of a post that ought to be included, please feel free and encouraged to email me.

Note: On Wednesday, March 4, the Architecture Foundation of Oregon announced at $2,000 grant for Street of Eames' efforts to increase the visibility of good design while raising money for at-risk youth.

113 LEED projects and counting for Green Building Services

A few weeks ago, after reading that Portland sustainable design office Green Building Services had achieved its 100th LEED-rated project, I wound up chatting about the milestone at the firm's downtown Portland offices with principal Ralph DiNola, CEO Jay Coalson, and marketing manager Andrew Scott. When I got there, they told me the LEED project count is actually up to 113 by now...and counting. If you look at a list of LEED rated projects in Portland, their name is on almost every one.

GBS started in 2000 as an offshoot of Portland General Electric, but became a separate entity in 2005. In that time, they have consulted architects, building owners and engineers on a wide array of sustainability issues. Green Building Services' first two projects were also landmarks for LEED in Portland: Viridian Place and the Ecotrust building, the latter of which was the first LEED-rated historic renovation. Another project, Providence Newberg hospital, was the first LEED gold-rated medical center. "Those project really set the stage for our expansion and growth," DiNola said. At the same time, he adds, "We don't think so much of ourselves as to only work on leading-edge projects. I still love seeing that light go on," when new sustainability converts come on board.

Besides projects in Oregon, GBS has worked around the country, from academic buildings at Florida Atlantic University and a green bank in Texas to analysis on expansions to the San Francisco airport. DiNola also has a longtime relationship with the US Green Building Council itself (which administers LEED). He's on the team that writes LEED user manuals, and also interprets credit requests.

In addition to consulting and other services, GBS also offers training, which is something DiNola says is key for architects during a downturned economy. "Everyone is waiting for something to happen," he explains. "Training is all the more important now. It gets you prepared for what's next."

Speaking of the recession, DiNola notes a shift in green buildings: more clients are looking at existing buildings to renovate green instead of starting from the ground up. "New office buildings that didn't happen because of the economy, those owners are upgrading green instead," DiNola said.

With increasing green renovations, though, there is more chance for friction between the strictures of building sustainably and historic preservation. DiNola originally studied historic preservation as an undergraduate (before getting his master's degree in architecture), and believes more old buildings ought to be allowed to transform without such rigid historic strictures.

DiNola suggested the National Trust for Historic Preservation National Park Service consider a multi-level system in which certain historically significant buildings are designated worth preserving as close to the original look as possible, but others have more leeway to, say for example, enlarge windows to allow in more daylight. "It's black and white the way the National Trust does it today," DiNola added. "We ought to be able to say, 'This building is maybe less architecturally significant, so we can do more to it.'" Europe is much more open about enriching old buildings, for example.

He also cited green programs like the Living Building Challenge. "You're more apt to be successful with new than old projects," DiNola said. "But that embodied energy (of a renovation project) is just sitting there."

Green Building Services isn't the only office of this kind providing consulting, analysis and training for sustainable buildings. Brightworks would probably be classified as a competitor, and that firm has done much for green building in Oregon too. But GBS and DiNola, who was one of the first sustainability experts I interviewed over a decade ago, deserve some kudos for their role in Portland's green revolution.

PDC extends deadline for Sustainability Center proposals

The Portland Development Commission has issued a Request For Proposals, initially due today but now extended to February 18, for a new Sustainability Center in downtown Portland near Portland State University.

The mission of the project, according to the RFP, is “to create a center of excellence to promote sustainable development practices and sustainable business development… to shape, accelerate and measure a coherent sustainability agenda for the City of Portland and the region focused on the following: growing the green job market, developing and advocating for sustainability public policy, promoting Portland as a ‘living laboratory" of sustainability through catalytic projects, and positioning Portland and Oregon as an international leader in sustainability through partnerships with "best in class" academic institutions and leadership cities.” The project is expected to achieve LEED ‘Platinum’ status, net-zero energy usage, and meet Living Building Challenge strictures.

