Finding a Home for Food Carts

 

Ankeny Block

After decades of planning babble and urban renewal projects, nothing has added as much vitality to downtown Portland as the dozens of food carts that popped up in recent years on surface parking lots.

 For less than the price of a restaurant meal, workers, residents and visitors could find an array of international aromas and food choices packed within easy walking distances. Entrepreneurs found entrances to the food business at less than brick-and-mortar prices.  Parking lot owners no doubt enjoyed the steady monthly rentals.

Two years ago, construction on a high-rise luxury hotel forced eviction of 55 food carts from a block at S.W. 10th and Alder.  The city government pledged to find a new home for at least some of them, and hit upon a half-block site at W. Burnside that happened to be the southern terminus of the North Park Blocks.

 Sometime in the 1920s, the block had been adorned with two public restrooms designed in the Georgian style, most likely by architect Jamieson Parker. The brick restrooms flanked an elegant water feature that included a lion’s head emptying water into a reflecting basin.

Historic image from Ankeny Street (Date unknown)

 Parker ranked as one of Portland’s highly-skilled architects at the time, having worked in the offices of A.E. Doyle and then Folger Johnson before opening his own practice in 1921.  He designed dozens of Portland houses and the carefully-crafted First Unitarian Church, in the Georgian style, completed in 1924.  Alas, his architectural career like many others was sadly derailed by the Great Depression.

 The Ankeny Block (as it came to be known) at the southern tip of the North Park Blocks fell into hard times.  The restrooms ultimately were locked shut and substantially abused by graffiti.  The water feature’s reflecting pool was covered over.

 The city approved $269,000 to prepare the site for about 20 food carts on three sides.  While the carts are now open for business, the rest of the park is a work in progress.  Fortunately, the graffiti has been cleaned up, and the restrooms might be returned to use someday. 

"We had to snake all the drains as they were backing up and we pulled all sorts of stuff out," said Keith M. Jones, director of Friends of Green Loop supervising the project.  "All of this work is very expensive and we are tackling it in stages. Our plans are to reopen the bathrooms to the public, but we will need to have a lot of work done first."

On a less appealing side, the remaining portion of the historic water feature was removed.  As seen below, big electrical boxes were added to one restroom, detracting from its architecture.

Pictures of the old water feature are rare. A request is pending with the city archives (now closed by the pandemic) to look for an image showing the "front" side of the demolished fountain.

A former member of the Portland Parks Foundation advises, “The original photo showed a partially brick (with cast stone elements) garden wall, with balustraded railings at both sides. The fountain's water supply appears to be a lion's head, which spilled into a decorative basin.  The basin was covered up when a partial stage was constructed over it some years ago. In all, (the demolition) demonstrates Portland Parks and Recreation’s current attitude toward history and architectural features within our Portland Parks.”

The center of the block is now barren gravel.  Jones said, "We also want to bring back the stage that was in the center of the park and start programming the space." 

 Success of the city’s efforts to relocate food carts at Ankeny Block is not guaranteed.  The carts are farther away from the downtown employment core, and the employee population might continue to be reduced by the pandemic and long-range effects of more people working from home.  Indeed, the project is considered by the city to be a three-year experiment.

If successful, the block again could become an attractive element of the historic North Park Blocks. Who knows, maybe some day someone will be interested in restoring the historic water feature.   

 ------Fred Leeson

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Courting the Old and New

 

Portland Railway Light & Power (1909)

Sometimes salvation for historic architecture occurs when successful new uses thrive within old walls.  Prime examples in the Portland area include renovations by the McMenamin brothers that turned a mortuary, erstwhile county poor farm and a vacant elementary school into vibrant venues for eating, drinking or lodging.

A new Portland example is equally unusual: a local government turning a former (dating to 1909) Portland Railway Light & Power substation into a courtroom that is backed on two sides by a new 17-story Multnomah County Courthouse.

The new tower is worthy of a visit itself.  Designed by the Portland firm SRG Partnership, the lobby is pleasantly filled with natural light.  Three-story pillars of reinforced concrete pull your eyes upward, all bearing natural images from the wood that helped form them.  One has to assume they are an interesting, even playful, reflection on the classic fluted columns commonly associated with Greek and Roman forms used in historic courthouses and public buildings.

