Portland Architecture

Matthew Ginn's Portland Public Schools photo tour: Jefferson and Grant

Jefferson High School (photo by Matthew Ginn/Homestead Images) 

If you've been wandering around the high school campuses of north and northeast Portland lately, catching a football practice or registering for class, perhaps you've seen Matthew Ginn with his camera. This summer, Ginn has been photographing Portland Public Schools sites throughout the city with a focus on high schools.

For the third post in our series, Ginn took pictures of two schools with long legacies but one with an undetermined future, two historic buildings but only one retaining its integrity: Jefferson and Grant.

"It’s a real shame that they 'modernized' Jefferson’s look when they did their 1950s additions/remodel," Ginn said by email. "The out-of-proportion additions were bad enough, but they defaced the main elevation as well. Thankfully, cooler heads (or lighter wallets) prevailed when the additions were made to the other high schools in the 1950s—they’re not entirely stunning, but at least they didn’t reduce the historical character of the original buildings."

As with the previous posts paired with Ginn's school pictures, I'm including information about them from the Portland Public Schools site.

 

Jefferson High School (photo by Matthew Ginn/Homestead Images) 

First, Jefferson, which is known largely for the great athletes the school has produced, such as footballer Mel Renfro (an All-American at Oregon and a Hall of Famer for the NFL's Dallas Cowboys) as well as basketball players like Aaron Miles and Brandon Brooks.

"Located at 5210 North Kerby Avenue in the Humboldt neighborhood of north Portland, Jefferson High 12-acre campus includes the original 1909 school building (with several subsequent additions), an auto shop, and a gymnasium.  The high school building currently exhibits limited evidence of its former architectural style that once revealed the tensions between the Arts and Crafts and Classical Revival Movements.  Several subsequent additions and exterior alterations, however, have diminished the building’s architectural integrity."

"Jefferson was a direct reflection of Portland’s ambitions as well as its concerns about school safety.  By the early twentieth century, PPS was constructing a significant number of frame elementary schools largely designed by architect Thomas J. Jones.  Due to the size and fire proof construction necessary for the city’s impressive new high schools such as the old Lincoln High School (1912) and the first Washington High School (1906), the school district held a design competition for the new Jefferson High School in July 1908 rather than hand the design over to its own architect.  The School Board considered eleven sets of plans, and chose the firm Whitehouse & Honeyman (Honeyman was later replaced by Fouilhoux in the partnership) for its design of a new high school on the east side."

 

Jefferson High School (photos by Matthew Ginn/Homestead Images) 

"For the new high school, Morris Whitehouse, the founder of Whitehouse, Church, Newberry, & Roer, designed a three story brick building with a full basement that featured an E-shaped plan and reflected the architectural tensions of the Arts and Crafts and Classical Revival architectural movements. Rather than exhibiting the straightforward application of Classical Revival detailing, the building featured concrete plasterwork consisting of horizontal belt courses, diamond-shaped motifs, a hipped roof with a bracketed eave, flush face dormers, as well as projecting walls to diminish the sheer size of the new building.  The building, built at a cost of $321,078 was popularized through a series of color postcards following its construction and was at the time one of the largest high schools constructed in the United States."

"By the 1960s, the Albina cluster of schools would be the flashpoint for accusations of segregation and unequal educational opportunities.  Throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, PPS enacted several programs in an attempt to integrate the district’s schools and gain equity in educational opportunities.  In 1978, a controversial desegregation plan to bus Jefferson students to Wilson and Lincoln High Schools was abandoned at the request of the Community Coalition for School Integration. Other measures to diversify the student population at the high schools were adopted by the School Board instead." 

"The oldest high school remaining in Portland, Jefferson High School retains close associations with the surrounding neighborhood. Although designed by Whitehouse and Honeyman (later Fouilhoux), one of Portland’s more prominent architectural firms during the early twentieth century, Jefferson High School does not retain sufficient architectural integrity to be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).  While associated with the growth of high school education in Portland in the early twentieth century as well as the desegregation of Portland’s Public Schools, the alterations to the building’s interior and exterior have diminished its associations with these events and trends such that it is not eligible for the NRHP under Criterion A.  The loss of its original overhanging roof with brackets, brick diapering, and interior finishes would also preclude the building from being eligible for the NRHP under Criterion C as the design, workmanship, and materials associated with the original Whitehouse and Honeyman design has been greatly diminished."

And then there's Grant High, which has also produced a star athlete or two of its own, such as legendary University of Oregon and NBA basketballer Terrell Brandon.

Grant High School (photo by Matthew Ginn/Homestead Images) 

Grant High School is located at 2245 NE 36th Avenue in the Grant Park neighborhood of northeast Portland.  The ten-acre campus includes an extensive collection of educational buildings constructed between 1923 and 1970 including the main original building and old gym built in 1923, north south wings and an auditorium added two and four years later, and several other buildings added from the 1950s-70s.

Beginning with the construction of the main building and a gymnasium in 1923 and closely followed by an additional auditorium unit and two wings between 1925 and 1927 Grant High School was part of a dramatic building program begun by the Portland Public Schools in the early 1900s. Two of the most influential district architects during this period included Floyd Naramore and George Jones, who designed a majority of the schools from 1908 to 1932.  Due to the large number of projects conducted by the district in the early 1920s, however, the school board hired Knighton & Howell, a Portland architectural firm to create the designs for Grant High School."

Grant High School (photos by Matthew Ginn/Homestead Images)  

"The partnership of Knighton & Howell was formed in 1924 and continued for 14 years until William Knighton’s death in 1938. Born in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1864, William Christmas Knighton received his schooling and architecture training in Chicago. After returning to Portland for the second time in 1902 he spent the next decade working in a variety of different partnerships. In 1913 Knighton was appointed the first state architect. While in this position he was responsible for numerous prominent buildings, including the State Supreme Court Building and the Administrative Building at the University of Oregon. From 1919 to 1923 he served as the first president of the Oregon State Board of Architect Examiners. Born in Kansas in 1884, Leslie Dillon Howell relocated to Portland in 1910 where he practiced architecture for the next 35 years. Howell served in both World War I and World War II.  Following Knighton’s death, Howell practiced alone for several years."

"Designed in the Classical Revival style, Grant High School fell within stylistic trends of the period as most schools in Portland were designed in the Classical Revival, Colonial Revival, and Collegiate Gothic styles; architectural revivals that were viewed as inspirational and appropriate for educational settings."

"Not unlike Franklin High School, the overall placement and design of Grant High School was greatly influenced by its proximity to a city park. While city planners and the school district had worked together since the early twentieth century to coordinate the construction of schools near open spaces, Grant High School was indicative of the maturity of that coordination and the combined influences of the City Beautiful Movement and the Progressive education movement.  Matthew O’Dell further elaborated in 1923 that “possibly the greatest advancement made during the past year was the successful co-operation of the School District and the Department of Parks and Playgrounds of the city in the development of the Grant High School and its site as a portion of a community park and playground.” The site, a 13.34 acre tract owned by B.E. Wright, was acquired by PPS in 1923 for $40,200.  The main building at Grant would cost $315,473 to construct."

Grant High School (photos by Matthew Ginn/Homestead Images)  

"Set within a flat, pastoral setting of trees and parkland, the buildings constructed in the 1920s at Grant High School form a core group of Classical Revival style buildings.  The buildings exhibit a variety of character defining features including a bilaterally symmetrical U-shaped plan, a bold portico supported by fluted Ionic columns with a broad terra cotta frieze, ancillary entries with terra cotta Ionic columns or pilasters and classical entablatures, a concrete water table, terra cotta stringcourse, terra cotta cornice and coping, an interior entry with boxed beam ceilings, as well as the original gymnasium with its flush Ionic column lined entry." 

"Approached from the east side, the main school building is an extensible two story concrete structure with a full basement.  The exterior walls are covered with a brick veneer that is laid in an all stretcher bond.  The Classical Revival style of the high school is most boldly expressed on the main entrance, ancillary entrances, as well as the east faces of the north and south wings. The classical detailing found throughout the building includes terra cotta columns, door and window surrounds, balustrades, dentil cornices, consoles, cartouches, and belt courses."

 

Grant High School (photos by Matthew Ginn/Homestead Images)  

"The most decorative emphasis is placed on the main entrance and ancillary entries. The main (east) entrance into the school consists of three double doorways that are sheltered by a shallow portico that lacks a pediment. The portico is lined by four free-standing fluted Ionic columns that are flanked by brick walls. Bas relief panels that consist of an open book flank the school’s name – 'Ulysses S. Grant High School' – that appears in a plain frieze above the columns. Each of the doorways feature a terra cotta surround as well as a dentil cornice and pediment that consists of a central cartouche as well as acanthus leaf fans." 

