Portland Architecture

South Waterfront reconsidered

Willamette River from Atwater Place (photo by Brian Libby)

BY BRIAN LIBBY 

In its short life, Portland’s South Waterfront has had a tumultuous history. And recently there seems to be somewhat of a collective desire to re-evaluate where the neighborhood stands and gauge its successes and failures. Is it an exemplary high-density, transit-connected, pedestrian-oriented 21st century neighborhood, or is it a cautionary tale? Or both?

The long-range planning behind South Waterfront was rooted in statewide land-use planning goals to curb suburban sprawl not only with urban growth boundaries but also, by extension, re-claiming heretofore industrial and other under-utilized parcels of land. It’s the same playbook that helped give rise to the formerly industrial Pearl District’s lofts and condos. Like the Pearl, South Waterfront especially took off in the 2000s thanks to the robust and booming real estate market. Besides the reasons these new neighborhoods fit into broader density schemes, it was a time when condo towers were shooting up not just to provide housing but as part of a rampantly speculative market in which people bought property to turn around and sell for a profit. South Waterfront wasn’t as well located as the Pearl, being downriver from the urban core and pinned in by I-5 against the river, but it also had a core occupant besides the condo owners and a few retailers: OHSU in its burgeoning riverside campus, connected to its main Marquam Hill campus by the Portland Aerial Tram. 

Then came the recession beginning in 2008, the price of the which for South Waterfront was not just the foreclosures but the lost momentum: the dwindled sense that this could be a vibrant urban place. More so than the Pearl, the South Waterfront was a kind of idea that had to be sold.

Maybe some residents who came in the early 2000s never left: they bought their condos to live in, with the promise of a river view and a close relationship with the water, as well as an easy streetcar ride to downtown and, thus, a potentially carless Portland lifestyle. South Waterfront was never literally a ghost town. Yet for a few years post-’08, it felt a lot quieter on the streets of SoWa than its backers would have liked, and as a result the district felt all the more isolated from the rest of the city. After all, for all its closeness to downtown and its myriad mass transit options (the tram, the freeway, a new MAX line and coming-soon bridge), South Waterfront is not only pinned between the freeway and the river but isolated even from Riverplace and other buildings to the north because of the vacant Zidell Yards parcel.

Now, though, South Waterfront is starting to feel busier, better connected in myriad ways, and more vibrant.

Part of that comes from the recession having given way to a booming real estate market again. Most of the condo buildings are close to full now, and new projects, including affordable housing and apartments, have joined the mix. There are more retail establishments open for business, and a greater mix of people. And with the land to the north starting to get built—first the Collaborative Life Sciences Center, but soon the Tilikum Crossing bridge and the Zidell Yards itself, there is an increasing sense that South Waterfront is not simply an urban island between the freeway and the river but part of one continuous strip of urbanity that includes John’s Landing to the south as well as Riverplace and ultimately downtown to the north.

South Waterfront condos (photo by Brian Libby)

In other words, it’s not just that there are building cranes in South Waterfront, or that much more building is planned to the north, but that the neighborhood that began here during the 2000s has now had at least a few years to grow into itself, which is bearing fruit.

This maturation of South Waterfront was the topic of a radio discussion I participated in earlier this week on OPB’s Think Out Loud program. First host Dave Miller talked with the owner of Bambuza Vietnamese Kitchen (where the show was broadcast), a business that came to South Waterfront early, clawed through some slow times, and now is thriving.

After I was interviewed about the history of the land predating south waterfront as well as the architecture and urban planning that comprise its current form, residents like writer and poet Floyd Skloot talked about the enjoyment living beside the river. “Our desire was to come as close as we could to living in nature while living downtown,” Skloot said. “We wanted the light, we wanted the view, and we wanted the sense that there was nothing really between us and what we could see outside our window. We have an unimpeded view of Ross Island and the river, and we do feel like we have succeeded. We’ve seen 60 distinct bird species outside our window, and we’re attuned to the river itself, both as recreation and as habitat.”

The neighborhood also feels increasingly home to a diverse array of people, if not racially than at least in terms of age and other factors like economics. As the interviews with OPB went on, I caught sight of a Montessori school class playing in the park across the street. There is a senior housing tower, the Mirabella, and the Gray’s Landing affordable housing.

All that said, little of this conversation has really been about architecture, and yet that is where the South Waterfront has in some ways represented a departure from much of the rest of the city. It’s a neighborhood of tall towers, unmistakable as one comes around the corner on I-5 north. Portland in the past has gone by the Stumptown moniker not just for the trees that were cut down to build the city, but also for our tendency to build shorter, squattier buildings. The SoWa towers, though, were allowed to go taller than residential buildings nearly anywhere else in the city, but more slender, in the “point tower” style associated with cities like Vancouver, British Columbia. That decision irked residents of the West Hills and nearby neighborhoods like Lair Hill, concerned about lost views. But it has brought a greater density than probably would have been possible with four or five-story buildings.

There is no one tower in South Waterfront that I really love. Some, like Atwater Place by THA Architecture or the John Ross by TVA Architects, can perhaps be characterized as handsome. But others are mediocre at best. What might have made the cluster of buildings look better together, however, would be a little more variation in height. They all feel like they’re about the same level of verticality. As one architect characterized it to me off-record, it’s almost like hairs in a flat-top haircut. A more elegant solution might have been to step down to the river, with taller buildings closer to I-5 and smaller ones at the riverside. But South Waterfront was in some ways a leap of faith for the developers and elected officials who gave it birth, and it’s easy to see the financial reasons why that reduction of capacity didn’t happen.

Tilikum Crossing and South Waterfront (photo by Brian Libby)

Although Skloot’s point about residents being able to get a close-up relationship with the river is valid, I do wonder if there could have been more of a public presence along the riverfront. It’s not just that the South Waterfront Greenway has taken several years longer than initially expected to come to fruition (it’s under construction now). Retail is scattered throughout the district, without much of a there there. I wonder if the waterfront could have become a focal point for more ground-level retail, with restaurants and outdoor tables beside the water.

OHSU gives a presence of more than just residential and retail buildings in South Waterfront, but I would also like to see some kind of public building either here or in the newer Zidell Yards parcel in the years ahead: a museum, for example, or an arts center. The best urban places include a wide variety: of building sizes, styles and types, and of activities happening there. South Waterfront is likely on its way to becoming that, but it still needs more diversity, in every sense of the word.

As I said in the Think Out Loud discussion, the great cities, be it Paris or Amsterdam, Melbourne or Kyoto, are repositories of generations building upon the accomplishments of the past. They have a patina to them, and a sort of controlled chaos at times. South Waterfront still has that new-car smell, one might say. But it’s in the earliest stages of its life. And while it can feel pinned in or like an island at times, the district’s bounty of transit options—including not only streetcar and light rail but the new bridge over the Willamette as well as the pedestrian bridge over the freeway—make South Waterfront into a crossroads, at once in the middle of the city even as it’s slightly removed from it.

