Portland Architecture

Design calendar: April 1-15

Harper's Playground design (image courtesy KATU)

BY BRIAN LIBBY

A More Inclusive World, One Playground At A Time
G. Cody Q.J. Goldberg, founder of Harper's Playground, a play area at North Portland's Arbor Lodge Park intended for children of all abilities, will describe the process of tackling this ambitious public project from the ground up with little to no experience in fundraising, design and community building. “Our community playground was off-limits to our daughter because she uses wheels to get around. We founded Harper’s Playground to change this," says Goldberg. "We assembled a team of top designers and shared our vision. We asked for and received help from many. The playground went from dream to reality. We embraced these three powerful and important forces for a better world: community, inclusion and play.” Portland State University, Shattuck Hall, 1914 SW Park, Room 217. 12PM Thursday, April 3. Free.

Regenerative Design & Economics
In a brownbag series offered by Portland State University's Center for Public Interest Design, Stuart Cowan, Ph.D., a partner with Autopoiesis LLC (which offers ecological design, strategic planning, and sustainable finance services), will address the question of how we can connect public interest design projects to initiatives like transition towns, ecodistricts, one planet communities, and living buildings, which suggest opportunities to greatly increase the resilience, livability, and equity of neighborhoods and cities. How can we connect public interest design projects aligned with these visionary efforts with significant, tangible investment from local communities, government agencies, and the private sector? In this discussion, we will explore the emergence of “regenerative economics,” within which regenerative design is valued and nurtured for its multiple social and ecological benefits. Portland State University, Shattuck Hall, 1914 SW Park, Room 217. 12PM Friday, April 4. Free.

Downtown Portland Sacred Spaces
An Architectural Heritage Center tour of several downtown Portland churches and other houses of worship, including the South Park Blocks and West End. This year's tour is reportedly sold out, but a repeat of this tour has been scheduled for the fall. 12PM Sunday, April 6. $20 ($12 for AHC members).

Canstruction
An annual art show, design competition, and food drive all rolled into one, Canstruction raises hunger awareness by challenging teams of architects, engineers, and construction personnel to create larger-than-life pop art masterpieces made entirely out of unopened cans of food, which are then on display at Pioneer Place. While admission is free, visitors to the exhibition are encouraged to bring high quality non-perishable foods such as tuna, beans and canned vegetables, which will be donated along with the cans used in the competition to Oregon Food Bank. This year’s goal is to raise 150,000 meals – enough to provide an entire week’s worth of food to meet the needs of children in the Portland Metro Area. Pioneer Place, 700 SW Fifth Avenue. Exhibit on view10AM-8PM Monday-Saturday, 11AM-6PM Sunday, April 7-13. Free. Competition on April 7.

New Mobility for a Sustainable Urban Future
A lecture by J. Alexander Schmidt, who heads sustainable city planning and urban design at Beijing's DeTao Masters Academy and chairs city planning and urban design at University Duisburg-Essen in Germany. Schmidt argues that to sustainably develop cities, urban mobility needs to be re-invented. Over-reliance on automobile-oriented planning means that many cities have lost their quality of urban life. Mobility forms the city and the city forms mobility: This is the starting point for an interdisciplinary approach to urban mobility, taking into account urban space, traffic modeling and user preferences. The lecture is based on a research project dealing with new perspectives and concepts for sustainable urban mobility to reduce GHG emissions and to stabilize and improve the quality of life. University of Oregon, White Stag Block, 70 NW Couch Street. 5:30PM Wednesday, April 9. Free.

Kitchen Revival Tour
A self-guided tour of renovated kitchens in historic Portland homes, presented by the Architectural Heritage Center and representing a range of approaches to renovating one's kitchen in a manner that reflects the home's original design and style. 10AM-4PM Saturday, April 12. $25 ($20 for AHC members).

 

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Modern Home Tour features Skylab, Waechter, Holst, Rummer and more

Skylab Architecture's Skyline Residence (photo by Boone Speed)

BY BRIAN LIBBY

This Saturday brings the third annual Portland Modern Home Tour, and marks the second straight year we at Portland Architecture have been asked to choose the homes. Spanning midcentury-modern to contemporary, urban to suburban, new construction to remodels and single-family homes to high-density apartments, the intent was to paint a wide and diverse picture of what it means to be modern in our metro area.

The first house we signed for the tour was the Skyline Residence by Skylab Architecture, situated in Portland's West Hills just off Skyline Boulevard. Perched onto a hillside, it enjoys views for scores of miles, all the way to the coast range. Its form is comprised of two rectangular boxes arranged perpendicularly, which allows the upper floors to cantilever over the ground in front (to create a covered porch) and in back (to make you feel like you're floating over Forest Park).

As compelling as the views and the exterior form may be, Skylab has created some captivating eye candy in the interiors. A personal favorite is the kitchen, where an awning seems to rise out of the wood floor (which is fashioned from a reclaimed basketball court, form an island, and then continue overhead almost like a Mobius strip. Another favorite space is the stairway, lit from above with a massive skylight to make its transparent trends glow with light and featuring a colorful multi-story mural by an acclaimed Brazilian graffiti artist.

5403 NE 28th (photo by 22 Pages)

Another early addition to the tour is one we previously covered here on Portland Architecture, a house on NE 28th Avenue by SERA Architects and lead designer Walker Templeton (in collaboration with Jon DeLeonardo now with Skylab Architecture). Extensively remade from a small, deconstructed circa-1919 home, the project embraced high-performance sustainable design practices intended to help it last for another 100 years while maintaining affordability.

Recycled 2×4 studs from the original house, for example were milled on site to produce the wooden slats of the stair, while reclaimed Douglas fir decking from a local warehouse was used for the wood floors, stair surface, kitchen Island, shelving and all the interior doors. 

Thanks to its gutterless roof, during rains the house displays a kind of functional theater, as rain falls from the roof down to deep collection pools on either side.