For our purposes, the other must-see element is the Crane Room, (see below) located up the lobby stairs and then to the right down a hall.  The room is two-stories tall and shows the muscular reinforced concrete bones that once housed the heavy electrical equipment that served downtown buildings and part of the early Portland streetcar system.  The Crane room contains a courtroom for high-volume minor cases, and lots of spaces for people to wait and for attorneys to negotiate cases.

Crane Room 

The electrical station, believed to be the first example of reinforced concrete architecture in Downtown Portland, was converted to office and restaurant uses some 40 years ago.  Yet one historic element from its early days remains, and that is a large movable crane near the ceiling.  It is labelled “20 Ton Niles Crane,” likely a site gag based on the name of the character in an erstwhile popular television sitcom.

 In fact, the crane was manufactured by the Shepard Niles Crane & Hoist Corp., an Elmira, N.Y., firm that started producing heavy equipment in the 1880s.  The firm also made a similar crane capable of bearing 25 tons.

 The station was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.  The nomination form was written by the late George McMath, an architect who is considered the father of Portland’s efforts from the 1970s to recognize and attempt to preserve the city’s notable landmark buildings.  Oddly, the nomination form does not include any historic photographs of the building, which nowadays is a standard element in nomination applications.

McMath wrote, “The Jefferson Substation achieves architectural and engineering significance as a relatively rare extant example in Portland of an early electrical substation --it is the only remaining structure of its type in downtown Portland -- and as a very early local instance of a building with a reinforced concrete superstructure.” 

It was an industrial-style building erected for its practical use, not for architectural interest.  Yet its clearly-expressed structure and steel sash windows show a simplicity that a few decades later led to the “revolution” of modern architecture over historical styles.

Courthouse Tower

By 1980, the neighborhood had changed dramatically around the electrical station, with tall buildings and a seven-story parking garage.  “While partly surrounded by new high-rise construction, the simple unadorned structure of the Jefferson Substation fits well with its larger neighbors,” McMath concluded.

It now rests comfortably nestled on three sides by a 17-story courthouse, with a lifetime of many, many years to come.

------Fred Leeson

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Gone...and Going?

 

Fire Station No. 2 recently 

It’s increasingly common these days for people to wonder whether Portland will ever return to “normal” as we remembered it before the pandemic and the surge of homeless camp that  dot many major streets.  Trash abounds and many stores downtown and in neighborhood commercial centers are vacant.

 Almost all of retail spaces on the ground floors of the city’s many new apartment buildings also sit vacant.

Regrettably, the short answer the question above is “no.” A couple notable examples in the past week:

1) Prosper Portland, the city government’s development agency, quickly demolished the historic clinker-brick former fire station erected in 1913 near the west end of the Steel Bridge, without bothering to provide advance public notice.

Yes, one could find the demolition permit issued June 7 if one had the inclination and savvy to scrounge on the Internet.    But the agency’s PR staff never bothered to mention it. Understandably so, since the agency no doubt wanted to avoid public hand-wringing in advance.

Fire Station No. 2 now (Scott Allen Tice photo)

 Ironically, the station sat across Glisan Street  from the historic Yamaguchi Hotel/Blanchet House building, which Prosper Portland could have bought for $1 and perhaps saved…but didn’t.  We have written recently about the likelihood of its demolition in coming months.

 The old fire station was one of several designs created by Lee Gray Holden, one of the Fire Bureau's greatest leaders, about whom we have written in the past.  The “good” news is that a very similar Holden station in Northwest Portland has been elegantly restored into a private residence, so some of Holden’s good work survives.

All done?

2) What has appeared for many months to be the long, slow death of the Lloyd Center shopping mall in Northeast Portland accelerated last week, when a significant fire evidently destroyed an electrical station somewhere in the basement, forcing closure of the entire mall.

A week later, the mall remained closed.  Five days after the fire, a representative of the Dallas, Texas, owners said the damage was being "assessed" and that the mall would reopen.  However, no prospective date was offered.  The owners contended earlier this year that they planned to reconstitute the mall as a shopping destination.

  However, vacancies have grown, and the fire-related shut-down, for however long it lasts, will not help.  Some of the remaining retail tenants were reassessing whether to stay at Lloyd Center even before the fire.  

