Portland Architecture

PNCA's ArtHouse and a new era for the North Park Blocks

ArtHouse (photo by Jeremy Bittermann)

BY BRIAN LIBBY

Good architecture is often about taking a few key ideas about space, volume and light and carrying them through to the end of a project: making strong, clear, functional moves that stop short of being showy.

I was reminded this recently while standing in a sixth-floor dorm room an the Pacific Northwest College of Art's new ArtHouse. Through a window easily twice as tall and wide as any in my own home, I stared straight down to the sidewalk on NW Park, noticing how the building was gently cantilevered over the walkway. Afterward, I came into a hallway bookened on either side by floor-to-ceiling glass, something I've not experienced in even the most luxurious of Portland condominiums. Along with the lobby, which looks out through floor-to-ceiling glass in front towards Park Blocks greenery and in back at a combination rainwater-treatment garden and patio, every space seemed to be about framing views of nature, even though this was a decidedly urban location.

Designed by Thomas Robinson and his firm, Lever Architecture, ArtHouse occupies the former Powell's Technical Bookstore building on the North Park Blocks. Although it was disappointing to see the old storefront building demolished, especially when there is a surface parking lot directly cross the Park Blocks, this is an urban success story as well as an architetural one that will breathe life into this long under-utilized but lovely stretch of tree-filled greenspace situated between downtown, the Pearl District and Old Town.  ArtHouse is a thoughtfully designed residence hall that gives students a far nicer living experience than most of us had in college, not becuase there are video game consoles or air conditioning in its rooms or fancy furniture, but because it's teeming with natural light and offers an ideal location.

Courtyard at PNCA's Arthouse (photo by Brian Libby)

"I think the best projects are always sticking to that one simple, strong idea, that idea being light here," Robinson explained on a recent tour. "When you talk about art students, what do they do? That’s sort of where we started. We wanted to look at very closely at access to daylight and connection to the community. That’s something that drove the design at every level, and at every step of the process."

Indeed, whether it's how the facade includes deep cuts into the building to fill cooridors with light, or how the ground-floor lobby's back garden is visible from the sidewalk and park outside, or the effect of those massive windows in the rooms, what better gift could you give an aspiring art student than ideally balanced, diffused light?

"We believe environment influences behavior," said Tom Cody of Project PDX, who helped create the deal involving the Powell family (owners of the original building) and PNCA. "Students will be more successful, we believe, in a place that affects them positively. Arthouse is an expression of that idea."

The exterior facade itself also plays with illumination. Its aluminum panels, broken down into a ridged pattern not unlike silver Ruffles chips, give off an entirely different look depending on the time of day the light hits them. "You want something that’s expressive of the light in the building, but that isn’t going to be just one thing," Robinson adds. "Right now [while touring the building in late afternoon], it’s flat. In the morning it’s very lively." The cuts in the facade that allow light to penetrate the interior also break up the mass of the facade.

ArtHouse (photo by Jeremy Bittermann)

Art House isn't just a dorm. It consolidates PNCA's move to the North Park Blocks, which began with the Museum of Contemporary Craft moving there and coming under the school's wing, and will continue with the Brad Cloepfil-designed renovation of the historic 511 Broadway building, set for completion in 2015. The dorm also gives PNCA its first residence hall, which is crucial to establishing a true community within and beyond the college.

"This is exactly the facility we have needed for a very long time to actually say, 'We have a campus.' We’re talking not just about opening up a residence hall. We’re talking about really the first tangible piece of an urban campus in the north park blocks, which will change this neighborhood and this city," PNCA president Tom Manley said as the tour began.

The building's ground floor is is built with a dark gray-toned flashed brick, which in front steps back from the street to allow outdoor tables at a planned restaurant occupying the space. The bulding then cantilevers over the ground floor to create a covered area over the widened sidewalk. "We wanted the building to float a little bit," Robinson explains.

ArtHouse (photos by Brian Libby)

And it does. The building has a sharp, industrial aesthetic because of the aluminum panels, which the almost charcoal-toned brick only adds to. Growing up in Willamette Valley farm country, seeing that material remined me of the old grain elevators in towns like Carlton, Newberg and McMinnville. Yet the effect standing outside is, at least for me, about kinetics: how light bounces off its accordion-like ridged facades, and how it penetrates deep into the interior. Though it has a strong sculptural presence in photographs, the design seems focused on creating a sense of place.

Tearing down a lovely old building meant the pressure was on these people to create architecture worthy of replacing and surpassing what's been lost to the ever-eroding fabric of old buildings. It's too early to tell just how successful ArtHouse is; none of us have had a chance yet to get used to the building, to live with it. And we can't judge the architecture without getting to see it full of students, with a cafe on the ground floor and tables filled outside (not to mention the boutique, Table of Contents, also set to open there.) But the urban gesture is undeniable, for the North Park Blocks are becoming to PNCA what the South Park Blocks are to Portland State University, bookending the central public artery of the downtown-Pearl District core with youthful energy. And both the intent and the execution of the design and construction leave not only a strong impression, but a clear and concise one. Lots of buildings talk about their relationship to light, but this one absorbs and reflects more than most, and it does so with an uncommon functional elegance: an artful placemaking.