Tower House (photo by Lara Swimmer)

Another tour house previously featured on this site is the Tower House by architect Benjamin Waechter. Perched on a steep Cornell Road hillside in Northwest Portland, the four-story house was built up rather than out to minimize foundation costs and to work around the small shelf of a footprint available. The form seems loosely inspired by medieval towers, yet rather than being dark inside the home is full of light. Balconies are carved into the cylindrical form where there are public spaces, such as the top-floor living room and third-floor dining room and kitchen. The exterior is clad in corrugated metal with radius corners to eliminate the need for corner trim, a practical move that gives the house a kind of refined elegance. Inside, public rooms are finished with quarter-sawn white oak floors.

It was five years ago that I first encountered Waechter's work, on the 11xDesign homes tour, which featured houses and condos developed by their architects. Despite a wealth of talent on the tour, Waechter's Z-haus was arguably the star of the show, for Waechter has an exceptionally uncommon blend of simplicity and refinement - not just in exterior form or interior surfaces, but how to configure and combine space. No wonder his resume includes stints for a pair of internationally renowned architects, Renzo Piano and Brad Cloepfil. As much as I love Waechter's houses, his talent is such that sooner or later somebody needs to hire this guy for a larger-scale building. I'd love to see a Ben Waechter art museum in 2025.

Some of this year's tour-house designers I honestly wasn't familiar with, such as Portland's GSB Design, the firm behind the house on NE 28th Avenue. The L-shaped house is arranged around a courtyard which is a focal point of the house. Sliding glass walls open the living and dining rooms to the courtyard patio. Writing home magazine articles for the past decade-plus, I've seen plenty of great rooms with floor-to-ceiling glass patio doors that disappear in order to create wide-open, indoor-outdoor space. But I've never before seen two walls disappear, including the corner where they meet, as is the case in this house.

2224 NE 28th Avenue (photos courtesy GSB Design)

Yet despite such openness and abundance of natural light, my visit to the house left me perhaps most impressed with its materiality. The design by Steve Bock of GSB Design takes its inspiration from the mountain architecture of Timberline Lodge and the heavy industrial buildings of inner Portland, with heavy timbers and big steel bolts. It's a modern urban home, but it feels just a little bit like a far-away retreat.

Another up-and-coming architect I came across while curating the tour is Matt Raphael of Raphael Design, who designed a remodel and expansion of a circa-1953 home on SE 55th Avenue in Portland. Situated on a generous 11,000 square foot site within a stone's throw of Mt. Tabor, the house retains the original basement and general footprint, while adding a new wing and partial second story.

1411 SE 55th Avenue (photos by Matt Raphael)

With a generous, open plan and plenty of glass, the floor plan focuses on a central outdoor patio accessible from the open dining room, living room and kitchen. Two master suites are on separate floors and at opposite ends of the house, and two offices can double as guest rooms. Barn doors can be used to divide the spaces and provide privacy. In addition to the architecture itself, Raphael also custom designed many of the interior built-in furniture and cabinetry.

When seeking out midcentury-modern homes in the Portland metro area for a homes tour, it's hard not to keep coming back to Rummer homes. Inspired by the Eichler Homes of southern California built in the 1950s-'70s from designs by acclaimed architects like A. Quincy Jones, builder-developer Robert Rummer created scores of houses in our area during that same time period with an equally innovative and inviting blend of indoor and outdoor space.

8586 SW Cecilia Terrace (photo by Tyler Stone)

Built in 1966 by developer Robert Rummer, and situated in Beaverton's Vista Brook neighborhood, the home quietly blends into its surroundings by combining a subtle approach of mid-century modern and Pacific Northwest aesthetics. 

The open floor plan surrounding the entry atrium offers an expansive feel in a compact footprint. The remodeled kitchen design maintains the original layout and incorporates a communal butcher-block island by local designer Niles Snyder. The overall remodel was overseen by its homeowners, Tyler Stone and Patrick Hinds, musicians from the electro-pop band Sutro.

1175 Westward Ho Road (photos by Lincoln Barbour)

Another historic mid-century home featured on this year's tour is a circa-1955 design by noted local architect Warren Webber. Having worked under acclaimed local architects like Pietro Belluschi and Richard Sundeleaf, Webber founded his own firm in 1948 and would go on to design not only homes but several noteworthy churches.

"Warren Webber was a very self-disciplined architect, solving difficult problems before committing to a concept," writes Richard Ritz in his book Architects of Oregon. "He was a perfectionist in developing details; nothing was left to chance. His drawings were also works of perfection."

The home's residents know it well. Homeowner Sarah Tripp Stephan grew up visiting her mother there, who spent the last decade of her life in the house. The husband-and-wife team of architect David Horning of MOA Architecture and interior designer Holly Freres of JHL Design had three primary goals: to preserve and strengthen the home’s handsome architectural bones, to make the most of south and east-facing exposures, and to create authentic barefoot living to reflect the character and spirit of lake life. Horning and Freres incorporated numerous architectural elements that honored Weber’s original vision and made it current. By bringing in texture, warmth and personal history, they transformed this classic midcentury modern into a cozy family home using modern amenities, technology and materials.

Irvington Residence (photo courtesy DAO Architecture)

For the final two homes on the tour, I wanted to showcase compact urban living, be it in single or multi-family residences. That starts with the Irvington Residence by DAO Architecture. (An introduction between this and the Webber house's architect could go, 'DAO? MAO. MAO? DAO.')

Over the past decade Portland has seen many so-called skinny houses squeezed into half-sized lots. Many have been major eyesores, as if the architectural draftspeople behind them had never taken even high school geometry. Not so with this elegant design.

Even though it's just 13 feet wide, the house feels proportionally elegant, while managing to accommodate a living room, double-height dining room, kitchen, two bedrooms, a full bathroom and powder room, a ground floor patio and an upper floor deck. Extensive use of windows, including a large central skylight and ample interior glazing, combine with through-floor openings make the structure feel considerably more spacious than would be anticipated within the 500 square foot footprint.