"Ancillary entrances located around the main building and north and south wings feature a variety of different terra cotta embellishments. Some entrances feature relatively plain surrounds topped with a console supported balustrade or a double door entry with flanking pilasters, dentil cornice, entablature, and balustrade. The stairwell windows above these entrances have generally retained their wood windows. Similar in scale and treatment as the main entrance, the gymnasium main entrance features four free standing fluted Ionic columns that support a plain terra cotta frieze that exhibits flanking bas relief urns and coping." 

"The interior of the main building consists of an U-shaped corridor plan that consists of the main building and north and south wings. The most significant interior spaces include the main entrance, auditorium, and old gymnasium. The main entrance features paneled pilasters with Egyptian-revival style capitals with acanthus leafs, dentil cornice and boxed beam ceiling. The auditorium features a stage with a guilloche surround as well as its original seating and balcony. Two WPA-era murals that depict the 'Ideals of Education' by Carl Hoeckner appear on both sides of the stage." 

Thanks again to Matthew Ginn and Homestead Images for providing the photos.

Energy and values: PGE's Boardman brinksmanship [updated]

Boardman plant (photo by Brent Wojahn, courtesy The Oregonian) 

"Because our customers’ values power the way we operate, serving our customers means reflecting their diverse views in the way we do business," reads the Portland General Electric website. "It’s why we consistently lead the nation in renewable power programs and why our company and employees are deeply involved in serving the community."

Oh, and PGE stock is currently trading at about $20.02 per share on the New York Stock Exchange.

No wonder the utility has fought ruthlessly to keep belching coal into the Columbia Gorge.

As the utility has battled regulators over the future of the Boardman coal plant in eastern Oregon, PGE has become an indication of the downside of letting public resources like utilities act as private investor-owned corporations.

And as it happens, this can be detrimental to business. Regions that derive most of their power from coal can be hampered from attracting large corporate interests. Just ask Prineville and Facebook (see the update below).

 

Boardman is Oregon's only coal-fired power plant, producing 585 megawatts of power, enough to serve about 250,000 residential customers. Boardman produces power more cheaply than any other source PGE uses. But that comes with a big environmental cost, too: Boardman is also the state's biggest polluter. That would be unfortunate no matter where the plant's location, but as it happens, it is situated very close to the Columbia River.

PGE has been involved in a multi-year battle with Oregon's Department of Environmental Quality over exactly when this sooty, Dickens-esque behemoth will cease operations.

Under existing regulations, PGE must install between $500 million to $600 million of new controls at the plant by 2017. The company counter-proposed a much smaller investment: $41 million in haze and mercury reduction controls in exchange agreeing to shut the plant down in 2020. DEQ officials rejected that plan, saying it wouldn't meet federal standards, but said PGE could go ahead with the proposed controls immediately (instead of by 2017) if it shut the plant in 2015. Alternatively, the DEQ proposed two other options: either that PGE stick with its 2020 shutdown date but install an additional $320 million worth of new burners and scrubbers by 2014, or make a $100 million investment in new controls and a 2018 closure. 

PGE leadership said both options were economically unfeasible, and estimates it would raise rates by an average of 3.2 to 4.6 percent over the next decade.

The utility also argued that  one of the pollution control technologies proposed, called dry sorbent injection, has never been tested on a plant of Boardman's size and could result in other pollution violations.

And speaking of pollution violations, the Sierra Club wants the EPA to regulate coal ash, which the organization argues has severely polluted groundwater near Boardman. Did I mention Boardman is beside the mighty Columbia River that Lewis & Clark floated down on their way to the Pacific?

PGE proposes to spend about $100 million on new controls at the plant and extend the shutdown date until 2020. But here's the catch: If the State of Oregon doesn't accept its terms, PGE now says it will operate the Boardman plant until 2040.

 
Boardman Power Plant (image courtesy Alliance For Democracy)

"PGE intends to hold Oregon’s clean air—and the Columbia River Gorge—hostage," writes Nick Engelfried of Blue Oregon. "The Portland area’s main utility is throwing a giant-size temper tantrum, employing scary threats and unsubstantiated claims to get its way."

I wouldn't have thought a corporation that is allowed to operate a monopoly in supplying Oregonians with power would even have the right to negotiate with the state over how it can pollute or what pollution controls it can use. Can I negotiate what my tax rates are? Do you ever get to negotiate your vehicle fees at the DMV? But even if PGE has that right, it's also surprising to learn that the utility is trying to play hardball based almost solely on the fact that such pollution mitigation would come with a rate increase for customers.

On the New York Stock Exchange, PGE stock is currently trading at about $20 per share. Any entity with shareholders and a place in Wall Street trading is a machine set up to generate profits. But when a public utility grants the right to a corporation such as PGE, rates are not the only factor in providing service.

According to a report by Bloomberg, agencies like PGE actually are given incentives for clinging to fossil fuels. Governments last year gave $43 billion to $46 billion of support to renewable energy through tax credits, guaranteed electricity prices known as feed-in tariffs and alternative energy credits, the London-based research group said today in a statement. That compares with the $557 billion that the International Energy Agency last month said was spent to subsidize fossil fuels in 2008.

What's more, PGE has some wiggle room with its electricity rates. The average residential price per kiloWatt hour for PGE customers is 10.05 cents. The national average is 11.76 cents. In other words, PGE customers in Oregon already have far cheaper rates than customers elsewhere. That's thanks largely to the presence of Bonneville Dam, although PGE has a diverse mix of generating resources includes hydropower, coal and gas combustion, wind and solar, as well as key transmission resources. Its 13 power plants have a total combined generating capacity of 2,434 megawatts serving 52 Oregon cities and approximately 816,000 customers.

The nature of electrical utilities may be also changing in a way that makes companies like PGE less of a necessity. In the United States utilities are often natural monopolies because the infrastructure required to produce electricity s very expensive to build and maintain. As a result, they are often government monopolies, or if privately owned, the sectors are specially regulated by a public utilities commission. But developments in technology have eroded some of the natural monopoly aspects of traditional public utilities. More than ever, people are generating their own power via solar panels, wind turbines and other methods.

As it happens, PGE's threat to operate Boardman until 2040 if the DEQ doesn't accept its 2020 plan may be a bluff. To do this, PGE needs approval from Oregon’s Public Utilities Commission. And the commission would certainly understand operating Boardman until 2040 would mean gambling that at no point in the next thirty years will federal carbon regulations make operating a coal plant uneconomical. There could also be a state law or ballot initiative mandating the Boardman Plant’s closure.

But again, how have we ever arrived at this point? PGE is a hybrid entity - part private corporation, part public utility. Because of this setup, acting like a greedy corporation only looking out for shareholder profits is not acceptable behavior.

I began this post with a quote from PGE:  "Our customers’ values power the way we operate." If that's the case, Portland General has only heard from customers seeking the cheapest possible power regardless of environmental consequences. That doesn't sound like Oregon values to me. It sounds like PGE may stand for "Prohibitively Gouging the Environment."

UPDATE, 9/2/10: The Associated Press is reporting that Greenpeace International has formally asked Facebook to abandon plans to buy electricity for its new data center near Prineville. The supplying party this time is PacifiCorp, which derives (depending on who issues the figures) 58 to 83 percent of its electricity from coal. How cheap does this power seem now, when it can act as a detriment to investing in Oregon?

Of cars, lanes and neighborhoods: discussing the new Sellwood Bridge [updated]

Deck arch Sellwood Bridge design option (rendering courtesy Safdie Rabines Architects) 

Interested in design options for the new Sellwood Bridge?  The architect for the project, Ricardo Rabines, will give a free lecture on Monday, August 30 at 3pm at the American Institute of Architect’s Center For Architecture at 403 NW 11th Ave.

But don't expect Rabines to be able to answer the larger question surrounding this bridge: how we balance the needs of transit with those of neighborhoods.

The Sellwood Bridge project is a planning effort to replace the 85-year old Willamette River crossing in Southeast Portland. A preferred alternative to replace the bridge was approved at the local level in 2009. The project is currently in a preliminary public process phase that will determine the type of bridge structure to be built. Multnomah County expects to select the structure type for the new bridge later this year.  Construction should begin in 2012.

Ricardo Rabines is a co-founder of Safdie Rabines Architects in San Diego.  His award-winning work includes designs for bridges in San Diego (such as the Scripps Crossing pictured below) and Des Moines, Iowa.  "Ricardo likes to say that each bridge he works on has its own personality that relates to its site and community needs," Multnomah County spokesman Mike Pullen told me.

