Tag: Portland

End of building.

Though I love old buildings pretty much unequivocally, there is some part of me that feels a thrill when I see them being demolished. Demolition work is probably pretty satisfying–especially if you can’t hear the clarion call of history whispering to you as you wield your heavy machinery. You come to work in the morning, you pull down a roof or a wall and at the end of the day, there is less building. This continues until there is no building and you move on to the next soon-to-be-gone building.

Progress continues on the tearing down of the Dental Arts Building and block. I took a “before” picture and posted it here.

One of my favorite things in cities is to read the old, painted advertisements on the sides of buildings. On the east side of the Dental Arts building is a very large ad for Zell Brothers, the store that was on the other end of the block.

Amazing Internet discovery! Someone else in Portland loves building ads too. They have a whole blog devoted to it.

A view uninterrupted by trees.
It was a windy day and the strips of detritus hanging from the ceiling were blowing in the wind.
And the wind rustled through the blinds in this window.

That part of me that loves destruction thrills at the Mercantile awning crumpled on the sidewalk in this picture.

See wind invade the building:

And watch it blowing the blinds:

A walk through Northwest Portland

On my way to my acupuncture appointment, I captured these images.

The lovely doors of St Mary’s.

I love finding signs with outdated language and/or customs. “You tradesmen, you enter over here. Not through the front door.”
This looks like a pretty typical multi-family residence in Northwest. But wait! What is that sign in the lower left? (I actually crossed the street to find out.)
Ah! My place for orthodox church on Sundays.
Who needs sleep when there is coffee? Who needs a recycle bin, when there is a truck bed?
I mean really, who?

Their uniform

Walking back to the house, I snapped a picture of these two girls.
They are clearly wearing their unofficial high school uniform of the moment: Uggs, skinny jeans, plain white long sleeved t-shirts, long hair, worn down.

When I was in high school my unofficial uniform was: converse high tops–laced up to the second grommet from the top–baggy jeans, baggy t-shirt with funny sayings and hair either worn down or up in a scrunchie.

What was your unofficial uniform?

Were you wondering what 130 people in the Portland area named their children 4-5 years ago?

I can tell you:

Zachary, Samuel John, Anna Elena, Miles Lincoln, Connor, Wren, M. Mackenzie, Sage Aradia, Sorrell, JanCarlos, Jamison, Ava, Nigel, John Alan, Karynne, August “Gus”, Maggie, Hyden, Krisandra, Oscar Matthew, Milo, Porter Jay, Elijah,Samuel, Jackson, Silas, Eleni, Alejandra, Leah, Ace, Carson E., Pasha, Mariella, Hazel, Sullivan, Ten, Cleo, Arden, Zoe M., Valen, Mason, Jackson Lee, Tuesday Louise, Carte, Jasper, Olivia, Gabriel, Violet, Maha Hanna, Zoe, Delilah Rose, Skyler, Rhionne, C.T., Jasper “Jack”, Tapley, Alexandra, Madeline, Mia, Grace, Kassia, Karla, Hazel, Coen, Elawyn L., Natalie, Uma, Ezra A., Benjamin, Alexandra, Tobias, Cole, Aidan, Selah, Edme, Isabella, Ezra, David,Maya, Alice, Hudson, Joseph Dodge, Chiara, Dhruva Krishna, Rachel, Orion, Sam, Nicolas, Zoe, Zora, Lily, Nora, Evan, Lucy, Landon, Maya, Molly Donyale, Phoenix, Aiden Theo, Simona, Joran, Justice, Alec, Emmett, Jasmine Nicole, Rose Helen, Coleman, Tenzin, Jackson Green, Max, Lily Ann Mason, Colin Foley, Zachary W., Isabella, Charlie, Lucian, Umoya, Jibril, Anika Jaz, Helena Rose, Nicholas Richard, Jeremy Palmer, Ukiah, Ira “Bird”, Lyla R., Jude, Cole “Spike”, Prashant, Milena R., Gabriel, Soren, Clara D. C., Isaac, Brendon

Dental Arts.