The property is situated at the south end of downtown and abuts the PSU campus at its Urban Center Plaza, bordering SW Montgomery Street, SW Harrison Street, and SW Fourth and Fifth Avenues. Although it’s not yet written in stone, the size of the project would be about 220,000 gross square feet, with retail at street level and potentially housing above in addition to Sustainability Center spaces.

PDC acquired the site in 2004. In 2006, Gerding/Edlen Development was selected to redevelop the property as a mixed-use project focused on workforce housing. Subsequently, GED and PDC entered into a Memorandum of Understanding that is  set to expire July 31 of this year. If the Sustainability Center team decides the feasibility study results warrant moving forward with construction, the MOU with GED would be terminated and a new agreement will be negotiated with the project team.

The evaluation will be carried out on a 100-point scale, with 20 points going to 'qualifications and experience of proposer', 20 points for 'qualifications and experience of key personnel', 25 points to 'project approach and methods', 10 points for 'price proposal', and a final 10 points for promoting minority or women-owned firms and emerging small businesses in subcontracting opportunities. If you're playing at home, that means 40 points out of 100 for experience. The 'project approach and methods' category seems ambiguous to me; could that have to do with design quality?

Reading the RFP online, I initially was confused about how it’s not intended as a means of definitively selecting the architect, contractor or even developer for the job. Perhaps the words 'feasibility study' might have tipped me off. It’s not a promise to build the project. ““If, after the Feasibility Study the Center is deemed to be desirable and feasible,” the RFP reads, “the Proposer and/or Project Team could be invited to provide development, design and construction services for the Sustainability Center.” That would be Phase 2.

Governor Kulongoski has requested $80 million in funds, but apparently that isn't yet a done deal. Also, Spero said, part of the contracted work in the feasibility study calls for the Selected Contractor to identify sources of anticipated funding (City, PDC, OUS, other) and/or private financing and sources of alternative and innovative financing, including available tax credits.

When I spoke with Dan Spero of PDC, he emphasized that in addition to pushing back the submission date from February 6 to February 18, there have also been addendums to the RFP stating that submitting teams need not be led by a developer. There are certainly financial questions to be resolved by any entrant, but theoretically it could be an architecture firm and contractor going for the job without a developer. I wonder if this move could help the project to have more of a high-end design focus and not just sustainability per se.

Given the deep recession, this commission would be a very coveted one for some sustainability-minded architecture firm. One can only assume, particularly with Gerding Eden already involved, that their past collaborators like GBD Architects, Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership, SERA Architects, or even THA Architecture would be going for the job. At the same time, it would be contrary to the spirit of this project for anything about the developer and architect selection to seem knee-jerk or otherwise without proper openness and deliberation. And when I spoke with Spero, he seemed to understand the importance of this being an open opportunity for all.

For all we know, the Sustainability Center may not be built for years, or even at all. But PDC, even without funding apparently secured, has a timetable for going forward. “Given the significance of the Center to the City and State, the preferred timeline is for the selected proposer and project team to conclude Phase 1 activities by spring 2009,” the RFP says, “with design and permitting occurring in 2009, and construction starting by late 2009 or 2010 and completed by 2011 to 2012.”

So you tell me: Is the Sustainability Center a mirage, a great opportunity, or something in between? And is there anything to be said here about the city's RFP process in general?

A big condo designer changing course: Ankrom wins Vestas HQ commission

During the condo building boom of the last several years, no other Portland firm has capitalized more than Ankrom Moisan. Particularly in the Pearl District as well as in South Waterfront and in several other west coast cities, Ankrom has designed and seen built a host of multifamily housing projects.

But now, in what may be indicative of the changing climate - not just economic ups and downs but where the focus lies in architectural commissions - the firm has secured the commission to design a new American headquarters for Danish wind-turbine manufacturer Vestas. (This story was, I believe, first reported in the Daily Journal of Commerce.) This couldn't come at a better time. An article in The Economist today noted that the United States has just inched ahead of Germany to become the world's top wind-energy producer.

