Little Dubai of the Northwest

The South Waterfront is a neighborhood in central Portland along the west bank of the Willamette River, directly south of Downtown. Recently, the district has undergone incredible changes. It has been transformed from a brownfield site into a dense high-rise district, in less than a decade. Even during the current recession, a few large projects are still underway, adding to the growing number of condominium towers that reach to 20 or 30 stories. The site is anchored by the OHSU Center for Health and Healing, which forms one end of the two-stop Portland Aerial Tram system. The tram links the South Waterfront to the rest of the OHSU campus, located at the top of a nearby hill. Additionally, the Portland Streetcar makes its southern terminus here, before returning north and extending through downtown to NW 23rd Avenue.

My visit to the South Waterfront occurred on a cold and partly cloudy spring day, and the rain was falling in intermittent sprinkles. I arrived by lime green streetcar with a handful of other people, having passed through the empty acres that separate this part of the city from downtown, a land waiting for future development. We disembarked at the first station, which is across the street from the OHSU building. As I stepped out, the aerial tram descended from the heavens as if to great me, and I made my way on foot across the narrow street, looking up at the dangling orb as it docked silently at its station. Another streetcar (this one blue) turned the corner to return its occupants to downtown, where I had previously come from. I felt a healthy presence of public transportation, and things seemed ready to move. Few people walked the streets except those entering and exiting the medical building, but I ventured towards the towers. Whether due to the the threat of rain, or the fact that this neighborhood suddenly sprung up out of nothing and hasn't properly populated itself - I cannot say.

Walking south past OHSU, and following the streetcar tracks, I came upon a park the size of one block which covers an underground parking garage. Grilled ventilation shafts protruded through the wet green lawn, indicating that cars lurk below the trees. The next block revealed a much larger park, well designed and complete with undulating hills, native plants in serpentine bio-swales, and low wooden bridges that meander through the space, creating crossing links from one side to the other. A sign says, "Cauruthers Park", but this fantastic green space is encircled with cyclone fencing that seems to say, "not yet open to the public." The new grass and young growies are on the verge of welcoming curious pedestrians, but perhaps at a later visit this place can be discovered. A third park can be identified as the linear green edge along the river that serves as barrier between nature and and Man's magnificent buildings. One one side there is the Willamette River and the dense growth of the opposite bank. On the other side there are close to a dozen new towers that catch the sun on their glass and reflect the billowing clouds. A young man in a black suit plays with his small jumping dog, and a couple of old ladies walk briskly by, swinging their arms much higher than arms are meant to swing. Someone was picks up trash in an attempt to keep things looking nice around the giant wind-swept pine cone sculpture.

Great care was taken to provide an infrastructure of green space in the first stages of this urban planning extravaganza, but the neighborhood is really about the buildings which fill in the spaces between - mostly tall and mostly of glass. The streetcar infrastructure is also impressive, and serves to move people through the space and connect them to downtown. The particular names and characteristics of individual towers are not important to chronicle here, as it is a work in progress. Some interesting shapes are prominent, but all have scattered balconies and smooth glass walls. As more towers are built, the South Waterfront is becoming the Little Dubai of the Northwest - a massive urban conglomeration surrounded by the ordinary and the sparse. Each tower is a little different, but being built all at once, the towers contain no history of individuality and can only be seen, for now, as immense pieces of an assembling whole. It would be a shame if they stop now, as it is incomplete, but the plans call for something great.

Some diversity is emerging, however. To accompany the host of pricey condominiums with wide views of the river and the downtown skyline, the work currently under construction includes a senior living tower community, and an income restricted six story building of rental apartments. There are only a few restaurants and businesses, so residents need to go elsewhere for most of their daily necessities, but someday all the pieces will fall into place and this will actually be a place of its own. Luckily, the streetcar runs on a loop and I board to return to downtown. The rain has started to fall with more authority, telling me to come back again when there is more to see than the progress on the latest tower.

Indigo

Indigo, the tower which until recently was known as the ZGF Tower or 12W (for it sits on the corner of SW 12th and Washington) has made a big impact on the west side of downtown. Just a few blocks from the Pearl District and Downtown proper, the 22 story building is mostly high-end residential over a few floors of commercial space. Zimmer Gunsul Frasca, the designer, has moved in to anchor the base of this beautiful slice of blue glass.

The windmill people are coming! The coolest part of the building sits on the roof. Four wind turbines are arrayed to harness the power of the breeze. I expect Captain Planet to show up any day now and approve overwhelmingly. Though the turbines will only generate one percent of the building's power (according to the website), this is an important symbolic step for the city. Nearby, plans for the new I-5 bridge over the Columbia River have included options with wind turbines mid-span, and I imagine that in time more turbines throughout the city could become a collective force large enough to make a difference. Until then these four energy pixies can spin their sweet little heads off.

Back to commenting on the building itself, I like the smooth blue glass and vertical tan strips that run up to the sky and slide off into the clouds, and I like that the decks do not protrude from the overall form. Rather, the glass seems to have been removed in long straight strips to reveal the living spaces (and decks) inside. Funny how architects like to think of some part of a building as having been removed, even though it has just been built.

Indigo sits unique in it's context, surrounded by old bricks, a tall steeple and tired parking lots, but I anticipate this side of the West End will continue to evolve in a modern way. Just a block to the south is Sky Lab, and there are already plans to for a Weave Building neighbor.

P.S. When I took these photos, the wind turbines had not yet been installed on the roof, and I had no idea they were coming! But you can see them here.

Cyan PDX

The Cyan sits on SW Fourth Street between Mill and Montgomery, gazing over an old red brick Catholic church towards the south side of downtown Portland. The west facade is comprised of a grid containing angled glass faces that lean a little north and a little south, in a pleasant alternating rhythm. Designed by Thomas Hacker and GBD, I understand the Cyan was originally intended to be condos marketed to those who can't quite afford the awesome of the Pearl District, and the floor plans are smaller to match the intended lower rates. Then the Recession of 2008-2014 happened, and before the building was finished, the units were switched over to rentals.

I am glad to see a large project come to the PSU area and I fully support bringing more housing closer to downtown jobs and the university students. I doubt that very many students will be able to afford to live here, but it exemplifies diversity by locating non-student housing close to the campus. A street car stop is just a block away linking the area to wherever you want to go.

The angled glass walls are interesting, but I don't like the way the whole grid is encapsulated in a frame of standard straight glass at the corners and at the top. Perhaps if the angles met the edges of the building and even turned the corner, it would be more dynamic - but no one says buildings need to be dynamic.

The back of the building doesn't angle at all, and is rather flat (that is, not dynamic at all). There is less glazing overall on this side, with the introduction of a metal corrugation element. I like what is happening here, but it doesn't communicate with the other side. Again, wrapping the corners would definitely provide positive transition. I feel I am waiting for the workers to bring in the balconies and attach them to the flattened face, as well as the angled face. This is not the first building in Portland that looks like it was designed with balconies and then had them scraped at the last minute.

There appears to be a good system of water flow-thru planters along the Fourth Street side, where run-off from both the street and the sidewalk can collect, circulate through the plantings and seep slowly into the earth, lessening the impact on the city's sewer system. The back of the building has a large "rain garden" if you want to call it that, where a similar on-site water storing is taking place.

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.