Tag: buildings

Watching a block in N. Portland. April.

So we last checked in with our block in September and not much has happened. Construction projects always interest me that way. Something must have happened to have not much happen, but I don’t have the research skills to figure out what. At this point, this block has been sitting boarded up for at least nine months. Is the project on hold? I wish that if it was, they would let people grow things in the abandoned yards. There is a particularly nice empty lot that I have had my eye on since before the houses were emptied.

So one house has been moved. I know it was moved, rather than torn down because it was jacked up for about a month or so before it disappeared completely. That is another thing I don’t understand. When moving houses, why do they leave them up in the air for such a long time? I would think it would be essential for the house to spend very little time in the air, but it seems to be standard practice to let everything settle on its temporary foundations, even if those foundations are eight feet in the air. And where did the house go? Again, my research skills fail me. I’m sure there is a permit on file somewhere where I can see, but I don’t know how to find it.

At any rate, we have no “in the air” pictures because I haven’t been Ms. Carpe Diem when it comes to taking pictures of late. The problem is that the camera is in the zippered pocket of the bag, which is on the back of the bike so taking a picture means not only stopping the bike, but getting off the bike, unhooking the bungee that keeps the bag attached to the rack and I just never got around to it. I have plans to make a cute canvas camera holder for the front basket which will provide easy access, but so far it only exists in my mind.

Here was the house before:
And here is what you see now:
The smashed steps are a nice effect.

Your Bank Americard welcome here.

This is an iconic store downtown, straight out of 1953. I’m sure every tourist and plenty of locals have a picture of it. This time when I was walking by, the BankAmericard sign caught my eye. I can see someone accidentally time traveling here from 1968 and feeling relieved to see the sign. “My BankAmerica card is welcome here? What a relief!” I’m not sure a card of the same vintage as the sign would be accepted, but, you never know. I mean, did they have the magnetic strip then? I think not. And would our time-traveler benefit from the purchase of Western Wear? I’ll leave it to you to decide.

Where that building used to be.

Remember my capturing the destruction of this block? You can see the posts here, here and here.

This is what it looks like now. This picture is taken from the opposite side of the block, but it affords the best view of the large hole in the ground.

The picture is a bit blurry, because I took it from the Max. I love that they dug such a vertical hole. Did you ever dig holes in your back yard as a kid? Mine were never anywhere near this neat and tidy. I also like looking at temporary infrastructure that has to be built so the building can be built. Like those stairs on the the left. What happens to them after they are no longer needed? Are they disassembled and moved to another job site?

Watching a block in N. Portland.

This block in North Portland near the Prescott Street Max stop looks due for some changes. I think there is a mixed use building on tap. When I moved to North Portland one of the houses on this block became a favorite of mine. So I noticed one day when it was boarded up. Eventually I noticed all of the houses on the block were boarded up. I’ll report back now and then when things start to happen. But here is where we are right now.

The house I like is on the left in this picture. The urban agriculture me dreamed of having a large garden in the empty lot taking up most of this picture. The side view of the house showing broken windows already in the upper stories. Those hoodlums have never seen It’s a Wonderful Life.

Doesn’t it look like a grand old lady of a house?
It’s next door neighbor, a nice little Victorian. It looks like my bike crept into that shot.
Another house I am fond of, though I would take off the vinyl siding.
This one has a good porch for sittin‘.

Looking down the block face as we continue our counter-clockwise journey.
There is still some nice decorative shingling on this house’s upper story.
The back side of the apartments on the corner.
Front side of the apartments. They are the most run down of all the houses.
A lovely cottage.
Another nice cottage.
This is the house I can see as I ride North on Interstate. It took me a long time to realize all the houses on the block were boarded up, not just my favorite, because this one has bars on the windows and they did not cover it with the more obvious plywood.
Driveway.
I also didn’t notice because this Liquor Store is not boarded up. But it is indeed closed. Notice the Max transmission tower visible right above the “R” on the sign…
And here it is, taking a chunk out of the Liquor Store. I’ve always wondered how much Tri-Met had to pay to cut into the building like that.
A close up view.
The very 1960s white brick front of the liquor store.
And thus completes our walk around the block. We shall keep an eye and see what develops.
On one hand, I love old houses, and hate to see any of them torn down, even the most decrepit. On the other, if a cute tiny little house hadn’t been torn down a few miles north on Interstate, I wouldn’t be living in my lovely home. Interstate is an area where the city planners are hoping to increase density without bringing in so many cars. It worked for our house. Hopefully this block will have something fabulous.