Provided everything goes according to plan with design review and other factors, the building is scheduled to break ground at the end of this year and open in 2011 and will house between 850 and 1,000 employees. Phase one will include 400,000 square feet of space, with an additional 200,000 square feet to come in a second phase. That kind of size means we're talking about a fairly substantial office building, or two. A site has not yet been chosen, but according to Kip Richardson of Ankrom Moisan, it's likely to be somewhere in the central city. That could mean downtown, South Waterfront, the Lloyd District, or the Pearl District.

Along with Ankrom Moisan, Vestas reportedly also interviewed Zimmer Gunsul Frasca and GBD Architects. As you'd expect from a Danish wind turbine manufacturer, Vestas expects to build a LEED Platinum-rated headquarters. GBD and ZGF might have slightly stronger green credentials, but Ankrom has also quietly beefed up its sustainability in recent years. These are all what you might call 'service firms' if using the old service firm/design firm stereotype, but all three have strong designers on board, whether it's Michael Great at Ankrom, Gene Sandoval and Braulio Baptista at ZGF, or Kyle Anderson at GBD.

I spoke briefly with Kip Richardson of Ankrom about how the Vestas commission is not only good for Ankrom, but may represent a changing climate. Ankrom has laid off numerous employees recently, like its peers.

"It’s not a secret that all the firms in town have been hit," Richardson said. "We’re down to a couple hundred from a high of 300.  A lot of our work was in housing, and a lot of that’s what drove our growth over the last 3-4 years. But it’s not just the firms doing housing that have been hit. Firms doing retail are hit hard too. Even firms doing public projects are affected. But once the government starts pumping money into the system, I think things will improve."

Asked about what the future holds for condos and higher-end multifamily housing, Richardson said he sees affordable housing as a growth area for the future. Ankrom is known for its more luxurious condos, but they've also done nearly 30 affordable housing jobs.

Vestas recently moved into a new R&D center in Denmark designed by Danish firm Arkitema, pictured at left and above. Might that project provide clues to the direction an Ankrom-designed headquarters in Portland might take?

Meanwhile, hopefully this won't be the last green-industry corporate headquarters to be built in Portland in the years ahead.

Existing home sales rise in December: have we bottomed out?

The National Association of Realtors announced Tuesday announced that its seasonally adjusted index of pending sales for previously owned homes increased 6.3 percent in December. That's compared to the previous month, which was the lowest rated on record. The December 2008 index was also up 2.1 percent versus December 2007.

However, the report cited home sales increasing 13 percent in the South and Midwest but still fell 4 percent in the West.

It's way too early to say the recovery is here, especially as it relates to single-family homes or multifamily housing. Even so, might figures like this represent for the economy the first buds on a bare tree branch, or the first migratory birds passing through on their way back north?

Unless you're one of the unfortunate unemployed or a business owner looking down closure, much of economic ebbs and flows are psychological. As inventories pile up during this recession, prices are falling, whether it's for homes or stocks or even groceries. The Dow Jones and other stock market indicators seem to show the economy has bottomed out, but it's no done deal either.

What do the rest of you think - is the economy showing its first signs of life again, or is it just wishful thinking to cite a couple of wishful-thinking, out-of-context statistics as the tea leaves of recovery?

Did Riverdale fudge its bond measure and deceive voters?

Today I received an email from Steve Jewell, one of the activists trying to save Riverdale Grade School, designed by the seminal Portland architects A.E. Doyle and Pietro Belluschi, from demolition.

Since the Riverdale board has already voted to demolish the school, Jewell and others have been scrambling a way to prevent the tragedy. And now, if Jewell’s research is accurate, they may have found a smoking gun. Here is the text of Jewell’s email:

A January 9 letter to the Riverdale School Board, signed by ninety-two registered voters, calls into question the validity of the use of Measure 26-101 bond funds to replace the historic Riverdale A. E. Doyle building.  The letter documents six reasons that the November 4 vote on Measure 26-101 was tainted by uncertainty and confusion.  The signers seek a clarification vote of the people on the question of whether bond funds can be spent without renovating the Doyle building.

