"God is in the details"

The quotation above, surely one of the greatest in architectural lore, came from a mid-20th Century master of the glass and steel skyscraper, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.  Of course, its meaning is not limited to the modern era.

Nobody in Portland has a better sense of late 19th-Century classical details than architect William J. Hawkins III, who has devoted a long career to architectural research, writing and design.  When the 1888 Morris Marks house, above, was moved to its new location after a prolonged struggle over siting and transportation, Hawkins knew that the classic Italianate house was missing some elegant details in its elaborate wooden facade.

Before the move, this long-neglected stick-built house was close to becoming a pile of kindling.  The time-lapse video below illustrates how the building was sliced into two pieces in order to be  removed from the original site on S.W. 12th Ave.  The move was complicated by the presence of MAX and streetcar wires that limited route options, and by a pedestrian overpass that thwarted a move down S.W. Broadway.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BZsWJWZnB5u/?tagged=morrismarkshouse

Here's a still image of the house early on the morning it was moved:

The new owners, Karen Karlsson and Rick Michaelson, engaged in heroic efforts to move the building and plan its restoration.  The move and most of the renovation work was undertaken by Arciform, a Portland design-build firm willing to tackle the most difficult preservation/restoration projects.

However, the restoration budget didn't allow for replacement and Corinthian capitals missing from the front porch, and for a new balustrades for the front porch.   

"I just couldn't bear to have those columns unrestored," Hawkins said.  How to pay for it?  He and Dave Talbot, a specialist in replicating historical architectural details decided to call on their lists of preservation advocates to make contributions.  The request netted $17,300, enough to get the work done.

Meanwhile Hawkins needed to figure out what the long-gone capitals looked like.  "They were a stock item in the 1880s," he said.  "You could buy decorated capitals and attach them to columns if you could afford it."  Hawkins also studied the capitals adorning pilasters near the front door, and figured how to take those "flat" details into round capitals.  The new capitals are made from cast aluminum.

The capitals and balustrade are Hawkins' only contribution to the renovation.  "They allowed me to be totally independent," he said of the owners.  "I didn't want to be intrusive.  They were very nice about it."

Given its siting on a triangular piece of ground at 2177 S.W. Broadway, the original front entrance is closed off and porch becomes perhaps Portland's most elegant deck.  Entry to the building will be from the side.  The building will be leased for offices.

The Italianate house was one of many designed by Warren H. Williams, one of Portland's most notable architects in the late 19th Century.  This was the first of two houses he designed for a successful shoe merchant, Morris Marks.  "Williams probably did hundreds of handsome houses," Hawkins said, "but now we are down to just a handful."

This is the second Williams building that has found life after what appeared to be likely death.  Back in the 1960s, early in Bill Hawkins' career, preservation enthusiasts rallied to save Williams' pioneer gothic Calvary Presbyterian Church, which we know today at the Old Church. "Fortunately, we didn't have to move the Old Church," Hawkins said.

Sadly, perhaps, most people will see this new restoration  only as they drive past, since parking is not easy on the triangle of land where it sits.  But as Dave Talbot suggested, once traffic returns to normal, people will have time to admire it while stuck in traffic jams. 

Hawkins laughed when he was reminded of the Miesian quotation in the headline of this article.  He then suggested a minor alteration: "God is in the elegant details."