What’s more, while SoWa may always feel like a place of the early 2000s, with most all its buildings coming from that era, the Zidell Yards will add another chapter, one we’re already seeing with buildings like The Emery, an alternative to the tall towers where ground-level businesses are thriving. And the Zidells have talked a lot about not just the buildings that might go there but the spaces in between, such as potential public areas like the space under the Ross Island Bridge and perhaps even a place at the riverside or in the river to get one’s feet wet.

After all, we already dove into this effort more than a decade ago. South Waterfront still can feel a little alien at times compared to the rest of the city, but it’s starting to feel like a place with energy, and a place that can ride out the ups and downs of history.

  

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Gasco Building preservationists optimistic despite uphill financial climb

Portland Gasco Building (photo by Sheri Mason-Cruise)

BY BRIAN LIBBY

When the Portland Gas & Coke Building celebrated its 100th anniversary last year, the circa-1913 structure along the west bank of the Willamette River near the St. Johns Bridge also was deemed to be not long for this world, as its current owner, NW Natural, announced plans for demolition.

Since then, there has been an outpouring of community support, culminating in a grassroots effort to save the Gasco Building (as it's commonly known). Given the deteriorated nature of the architecture, which as been largely unused and abandoned for the past half-century, organizers of the Save the Portland Gasco Building group have asked not that NW Natural renovate the structure but leave it as is, as a ruin allowed to decay in place and as a reminder of the city's turn-of-the-20th Century industrial heritage.

"So many people love this building," says Scott Ray Becker, a local documentary filmmaker who has assumed the reins of the preservation effort.

Becker has a longer history with the Gasco than most. In 1891 his great grandfather, CF Adams, became one of the co-owners of the Portland Gas Light Company, which had been founded in 1859 (the year of Oregon's becoming a US state) as the first gas company in the Pacific Northwest. Adams and his partner, AE Mills, changed its name to Portland Gas and Coke, which later became known as NW Natural Gas and today simply NW Natural.

Earlier this year, Becker and his fellow Gasco Building preservationists met with leaders of NW Natural and were given an opportunity to see their vision realized, but with a catch. As reported by Allan Classen in the NW Examiner, NW Natural company would need to weatherproof and seal the building for long-term preservation. "This would not include electrical, plumbing or other improvements needed to occupy the building, nor would the public be able to enter," Classen explains.

Historic photos of the Gasco site (courtesy Save the Portland Gasco)

NW Natural shared with the preservationists a third-party estimate of $1.9-2.4 million. "The [Gasco preservation] committee members then suggested some ways to reduce the cost of the estimate, which our third-party contractor reviewed and so we communicated to them in a letter dated August 18 the reduced estimate of $1.55-2.05 million," explained NW Natural spokesperson Melissa Moore in an email.

"To put this in context, there are legitimate reasons for the company's original decision to demolish the building," Moore continues. "These reasons continue today. The building currently poses both health and safety hazards; is seismically unstable; contaminated by lead, animal feces and asbestos; sits on contaminated property that we are required by law to clean up; and is adjacent to a Superfund site."

After hearing how much NW Natural was aking for, "The wind was pulled out of our sails," Becker says, acknowledging that their grassroots group's being able to raise that amount of money would be "a miracle." A number of people left the preservation effort thinking the task was impossible.

Nevertheless, Becker and his comrades have started a fundraising campaign on the website Changefunder called "Gasco: As Is!" Though $2 million is the long-term goal, they have set an initial amount of $50,000 to raise by November 2. So far, $1,575 has been pledged.

"Right now it’s more about getting the word out," Becker says. "The longer we do this, the more they respect us and want to put their name on it. Most people don’t think we can raise the money. I may be one of the only people who thinks we can get close. But we have some kick-ass people. " The preservation group is planning a December 6 fundraising concert, which may include renowned Portland band The Decemberists. Lead singer Colin Meloy's 2012 young-adult novel Under Wildwood, with illustrations by wife Carson Ellis, uses the Gasco Building as inspiration; a likeness of the building graces the cover, and in the book the villains establish their headquarters there.

Becker says there are limits to what could be done with the Gasco, but that an appropriate long-term goal may be to have the building anchor a public riverfront park after another decade or so.

Colin Meloy's Under Wildwood (image courtesy Balzer + Bray)

"People say, ‘When can McMenamins move in?’ I tell them it’s adjacent to a Superfund site, and it’s explosive," Becker explains. "But in 2025, they may be closer. They have about 10 more years of cleanup. They’ve been working since 1993 and have spent $26 million. They’re serious about cleaning up the site. And then all bets are off. Maybe it can be like Gasworks Park in Seattle, or like Cathedral Park. It depends on what people want to do. It could be a park, or a museum to industry. But if they tear it down now, we’ll never have that chance."

To NW Natural's credit, the company seems to have listened to the preservationists and not demolished the Gasco building as quickly as originally intended.  Moore says NW Natural "committed to an 18-month extension of our demolition permit -- which will now expire in July 2015 -- to give the committee time to further its efforts."

It's understandable if a publicly-traded company with shareholders to appease can't automatically commit millions of dollars to preserving an abandoned building on its site. And the company has some very legitimate reasons for viewing non-demolition skeptically. Conventional wisdom may indeed say the building has to come down. But I still wonder if some creative thinking could find a better solution or offer an opportunity to do something special down the road.

And if NW Natural really is spending some three decades repairing the environmental damage that the company and its forebears wreaked along the banks of the Willamette over the past century, wouldn't it be nice to reserve that land for public use some day, even if it's many years down the road? In the long-term after the cleanup, the ruins of the Gasco building could be a big draw. That stretch of highway is one long industrial enclave, but just as the east side of the river's industry gives way to Cathedral Park right across the river, so too could the Gasco building one day anchor a public greenspace along the water.

Speaking of cathedrals, the notion of the Gasco ruins anchoring a future park makes me think of visiting a park in London years ago that was made from the ruins of a Christopher Wren church, St. Dunstan's, bombed in World War II. A wall or two of the old church remained, but most of the area was benches and flowers amidst the ruin. The Gasco Building is no St. Dunstan's by any stretch, but it's a good example of how architectural ruins can become very compelling public outdoor space.

What's more, all over America and the world, this generation has been reclaiming formerly industrial waterfront space for public use. It's already been happening locally in places like South Waterfront and the Pearl District, and now in Oregon City there is an effort to reclaim the majestic Willamette Falls for public access. Even if it happens 10 to 20 years or more down the road, it would make sense to establish a goal of someday, after the remediation is completed, giving this stretch of the Willamette back to the public. And as Becker noted, regional examples like Gasworks Park in Seattle provide a great example of how maintaining industrial ruins in a greenspace can enliven the experience of being there, creating public space rooted in history.

