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Portland art blog + news + exhibition reviews + galleries + contemporary northwest art
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Friday 04.13.12 PICA's new headquarters  PICA's new headquarters I'm burying the hatchet because this space gives me reason to believe in PICA again but first a little history. In 2004 PICA shuttered its once excellent visual art program, which under curator Stuart Horodner presented the likes of Janine Antoni, William Pope L. Dana Shutz, Melanie Manchot, Jim Hodges, Tony Tasset and Rudolf Stingel... and if that sounds like the most interesting nonprofit exhibition space north of San Francisco it is because it was. What's more the space was large but not unwieldy space designed by Brad Cloepfil, long before... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on April 13, 2012 at 13:54 | Comments (2) PermalinkTuesday 01.31.12 Aerial Tram at 5 a Renaissance Revisited 
Aerial Tram on its first day of public operation (photo Jeff Jahn) Brian Libby has an important look back at the Aerial Tram which is now 5 years old. Here is my original review of this watershed architectural moment for Portland. How does it hold up today? It still feels contemporary and very very European (OMA, MVRDV-esque). Still, it remains a controversial benchmark... some architects call it a glorified parking garage. So what? Of course it is! (BTW, interesting parking garages are the rage now) The point is it remains an elegant solution to OHSU's campus expansion problems on Lair Hill keeping Portland's largest employer in the city core. It is also an extroverted piece of architecture... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 31, 2012 at 13:44 | Comments (0) PermalinkFriday 09.16.11 PAM reinvents itself with Ziba Here is a taste of the new identity:
 The new identity keeps the authoritative red but it is a softened shade, the more traditional text below covers all the bases Analysis: The Portland Art Museum's new identity and branding was conceived in close collaboration with Ziba design. In short, it is a bold clean appropriation of the P of Portland and definitively states that indeed this is an Art city. No, it isn't as bold as something like the Tate's chimerical identity but by being similarly polymorphous mark (it can act as a window on images or art) it is a gutsier than the Art Institute of Chicago's rather staid new logo.... (much more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on September 16, 2011 at 14:30 | Comments (0) PermalinkThursday 06.02.11 Bud Clark Commons: design to save lives 
Resource Access Center (Bud Clark Commons) If you've recently spent any time at all in Portland's tony Pearl District you've no doubt seen the dramatic rise the new Resource Access Center or Bud Clark Commons just across from the Post Office and PNCA's soon to be 511 building. Much has been written about its sociological underpinnings (like Housing First, which has been proven to lessen the burden on social services) so I'll focus mostly on design here.  The Commons with lockers right around the corner from showers etc. in the Day Use area. The RAC designed by Holst Architects is perhaps the boldest exterior architectural statement for a building in the city core since Graves' disastrous Portland Building put the city's downtown into a passive aggressive design coma for over nearly two decades...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 02, 2011 at 16:35 | Comments (1) PermalinkMonday 04.25.11 CRC design decision, do or die? it looks like die Governors Gregiore and Kitzhaber are about
to announce the type of bridge they hope to build for the Columbia River Crossing.
If it isn't a cable stay design, I predict it will be stopped. If it is a cable
stay it will still face intense pressure.