 

Advertisement

PICA's latest artful renovations

PICA headquarters on SW 10th (photo by Brian Libby)

BY BRIAN LIBBY

For the past few years, each September the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art has made the otherwise vacant former Washington High School on SE 12th Avenue a lively landmark for its annual Time-Based Art Festival (better known as TBA). This year marks a departure, as PICA returns to its nomadic roots occupying a different warehouse or industrial building with each new fest. The organization, with the help of GBD Architects and other volunteer partners, is creating its temporary Works nighttime performance and attendant food/drink space in the former Con-Way warehouse at NW 22nd and Raleigh, its soaring girded ceilings providing space for multiple stages, bars, and art.

The Con-Way retrofit is a return to PICA's method before their three-year stay at Washington High, in which each year a new warehouse or industrial building would be transformed. A past Works design by BOORA Architects, for example, was included in mega-publisher Taschen's 2006 Philip Jodidio book Architecture in the United States, alongside works by starchitects like Frank Gehry, Thom Mayne, Richard Meier, and Stephen Holl.

"Washington High School very quickly felt like home," says PICA's Patrick Leonard. "We always joked that it was the only space we ever occupied that was actually designed for people—but that comfort came part and parcel with a really inescapable aesthetic presence. This year's space in NW is a big, blank canvas—a soaring-ceiling box ready for anything. There's no ready-made auditorium, but that means we can build out our stages to spec. We're working with GBD to play up that sense of space inside the building, so I think people are going to be really struck by the experience. And, in many ways, it feels like a true homecoming to get back to our warehouse roots and introduce a new generation of audience members to that energy."

Former Con-Way warehouse, setting for TBA's The Works (images coutesy PICA)

But the temporary Works space inside the Con-Way warehouse is not PICA's only architetural sojourn. Last year the institute moved into offices inside the long-vacant building downtown at 415 SW 10th, which is known for its distinctive checkerboard-like facade of multicolored panels. PICA occupies the top floor of this three-story building, owned by developer Richard Singer.

"Moving into the West End and the iconic 415 building has been a transformative experience for PICA," Leonard says. "When we heard that the building was available, we jumped at the opportunity to move in—all of us had our eyes on it for years and we loved the burgeoning neighborhood around it. Some of our closest friends and partners had recently opened within these few blocks, including the Ace, the Mark Spencer, Frances May, and Radish Underground to name a few. Even our old 'roommates,' Literary Arts [formerly located, like PICA, in the Wieden + Kennedy building], found a new home around the corner on SW Washington. The West End felt like a natural fit for the organization and our values—I think it really embodies a lot of what people imagine when they think of "Portland," from the independent retailers and creative restaurateurs to the innovative business models of developments like the Ace and Union Way."

"Since our opening, we've been bolstered by how many new visitors we get: everyday it seems we have international travelers who wander in from the street or long-lost supporters who have just rediscovered our programs," he adds. "It's been wonderful to have an expanded space for artists and exhibitions, as well as just having the capacity to welcome and host audiences, whether in our library with a book and a cup of coffee, or out on our deck with lunch from the food carts. Already, we've transformed this space to fit every need we could imagine, from gallery installations to dinners to lectures to parties to a full dance performance with rolled-out marley and stage lighting. And we've only been here for one year!"

Rooftop at 415 SW 10th (photo by Brian Libby)

The building is far from renovated. Though its facade is colorful and distinct, it's a relatively cheap old building and is not yet suitable for, say, a highly finished class-A office space. Don't expect a law firm to move here. Yet whether it's because of the building's colorful look, its increasingly coveted location in the West End near a variety of attractions, or how the building offers frontage on two streets (10th and 11th Avenues) as well as a roof deck, for an organization like PICA it seems ideal.

This year's TBA Fest runs from September 12-22 at various venues throughout the city. But unlike in past years, when PICA lacked its own year-round exhibition space, the organization now has the ability, via the 415 building, to continue programming year-round. What's more, having a dedicated gallery space helps its visual art program, under the excellent curator Kristan Kennedy, to remain a core component of PICA along with its many performance and theater-oriented events during TBA.

Anna Craycroft's exhibit at PICA (photos by Brian Libby)

Through September 29, for example, PICA's exhibit space is hosting a show by artist Anna Craycroft called C'mon Language!  The exhibit looks like a kindergarten classroom, and indeed it's modled after Reggio Emilia-designed schools, which emphasize learning by self-documentation. Visitors are invited to draw on the drawing boards placed there or attend a long series of workshops, discussions and lectures there throughout its duration.

I've long been a fan of 415 SW 10th, and when I've written about it in the past the building has elicited rather strong feelings on both sides. Some write to me to express a shared effection for its facade: not just the colorfulness itself, but the hue of its red and green panels as they have aged over time. Unfortunately, some of those panels have been replaced with panels of new colors, but the effect is still simple and strong. For me, whatever architectural pedigree or detail it may lack, it's that rare building that makes me smile when I see it. Still, many when I've written about 415 have registered their near astonishment, reminding me that it's not only a building long vacant and in considerable disrepair, but even its facade panel system could not have been more ubiquitous in its time.