Sawyer's Row (photo by Josh Partee)

Holst Architecture's Sawyer's Row, a 40-unit complex on the northwestern edge of Slabtown in NW Portland, is a continuation of the firm's remarkable resume of condos and apartments. The firm made its name initially more than a decade ago with pragmatically modest-budgeted yet inspiringly attractive public buildings such as the Pacific Northwest College of Art and the Oregon Ballet Theater, converted from a warehouse and bank branch, respectively. Yet in the 2000s the firm really began to soar with a series of condos situated in the city's historic neighborhoods, most notably the Belmont Street Lofts but also including projects like the Clinton Condos (included in last year's tour), before graduating to larger-scale works like the stunning 937 condos in the Pearl District.

Sawyer's Row is comprised of forty apartments with an exterior palette of textured cedar rain screen claddings with cement stucco and steel canopies. Rather than consume the site with a long, overbearing structure, the architects broke the building into four smaller parts, promoting a residential neighborhood feel while setting the tone for new development in this burgeoning area of the city. Situated in a former industrial area, Sawyer’s Row is surrounded by an eclectic mix of industrial, commercial, and multi- and single-family buildings, and sets an example for successful future infill development in the neighborhood.

 

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The Architect's Questionnaire: Jon McGrew

Jon McGrew (image courtesy Hennebery Eddy)

BY LUKE AREHART

The latest entry in our continuing series on local architects' inspirations and favorites brings us to Jon McGrew, an associate principal with Hennebery Eddy Architets. McGrew has been a key leader for the firm's higher education, performing arts, and K-12 education projects, drawing on 24 years of experience.

Portland Architecture: When did you first become interested in architecture as a possible career?

Jon McGrew: In the seventh grade. I was born here in Portland, but I grew up in Indiana from around the ages of 3 to 15 years old. I lived in a neighborhood in Fort Wayne, Indiana where a good percentage of the houses were designed by architects, but not necessarily famous ones. In fact, our neighbor across the street was an architect and had a cool house; I used to see him bringing home architectural models. They had a house like the Brady house with an open riser tread and a fireplace that divided the dining room from the living room. I used to hang out there and look at the models, which helped me decide in seventh grade that I wanted to be an architect. A couple of my friends lived in some pretty wild houses; one kid’s sister had a planetarium in her bedroom. We however were like interlopers. When we moved to Fort Wayne, my dad leased our house around the country club, so we didn’t really fit in. But I did get to hang out with all of these guys. We used to sit around and draw house plans.

I wanted to be an architect so bad to the point that I remember in freshman year of high school when we were asked to take a punch-card aptitude test that would spit out a computer print-out that would list careers that you should consider. Mine came back and had about 50 careers on listed and architect wasn’t one of them. This made me worried because this document was going to be in my permanent file. I went to the principle and asked to see if I could query the process to find out why architecture wasn’t on my list. I had completed the whole test not answering truthfully but answering the way I thought would get architecture to show up on my list. One of the questions that helped decide was “do you want to work indoors or outdoors” and my reply was indoors, and I was told occasionally you have to go outdoors on a job site. So I changed that answer and they printed it out and it went in my file.

Where did you study architecture and how would you rate the experience?

I studied architecture at the University of Oregon. I moved from Indiana out to Oregon when I was in high school. I knew I wanted to be an architect and thought about and considered the other architect schools back in the Midwest that I was interested in. I asked my high school drafting teacher his opinion on some good architecture schools and he said U of O was one of the best. This prospect sounded pretty exotic to me coming from Indiana. I was able to get in, and I loved the whole experience; architecture school was a lot of fun for me. I loved U of O in the sense that I’d been studying drafting and I knew other things about architecture through drawing. At the U of O I put that training aside and worked on design. I got to meet all kinds of smart people who had vastly more experience than me. I was 18 going through the program in a class with guys who already owned their own construction company, been in the Air Force, or were working on their masters degrees. It was completely mind expanding, and great fun. I enjoyed it.

What is your favorite building project that you’ve worked on?

The last project I completed before I left for Portland was Stanford’s Knight Management center. It’s not cutting-edge architecture, but it was an amazing experience. Another favorite project is one I am working on right now called 2&Taylor: the renovation of the Yamhill Marketplace. We are basically taking the skin off and renovating some other elements. The thing that is exciting for me is that this is my first project in Portland. I‘ve been working for 30 years and have completed some fun projects in Texas, Arizona and California. I remember during the big building boom riding across the bridge and seeing all of the big cranes in downtown thinking I can’t wait to do a project here in Portland. It was right when I got out of college, and I thought a Portland project was going to happen for me and I wasn’t working on any of the projects currently under construction and it bummed me out. I’m excited to be working on the 2&Taylor project.

2&Taylor (image courtesy Hennebery Eddy)

Who has been an important mentor among your colleagues?

A guy named Gordon McWilliams who was a principle at SRG Partnership, which was my first job out of school. Early on he gave me advice to buy a suit. What he really instilled in me was the importance of communication and how to deal with consultants and owners. He was always clear and had a lot to do with shaping the way that I try to communicate.

Another mentor was Bob Caruthers, who recently retired from Waterleaf Architecture + Interiors. He is a technical genius. After we got through the hazing portion he taught me how to fold skinny as opposed wrinkling it up because that made too much noise, and how to write a response to an RFI. It was an incredible education that I really benefitted from.

Another recent mentor is Stan Boles, in terms of watching how he was able to help clients navigate the process of architecture.

What part of the job do you like best, and as an architect what do you think you most excel at?

Well, when I came out of school, I wanted to be the world’s greatest architect and get published in magazines and all of that kind of stuff; I wanted to be famous. But after a while and probably right around the time my first kid was born, I realized that I spend a whole lot of time doing this and it’s not always fun. It’s not all renderings and designing. What I found since this realization that makes me feel satisfied is the experience of relationships with people, whether it’s the clients or consultants while working through projects that are always challenging. Trying to find a way to enjoy myself and have some fun while maybe dragging some other people into that quest is something I think I am good at, even on difficult projects. Some projects may not be the most architecturally satisfying but it doesn’t mean it has to be a miserable life experience. This is something that I have been able to bring to my teams, projects and people that we meet.  All while trying to be a little happier.

