A New Horizon Ahead?

 Given their limited finances, artists hoping to create a synergistic community of their brethren usually don’t look for space in high-end neighborhoods.

Cyrus Cole and Adewale Agboola didn’t bother with the Pearl when they wanted to find a building where artists and musicians, especially from the BIPOC community, could create and display their work in a supportive and vibrant venue.

The three-story masonry building they found and bought sits on the edge of the New Chinatown/Japantown Historic District in the 400 block of NW Glisan St.  It bears a sign of Columbia River Ship Supply Inc., although it isn’t clear when that company occupied the building believed to have been erected in 1905.

Fortunately, the old building appears to be in good shape, with arched windows, unusual 12-over-12 lite windows and an interesting corbelled cornice.  The architect is not known.  At various times, the building has been used for manufacturing, storage and more recently as an architecture office. 

 

An interesting cornice 

Cole, a graphics designed, and Agboola, a photographer, hope to make the first floor a gallery space with a coffeeshop and retail.  Creative spaces on the upper floors would be rented to artists on a daily or 10-day or monthly basis.  The basement they envision as a jazz bar with performance space for musicians or the spoken word.

 Cole and Agboola call their acquisition the Horizon Enterprise Building.  Cole said they are in the final stages of obtaining building permits for the interior work.  Fortunately for them, seismic upgrades were made several years ago, saving them a significant expense.  Intior work is expected to take five or six months, once the pair generate adequate funding.

 “It’s a great building,” said Maya Foty, a member of the Portland Landmarks Commission where Agboola and Cole explained their plans.  “It seems like a great spot.”  She called their plans “exciting on every level.”

 “It’s a little rough around the edges,” Cole said, “but most diamonds in the rough are.”

 The building is listed as a contributing element of the New Chinatown/Japantown Historic District, although researchers who wrote the district history said there was no apparent ethnic connection to the Chinese or Japanese communities.  The federal listing said the building contributed to the district because it represented the architecture and commerce of that historic era.  It sits close to the Japanese American Museum of Oregon and the Lan Su Chinese Garden, two institutions that celebrate Portland’s early 20th Century international connections.

There have been times when collections of artists working in proximity have generated additional economic interest in their neighborhoods and lifted property values.  When that happens, the arrival of Starbucks often means it’s time for the artists to move elsewhere. 

 ----Fred Leeson

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