In the first decades after World War II, the United States saw thousands of buildings constructed, many not only done on the cheap but without any architectural detail, and often using materials that weren't meant to last as long as, say, traditional ones like stone or brick. Indeed, there used to be countless buildings even in Portland that looked a bit like 415 only without the color. But nearly all of them are gone. But I wouldn't necessarily argue for keeping this building out of a duty to history. The affection is more purely aesthetic. Sure, it's not going to be confused with something by Mies or even, say Holst, which once desined a completely re-imagined facade for this building. Yet particularly given the zeitgeist of Portland and Portlandia, it's not hard to imagine the building, with PICA's help and validation, earning a new generation of admirers.

Broadway Bridge for PDX Bridge Festival (image courtesy KOIN)

After all, this is a city that recently, as part of the PDX Bridge Festival festooned the Broadway Bridge with a gigantic knitted quilt for its upcoming 100th birtday. If you think about it, that multicolored bridge blanket looks an awful lot like the facade of 415 SW 10th. As PICA seems to acknowledge, perhaps no other work of architecture in the city captures that kind of quirky sense of affection.

 

Advertisements

A campaign to save the Academy Theater (and all the independents)

Academy Theater (image courtesy of the theater)

BY BRIAN LIBBY

A few years ago, the restoration of the historic Academy Theater helped revitalize the entire Southeast Portland neighborhood of Montavilla. A community anchor in the 1940s and ‘50s, it had closed in the 70s, then served as the Nickel Ads headquarters for a decade-plus only to sat vacant into the new millennium. When the restoration led by interior designer Stephanie Brown finally came, the Academy earned a Preservation in Action Award, it not only brought back moviegoers to this stretch of Stark Street, but restaurants and shops too.

But now the Academy Theater, despite its restored beauty and continuous crowds and its 65th birthday this year, is threatened with closure. The major Hollywood film studios have decided to go 100 percent digital by year's end. Independent theaters such as the Academy must upgrade to digital projectors or go out of business. This phenomenon has even earned a catchphrase: "Go Digital or Go Dark." But digital projectors can cost as much as $60,000, an expense the Academy can’t afford.

The Academy isn’t alone. The National Association of Theater Owners estimates that up to 20 percent of all movie theaters in North America (roughly 10,000 screens) may close as a result of digital conversion. About 750 of those theaters are small historic theaters just like the Academy.

As a result, the Academy has launched a fundraising campaign through the online crowd-sourcing website Indiegogo. Their hope is to raise enough money to go digital (and avoid going dark).

The Academy shortly after its opening (image courtesy of the theater)

Recently I talked with Stephanie Brown about the Academy and its place in the community.

Portland Architecture: What are some of your favorite design details at the theater?

Brown: Some of the things I loved about the Academy during my very first visit are things I still love today. 

For example, I love how truly Streamline Moderne the building is -- from the little porthole "window" details above the marquee, to the beautifully curved wall that dominates the lobby. That wall's fluid curviness imbues the entire space with such elegance. I don't think the lobby would be nearly as pretty or feel nearly as inviting if it was all straight walls and hard angles. I also love the cylindrical "dome." It's not something people expect to see when they first walk through the doors, and it provides a sense of drama I find really appealing.

Given the high cost of seismic and ADA upgrades, I didn't have much of a budget for interior finishes. I really had to get creative with paint and lighting to achieve the look and feel I wanted for the space. So, I would say that the interior color scheme is one of the things I am most proud of. Those colors - the watery blue I used on the walls, the pale gold on the ceilings and the dark red velvet of the curtains (a movie theater isn't a movie theater without red velvet curtains, right?) really made the space come alive.

Speaking of color, from what I understand, when the Academy first opened back in the '40s, it was pink! The current owners weren't interested in being quite THAT historically accurate and asked me to come up with a new color scheme. I poured through images of Moderne buildings from the 1930s and 40s and fell in love Greyhound's many deep blue Moderne bus terminals. The owners loved the idea of deep dark blue, so we went for it, and I'm so glad we did! I think it provides the perfect backdrop for the marquee, especially at night.

The Academy's restored interior (image courtesy Stephanie Brown)

We were fortunate to have a collection of historic photos to work from when restoring the building's exterior. We discussed rebuilding the ticket booth but decided against it when we realized it would not meet ADA standards. Knowing it would be unusable made it hard to justify the expense. But one thing we were determined to recreate was the marquee.We got as close as budget and technology would allow, right down to the Tivoli bulbs. I think the marquee really transformed the theater into neighborhood landmark. Before it was installed, even with fresh paint, the theater was just another building on the street. Now, the theater really stands out.

What kind of role do you think the Academy plays in its neighborhood? Would you characterize it as a community anchor?

I'm not sure it's possible for me to stress how important I think the theater is to the Montavilla neighborhood. 

I remember my first meeting with the theater's owners. The building was an absolute mess and Southeast Stark wasn't exactly bustling. Many of the storefronts were empty or papered over. I knew the theater itself had potential, but wondered how anyone would ever even know it was there.

