Guest post: a jail for South Waterfront?

Atwater Place and Meriwether Condominiums, South Waterfront (photo by Brian Libby)

Editor's note: Fred Leeson is a veteran Portland journalist who spent many years at The Oregonian and still contributes to the paper. He is also the author of Rose City Justice: A Legal History of Portland, Oregon. Here Leeson reports on a new holding facility for the federal government being considered by the design commisison.

As developers poured billions of dollars into the South Waterfront District in the past several years, chances are they never dreamed the new “gateway” to the high-rise condo village would be a jail.

Thanks the Homeland Security Administration, that appears to be more than a small likelihood. A plan working its way through the city design system would convert a blockish, four-story building at 4310 SW Macadam Ave., into a holding tank for an unspecified number of arrestees held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

A new three-story wing added to the south end of the building would provide offices for 150 workers,  an indoor gym for their recreational pleasure, plus underground parking for 106 ICE fleet vehicles. Employees would be urged to use public transportation.

Reading through the city staff report on the project, there is no mention of a  jail, only office space.  But key elements of the design include a 360-degree security fence, a  bullet-proof guardshack and turning room for 55-passenger buses.  Clearly, it’s not your ordinary office project.

And not your ordinary block, either.  GBD Architects has to plan in advance for as-yet undesigned changes to SW Bancroft Street  on the north and SW Moody Street to the west. On the south side, the Oregon Department of Transportation owns  the adjacent lot – for which no purpose yet exists. Not to mention a 17-foot drop in elevation from north to south.

“We probably picked one of the most complicated locations in the city to squeeze a building onto,” GBD’s Doug Skille told the Portland Design Commission on October 7.

Whether GBD and Homeland Security eventually succeed on the difficult site likely will be determined by the Portland City Council. The South Portland Neighborhood Association, one of the city’s most vigilant in the realm of land-use, is likely to appeal the slow but inevitable approval by the Design Commission.

“Obviously, it doesn’t fit,” said James Davis, South Portland’s land-use chair.  Davis has seen all the South Waterfront projects through the planning stages in the past 10 years, many of which drew neighborhood objections . “This is the first time I’ve seen a project that doesn’t fit.”

The Design Commission’s role isn’t to debate the use of the revamped building, but to assure that it meets as many of the city’s multitudinous design guidelines as possible. But the difficult site led the new chair, Gwen Millius, to ponder, “It makes me wonder what the rejected sites were. Were they under water?  How could they have been any worse?”

Homeland Security officials were likely present in the room, but none testified.  Their attraction likely was drawn by a concrete vault in the existing building composed of 18-inch concrete walls reinforced by steel rebar.  This is where the unspecified number of holding cells would be built.

The existing building was erected in 1982 as a bank transfer station, serviced by armored trucks and surrounded by a security fence. As GBD architect Agustin Enriquez noted, security is nothing new at 4310 SW Macadam. And Homeland Security has specific requirements. “Security issues are big issues for them,” Enriquez said.

According to The Nation magazine, Homeland Security has some 186 holding tanks around the nation.  The magazine’s list says the agency currently uses the old Federal Building at 511 N.W. Broadway, which is destined to become the new home of the Pacific Northwest College of Art.

“They want a facility to hold people as long as they want to hold people without justice, until civil removal from this country,” Davis said.

Ben Kaiser, a Design Commission member, said, “It’s too bad a jail is the gateway to the South Waterfront. Basically, it doesn’t make sense.”

He said the bullet-proof guardshack in a three-lane drive way was the “biggest giveaway” of the building’s “ominous” presence. “It sets the tenor for the building. It sets the tenor for the South Waterfront,” he said.  

Kaiser asked whether the guard station could be moved to the main entrance, giving the building a more civil appearance. Enriquez said he would discuss it with Homeland Security, but he said the agency has definite ideas about its requirements.

GBD tentatively is scheduled to return to the Design Commission for further discussion of the project on Nov. 4 at 1:30 p.m.  The commission meetings are held in Room 2500 at 1900 SW Fourth Avenue. 

 

Comments

[Bob Richardson]

Setting aside the important civil rights conversation, the first thing that comes to mind is:

"Well, that's one way to define 'Mixed Use.'"

And on a lighter note (if there is one that can be applied to this situation), all the dim bulbs who can think of no better criticism for high-density developments than to liken them to "prisons" and "bunkers" will now have a genuine opportunity to compare and contrast for themselves.

Will any local anti-density crusaders like to spend a week in the John Ross and then another in the immigration detention center and report back on the relative livability of each? Photos and videos, please! I'm most interested in comparing the "closing" paperwork process between immigration detention intake and your average title company.

[Sascha Bates]

I've been trolling that area for over a year now, thinking about buying somewhere in DT Portland. That sort of facility near where I live is an immediate turnoff however and makes me think twice about looking in Pearl or maybe Sellwood.