Architecturally, I think I have a good sense but I am not the most intuitive designer. But I think I am good at judging the context, breaking it down to its parts and being able to compose a solution. In terms of project teams I can guide the team and help them keep their eye on the prize. At this point in my career I am also trying to help mentor other folks in the same way as some of the mentors I had. Hopefully they can get closer to realizing the vision instead of being dissatisfied with the compromise because they didn’t have the information to be able to get built what you had in your head.

Weatherly Building (image courtesy Wikimedia Commons)

What are some Portland buildings (either new or historic) that you most admire?

I talk a lot about the Hatfield US Courthouse and I like it primarily because I think it is one of the best detailed buildings in Portland. I talk to people about going down to look at it for different things. I think that this building is put together very well and the detailing reflects the design intent and makes it clear. For instance it’s a curtain wall system; all of the skin materials are hanging off a steel frame and I like the way the building expresses that. There are steel channels that sit inside the bedded stone. It’s not trying to pretend like it’s a gravity-bound 19th century masonry-built building.

I also enjoy The Weatherly Building at the east end of the Morrison Bridge, by architect Richard Sundeleaf. It’s a tall, slender building with a nice proportion for an old building. Also, the building has gargoyles, and I love gargoyles. I like the fact that the gargoyles are looking over and keeping watch; we should have more gargoyles in Portland.

What is your favorite building outside of Portland and besides any you’ve worked on?

My favorite building right now is the Nasher Sculpture Center that Renzo Piano did down in Dallas, TX. I was working on a project down in Dallas for a few years, so I was able to go and visit that project a couple times. I’ve seen lots of projects that are famous or have received acclaim and been published that have been good. But every once in a while you go to one and are in amazement, and the Nasher was one of them. The architecture is so well thought out and executed.

Another favorite which isn’t really a building but one that I can’t believe anybody actually did.  The High Line in New York City has a massive impact on how you perceive time and space was. I was able to tour that with Charles Renfro who was showing us around while we were teaming with him on a project at Boora. He took us to see the project and it just blew me away how you could go from all the energy at ground level Manhattan, and then you change your elevation by 18 feet and it’s a whole different planet. It’s amazing and one of the coolest things I have ever experienced.

Is there a local architect or firm you think is unheralded or deserves more credit?

I don’t know about unheralded or deserving more credit, but a firm that I really like is FieldWork Design & Architecture. The partners are Cornell Anderson, Tonia Hein, and Timothy Fouch. I used to work with Cornell and Tonia. They opened in 2010 and have a very cool space near Division and 26th and they do interiors, architecture along with fabrication and furniture. They have done some really thoughtful and beautiful stuff. They did a lot of the display work up for Will Leather Goods at Union Way. Very talented people doing some really cool stuff. 

What would you like to see change about Portland’s built environment in the long term?

The skyline. I’d love to have a couple buildings with decent tops. As to whether these building tops would include gargoyles or not; I don’t know. Portland is amazing at the pedestrian scale, and some of that comes from our miniature block sizes; the mid-block scale is also nice. We don’t have too many terrible buildings. We just don’t have many exceptional buildings either. I think our city could do better with some skyline improvements.

What I am looking for are buildings with distinct and purposeful tops. If you look at the skyline of Portland right now the closest we have to a top is the KOIN tower. Everything else is kind of chopped off like the Wells Fargo Center and the US Bancorp Tower. If you think about watching a professional sports game when the camera pans the city and you can often recognize the city of the event. Imagine if they panned San Francisco you’d know its San Francisco; same with New York and even Dallas. In Portland whenever they pan, they always show you Mt. Hood because there is nothing discerning about our skyline at all. I really love Portland, and I would not change very much about the architecture because we maintain a very high level of design compared to other cities.

How would you rate the performance of local government like the Portland Development Commission, or the development and planning bureaus?

It’s interesting: I’ve been working in Portland for almost 30 years, but I haven’t worked with in Portland for most of that time. Most of my projects have been other places. Since I came to Hennebery Eddy,  one of the reasons I came here was to actually change that trend and work in Portland.

Just recently with the 2&Taylor project I experienced the Type 3 application process with the City of Portland's landmarks commission. I had heard all of the stories, and it’s kind of an onerous process with lots of guidelines. But I was really impressed. We went through the process and worked really hard with the folks from the city. We tried to be proactive with what we were after and it was an enlightening process for me that I learned from and had the opportunity to go through. The city staff were really helpful as well as the commissioners on the landmarks board. We did a couple of design advice requests as opposed to jumping right into the process. As a result, we got our proposal approved on the first review and I think the design advice requests helped the building get much better based on the feedback from the landmarks commission. It was exciting and fun and the project got better.

Who is a famous architect you’d like to see design a building in Portland?

It would be fun to see a Renzo Piano building in Portland. His buildings are beautiful and technically put together in a nice way. I’d be just as happy to see some of the talented local firms complete a significant project, like a skyline project. There are some really great firms here.

If I had to pick another famous national firm, I’d like to see SHoP Architects design here; which may give an opportunity to observe the process closely if they were doing a design build.

Name something besides architecture (sneakers, furniture, umbrellas) you love the design of.

It’s not very deep…cars, mostly old cars. I think new cars all start to look the same since they are trying to meet the same parameters, like gas mileage for example.

I also like motorcycles. Even though I don’t ride a motorcycle, I’m afraid of them. But I love watching "Biker Build-Off" and those types of shows. It’s amazing. I like watching the craft and the fabrication of the builders and what they can accomplish. I’m jealous; I wish I had the same tools and an aptitude to do the same thing. I appreciate it. There are the guys who build the crazy fiberglass dragon thing; I don’t like that. I like the guys who find an old engine and build every tube of the frame, and since it’s a custom build, beautiful and composed, they don’t cover it up with other stuff. There is an idea about the aesthetic they are going for, so they use corresponding rims and tires. I like the customization shows since we apply the same process to architecture. It’s about breaking down the problem and thinking about the pieces, or program. Anyone can put it together to make it run, but it’s a difference entirely to put it together so it’s composed and reflected and aesthetic and an idea, that also operates. It’s fascinating to me.