I kicked off the restoration with a "Call for Memories" -- basically a request for recollections of the theater in its heyday. The Oregonian, Portland Tribune and a few other media outlets helped spread the word and that triggered a deluge of responses. Not only did former patrons and employees share memories, but the family of the theater’s original owners came forward with historic photos, floor plans and memorabilia. The photos were helpful in figuring out how to proceed with the lobby restoration, but what was even more notable was the emotional connection people maintained to a theater which had been closed for three decades.

The Academy's grand opening in 1948 (images courtesy of the theater)

We heard from long married couples who'd gone on first dates at the Academy, from (now elderly) women who had worked the ticket booth and candy counter, from people whose childhood memories involved many long afternoons at the theater. Stories kept pouring in, and without fail, people kept commenting that they'd been hoping for years that the theater would reopen.

I think the Call for Memories really helped build anticipation for the reopening. And it inspired such hope and goodwill.Once people knew the renovation was underway, they couldn't wait for the doors to open. This was especially obvious when tickets sold out on opening night. Folks in the neighborhood clearly wanted the theater to succeed.

When the Academy reopened in 2006, Stark Street was home to some great businesses already - Ya Hala, Bipartisan Cafe and Flying Pie come to mind - but the reopening was a catalyst for change. And boy did things change! Drastically and quickly! I think the theater's success made people willing to take a chance on Stark Street again. Soon there was a flood of new businesses - and a new farmers' market - and lots of people willing to support both. 

Folks who weren't familiar with Montavilla eight years ago might not appreciate how important the theater has been. One of its biggest contributions was an increase in evening foot traffic.People often don't just go to a movie - they head out for a bite to eat first. And then maybe after the movie they go out for a drink, or possibly for dessert. So really, that's what the theater did for Montavilla -- it gave people a reason to visit a neighborhood they might have forgotten about or maybe didn't even know existed before. And once there, it gave them an opportunity to support other businesses in the district. 

People who live within walking distance of the theater would probably visit Stark Street no matter what. But the theater draws lots of people from outside of the neighborhood too. I don't know that Stark Street would be as appealing to them without a theater. And that must be a scary proposition for other businesses on the street. So, yes - I'd say the Academy is definitely an anchor and I think losing that anchor could be devastating to the neighborhood.

 

Advertisements

West End gem: visiting Union Way with Robinson, Cody

Union Way (photo by Jeremy Bittermann)

BY BRIAN LIBBY

When developer Tom Cody of Project PDX and architect Thomas Robinson of Lever Architecture led a late-afternoon tour of their new Union Way shopping alley in Portland’s West End last week, only about four of the nine shops were open for business but traffic was already steady through this arcade-like space. That’s a testament not only to the subtle beauty of Union Way’s light-filled, wood-festooned design, renovated from the former Red Cap Garage building, or to the array of tiny but eclectic fashion and food boutiques inside, but also to the idea behind the project: that by giving back to the public realm, you create an asset for both.

“It never ceases to amaze me how the most fundamental rules of real estate continue to be the most relevant,” Cody said as we toured the project. “Essentially the Red Cap Garage is this long, deep, narrow building. It’s 47 feet wide and about 135 feet deep. The problem that you have is that only 47 feet has street frontage. So this space deep in here begins to be dark. The question becomes: how do you monetize that? How do you make that valuable? How do you make that interesting?” The answer was to add a new street.”

By creating a path through these two buildings, Union Way provides not just a shortcut from Stark to Burnside, but between two neighborhoods: the Pearl and the West End, between Northwest and Southwest Portland.

Union Way's Stark Street entrance (photo by Brian Libby)

The alley of small shops feels like it’s outdoors because it’s open at both ends of the project but actually has a roof lined with skylights. But the construction wasn’t just a matter of cutting a new spine down the building to get openings on both Stark Street and Burnside, although that would have been ingenious enough. The Red Cap building only fronted Stark, not Burnside. Cody also had to buy another small building, which also formerly housed a club, Aura, and continue the alley through there in a way that still felt like one continuous space.

“The value is created by the intervention of this space, this covered outdoor thoroughfare, to move people from one neighborhood, the West End, to another neighborhood: the Pearl,” he continued. “By virtue of doing that, you now gain exposure for all of the merchants that live here. The more merchants you have, the more interesting that shopping experience becomes. So rather than do two that just fronted here [Stark] and two that just fronted there [Burnside], which was an option, we said, ‘No, lets try to do something different and more interesting than that by putting this street in here and then doing many small tenants.’ Our smallest tenant is 187 square feet, and our largest is 1,500.”

The project takes its inspiration from small shop-lined alleys and passageways of old in cities like Paris and Tokyo. “Many of those spaces were during the industrial era where cities were chaotic, dangerous and dirty,” Cody said. “The passages and were a respite from that. They were an oasis. Throughout history there have been different interpretations of it. This is ours.”

Although Union Way is firmly rooted in concept, execution was critical. Lever Architecture’s design with its 12 skylights makes the interior nearly as bright as outside, but equally noteworthy is the lining of its walls with a blonde-hued poplar. Like much Scandinavian architecture or recent local examples like Allied Works’ Sokol Blosser tasting room, Thomas Robinson’s design creates a kind of modernist sauna that feels at once geometrically pristine and uncomplicatedly natural. The original ceiling beams and rafters of the original Red Cap Garage building were left exposed and only sandblasted, not painted, complimenting the new poplar cladding without trying to be the same.

