The Burnside Blog

Posted By Tim DuRoche on 11/11/2008

After a red-letter, landmark week on the national playing field last week, Portland moves into a landmark week of its own—albeit a much more lower-cased one. Nonetheless this week, it’s all Landmarks all the time: the Skidmore Historic District, the renovation of a 1949 Belluschi gem, and a look at the Halprin necklace of fountains—three vital pieces of regional design identity, from three periods of Portland past.

Halprin: Plaza Suite
Today at noon at the AIA Center for Architecture, SERA’s Marcy McInelly and our own Randy Gragg throw down on the latest from The Halprin Landscape Conservancy – the advocacy organization focused on restoring the series of South Auditorium block fountain plazas (Pettygrove, Keller/Forecourt, Lovejoy, and source-fountain) designed by legendary landscape architect Lawrence Halprin, between 1966 and 1970.

Boris Pasternak once said one is either a fountain or a sponge – Halprin put forth both, public spaces uniquely calibrated to place/culture/zeitgeist – animating central city energy when it was needed most (a symbolic arc connecting ye olde Schrunk and new-fangled progressive Goldschmidt eras). Barry Johnson at ArtScatter recently wrote a lovely piece illuming the history/rearview mirror story of these “’open source’ spaces, a commons available for on-the-spot modifications.”

In case you didn’t get your Halprin-City Dance fill during PICA’s TBA and missed our Bright Lights in September – now’s your chance. This will be a decidedly more policy and historio-design-driven discussion looking at a survey of existing plaza conditions, recap of original design documents and intent and, one hopes, an implementation plan for the full-blown restoration of these seminal iconic works of American landscape design.

AIA Portland Urban Design Panel Meeting
Tuesday, November 11, 12:05pm
AIA Center for Architecture, Board Room (403 NW 11th Avenue)

Good Riches/Good Citizens?: Skidmore Historic District
The Portland City Council’s holding a public hearing on the Skidmore Code and Design Guidelines Project on Wednesday, November 12 at 2 pm at City Hall Council Chambers (1221 SW 4th Avenue). The Skidmore (Old Town) Historic District encompasses some 20-or-so city blocks in the original core of the city and contains many of our most significant historic buildings—as well as marks the site of the first property claim filed (via tomahawk slash marks) by William Overton and Asa Lovejoy in 1843.

As Brian Libby noted yesterday, “The city of Portland is considering a series of code amendments in the Skidmore/Old Town area that would allow taller buildings and greater density. The city council is set to vote on the matter this week. And they’re receiving conflicting messages of support and opposition from within.

The city’s Planning Commission has endorsed the code amendment, which would increase maximum building heights and floor-area-ratios on select sides around the edges of the district, which is one of only two in Portland to be on the National Register of Historic Places and a National Historic Landmark due to its concentration of historic iron-age buildings there.

What’s key to know about the proposed height increases, though, is that they would come only off the transfer of development “air rights” from existing historic buildings. In other words, we’d only be allowing extra height in new buildings that’s unused by the smaller old works of architecture. Say historic building #1 is 100 feet tall but allowed to be 200 feet. That means the new skyscraper can go 300 feet, using the allowed 200 and the 100 unused by the historic building.”

Art DeMuro and the Historic Landmarks Commission are deadset against the code amendment: “The Skidmore/Old Town Historic District is where the City of Portland began. It is truly one of the most special places in the city, featuring signature works of architecture, intimate open spaces around the Skidmore Fountain, and unique streets not found anywhere else in the city. . . The Landmarks Commission recognizes that there are numerous sites for potential redevelopment within the district—sites currently used for surface parking—that present challenges to the district’s continuity and character. However, the Commission believes that the City’s first duty is to “do no harm” to the character of the historic district, and to preserve and enhance the quality of the district’s historic structures and scale. The vitality and future success of this neighborhood is directly related to reinforcement of a cohesive historic identity and not in blurring the perception of the district.”

Here’s your opportunity to offer good old-fashioned public testimony on the amendments, recommended design guidelines and the less-heated resolution for proposed use of cast-iron City projects. More info here.

Skidmore Code and Design Guidelines Hearing
Wednesday, November 12 at 2 pm (approximately)
City Hall Council Chambers (1221 SW 4th Avenue).

Is that a Penthouse sprouting on the Fed Reserve (or are you just happy to see me)?
Wednesday, November 12 at 5:30 pm , David Wark (of Hennebery Eddy Architects, Inc) presents a talk in PSU’s Distinguished Guest Lecture Series on the renovation of the Pietro Belluschi Federal Reserve building at SW 9th and Oak Streets.

Hennebery Eddy Architects is in cahoots with Harsch Investments on the adaptive reuse of the former Portland Branch of the Fed—a glorious, unswerving, 4-story parallelogram building designed in 1949 by Belluschi, a paragon (and “patron saint,” according to Wark) of Portland modernism. The adaptation/renovation encompasses both the retention of character-defining features, some heavy-heavy interior upgrades and some very alluring propositions that include softening the impervious-appearing threshold of entry on 9th Avenue with floor-to-ceiling windows and public-art ready space—shifting the main point of entry to 10th Avenue, aligned with streetcar line—and installing on the roof a nearly 10,000-square-foot penthouse opening onto a terrace.

Wark is one of Portland’s leading go-to guys when it comes to historically challenging projects (his greatest hits playlist includes the Crater Lake Lodge, Multnomah Falls Lodge, The State Library of Oregon, and Multnomah County Central Library, to name a few).

PSU’s Distinguished Guest Lecture Series: David Wark
Wednesday, November 12 at 5:30 pm
Room 212, Shattuck Hall