 

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Design Calendar: October 16-31

Architect Jenny Wu (image courtesy Portland State University)

BY BRIAN LIBBY

Jenny Wu
A partner at the Los Angeles based architecture and design office Oyler Wu Collaborative, Wu will discuss the evolution of the firm's design work over the last several years. The office has won numerous design awards, including the 2013 Design Vanguard Award from Architectural Record, 2013 Emerging Talent Award from AIA California Council, 2012 Presidential Honor Award for Emerging Practice from AIA Los Angeles, and an Emerging Voices Award from the Architectural League in New York. Wu received her Bachelor of Arts from Columbia University and Master of Architecture from Harvard Graduate School of Design. The firm's recent projects include the Cube, the winning entry pavilion for the Beijing Biennale; Stormcloud, a pavilion for Sci-Arc's 40th anniversary event; Taipei Sales Center, a five-story commercial building; as well as a 16 story residential tower in Taipei, Taiwan. She is currently a design faculty at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (Sci-Arc), and has lectured extensively in the US, Europe and Asia. The lecture is part of Portland State University School of Architecture's 2014-2015 lecture series, titled "Vs.," which tackles the theme of competition. Portland State University, Shattuck Hall Annex, SW Broadway and Hall Street. 7PM Thursday, October 16. Free.

Micro-Enterprise, Urban Production and the Architecture of Inclusion‏
This all-day symposium is bringing together leaders in various aspects of community economic development to present current work and discuss issues concerning small-scale enterprise, urban manufacturing, and the buildings that house such new initiatives. Presented by Mercy Corps Northwest, the University of Oregon Department of Architecture, and the Collaborative for Inclusive Urbanism. Mercy Corps Action Center, 45 SW Ankeny Street. 8:30AM Saturday, October 18. Free.

Riches of a City Heritage Auction
A fundraiser for the Bosco-Miligan Foundation and its Architectural Heritage Center, the auction helps make possible a host of lectures and tours throughout the year devoted to the heritage of the Portland metro area. Auctioned items include several vacation packages, artworks, and restaurant gift certificates. With a host of historic homes across the area being threatened with demolition by developers looking to replace them with apartments and duplexes, there may be no better time to support this nonprofit organization's mission of education and outreach. Melody Ballroom, 615 SE Alder Street. 6PM Saturday, October 18. $75-100.

Buildings and Places: A Walking Tour of Portland's Architecture
Sample more than a 100 years of classical beauty, modern marvels, pioneering firsts and the newest in contemporary and sustainable design. This AIA/Portland-produced downtown walking tour highlights the most significant styles, architects and stories of the 20th & 21st centuries. Featuring individual works by Whidden & Lewis, AE Doyle, Pietro Belluschi, and Michael Graves, the tour also spotlights the modernist contributions of SOM, the contemporary designs of ZGF, TVA and SERA as well as special, less well-known gems. This two-hour tour starts at 10 AM at the Center For Architecture (NW 11th Avenue and Flanders Street) in the Pearl and ends near the Portland Building at SW Fifth Avenue and Main Street. 10AM Sunday, October 19 and Sunday, October 26. $20.

Resilient Design: Future Ready Buildings (Part 1)
This two-part series of symposiums will explore the critical role of architects in planning and designing a resilient city. Topics include disaster recovery, designing resilient communities that reduce natural disaster impacts and designing future-ready building that adapt to our changing climate. Part one is called "Resilient Design - The Perseverance of Place through Crisis" and will be moderated by architect Jay Raskin, whi will provide an overview of HR-3, The Oregon Resilience Plan. As a public member to the Oregon Seismic Safety Policy Advisory Commission (OSSPAC) - tasked with creating the plan, Jay co-chaired the Coast Task Group and helped prepare the plan for presentation to the Legislature in March 2014. Additional presenters include Alisa Kane, Green Building and Development Manager for the City of Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, who will discuss the city's Climate Action Plan and Comprehensive Plan; Daniel Homsey, Director of Neighborhood Resilience for the City Administrator's Office of the City and County of San Francisco, who will discuss his city's Neighborhood Empowerment Network Initiative; and Thomas J. Puttman, president of Puttman Infrastructure, whose presentation is called 'Eco-Districts - A Framework for Community Resiliency.' AIA/Portland Center For Architecture, 403 NW 11th Avenue. 9AM Wednesday, October 22. $140 ($100 for AIA members).

Architects Without Borders - Homeless Storage Charrette
AWB-Oregon is working with JOIN, a Portland non-profit organization, to design a facility where homeless people can store their possessions. JOIN helps individuals and families make the transition from homelessness to permanent housing. Attendees are invited to share ideas for this new project. AIA/Portland Center for Architecture, 403 NW 11th Avenue. 6PM Wednesday, October 22. Free. 

PechaKucha Night: Creative Intersections
Design Museum Portland hosts creative minds from across a range of fields tied to the theme "Creative Intersections." In keeping with the traditional Pecha Kucha format, each presenter gets 20 slides and 20 seconds per slide. Presenters will include Justin Rigamonti & Liz Mehl of Poetry Press Week; Eric Rosewell of Depave; Maris Jamison of KEEN Footwear; Miguel Camacho-Serna, Azad Sadjadi, Jennifer Huang, and Chanelle Wiley of PLACE Landscape Architecture; Kelley Roy of ADX; Gage Hamilton of Forest for the Trees; Derrick Mead of Ziba Design; and Georgia Frances King of Kinfolk Magazine. Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison Street. 6PM Wednesday, October 22. Free (reservations required). 

Barry Bergdoll:  Architecture, Museums, and the Art of Advocacy
As the Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art, Bergdoll carried on the museum’s tradition of retrospective looks at the Bauhaus, and masters such as Henri Labrouste and Frank Lloyd Wright. With an uncanny sense of timing, he also became known as a “quiet crusader” on pressing urban problems such as housing and climate change. As Bergdoll steps down from his curatorial post to return to Columbia University’s Department of Art History and Archaeology, he will reflect on the 260-year history of museums’ relationship to architecture—including his own seven-year tenure at MoMA. Portland Art Museum, 1219 SW Park Avenue. 2PM Saturday, October 25. $15 ($12 students, free for museum members).

Resilient Design: Future Ready Buildings (Part 2)
The second half of this two-day symposium, enitled "Future Ready Buildings - Designing for the Long-Term", will be moderated by Mark Tobin of engineering firm KPFF. Tobin  has been the lead structural engineer for many of the firm's most complex seismic renovation projects. Presentations will include "Designing Thermal Comfort Systems for the Changing Climate" by Marc Brune PAE Engineers; a talk from Josh Stein of MWA Architects on the the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management Building; and "Future Ready Buildings, Change and Sustainability" from Sean Dennison of the New Buildings Institute's Advanced Buildings Program. AIA/Portland Center For Architecture, 403 NW 11th Avenue. 9AM Wednesday, October 29. $140 ($100 for AIA members).

 

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Michael Powe and the economic value of old buildings

Michael Powe (image courtesy Preservation Green Lab)

BY FRED LEESON

Jane Jacobs had no professional training in urban planning when she set the profession on its ear in 1961. Her earth-shaking book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, attacked the contemporary trend of urban renewal as wrong-headed, counter-productive and just plain dumb.

From simply looking around, Jacobs believed that low-rise streets with mixtures of older buildings provided the most vibrant urban communities, the best places for small business innovation and safer public places. She railed against skyscrapers and the scrape-and-rebuild philosophy of urban renewal aimed at eliminating urban “blight.”

Many planners struck back with venom. Old buildings, they said, stood in the way of progress.  Cities that did not renew themselves were doomed to eventual failure.