Union Way (photo by Jeremy Bittermann)

“It’s balancing the old and the new,” Robinson said. “I think that’s more of a European approach: balancing modern in a way that feels okay in the context of these older buildings. We spent a lot of time going, ‘What should we do with this structure?’ Paint it? Integrate it with the new structure?’ In the end, we just basically power-washed these beams.”

Overall, “There’s really specific architectural moves we made,” the architect added. “One is the surfaces: the concrete [floor] is sandblasted, with the idea being the continuation of the sidewalk. And we wanted to make the doorway disappear.” A small folding fence is pulled across at night. “The wood is another. It’s a hybrid poplar grown right outside Boardman. We had it custom milled to our specifications. It warms up the space. The other thing is the daylight. There were three covered-up skylights between the two buildings, and we now have twelve that run the full length. If you look at the Parisian passages, they have those things. They have a very specific idea about the floor. They have a kind of craft to the facades. And they have huge amounts of daylight.”

Before founding Lever, Robinson worked in the offices of Swiss masters Herzog & De Meuron as well as under Brad Cloepfil at Allied Works. During the Union Way tour I asked him to refresh my memory as to when he arrived at Allied, because there was a small resemblance in my mind between this project and Cloepfil’s landmark Wieden + Kennedy headquarters design a few blocks away. It turned out that Robinson arrived at Allied after W+K’s completion, but I suggested to him anyway the resemblance: that each seems to carve its architectural space out of an existing historic structure, making an intervention that reveals a palate of concrete and natural wood bathed in natural light. Robinson said that that one of the fundamental experiences of W+K’s design was the look of natural light hitting wood, and that there was a similar intent as Union Way’s 12 skylights penetrated deep into the building’s interior. It’s a blurring of indoor and outdoor space, or the feeling of a blur when you’re actually entirely indoors.

It’s also noteworthy that zoning would have allowed the single-story building to be torn down and a multi-story structure built in its place. But Cody said that the buildings’ owner, when approached about a sale, preferred a renovation. And when the Union Way developer explored the option of having office or residential space above, the special architectural experience was lost, and thus potentially his clientele with it. “It became dilutive,” is the developer put it. Retaining the existing buildings and their character was key as well to luring high-end retail tenants. “These kinds of merchants, I don’t think they’d go into a new building, honestly,” Cody added. They want something that has a character and an authenticity and a historical relevance that I wish could be created anew. But it just can’t.”

And in today’s market, at least this end of it, it’s not enough to have high-end goods for sale. It’s about the urban setting and the architectural experience. “I think retail has become polarized,” Cody said as our tour concluded. “Either it’s a non-experiential, commodity-based endeavor, whether it’s online or it’s big-box shopping, or it is an atmospheric, experiential endeavor that is done at a human scale and amongst others and adds value to your life, and it’s something you simply can’t get online. And so this is that. Conceptually, there’s the one big gesture that is the most impactful: the strength of a linear connection between two neighborhoods, two streets. That’s the underpinning, the cornerstone of Union Way. That gets amplified by other things: design, merchandising and whatnot. At every step we tried to make decisions that would affirm and exaggerate that urban gesture.”

 

Advertisements

Design Calendar: August 16-31

Watzek House (photo by Brian Libby)

BY LUKE AREHART

Watzek House Tour
Tour Oregon’s newest National Historic Landmark. In 1935, when Portland lumber magnate Aubrey Watzek wished to build a house for himself and his mother, his friend John Yeon undertook to find a site and propose a design for the house. Yeon was just 26 years old. 10:00am & 1:00pm Saturday, August 17, 2013 allow 90 minutes for the tour $30 Register at: http://tickets.uoregon.edu/johnyeon/event-register.

Montavilla Neighborhood Walking Tour
Walking tour includes such highlights as a neo-baroque monastery, 19th century farmhouses, Arts & Crafts bungalows, and a vibrant streetcar era commercial district with a restored “streamline moderne” theater. 10:00am Saturday, August 17, 2013. Architectural Heritage Center, 701 SE Grand Avenue Portland. $15 ($10 for AHC members); Allow two hours for the tour, pre-registration is required at www.visit-ahc.org.

Yamhill Historic District (image courtesy AHC)

Yamhill Historic District Walking Tour
What is today the Yamhill Historic District was separated from the rest of Old Town when the new Morrison Bridge was constructed in the 1950s. This tour includes 19th century cast iron buildings, as well as some of the most notable historic commercial architecture in Portland. You’ll also learn about how this one-time market area was also home to the city’s early Chinese immigrant community. 6:00pm Thursday, August 22, 2013. Architectural Heritage Center, 701 SE Grand Avenue Portland. $15 ($10 for AHC members); Allow two hours for the tour,pre-registration is required at www.visit-ahc.org.