Meanwhile, one potential option for the center’s big footprint has disappeared.  There was talk that the space might become a major league baseball park if Portland could attract the Oakland A’s franchise.  While the fate of the A’s in Oakland remains undetermined, Portland is no longer mentioned as a potential site.   The best gamble for a new home, so to speak, is Las Vegas.

The center covers 18 square blocks in Northeast Portland.  The site conceivably could become available for high-rise offices, condos or apartments if the mall were to be demolished.  In any event, it is difficult to see the mall returning to its few decades of glory after it opened in 1960. 

Cities are evolving, changing organisms.  Those of us who want to protect the best of the past often are viewed as enemies of progress.  But here is another question:  Will the “new” Portland be better than the old one?

-----Fred Leeson

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New Life for Montgomery Park

 

Picture postcard, late 1930s (GBD Architects)

 Northwest Portland’s biggest and most unusual historic building is headed for a makeover intended to make it more lively and interesting to the industrial and residential neighborhoods it straddles.

 It is the huge former Montgomery Ward & Co. warehouse and retail store that years ago had railroad spurs allowing rail cars to be shunted from N.W. Wilson Ave. directly into its basement.  (See lower right corner of postcard.) For more than 50 years, the big building helped Ward compete against Sears for mail-order business long before anyone dreamed of Amazon.

 Ward shuttered the retail store in 1972 and departed the rest of the building in 1982.  It was bought by the entrepreneurial Naito family, who converted the building to offices and exhibition space.  Bill Naito took great pride in renaming the building Montgomery Park by merely changing two letters in the huge neon sign looming above the building.  The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, in addition to being a Portland landmark.  

Unico Properties, a major Seattle-based property investment firm with large holdings in Seattle, Portland, Denver and a few other cities, bought Montgomery Park in 2019.  The firm’s goal is to develop mixed-use properties in and around it.  

 Under plans approved by the Portland Historic Landmarks Commission, Unico intends to open retail and food opportunities on all four ground-floor frontages of Montgomery Park.  The firm also wants to add a restaurant at the top of the east bay, including access by visitors to the roof and spectacular east-looking view below the huge Montgomery Park sign.

Pop-out vestibule to be removed (GBD Architects)

 The most noticeable change will be on the west side.  Unico plans to remove the pop-out vestibule added by the Naitos when they switched the main entrance to the building’s west side.  In its place, the design calls for a glassy, three-story tall curtainwall panel set just proud of the main walls.  The entry would feature two doors thirty feet tall and 10 feet wide that could pivot open in good weather to add fresh air to the central atrium.

Proposed west-side entrance (GBD Architects)

 Dark metal framing of the curtainwall struck one commission as “too dramatic” for the style of the historic building.  Others believed it reflected a boldness characteristic to the building’s overall size, and approved it as proposed.

 The building was erected in two L-shaped phases, the first in 1920 and the second in 1936.  The two Ls created an open plaza to the west, which was covered by a tilting glass ceiling by the Naitos to create a dramatic atrium. 

 The reinforced steel beams on all facades show a clear expression of the building’s structure, with little effort to dress them up with architectural ornament.  The hundreds of windows have industrial-style steel sashes that appear to have weathered well over the years.  Glass panes that were painted or covered over the years will be cleaned, according to the plans.

Kimberly Moreland, a landmarks commissioner, suggested that the building and grounds should have historical markers.  The site itself was part of the 1905 Lewis & Clark Centennial Exposition, and bygone neighbors included the Guilds Lake World War II housing project and the Vaughn Street baseball stadium.

(GBD Architects)

 Should anyone be wondering, yes, the big Montgomery Park sign will remain.

-----Fred Leeson

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Two "Smash Hits" at City Hall

Awaiting demolition

 Advocates for preserving Portland’s vintage buildings and important public spaces lose more battles than they win.  It was not surprising, then, when the Portland City Council recently delivered two strikes against preservation in successive days.

 First was the 5-0 vote –without council discussion – on a 50-year “master plan” that would denigrate the historic qualities of the South Park Blocks.  The next day, the council gave tacit approval to demolish the former Blanchet House of Hospitality, the last building with historical significance on its block within the New Chinatown-Japantown Historic District.

 Truth be known, however, neither battle is entirely finished.

