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.

Comments

[Laurence]

I appreciate your highlighting the revitalization of Alberta Street, and the NY Time's article that prompted you. Although, as you mention, the Time's article is not speaking directly about design, I find a story about the recreation of a vibrant, culturally diverse old main street to be one of the height of our architectural endeavors. A main street is not a building designed for people...it's a place designed and built by many people. There is a simple timeless design laid down decades ago in the dimensions of the street, the parallel parking, the sidewalks, and the building frontages. Building upon history, Rosalyn Hill, and others, recreated that sense of place that we architects strive for in our work.

[Will]

As a resident of NE Portland near Alberta, I was glad to see the NYT article for once be about the positive that has happened within our neighborhood.

I have one other place I think is worth mentioning: Collage - Art & Craft Supply Store. As current architecture student I buy most of my supplies there and it always feels good to support local small shops.

[Kat Callon]

This is my first time here, and I love your site.

Last week I watched a show (on OPB?) about the architects involved with the Alice Tully Hall project and was amazed by their creativity and skill. I love their cloud building project in which they created an an environment over water from water vapor.

I grew up in CT and part of what I love about New York are the divergent styles of architecture adjacent to each other. I haven't been to New York since the hall was finished, but I hope to visit in August.

As a newer transplant to NE Portland (in Sabin near Whole Foods), reading about Rosalyn Hill and her impact on Alberta was meaningful to me. I likely have her to thank for our moving here. My husband flew up to visit a friend who lived on 15th and ALberta, and after walking down the street and looking into shop windows and called me in Southern California and told me to sell our house. We relocated with within two months and LOVE it here. If you are still in contact with her, please, send her our thanks. Thanks so much.