Portland Architecture

G.Z. Brown, the Climate Chamber, and teaching sustainable design to generations

Climate Chamber at UO's ESBL (image courtesy University of Oregon)

BY BRIAN LIBBY

For all the technology and hard science behind what's called the Climate Chamber at University of Oregon's Energy Studies in Buildings Laboratory, the effect it has on people is a little bit like magic. Professor G.Z. Brown, who heads the school's two ESBLs, in Eugene and Portland, has seen even highly trained designers express disbelief or even giddy laughter after spending time inside.

The Climate Chamber, one of the teaching tools that will be on display during Thursday's ESBL open house at UO's Portland outpost (better known as the White Stag Block), is a box-like room in which temperature, relative humidity, radiant field and air speed are all tightly controlled. "With those four variables, you can put people in the box and measure their comfort," Brown says. And that's where the trick-that-isn't-a-trick comes in. "We asked them to tell us what the temperature is and whether they’re comfortable. We found out they can’t predict the temperature although they know whether they’re comfortable or not."

Settings for conventional heating and cooling systems are almost always based solely on temperature. A standard defined comfort zone range in an office or other workplace, for example, might be something like 72 to 76 degrees. The Climate Chamber demonstrates how much human comfort is based on these other factors as well, like the radiant temperature of surfaces or the amount of air moving through a space. "If you turn down your ceiling fan, it might feel warmer than it is," Brown says. "If the radiant field is cooler, you feel cooler even though the air temp might be higher."

GZ Brown (image courtesy University of Oregon)

Brown and his team have brought a variety of building owners, developers and other community members besides architects into the Climate Chamber, but he says designers are the most surprised. He recalls a pair of engineers who laughed good-naturedly at their faulty guesses on temperature. "They could not believe they couldn’t predict it," he remembers. They ran through it a couple of times, and they were giddy. We see that often. People mis-guess on the hot side by as much as 6 degrees and on the cold side by as much as 15 degrees."

There's a level of common sense to this, of course, but the Climate Chamber helps to make that information more resonant, more palpable. "It’s not new information," Brown explains, "but to feel it is completely different from understanding that in analytical terms." So while the Climate Chamber joins other measuring tools at the ESBL as a means for students and local architects to study daylighting and its effects, it also has a kind of theatrical power of persuasion that can be shared with people beyond the academy and the architecture studio. "We realized we could bring engineers, developers and others down, run them through some of these variables, and show that they’re comfortable outside of the standard comfort zone." And in a lot of building projects, he adds, "You just cut one or two degrees and it makes a big difference. It’s an inexpensive way to get better performance."

Besides the parlor-trick aspect of the Climate Chamber, the ESBL also can provide a variety of measurements. One recent study, for instance, looked at the presence of microorganisms in a  space depending on whether it's naturally ventilated or sealed off and air conditioned. HVAC design has long sought to filter out unwanted pathogens, "but some microorganisms are beneficial to our development," Brown explains. "When you put in a filter, you take out indiscriminately. You may be taking out things that are good and things that are not good for you."

I first became aware of Brown's  work twelve years ago, when the school opened a daylighting lab at its Portland satellite campus to help local architects and students learn to maximize natural illumination. But by 2002 Brown had already spent more than 20 years teaching and impacting the profession about sustainable design.

The Yale-educated professor and former Fulbright scholar is the author of two pioneering books: 1982's Inside Out: Design Procedures for Passive Environmental Technologies and 1985's Sun, Wind & Light: Architectural Design Strategies. "Daylighting is as old as architecture itself,'' Brown told me in an interview for a 2003 New York Times story. ''But with the invention of efficient electric light, it's something we've gotten away from.'' Yet Brown is equally an expert on air movement in architecture, having written 2004's Natural Ventilation in Buildings.

A "light cone" at Portland Community College (image courtesy SRG Partnership)

Besides his work as an architecture professor (based mostly at UO's main Eugene campus) and author, Brown through the ESBL has also consulted on many projects, and even helped create new technology for spreading daylight that has been used in several projects. In 2007, Brown and colleagues invented a special skylight that helps maintain balanced light levels even when light levels outside change dramatically.

"In order to meet the required light levels on overcast days you need a large opening,'" Brown explained in Architectural Lighting magazine. 'But that means the rest of the time, it's too big.' That's why the polycarbonate skylight is outfitted on top with a succession of integrated louvers that automatically adjust based on sensor readings, opening and closing in relation to the amount of available sunlight, so that a minimum interior light level of 20 to 40 footcandles (a range chosen by the team because it represents existing national and international standards) is maintained at all times during daylight hours. That protype, co-designed with Mike Hatten of SOLARC and Heinz Rudolf of Boora, soon was incorporated into an SRG Partnership-designed classroom at Mt. Angel Abbey. The ESBL has since consulted on many local projects, many of them designed by SRG in a continuing collaboration (the firm even funds graduate research fellows at the ESBL), such as the Portland Community College Southeast Learning Commons, which features a distinctive "light cones" that direct natural illumination through multiple floor openings.