 The South Park Blocks case is the most interesting, in that there are no final designs or funding for most changes proposed in the plan.  There will be opportunities for public objections as these proposals approach finality.  Further, it goes without saying all or most of the current council will be long gone before many of the suggested changes occur.

Despite heavy public opposition in written and oral testimony, the council went straight to a vote without any discussion. It is possible there are reasons why the council members chose substantial silence.  

 Looking ahead, “I am sure the debate will continue to be robust,” said Mayor Ted Wheeler as he cast his vote.  The only commissioner to pose any concerns while was Dan Ryan, who said he had safety concerns about the proposed “green loop” bicycle lanes, which would remove one lane off Park Avenue West.  The recreational bike lanes would have to cross busy arterial streets at Jefferson, Columbia, Clay and Market.

 Eliminating car parking also would affect access and Sunday parking four historic churches along the route.  The churches were not involved in the lengthy planning process.

Safe for now...

 Another interesting tidbit for future concern arose with a statement to the council by Tate White, the chief planner.  She said creating a single, wider paved path down the center of some blocks would allow better access for maintenance vehicles.  Since the park has survived some 150 years without that pavement, adding more hardscape to the leafy, green blocks will become an obvious flash point.

 The “smash” will come sooner at the old Blanchet House of Hospitality, which operated earlier as the Yamaguchi Hotel dating back to 1905 or 1906.  The council apparently agrees that the three-story brick building should be demolished, but one member apparently was moved by testimony about travails in the Japanese immigrant community before and during World War II.

Commissioner Dan Ryan proposed that no demolition occur until a committee yet to be names recommends how the building and the history it represents can be memorialized at the same location.  Ryan’s proposed committee would include one or more representatives from the Japanese community, the Old Town Chinatown Neighborhood Association, a historian, the developer of any proposed new building and a Blanchet House representative.  Since a Blanchet representative mentioned a desire to include a low-income health clinic on the site of the old building, a clinic representative was added to the group.  

 Blanchet moved from the old building in 2012 to a new structure on the same block. Blanchet  representatives contended earlier that the old masonry building is vulnerable to an earthquake and cannot be rehabilitated in any economically-viable fashion.

 Ryan, for one, seemed to appreciate the historical significance of the block its role in the relatively small historic district.  He was willing to craft a solution that, while far from perfect in a preservationists’ mind, at least recognized its historical value.  He may be the one member on this comparatively “new” City Council who has a sense for history and a willingness not to sit idly by as it is denigrated.

---Fred Leeson

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Steeplejack Brewing: A Home Run for Preservation

 In a little over one year, a historic Northeast Portland church at risk of demolition has been transformed into a beautiful and creative example of architectural preservation providing an active new use. 

Starting July 31, the former Metropolitan Community Church (the fourth denomination during the building’s 112-year history) will open its doors as Steeplejack Brewing, offering food, many kinds of beer and an excellent architectural experience.  (We wrote about the history of this building earlier at https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8435847382086635016/1952881493161118741)

Both the interior and exterior have been restored, faithfully respecting the shingle-style architecture of the period.  The interior is bright, cheerful, and infused with light from stained-glass windows.  Inside, the original sanctuary remains as the main seating area, as well as side-rooms that can accommodate smaller parties as desired.

The idea for this masterful renovation came from Steeplejack partners Brody Day and Dustin Harder.  Architectural expertise was provided by Rebecca Morello of Open Concept Architecture.  From here, the story is best told by photographs.

Exterior work included a new roof, painting, replacement of rotting shingles and recreation of badly-deteriorated eave brackets.  "We thought of leaving the brackets off, but we knew it wouldn't look right," Day said. 

Looking to the west.

Inside, the original trusses dominate the room.  The floor has been refinished and much of the original woodwork has been retained.  Tables and benches were crafted from the church's wooden pews.

Looking toward the east, Brody Day has a lot to smile about

David Schlicker, a retired Portland stained glass expert, created 12 new stained glass windows that proceed around the top of the original apse.

Here is one of four smaller rooms available for parties seeking seating together.  One room has sliding doors that close.  Another has a fooseball game and large TV screens, presumably for the sports crowd.

Steeplejack was the name given to workmen who clambered up to erect and maintain tall steeples and chimneys.  Here, the steeple has been braced with steel tie rods and left open for public view.  (Climbing up is NOT encouraged.)