The McGrew abides

What are three of your all-time favorite movies?

This is the hardest question out of all of them. The first one is easy: The Big Lebowski. I like to think of myself as an aspiring Dude. I’m trying harder and harder just to be calm. Number two because I like the idea of top five lists and top three lists and one of my all time favorites is High Fidelity with John Cusack. I like it because he spends a lot of time doing top five lists. I also like it because that whole movie is about him growing up and being able to move away from a record store. The reverse of this is actually my goal; I would love to devolve into owning a record store and making top five lists. If I could become what he was trying to escape, I’d be happy as a clam. Also Bruce Springsteen gives him advice. I tend to take advice from Bruce once in awhile myself. The third one was hard, but I would say The Sandlot because it’s an amazing movie and I’ve enjoyed it with my kids. It just makes me smile; and I like nicknames. Everyone should have a nickname.

 

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Designing outdoor dining: James Harrison's "Land Yacht"

The Land Yacht at 24th and Glisan (photo by Brian Libby)

BY BRIAN LIBBY

As Portland's food cart scene has exploded in recent years, the challenge of making them viable year-round has seen operators embracing a proliferation of cheap, DIY options. Food cart pods around the city, as well as brick-and-mortar restaurants with extended outdoor seating, have turned to a series of off-the-shelf awnings and tents to create sheltered exterior spaces for eating and drinking. In every case, the solutions show practical ingenuity but a lack of aesthetic grace. Can we ever have our fried pies and pork-belly sandwiches out of the rain without feeling like we're at a camping expo?

Designer-artist James Harrison, whose light-filled public art sculptures grace places like the Eastbank Esplanade as well as locations from Seattle to London, and who also led the effort more than a decade ago to save the Lovejoy Columns, has made one of the first serious stabs at creating a more permanent outdoor-dining shelter. Dubbed the Land Yacht and situated at The Ocean, a cluster of micro restaurants at NE 24th and Glisan, Harrison's creation looks like a cross between a Conestoga wagon and a greenhouse.

"We are how many years into the food cart experiment now? It’s maturing. What we’re seeing is some of them are really turning into little villages, both good and bad, where there’s a lot of makeshift stuff because there aren’t good solutions out there. People are going to Home Depot to make tarps," Harrison says.

The Land Yacht at 24th and Glisan (photos by Brian Libby)

Harrison and The Ocean's developer, Kevin Cavenaugh, "went back and forth on the design quite a bit," he explains. "There’s about 50 versions of the design. It really got pushed and prodded into shape. So the Conesta wagon look of it is actually a result in form from a whole lot of forces. We didn’t start there at all. But it’s very much tailored to the site. The design had to hit all of its marks that you would expect in terms of outdoor seating for people of a certain size and scale."

Harrison started by looking at greenhouse technology for inspiration, "because farmers have to cover a lot of space for cheap," he says. "So if you look at it it’s very vernacular. There’s a lot of greenhouse components." Some greenhouse designs also resemble pioneers' covered wagons, with a thin material covering a series of structural wire hoops. Hence the Land Yacht name.

The form of the 14x30-foot Land Yacht is made from semi-transparent vinyl welding screen. "My idea was to put color against a gray sky," Harrison adds. "For me it’s much more about the looking out, because that’s where you get the color effect. But it was made to be an icon on the street, too, to attract people. I’ve been hunting for years for materials I could use as an artist to bathe the body in color. In my work, I’ve typically put color in the sky with glass. But glass is astronomically expensive. It’s doable but you need a big budget to do it. I’ve had these greenhouse designs for years and no client to build them. I always see the welding vinyl. I thought, this stuff is so fantastic looking: what if I put it into a new context? When I met with Kevin he was game for it. We know we’re taking a chance. But with the material specs on this stuff, I think we’ve got every reason to believe it will behave pretty well and we’ll get at least a few years out of it. So I worked with a sail maker in town and made tons of models, both in the computer and physical models. But ultimately they came up and patterned it. They have a giant CNC machine that cut all the vinyl shapes. We did the first test fitting, tailored it, made a few trims, and put it back on."

Two weeks ago the Land Yacht was christened on a rainy Sunday, but nevertheless attracted a crowd of well-wishers and curious diners. At the end of the event, Harrison recalls a man passing by on the sidewalk stopped to criticize the project for its ugliness. "I was dying with laughter. Lest I get too full of myself, there are people who are going to have issues with it, whatever they are," he says. "But it’s very much trying to answer that question about outdoor dining in Portland and how oppressed we all feel by the gray this time of year. Being bathed in orange light makes you feel warm. I was pleasantly surprpised by the effects of it."

 

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Design calendar: March 16-31

Albina Branch Library, Portland (image courtesy University of Oregon archives)

BY BRIAN LIBBY

Moderate Modernist: The Life and Work of Architect Ellis F. Lawrence
Ellis Fuller Lawrence (1879-1946) came to Portland in 1906 and designed over 500 buildings in his nearly forty-year career. The Ellis Lawrence House (1906) in Irvington is considered one of the first Arts and Crafts residences in Portland. However, as Eric Wheeler's lecture will explore, Lawrence’s architectural palette was quite eclectic, ranging from the formal and historical to the picturesque and modern. Many of his designs display a surprising juxtaposition of the traditional and modern, especially his institutional buildings such as the Albina Branch Library (1912) and the Riverview Cemetery Caretaker's House (1914). Perhaps Lawrence’s most significant contribution to regional architecture was as founder and first dean of the School of Architecture and Allied Arts at the University of Oregon. During his lengthy tenure, Lawrence designed more than two dozen campus buildings while also helping to mentor a new generation of architects in the less formalized approach of the Modern movement. Architectural Heritage Center, 701 SE Grand Avenue, 503-231-7264. 10AM Saturday, March 15. $20 ($12 for AHC members).