The Board has not responded to the voters who signed the letter.

Additionally (not mentioned in the letter) further problems resulted from conflicting messages sent to voters by School Board members regarding the fate of the Doyle building.  This resulted in a muddled public process and compounded voter confusion. 

This was the chain of events:

First, Board communicates that the Doyle will be replaced if Measure 26-101 passes:

1. On September 18, 2008, the Board passed a resolution recommending "full replacement" of the Doyle building, primary buildings, and art building.  The Board minutes reveal the reason for this resolution in saying,  "There has been concern expressed by community members and professionals that a decision has not been made to renovate or replace; not making this decision could hinder the ability to pass the bond."


2. At a Community Forum on October 14, the Board made clear that passage of the bond would result in replacement of the Doyle building and presented the proposed plan for the new building.  When asked if the Board would consider changing its position, the reply was "no."


3. On October 18, Board Chair, Chris Hall, wrote an email to a voter explaining that the Board's decision regarding replacing the Doyle building, saying, "through the various coffees that we have held in the (sic) September and October the attendees demanded that the board make a decision so that the community would know what they were voting on." 


4. Throughout the bond campaign, the campaign website showed the replacement plan as the only option. Board members did not object to this presentation.

The issue became confused when voters became aware of the plan to demolish the Doyle building, and objections were raised.

Next, Board's message is now changed to say that no decision has been made about the Doyle building:

1. It appears that over the weekend of October 18-19 a new message was crafted by those supporting demolition of the Doyle building.  On Monday, October 20, campaign workers began saying no decision had yet been made regarding the Doyle building, in spite of the Sept. 18 Board resolution and prior Board statements.  This appears to be the same weekend during which the letter below was drafted. 


2. On October 21 a letter was received by District voters stating, "IF YOU WANT TO PROTECT THE RIVERDALE DOYLE BUILDING - VOTE YES on Bond Measure 26-101." This statement was in direct conflict with what the minutes of the September 18 Board meeting said, and what the Board presented at the October 14 forum. 

Significantly, two Riverdale School Board members, Chris Hall and Steve Klein, admitted after the election that they had vetted the October 21 letter.  This was because some of the signers of the letter said they would not sign the letter without School Board certification that the letter was truthful.  Hall and Klein revealed their involvement in the October 21 letter publicly at the November 10 Board meeting.

Board member involvement in the October 21 letter was a very significant factor in creating voter confusion, and represents an abrogation of these members'  fiduciary responsibility to assure an open, clear, and transparent public process.  It seems they wanted to "win" at any cost, including voter deception.

All of this has regrettably led to putting the validity of the Measure 26-101 bond in question. Will the Riverdale School Board seek to clarify the question of the fate of the Doyle building by bringing the matter back to the voters, or will they attempt to sell the bonds with a cloud hanging over the validity of Measure 26-101?

City announces new green home grants

The Bureau of Development Services is accepting applications for the first round of funding from the Portland Energy Efficient Home Pilot (PEEHP). This pilot program seeks to generate residential construction with grants for up to 20 energy efficient homes for sale in Portland.

Grants will be awarded to builders or teams to substantially offset the costs of constructing two homes that perform above the energy efficiency level of the 2008 Oregon Energy Code standards. The first of the two homes each builder or team constructs is to be 15% above the 2008 Oregon Energy Code and the second is to be 30% above the 2008 Oregon Energy Code. The program expects to award grants of approximately $10,000 for both homes built by any one builder or team.

The Bureau of Development Services expects to award approximately 4 grants in the initial release period, and possibly 4 additional grants in a second release period. More than $113,000 has been committed to this grant program by the City of Portland and industry partners, the latter of which includes the Homebuilders Association of Metropolitan Portland, the National Association of Homebuilders, NW Natural, Pacific Power, and Portland General Electric.