We finish with an "in process" image.  All shingles under the big western gable had to be replaced.  The new roof is on and the new eave brackets have been installed. Painting has been completed on the north side.  Protective lenses have been applied over the stained glass windows. 

You can see the beer and food menu at https://www.steeplejackbeer.com  However, regardless of one's proclivities for consuming beer, a visit to Steeplejack Brewing is a worthy experience just to enjoy its architecture inside and out.

---Fred Leeson

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Rose City Golf Clubhouse

 

Eastern Facade, Rose City Clubhouse

While navigating around the city, it’s always interesting to notice nice old buildings that would benefit from sensitive restoration.

 High on my list is the clubhouse at the Rose City Golf Course.  Finished in 1932 in the English cottage architectural style, the building reflects an interesting  moment in municipal golf and clubhouse design.  Rose City supporters delved deep into that history in compiling an application in 2012 that succeeded in placing it on the National Register of Historic Places.

 “The exterior of the clubhouse retains excellent integrity of materials, craftsmanship and design,” the application noted.  Alas, the building’s interior has been seriously abused and changed by renovations dating to the 1960s and 1970s.

  The building design, by Portland architect Herbert Angell, shows several classic English cottage elements:  a strong, steeply pitched roof, asymmetrical facades, large chimney, dormers, multi-paned windows, both brick and shingled walls.  Angell's original plan also included stone in the facades, another key element of the English cottage style, but stone was removed from the final plan to cut costs.

  Rose City is the oldest surviving municipal clubhouse among Portland’s five public courses, and is believed to be the oldest of the municipal variety in Oregon.

 Portland’s city government jumped into the golf business in 1918 with the opening of Eastmoreland Golf Course, where the original clubhouse has been replaced.  The object of municipal golf in the era was to provide an option for lower and middle-class citizens to participate in a sport dominated by wealthy private golf clubs.

 The first primitive nine holes at Rose City were laid out by golfers acting without permission on a portion of the Rose City Race Track, which early in the century hosted races involving cars, horses and motorcycles.  The city parks department took the hint and opened the first nine holes in 1923, followed by the second nine in 1927.

The purpose of a clubhouse, whether private or public at the time, was to provide a “home away from home” for golfers.  That meant lounges, food service, and lockers in addition to golf essentials.  In normal times, the Rose City clubhouse is commonly used for drinking beer, eating burgers, playing cards and watching golf on television.

 For whatever reasons, the interior at Rose City was remodeled for changes that have not stood up well over time.  The grand fireplace with a stone hearth was covered over by sheetrock, and could easily be restored.  Dropped ceilings have covered up the timbered ceiling, some of which remains above the second floor hidden from public view.

Western (rear) Facade

  A few years ago, Bill Hart, a principal of the Carleton-Hart architecture firm and a member of the Park Bureau’s golf advisory committee, prepared a preliminary plan for renovation of the Rose City clubhouse.  His plan would restore some of the historic elements of the interior, improve the dining facilities, and upgrade the patio into a more pleasant and functional space.   The proposed patio and dining room ostensibly could make the clubhouse more attractive for use by non-golfers.

 Alas, the city golf fund, which operates the five city courses without subsidy from the general fund, will never generate enough revenue to finance the extensive renovation.  At present, the golf fund barely covers operational costs, although the pandemic has boosted activity and revenue.  Renovation at Rose City would require fund-raising from some other source.

Hank Childs, the Rose City golf concessionaire, once proposed a public fund drive for the project, which he said included a major donor willing to assist.  However, the plan was never approved by the Parks Bureau. Undertaking a fund drive would require firm resolve from the bureau and the city commissioner in charge of parks.   

 In the past few years, responsibility for the bureau has shifted from Commissioner Amada Fritz to Commissioner Nick Fish, to  Mayor Ted Wheeler, back to Fritz and now to Carmen Rubio. With no firm hand on the controls, further deterioration of the clubhouse seems inevitable as time moves on.

 If you can think of notable old buildings you’d like to see restored for current or better uses, feel free to list them here.  Maybe public involvement can encourage positive change.

----Fred Leeson

South Park Blocks Master Plan update: After a lengthy presentation and testimony from more than 50 people on July 15, the City Council continued its discussion of the plan to the morning agenda on July 21.  Despite heavy opposition to the plan from citizens, the council showed no outward inclination to suggest or recommend changes.  However, even if the plan is passed, there will be opportunities in the future to make reasonable objections as implementation unfolds.  We'll discuss that in more detail later. 