 
Deck arch Sellwood Bridge design option (rendering courtesy Safdie Rabines Architects) 

Currently involved in a variety of projects around the country, some of Safdie Rabine’s recent commissions include the South Campus Student Center at UCLA, the Structural and Materials Engineering Building at UCSD, and the El Centro Family Courthouse. Projects recently completed include The Robert Paine Scripps Forum for Science, Society & the Environment at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook State Park in Los Angeles. Their work also consists of several vehicular and pedestrian bridges such as the Harbor Drive Pedestrian Bridge in downtown San Diego.

The preferred Sellwood Bridge alternative selected through public input is a new two-lane bridge with two sidewalks, two shoulders/bike lanes and a traffic signal at the west end connection with Highway 43. Any new bridge must also the following criteria: a cross-section without a raised center median, a total cost of less than $330 million, no long term traffic closures, a construction footprint that minimizes impacts to adjacent businesses and residences, and room to accommodate a future streetcar.

There are eleven bridge types currently under consideration that are possible with new construction techniques and the alignment chosen in the preferred alternative. The alignment will be approximately 15 feet south of the existing Tacoma Street centerline to allow for continuous traffic flow at the crossing throughout construction. The possible bridge types include deck structures (no superstructure above the deck) and thru structures (support structure above the deck).

Scripps Crossing, San Diego (photo courtesy Safdie Rabines Architects) 

Although the renderings included in this post only show one of the bridge design option, the deck arch, I was surprised at how similar it looked to the existing Sellwood bridge. I'm no expert on this, admittedly, but if we build a bridge that looks and performs like the old bridge, why aren't we just fixing the old one?

I was shocked to learn that the preferred alternative here is a two-lane bridge. This is the only bridge over the Willamette for miles in either direction, and we want to keep allowing only one car in each direction? What century is this?

Naturally I say this with the understanding that accommodating too many car lanes can lead to sprawl. And we have to consider the streets that feed onto and off of the bridge. In the case Southeast Tacoma Street, on the east side of the Sellwood Bridge, it is indeed just one lane in each direction. But on the other side, the bridge is fed by multi-lane Macadam Avenue and Highway 43. Thousand of commuters use this bridge every day to get back and forth between Clackamas County, Southwest Portland and Lake Oswego. Is tearing down one bridge with a single lane in each direction and building another bridge with a single lane in each direction really the best investment we can make for the future with this infrastructure?

Deck arch Sellwood Bridge design option (rendering courtesy Safdie Rabines Architects) 

It seems to me the Sellwood Bridge has an inherent identity crisis that has never been fully resolved by the bridge design process. For the west side, this is an important connection affecting major traffic arterials. It's about moving cars. For the east side, it's more about protecting the modestly scaled local neigbhorhood of homes and businesses. We don't want multiple lanes of cars zooming dangerously fast past the antique stores of Sellwood.

I'm not saying one side of the bridge occupies moral or functional high ground over the other. But if some are expecting an improved commuter bridge with reduced traffic and others are expecting a modest replacement of a modest neighborhood span wherein minimized impact is of greater importance than maximized movement, how can we possibly design a bridge that will satisfy?

It's not designer Ricardo Rabines' job to settle the Sellwood Bridge's inherent conflict about what it should be. He's here to present different off-the-shelf bridge types and work with us to select one and then make it fit our local context. But it strikes me that the Sellwood Bridge is more than infrastructure we have to replace. It's part of a larger conundrum we haven't solved: how to balance moving traffic with preserving neighborhoods.

[Update, 8/30/10] A couple days after initially posting this article, I'd like to pass on comments from Mike Pullen of Multnomah County on the bridge. Perhaps the single lane in each direction is the only way to go:

"Traffic studies showed that a four lane bridge would not improve congestion, due to the two-lane layout of Tacoma St. and the traffic signals on that street. Brian is correct that more than two lanes are needed at the west end of the bridge, where traffic turns north to Portland or south to Lake Oswego. The bridge will have four lanes at the west end to increase the flow of traffic through a signalized intersection there. The signal will be adjusted to give more green time for traffic in the dominant direction, depending on the time of day. The best improvement in congestion will likely be for Portland to Lake Oswego traffic, which will pass under the new bridge. That traffic should be able to avoid the afternoon congestion at the bridge."

Fixing and preventing defective buildings: a conversation with Western Architectural's Eric Hoff

Lofts @ The Round (image courtesy Western Architectural)

As the Portland area has burgeoned in both density and its commitment to building green over the past decade, a whole generation of new buildings have gone up with advanced facade and envelopes that often fail to deliver the efficiencies or even simple basic operations they were designed for. This has kept one Portland firm, Western Architectural, busy even as the profession has experienced a big decline in business.

Western provides what's called forensic architectural services. That doesn't mean they're doing chalk outlines or tracing DNA at crime scenes. Instead, they investigate construction and design defects in problematic existing buildings, such as the much-maligned Round at Beaverton Central, and advise firms on how to prevent their buildings from leaking water and air.

"Doing over 200 projects a year on the forensic side, we see a lot of stuff," says Eric Hoff, Western's president. "We have a large knowledge base of, ‘Here’s things you can do, and here’s things you want to do, and why.’" Did I mention Hoff testifies in a lot of court cases?

Lofts @ The Round post-renovation (image courtesy Western Architectural) 

"As an architect, it’s not like the old guild days where architects are all talking to each other with that knowledge of things that do and don’t work. It doesn't seem to move around well in the profession. All the young designers want to be the new great whoever, and they haven’t seen a lot. We see a lot of design come out where you can tell it looks great, but then it makes you say, 'Have you thought about this?'"

For The Round, Western helped design a new facade that replaced an existing metal facade. "The detailing of that is different from conventional siding," Hoff adds. "Typically the holes are found where you make a hole in the skin. There were also other areas because of the way the siding came together. It’s not an easy way to detail."

Lofts @ The Round post-renovation (images courtesy Western Architectural) 

For tenants of The Round, Western Architectural is validating the commitment they made and have thus far regretted. "They've invested heavily into condominiums plagued with shoddy craftsmanship, plummeting values, sky-high association fees and persistent court cases," Brad Schmidt wrote in The Oregonian in an August 14 story on The Round. "They've opened businesses in buildings with spendy rents, cramped parking, slow elevators and striking vacancies. These people admit the Round has a long way to go, but they're careful to defend their home. At the Round, frustration is mixed with hope. "

On any facade, the biggest risk of water and air leakage or unwanted temperature transfer comes where it is penetrated. "When you’re trying to bring different materials together, they’re usually difficult to interface together and to make them tight. It’s how you detail those connections. It’s been our experience that regardless of the materials there can be problems in how you get them to come together."

An increase in these sorts of connection problems has come from more mixed-use buildings, where the ground-floor retail has a different material feel from the rest of the facade: usually more glass. Green buildings can also create more facade penetrations through exterior materials such as sun shades and light shelves. "Usually those are structural attachments and penetrate the skin. There are ways to deal with that, but it’s things you have to think about. ."

It's not at all to say that Hoff is anti-green building or innovation. His point is simply about execution. He estimates that more than half of all LEED-rated buildings are not performing as efficiently as designed - and hopes Western has a niche making sure they do. What's more, Hoff says certain sustainable inventions such as rain-screen facade technology will ultimately better enable buildings in this climate to survive our rainy season.

The green building world is injecting a lot of new products into the market place. It’s such a rapidly evolving technology that it’s difficult to get buildings put together well that do function well. The profession is learning right now. It's just that on our side, we basically get to see all the problems."

Examing the attic ceiling using a camera scope inserted from the roof (image courtesy Western Architectural) 

Many clients, though, have come to hire Western or other facade experts before the design is completed. "They can be running ideas by us. 'Where do you see there could be issues we need to pay attention to?' They’ll talk about the materials they want to use and we’ll talk about our experience in the past with it. Sometimes I’ll say, ‘You need to tell me what you’re trying to do here because the drawing as I see it the building is going to leak.’ Then we can eliminate the issues before they happen.  You can draw an awful lot of stuff that you can’t build. What you can do with a pencil you can’t necessarily do with sheet metal strips, or afford to do it."

And as Hoff understands, for all the extra difficulty that may come with innovations, sustainable or urbanistic or otherwise, it's always worth it for us to push the envelope - pun intended. It's also necessary, though, to have firms like Western Architectural assuring the envelope bends but doesn't break.

Courtyard by Kaven: visiting the Interchange residence

Interchange residence (photo by Daniel Kaven) 

When last seen, William Kaven Architecture was completing the three-unit North House condominium on Vancouver Avenue in North Portland, a striking part of the 11 x Design tour of contemporary homes that were developed by the architects designing them. That project earned raves from many design enthusiasts but incurred displeasure from some neighbors who felt the site was appropriate only for single-family housing and traditional style.