In the more than 30 years since his first book was published, or even just the past decade for that matter, Brown says he has seen enormous transformation in sustainable design and its acceptance.

"The design profession has changed dramatically," he says. "I go to these meetings with  consultants I’ve worked with before, and they’ve gone from being adversaries to advocates.In that sense things have changed dramatically." But he also cautions that it's too easy to talk about your building or your design being sustainable without that always being the case. And that's why tools at the ESBL such as the Climate Chamber, or the Heliodon (which tracks solar orientation for any lattitude, any day of the year), or the Artificial Sky (a full-scale mockup of a daylit room) help root the process in hard data. If the data or how we perceive it happens to surprise us, like it has with the Climate Chamber, then all the better to reinforce the lesson.

[NOTE: In the spirit of full disclousure, the University of Oregon's School of Architecture and Allied Arts is a sponsor of this blog, and sponsors should never determine editorial content. I judged the topic of Brown's work and the ESBL to be worthy of coverage in their own right. I've written about both in numerous publications long before the sponsorship began.]

 

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Opportunity rising at the renovated Bakery Building

Bakery Building entrance at SE 22nd & Irving (photo by Brian Libby)

BY BRIAN LIBBY

There is a new entry in Portland’s ongoing collection of warehouses converted to creative-class office space, joining projects from the past decade like the Olympic Mills Commerce Center in the Central Eastside, the Leftbank Building near the Rose Quarter, and the Ford Building in Southeast.

The  Bakery Building is massive, occupying an entire block at NE 22^nd and Riving, just north of Sandy Boulevard. The oldest portion of the 78,400 square foot structure dates to 1918, but it was built out in a succession of expansions over the decades, so much so that some of the building is wood-framed and some is steel-framed.

Davidson’s Baking Company, which built the building, was founded in 1914 and produced Davidson’s Ideal Bread, and later Sunbeam Bread). According to the Oregon Encyclopedia, when the company celebrated its golden anniversary in 1964, it employed 360 people and “was baking 12.5 million loaves of bread a year for retail grocery stores, restaurants, and schools—about six or seven loaves per Oregonian.” But since 1967, when company was sold (folding six years later), it has sat largely empty. It’s been waiting for a renovation since the Lyndon Johnson administration.

Inside the Bakery Building (photos by Brian Libby)

The restored Bakery Blocks, as the building is now known, was developed by Jeff Mincheff, who previously developed the Eastbank Lofts, and Don Vallaster, a partner at Vallaster & Corl Architects. (The pair are also restoring an industrial building across the street, hence the "Blocks" moniker.) It includes a variety of spaces but is intended as creative office space with retail storefronts on the ground floor, the latter of which businesses like Jasmine Pearl Tea and Old Portland Hardware & Architectural already occupy.

Visiting the building recently as workers completed renovations, I encountered a variety of spaces. As one enters through the oldest portion of the building, its stairway and half-circle windows give off a slightly Georgian feel in keeping with this portion’s construction just before World War I. Moving further into the former factory, the spaces get bigger and more wide open. One second-floor space is thousands of square feet, all column free like a ballroom, with its exposed roof trusses above and a restored maple floor at one’s feet. Nearby was a two-story loft space, with light pouring in from its upper clerestory windows. In another second-floor space, exposed brick revealed a small advertising mural reading, ASK FOR IT BY NAME.

Top: historic image of Davidson's Bakery; Bottom: Inside today (photo by Brian Libby)

The surrounding area is a mixture of industrial, residential and commercial. Across 22nd sits a warehouse fronted by two massive Pepsi trucks, and then across Irving a surface parking lot. Sandy Boulevard is just two blocks south, and while part of the intersection there is dominated by the oppressively window-less KATU television studios, there are a number of food/drink and cultural outlets nearby, such as the 23 Sandy Gallery and the cluster of small eateries comprising The Ocean. It’s a centrally located area that’s within biking distance of seemingly anywhere, but an I-84 onramp just down Irving for getting out of town. Sandy Boulevard is also a leading candidate for a future streetcar line, making this area all the riper for gentrification.

And in a time when local historic buildings of every scale are being threatened with demolition, it’s nice to see this building be restored rather than demolished, especially given how long it sat empty. One day this area may be of a substantially higher density and vibrant energy, and if it does, the Bakery Building may in many ways be its anchor.