Visitors Information Center, now the Rose Festival Center (photo by Brian Libby)

John Yeon's VIC Tour
The Visitors Information Center in Portland is John Yeon’s only non-residential building still in existence. Yeon, one of Oregon’s most famous architects, is known as a pioneer of the Northwest regional style of architecture. His Information Center, which the local Docomo chapter is leading a tour through, was included as one of only 43 buildings in the Museum of Modern Art’s prestigious 1953 “Built in America: Post-War Architecture” exhibit, along with works by Frank Lloyd Wright, Walter Gropius, Philip Johnson, and Richard Neutra. Yeon was decidedly unorthodox both in his approach to design and in his training and career.  His deep love for the landscapes of the Pacific Northwest inspired his multi-disciplinary style of design, where the outside views were carefully framed in an orchestrated series of experiences. The Visitors Information Center shows Yeon’s innovative design approach in its response to its site conditions, in its wall systems and materials, and in its landscaping. The building is widely considered to be one of John Yeon’s finest works. Rose Festival Center, 1020 SW Natio Parkway. 4:30PM Tuesday, March 18. $10 ($5 for Docomomo members).

In the Shadow of a Concrete Forest: The Mt. Hood Freeway Story
In 1974, a judge's ruling put a halt to further development of the proposed Mt. Hood Freeway, a roadway that for nearly 20 years most people had assumed would be constructed. The story of the once-planned but never constructed Mount Hood Freeway, presented here by the Architectural Heritage Center's Val Ballestrem, has attained legendary status as a tale of grass-roots efforts, by citizen activists, to preserve their Portland neighborhoods. It is also the story of how a handful of political leaders utilized their power, along with changes in federal transportation and environmental policies, to move a Pacific Northwest city away from complete automobile dependence and toward burgeoning alternatives in mass transit. Architectural Heritage Center, 701 SE Grand Avenue, 503-231-7264. 10AM Saturday, March 22. $20 ($12 for AHC members).

Pacific subduction zones map (by Dan Coe, Oregon Dept. of Geology)

Earthquake Resilience Planning
Studies estimate that under current conditions Oregon’s next great earthquake and resulting tsunami will cause 1,250 to 10,000 deaths, damage or destroy tens of thousands of buildings, and cripple essential services such as transportation and utilities for months or years. What can be done now to reduce damage and shorten recovery time from such an event? At Architects Without Borders’ next general meeting, Jay Raskin, will present the Oregon Resilience Plan, which outlines the state’s findings and recommendations regarding a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake. Raskin, a leading advocate for disaster preparedness and recovery planning, will provide an overview of the plan and talk about opportunities for involvement in planning and recovery efforts. Architects Without Borders-Oregon, AIA Center for Architecture, 403 NW 11th Ave. (Enter on NW Flanders.) 6PM, Wednesday, March 26. Free.

Passive House NW Annual Conference
Passive House Northwest's fifth annual spring conference will include industry experts, builders, architects and vendors to convene and collaborate on strategies that continue to break through market barriers, rooting Passive House Buildings in the vernacular of the bioregion, delivering predictable efficiencies, comfort and promoting independence from increasingly volatile energy supply. Opening keynote speaker Nick Grant will define the principals of elemental solutions. The remaining program will feature key industry specialists delivering perspective based on experiential problem solving. Ambridge Event Center, 1333 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. 8AM Friday, March 28. $150 ($100 for PHNW members).

Whimsical and Quirky: the Storybook Style
The end of World War I brought about a time of nostalgia,  lighthearted humor, and rambunctious building creations, when American home styles began to reflect those of 17th and 18th century Europe, with an emphasis on specialty craftsmanship, theatrical flair, and abundant (and sometimes extraordinary) architectural features.  Drawing on the work of architects such as A.E. Doyle and Wade Pipes, as well as numerous not-so-well-known Portland area home builders, Leslie Hutchinson and Barbara Fisher will share the story of the Storybook Style, and how it came to be so popular in Portland and elsewhere across the country. Architectural Heritage Center, 701 SE Grand Avenue, 503-231-7264. 10AM Saturday, March 29. $20 ($12 for AHC members).

Portland Modern Home Tour
Curated by Portland Architecture, this year's edition of the annual Portland Modern Home Tour features a blend of nine contemporary and midcentury-modern homes, including: the Skyline Residence by Skylab Architecture, the Tower House by Ben Waechter, the Sawyer's Row apartments by Holst Architecture, the Irvington Residence by DAO Architecture, restored houses by Robert Rummer and Warren Webber, and the Dominic Residience by GSB Design, among others. 11AM Saturday, March 29. $30 online in advance, $40 day of tour.

 

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How will the new bridge change the Central Eastside?

Trimet's new bridge and Willamette River boat traffic (photo by Brian Libby)

BY BRIAN LIBBY

Last Friday, with clouds temporarily parted on a gorgeous early-spring afternoon, I set out by bicycle for my favorite ride, along the Springwater Corridor and Oak's Bottom Wildlife Refuge flanking the east side of the Willamette River. But before heading south into this lush stretch of greenery, I decided to explore the area where Trimet's new MAX and pedestrian bridge touches down. After all, be it Mayor Hales, developers or planning gurus, experts and leadership seem to agree this portion of the broader Central Eastside seems poised for change.

Although it still lacks a name, the new bridge is nearing completion. For more than a year we have watched its two sides growing towards each other in the middle, like two arms stretching out to shake hands. When it is done, there will be thousands of MAX passengers moving between suburban Milwaukie to the south and downtown to the west. There is also a streetcar line, completed last year, that terminates in this same stretch of blocks, south of OMSI. Rail lines, especially streetcars, have long acted as development tools, with zoning often allowing higher density mixed-use development at these transit nodes. How might this neighborhood look much different in coming years?