Now, William Kaven - the firm owned by brothers Daniel Kaven and Trevor William Lewis, and named for their grandfather - is back with the Interchange residence. A single family home located in the Overlook neighborhood of North Portland, the Interchange takes its name and, to a degree, its inspiration from the tangle of freeway overpasses just west of the neighborhood. The client was a recent divorcee who also saw the house as the beginning of a new life.

 

  

Interchange residence (photos by Brian Libby)   

The Interchange residence has a simple floor plan that wraps around a courtyard on three sides in the back of the house. Here floor-to-ceiling glass gives the living room, kitchen, study and master bedroom a bevy of natural light. Large sliding glass doors also help break down barriers between inside and outside, a trademark of northwest modernism.

The exterior palette includes a combination of metal siding and white masonry. Daniel Kaven has a background in photography that predates his architectural career, and that seems to have given the firm's collective work a valuable sense of proportion and materials. There are just a few key ingredients in the look of the house, but they move and undulate from the facade in a way that animates it without seeming loud.

This house does retain one aspect of the North House that I found less successful: a minimum of windows on the ground level. If a contemporary-styled home is built in a neighborhood of traditional bungalows and cottages, it doesn't necessarily have any responsibility to ape any of those forms to fit in. But I believe that large front windows are a kind of unofficial good-neighbor policy. When you don't have them, it can seem like you're closing yourself off from the life of the neighborhood and the street.

Interchange residence (photo by Daniel Kaven) 

But don't get me wrong: The front window issue is a small one, and I'm an unequivocal William Kaven Architecture fan. And while they're designing houses and small condos now, there may be bigger projects from Kaven in the future. Lewis doubles as an architect for ZGF, the city's biggest firm, where he has gained experience that will hopefully allow Kaven to compete for larger institutional projects.

What's more, I've found the firms that participated in the 11xDesign tour to have a collective spirit of collaboration that is refreshing. "As the city has become infused with new talent, a small group of promising and accomplished designer-developers have banded together in a hybrid of traditional architectural or development practice. Small firms and sole practitioners here like Path Architecture, Atelier Waechter, and Building Arts Workshop still operate as individual businesses, and even compete for buyers. But they share research, marketing and design ideas; they’ve become a community," I wrote in Dwell in 2009. "The 11xDesign tour is just one of several shared efforts. Of course they still want to succeed badly, and they’re not without ego. That’s why these tiny firms are going forward with houses, condos and row homes during the worst economic slump since the Great Depression, when the city’s larger developers have long since ended their building boom."

Matthew Ginn's Portland Public Schools photo tour: Benson and Cleveland

Benson High (photo by Matthew Ginn/Homestead Images) 

Portland photographer Matthew Ginn of Homestead Images has been at it again, photographing local public schools as part of a continuing series for this blog.

Last month Ginn photographed Wilson and Roosevelt High Schools. This time the subject is Benson and Cleveland High Schools.

Benson High School is located at 546 NE 12th Avenue in the Kerns neighborhood of northeast Portland, just across I-84 from Lloyd Center. The 8.7 acre campus includes the original main classroom building, a work in the classical revival style completed in 1916, as well as a later gymnasium wing and auditorium wing that form the west part of the campus.

Here is some additional info gleaned from the Portland Public Schools website:

"These three buildings form a core group of two story brick-faced and concrete buildings that feature a balanced and symmetrical fenestration, classical revival style porticos and entryways of terra cotta, dentil cornice, brick panels, as well as bas relief panels and latticed transoms.  The interior entrance of the school is also noteworthy for the survival of distinctively Georgian-Revival wood paneling and pilasters."

 

Benson High (photos by Matthew Ginn/Homestead Images) 

"Approached from the west, the main school building is a concrete structure with a brick veneer laid in an all stretcher bond.  The main school building, auditorium, and old gymnasium retain character defining features of the Classical Revival style.  The exteriors of the these three buildings exhibit Classical Revival porticos and entryways decorated with terra cotta surrounds, dentil cornice, brick panels, as well as bas relief panels." 

"The visual focus of the principal elevation is the Doric order portico consisting of four fluted Doric order columns with plain block bases and an egg- and-dart echinus.  The plain frieze features a series of four panels that depict an open book, cog, and two torches.  The most impressive decoration found on the portico is found immediately above the three sets of double doors.  Each terra cotta panel depicts two bas relief student workers involved in various industrial arts activities.  In the plain frieze of the portico reads “Benson Polytechnic School Erected ANNO Domini MCMXVI.  The west elevation of the auditorium is nearly entirely sheathed with terra cotta embellished by a front balustrade with flanking staircases, four unfluted pilasters, and three double door entries with latticed transoms.  The frieze features four terra cotta bas relief heads.  The west elevation (front) of the original gymnasium wing did not receive as much architectural detailing as the auditorium wing; no entrances appear on the west side of the gymnasium wing."

Here is some info on the history of the building from the Portland Public Schools site:

"The first purpose built high school in Portland was the 1883 Portland High School built on Southwest Fourteenth and Morrison.  Before it was even built, the school was the subject of a serious debate among prominent citizens, including George Atkinson and Harvey Scott as to the necessity of a publicly funded high school. Despite the conflict, the 1883 “Transition Gothic” styled Portland High School established a high design standard for the city’s high schools as it was prominently featured in William Thayer’s Marvels of the New West in 1887.  Future high schools in the city would be built on a similarly grand scale."

 

Benson High (photos by Matthew Ginn/Homestead Images) 

"Beginning with the construction of the main building in 1916 and followed by an additional two units and two shop wings constructed between 1917 and 1930, Benson High School was part of a dramatic building program begun by Portland Public Schools in the early 1900s. Gradually influenced by John Dewey’s Progressive Education Movement, Portland Public Schools responded to changing city demographics and ideas concerning school safety, sanitation, and child centered instructional methods beginning in the first decade of the 1900s."

"The need for a school that specifically tailored to improving the skills of students with an aptitude for the industrial arts was also recognized during the early twentieth century by Superintendent Frank Rigler.  Rigler recognized the key to the economic and industrial growth of Portland was a skilled and educated workforce.  In 1908, the School of Trades was first opened in the old Atkinson School at 11th and Davis Streets. The school would be moved several times until in 1915, retired logging magnate Simon Benson donated $100,000 towards the construction of a school specifically dedicated to the industrial arts."

And now for Cleveland High, and some more info from the Portland Public Schools site:

"Beginning with the construction of the main building and attached auditorium in 1929, Grover Cleveland High School was part of a dramatic building program begun by Portland Public Schools in the early 1900s."

Cleveland High (photo by Matthew Ginn/Homestead Images) 

"Two of the most influential district architects during this period included Floyd Naramore and George Jones, who designed a majority of the schools from 1908 to 1932.  George H. Jones, the architect for the Grover Cleveland High School, was well versed in the design of school facilities through his role as the school district’s architect. Jones was born in Portland in 1887.  After attending Oregon State College for two years, George Jones obtained a degree in architecture in 1913.  Jones worked in New York for several years before serving with the U.S. Army Combat Engineers during World War I." 

"The idea for a creating a school of commerce began in 1919 when the school board created a school dedicated to developing the commercial acumen of students.  Originally housed in the Shattuck School, the school of commerce was soon overcrowded, poorly funded, and lacked the necessary equipment.  Eventually PPS planned to move the Clinton Kelly School to another location and use the former lot for the new high school."

"By 1923 parents of students declared the building that occupied the property as unsafe and demanded another school be built (Oregonian 6-4-1923).   It was not until 1928, however, until designs were prepared for the building by George Jones.  The former Clinton Kelly Elementary School was demolished and PPS began construction of the then-named Clinton Kelly School of Commerce in 1929 just as the Great Depression began.  The school opened in 1930 and was immediately inundated with students such that between 1930 and 1933 the school could not accept first year students (Powers and Corning 1937:  239). In 1948, the school was renamed Grover Cleveland High School after the former President."

 

Cleveland High (photo by Matthew Ginn/Homestead Images) 

"With all of the additions placed on the east side of the school and in spite of the replacement of its original windows, Grover Cleveland High School remains eligible for the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) as it retains much of its historical integrity. Cleveland High School is also a good example of the Classical Revival style and retains much of its integrity."

Thanks very much to Matthew Ginn for providing the photos of Benson and Cleveland. The series will continue soon.

Meier & Frank warehouse to be renovated for Vestas headquarters

Meier & Frank warehouse (photo by Brian Libby) 

As reported by the Portland Business Journal's Erik Siemers, wind turbine manufacturer Vestas Wind Systems announced today that the company will lease the circa-1927 Meier & Frank Delivery Depot warehouse at 14th and Everett in the Pearl District and renovate it into a 172,000-square-foot headquarters.

Portland developer Gerding Edlen had bought the warehouse in October 2007 for $15 million and planned to start renovating the building in May 2008 with GBD Architects responsible for a LEED-rated design. But plans were scaled back when the economy crashed.