 

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Design calendar: May 16-31

Portland Plaza and Wells Fargo Center (photo by Brian Libby)

BY BRIAN LIBBY

Stitch Awards Celebration
An unveiling and celebration of the winner and competitors from the AIA/Portland ideas competition devoted to covering portions of Interstate 405 as it bisects Portland’s downtown and the Goose Hollow neighborhood. AIA Center for Architecture, 403 NW 11th Avenue. 5:30PM Friday, May 16. Free.

Irvington Home Tour
The Irvington Home Tour, a fundraiser for the Irvington Community Association, is the longest continuously running neighborhood home tour in Portland. The very first Irvington Home Tour, conducted in 1967, was the first such tour in the city. The neighborhood contains one of the nation's best collections of early 20th century residential architecture. In 2010, Irvington was designated a National Register listed Historic Distric, becoming the largest in Oregon with more than 2,800 properties, 85 percent of which considered contributing to the historic fabric of the neighborhood. Irvington also has one of the city's best and most mature tree canopies. 11AM-5PM Sunday, May 18. $27.

Metropolis LIVE! with Susan Szenasy & Francis Bronet
Susan Szenasy, editor and publisher of the architecture and design magazine Metropolis, engages in a series of national conversations exploring issues of design advocacy and ethics while celebrating the release of her book Szenasy, Design Advocate, a collection of writings and talks from the past 30 years. Szenasy will participate in a conversation with UO School of Architecture and Allied Arts Dean Frances Bronet. University of Oregon, White Stag Block, 70 NW Couch Street. 6PM Thursday, May 22.

In Process: Thomas Robinson, Tim Fouch
The latest installment in the quarterly lecture series In-Process, which explores the creative processes of local architects, designers, makers and creators, features Thomas Robinson from Lever Architecture and Tim Fouch from Fieldwork Design. Lever’s recent portfolio includes the Art House residence hall for Pacific Northwest College of Art and the Union Way retail project. Fieldwork, recently profiled in Portland Monthly, offers a multi-disciplinary approach to in architecture, furniture, and industrial design. AIA Center for Architecture, 403 NW 11th Avenue. 6PM Thursday, May 22. Free.

Modernism and Beyond: The Architecture of Downtown
This Architectural Heritage Center tour explores the northern portion of downtown, including Portland skyscrapers from the oldest to the near-tallest and most recent. The fingerprints of iconic architect Pietro Belluschi are on five buildings on this tour, including perhaps his most famous of all, the Equitable Building. Other stops include the work of modern masters Richard Sundeleaf, Skidmore Owings & Merrill, and Zimmer Gunsul Frasca. We'll also look at three modern public plazas and try to figure out reasons for success or failure of those designs. 6PM Thursday, May 22. $20 ($12 for AHC members).

Architects Without Borders: Damberger and Szmoniak
Following a showing and discussion of a brief TED Talk called “What Happens When an NGO Admits Failure” by David Damberger of Engineers Without Borders, Portland State University instructor Tom Szymoniak of Engineers Without Borders will lead a talk and discussion. AWB-Oregon is currently working with Syzmoniak and EWB’s PSU chapter on designing a site plan for community facilities and a school on 10 acres in Debre Birhan, Ethiopia. Team members will present the project and discuss ways to ensure its success. AIA Center for Architecture, 403 NW 11th Ave. 6PM, Wednesday, May 28. Free.

Energy Studies in Buildings Laboratory Open House
Professor G.Z. Brown, head of the University of Oregon's Energy Studies in Buildings Laboratory, has long been one of the nation's foremost experts on architectural daylighting. Brown and colleagues at the ESBL Open House whill showcasing the Climate Chamber and other research instruments to reduce energy use in buildings and improve human comfort such as the Heliodon and the Artificial Sky. University of Oregon, White Stag Block, 70 NW Couch Street. 4PM Thursday, May 29. Free.

PSU Sustainability Celebration
Providing an overview of sustainability programming at Portland State University, the Sustainability Celebration includes remarks by Mayor Charlie Hales, PSU President Wim Wiewel, and PSU Institute for Sustainable Solutions Director Jennifer Allen. Also including the Annual Sustainability Awards ceremony and a musical performance by PSU's a cappella group, The Green Note. Portland State University, Smith Student Ballroom, 1825 SW Broadway. 4PM Thursday, May 29. Free.

Portland Architecture- How Good is Good Enough?
How does the city's design review process work? Should it be expanded to other parts of the city? Three prominent design advocates who have overseen the city's review during three distinct eras share their opinions about how to get the best buildings for the city. Panelists: Michael McCullouch, architect, urban designer and developer; Guenevere Millius, President of Parachute Strategies and chair of the Design Commission; John Russell, President of Russell Development Company. Randy Gragg, director of the University of Oregon's John Yeon Center, will moderate the program. Sentinel Hotel, 614 SW 11th Avenue. 12:15PM Friday, May 30. $30 for non-City Club members.