Another city block is being transformed. It is happening a lot downtown right now. The block to the right, which appears to have nothing on it, was a parking lot a year and a half ago. They tore up the parking lot, built and underground garage and this spring will install a park. “Tear up a parking lot and build a park” or something like that was the tag line with that project. It had “Big Yellow Taxi” in my head for weeks on end. The block north of the soon to be park is also coming down. A big mixed use office tower/retail and maybe condos? will be sprouting there next. The Virgina Cafe moved down the street and around the corner, but I’m most sad about the Mercantile, which was a clothing store too fancy for me to shop in, but which always had nice window displays. It has moved around the corner and down the street too, but now it’s not on my walking route.

I wanted to take a picture of the dental arts building before it goes, as it always seemed like such a nice little upright building.

Davis Street Door

My walk from the Max to work takes me along Davis Street. I’ve walked the length of sidewalk between Second and Third Avenues more than 100 times and never looked to my left at just the right moment. Due to some welding that was happening on the side of the street I usually walk on, today I crossed street and I spied a doorway. “How long has that been there?” I wondered to myself.

It looked open, so I wandered in. I followed the brick path through a brick corridor…
…and ended up in a charming courtyard.
There was a handy sign to let me know that the Merchants’ Hotel was built in 1885 and not only was it a fancy hotel, it had one of the first hydraulic elevators in Portland. Between World Wars, the hotel housed a number of Japanese businesses, including the Japanese-Oregon daily newspaper. The sign does not go on to say that with the coming of World War II all of those Japanese businesses would be abandoned as the Japanese were “relocated”, but ideally you know that story.
Excited to have found a nook of history on a day that only comes around every four years, I turned around and happily continued my trek to work.

Plant grows out of building

I was on my way to the doctor when I came across this upstart plant. It had the nerve to grow out of the side of a building!

I thought perhaps it had grown from the ground up behind the metal panel between the two windows, emerging mid-building.
A closer look revealed that it hadn’t come from the ground at all, but had taken root halfway up the building.
Whenever I find something like this, it reminds me how temporary our buildings are, without a human to maintain them. Plants, water, wind and weather are much stronger than concrete, given enough time.

Bike Project Day 23: The Missing Children’s Arboretum

In which I attempt to ride all the yellow, green, blue & purple streets on the Bike There Bike Map while increasing strength, stamina, aerobic capacity and exploring Portland’s nooks and crannies.

Day 23

Weather: Sunny & Cold

Ride Average Speed: 10.2 mph
Time: 59.43
Distance: 10.6 mi
Average Heart Rate: 132

The Ride:
N Lombard & N Denver
Go to Interstate and turn left
L on Ainsworth
L on Williams to Vancouver
R on Schmeer (hooks around)
R on 6th Dr.
Right into Children’s Arboretum
Come back out
L on 6th Dr.
L on Vancouver Way
L on Gertz Rd.
L on 13th
L on Marine Dr. to Bridgton
L on Gantenbein Ave.
R on Marine Dr.
At turnoff for Delta Park cut though park
Back to Denver.

Route comments:
Good route, though the whole Schmeer/6th Dr. was very heavily trafficked because a lot of industrial businesses don’t have President’s Day off. It would probably be better to ride there on a weekend.

The Columbia Children’s Arboretum is not well marked. I rode up and down that street looking for it and never found it.

How did I do?
It was clearly the first bike ride in a very long time. I had a longer route planned, but 10 miles was the limit for me, so I cut it short. I rode very slowly and it was nice to be out.

Glorious Bicycling Moments/Neat Things:
Mount St. Helens was out.

NE 13th Ave. was a mishmash of houses. There were older houses that felt free enough to do whatever they wanted, say paint large flowers on their garages.
There were gated communities. This made me laugh. That flimsy gate isn’t keeping anyone out who doesn’t want to come in, and anyway, a gated community in this area? You’ve got to be kidding.
There were also McMansions next to very modestly built houses. If you’ve got to locate your McMansion next to a run down 60s ranch, you still haven’t made it.
NE Bridgetown Rd turned out to be interesting. The road has been in the news lately
because the US Army Corps of Engineers wants to cut down all their trees. Bridgetown Road is a levee and the Corps doesn’t like trees on the levees. I was under the impression that the trees had all been cut down, but this picture clearly shows trees.
I was also surprised to see that Bridgetown Road had fancy condos on it.
From newspaper reports I expected a bunch of houses like this.

There are a lot of house boats in the neighborhood. It was a fun place to ride.