The Burnside Blog
PNCA To Purchase Pearl Headquarters
The Pacific Northwest College of Art will purchase its main campus building at 1241 NW Johnson. PNCA has been leasing the structure since 1998, when it commissioned Portland’s talented Holst Architecture to redesign the former warehouse into the main campus hub with a large open room that (despite PNCA’s painfully uncomfortable chairs) is a nice place for public events.
This news comes just one month after PNCA announced it had obtained the historic 511 Broadway Building free of charge from the Federal Government through an educational-use transfer, which is a special arrangement available to educational institutions, allowing them to have first dibs on federal property. That PNCA exercised this clause irked another group of Portlanders, the Portland Public Market backers, who had hoped to land their project, a long-planned James Beard Public Market, in the 511 Building.
I was pleased to read in a press release yesterday from the market backers that they were continuing to pursue a location for a year-round public market in Portland that’s similar to the Pike Street Public Market in Seattle or the Granville Island Public Market in Vancouver, BC. The popularity of the local farmers markets, which are not related to the public market, proves that Portland would likely support such an amenity.
Still, it was unfortunate to see the press release suggest that PNCA had somehow acted nefariously by choosing to opt out of the public process by taking advantage of the educational use transfer.
From the press release from the Portland Public Market:
“The college initially pledged to participate in an open and transparent process that PDC established in September. Three weeks later they unilaterally abandoned their participation in that effort and pushed forward with their quest for their sole use of that building. This occurred in spite of vocal opposition from neighborhood groups and Market advocates who sought a more creative solution to the question of how to accommodate PNCA’s growth and the birth of Portland’s first Public Market in 67 years.”
What’s lost in the debate is that PNCA had been in negotiations with the Federal Government for a year when in late September, the Public Market backers staged a rather clumsy public relations blitz that made it seem as if the Public Market were the only entity in the running for the building, which fooled the local press (including me) for several weeks. In the end, I hope the public market finds a home. At the same time, I can’t think of a better amenity for Portland than a world-class art institution that will educate and inspire generations of Portlanders and would-be artists who are increasingly drawn to Portland.
By kathleen mazzocco on Monday, April 14, 2008 at 03:05PM PDT
Thanks, Mike, for putting it so clearly and accurately.
By ericcantonaisgod on Monday, April 14, 2008 at 04:58PM PDT
a prediction: the public market will remain an idea as long as a certain someone remains in charge.
By Lizzy Caston on Monday, April 14, 2008 at 05:20PM PDT
I’d like to be able to read the whole press release. Do you have a link or know where I can read it online?
By MarkDaMan on Monday, April 14, 2008 at 08:19PM PDT
There are sooo many great places to locate the public market. The Import Plaza/Globe Hotel, converted meeting space in Memorial Coliseum, Greyhound or Union Station, under the I-5 on the eastbank plaza, I can think of a few more…
This is Portland. The fact we don’t have a public market after over a decade of trying is an embarrassment. It’s time to look for new leadership to place and run the market. IMHO of course.
By Mike Thelin on Monday, April 14, 2008 at 09:17PM PDT
Mark,
I completely agree that there are many good places one could locate a market, but before any money is earmarked or allocated to a public market, shouldn’t the city be promoting the food amenities that already exist? We have an amazing farmers market that operates eight months out of every year and there’s not even a shelter from the rain. The Saturday Market at PSU is one of the most incredible food markets I’ve seen on any continent. It would seem that the most logical transition would be for the farmers market to eventually be a year-round 365-day event.
By Mike Thelin on Monday, April 14, 2008 at 09:18PM PDT
One more thing. I hear a lot of people (with opinions that I respect) mention Memorial Coliseum as a possible public market site. How would that look and behave?
By MarkDaMan on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 at 06:39PM PDT
In the ‘basement’ of the Memorial Coliseum is a 40,000 sq ft expo space. There is also adjacent meeting rooms and I believe a ballroom that could be converted as the market grows.
I love our farmers market. Was at the PSU one this Saturday. However, I don’t live downtown and made a special trip in to visit the market. Not the most green thing to do. If there was a public market I could go to on my lunch break, shop for my fresh produce, maybe pick up flowers for whichever co-worker I need a favor from, I’d be there a couple times a week. I’m always at the Wednesday market, but I would like to have the option to go after work too, or on other days in case I can’t haul all the produce home that evening. I think a 365 day a year market is great. Call if a farmers market, public market, whatever, we just need to get one started.
Maybe the new Saturday Market shelter in Waterfront Park could hold a ‘temporary’ weekday market?
By AN on Wednesday, April 16, 2008 at 10:08PM PDT
You’re going to sell vegetables in the basement of the memorial coliseum? That’s about as inspired as Portland journalism.
If we’re going to have a public market, it’s going to have to be more about the icon of a market than the function of the market itself. Take Granville Island. It’s a destination and a place to be. People want to be there. You can’t get people to go to MC for a hockey game.
By MarkDaMan on Thursday, April 17, 2008 at 08:06PM PDT
^True. However, most of the ‘basement’ of the coliseum is actually above street level pointing towards downtown. Some concrete walls could be opened to windows looking onto downtown.
The Rose Quarter is on one of the largest transit centers in the region, yet can’t pull anyone off a bus, rail, or car unless there is an event in the Garden. I think a market could transform the area and encourage Allen to finally start developing his property around the arenas. It could as well help kick off much needed development in the Lloyd District.
If I had my druthers, the coliseum would be turned into the HQ hotel for the OCC and have tunnels with expedited walkways connecting the OCC with the hotel.
By Mike Thelin on Thursday, April 17, 2008 at 09:54PM PDT
Mark…your plan is certainly ambitious. You’re right about the transit hub, but what that area really needs to support amenities is a resident population. Amenities follow people, and right now no one lives there. Personally, I’d like to see the Coliseum razed to make way for a mixed-use neighborhood. I like the building, but it would be really tough to transform it into something meaningful. At the very least, I’d like to see some of the surrounding parking buried and capped with housing and office buildings.
By stuart on Monday, April 14, 2008 at 10:29AM PDT
PNCA’s growth is good for PDX, but I worry that it’s spreading itself too thin. These two sites are many blocks from one another.