Now there is impressive new evidence based on massive compilations of data that were not available in Jacobs’ day. Bottom line?  “Jane Jacobs was right,” said Michael Powe, senior research manager for the Preservation Green Lab, a Seattle-based research arm of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Powe, who holds a doctorate in planning and policy and design, laid out the results of the trust’s “Older, Smaller, Better” research report in a talk in Portland on October 7 at the Architectural Heritage Center. Based on intensive statistical analyses performed with data from Seattle, San Francisco and Washington, DC, the report says commercial streets with a  mix of building ages and sizes provide the most economic, social and cultural benefits.

Powe did not describe himself as a preservationist. And he expressed no intellectual virulence against new buildings or the need for infill buildings on vacant land. “Where you have the old and new rubbing together, there is greater friction and greater street life,” Powe said.

The Green Lab’s statistical analysis broke the three target cities into cells of 200 square meters each, and then plotted a dizzying range of statistics including building size, building age, building ownership business ownership, employee numbers and demographic data, among others. It then used the data to create a “character score” for each of the grid cells. Score categories were broken into an assortment of colors, giving the final maps a visual breakdown of streets with the various scores.

Streets with the highest scores were those with the highest variety of building ages and sizes and with multiple ownerships. In general, these same streets had the best walkability scores, the most independently-owned businesses, the most minority and women-owned businesses and the most successful independent bars and restaurants.

“The foundation of small business is where you find these (older) buildings,” Powe said. He noted that Boeing, Microsoft and Starbucks all started in small, old buildings before they grew larger.

“A lot of these things we already knew,” Powe said of the Green Lab conclusions. “The data are important to policy-makers. It is good to have the numbers to back it up.”

As for Jacobs, he added, “I don’t think Jane Jacobs needed big data to tell her she was right. Big data was impossible in her day. You just couldn’t get it before.” Today, however, wonks can probe all sorts of computerized data bases to learn about buildings and business and people and activity. One unusual form of data Powe illustrated was an animated visual image of cell-phone use during a 24-hour period in Seattle. It helped confirm which streets had the most human activity at which times.

Portland was not one of the cities examined in the Green Lab report. However, Powe showed the “character scores” of the 200-meter-square cells covering the Rose City.  Many of the city’s vibrant commercial streets, such as Hawthorne and Alberta, glowed the brightest red with the highest scores.

Portland character-score map (courtesy Preservation Green Lab)

Powe hopes the Green Lab report will help direct future planning policies. He said the six-person Green Lab staff is trying to meet with many city planning agencies. No meetings have been held yet with Portland officials, he added.

The bottom line of Powe’s message: “Character and scale of buildings matter. Think about preservation. Think about why it works. Don’t be afraid to mix old and new. Don’t tear down all old buildings. Be smart about design. Encourage the interplay between old and new.”

Were she still alive, Jacobs likely would agree with much of that.

Fred Leeson is president of the non-profit Bosco-Milligan Foundation and its Architectural Heritage Center.

 

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Michael Graves returns to Portland

Graves being interviewed before Thursday's public talk (photo by Brian Libby)

BY BRIAN LIBBY

As Portland leadership has grappled this year with the upcoming challenge of renovating the Portland Building, and some have even floated the idea of demolishing this internationally renowned landmark of American architecture (probably the only Portland building in every history-of-architecture textbook), there was no better time for its architect, Michael Graves, to return to the city for the first time in a decade.

In a talk with Randy Gragg at the Portland Art Museum on Thursday evening put on in partnership with the University of Oregon's John Yeon Center (which Gragg leads), Graves was at times funny and self-deprecating in discussing the building and his career, while at other times he revealed the true pain and disappointment of having a career-launching and moment-christening building be so polarizing, and by some so disliked. "I don't know where the hostility comes from," Graves said of the Portland Building. "It's tear-making."

Beginning his talk, Graves jokingly made note of a produce vendor outside the museum selling tomatoes, as if it would be handy for people to purchase and throw at him onstage. But the architect also received a standing ovation from the sold-out crowd, and the question-and-answer session that he seemed to dread was a bit of a love fest of admiration. The first questioner, developer Randy Rapaport, didn't even have a question: he simply told Graves that the building should be restored with Graves redesigning the restoration.

Of course those who say the Portland Building is a major landmark of capital-A architecture and those who say the building is deeply flawed are both right.

As bold as the colorful and classical-riffing design was, with its faux garlands and its salmon hues, and for all the attention it got, in national publications like Time magazine, it was the  small $24 million budget imposed by the city and its own design restrictions that terribly compromised the architect's vision. Take the small windows: Graves reminded the audience Thursday night that the energy crisis of the late '70s had prompted the client to insist on them; it wasn't his design choice. Same goes for the triangular glass wall covering portions of the face being tinted enough to not allow much light inside. Or the underground parking garage that has often been criticized for leaving a gaping hole in the street-level facade as it faces the park. Graves fought that inclusion but city government insisted on it. Or the low ceilings that he fought against. The list of failures is perhaps larger on the city side than on the architect's side.

"Before you get your hatchets out, just remember: $24 million," he said.

Portland Building (photo by Brian Libby)

Even so, it was the "brazen gesture" of a design, as Time critic Wolf Von Eckardt called it in a 1982 review — the symbolism and color of his postmodern creation — that first engendered the building controversy. Von Eckardt wrote that Graves was of attempting to "supplant modern architecture's heroic industrialism with postmodern architecture's heroic . . . what?" He also called the design a "dangerous Pop surrealism."

Indeed, the Portland Building was bold then and remains so today, precisely for what a pendulum swing from the modernist glass box it was. And given how glass boxes persist in ubiquity today, the bold look of Graves's design remains unlike much else in the architecture world.

Graves went to great lengths in his talk with Gragg to explain that his design did not come out of a vacuum. He cited the classical architectural tradition of buildings having a base, middle and top, showing pictures of buildings not only from Italian renaissance tradition but also 19th-century buildings in Portland. He showed how garlands have for centuries been a symbol on building facades expressing welcome. And he talked about how the idea of introducing color to architecture could be traced back to ancient Greece and Rome, even if literally every building around his in downtown Portland seemed to come only in shades of black, white or gray.

During a dinner I attended for Graves the night before his lecture at the Watzek House, one member of a committee looking at the building and its needs on behalf of the city told the architect he thought it was  likely that the building would be renovated. And whether in Thursday night's lectures or in interviews or in informal conversations, Graves indicated that he's very open to changes that might improve the building and introduce more natural light. While structural limits would prevent the small square-shaped windows from being enlarged, the larger glass portions on the facade could be changed from tinted to clear glass. And the covered ground-level loggias, into which retailers seem to die, could be glassed off and made into new retail space fronting the sidewalk. Graves also advocated removing the small underground parking garage. Yet he also expressed dismay and frustration that his firm hadn't been contacted by the City of Portland at all. He didn't even know there was a commission looking at renovation.

"Buildings all need care," he said, "and so does the Portland Building."

Portland Building (photo by Brian Libby)

Aged 48 when the building opened in 1982, with projects like the projects Like the San Juan Capistrano Library and Louisville's Humana Building completing that same year, "I thought I couldn't do wrong," he remembered. Along with that, Graves added, "The Portland Building is a wonderful memory for me." At Thursday night's talk, he recalled standing outside the Portland Building and feeling at peace with the design and how it looked today. "It's so glorious," he said. "It's so full of ideas. This is a major building in America, whether Portland knows it or not."