Mid-Century Renovations and the Northwest Regional Style
Do you own a Mid-Century house that needs work to restore its original character and charm? Do you have woodwork in your postwar home that needs attention, but you’re not sure how to go about it? Patrick O'Neill, master craftsma and owner of Greenline Fine Woodworking, provides an overview and detailed look at several mid-century modern restoration/renovations, including homes designed by Pietro Belluschi and John Yeon. Architectural Heritage Center, 701 SE Grand. 10AM Saturday, May 31. $20 ($12 for AHC members).

 

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Weekend at Belluschi's

Jennings Sutor house (photo by Brian Libby)

BY BRIAN LIBBY

"We never could design a building as beautiful as the trees."

That quote from architect Pietro Belluschi is engraved on a commemorative bench in Forest Park dedicated to his memory. Perhaps it's something not many legendary architects would say, yet as this weekend's tour of six Belluschi-designed houses made evident, this was an architect who always saw his designs in the context of landscape.

The Belluschi weekend began Friday night with a talk at the Portland Art Museum given by Belluschi's son, Anthony, an accomplished architect in his own right who spent most of his career in Chicago but also worked with his father on 17 different projects.

Returned to Portland, Anthony now lives in the Pietro Belluschi-designed Burkes house, in which his parents also lived before their passing. The younger architect has restored and expanded the Burkes, which was part of Saturday's tour, but he's also become an active caretaker of his father's legacy. On the heels of last year's Pietro Belluschi exhibit at the Oregon Historical Society (which is now moving on to the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art in Eugene), Anthony also organized this year's tour in partnership with Restore Oregon.

Papworth house (photo by Paula Watts)

On Friday night, Anthony Belluschi took the packed Whitsell Auditorium on a personal journey through his father's life and portfolio, beginning with his early days in Ancona, Italy and his service in World War I. As a picture of Pietro in his Italian army uniform showed, he was always a sartorial fellow. Anthony also showed photos of Bologna, where Pietro studied before the war. "It's important to see where he came from," the son said of the father, pointing out the urban fabric of granite, marble and stone, all materials that would be utilized in his designs.

Pietro Belluschi was part of an enormous diaspora of Europeans who came to America during and after the two world wars. From movie directors to engineers, scientists to novelists, the United States received an incredible infusion of talent resulting from the violent upheavals of the early 20th century. After the war, Pietro studied at Cornell University, which remains perhaps America's most acclaimed architecture school.

Deciding to remain in the US due to the rise of fascism in Italy, he had a choice between Seattle, Portland and San Francisco, but chose our city because of a connection to A.E. Doyle, who was the city's most important and prominent architect (even today only Belluschi himself surpasses Doyle in importance), a stroke of luck not only for Pietro himself, but for our city, in that it created a continuous line of mentorship and mastery that has continued over the decades.

As Belluschi aficionados know, one of the biggest turning points of his career was the Portland Art Museum commission and the fraternal boost from Frank Lloyd Wright that helped make it possible. Museum trustees wanted a neo-Georgian style like that of Doyle's Central Library, rejecting the modern design Pietro created. But after Belluschi wrote Wright asking for help, Wright wrote the trustees and scolded them. The modern design not only won out, but still stands today. "Obviously he went back to the board and said, 'I told you so,'" Anthony said in his talk.

Equitable building (photo by Brian Libby)

If the Portland Art Museum put Belluschi on the map locally and regionally, the Equitable Building launched him into the national consciousness. The first American skyscraper with an aluminum-clad curtain wall and air conditioning, the Equitable was "right up there with any of the Europeans, the New Yorkers, Mies Van Der Rohe, all of them," said the legendary architect and critic Philip Johnson.

Pietro Belluschi would go on to lead the MIT school of architecture for some 20 years, during which time he designed or co-designed some major American landmarks of modern architecture such as the Pan-Am Building in New York, the Julliard School at Lincoln Center (since altered in a renovation that Anthony said he thinks Pietro would dislike), and the Cathedral of St. Mary in San Francisco. Of these, it is St. Mary that seems to have the most unique and timeless quality, thanks to elements like its saddle roof, comprised of eight segments of hyperbolic paraboloids, forming a cross.

Although Belluschi had a hand in later Portland buildings such as the US Bancorp Tower, better known as "Big Pink," it was churches and houses that he was known for after returning to the city in 1973 following his MIT retirement. Churches such as St. Thomas Moore in Portland and 1st Presbyterian in Cottage Grove display not just the clean lines of modernism, but an almost arts and crafts-like reverence for materials such as wood.

"I can still see the church of my youth in Bologna, as every church I've been to," Belluschi once told biographer Meredith Clausen. "The church is not the building; it's the coming together of people -- how they face each other, how they feel each other."