The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2001. That means the renovation's design will have to adhere to regulations regarding the maintenance of its historic character. But that's something Gerding Edlen already has experience with: the Portland Armory was renovated by the company with the help of GBD Architects into the nation's first National Register-listed, LEED Platinum-rated green building.

The $66 million project is expected to generate about 600 construction jobs. 

Vestas received both state and city incentives, including $1.25 million in state tax credits and another $1 million from the state’s strategic investment fund. The city will give the company a 15-year, interest-free loan for $8.105 million. The company is expected to repay the loan within five years. As part of the agreement, the company, which employs 400 locally, must add at least 100 jobs within the next five years. Once built out, the building will have room to house 600 workers.

Construction will begin in October. Vestas plans to move to the building in early 2012.

Two years ago, the Danish company announced it would build a $250 million, 600,000-square-foot new North American headquarters in the South Waterfront. That building, which was to have been designed by Portland firm Ankrom Moisan, could have eventually housed 850 employees. But Vestas mothballed the plan in April 2009 when the economy collapsed.

Since then, there were rumors that the company might relocate its North American headquarters to Denver, where it has its manufacturing operations and is planning a research and development. The company told the Business Journal it also looked at sites in Texas and around the Portland area before deciding on the Meier & Frank warehouse.

According to Gerding Edlen's announcement about the Vestas project, the building renovation team includes GBD Architects (as lead architect and architect of record), the firm Gerding planned for the 2008 renovation, but will also include Ankrom Moisan Architects and Peter Meijer Architect as well as engineering firms  Glumac and KPFF and builder Skanska.

Speaking briefly today with Gerding Edlen president Mark Edlen, I was told that the design will include a large central atrium that will fill the old warehouse with natural light - something that preliminary indications seem to show will be approved by those in charge of maintaining the integrity of historic landmarks protection.

The local economy, especially the building industry, is still floundering. But Vestas staying in Portland is a big financial boon, as well as a chance for the Pearl District's biggest remaining empty, unrenovated warehouse to be given new life.

What's more, the renovated M&F warehouse will give Portland's greenest developer and at least of its major green architecture firms an opportunity to demonstrate how the most sustainable way to build is to renovate an existing building.

Adams on CRC: "ugliness has a negative economic impact beyond functionality"

Concept proposal for Columbia River Crossing (image courtesy columbiarivercrossing.org) 

For many years, the Portland area has boasted a strong design community that leads the nation in thinking about planning, sustainable design and historic preservation. But often we've had mayors and elected officials who don't see the whole picture of how design impacts our environments. Too many dismiss design as nothing but "aesthetics," when in reality, as Apple's Steve Jobs has put it, design is how something works.

Portland mayor Sam Adams and Vancouver mayor Tim Leavitt recently took a strong stand on behalf of the Columbia Crossing, but the disastrous approach being applied to the bridge -- one of state transportation departments seeking to simply lay down asphalt over one of America's most scenic rivers without regard for how it looks -- will not be reversed unless we get behind them.

Last week at the Project Sponsors Council meeting, representatives scaled back an initial 12-lane bridge proposal and instead opted for 10 lanes and a new Hayden Island interchange. But the meeting grew contentious  when Portland Mayor Sam Adams and Vancouver Mayor Tim Leavitt raised the topic of the Interstate 5 bridge's architectural design. 

The mayors said they want a bridge that is "iconic" as well as functional, and ook issue with a recent independent report that says an off-the-shelf design would be smarter, easier to build and less expensive. 

Referring to the gargantuan concrete I-5 crossing in downtown Portland, Adams said he didn't want "another Marquam Bridge." 

"Its ugliness has a negative economic impact beyond its functionality," Adams said in an Oregonian interview after the vote. "You don't see very many people advertising their views of the Marquam Bridge."

But Tom Warne, chairman of the CRC independent review panel created by the Oregon and Washington governors, warned against getting tangled in a debate over aesthetic design, especially when the window for federal funding is open for only a limited time.

Warne could not be more wrong. He tried to belittle the issue of design with the word "aesthetics", as if the way the bridge is built is totally separate from how it looks and functions. Thankfully Adams and Leavitt now understand that we can do better. This is not a matter of slapping concrete down over the Columbia for as cheaply as possible. It's astonishing how closed minded state transportation bureaucrats and even engineers are about how to design and build things. By their rationale, a Ford Pinto looks no different from a Ferrari, and drives no differently.

Thinking that "aesthetics" is superficial is the kind of thinking that brought about the Ford Edsel, one of the biggest flops in American business history. It had every feature people wanted but buyers found it too ugly to actually buy.

Ford Edsel (image courtesy chrisescars.com) 

Do you see the value in a beautiful bridge and how great design impacts economies? If so, write a letter to the editor of your local paper advocating for a good CRC design that represents the best of a city trying to stake its claim as a world design capitol. Write to governors of Oregon and Washington and tell them to stop stuffing concrete down our throats. Do something to help our more enlightened leaders lead and to fight for design.

Veterans call for Coliseum restoration, plan Veterans Day tribute

Memorial Coliseum, 2009 Rose Parade (photo by Jeremy Bitterman) 

When the effort to tear down Memorial Coliseum was rekindled recently by a member of City Council and the Portland Beavers' owner, one claim made was that veterans of Oregon are interested in a new memorial being erected and thus are alright with the arena being torn down.

Although no one can ever claim to speak for all veterans, just as no other group ever speaks completely unanimously, an op-ed in Sunday's Oregonian re-affirms that the majority of local veterans and their leadership are behind a Coliseum restoration.

"Veterans in Oregon were so fortunate 50 years ago to have a nationally recognized community building dedicated to them," wrote Tony Stacy, Trudy Ruesser, Harley Wedel and Chris Hoskinson, a quartet of Oregon veterans' advocates. "This building was simply extraordinary. Four city blocks held up by four columns. Sixty-foot Oregon timber beams holding up massive expanses of glass overlooking our city. Memorial Coliseum was a gem that looked to the future."

Tony Stacy is on the Rose Quarter Advisory Committee and a Vietnam War veteran. TrudyReusser is the widow of Kenneth Reusser, the most highly decorated Marine pilot in American history. Harley Wedel served in Korea and Chris Hoskinson in Vietnam. 

Memorial Coliseum, 2009 (image courtesy Portland Trail Blazers) 

"With this building our community gave a very visible, heartfelt thanks to the men and women who served in our armed forces and helped make our country the great place it is," their op-ed continues.

"Those heroes who gave their lives in service had their names carved in stone in quiet courtyards. The coliseum was a living memorial, as well, that celebrated a life of freedom with graduations, events, parades and rallies. It celebrated community, by giving our city a large indoor, naturally lit place to gather." 

"Years have gone by. The great honor to our veterans has become sadly neglected. The founding ideas behind the coliseum have been forgotten by most. Like many 50-year-old structures, the building needs significant capital improvements. So, let's fix it!"

The essay goes on to recommend that a "realistic amount of public funds" be committed right away to rejuvenate and enhance the Coliseum.

Memorial Coliseum (panoramic photo by Casey Holdahl, courtesy OregonLive) 

The veterans of Oregon also are working toward Veterans Day celebration this November that will be a tribute to armed forces members produced by Remembering America's Heroes and including a special light show illuminating the Glass Palace. The celebration will also serve as a 50th birthday party for Memorial Coliseum, now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

"Let's have the rejuvenation plan ready to go by then, and let's light up the coliseum for the city to see," the veterans quartet concludes. "Next year, let's start construction to make Memorial Coliseum a tribute to our fallen and living veterans once again. And then, after we have done our work, we can proudly rededicate to our veterans a rejuvenated, shining Memorial Coliseum."

Memorial Coliseum, 2009 (image courtesy Portland Trail Blazers) 

Although I'm admittedly liberal politically, I am also the proud grandson of two World War II veterans, one of whom landed at Normandy and the other fought in the Pacific. I think of them when I'm inside Memorial Coliseum with its curtain open. It's easy for those outside the architectural profession to find such talk elitist or highfalutin, but it's really easy to communicate the power of symbolism here. The bounty of natural illumination and the transparency represent how the evil is defeated by exposing it to the light. Even if you're a pacifist and resist such moralist symbolism, it's easy to see how such transparency and light represent hope.

This kind of local landmark, one tying the generations and memorializing the sacrifices of our parents and grandparents, is irreplaceable. A minor-league baseball stadium, the threat to Memorial Coliseum, can be built anywhere - that is, if the team's community supports it. (And given the Beavers' small attendance numbers, that doesn't seem to be the case.) Hopefully the Portland Beavers won't have to leave town. I first saw them play as an eight-year-old kid. On my bookshelf is a baseball signed by the San Diego Chicken obtained at a Beavers' game as a 5th grader. But cannibalizing a building like this for the couple thousand who fill a portion of PGE Park each summer is not the way to save them or the Rose Quarter.