"I've done 350 building designs," he added, "and I don't have this controversy anywhere else."

Yet this was not a man simply acting steadfast in a storm of criticism. Graves, paralyzed for years now and wheelchair bound, turned 80 this year, and he made it clear that his buildings are his children, and that it had been painful to see his work attacked. "It gets old after a while," he told Gragg. "It hurt when people said tear down the building and keep the statue."

Although I personally am a lover of the modernist glass boxes that Graves has spent his career creating alternatives to, and while I have never been a great lover of postmodernism because of the sometimes cartoonish way it drew from historic forms and motifs, there is simply no question that Portland needs to renovate this building. In fact, this isn't just something we should grudgingly do, but rather, the Portland Building renovation is a great opportunity.

Not many legendary architects have been able to see their work reach a historic age and oversee renovation. It happened here in town before, with Pietro Belluschi's Equitable Building, the one other local work of architecture that one will find, along with Graves's work, in every American architecture textbook. Three decades ago Portland's leaders were right to hold a design competition to seek out the freshest ideas in architecture, but Mayor Ivancie's administration gave the building a near fatal series of flaws by doing the building, as our city too often does, on the cheap. Renovating the Portland Building and re-imagining some of its spaces with Graves in charge of it isn't just a matter of fixing leaks or letting in more light. It's a chance to make a landmark work of architecture better than it has ever been.

The Portland Building loggias that could be altered (photo by Brian Libby)

And it's also a chance for Portland to re-affirm that just as we don't sprawl endlessly at our edges like so many other West Coast cities do, so too do we have the courage to stay the course with our most prominent public buildings, in a way that does not cater to the temporary whims of taste or act with only an eye for line-item budgeting, but with vision and ambition.

As the talk ended, there was a little too much uncomfortable silence in the air. Graves had made it clear he put his heart and soul into the building, and while the international accolades and keys to cities were nice, he wanted to make peace with Portland and the building that put him on the map. "I think there's a lot of warmth for you in this room," Gragg said, "and I hope you're feeling that." With that, Graves got his end-of-night standing ovation, and it wasn't beyond the aging architect to show that it meant something to him.

 

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The Architect's Questionnaire: Rick Potestio

Rick Potestio (image courtesy of the architect)

BY LUKE AREHART

Our series on local architects and their inspirations continues with one of Portland's most talented and underrated building designers and planners, Rick Potestio, who, when he's not cyclo-cross racing or engaging in spirited civic debate, combines a facility for crisp, clean-lined contemporary architecture with a reverence for old-world craftsmanship.

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

Rick Potestio: In my SW Portland neighborhood there was a lot of new construction. On my walk home from school, I would detour through these construction sites. The experience of exploring houses in their framed state was impactful. I’d try to imagine what the spaces would be like when the transparency was encased with opaque surfaces. As a kid I thought of architecture as houses.

Once I got a bicycle it expanded the range of house hunting that I could achieve in a day. I could go as far as Lake Oswego and make it back by dinnertime. I’d knock on the door of an intriguing house and ask to come in. The owners may have been a bit taken a back, but most shared their houses and stories of their architects. I’d go home each night and fold over my notebook paper and draw houses--inspired by what I had seen that day.

By the time I was in high school, I had familiarized myself with the works of Wade Pipes, A. E. Doyle, Widden and Lewis, [Herman] Brookman, [John] Yeon, [Pietro] Belluschi, [John] Storrs, [Saul] Zaik, [Joachim] Grube, and [Walter] Gordon.

I remember going to a book signing for A Century of Portland Architecture by George McMath and Thomas Vaughan. That book was my bible. 

I was distressed as I witnessed Victorian-era buildings and houses being torn down. But simultaneously, the city was building the Memorial Coliseum and the South Auditorium urban renewal area with its amazing Halprin fountains. The Standard Plaza and the Hilton Hotel were new. At this time even shopping malls such as the Lloyd Center were modernist pieces designed by architects. I was exposed to architecture that was fresh, new, simple and elegant. 

I determined that architecture was what I wanted to do.

Potestio's Lair Condominiums (image courtesy of the architect)

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

I earned my bachelor of architecture at the University of Oregon and my master’s through Syracuse University’s program in Florence, Italy.

The U of O was a dynamic, exciting place with factions of professors representing differing philosophies. The program was balanced between drawing, design, history, and structural studies. The professors who were most influential were the Louis Kahn group: [Thomas] Hacker, [Richard] Garfield, [Gary] Moye, [Pasquale] Piccioni. I learned about history and urbanism from Rosaria Hodgson and Don Genasci.  Earl Morisund was my mentor. He espoused an intellectual, compositional approach to architecture.

In Italy I had the great fortune to study under professor Colin Rowe. In Florence, as you are walking around and hearing your foot fall on the cobblestones, you’re passing famous palazzos and churches—you are seeing these buildings in an intimate, casual and unexpected way each day.

After graduation, I embarked on a four-month bike tour of Northern Italy.

For some reason, my camera didn’t work so I resorted to drawing. I learned how to draw diagrammatically, and to use drawing as a way to explore and analyze. I was not simply making pretty sketches but addressing themes; one day might be about light, another about the composition of a façade, another about form.

I’d spend a week in a small town mapping, diagramming and sketching buildings and space. I would study every aspect of how the town was structured. Tourists experience these places, but few have sat down and diagrammed the picturesque views to understand how these spaces are composed.

One of Potestio's Italy sketches (image courtesy of the architect)

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

My first house—it was a beach house. I had just read The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa, by Colin Rowe. I worked to create a clear expression of structure (Kahn), but with Earl Morisund’s lessons in mind and Colin’s prose fresh, I sought to make a complex proportional and spatial composition in the spirit of Palladio. 

Another is the Biomedical Information Communication Center (BICC) at Oregon Health & Science University. I worked on the project under Thomas Hacker. He had great aspirations for the expression of structure, material, and light. I was honored that he trusted me to realize his vision. Ironically, the building was built to facilitate new computer and communications technologies, but we drew it by hand.

There is also the Lair Condominiums. The client was the contractor, Don Tankersley, who has been a great collaborator through the years. I took a typical town home program and site plan and introduced the idea of a courtyard. The design was inspired by my experiences in Italian towns. I wanted to express each unit yet create an overriding sense of community. I worked closely with city staff to interpret the code such that I could achieve a public realm for the project unfettered by elements intended to separate rather than unify activity within space.

Most recently I designed a triplex for Randy Gragg. He exemplifies the client I am most interested in working with. His objective was to create a significant work of architecture, but he was equally concerned with practicality and budget. He never quit pushing for the best solution regardless of the nature of the problem to be solved. 

Who has been an important mentor among your colleagues?

John Forsgren was my first true mentor. We met my first day of architecture school. He was my go-to person as I struggled that first year.

Later in my academic career, it was John Cava. He may not have realized it at the time, but I followed his work very closely and emulated his work.

Jeff Kovel—he formed a group called DIG for Design Industry Group. We would meet monthly for drinks and dinner and talk about our practices, sharing problems, ideas, expertise and advice. 