Top: Platt residence (photo by Brian Libby), bottom: Ressler house (photo by Drew Nasto) 

Talking about Pietro's house designs, of which 34 remain standing, Anthony cited his father's love of barns in the Oregon landscape. "That's something that stuck with him all his life," Anthony said. "They were simple and indigenous."

When I heard Belluschi's masterful circa-1948 Burkes house was being expanded, it made me nervous. Few would ever dream, for instance, of adding on to a Frank Lloyd Wright house. Or if someone tried to expand, say, the John Yeon-designed Watzek House, preservationists would line up to stop it. Why mess with an immaculate piece of local history? I was especially nervous about the fact that a second story was part of the expansion for this one-story home hugging a Northwest Portland hillside.

But having seen it in person, I was relieved that Anthony Belluschi clearly understands his father's architecture well, and the award-winning expansion is such that Burkes house does indeed feel like a congruent whole today, its language of wood and glass not only enlarged but nicely updated for the future with moves such as an expanded kitchen that don't feel out of place in relation to the original design. And for architecture, it's not enough to simply preserve: however artful a design may be, it has to remain relevant and useful.

What's more, as Janet Eastman wrote in The Oregonian, "It is incredibly poignant that Pietro spent his last years here, before passing away at 94 in 1994, and that his son and daughter-in-law refinished wood, replaced worn floors and made modifications that the family, modernists and architecture experts agree would have been approved by the exacting Pietro Belluschi."

Anthony Belluschi expanded what had been a trellis at the edge of the house to create a new multipurpose media room and a loft space in order to accommodate grandchildren. That's where the aforementioned second story comes in, but its sloping roof hugs the original house's form. Between this space and the edge of the original house is a long, thin white-walled and skylight-bathed gallery space between the old and new spaces to display their extensive art collection. Little art can be hung on the walls in the original portion of the house because of its wood ceilings, a kind of artwork of artisanship. The gallery makes a nice visual counterpoint.

Burkes house (photo by Brian Libby)

There were six Pietro-designed houses on Saturday's tour, including the Jennings Sutor (1938), the Joss (1941), the Ressler (1949), the Papworth (1980), and the Platt (1941) in addition to the Burkes (which has been renamed the Belluschi House). Although they represented a 42-year span of his career, it was noteworthy how much of a connecting thread existed between them. Hallmarks of Belluschi houses noted by Anthony in the talk included sloped roofs with large overhangs or trellises, ample use of wood inside and out, woven wood ceilings, uninterrupted glass walls, louvered vents on exterior walls, cork or wood or tile floors, fireplaces of stone or brick (often with copper hoods), connections to the site and landscaping, functional intimate courtyards, and simple open layouts with easy circulation.

And these features were there to see in each house, whether it was the woven wood ceilings at the Burkes and the Platt, for example, or the sloping roof and overhang of the Sutor and Papworth. What impresses me about these houses is how modest most of them are. These are not mansions for strictly affluent clients. Pietro Belluschi, like Wright before him, sought to bring great design to the masses, as evidenced by his designs for Life magazine, for example, or his work for acclaimed California builder Joseph Eichler.

Woven-wood ceiling at the Sutor house (photo by Brian Libby)

The weekend Belluschi-house tour also served as a reminder of how much landscape played a role in the designs. Many of the properties, such as the Platt and the Papworth, are situated amidst extensively landscaped gardens and acreage. Pietro Belluschi houses aren't monoliths perched in high places for us to look up at. Instead, they seem to become immersed in the land. And while international-style modernism inspired Pietro, so too did Japanese and Scandinavian architecture as well as simple indigenous buildings such as the aforementioned barns. And the amount of wood inside and out further fosters a sense of appropriateness and timelessness.

When Anthony Belluschi finished his talk and opened the discussion to audience questions, one person asked him to talk in greater depth about Pietro as his teacher. After all, Pietro had initially discouraged Anthony from becoming an architect, encouraging him to take up painting. And it couldn't have been easy for a young aspiring architect to match his father's accomplishments. Anthony also eschewed the chance to study at MIT, where his father was dean, and instead studied at the Rhode Island School of Design. Anthony also made his career in Chicago, away from the influence his father had in Portland, Boston or even San Francisco. Yet he also would go on to work on 17 different projects with his father.

Belluschi (formerly Burkes) House (photo by Sally Painter)

Anthony described Pietro as "very subtle, very quiet" as a teacher, but a good one. And in a brief slideshow of his own projects, which have been collected in the book Urban Places, Public Spaces: The Architecture of Anthony Belluschi by Edward Gomez, it was clear that father influenced son immensely.

The younger architect designed public spaces such as the soaring American Airlines terminal at Chicago's O'Hare airport, and numerous shopping centers in the US and Asia. Both types of buildings can feel oppressive and claustrophobic in the wrong designers' hands.