Two Portland Art Museum architects, two divergent fates

Portland Art Museum, Belluschi Building (photo by Brian Libby) 

This Wednesday (August 11) at 12:30, I will be giving a talk in the outdoor courtyard of the Portland Art Museum (between the two buildings) as part of the “Midday Art & Cart” series. The talk will be devoted to the architecture of the two buildings and local food cart Koi Fusion (whose Korean tacos I love) will be serving lunch. The Art Museum is located on the South Park Blocks at 1219 SW Park Ave.

For those of you who can’t make it to the talk, I wanted to pass on what to me is one of the most interesting and personal narratives of the two buildings comprising the museum and the men who designed them. Both were talented, but one got famous while the other died tragically young.

Pietro Belluschi, the Italian native-turned Portlander who designed the principal PAM building (now renamed the Belluschi Building in his honor), is the famous name remembered today. After the Art Museum was built in 1932, it helped launch Belluschi to a celebrated career. His portfolio would come to include the Equitable Building, also in downtown Portland (known today as the Commonwealth), which is credited as the world’s first glass curtain walled office building, the forerunner of thousands of future glass and metal façades. Belluschi also gained fame for many midcentury modern house and church designs as well as the Pan Am Building (with Walter Gropius) and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in New York.

The Mark Building, which sits next door to the Belluschi Building, was originally built in 1924, just eight years earlier. Designed by native Portlander Frederick Fritsch who learned his trade at the celebrated firm Whidden & Lewis, it is everything its next door neighbor is not. And Fritsch unfortunately had a future afterward that was as short lived and tragic as Belluschi’s was long and successful.

Pietro Belluschi, 1958 (image courtesy Life magazine) 

Fritsch, a Portland native, was just eight years older than Belluschi and had been a World War I veteran. Fritch also married Oregon’s first licensed architect female, Mary Goodin, in 1928. But unfortunately his life ended tragically early. He suffered from a painful illness that forced him to retire at the age of 38, in 1931. Which, ironically, was right about the time Belluschi’s building was being constructed. Fritsch wound up committing suicide five years later, although his wife lived to be 93.

Belluschi said in 1931 of the modern style he was fighting for the right to see built as the Portland Art Museum’s home that the “…standard mask called ‘style’, whether Georgian, Italian, or English, is just a bad formula, and only our lack of imagination has tolerated its application on buildings where a new set of ideas had to be given a new form....Let us not try to twist the body to fit the suit but let us build a new suit consistent with the body.”

The Masonic Temple didn’t just embrace a pre-existing historical style, but a whole array of them. The building itself may have been based partially on one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. It’s also got Greek influences in the stone colonnade and Persian influences in the window grilles. Then inside there were rooms with Moorish, Norman, and Louis the 16th styles.

Portland Art Museum, Mark Building (photo by Brian Libby) 

Belluschi was clearly making a statement with his building that he’d wanted to go in a different direction than this design by Frederick Fritsch. It took an intervention from Frank Lloyd Wright on Pietro Belluschi’s behalf to convince the Art Museum’s board of trustees to approve what was then a boldly clean-lined and functional space. But more than 80 years later, the two architects’ work is still bound together. And since the Art Museum purchased the Masonic Temple in the 1990s and transformed it into the Mark Building in 2005, they share exhibit space and even an underground tunnel for a connection.

Although I believe the 2005 renovation and expansion by Ann Beha Architects could have been more of an interesting hybrid of old and new building,  it was probably the right thing to do for the building to retain the Masonic Temple rather than tearing the building down to build an entirely new exhibit and gathering space, especially given that the latter building’s original ballrooms remain often used by the museum and the community. And one must not forget the practical fact that the expansion added several floors of natural light-filled space for viewing modern and contemporary art. Plus, the more you learn about the curious connection and divergent fates of Belluschi and Fritsch, the more the two buildings seem siblings.

It also goes to show that whatever the creative discipline, be it architecture, music or painting, while there are always a few iconic names who produce something lasting at a young age and are never heard from again, more often than not success is dependent on survival, and having the opportunity to put in years and years of work to make yourself a success. It wasn't a coincidence that Pietro Belluschi got that Art Museum commission. He'd been a museum member for years before his building was completed. He'd also left Italy for America at a young age and, despite his old-world personal elegance, worked his way up the ranks as a student at Cornell and then a young immigrant in Portland. Belluschi earned everything he got as a legendary architect, but unlike Frederick Fritsch, fate also gave him the opportunity.

Hayden Island and big-picture thinking

Aerial photo of Hayden Island (courtesy Army Corps of Engineers) 

The emerging debate over the future of West Hayden Island may be a bellwether of the Portland area's values and approach to city building in the future and possibly even an argument for a regional port authority.

The approximately 1,200-acre Hayden Island, located on the Columbia River between Vancouver and Portland, saw its east side developed decades ago. It is home to the Jantzen Beach shopping center, large hotels, residential communities and boating docks.

The western portion, however, has remained undeveloped.

"Its 826 acres of  wetland, grassland, forest, beaches and shallow-water salmon habitat represent some of the last intact wildlife habitat on our otherwise developed and degraded urban river system," write Audubon Society conservation director Bob Sallinger and Willamette Riverkeeper executive director Travis Williams in a July 28 Oregonian editorial.  "Its location at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers places it at a critical juncture for migrating fish and bird populations. It is also entirely in the flood plain - in 1996, the entire area was underwater."

"If we are serious about restoring ecological health to our urban landscape," the op-ed continues, "this is the last place we should be considering converting to industrial terminals and parking lots."

The Friends of West Hayden Island also note the island has "81 species of birds (including nesting pairs of bald eagles and heron), nine species of mammals (including deer and beaver), four species of amphibians (including a rare variety of painted turtle), nine species of butterflies, large forests of native cottonwoods, federally-protected wetlands, and shallows for juvenile salmon."

The island also "contains the natural regional flyways for migratory and year-round bird populations that use both east-west and north-south flight patterns, and is the centerpiece of the 150-square mile ecosystem," the Friends' website also notes. "This includes Vancouver Lake, the Smith-Bybee Lakes and wetlands, Sauvie and Government Islands, and the confluence of the Upper Willamette and Lower Columbia Rivers systems."

Deer at West Hayden Island (image courtesy Friends of West Hayden Island) 

Industrial expansion is what the Port of Portland and the city's own long-range planning have in mind. West Hayden Island was added to the region’s urban growth boundary in 1983 for marine industrial purposes. No industrial development is in process for the island currently, nor is it currently even within City of Portland boundaries. But the City could annex the area and create zoning for industrial use as stipulated 27 years ago.

Last Thursday (August 5), before a council chambers so full it had to be partially cleared to comply with the fire code, Portland's City Council authorized staff to plan for building 300 acres of marine terminals on West Hayden Island. The council voted 4-0, with Commissioner Randy Leonard absent, to authorize further planning. The Bureau of Planning & Sustainability is charged with developing a proposal by December 2011 for annexing the island and identifying 300 acres for deep-water terminal development. 

In an Oregonian report by Scott Learn, Commissioners Amanda Fritz and Nick Fish stressed that decision isn't final. "What we are agreeing to is a road map for the second phase of analysis," Fish said. "This does not call the question on whether we go forward on annexation." 

The council also ordered further study of how to best use existing Port lands, options for restoring the undeveloped portions of the island, a possible new bridge from the island south to North Marine Drive, and opportunities for increased coordination with the Port of Vancouver.

In other words, the Council seems to be preparing to go forward with industrial development while covering its bases by showing that other options have been explored.

Expanding the industrial zone into West Hayden Island would cost taxpayers an estimated $100 to $150 million in new public infrastructure. But one can't discount the economic argument for expanding the port's industrial terminal area. The Port of Portland says expanding into West Hayden could bring an estimated 1,200 jobs, although that would be over a 10 to 20-year period.

But Sallinger of the Audubon Society questions those numbers, because they're from the Port itself, the agency arguing for the expansion. He told Learn that City of Portland should hire consultants independent of the Port to study whether the Port can redevelop its own lands instead of expanding and whether other Columbia River ports have room to meet projected demand.

On the Port of Portland's website, the following arguments are also made for expansion:

"Local waterfront industrial land is needed. There is an identified scarcity of waterfront industrial lands within the City of Portland per the city’s industrial atlas and inventory and the City’s Draft Economic Opportunity Analysis. Additionally, the city’s “Portland Plan,” a required land use planning process that is currently being conducted, identifies the need for 600 acres of industrial land within city limits."