Portland’s Olmsted Parks Plan: A Bicycle Tour
What are the Olmsted lessons for the 21st century? Along the way you’ll explore these great places: the Springwater Corridor, Ross Island Park, Sellwood Park, Sellwood Bluff Parkway, Eastmoreland and Reed College Place, Reed College Campus, Kenilworth Park, Laurelhurst Park, Dr. James Hawthorne Gravesite, Ladd Circle, and Ladd/Elliott boulevards. Tour guides Steve Dotterrer and Richard Ross have worked for several decades as Portland region planners, historians, and preservationists. Maps will be provided. 1:00pm – 5:00pm Saturday, August 24, 2013. Architectural Heritage Center $18 ($10 for AHC members); This tour is intended for intermediate skill cyclists, age 18 and over, pre-registration is required at www.visit-ahc.org.

Rendering of Olmsted Portland park plan (courtesy AHC)

Central is 100!: A Downtown Walking Tour of Library History
The Central Library will be 100 years old in September 2013. Enjoy a two-hour walking tour of 150 years of library history, guided by local nonprofit Know Your City, with special guests A.E. Doyle biographer Philip Niles and librarians who will share treasures from the library’s archives and special collections. Tour highlights include: visiting the location of Portland’s first library, learning about the People’s Free Reading Room at City Hall and hearing about the architectural details and special treasures at Central Branch. 12:30pm-2:30pm Saturday, August 24 2013 (waitlist) & Sunday, August 25, 2013 (15 openings available). Walk Departs from Skidmore Fountain. More info at knowyourcity.org.

Pearl District Walking Tour
Over the last 20 years, the Pearl has been transformed from an out-dated and tired industrial area into one of Portland’s premier residential and retail districts. Many of Portland’s best known architects of the period designed buildings for important local and national companies. Most of these buildings remain, with their exteriors intact, and new uses inside. 6:00pm Thursday, August 29, 2013. Architectural Heritage Center, 701 SE Grand Avenue Portland. $15 ($10 for AHC members); pre-registration is REQUIRED at www.visit-ahc.org.

Hidden Portland Tour
With an eye towards the small, quirky and curious, this tour lets you in on some of the little-known but best-kept secrets of the city. Offered by Know Your City, this is a visual and interactive tour of Portland that encourages participation, play and active learning. Focusing on the Cultural District, sites include a wide-ranging selection of public art, museums, buildings and architectural features…all bound to get you to see the Rose City with new eyes and experiences. 10:00am-12:30pm Friday, August 30 2013. Meets at Director Park, $18 ($15 for Know Your City members) Tickets online at knowyourcity.org. 

Chinatown/Old Town Tour
With tour guide Reiko Hillyer. While today Portland is known as one of the whitest cities in the US, its multicultural and immigrant history is rich and storied. Old Town/Chinatown shows the challenges faced by Portland’s ethnic communities, as well as their many contributions to the city’s economy, industry and culture. Topics covered by this tour include Portland’s first African American community, Japan Town, Chinatown and more. Focusing on the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, this tour charts Portland’s urban development, and how these transformations created the city we know today. 10:00am – 12:30pm Saturday, August 18, and again on August 31 2013. $18 ($15 for Know Your City members); Meet outside Voodoo Doughnuts, register at http://knowyourcity.org/

 

Advertisements

Old Town's hasty, half-baked pedestrian zone

Old Town water tower (image courtesy Wikipedia Commons)

BY BRIAN LIBBY

Whether it's in large cities like New York and London or smaller ones scattered across Europe and, increasingly, the US, turning city streets into pedestrian-only areas free of automobile traffic has been an overwhelming success, helping compact urban cores to overcome the noise and traffic problems they weren't designed for and reducing crime through increased pedestrian traffic and visibility.

But creating a socially, economically and aesthetically successful pedestrian zone isn't something you do with police barricades. It's not something you do from 10PM to 3AM on weekend nights. Yet, as Sara Hottman reports in yesterday's Oregonian, this has been the plan for the past eight months, since City Council approved a trial "entertainment zone" that shuts out automobile traffic on a six-block area between NW Second and Third Avenues, Burnside and Everett Street.

The intent is clearly to reduce crime, and in that way, it has been successful. Incidents involving police have dropped by 30 percent. Police also tell Hottman that the absence of traffic also allows them to respond more quickly. And Portland's Finest is clearly out in force during these five-hour weekend windows. "That's always fun at parties," one bargoer sarcastically tells the reporter.

Yet why call it an "entertainment zone" at all? Bar owners are also upset with the corraling off of traffic; they say the barricades bring the feel of a crime scene or a construction zone. And residents are upset with how much extra noise the congregating of people in the street brings.

Had this stretch of Old Town been planned and designed as a pedestrian zone, it could have been much more successful. Residents and businesses could have been involved from the beginning, contributing ideas and critiques. Just as importantly, the city could have invested in the street furniture, lighting, special paving and other elements that would communicate that this isn't just a diversion of traffic but an intent to transform and uplift the neighborhood. City officials, according to Hottman's story, have encouraged the neighborhood to take more ownership of the "entertainment zone," but seemingly have not given them the opportunity to be involved in its creation, nor have they invested in the pysical space itself.