Yet as Gomez's book shows, in Anthony Belluschi's hands these spaces are teeming with natural light and materials, transcending the corporate settings they're built to be. It's one thing to design a beautiful art museum, church or house, but it takes a special talent to make a mall uplifting. Belluschi should be proud, both of his own architecture and the role he has taken as caretaker of his father's legacy.

 

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A different kind of density: Portland's ADU explosion

Dyer residence (image courtesy accessorydwellings.org)

BY BRIAN LIBBY

Ever since Oregon's pioneering land-use planning laws of the 1970s, Portland has embraced density over sprawl. Yet there has always been a limit to how many people are willing to live in multi-family condo and apartment buildings. For a lot of residents, the picket-fence dream remains vital: the chance to live in a single-family home with a yard and a little distance from your neighbors.

But as Tuesday's New York Times story on the rise of accessory dwelling units in Portland reminds us, over the past four years the explosion of these structures, often known as granny flats, has presented a kind of third way for achieving density.

In Portland, the number of ADUs permitted in 2013 was six times greater than the yearly average from 2000 to 2009, with a total of just under 200 units constructed in the calendar year. The increase is due largely to a 2010 City of Portland fee waiver, which reduced the cost of building an accessory dwelling unit by $8,000 to $11,000.

As Eric Engstrom of the Bureau of Planning & Sustainability tells the Times' Sandy Keenan, the city had been lobbied for several years before the 2010 rule change to remove barriers to ADU construction. But the change also was prompted by a Department of Environmental Quality study. It found that reducing the size of a house was the most effective way to reduce both the energy and material-related greenhouse gas impacts of a house. Among 30 different material reduction and reuse practices evaluated, reducing home size and multi-family living achieved the largest greenhouse gas reductions along with significant reductions in other impact categories. Reducing home size by 50 percent, the study found, results in a projected 36 percent reduction in lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions. 

Given that the average new home in Oregon is 2,200 square feet and ADUs top out at 800 square feet, and that about 20 to 30 percent of the state’s landfill waste comes from the construction debris, "the relative benefits of reducing home size were so much greater than other programs being incentivized,” Jordan Palmeri, an engineer with the Oregon DEQ, told Keenan. 

Beyond environmental impact, ADUs have proven to be a popular housing choice both for the simplified lifestyle they offer and the chance to change the balance of housing affordability - for owners and tenants alike. “Given the low vacancy rate, when they’re done, you can rent them out in about an hour,” Engstrom told Keenan.

Even though the 200-in-a-year figure is impressive, interviewees in Keenan's story agree that it would be much more were it not for how banks just can't seem to get on board with ADUs. Most lending institutions do not provide funds for these accessory dwellings.

Keenan's story features several homeowners who have taken the ADU plunge, such as Jen Wantland and Bryan Scott, who converted their Southeast Portland two-car garage into a 480-square-foot home using mostly salvaged materials for approximately $60,000. Wantland and Scott rent out their four-bedroom house, which more than covers their living expenses. There's also the 600-square-foot ADU in the Boise neighborhood built by Lenore Prato and Ken Finney for Prato's parents.

For those looking for more examples, or specifically to see some of these projects in person, there happens to be an ADU tour coming up. Build Small, Live Large: Portland’s Accessory Dwelling Unit Tour, featuring 12 accessory dwellings, is scheduled for Sunday, June 1 from 10:00AM to 4:00PM.

The tour includes examples like the Dyer ADU, which Stephanie & Sam Dyer built on the footprint of their detached garage. The two-story, 342-square-foot dwelling, built for $110,000, serves as a guest space for their in-laws and gets rented out the rest of the year, helping the Dyers to pay their existing-house mortgage. It's furnished with many of the tiles that Stephanie, an interior designer and product designer, created.

But there are also examples on the tour of ADUs created within an existing space, such as the 650-square-foot basement unit created by Derin & Andra Williams in their circa-1920s Rose City Park bungalow.

There is also an overlapping trend of tiny houses, many of which are under 200 square feet and are often built on wheels, not so much to be mobile as to be classified as a mobile home and thus subject to fewer regulations. Former Portlander Dee Williams recently spoke at Powell's Books about her effort to build an 86-square-foot tiny house that's now located in Olympia in the book The Big Tiny: A Built-It-Myself Memoir. Williams also is the co-founder of Portland Alternative Dwellings, a consultancy for others looking to streamline their lives with mini-dwellings.