The Energy Trust of Oregon's New Homes Program will provide support during the design phase to help builders meet energy efficiency requirements and will provide consultation during construction to verify the final performance of each home.

The RFP and application materials can be found online here.

New Yorker on Belluschi, NY Times on Alberta Street

Two bits of New York press (arguably the nation's best magazine and easily the best daily newspaper) have turned their sights on two very different pieces of Portland design.

First, New Yorker architecture critic Paul Goldberger looks at the renovated Alice Tully Hall and the Juilliard School it's part of at Lincoln Center. The original design by Pietro Belluschi has been renovated by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, one of the country's best contemporary firms. (The image below is a rendering of DS+R's renovation.)

 

"Amid the tepid classicism of so much of Lincoln Center," Goldberger writes, "Juilliard stood out as something totally nineteen-sixties, all cantilevers and boxy geometries. Granted, it was covered in travertine, to match its genteel neighbors, but that served only to make the building seem ill at ease, like a wrestler dressed in a Sunday suit."

 

Goldberger goes on to call Belluschi's building (co-designed with Eduardo Catalano) "a misfit" and decry its "half hidden" entrance, as well as to take issue with a rectangular building on a trapezoidal site.

 

I agree that Pietro Belluschi's work from the 1960s and 70s is not necessarily his best, particularly the larger institutional work. When the architect traded wood and glass for limestone and travertine, something was lost. What's more, the Juilliard and Alice Tully definitely qualify for the "brutalism" tag that is often given to buildings from this period. At the same time, I still feel Goldberger is too dismissive of Belluschi's work at Lincoln Center and of so-called Brutalist architecture in general. The Diller Scofidio design unquestionably breathes new life into Belluschi's building, making it more humane with added transparency. At the same time, this is hybrid architecture of old and new, so whatever Goldberger praises about the renovation would, for all intents and purposes, not be possible without Belluschi's original. And while Brutalism certainly invites criticism in general, I'd hate to think of Goldberger being too dismissive of the original without really giving it thought.

 

Meanwhile, the travel section of the Times declares in its headline for a story on Alberta Street that the neighborhood was "saved by design". The story briefly profiles a key developer in this history, Rosalyn Hill. She bought numerous downtrodden properties on Alberta in the early 1990s and "laid down new rules": no metal bars on windows and no locked doors during business hours." (The photo at right, which appeared in the story, is by the excellent Portland photographer Basil Childers. I took the one below.)

 

This is an extension of the "broken window" theory that helped transform the feel of a lot of central cities in the 1990s, particularly New York (I saw it happen first-hand), by improving the cosmetics of place to not look like environments for crime. Turns out criminals are often looking for those places, if you believe the statistics. "I told my renters, 'You have to interact with the community," Hill told writer Jane Hodges. And sure enough, if you look at places Rosalyn renovated, they are teeming with street-front glass. Urbanity needs transparency. If you look at the blighted, graffiti covered places in any city, they're often the places with the least amount of glass.

 

I happened to meet Rosalyn Hill about a year ago as we visited some of the properties she renovated, where the Random Order coffee house and the tin Shed Garden Cafe are now located. On the day I visited, Rosalyn was watering the plants around both buildings and seemed to know almost everyone who walked by. And it's also worth noting that, given how Alberta Street has heard cries of gentrification and accusations of the diverse African American and Latino populations driven out by middle class whites, Rosalyn Hill is a black business owner who has stayed and thrived.

 

This article wasn't really about design, at least not in the sense of paying much attention to the architecture of the properties Hill renovated. But there's definitely reason to celebrate the unique sense of place that exists on Alberta Street, one that has emerged from years of crime and poverty to prosper, yet has also done so without a single Starbucks, Blockbuster Video, Old Navy or McDonald's. The piece also celebrates some local business that we Portlanders would do well to support in these tough economic times: Guardino Gallery, Office PDX, and Helser's restaurant.