The Central Eastside is not trying to become another Pearl District or South Waterfront (the latter of which sits almost directly across the Willamette from this southern portion of the district). It has long been zoned and protected as an industrial sanctuary. The district includes more than 1,100 companies and 17,000 jobs, and remained robust during the Great Recession.

Even so, the Central Eastside has changed dramatically within the past decade, adding a host of new industries. According to a report by the city's Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, today only 10 percent of the district is used for manufacturing purposes and another 16 percent by what is called wholesale, transportation and warehousing. These two industries would have made up almost all 100 percent a generation ago. But today knowledge-based companies and design firms comprise 16 percent of the district, retail eight percent, and 12 percent for entertainment and food service.

So far, local planners and leaders have so far remained firm that the Central Eastside should not be taken over by housing development. And recently a group of visiting Urban Land Institute fellows seconded this plan, arguing that the Central Eastside overall should remain a haven for what they called "makers and doers," allowing the continuing mix of industrial and other types of employment to remain without being crowded out by condo and apartment builders.

Yet the city breaks the Central Eastside into pieces, and the closer one looks, the more it feels like housing will eventually come to its edges.

The portion of the district called Central Core comprises the majority of the land; it's bordered by Third and 12th Avenues to the west and east, I-84 to the north and existing railroad tracks to the south. This will assuredly remain a non-residential area. But along the river, from Third Avenue heading west, is what's called (appropriately) the Third Avenue West corridor. Could this ever be planned and zoned differently? Closer to OMSI where the bridge touches down is an area called the Southern Triangle, and east of that an additional parcel (between SE Division and Powell, east of 12th) called the Clinton Triangle. That’s where I can mostly easily see big transformation happening, something that involves housing.

The east edge of the Central Eastside's Central Core, on busy Grand Avenue and Martin Luther King Boulevard, is already zoned to allow housing and mixed-use development. In recent years there has not been much housing built here, perhaps because the corridor is not a very inviting urban place: it's an island flanked by multi-lane streets on either side (Grand and MLK comprise Highway 99E). But the completion of a new east side streetcar line on these streets last year may have begun to act as a development catalyst as it did for the Pearl, and if so, the new MAX line crossing the river (with stops at OMSI and the intersection near 12th and Clinton) may only hasten that process.

The Oregon Rail Heritage center near OMSI (photo by Brian Libby)

When you couple the Grand/MLK corridor beside the Central Eastside with a potentially rezoned Southern Triangle around OMSI and the new bridgehead, suddenly there's the opportunity to add a lot more development. "Stakeholders have consistently expressed a desire for the new light rail station at OMSI to become a catalyst for the development of a more accessible and vibrant waterfront district," the city's Central Eastside report reads. On a map it's easy to see the OMSI/bridgehead area becoming an extension of the higher density, housing and mixed-use development sought along the Grand/MLK corridor. One would be within walking distance of the burgeoning Division Street strip of restaurants and shops to the east, the Central Eastside to the north and downtown to the west, with both the MAX and streetcar lines at one's doorstep. 

"It's waterfront property with a spectacular new bridge with no freeway along the river," Mayor Hales said last fall in a talk at AIA/Portland.  "A lot of Trimet’s staging areas are freed up for redevelopment. I think it could be a great place, especially since we’ve got great outbreaks of urbanism from there to 12th."

Riding my bike around this so-called Southern Triangle of the Central Eastside was a thought-provoking exercise to look at what's there and imagine an incoming urban neighborhood where people live and shop. After all, this cluster of blocks already seems busy.

To get a look at the bridge, for example, I found a slice of public riverfront at the end of Division Place beside Polaris of Portland, a showroom for motorcycles, snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles. Around the corner at the end of Fourth Avenue are small businesses like Splendid Cycles, a purveyor of cargo bicycles. Further north, on Caruthers Street, is McCoy Millwork and the Portland Opera building, as well as the Rail Heritage Center. If the zoning were to be changed here, some of these businesses would likely move on. But for a cultural institution like Portland Opera, which occupies the waterfront former KPTV studios, or even the rail museum, the cityscape could grow up around them in a way that's beneficial.

Portland Opera (photo by Brian Libby)

Besides the already-occupied buildings here, there are also, as the mayor indicated, staging areas for the bridge that could be turned into developable land parcels. Specifically, there is an area where the bridge will touch down on both sides of Water Avenue north of Caruthers Street that's easy to imagine some day in the future being high-density development.

One can also imagine the so-called Clinton Triangle, east of the MLK/Grand viaduct but north of Powell Boulevard becoming developed. Darigold operates a creamery here, which is unlikely to go away in the immediate future. But given the centralized location within walking distance of Division Street's flourishing restaurants and shops and the new Clinton Street MAX stop, one could imagine this area becoming an exception to the city's rule of no housing or office zoning in the Central Eastside.

Meanwhile, questions about future zoning are coming up for discussion. The city is currently forming the Southeast Quadrant Plan, which will update the long range plan for the Central Eastside District of the Central City. According to the city's website, "The project will coordinate with planning for new streetcar and light rail alignments, exploring ways to leverage new investments with an emphasis on employment transit-oriented development (ETOD)." The SE Quadrant Plan will also contribute to the update of the Willamette Greenway Plan for the Central Reach of the Willamette River. Phase II of that process will be happening this spring and summer, with the public invited to join in a design charette and open house (dates to be determined). And in a few years, the Portland Development Commission's Central Eastside Urban Renewal Area will be up for renewal. First established in 1986, it includes some 690 acres.

This isn't to say the city should rush into developing high-density housing around OMSI or the Clinton/12th area right away, or in a manner that feels incongruent with what's already happening.

The area around lower Division near the new Clinton Street MAX stop, for example, has already blossomed with new businesses in and adjacent to the historic Ford Building without the infusion of riders coming to and from the stop. What's more, areas of town such as Northeast Broadway near the Rose Quarter and the adjacent Lloyd District are more ready for investment and development right now.