Imagine, for example, if Director Park, the city block behind the Fox Tower downtown turned a few years ago from a surface parking lot into a plaza with a fountain and glass-canopied area with tables and chairs, had only removed the cars from the parking lot and called it a day. Imagine if the city then acted surprised this plot wasn't a popular place for residents and locals to congregate, that the neighborhood didn't take ownership of its barricaded blacktop. Then, when Monday came around, imagine if it went back to being a parking lot for five days, and then the whole cycle began again.

It's not that city officials are wrong about the strategy of reducing crime in this six-block area as a result of blocking traffic. But that anti-crime strategy has to be congruent with the broader, longer-term urban plannning and economic development strategies. Instead, it feels like the city has figured out a band-aid that, while effective, is undermining the long-term health of the affected area. They've created a police lockdown and called it an entertainment zone.

In a more long-term look at Old Town and an attempt at cure, we'd need not just housing but a mix of housing types: not just low-income housing and social services with single-room occupancy flats, but middle class and other levels as well. (Conversely, we probably need less upper-class housing in the adjacent Pearl District and more low-income housing.) We'd also need to do something about the vacant lots. Crime isn't just something that happens when roudy bar patrons act up or idle homeless people search for places to lie down for the night. It's a phenomenon that happens in dark corners where there's no reason for regular pedestrian flow to happen there.

Old Town has made tremendous progress in the daytime. From the University of Oregon's White Stag building at Couch and Naito to the Classical Chinse Garden on Fourth Avenue to scatterings of art galleries, restaurants and creative-industry firms, this is not exactly a destitute area anymore. There have even been experiments at closing off streets to traffic, as has happened south of Burnside near Voodoo Donuts. Yet at night, when the workers and students go home, Old Town still can feel chaotic and not quite safe enough. It's entirely possible, if not outright probable, that a pedestrian zone is the right call here - but a more permanent one that's actually been designed, and designed thoughtfully with community input. When you put up police barricades and call it an entertainment zone, you may intimidate away some of the fist fights and petty crimes, but you've taken a step back in the larger effort to create a livable place.

 

Advertisements

"Grimm" locations: a tour of the unique and historic

A scene from Grimm (courtesy NBC/Universal)

BY BRIAN LIBBY

There were no werewolves (or "Blutbaden") spotted on our journey, no witches ("Hexenbiester") or wild boars ("Bauerschwein"). The closest we got were lots of people with beards and tattoos. But after an afternoon of driving to Portland sites from the NBC series Grimm, one is reminded that while the city is a constellation of both historic and modern places, it is often our aging architecture that stands out to location scouts and directors.

With two seasons in the can and a third on the way, Grimm has now filmed all over the Portland metro area - too many sites to visit in a few hours. But on my girlfriend's birthday recently, she (an enthusiasic fan of the show) chose a series of places to visit. As we did, even though the locations were diverse, they collectively painted a portrait of Portland as both newer and older than it really is, both smaller and bigger: a capitol of atmosphere where the old Craftsman bungalows protect us from creatures lurking behind abandoned industrial plants and under bridges, but with enough glassy condos to house the upper income brackets.

"Portland’s a great part of the show," says David Greenwalt, one of Grimm's executive producers, in a documentary included with the first-season DVD. "It’s almost like another character. When we wrote the script we wrote it for Portland, because it reminded us of the Black Forest in Germany. You have all these great trees and rivers and waterfalls, and yet you also have a nice downtown and kind of a modern thing. And so many of the homes in Portland look like they’re right out of a story book."

"The setting is so imperative to Grimm," adds David Giuntoli, the show's star. "It adds something that any other city in America can not do."

One of our first stops was The Fields Neighborhood Park, on the Pearl District's northern edge near the Fremont Bridge. It officially opened only a few weeks ago, in May, but has existed as a grassy open lot for considerably longer. Actually, though, the park was just a background to Centennial Mills, the cluster of 11 interconnected buildings on Naito Parkway between the Broadway and Fremont bridges.

Centennial Mills from The Fields Neighborhood Park (photo by Brian Libby)

When the complex's first four buildings opened in 1910 as Crown Mills, clipper ships would dock there, to have griain turned into flour. The complex thrived and even expanded into the 1940s and '50s, but emptied in the 1970s and when grain processing began shifting overseas. For many years, city leaders have sought to redevelop the site with some combination of retail, commercial and residential. But a city-sponsored 2008 development competition fell through before the winning developer, Lab Holding, could begin construction. Today local developer Harsch is spearheading a new effort, but has not yet committed to any actual renovation work. After all, besides the crumbling condition of many of the buildings, there's a Portland Police horse paddock next door that, unless it moves away, effectively hampers Centennial Mills from connecting to the existing urban fabric.

Randy Gragg, the former Oregonian architecture and Portland Monthly editor in chief, has even called for a less preservationist-minded approach. "With all due respect to those grand visions, I hereby cast an alternative vote: do as little as possible—at least for now," he wrote in a recent Editor's Letter. "Sure, save a building or two (or maybe even just a wall) as a nod to history and texture. Otherwise, clear the site and harvest the original construction’s bounteous old-growth lumber. Then, maybe put up some temporary structures for creative endeavors: tech incubators, flexible “makers” factories, artists studios, or all of the above, that can painlessly vanish in a decade or so." Gragg also argues that the most important aspect of Centennial Mills is how it extends over the water, giving Portland the potential for a unique new destination.

