Isabel is a Restaurant

The sleek, perhaps out of place concrete and glass box at the corner of NW 10^th and Flanders Streets ironically houses a Latin/Asian fusion restaurant that opens to a pocket courtyard on the afternoon side of the Elizabeth Lofts in the Pearl District. The large glass doors pivot open on nice days to release tables and the lunch crowd elegantly into the cobblestone square. 

From every turn of pebbly stone and rise of smooth concrete, there is beauty in this sublime form. While the context is so much of brick and tradition, this modern box is a breath of fresh air and a unique icon in the neighborhood. 

I found the building hard to photograph as the sun was in the wrong place and the building largely sits in shadow. I probably appreciate it less after further investigation, having settled down from my initial joyful fascinations. The strongest facades are definitely the north side which faces Flanders and contains the front door, and the east side which faces the small pedestrian passage that separates Isabel from Elizabeth (represented by the image above). The flagstones with some irregular vertical grout lines are both playful and robust.

The facades facing 10th Avenue and the cobblestone square are weaker, I think for their simplicity of concrete post and beam construction; however, as a whole the composition is perhaps well composed. These sides are the more functional, containing the large glass doors, so we have form and function. The inside of the restaurant is stunning, but I will save comment on that for another time.

North Park Blocks

Moving through the park is more often a matter of dodging the leaf blower than following an accustomed path, if priorities are given to such things. Ancient oaks and maples violently shake loose their vivid color like they can’t stand the sight of the concrete beneath them. If the leaves were just left to their business covering the path, I would be fine with that. But some madman seems to think a loud backpack engine expelling turbo charged air is necessary to move leaves where they don’t want to be.

The trees themselves lean away slightly as this daily disruption breaks the morning calm. If only it had rained today, the leaf blowing menace would have stayed away. Never the less, the leaves have fallen and are blown for now into neat piles, and later the wind will blow them somewhere else and we’ll all meet here tomorrow and do it again until winter comes. I kick a trepid leaf back onto the path. 

There are a lot of dogs out walking. The funniest dogs are pairs that are very dissimilar. A black spaniel and a greyhound wearing a lavender sweater make an odd couple. The little dog runs into the lumbering larger dog’s legs and of course the greyhound looks embarrassed by his lavender sweater. I am embarrassed for him as well and he doesn’t make eye contact. The pair and their human stop at the dog bowl fountain for a drink because their human thought it would be cute for them to drink from the dog bowl glued to the ground in the park that has a small constant stream of water gurgling in. After a quick look the dogs move on unimpressed.

The city streets cut through the long narrow park five times and I encounter three types of cars. Those that stop and let me cross, those that didn’t even see me on the curb, and most often those that slow down but don’t slow enough for me to know that they see me. So I wait to see if he is going to stop and he waits to see if I’ll cross. As he slows down considerably but don't stop, he uses hand motions at me and I sway backwards on one foot as I motion to him that he should go but it’s too late and now he is moving forward and I am moving forward but when the car gets to about one mile per hour he hits the brakes and I don’t die.

Crossing the street, I pass a homeless man sleeping under his guitar case, which is over a blanket but under a tree. He is near a bench but not on it, and beside his shopping cart but not in it. Behind him is another tree and beyond us are some squirrels heading towards that tree. Now they are in it. I think this is a lot of prepositions for so early in the morning, so I move on. Beneath him and all those other things are some leaves. I hope the leaf blowing madman doesn’t get to them.

The cigar smoking man is up ahead sitting on a brown wooden bench. He sits right in the middle of the bench with both arms spread out and resting on the back part of the bench to each side. He is looking straight ahead, just smoking. He looks like a cigar smoking eagle going in for the kill, except he isn’t moving. But I am moving, away from his smoke, so I cross to the other path. Eagles can kill you without moving or thinking. I bet he doesn’t even look at the beautiful trees as he sits there. He is probably looking at parked cars or trash.

Here comes the blond girl with the puffy white jacket and the puffy hood. She wears it even when it isn’t too cold, but today I think she’s probably got the right idea since the wind is blowing all over the place. I see her every morning but always in a different part of the park. She is heading the opposite way as always, but today we pass by the art gallery. Sometimes we pass in front of the playground, sometimes after I’ve passed the park but before she has gotten there yet. Sometimes in front of the statue of the little elephant standing on the bigger elephant. I wonder if I left later than I usually do or if she left earlier. Maybe she just didn’t have to sway on a curb and do some synchronized hand motioning with a stubborn car like I did. Probably not, since cars always stop for the ladies.

Burnside Street is equipped with buttons that control a half dozen yellow flashing lights for pedestrians to use to warn cars that a pedestrian is intending to cross and that we are serious members of the community. This tends to eliminate the third type of car-pedestrian encounter outlined above, but sadly many drivers cannot see bright flashing yellow lights and zoom past. I wait patiently and finally am allowed to cross the busier street and I am out of the North Park Blocks. 

