Move Along Folks, There's Nothing to See Here

 

Barring a seemingly impossible miracle, Portland State University this fall will start demolishing an attractive 5-story building that has been a compatible neighbor to the South Park Blocks for 90 years.

 While loss of the Parkway Manor is sad in itself, the fact that PDSU has no immediate plans or funding for a replacement building compounds the wound.  The site could sit vacant behind security fencing as an urban puncture for several years to come.

 “I wish I didn’t have to present this,” Jason Franklin, PSU’s vice president for planning, construction and property management,  told a Downtown Neighborhood Association committee as started detailing problems with the now-vacant building.  The 54-unit apartment has served as student housing since 1969, but has been vacant for over a year.

 Franklin said renovation for continued student housing would cost $25 million, and operations would lose $13 million over the next 20 years.  “Everything (inside) would have to be removed and put back.”  It is clear that the building has suffered from managerial neglect, with a leaking roof, broken elevator and inadequate plumbing.

 It wasn’t clear from his presentation whether PSU had considered any other potential uses for a renovated building, but he ruled out potential office space.  He said the university has plenty of office space already, and many employees like working from home.  Switching the building’s use would be “a big lift for us to do that.”

 Peggy Moretti, a longstanding preservation advocate, questioned the validity of Franklin’s gruesome financial picture.  “You can make numbers say anything you want,” she said.  Saving the building, she added, “Depends on whether there is a will to do so.”  She said demolition “feels morally irresponsible to me.”

 The building was designed by the prominent Portland firm of Bennes and Herzog.  John Virginius Bennes designed several buildings on the Oregon State University campus that are now a part of a National Historic District.  He and Harry Herzog also designed the prominent Hollywood Theatre in Northeast Portland.

 The Parkway Manor’s two public facades show a rather subdued Art Moderne Zig-Zag motif crafted with bricks.  There is nothing like it anywhere downtown.

 Franklin said PSU is “very cognizant of its location and the importance of its location,” and agreed that demolition creates a “hole” on the South Park Blocks.  But he said allowing the building to stand empty while PSU decides what should replace it “is a safety issue for us at this point.”  He said the empty building would be a threat for vandalism, graffiti and trespassing squatters.

 So just think of how much money is being saved while the vacant site scars what used to be one of the most pleasant urban environments on the PSU campus -- and in downtown Portland.  PSU has no current plans for the site, and when it does, it will have to await funding from the Oregon Legislature, which meets every two years..  And then any proposal will have to go through Portland's design review, taking most of another year.  

Meanwhile, enjoy the view. 

----Fred Leeson

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