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New Life for the Old Oregonian Pressroom

 

Two-story windows now enlighten the SRG Partnership

More than a year after churning out their final newspapers at 48,000 copies per hour, the 600-ton Hoe rotary presses were described by the editor of the Oregonian in 1976 as “unloved and unwanted.”

 The massive equipment sat idle for a long time in the two-story pressroom of the Oregonian building at 1320 SW Broadway.  The Oregonian was one of two major buildings erected in 1948 designed by Pietro Belluschi,  then on his way to becoming one of the world’s best-known architects.

 The other post-war structure, the Equitable (now Commonwealth) Building proved to be far more famous.  As the first high-rise to be erected with a glass curtainwall, it became a model for the International Style of modern buildings that swept major cities across the globe.

Meanwhile, after building a new home elsewhere for more modern presses in 1974, there was a gaping hole in the Oregonian building, where the Hoe presses, a 4,000 gallon ink tank, and bulky linotype machines once sat.  “There’s about a half a block of room, two stories tall and two stories deep – room for perhaps a multi-level mini-mall with shops, restaurant, a bank – you name it,” wrote J. Richard Nokes in 1976.

 At long last, a new tenant has been found for the old Oregonian pressroom.  SRG Partnership, a major architectural firm with offices in Portland and Seattle, has built a mezzanine and reconfigured the space for meetings and open offices.  SRG is one of Portland’s most prominent design firms; its recent projects include the new Hayward Field at the University of Oregon and the Multnomah County Courthouse in downtown Portland.

 SRG created its own entrance at 621 S.W. Columbia St.  The building’s main entrance remains on S.W. Broadway. 

  Images of the remodeled pressroom can be seen here: https://www.dexigner.com/news/33649   As a historic footnote, the remodel left in place the steel rails near the ceiling on which 1,400-pound rolls of newsprint once travelled.

 Finding new and successful uses for historic buildings is one of the biggest challenges and achievements in preserving important vintage buildings.  The Oregonian, which didn’t maintain the building to a high standard, moved out in 2014.  SRG becomes the second major tenant. AWS Elemental, part of Amazon’s digital empire of something-or-other, is the prime tenant.

 Thanks to new ownership and new tenants, the former newspaper building looks to be in the best condition since it opened in 1948.  It likely will achieve more attention from scholars and architectural devotees interested in Belluschi’s Portland projects. 

Another major Portland firm, SERA Architects, will renovate and move into another historic downtown landmark early in 2022 when it moves into the former Galleria – originally the Olds, Wortman & King department store.  SERA has a long history working on preservation/restoration projects.  

It is encouraging to see prominent architectural firms recognizing advantages in locating and bringing new life to historic properties.

---Fred Leeson

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Blanchet House Lingers at City Council

 

Former Yamaguchi Hotel, right 

Representatives of the Blanchet House of Hospitality made two statements to the Portland City Council this week that could affect the council’s decision on whether to demolish the original Blanchet building that is part of the New Chinatown-Japantown Historic District.

First, the well-respected social agency that provides food and some housing for the homeless said that it wants to build a new community health center on the site of the old building at 340 N.W. Glisan St.

Second, the agency’s lawyer said Blanchet House is not willing to sell the three-story old building, even if a potential buyer wants to save it.

The revelation about a new health center took the city’s building department by surprise.  It suggests  that Blanchet House could be using the wrong strategy in trying to demolish the old building.

In most cases where someone wants to demolish a historic building, the loss of the old building is balanced against the public values to be gained from a new building that takes its place.  That is the strategy Blanchet House used in 2010 when it convinced the City Council to demolish the Kiernan Building that sat on the site of the new Blanchet House on the same block.  The proposed new building had been through historic design review and building permits were ready.

But this time, Blanchet House contends that the old building, erected in 1905, should be razed because it is in such poor shape it “deprives the owner of all reasonable economic use of the site.”  The trouble with that option, said Peggy Moretti, a preservation advocate for Restore Oregon, “There is no guarantee anything would replace this building other than a vacant lot.”