Bill Hawkins has been a great friend, one whom I can always count on for a beer, a story and words of wisdom.

Don Genasci—I’m working with him on the problem of Burnside. It’s inspiration to engage with him on this level.

But my most significant relationship with colleagues is that of the group PDXplore. My partners Bill Tripp, Carol Mayer Reed, Rudy Barton, and Michael McCulloch have been mentors, critics, friends, and comrades in arms. We found each other through a series conversations about the future of our city. We started gathering on Wednesday eves, at Tripp’s office around a table laden with cheese, fruit, bread, and wine. We talked until late in the eve about a myriad of urban, environmental, architectural and artistic topics. Eventually we found support in Liz Leach, Tom Manley and Jane Jarrett, who helped us produce exhibitions on the UGB and the CRC.

OHSU's BICC

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

I like the personal interactions with my staff, clients, and contractors. Earning the respect of the people engaged with the project is important to me.

A professional goal is to bring craftsmanship back into a key role in construction. I create opportunities on each project to collaborate with great designer/fabricators such as Tom Ghilarducci, Todd Littlehales, and Fergus Kinnel, all of who have become friends over the years. I’m looking forward to working with Leland Gilmore and Ryan Donohoe, two woodworkers who are very skilled and talented.

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

In Portland one can see a condensed history of architecture from about 1850 to the present. What makes Portland unique is that its architects took the prevailing styles and married them with an appreciation of local conditions: site, climate, and materials. Portland architects also innovated with materials and technologies.  

My list includes the Portland Art Museum, Veteran’s Memorial Coliseum, the Equitable/Commonwealth Building and the Watzek House as examples of this fusing of style, local inspiration and innovation. 

I admire The Esco Building by Bob Frasca. It is rigorous and elegant, and its forecourt garden speaks to our connecting of building and nature.

I admire Saul Zaik’s work—especially his house for himself.

Bill Hawkins designed a house on Vista Avenue that has always been a favorite and his own residence is an exquisite gem.

My wild card is the Pittock Mansion. It’s from a period of historic revivals but it’s an anomaly in that it responds in plan to its magnificent promontory and the views of the Cascade Mountains. It’s a masterpiece of manipulation of scale and detail. I am sure Yeon was well aware of its subtleties. The main staircase is amazing—exceeding that of Garnier’s Paris Opera House.

Gragg residence (image courtesy of the architect)

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

The Pantheon in Rome, and San Zeno in Verona. The Exeter Library and Aalto’s Mt. Angel Library.

The Barcelona Pavilion, which is probably the most magical space that I have ever been in.

It’s an interesting question because I was thinking how could I have such different buildings on the same list? Therein lies my dilemma as an architect; I’m trying to reconcile the spatial fluidity and dynamism of the Barcelona Pavilion with the raw weight and monumentality of the Pantheon or Exeter. It’s an interesting challenge.

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

I’m regularly visit my peers’ projects; this summer I visited projects by Skylab, Holst and Paul McKean, as well as Works Partnership Architecture and Path Architecture.

Walker Templeton, Joann Le and David Horsley are very talented designers doing interesting work.

I also follow members of my former staff: John Carhart, and Brad Lest of ZGF; Brian James at Downstream; Robin Wilcox and David Keltner of THA Architecture; Rene Berndt, Mahlum, and Jamin Aasum at Skylab. All these people are doing excellent work and should have more recognition.

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

Demolish the Marquam Bridge and the I-5 East Bank freeway. This will open up the east side from the Rose Quarter to the new Tillicum Crossing to development commensurate with the west side and allow for the realization of a balanced urban core, with the river at its center. 

Abolish the R5 zoning designation and allow for mid to high density, mixed-use development as a base condition across the city. Historic examples are the Sullivan’s Gulch and Goose Hollow/King’s Hill neighborhoods. The city must incorporate higher density models within the existing neighborhoods rather than concentrating it along the “corridors” like Division and Vancouver/Williams. This will counter gentrification--fostering a more diverse population and provide more equitable housing options and costs. It will make Portland affordable for families.

Adopt the Bennet Plan, or an updated version thereof. The city should conceive of its streets in a classical sense and classify/code streets as Boulevards, Main Streets, Avenues, and so on. Burnside could be an arcaded street from 1-405 to NW 23^rd.

Torino would be a good model for my vision.

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

There are many great people at the planning bureau who are very dedicated and hardworking, but overall there is no grand vision or bold idea for the city. Planning cannot be an end in and of itself any more than programming can be in an architectural sense. A city is a design problem and planning must serve a design concept. We need more than an updated comprehensive plan for the city. We need a comprehensive design for the city.

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

I think this is the wrong question.

Rather than perpetrate the “starchitect” syndrome, I’d prefer to see Portland’s architectural community work together towards a shared vision that defines this place. For this to happen Portland’s institutional and private clients need to hire architects on the basis of talent and vision, not just fee and horsepower. It also requires the architectural community to start communicating about what this vision might be. Rather than each firm trying to be the most original and unique, leading to an ever widening schism between each other’s work, I’d prefer to see architects’ designs fit within our historic context and complement each other’s work.

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

I love chairs; the chair is the greatest design challenge of all.

What are three of your all-time favorite movies?

“The Godfather”, “The Odd Couple”, and “Fight Club”. Others perfect for a rainy beach weekend: “Some Like it Hot”, “Animal House”, and “The Producers”.

 

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City Council's Memorial Coliseum study includes demolition option

Veterans Memorial Coliseum (photo by Jeremy Bitterman)

BY BRIAN LIBBY

Five years ago Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Portland's National Register-listed landmark arena, was threatened with demolition to make way for a minor-league baseball stadium. When a coalition of citizens opposed the plan, then-mayor Sam Adams reversed course and the baseball blueprints were set aside. But in the ensuing years, Adams and his mayoral successor, Charlie Hales, have been unable to take the next step: restoring the building.

Now, although the Coliseum has already been looked at numerous times, Mayor Hales has commissioned a new study that includes four options to be evaluated: renovation, doing nothing, mothballing the building, or tearing it down.

Although commissioning a study could perhaps be construed as a delay tactic, there is actually good reason for it in this case. As I learned from meeting with City of Portland officials over the past year on behalf of the Friends of Memorial Coliseum, local leaders don't even exactly know if the building operates at a profit or loss. That's because the Coliseum's parking proceeds are part of a large pool that also includes the adjacent Moda Center as well as Providence Park downtown.

Since Hales took office, there have been whispers that the mayor was seeking a private partner to make possible not just a Coliseum restoration, but a substantially bigger one than the just-over $30 million restoration that Adams nearly brought to a vote before his term expired. With Nike involved in bringing track and field's 2016 World Indoor Championships to Portland, rumors began circulating earlier this year that the event might be moved from the Oregon Convention Center to a new temporary track at the Coliseum as part of a larger public-private partnership. But those discussions, as best I can tell, don't seem to be hapening any longer, if they really did happen at all.