Streetscape

Some people are bird watchers, some people are people watchers, some are television watchers. I am a building watcher. As I go about my day, I check out the buildings around me. Residential, commercial, new, old, it doesn’t matter. I’m interested to see them, notice tiny details I never saw before, and see how they change.

I’m always amazed how quickly the buildings of downtown change. I’ve only lived here since 2001, but things have morphed even in seven years. As I live among them, these buildings become mine, even if I never set foot in them. I lived in downtown Portland from June 2002 to August 2005 and as I went about my commute, to work, to the store, to various buses that would take me elsewhere in the city, on bike, jogging, by myself and with others, I noticed what was going on around me with my buildings until I owned large segments of the city for example:

This is the corner of SW Madison & SW Broadway where picture was taken. It is the North street of the bus mall which is currently being reconstructed to have a Max train, cars, bicycles and buses. As mentioned before, I think this will be a disaster and liked the bus mall idea much better.

The building to the left in the above picture (in shadow) is the Ambassador apartments, where I imagine the nice old ladies have afternoon tea and where I dream of living when I am an old lady.

The building to the right is the Gus J. Solomon courthouse. Here I had a job interview in 2004 with the Classroom Law Project. I didn’t get the job because they “thought I should be a teacher” as they told me in my rejection letter. It was one of the most annoying rejection letters ever. Not only did I not get a job that I was interested in, they needed to discount my choice to not pursue teaching at that time. The Post Office moved here (again) in 2003 after the other downtown location in Pioneer Courthouse was unjustly closed so the judges could have parking spaces. I haven’t been to this location lately, but for the first year or two it was one dead branch. The lone counter employee would often be reading a book when I walked in, though she was happy to help me. I liked her hair, which was long and red and braided into a crown around her head.

Stepping forward one block, building on left are apartments. I used to live a block away from them. Sadly, my beautiful building, the Rosefriend Apartments, was torn down by the First Christian Church to make way for luxury condominiums. After the condo market went sour, they reduced the ceiling height of each floor to add a few more stories, and are currently building “luxury apartments”–one of my favorite oxymorons. The First Christian Church chose to tear down the Rosefriends and build a huge building so they could have more parking spaces. In doing so they eliminated affordable housing with high ceilings, huge kitchens and a building with history and character.

From my old apartment I could see people in these apartments when they wandered out on their balcony. This didn’t really happen that often. I don’t know if I didn’t spend too much time looking out the window, or if those little tiny balconies don’t lend themselves to hanging out on. In the ground floor of that building is the Oregon history museum gift shop. It will move around the corner soon. On the side of the apartments facing the Park Blocks there is a trompe l’il mural of the Lewis & Clark Expedition.

The building on the right is the Portland Center for the Performing Arts. (PCPA.) It’s that little sliver of orange brick that looks like it has a tower on top of it (it doesn’t–more on that, below.) Matt and I volunteered as ushers one year and saw a lot of good shows. We even ushered a show during an ice storm when the streets were encased in ice. There were a few people who made their way to the theater, but it was a pretty quiet production. Afterwards, we walked the two blocks home gingerly, careful not to slip on the ice.

Behind the PCPA is the tower that doesn’t match of the First Congregational Church. When the church was built, it was built in the Richardson Romanesque style a la the church in Boston’s Copley Square. That church is another building that became mine when I lived in Boston. The story goes that when it was finished the congregation didn’t like the darkness and heavy stone of the style and eventually built a soaring bell tower in a style they would have preferred. It doesn’t match at all, but the church has embraced it, calling themselves “The church tower church or whatever” Recently, I sat all the way in the back and heard Lois Lowry–herself a resident of Boston–speak there.

This part I didn’t get around to fleshing out. (says the 2013 me, who has just discovered this unpublished post)
Art museum, used to cut through the sculpture garden pathway on the way to church.
Shiny gray building on the left in the back is the Eliot tower. Named after 1UU minster, was the safeway and cut through the parking lot on the way to church.
Next door to Eliot Tower and unseen in this small picture is the Y where I was a member until sleep problems. Home of Nicole, fabulous yoga teacher.

No more building.

To update how the demise of the building has been going:

Here was the original picture I took:
I published the demolition here and here and today you can see the view minus any building.
It’s always a little strange taking a picture of a negative, i.e. where a building isn’t anymore. When sorting pictures for the blog my first reaction was “What is this supposed to be a picture of?” It took a few seconds before I realized it was a picture of where a building isn’t.