It may be true that there are significant practical barriers to keeping Centennial Mills and finding a way for it to thrive. There's probably something to Randy's argument that further development of the land around the site would help it, and that the development is big enough, including several later structures without much historical value, that some of it could be dismantled. A hybrid of old and new spaces could be particuarly strong.

Even so, I'd strongly favor keeping the overwhelming majority of Centennial Mills. This is some of the only remaining architecture of Portland's formerly working waterfront of the early 20th century. Centennial Mills also comprises virtually the only old architecture visible when you're standing at The Fields park, which makes it stand out all the more. Clearly that's what interested Grimm's producers and location scouts when they filmed at The Fields: not becuase some landscaping and seats have been added to the grassy land here, but becuase there was something mysterious and full of stories rising at the riverfront. Whatever difficulty is encountered restoring Centennial Mills will be worth it.

Fremont Bridge (photo by Brian Libby)

While in the Pearl, we also stopped at a vacant parcel of land just a few hundred yards west of the Fremont Bridge; on the show, this is the location of Aunt Marie's trailer. According to an extensive online map of Grimm locations, an exterior scene from another episode was shot here. Another scene was shot at Slabtown on 16th and Marshall. Not far to the west, the Bridgeport and Pinnacle condo buildings have figured on the show. Heading further west, there are three locations around another historic building, Montgomery Park.

And of course there are clusters downtown, such as around the west side of the Burnside Bridge, be it Ankeny Plaza just south of the bridge or several different scenes shot just around NW Second and Couch alone. Old Town, with its mythology of Shanghai tunnels and old storefront buildings amongst the vacant lots, is perfect for this show: both cramped and expansive. The show has also made use of the marina south of the Hawthorne Bridge at Riverplace, and I think in general movies and TV shows shot here have made marinas seem like more important standout places than perhaps locals might. Then again, most of us don't own boats.

St. Johns Bridge (photo by Brian Libby)

When perusing the maps of Season 1 and Season 2 of Grimm locations, it becomes clearer that while the show has filmed all over town and beyond, there are certain areas that have been returned to numerous times. One such cluster is in St. Johns near its eponomous bridge. At least one scene has been filmed in Cathedral Park, but there is also the North Police Precinct, a former city hall for St. Johns before it was incorporated into Portland.

Built in 1907 in the Beaux Arts style, the building has a grand presence with Roman Columns out front. As Bart King writes in his Architectural Guidebook to Portland, it "would not look out of place on a Lilliputian Wall Street."

North Portland Precinct (photo by Brian Libby)

As handsome as the precinct building is on the outside, it's the interior that's used for Grimm shooting. On the show, the building used for exterior shots of police headquarters is the US Customs House in the Pearl District. Today the city's real police force operates from the Justice Center office building downtown, a relatively unremarkable circa-1983 modernist building. So why the older buildings on the show? It seems part of a collective effort, probably unwittingly so, to portray Portland as having a kind of old soul. We're a West Coast city, and therefore not in possession of as many old buildings as cities on the East Coast; but the show is about supernatural forces, ones dating back thousands of years. With its overcast skies and surrounding forests, Portland has the atmosphere the producers want, but the idea of the show, even though it's set here, seems to be one with further ties back into Western history and folklore. 

Not every location in Grimm is utterly unique. Every city has its ubiquitous banal necessities: battery shops, gas stations, grocery stores. Yet it's fun to see other patterns or types of structures and places emerge. Besides the geographical clusters, the show returns time after time to an eclectic array of historic houses large and small, be they tiny bungalows or Tudor mansions or Victorians like the Gustav Freiwald House. And then there are industrial facilities. Ross Island Sand & Gravel's facility on the east bank of the Willamette has appeared on Grimm, for example, as has the Blue Heron Paper Mill to the South in Oregon City, and the Bull Run Power Station near Sandy (covered in a previous post).

Several years ago, one of my first published architecture stories was about two Portland-based location scout for Hollywood TV shows, movies and commercials. Between them, they'd scouted for films by David Fincher, Barry Levinson, Oliver Stone and many others. "Things that are beautiful aren't necessarily filmable," one scout, Beth Milnick, told me. "There's an elegant simplicity in most great locations." At the same time, scout Sarah Burton added, directors asked her to be on the lookout for "architecture that stands out in strange ways."

Gustav Freiwald House (image courtesy Wikipedia Commons)

That starts to get at what I find interesting about a show like Grimm, Portlandia or Leverage filming in the city for years at at time: the chance to see a sort of curated selection of Portland images, not only its esteemed and stately buildings but also its most interesting grittier sides: its places on the margins -- and how these buildings and landscapes tell a story of what the shows' makers from other places see as unique backdrops for its retold fairy tales. After all, I haven't seen any Grimm episodes take place at Applebees. Particularly Grimm and Portlandia in how they portray the city and mine it for locations seem to be arguments for keeping the city not just weird, as the bumper sticker says, but full of memorable places. Their very presence here could be seen as validation that above all, fighting sameness has not only cultural but economic value.

 

Advertisements