It makes one wonder if there are other potential private partners to be had, such as Paul Allen and Vulcan. After all, Allen's Blazers manage Veteran's Memorial Coliseum and previously had been involved in discussions during the Adams administration to re-design and build on the area. Thouth their plan set off alarms with its suburban feel, the broader Rose Quarter still, for all the cricket-chirping silence of its badly planned public areas today, has the potential to become a vibrant urban space if its parking garages were to be buried underground and new buildings added. The Rose Quarter's northern border, Northeast Broadway, just put in a new streetcar line, which Hales first championed some 15 years ago as a development tool while a City Council member.

But even if no deep-pocketed private partner can be found, a more modest restoration like the one that nearly came to a vote last year would be a step in the right direction - especially since it would include a $10 million investment from the Portland Winterhawks. So actually it already is a public-private partnership.

Although the Coliseum's parking-revenue question should indeed be answered, we know that the arena remains relatively busy desoute its deferred maintenance, with about 100 events a year. Chances are the study will show that the building operates at a modest loss. If that's the case, a restoration would seem to push the building into profit or at least breaking even. Imagine if someone ran the Coliseum in a way that was supported by a state-of-the-art renovation that embraced the uniqueness of its open-curtain configuration. It's a cultural and economic resources begging to be taken advantage of, but it needs someone with vision and a reverence for good design (be it past or present) to get involved.

Veterans Memorial Coliseum (photo by Julius Shulman)

As the co-founder of the Friends of Memorial Coliseum, obviously I'm not an objective voice in this conversation. I believe that this building, along with the Pietro Belluschi-designed Equitable Building downtown (which is the world's first aluminum-glass curtain walled building), represents one of the best examples of mid-20th Century modern architecture that Portland has. 

Memorial Coliseum is virtually the only major arena in the world with a 360-degree view to the outside. Standing inside the arena when its curtain is open, one can look out at the Willamette River and the entire downtown Portland skyline. The building is equivalent to about four city blocks in size, but the whole thing stands on just four columns. The concrete seating bowl also sits completely detached from the glass box surrounding it. Quite simply, it's the most pristine work of modern architecture the city has.

But forget the architecture for a moment and consider the economics.

Organizations like the Portland Business Alliance and the Oregon Sports Authority have already gone on record supporting a Coliseum restoration. "It can bring us economic impact multiple times the renovation," the OSA's Drew Mahalic told City Council in December 2012. The Oregon School Activities Association also uses Memorial Coliseum for many of its more than 100 state high school sports championships each year, but the organization doesn't have the budget to hold all of them at the privately-owned Moda Center.

When City Council neared a vote two years ago on a Coliseum restoration, the Portland Business Alliance's Carly Riter testified: "This project is exactly the kind of investment that urban renewal was designed to provide, and produces the short and long term benefits that epitomize the role of urban renewal. Second, this development will catalyze this area and spur economic investment in the broader Rose Quarter area. This project will provide certainty for other investors that the city is a dedicated partner in revitalizing this neighborhood. Third, it creates a local and regional benefit by offering a viable entertainment facility for the Portland Winterhawks and other events. This attracts new energy to the area, enlivening it with civic and economic activity. Having the city and the PDC involved in this project and poised to assist with future development opportunities in this area will support additional strategic investment."

Then there's the symbolic value of a Coliseum restoration or demolition. Great cities don't destroy their most treasured, National Register-listed architecture. Even if you don't love the look of the Coliseum, or modernist architecture, it would still be a stain on Portland's reputation, be it as an aspiring sustainability leader or as a design capitol -- both of which represent leading city aspirations and core strengths -- to tear down a building that national experts have deemed a landmark.

When City Council votes on the study,  a "yes" vote may be warranted in order to gain hard numbers we should have had already on data like parking revenue, but we should urge Council to take demolition off the table. $30 million or $70 million (the range discussed for a renovation) isn't a small sum, but it would come largely from urban renewal dollars already being spent to make the combined Convention Center area and Lloyd District a vibrant, high-density corner of the city. As Portland considers investments like a subsidized headquarters hotel, tearing down Veterans Memorial Coliseum would be a step in the wrong direction, and would ignore the change that is already coming here.

The Coliseum has been beloved by Portlanders for generations. It's ground zero for Rose Festival's Grand Floral Parade, which originates there. It is the state's most important veterans memorial, honoring Oregon's fallen soldiers from World War II and the Korean War with not only its memorial plaques in a sunken garden outside the building but in the light-filled arena itself. And while nostalgia isn't a reason alone to save a building, this is a repository of our most treasured cultural history: a place where the Trail Blazers won an NBA championship and where everyone from The Beatles to the Dalai Lama have taken the stage.

Surely the five members of City Council are well aware of the Coliseum's heritage and its combination of cultural, historical and architectural value. When the study was originally commissioned, demolition reportedly wasn't even going to be included. So while recent media reports such as those by The Oregonian and KOIN have focused on the demolition threat, we may instead be working our way towards a restoration. While I'm as biased as anyone in this conversation, I'm far from the only one who loves this building. It never would have been saved from demolition five years ago had there not been a broad coalition of citizens rallying to its cause.

Is it time to lobby Council again to come to its senses, or are they already working towards a solution we can be proud of? Only time will tell, but the debate will be closely watched as a harbinger not only of the building's fate, but as a referendum on what kind of city Portland wants to be: a design capitol that treasures its heritage, or just another sprawling metropolis where the dollar and the lobbyist hold the biggest sway.

 

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Design Calendar: October 1-15

Michael Graves and Pietro Belluschi (image courtesy Saul Zaik)

BY BRIAN LIBBY

How to Research the History of Your House
Historians Tibby O’Brien and Morgen Young take attendees through the steps to uncover the history of one's vintage house (as well as any other building). Using the latest online sources, local archives, and libraries, they will show that the process is not so mysterious when one knows what steps to follow and where to look. Architectural Heritage Center, 701 SE Grand Avenue. 10AM Saturday, October 4. $12 ($8 for AHC members).

Celebrate Modernism: Tour Day 2014
Architectural historian Libby Dawson Farr will be joined by architects from Portland firms BOORA and Holst to talk about the work of Paul Thiry, a pioneering Seattle modernist architect) as well as others on the campus of Lewis & Clark College. This event will highlight examples of recent renovations and additions to architectural masterworks of the mid 20th century and offer an introduction to the history of this beautiful campus. A self-guided walking tour (with a specially created map) will follow the program, and among other treasures visitors will be able to visit the usually closed South Chapel by John Maloney, which features unique glass art from
the period. Lewis & Clark College, 0615 SW Palatine Hill Road, Gregg Pavilion. 10:30AM Saturday, October 4.  $15 ($10 for DoCoMoMo members).

Design Week Portland Opening Party
Stitching together a variety of design and arts disciplines from architecture to graphic design, illustration and crafts to landscape architecture, Design Week Portland kicks off with this party featuring music from DJ Rev Shines of Lifesavas and food from locals Olympic Provisions, The Whole Bowl, and Salt and Straw. Staver Locamotive, 2537 NW 29th Avenue. 7PM Saturday, October 4. $10.