Preservation advocates are concerned that a precedent for razing a historic building purely on economic grounds would encourage benign neglect by owners who ultimately want to build something else.  Kristen Minor, chair of the Portland Historic Landmarks Commission, said it would be “alarming” to demolish the old Blanchet House without knowing what is proposed to replace it.

Although the old Blanchet House has been vacant since 2012, Tim Heron, a senior planner for the city’s Bureau of Development Services, said he had never heard about the proposed health center until two days before the City Council hearing.  “The new information about a concept is interesting,” he said. He noted that the suggestion is “an idea” and “not a building.”

After three hours of testimony, the council postponed the demolition request to July 22.  Some commissioners asked for more time to review the testimony, and Mayor Ted Wheeler, who was not present for this hearing, presumably will review it, too.

The old building was the Yamaguchi Hotel until 1931.  The neighborhood was an entry point for many Chinese and Japanese who immigrated to Portland before racial animus and World War II internments played havoc with their American lives.  Larry Kojaku, showing newspaper headlines before and after the war, said Japanese citizens were victims of “ethnic cleansing.”  Razing the old building, he added, would be “part of erasing this historic memory.”

 The only city commissioner to hint at a decision on demolition was JoAnn Hardesty.  Though she said she was “really torn” by some testimony, she felt Blanchet House had done sufficient “due diligence” in its demolition application.

Near the end of the hearing, Scott Kerman, Blanchet House executive director, indicated he had learned something new about the old building.  “This is a history I was not aware of.”  He added, however, the no one from the Asian community had approached the agency as a prospective buyer.

The New Chinatown-Japan Historic District is unique in Portland because its creation was based on the cultural histories of the Chinese and Japanese communities in roughly 10 square blocks that comprise district boundaries.  The city’s other historic districts are based largely on architectural history of varying time periods.

South Park Blocks Master Plan Update: The City Council hearing originally scheduled for July 7 has been moved to July 15 at 2.m.  Given heavy public interest in the South Park Blocks, it is difficult to imagine this matter being resolved in one session.

------Fred Leeson

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Alco/KEX

 

Southern facade facing N.E. Couch St.

Given the perpetual challenges to our architectural history and public spaces, it's a pleasure to look at  excellent outcomes.

Chances are, few buildings in Portland have as many odd, quirky and sometimes funny historical connections as the 109-year-old KEX Hotel, nee Alco/Vivian Apartments, at 100 N.E.  Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

Similarly, chances are unlikely that the three-story “streetcar era” building stands out in your mind.  

The former mixed-use retail and residential building is a somewhat prosaic kind of structure that used to dot Portland’s busiest streetcar stops: ground-floor retail with apartments above.  This one originally had 26 units when it opened in 1912. It housed some interesting commercial tenants over the years -- and now is the home of another unusual enterprise.  

 The building sat near the busy intersection of the Burnside and Union Avenue streetcar lines.  Its apartments were attractive for residents wanting to live close to streetcar lines, which were the major form of transportation at the time.   Fortunately, this “urban fabric” building has been nicely renovated to serve a new and unusual use.

There is so much that could be said about this building, perhaps the most direct way is through bullet points:

• ·         The architecture firm that drafted the original plans was headed by E.B MacNaughton, a name that means little in the city’s architectural history.
• ·         The same year the Alco was finished, MacNaughton was overseeing a renovation project at the 10 story Marquam Grand Building downtown.  Alas, the center bay of the Marquam collapsed one night in 1912 with little warning.  Fortunately, no one was killed or injured.  MacNaughton was fired from the project.
• ·         In retrospect, the collapse of the Marquam was attributed to poor-quality bricks used in the original construction in 1892.  MacNaughton’s work was not a factor in the debacle.
• ·         MacNaughton later left architecture to become a banker, and ultimately president of the First National Bank.  He was remembered by Portland historian E. Kimbark MacColl as one of the city’s most reputable businessmen of his era.
• ·         MacNaughton’s career also included serving as president of Reed College from 1948-52, and board chairman of the Oregonian Publishing Company from 1947 to 1950.  His tenure at the newspaper ended with its sale to Samuel Newhouse. Ironically, the Oregonian at the time of the sale was owned by the same family that owned the Marquam Grand and fired MacNaughton in 1912. 
• ·         A subsequent owner of the Alco Apartments changed the name to Vivian Apartments, in honor of a daughter.