The park is beautiful and autumn is my favorite season.

Transit Predicts Growth

I look forward to new progress in Portland's public transportation system. Less than a year from now, in Fall 2009, Tri-Met's Green Line opens, adding a fourth color to our triune transit scheme. The line will connect Portland State University, Union Station, and Clackamas Town Center. Look for the food carts in this short animation! I am particularly interested in how the new rail line will affect Old Town and Chinatown as previous light rail lines have led to redevelopment of blighted areas. Additionally, this new line will provide an indirect link from Union Station to Portland International Airport (you have to change to the Red Line somewhere along the way) bringing together Amtrak and airplanes. I haven't used these two modes of travel in the same trip before, but now I could. I like the possibilities, even if unconventional.

When a light rail line goes in, the neighborhood around it densifies as people choose to live within convenient walking distance of the stations. While these transit lines do cost a lot of money, we are spending less on freeways and automobile infastructure while still moving people to their destinations. We are spending our money smarter. Residents who choose to live in concentrated places near where they work and shop are helping to shape a different city, a denser city. 

The last new line to open in Portland was the Yellow Line, in 2004. The Interstate Corriodor Urban Renewal Area has formed around it, creating a framework for concentrated future growth, sprouting exciting architectural opportunities.  "Rather than rerouting busses every few years as new suberban neighborhoods sprout up on the fringes, light rail dictates where the growth will be, promoting density and connectivity." -trimet.org

However, Old Town is not ripe for the same sort of development of dense dwellings reliant on a transit line to connect to a semi-distant job center (Downtown), as this district is too close to downtown already (no more than a mile). Someone living in Old Town could only ride the train for a stop or two before getting off at a downtown destination. He might as well walk.

From the other side of things, I suppose the Yellow Line and Green Line will connect people out on Interstate or in new rail communities such as Clackamas, to end destinations in Old Town. Currently my only end destination in this district is The Golden Horse Chinese Resteraunt. I can't think of anything else to do there besides avoid a drug exchange. We need more destinations in Old Town. Something will grow.

Old Brick Walls

EOFF Electric Company

The old brick walls of Portland recall the former storage, automotive, processing and electric traditions of historic structures, now transformed into homes and offices. The painted text and imagery on the property line wall is cut off, punched through and otherwise left to weather sublime in the pounding rain and pitiless sun. 

Maddox Transfer & Storage Inc.  The Milwaukee Road.

7 Floors of Automotive Service. Complete Service For All Cars. 

Confectionery. Hams and Bacon.

Antiquating phrases indecipherable in present plight. 

An accidental foundation for further cantilever. 

Fading descriptions of ancient common glory. 

Pedestrian Bridges

The old Sauvie Island Bridge located on the Willamette River about ten miles northwest of downtown Portland is being replaced by a newer, sleeker, modern bridge. When the new span opens to traffic, this steel green beauty will be put to rest before it reaches it's 60th year. While I think the new bridge is great, and the old bridge should rightly be replaced because it is structurally failing and undersized for today's transit needs, it is sad to lose a beautiful old bridge.

There was talk of reassembling the old green bridge downtown, relocating it at Flanders Street to span over I-405 for pedestrian and bicycle traffic only. The proposed link would connect Nob Hill to the Pearl District with a safe passage for the non-car inclined. It would be an emblematic recycling project typical of what Portlanders are trying to do every day on a smaller scale. Why build a new bridge when you can re-use an old one? As of now, the project is not going to happen, as I imagine costs are prohibitive and apparently the bicycle lobby and historic bridge lobby are no match for reality. Too bad.

Pedestrian bridges are a good idea because they allow people to pass otherwise difficult or unpassable places that are better not shared with cars. The proposed relocation of the Sauvie Island Bridge at Flanders Street is between two "almost car-only" bridges at Glisan and Everett - both difficult and dangerous crossings for pedestrians. I don't bike but I'm sure those who do would appreciate a dedicated safe route to cross the freeway, and we would like more than the three feet or so which has been provided on only one side of the road to walk.

I found these images in a recent issue of Architectural Record.

The bridge above has separate bike and pedestrian paths that come together in the middle before splitting off again on the other side of the river. Stairs are provided for pedestrians to climb and a long ramp for bicyclists. The bridge is elegant and safe to cross. It would make a favorable impression anywhere in Portland.



The slower pace of walkers and bicyclists on pedestrian bridges provides a good opportunity for more details that might include art or vantages points. The colored glass panels on this bridge wouldn't make much sense on a car bridge. Though these examples all span rivers, they could just as well span a road, a canyon, or any other impassable terrain in a city with more than one mode of transportation.