And it’s worth noting that the Central Eastside didn’t succumb to the boom-and-bust cycle of the Pearl and South Waterfront; rather than a lucrative playground for developers, it’s a place that zoning has allowed to consistently and steadily remain vibrant. This is no sprout of a new neighborhood; it’s a blooming place already. Yet two multi-decade trends will inevitably combine with the OMSI area's prominent close-in location to compel a high-density future: the city and state's land use planning, which curbs sprawl by growing up and in rather than out, and the process all cities are going through over the decades in reclaiming riverfront land for public use.

Today when walking or biking along the Eastbank Esplanade, the waterfront trail veers away from the banks for a few blocks in order to make room for industrial businesses like Ross Island Sand & Gravel and a series of private docks before joining up with the Springwater Corridor trail back along the Willamette south of the Ross Island Bridge.

Someday a person ought to be able to walk continuously along the river here, and it's not hard to imagine the market producing plenty of people looking to live and work here too, just like they do in the South Waterfront and the developing Zidell Yards across the river.  Even so, letting most of the Central Eastside stay non-residential would only enhance the high-density neighborhoods around it, be it around OMSI or MLK/Grand. It’s the mix that makes any city thrive.

 

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Another look at capping I-405 downtown

I-405 downtown (photo by Dave Hogan)

BY BRIAN LIBBY

Over the past 15 years, Portland has added some memorable public spaces to its downtown core, including the Eastbank Esplanade in 2001, Jamison Square in 2002, Tanner Springs Park in 2005 and Director Park in 2009. But as one moves west from Director and the adjacent Pioneer Courthouse Square, there are relatively few greenspaces until one reaches Washington Park nearly a mile away. What if we were change that by capping a portion of the Interstate 405 trench as it bisects downtown and Goose Hollow?

That's the proposition of a new ideas competition sponsored by the Portland chapter of the American Institute of Architects called "Stitch," with its brief asking for "extraordinary creative proposals that will spark the imagination, open up a dialogue and offer innovative solutions to this urban problem."

The problem in question is the severing of downtown and areas west of the freeway, including Goose Hollow and the area around Providence Park, both of which are experiencing increased density via new developments. It's not that one literally can't cross I-405, for there are bridges across the span at Morrison, Yamhill, Taylor and Jefferson Streets. Yet there's little denying that the freeway's trench sucks life from what would otherwise be a vibrant urban cityscape. This isn't a matter of vilifying highways in urban areas; I drive my car on I-405, I-5 and I-84 fairly regularly. But how those freeways intersect and interact with the surrounding city has a huge impact on the surrounding areas. And it's not just a matter of aesthetics, for these urban design decisions have a direct and very substantial effect on the economics of place. Think of how much more valuable and likely to be prosperous a storefront facing a capped I-405 with a park would be compared to one overlooking a freeway trench.

"The opportunity to reclaim land that was consumed by the highway system provides a unique opportunity to address the need for more urban open space," the brief says, "but also to restitch two neighborhoods together."

This is not the first time the idea of capping I-405 has been floated. In the 1990s, then-mayor Vera Katz proposed capping 28 of the 36 blocks that were destroyed by the creation of the freeway in the 1950s. That was a much more ambitious proposal and would have cost many hundreds of millions.

The Stitch competition's site over I-405 (image courtesy AIA/Portland)

The AIA ideas competition starts with something smaller: a single 200-by-200-foot block, making the project equivalent in size to a regular city block. It's easy to see why this is a more manageable goal, both as a competition and potentially as a real project. But I'd have liked to see multiple blocks proposed, even if it's as little as two.

The Katz proposal also seemed to have in mind building buildings on a capped I-405, although one guesses they would have had to be limited in scale given the freeway running underneath a concrete cap. This competition eyes the I-405 cap as an opportunity to add greenspace, which is a nobler civic goal but would eliminate the incentive to create developable land. In an urban sense, though, it would be better for Portland to add greenspace over the freeway. This competition is really organized daydreaming anyway: why not imagine the best-case scenario?

I-405 is also part of a broader freeway loop with I-5, which crosses the river via the Marquam Bridge and hugs the Willamette's east bank for over a mile in the Central Eastside. If one really wanted to throw upen lots of new central-city land for development, the big move would be to tear down the Marquam and the east-side overpass and build a tunnel for I-5, thereby freeing up most all of the east side to reconnect with the river. Anyone who has spent time on the Vera Katz Eastbank Esplanade is accompanied by the almost deafening white noise of freeway traffic just a few feet away. The Esplanade is an urban bandage on an otherwise festering wound. Of course it would take a gigantic amount of money to do this, and frankly I've spent most of the past 15 years thinking it was all but impossible. Yet the Columbia Crossing would be no more expensive than building an I-5 tunnel, even though it would do little to improve traffic conditions and nothing to improve Portland or Vancouver's cityscapes. Vancouver, at least, has tied its own freeway-capping project, one over I-5, to the Columbia Crossing.

The city has many urban-planning priorities that would seem to trump an I-405 capping project, at least for now. Mayor Hales has often spoke of the development opportunity existing now on the east side of the Willamette near the new Tri-Met light rail and pedestrian bridge nearing completion. There are also alterations planned for I-5 at the Rose Quarter, where in late 2012 the Oregon Transportation Commission approved a plan that aims to  alleviate I-5 traffic and remodel neighborhoods near the Rose Garden with new surface streets, a cap over the freeway with a possible park, and new bike- and pedestrian-friendly improvements. Given what an under-performing and untapped resource the Northeast Broadway is, with a new streetcar line and acres of developable high-density land on either side (at the Portland Public Schools Blanchard site and on the Rose Quarter site), it would make more sense for the city to direct its attention there.

Even so, the AIA "Stitch" competition (which accepts entries between March 17 and April 28, with winners announce May 16) is a worthwhile exercise, reminding us that while freeways are a necessary part of the city's transit mix, they don't have to cut concrete canyons through our city centers. They are not just eyesores but economic drains. But if automobile traffic were ever to drastically decrease, the Greetings From Portlandia blog has a fun idea: fill it with water and create our city's Venetian-style grand canal.

 

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