Original canopy protected the apartment entrance.  Cornice is pressed metal 

• ·         Longstanding tenants on the ground floor included the Thurlow Glove Shop, from 1934 to 1987, and Artistic Taxidermy, from 1941-90.  Customers could bring their own deer or elk skins to Thurlow or purchase ready-made gloves of Thurlow’s patented design.
• ·         Another longstanding tenant was Fairly Honest Bill’s, a second-hand shop.  The name may have achieved a new standard for truth-in-advertising.  Bill’s sidewalk sandwich board said, “If this sign be here, we be open.”
• ·         Hennebery Eddy Architects completed a major restoration of the building in 2019, cleaning up renovations of 1939 and 1956 that changed some of the original appearance.  The new tenant: KEX Hotel.
• ·         KEX has nothing to do with the Portland radio station using the same letters.  The word is Icelandic for “biscuit,” which somehow relates to the hotel owners’ original plans devised in Reykjavik.  (Trust me.)
• ·         The hotel features private rooms as well as hostel-like communal sleeping quarters in bunks ranging from two to 16 people per room.  The hotel has tried to use environmentally-friendly finishes and furnishings.  A fashionably elegant restaurant and bar is on the main floor, and the basement contains food-storage and cooking facilities for tenants.

·         Quirky but sad:  A few months after its opening, the pandemic began interfering greatly with normal operations.  When conditions allow,  perhaps we can all enjoy a nice cold drink of something Icelandic and offer a toast to a successful renovation.

                ---Fred Leeson

Update  on the original Blanchet House of Hospitality:  The Portland City Council will consider on June 30 a request to demolish the 3-story building erected approximately in 1906.  Some of the preservation community's superstars opposed the demolition with compelling before the Historic Landmarks Commission earlier this month. A prediction:  The council will provide more time to consider possibilities for saving all or parts of the building, which played a key role in the early era of Japanese-Americans in Portland. 

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So: What About Those Trees on the South Park Blocks?

 

Any discussion about the proposed master plan for Portland’s South Park Blocks settles to a single issue: How many of the 325 trees on the 12 blocks will or will not be lost? .

 What makes the topic difficult is the clear contradiction between verbiage in the South Parks Blocks Master Plan and what the plan’s own charts demonstrate.  One independent effort to determine how many trees are at risk came up with a total of 86, but acknowledged that parts of the plan are difficult to interpret. 

 For starters, look at a document provided by an arborist who consulted on the plan for the city.  This is the same consultant who reported in 2019 that 97 percent of the parks trees are healthy. The report suggests 26 trees for removal and another 65 for “optional removal.”

 

The next chart shows characteristic tree spacing in the Cultural District, the six northern blocks.  All of these blocks would be included in the proposed Green Loop for bicycles and scooters.  The chart shows a reduction per block from 42 to 27 trees, including the large row of elms adjacent to the bike paths.  Those elms apparently would be replaced with smaller trees. 

 

 

The “tree succession plan” in the Cultural District, shown below,  makes it clear the long-term consequence: The central row of the five current rows is eliminated, and only two of the five would remain as they are recognized today.  These charts are included because some of my readers last week insisted no trees would be removed. 

 

These charts make it difficult to accept the written report that says “no healthy trees” would be removed.

 It is interesting to note that in 2005, the Parks Bureau issued a publication titled, “South Park Blocks: Benefits of Trees.”  Jerry Poracsky, a PSU geography professor, wrote, in part, “The most prominent feature of the area is the trees…the predominant trees of the South Park Blocks are American elms and it is these large, graceful sentinels that do most to create the special character of the area…

 “Like a rough-hewn colonnade, five rows of trees stretch the length of the twelve blocks, creating a high canopy that shelters the grass, walkways, and benches below. From the center, looking either to the north or south between any two rows of trees, you have a vista down a long, green, arched tunnel narrowing into an indistinct vanishing point blocks away.”

“The aesthetic value is hard to measure…What price can you put on the experience of sitting in the South Park Blocks on a warm summer afternoon, gazing down long rows of majestic American elms? The feelings of relaxation and enjoyment one experiences in such a beautiful, treed urban green space just cannot be duplicated.”

 But they CAN be seriously impaired.

-----Fred Leeson

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