"Regional industrial land is needed. Our regional government, Metro is considering urban growth boundary expansion. To comply with state law, more industrial land must be found within the urban growth boundary. Annexing and zoning WHI would help address the region’s industrial land shortage and establish environmental resource protection levels."

West Hayden Island (image courtesy Port of Portland) 

It gave me pause that the Port is advocating for expansion. The text I drew from on the agency's website also acknowledges the environmental concerns and resources in West Hayden Island, but I still question if it's right for a public agency to make the case for its industry.

On the other hand, there is some geographical perspective we must keep in mind: The proposed 300-acre development would take up less than half the island, leaving the rest for restoration. "This is not development running amok," Bruce Halperin of the Oregon Trucking Associations, told City Council (as quoted in Learn's article). "Of course, it would be nice not to develop the land at all, but our economic and social needs don't afford us that luxury."

Then you have the question of the Columbia Crossing and how this whole plan fits together. Are these planning and exploration efforts by various panels and government working groups talking to each other? Isn't there, or shouldn't there be, a comprehensive plan for this whole area? Unfortunately, that becomes difficult because this is such a jumbled set of jurisdictions, a place where city boundaries end, then the river separating two states, two cities and two counties. It's like a multi-headed beast.

Meanwhile, the Port of Portland has already been spending decades dumping on West Hayden Island contaminated toxic dredge material on the island, they were outraged.

The port maintains the contaminants - lead, zinc and DDT - were found at very low levels. "Throughout the process it has been deemed as safe for human and natural resources," said Josh Thomas of the Port of Portland in a KGW story. But Department of Environmental Quality officials said that the low level contaminants could cause long-term harm to wildlife, especially birds.

"It’s a relatively low level of toxicity but it is absolutely contaminated," Sallinger told KGW. He sees a potential conspiracy involving the Port. "Our concern is that the Port of Portland has intentionally contaminated West Hayden island with contaminated sediments from the Portland harbor super fund site under the pretense the site was going to be developed."

I also found compelling an online Oregonian op-ed by Hayden Island resident Ellen Seminara, who addresses numerous practical concerns: 

There's only one way on and one way off the island, and it's used by all who live, work and shop here. Imagine your own neighborhood and what life would be like for you if several thousand people had only one way in or out every day. It's already difficult for me to get home after 3 PM every day. Is there any plan to improve access on and off the island to accommodate the additional cars and trucks that this project purports to create? 

The current bridge is already overburdened. Traffic is often backed up from the bridge past the Rose Quarter for large blocks of time during rush hour or when the drawbridge is up. This brings interstate commerce and travel to a halt, leaving all those cars and semi-trucks idling. It's a huge waste of time and fuel. What effect will dumping 1,200 new cars and an unknown number of large semi-trucks have on this problem? 

Every time we have a big rain there are giant lakes of water that accumulate in the streets. By the end of winter we have enormous potholes all over the island that need filling. Does the city have a plan to remediate the roadways to accommodate all this extra heavy traffic?

She also has had a first-hand view of the wildlife there, and of the community eroding:

We watch the moonlight reflect on the water and delight at seeing blue herons and osprey hunt for food. This is a quiet and beautiful place to live, but our quality of life seems to be diminishing. We recently lost two family restaurants. One has been divided into two bars, and the other is likely to become a strip club. The only park and playground on the island has been shut down all summer, forcing me to go all the way to Peninsula Park to find toddler swings.

"It's been wonderful to watch the revitalization of the Kenton neighborhood just two exits south on I-5," she concludes, with a nod to Mayor Adams' area of residence. "I'd like to see Hayden Island benefit from this level of attention."

Several years ago I interviewed the head of the Central Eastside Industrial Council for a Daily Journal of Commerce article, and I remember the overriding feeling he had that ordinary citizens in the general public don't appreciate how important industrial land is to the economy. Our society used to devote much of our waterfronts to shipyards, ports, warehouses and train tracks in order to move goods throughout a region. To a large extent that's of course still true today, and as a left-leaning environmentalist I feel a responsibility to try and fairly recognize those industrial needs. 

At the same time, this is part of a multi-generational transition. Societies have rediscovered the public and environmental value in allowing waterfront spaces to be preserved naturally, to let important natural parcels serve act as wildlife habitat, wetlands, flood plains and other kinds of mostly concrete-free settings. It's not just an empty touchy-feely emotional response born from daydreams about Bambi and Thumper frolicking amongst our Subarus and Starbucks, but a valid recognition of how necessary natural systems are for a region's overall health and prosperity. After all, Portland's economy has been enhanced by the city's popularity and reputation for progressiveness in sustainable thinking. If we start to let that erode, does that put us a step closer to being some overgrown eyesore?

Port of Vancouver (photo by Brian Libby) 

I say let West Hayden Island stay a natural area, and instead merge the Port of Portland and the Port of Vancouver into one regional body. After all, it's silly to expand Portland's industrial acreage into a natural deemed important to wildlife and the environment when the city across the river in Washington has that amount of land and more.

As enumerated in Scott Learn's Oregonian article, the Vancouver port has about 350 acres available for new terminals in its Columbia Gateway project. The Port of Portland says West Hayden Island, which it owns, is the only place it can develop large new terminals, and the 300-acre footprint is the smallest it can go. Aren't these guys and gals talking to each other at all? You have one river separating the two cities, and then you have one calling for cutting trees and laying concrete when the exact thing that's needed is available with people eager to develop it just across the water?

I've tried to be empathetic to the economic value in having proper industrial space, but when I try to look at the whole picture, I see an prominent piece of mostly untouched natural land at the confluence of the state's two biggest rivers, all in an otherwise urban setting, making all the more inherently valuable. Then I see one city looking to claim that land as if it's their only alternative when another entity is all but jumping up and down and waving its hands with a solution. If we're going to spend the $100-150 million that West Hayden Island's industrial infrastructure would require from the city, I'd rather devote it to a new bridge connecting the Island with Marine Drive. Like Ellen Seminara the Hayden Island resident says, having just one way in and out of there for all the residents, truckers and shoppers makes it more of an island than the Columbia ever has.

Leonard renews effort to demolish landmark Memorial Coliseum [updated]

Memorial Coliseum (photo by Julius Schulman), from Modernism Rediscovered, published by Taschen 

There's an old legend about Emperor Nero fiddling while Rome burned. But what if a member of the Roman senate was actually lighting the flames?

That's how I would characterize a report in Wednesday's Vancouver Columbian newspaper that Portland Commissioner Randy Leonard has renewed his personal campaign to demolish Memorial Coliseum.

The story also re-affirms the close relationship between Leonard and millionaire Merritt Paulson, son of George W. Bush's former treasury secretary, Henry Robert Paulson, and owner of the Portland Beavers and Portland Timbers franchises.

Leonard told the Columbian's Brian T. Smith that "he re-proposed an idea last week to Portland’s City Council about tearing down the Coliseum and building a new, state-of-the-art facility for the Beavers."

"Leonard’s vision for the venue mirrors one recently described by Paulson," Smith adds, "an open-air ballpark located near the waterfront in downtown Portland, surrounded by restaurants and community-oriented businesses. The 7,000-10,000 seat stadium would complement the Rose Quarter, and provide almost year-round sports entertainment when paired with the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers."

“I applaud Randy Leonard’s unwavering commitment to keeping baseball in Portland,” Paulson said Tuesday. “He has been a staunch supporter of our efforts all the way through this process.”

2009 Rose Festival queen coronation, Memorial Coliseum (photo by Brian Libby) 

“It’s getting down to the wire,” Leonard continued. “And what it takes is just the will of two more council members to stand up to the raging architects...“I’m just flummoxed that the council would be persuaded by that lobbying effort. It’s the least persuasive lobbying effort I’ve been subjected to in 20 years of politics.”

Notice that Leonard used the term "lobbying effort." You know what? I bet a millionaire like Paulson can afford a slicker, more substantial lobbying effort than a grassroots group of ordinary citizens.

Let's recap for the Commisioner's sake.

Memorial Coliseum was dedicated in 1960 as a memorial to war veterans - not just the plaque outside but the entire building. Veterans of Oregon are united in efforts to preserve the building. Leonard argued to the newspaper that veterans are coming around to the fact that the building is a terrible memorial. But that's a twisting of the truth. The memorial, like the rest of the building, is in disrepair because the city hasn't engaged in proper upkeep of the building. But renovating Memorial Coliseum, including a re-designed veterans memorial, would accomplish this without destroying the gift that our grandparents' generation gave to the city for permanent keeping.

Architecturally, the arena is one-of-a-kind in the world, with the only major indoor spectator facility that boasts 360-degree views of the city including the downtown skyline and Willamette River. It was designed by the most accomplished and renowned American architecture firm of the 20th century: Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill, with legendary designer Gordon Bunshaft behind the design.

