Category: Structures

Tiny House Expo

For my birthday, Matt bought me a ticket to the Tiny House Expo.  This was a very good present, as I love tiny houses. At the expo, people had a chance to tour several tiny houses as well as visit vendors.

I went early, which was a very good move. Tiny houses don’t hold very many people, which meant even at 9:30 in the morning, there were lines to get into each tiny house.

I loved the curved roof on this model.

Apologies for the blurry picture.  This model had just sold.  It cost $150,000.  (Yeesh!)

This person apologized because he forgot to bring his step.  This was fine by me, as I could easily take the big step up into the house.

Inside the step-less house.  I loved how the kitchen was not skimpy.

I liked the shed roof design of this house.  Plus, this company, Tiny Smart House, has a very fun Build-it-Yourself Program where you can build your tiny house on-site and take advantage of workshops, discounted group material buying.  So smart!

Here’s a tiny house camp trailer, which you can follow on Instagram @tinyhousecamptrailer.  They had a lot packed into a small space.

Here is a tiny house made out of a shipping container. It was very sleek.

I really liked how open and airy these big windows made this house feel.

Here’s the floor plan

A lot of houses were using this water system.

The teardrop camper people were there too.  I love me a good teardrop camper, especially one as nice as this one.

Hiddenbed of Oregon had a very good design.  During the day: desk.
At night: bed.  Nicely done. The desk stays flat, so you don’t have to disassemble and reassemble every night. Cost for a double bed? $2100.

You could also have your own geodesic dome.  I have affection for domes, as they were not uncommon in the landscape of my 80s childhood.

Overall, I had a great time.  Thanks Matt.

Also! The square lights at the Convention Center! So fun!  And my mind boggles at how all those things got into this building.  Convention center logistics must be no joke.

New Building coming on NW 5th & NW Glisan

I spent some time staring at the photo accompanying this pubic hearing notice.  It didn’t seem to fit with the neighborhood.  After a time, I realized that it was an old notice–they had glued the new notice on top of it, and the rain had loosened the current notice which had slid and stuck.

So here’s what’s coming. And I found a great site: Next Portland: Architecture and Development in PDX.  Here’s what they have to say about this project. (Includes multiple renderings of the site with the new building.)

Here’s the site itself.  The green wall is a 1954-era building that would be removed. There is no mention of the removal of the Three Points Oil building, but that would disappear too.

Overall, it seems like a good use for this corner.  All other surrounding buildings would be preserved. Chinatown could use more residential units, so I’m calling this a win.

It will affect my walking route over the Steel Bridge during construction, though.  That will be annoying.

Morris Marks House moved

This house used to sit near the corner of SW Main Street and SW 13th.  That location is very close to the First Unitarian Church, so I used to see it often, coming and going from and to church.  During that time, it seemed to go from minimally occupied, to unoccupied, and I crossed my fingers that it would survive as it has incredibly good bones.

As you may guess from this photo, it did!  It was moved to a grand location where it overlooks the cars exiting 405.  The Oregonian covered the move (because who doesn’t love a good house moving?) and you can read the September 30 story about the moving of the Morris Marks house by clicking this link.

I look forward to its restoration.

Get the dirt out

Here we are looking at the corner of Davis and 10th. This is the block I’ve been watching change. Currently, there are two dump trucks on the block itself and three waiting.  Excavation is always the first part of the high-rise project.
And here we see the actual excavation. This reminds me both of Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, and Fuel by Ani DiFranco, that stalwart of my late 90s/early 2000s experience.

Broadway Building Rehab and Broken Branch

I’ve featured this building before on this blog.  It’s getting an update.  The Passport Photo place on the corner has moved into the middle space while they renovate.

It’s a to-the-sidewalk renovation, and I’m interested in how they have built a temporary new interior while they work on the exterior.

And also how the corner entrance looks like it will be maintained, along with its light.

Around the corner in the North Park Blocks, a branch is down.

A big branch!

The outline of the old

Now I’m curious if those windows are closed over on the inside of the remaining building.  My guess is yes.  I’m pretty sure this means the remaining building (Deschutes Brewery) was built first.  Or perhaps an incredible optimist added windows to the wall, hoping that someday that other building would disappear.  It’s your moment in the sun, incredible optimist.  You are proved right!

More clearing of Everett & 10th

Here’s a view from the corner of NW 10th & Everett.  The building I watched being torn down has been exposed as having a separate room walled off in its corner.  Also, we’re seeing sides of buildings that haven’t seen the light in many years.

Urbanite.  This pile makes me think there might have been some amount of recycling happening.

What was in this corner?  Refrigerator?  Well-insulated bathroom?  I won’t ever know.