Over the past year the real estate market has returned from the depths of the Great Recession, and home construction is happening again all over Portland, whether it's tall apartment towers in the Pearl District or single-family homes across the city's historic neighborhoods. ADUs and tiny houses aren't meant to compete with either, but particularly in the case of single-family homes, these small residences can make a pairing which allows the older house to stay. There is an epidemic in Portland happening today: more old single-family houses are being torn down than at any point in a generation. For many homeowners, especially those with limited financial means, it's all too easy to sell to a developer looking to tear down the original house and build a duplex. Building an ADU can provide struggling homeowners with an alternative to demolition: a chance to stay in one's home with a new income stream via rent from an ADU. What's more, an ADU gives Portland's historic neighborhoods a chance to densify without sacrificing what we love about these neighborhoods.

 

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Award winners: Barton, Johnson, SRG, Peting, YGH

L. Rudoph Barton (image courtesy PSU)

BY BRIAN LIBBY

Local architects and members of the design profession have been taking home numerous honors lately. Here's a roundup of their awards and acknowledgements.

Portland State University architecture professor L. Rudolph Barton has been awarded a Fulbright visiting professorship to the Glasgow School of Art in Scotland for the 2014-2015 academic year. Barton is the first PSU professor to receive a Fulbright Scholar Award to travel to the United Kingdom. The highly competitive award allows Barton to spend six months, from January to June, working with the Urban Lab of the Mackintosh School of Architecture and urban design staff with the city of Glasgow. The goals of the research project include developing an urban design case study of Glasgow, as well as creating reciprocal exchange programs between PSU and the Glasgow School of Art and strategic partnerships between the cities of Portland and Glasgow.

“The city of Glasgow and Scotland itself are major success stories in innovative urban design. Glasgow has transformed itself from something of an industrial wasteland into one of Europe’s most energetic, creative cultural centers," Barton said. "I hope to bring back a few ideas so that Portland, and Oregon, can learn from Glasgow’s example.”

Architect-educator Don Peting, founding director of the Pacific Northwest Preservation Field School at the University of Oregon, is being honored with the 2014 George McMath Historic Preservation Award, presented each year to an individual whose contributions have raised awareness and advocacy for historic preservation in Oregon.

Cameron Huber's perFORM 2014 design (image courtesy Hammer & Hand)

University of Oregon undergraduate architecture student Cameron Huber has won the $2,000 first-place award for his entry in the "perFORM 2014: A House Design Competition" sponsored by Hammer & Hand (a sponsor of this site). The contest challenged emerging architects to fuse high design with high-performance building in designing a single-family house “that achieves Passive House-like levels of energy performance while being resourceful, replicable, and beautiful.”

 “The goal of this project was to loosely follow Passive House standards in order to achieve a high performance envelope and overall system, while creating a truly flexible environment or a forward thinking family," Huber said. "There is far more that goes into sustainability than what can be shown on an energy spreadsheet.”

The Architecture Foundation of Oregon has named Art Johnson, who founded Portland’s KPFF Consulting Engineers 40 years ago, as its annual Honored Citizen. Johnson built KPFF into the premiere structural engineering office in the region, which also supports a robust international export program of its design expertise. Johnson is the first structural engineer to receive the award, which goes to a non-architect member of the architecture and design community for lifetime contributions to the built environment.

Veterinary and Biomedical Research Building (photo by Lara Swimmer)

The new Veterinary and Biomedical Research Building on Washington State University’s Pullman campus, designed by Portland firm SRG Partnership, has received R&D Magazine's Lab of the Year award. Designed by SRG, the VBRB was one of four projects recognized internationally, receiving a High Honors Award. The  competition showcases emerging thinking, sustainable practices, and creative responses to challenges in the design, construction and operation of modern laboratories.

Portland firm Yost Grube Hall Architecture received an Award of Honor for the Health Careers Center for  Central Oregon Community College in Bend, Oregon. The 47,000 square foot facility also received a Hammurabi Award in February from the Masonry and Ceramic Tile Institute of Oregon.

Congratulations to all the winners.

 

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Design calendar: May 1-15

Pietro Belluschi's Burkes residence (photo by Brian Libby)

BY BRIAN LIBBY

Dee Williams
In an appearance at Powell's Books, author Dee Williams will read from The Big Tiny, her book about discovering a sense of self by building an 84-square-foot home in Olympia from scratch. After being diagnosted with heart disease, "The notion of paying a 30-year mortgage didn’t make sense," Williams, an ex-Portlander, told The New York Times. "Living in a little house made sense for me; it clicked. It gave me a chance to live close to my friends and be happy with the time that I have.” Powells City of Books, 1005 W Burnside Street. 7:30PM Friday, May 2. Free.

Ken Smith
One of the best-known landscape architects of his generation with an expertise straddling art, architecture, and urbanism, New York-based Ken Smith will deliver the nineteenth Mary Kim McKeown Memorial Lecture. Smith's acclaimed designs include the Roof Garden of the Museum of Modern Art, the World One project in Mumbai, and the American Express 9/11 Memorial art installation. University of Oregon, White Stag Block, 70 NW Couch Street. 5:30 p.m. on Friday, May 2. Free.