Know what Leonard thinks of Memorial Coliseum? He calls it a Costco. An elected official representing a city of millions has indicated that he sees no difference between landmark modern architecture and big-box retail. By this rationale, Leonard would also see no difference between a vintage Porsche and a new Chrylser PT Cruiser.

Cultural history alone wouldn't be enough to save a building without it having matchless architecture, but as it happens, many of the most significant cultural moments in the history of the city happened at Memorial Coliseum: The Beatles' only concert here. The Trail Blazers' 1977 NBA championship. Concerts by Luciano Pavarotti and Bob Dylan. The campaign of President Obama. And lots, lots more.

Saving the arena has become a matter of importance to the green building community as well. Tearing down a historic arena is not sustainable.

That the arena is empty is also a fallacy. Memorial Coliseum drew over 150 events last year, even more than the adjacent Rose Quarter. A minor league baseball stadium on the site, even besides the irreparable destruction of landmark architecture it would cause, would never draw as many events.

Leonard has routinely attempted to characterize support for Memorial Coliseum's preservation as coming from only a small group of architects. Au contraire, Monsieur! The United States Green Building Council (America's foremost green building organization), the National Trust for Historic Preservation (the nation's largest historic preservation entity), and the American Institute of Architects (the US's largest group of architects) have all explicitly called for Memorial Coliseum's preservation. So have the Portland Trail Blazers and a wide grassroots consortium of ordinary Portland citizens. Leonard should know, too. Many of them testified to City Council in support of the Coliseum's preservation.

One can agree with Leonard and Paulson about one thing: It's too bad that the Portland Beavers don't have a home and will likely have to be sold to an out-of-town buyer. That's the result of Paulson's other team, the Portland Timbers, making the city-owned PGE Park a soccer-only facility. It will be great to have the Timbers in Major League Soccer, and it would be nice to have the Beavers in town too. But destroying one of Portland's major landmarks is not the way to solve this impasse.

If Paulson and Leonard really are thinking only about saving the Beavers' presence in Portland, why not find a site anywhere else in the entire Portland metropolitan area for the Beavers and the approximately 2,000 to 3,000 per-game spectators the team draws?

Also, Portland is seeking to become a world-class metropolitan city that attracts people from all over the world. Does the phrase "minor-league baseball" seem like the way to do that? We may not be New York, but we're not Toledo, Ohio either.

Portland Trail Blazers game at Memorial Coliseum, 2009 (photo by Brian Libby) 

It was 15 months ago that a minor-league baseball stadium was proposed for the Coliseum site. When that happened, there wasn't just opposition to the plan. There was an overwhelming avalanche of people coming out of the woodworks to speak up for the Coliseum. We, not only in the Friends of Memorial Coliseum but all Portlanders, are prepared to oppose the Leonard-Paulson alliance until our last breath is exhaled. Memorial Coliseum isn't just glass and steel, but possesses something we do: the very DNA of Portland, Oregon: its history and its expression of hope for the future, and how it exemplifies how design and creativity are foundations of our city fabric and its people.

This is by no means an attempt to vilify Commissioner Randy Leonard or Mr. Paulson. Particularly in Leonard's case, he is a big-hearted man with a passion for Portland. I would agree with him on other issues like a bond measure for the Fire Bureau, or going after restaurateurs with condemnable buildings. The Commissioner just happens to have some kind of vendetta or utter blindness when it comes to evaluating the continuing value in and love for Memorial Coliseum. But that's where the rest of us come in: to stand up for the great Portland places that make us who we are.

Thankfully if Commissioner Leonard is committed to the wrecking ball, the other four members of City Council are committed to honoring and preserving this local landmark. And luckily it takes at least three votes to make a majority, and I'm yet to see how Leonard even has two.

I wonder if the Pittock Mansion, Central Library or the Portland Art Museum ever faced such attacks in generations past.

Cascadia Natural Talent Design Competition winner imagines new homes for New Orleans

Image courtesy USGBC Natural Talent Design Competition 

A group of local building industry students recently won regional honors in the US Green Building Council's regional Natural Talent Design Competition and are off to New Orleans to compete for the national prize.

"I think this may be a good opportunity to discuss the great level of talented new creatives moving into the Portland area," wrote Ron Spencer, one of the winning team members. "It also brings up the power of collaboration between the professions, I think it is safe to say that it's rare to have a construction manager on a design team."

Besides Spencer, who received his Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Oregon in 2009 and is currently studying for MBA in Green Development at Marylhurst University, the team included Joe Douglas, a construction manager at Performance Contractors Group; Jackie Kingen, a Masters of Architecture student at the University of Oregon; Anna Winn, who earned her Bachelor of Interior Architecture from the University of Oregon  in 2009); and Sean Grummer, a recent University of Colorado architecture grad.

Image courtesy USGBC Natural Talent Design Competition 

Offered by the USGBC and The Salvation Army, the 2010 Natural Talent Design Competition challenged entrants to design an affordable, 800 square foot green home for an elderly client in the Broadmoor, New Orleans neighborhood. Broadmoor is a low-income area still devastated by the effects of hurricane Katrina.  The competition requested ideas for houses have a budget celing of $100,000. The houses also needed to be higher then the flood plane of Katrina, seven feet, as well as ADA accessible (many in the community are elderly).  "So you can imagine," entrant Ron Spencer joked, "you need one heck of a ramp to make that work."

The team's solution, "was risky and bent a few of the rules, but for good reason," Spencer adds. "This resulted in us being the only entry to actually look at the effects of all 100 units being built.  Rather then recreate another mundane rigid community we tried to create a new community that thrived and was allowed to grow and heal together.  You can have an extremely beautiful object, but in isolation it is still just that, an object.  Once that object is grouped with many of it's own kind, the uniqueness of it is lost.  Therefor it was critical to observe this project from many angles and scales.  I am very pleased with what we created and feel it could truly help this community in need."

Image courtesy USGBC Natural Talent Design Competition 

The entry won the Cascadia region, which includes Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and British Columbia and will now compete in the national finals. Four finalists' projects will be built, and over the course of the following year, the house that operates the best in terms of efficiency and other factors will be used as the design for building an additional 99 homes.

A new green roof for Ecotrust

Sedum plants on Ecotrust roof (photo by Brian Libby) 

When the Jean Vollum Natural Capital Center (commonly known as the Ecotrust building) opened in 2001, it quickly became known as a landmark of sustainable design. The brick and stucco warehouse, initially built in 1895 as the McCracken Warehouse, was the first historic redevelopment in the United States to receive a gold-level LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) designation from the US Green Building Council.

With a rehab designed by Holst Architecture, Ecotrust also quickly became a center for Portland's sustainable design community, with the city's Office of Sustainable Development headquartered there as well as progressive retailers like Patagonia.

Besides its other sustainable features, Ecotrust also was also pioneering in the use of its green roof, with plantings covering more than half of the building's roof in order to reduce stormwater runoff and provide extra insulation.

But as it happens, Ecotrust's green roof had problems - not more than any other green roof of its generation, but lacking some of the key elements that have come to comprise healthy green roofs since it was originally constructed. "It was installed at a time of burgeoning knowledge but lack of experience," says John Crumrine of Enviroscapes Northwest, the company that created the new green roof. In other words, the Ecotrust roof never malfunctioned, but new technology and understanding of how to make them work means that it was time for it to be replaced.

Ecotrust roof (photos by Brian Libby)  

This of course begs the question: If Ecotrust is a symbol of sustainability, how sustainable is it to re-do a green roof less than a decade after it was put in? But then again, one wants the green roof to function as well as possible, and some lessons have to be learned the hard way, through trial and error.

The main difference between the old green roof and the new one is its built-in drainage and filtration system, but it also has separate layers between rock and soil, something the lack of also caused problems in the old system (seen in accumulated pools of water).

The roof only supports about 14 pounds per square foot and the soil is only a few inches deep, which limits the type of plantings that can go there. Enviroscapes selected a sedum plant with fleshy leaves but, crucially for a green roof, doesn't leave behind any flammable debris. One can actually plant sedum by simply tossing handfuls of it onto the soil - it actually digs its own roots without being embedded in the dirt.

Ecotrust building (photo by Brian Libby) 

The average cost of a green roof, Crumrine says, is about $11-13 per square foot. The City of Portland provided about $5 per square foot in tax breaks, or about a 40 percent reduction in cost.

As for the benefits of this new roof, like any, Crumrine says the primary one is it will extend the life of the roof membrane by about 2 to 3 times because it's not exposed to UV radiation or extremes of hot and cold. This is also a highly visible roof, on a building associated with advanced thinking in sustainable design and construction, not to mention a popular destination for people to hang out or even have weddings. So it matters that the greenery is sprouting.