Abe Lincoln's next chapter

Amid the many expensive challenges facing the Portland City Council these days, one problem has a quick, easy solution: Put the Abe Lincoln statue back on its original pedestal in the South Park Blocks.

Alas, the city’s Office of Arts and Culture wants to reduce Lincoln to ground level for reasons it reached after largely isolated meetings with special-interest groups dating to 2024.  The general public has never been invited to express its views. Responses to social media posts about the proposed demotion of Lincoln suggest that a massive majority of Portlanders want to see Lincoln returned to his original setting, where he stood from 1928 to 2020.

Citizens might – or might not – have a chance to express their views on Sept. 8 when the Office of Arts and Culture hosts “Lincoln’s Return: A Public Conversation” at the Mark Building, 1219 SW Park Ave. 

Whether citizens will be able to respond appears questionable, given the city’s explanation of the event.  It will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. and is scheduled to include presentations on public art, history, place keeping and conservation.  Then a panel of experts will undertake a discussion.  A promotional description says the agenda will include “a chance to ask questions of the panelists and other Portlanders who care about history and public art.”  A cynic might suggest the program sounds like a sales pitch for an unpopular product.

Though there is no fee to attend, guests are encouraged to register in advance at: Lincoln’s Return: A Public Conversation | Portland.gov  Registration would assure one’s attendance even if the crowd is too large for everyone to sit inside. Interest in the statue’s fate suggests that a large crowd is possible.

 Sales pitch or not, supporters who favor returning Lincoln to his original 32-inch-tall pedestal are planning on ways to make their wishes known at the meeting, even if time runs short.  As an added bonus, a Lincoln impersonator with an extensive knowledge of Lincoln history will entertain early attendees in the South Park Blocks starting at 5:15 p.m.

 As many readers will recall, the Lincoln statue and a few other historic statues were toppled by political protesters in 2020.  The City Council subsequently decided that several of them should be restored.  The first successful restoration, the historic Elk Statue and Fountain funded by the estate of David P. Thompson, an early Portland mayor, occurred earlier this year.

----Fred Leeson

No AI is involved in production of this blog.  You can join Building on History’s email list by writing “add me” to faroverpar463@gmail.com

 

Will Logic Prevail at Keller Auditorium?

 

Proposed expanded western facade at Keller Auditorium (Halprin Conservancy)

A firm request by a Portland City Council committee ultimately could become an insurmountable hurdle for a new 3,000 seat public auditorium proposed to be built at Portland State University.

 While the City Life Committee voted 4 to 1 this month in favor of the PSU plan, it also demanded detailed financial plans about how to pay for the $449 million project before moving ahead with the proposal to replace the city’s Keller Auditorium.  Given the city current budget deficits and cuts to essential services, the financial planning looms as a big problem for the PSU project.  PSU seemingly compounded the problem by asking for a $44 million down payment this year from a city budget that has made no provision for it.

 The troubling financial picture provides wind in the sails of the Halprin Landscape Conservancy, a non-profit organization that advocates urging a full renovation of the Keller Auditorium – at a smaller cost – instead.

 Given the city’s budget troubles, “There has been no decision made on the (PSU) project,” said Scott Andrews, president of the non-profit conservancy that seeks protection for the four Halprin-designed public fountains, including the renowned Keller Fountain that faces the Keller Auditorium.  Although the City Life committee’s decision did not kill the PSU plan, “We were quite pleased with the result,” Andrews said.

Thanks to a 2018 design competition, the Halprin Conservancy has developed an extensive renovation plan that would expand the Keller, bring it to full compliance with earthquake building codes and add amenities for audiences and back-of-the-house functions.  Cost estimates for Halprin proposal range from $267 million to $286 million, depending whether the work is done all at once in in phases over three years.  Either option would be a substantial savings over the $449 million PSU plan.

 Th Halprin plan would add 41,000 square feet to the building, including the dramatic curving new western façade that would be composed of a glass curtainwall extending over a portion of SW Third Avenue.  Third Avenue would become a pedestrian mall between the front of the auditorium and the iconic Keller Fountain, a 1970 urban renewal jewel that is considered one of America’s greatest fountains of the 20^th Century.

 “There’s really no substitute for location,” said Tim Eddy, a Portland architect whose firm, Hennebery Eddy Architects Inc., would oversee the Halprin proposal if it comes to pass.   The fountain and new public plaza would provide a setting that Eddy called “priceless,” and “couldn’t be replicated at any location.”  Further, Eddy said the current Keller location provides 2,475 nearby parking spaces, public access by MAX trains and TriMet buses, and 800 nearby hotel rooms, amenities that surpass the proposed PSU location at SW Fourth Avenue and Lincoln Street.

Looking ahead, it is conceivable to speculate that further financial analyses will lead a majority of the City Council to back off from the PSU plan.  If the city continues to suffer more budget problems ahead, the Halprin renovation plan would become increasingly attractive -- even though it makes more sense in the first place.

 ----Fred Leeson

 No AI is used in preparing this blog.  You can join Building on History’s mailing list by writing “add me” to faroverpar463@gmail.com

 

What replaces Lloyd Center? Don't hold your breath.

 

Now that the long, slow death march at Lloyd Center is finally completed, our thoughts turn to what could replace the big shopping mall on 27 acres near the heart of our major Pacific Northwest city.

Alas, there is no way of knowing.  Yes, the City Council approved a “voluntary master plan” with pretty drawings showing office towers, high-rise residences and 8 acres of public open space, scattered among 14 specific “development areas.”  But a close look at the formal decision reveals important escape routes for the property owner, New-York based KREF Lloyd Center Owner LLC.  Here they are:

 1) Selling off parcels to other developers.  This no doubt is the KREF preferred strategy, but the problem lies with the high-rise commercial zoning.  The way to maximize profits under the zoning is to build high-rise buildings office towers and condos/apartments.  But we know the high-rise office market in Portland is almost dead, with major downtown buildings selling for small fractions of their earlier values.

   It is difficult to conceive of demand for tall new office space.  Based on some current condo prices, the outlook is almost as troubling for residential towers.  So how many prospective developers will be lining up?   The wait could take a long time.  If so, Northeast Portland could have a voluminous vacant scare abutting the prominent Sullivan’s Gulch and Irvington neighborhoods sitting nearby.

2) The owner or a buyer can elect whether to implement the any portion of the voluntary master plan, or else supersede the plan with a subsequent land-use review.

 3) The owner may also elect to render the voluntary master plan null and void by submitting a subsequent land-use application for the whole 27 acres.

 

By comparison, a “mandatory” master plan carries a 10-year time limit for execution, or the plan expires.  Given Portland’s current climate for high-rise buildings, the voluntary master plan approved on the Lloyd Center land could sit vacant presumably for longer than 10 years.  One wonders if there couldn’t have been a better urban planning strategy.  Alas, keeping the Lloyd Center in place was never a feasible option; in an ideal world, perhaps more attention could be been given to finding a productive new future for it beyond retailing.

 -----Fred Leeson

 No AI is used in creating this blog.  You can join Building on History’s email list by writing “add me” to faroverpar463@gmail.com