Restorative Design: Confluence Project's Bird Blind
Best known for the iconic Vietnam veterans' memorial in Washington, DC, architect and artist Maya Lin left an indelible imprint on a variety of sites in Oregon and Washington to commemorate the intersection of Lewis & Clark's journey and its ultimate impact on Native American communities throughout the region. As part of Design Week Portland, this interpretive walk to Lin's Bird Blind at the confluence of the Sandy and Columbia Rivers is a 2.5-mile journey that will also speak to current environmental restoration work happening at the Sandy River Delta. 10AM Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday, October 5, 7, 8 and 11. $10.

UO Architecture Thesis Studio Exhibition
Every year students at architecture schools such as the University of Oregon present their final thesis projects, and this public exhibition by students of the University of Oregon's Department of Architecture in Portland to show the idealism and fresh thinking that makes viewing student work nearly always worthwhile. University of Oregon, 70 NW Couch Street. 8AM-5PM Sunday-Saturday, October 5-11. Free.

The Inevitable City - Film Series
Our planet will be home to over nine billion people by 2050, with 70 percent of us in urban centers. How will humanity adapt? The American Institute of Architects' annual film series revolves around this broad question, which is both exciting in possibility and daunting in its sheer scale. The films span utopian futures, frightening visions, and everything in between—including the documentation of evolving urban life right before our very eyes. Included are Urbanized, which looks at the issues and strategies behind urban design and features some of the world's foremost architects, planners, policymakers, builders, and thinkers; Citizen Architect: Samuel Mockbee and the Spirit of the Rural Studio, which profiles the late Auburn University architecture professor and MacArthur "genius grant" and his efforts to marry architectural education and public-interest design; and The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of The American Dream, a 2004 documentary  concerning peak oil and its implications for the suburban lifestyle. AIA Center For Architecture, 403 NW 11th Avenue. 6PM Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, October 6, 8 and 9. $5 suggested.

Design + Biomimicry: Applying Whole-(eco)Systems Thinking
Biomimicry, the practice of creating solutions inspired by nature, has proven its potential when developing products that radically disrupt markets as we know them. As part of Design Week Portland, unnamed representatives from the organization Biomimicry for Creative Innovation will share their perspective on where biomimicry thinking fits into the innovation process, why it matters, and how we might get there. Hatch, 2420 NW Sandy Boulevard. 6:30PM Monday, October 6. Free.

Older, Smaller, Better: How Character-Rich Buildings and Blocks Support Great Neighborhoods
New research from the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Preservation Green Lab shows that neighborhoods with a mix of small, old and new buildings outperform districts of large, new buildings on a wide variety of social, economic, and cultural metrics. Michael Powe, who manages research for the Seattle-based Preservation Green Lab, will connect new ideas drawn from Big Data to the writings of Jane Jacobs and discuss how blocks of modestly-sized older buildings are quietly contributing to robust local economies and distinctive, livable communities. St. James Lutheran Church, 1315 SW Park Avenue. 7PM Tuesday, October 7. $8.

Portland Writers on Design: Urban Movement
Join five Portland writers as they tell their stories of moving through the city, observing the overlooked but intentionally designed details that make each journey unique. Presenters for this Design Week Portland event include Sarah Mirk of Bitch Media, Joseph Mains of Atelier Ace, John Vieira of Nemo Design, former Museum of Contemporary Craft director Namita Wiggers, and Carl Alviani of Ziba Design. Each will speak for approximately 10 minutes, on a designed artifact or system of their choosing, related to urban movement. Ziba Auditorium, 810 NW Marshall Street. 6:30PM Tuesday, October 7. Free.

Portland Past Present Future: Our Architectural Narrative
What do the buildings we choose to construct, demolish, restore, and inhabit tell the world about us? What's Portland's story? Where's it headed? This Design Week Portland panel discussion includes Joe Zehnder, chief planner for the City of Portland; Tyler Robinson, art director for TV's Portlandia; David Staczek, a principal with ZGF Architects; Reiko Hillyer of Lewis & Clark College; Peggy Moretti, executive director of Restore Oregon; Courtenay Hameister, head writer for Live Wire Radio; and Dave Weich, founder of Sheepscot Creative. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Avenue. 7PM Tuesday, October 7. $14.

SukkahPDX
An annual juried outdoor design competition held at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education and this year in partnership with Mittleman Jewish Community Center as well as Design Week Portland. Artists and design teams submitted proposals to build temporary livable outdoor structures, called sukkahs, which are constructed worldwide every year in observance of the Jewish harvest holiday of Sukkot. Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education, 1953 NW Kearney. 8AM-5PM Wednesday-Saturday, October 8-11. Free.  

HQ Conversation: Susan Szenasy
Susan S. Szenasy is publisher and editor in chief of Metropolis, the award-winning New York City–based magazine of architecture, design and culture. Since 1986, she has led the magazine in landmark design journalism, achieving international recognition. Szenasy will speak as part of Design Week Portland's ongoing "HQ" conversations at Pioneer Courthouse Square, inside a Buckminster Fuller-inspired dome. Pioneer Courthouse Square. 4PM Wednesday, October 8. $15.

The New Structure: Carrie Strickland, Sam Adams, Rick Potestio
The New Structure is a series that invites the community to share experiences relating to historical, urban, and design topics. For this special Design Week Portland edition, architect Carrie Strickland of Works Partnership, former Portland mayor Sam Adams, and architect Rick Potestio will engage in a multimedia, storytelling session, sharing their personal journeys into and around fields of design and influence. Rontoms, 600 East Burnside Street.  7PM Wednesday, October 8. Free.

Michael Graves Live: A Conversation About Recent Designs, Change, and the Future of the Portland Building
Journalist and Yeon Center director Randy Gragg will interview legendary architect and Portland Building designer Michael Graves about two topics: his career’s evolution since the Portland Building, and, in particular, since an infection rendered him a paraplegic in 2003 inspiring a turn to designing everything from wheelchairs to housing for disabled veterans; and what of the Portland Building should be preserved and what might change during its upcoming renovation. Portland Art Museum, 1219 SW Park Avenue. 7PM Thursday, October 9. $10.

AIA/Portland Homes Tour
This year’s AIA Portland Homes Tour features unexpected urban infill solutions that were custom designed in harmony with their quintessential inner Portland neighborhoods. The self-guided tour provides an excellent opportunity to see how great design impacts our quality of life through creativity, sustainability, and craft. Attendees will be able to explore these unique homes firsthand and become inspired by the possibilities. Architects and firms with homes on this tour include Rick Potestio, Emerick Architects, Works Partnership, and Hennebery Eddy. 10AM Saturday, October 11. $40.

Buildings and Places: A Walking Tour of Portland's Architecture
Sample more than a 100 years of classical beauty, modern marvels, pioneering firsts and the newest in contemporary and sustainable design. This AIA/Portland-produced downtown walking tour highlights the most significant styles, architects and stories of the 20th & 21st centuries. Featuring individual works by Whidden & Lewis, AE Doyle, Pietro Belluschi, and Michael Graves, the tour also spotlights the modernist contributions of SOM, the contemporary designs of ZGF, TVA and SERA as well as special, less well-known gems. This two-hour tour starts at 10 AM at the Center For Architecture (NW 11th Avenue and Flanders Street) in the Pearl and ends near the Portland Building at SW Fifth Avenue and Main Street. 10AM Sunday, October 12. $20.

 

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