The Rose and the Chrysanthemum: Japanese Influence on NW Architecture
A craze for all things Japanese swept the United States beginning in the late 19th Century. By 1910, Japanese influence on Portland architecture began to take hold. The Arts and Crafts movement was highly indebted to the Japanese aesthetic, and it can be seen today in the thousands of craftsman bungalows throughout the Portland area. Japanese influence was perhaps even stronger during the mid-20th Century and it continues to this day in our local architecture. Lecturer Robert Jordan traces the origins of this architectural aesthetic from our trans-Pacific neighbor and its influences on our built environment. Architectural Heritage Center, 701 SE Grand Avenue. 10AM Saturday, May 3. $20 ($12 for AHC members).

Stately Home Tour
A walking tour of six historic homes in NW Portland, benefiting the NW Neighborhood Cultural Center and NW Children’s Theater & School. Homes include the Henry & Hattie Fries Home (1905), the Dr. Andrew & Mrs. Ida Giesy Home (1905), the Edward King Home (1910), the Cardwell Holman Home (1905), the Captain Joseph Sladen Home (1893), and the First Church of Christ Scientist (NW Neighborhood Cultural Center - 1909). 11AM Sunday, May 4. $25.

Sou Fujimoto
A principal of Sou Fujimoto Architects, a Tokyo-based practice distinguished by its provocative buildings that combine material experimentation and structural subtlety with transparency and permeability, Fujimoto is known for his residential and cultural projects. In 2013 he became the youngest architect ever to be invited to design the Serpentine Gallery Summer Pavilion in London. The Serpentine Gallery’s website states, “Widely acknowledged as one of the most important architects coming to prominence worldwide, Sou Fujimoto is the leading light of an exciting generation of artists who are re-inventing our relationship with the built environment.” Portland State University, Lincoln Hall (Room 75). 6pm, Wednesday, May 7. Free.

The South Park Blocks: A Cultural Mandate
The eleven-block downtown area known as the South Park Blocks was first platted and donated to the City in 1852, transforming a fire break parcel into the most desirable residential area of its day, complete with schools, playgrounds, stately homes and places of worship. This Architectural Heritage Center-produced walking tour of The South Park Blocks shows it stands alone as a place of revitalization, refreshment and cultural allure. 6PM Thursday, May 8. $20 ($12 for AHC members).

Anthony Belluschi: Living in A Work of Art
Legendary architect Pietro Belluschi’s architect son, Anthony, will discuss the unique experience of inhabiting Belluschi buildings and the significance of Pietro’s contributions to Pacific Northwest Regional Modernism.  He will provide information about the notable design features of Belluschi homes and his own recent work to preserve, restore and revitalize some of Pietro’s houses, including the masterful Burkes residence, where Pietro spent his final years and where Anthony, after a career spent mostly in Chicago, now lives with his wife. Anthony will also share insights about learning from and working with his father. Portland Art Museum, 1219 SW Park. 7PM Friday, May 9. $15.

Belluschi Home Tour
Restore Oregon's annual Mid-Century Modern Home Tour is devoted this year to six Portland area homes designed by Pietro Belluschih.The sold-out tour is curated by Belluschi’s son, Anthony, who is also an accomplished architect. Homes on tour span several decades and include the Burkes-Belluschi House where Pietro lived until his passing in 1994 (and where Anthony now resides). 9:45AM Saturday, May 10. $45 ($35 for Restore Oregon members).

Gordon House Mother's Day Tea & Tour
Oregon's only Frank Lloyd Wright building, the Gordon House, was moved from its original location in Charbonneau 13 years ago, but has thrived at its new site at the Oregon Garden near Silverton. This Mother's Day event will include tea, music and tours of the almost completely-restored Usonian home. Gordon House, 869 W Main Street, Silverton. 2PM Saturday, May 10. $25.

Radical Restoration: Saving the Houses of Pietro Belluschi and Frank Lloyd Wright
Marylhurst University’s new Belluschi Pavilion is almost complete, representing the successful re-construction of a mid-century Pietro Belluschi-designed home that was meticulously de-constructed and stored before finding its new home. This discussion will highlight the the challenges faced by this project as well as those overcome by the team who helped move Frank Lloyd Wright’s  Gordon House several years ago. The two-hour program will include presentations from our panelists related to both houses, and will include ample time for audience questions and answers. Following the panel discussion attendees will be invited to tour the Belluschi Pavilion. Marylhurst University, Belluschi Pavilion, 17600 Pacific Highway, Lake Oswego. 2PM Sunday, May 11. $15 ($10 for DoCoMoMo or Restore Oregon members).

 

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