 Cable Stay Design, which was not chosen. Update: And in a dark day for Oregon and Washington they have chosen the composite deck truss design, for cheapness and alleged expediency sake (never a good idea on a 3+ billion dollar project). Expect Oregonians to rally against this (the cable stay design was superior in terms of seismic survivability and with less piers had a smaller environmental profile in the water). Also, the cable stay didn't look gawd awful with zero appeal for pedestrians and bicyclists. Instead,... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on April 25, 2011 at 10:10 | Comments (0) PermalinkWednesday 02.09.11 Columbia River Crossing: Still Planning Blind
Cable Stay CRC design (not in favor because of Pearson airfield interference) Since we have tracked the unspeakably difficult to track Columbia River Crossing bridge replacement project since the beginning we are due for an update. Last week Governors Christine Gregoire and John Kitzhaber (the two people with the most say in this project) rejected the ridiculously bad open box girder design and are considering three other alternatives. As of yet there is no serious designer attached to the project, simply a set of engineering options. This has been the greatest weakness of the project (which I've detailed in depth many times before). Simply put the project is extremely complicated and the CRC leadership is still looking at this as a series of standard solutions to a nonstandard project... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 09, 2011 at 16:10 | Comments (0) PermalinkTuesday 11.02.10 YU contemporary art center goes public 
The Old Yale Union (YU) Laundry building in a bid to be the serious contemporary art center Portland has been wanting. The unveiling of the YU contemporary art center on November 2 in Portland felt both energizing and overly familiar. On the positive side an LLC holding company (under control of founders Curtis Knapp and Aaron Flint Jamison) already owns the building and seeks to transfer ownership of the former Yale Union Laundry building to YU (acronym for Yale Union) a 501(c)3 non profit arts institution. Located in the inner SE industrial district YU is in an ideal location. The team has already donated and carried out a feasibility study by BOORA, which requires 5-7,000,000 for build out and seismic upgrades (though 10-$20,000,000 seems much more prudent for endowing the programs). Yu already has some finished renovations like the impressive kitchen for major events.  a mere 1/3rd of the main gallery space. The plan is multidisciplinary, with 14,000 sq feet of contemporary exhibition space, 4 artist residency spaces, a 100 seat auditorium/flex space... (much more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on November 02, 2010 at 21:19 | Comments (1) PermalinkFriday 10.01.10 OCAC reinvents itself with two new buildings  OCAC student using the Jean Vollum Drawing, Painting and Photography Building's custom locker/counter top built-ins (all photos Jeff Jahn) For starters, the 100+ year old Oregon College of Art and Craft has done something startling for such a small quiet school. Along with soaring enrollment that all art schools in Portland have experienced lately, they have raised 14.6 million dollars and hired international architects Charles Rose (of Boston) and COLAB (of Portland) to create the organs of change that will begin to fill out their ambitious 15 year campus building campaign. This signals the end of Portland's self imposed exile from commissioning outside design firms (a gun shyness resulting from the horrible ergonomics of Michael Grave's Portland Building) and this critic couldn't be happier... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on October 01, 2010 at 16:00 | Comments (0) PermalinkFriday 08.13.10 Clyfford Still Museum final design video  lobby view still (from video) of the Clyfford Still Museum In late July they finalized the design and now Denver's Clyfford Still Museum has released an excellent virtual tour of the building by Portland's own Brad Cloepfil. It's looking like it could be Brad's best design since the W+K headquarters and it doesn't hurt that Still is one of my favorite painters. Overall, Cloepfil seems to have balanced both light and heavy massings of concrete texture to produce a serious building designed to... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on August 13, 2010 at 11:03 | Comments (0) PermalinkFriday 06.04.10 Sneak peek at OCAC's significant architectural coup  OCAC's new painting, drawing and photography building Though it's over a hundred years old the Oregon College of Arts and Craft has been one of Portland's best kept secrets. So in a bid to reinvent the college they have boldly undertaken a 15 year, 3 part master plan by BOORA, and kicked it off with what looks like a fantastic new building designed by Massachusetts based architect Charles Rose + local/international firm Colab with landscaping by Murase Associates. It's a new center for painting, drawing photography... with studios. Also, much more than simply a cool building; it asks the school and Portland in general to live up to even higher ideals of art, design and ecology. Great architecture and design challenges us and Portland as an innovative, high quality human scaled city deserves to be challenged.... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 04, 2010 at 14:00 | Comments (0) PermalinkWednesday 11.11.09 Transit Bridge Developments Nov, 2009  November 10, 2009 version of Willamette Transit Bridge Yesterday's WRBAC meeting was interesting and more fiery, at least compared to previous meetings. It's detail time and the design of the new Transit/Ped/Bike bridge iis coming along. I like its triangular towers and belvederes designed to minimize the airfoil vacuums that flat towers create (dangerous to cyclists and pedestrians).  WBRAC Committee (foreground) Donald Macdonald and Anna Valentina-Murch (center and right background) I also liked that...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on November 11, 2009 at 18:59 | Comments (0) PermalinkFriday 09.25.09 New Designs on Portland  The design for the new leaf-shaped Rainwater Pavilion for the Tanner Springs urban wetland park in the Pearl District is pretty impressive. The pavilion designed by Herbert Dreiseitl (like the rest of the park) conjures "Space Elves" in my mind, something that would be hokey...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on September 25, 2009 at 11:30 | Comments (15) PermalinkMonday 07.06.09 Willamette transit bridge design developments  Donald MacDonald, the architect Trimet hired at the end of May to design the new multi-use transit bridge over the Willamette At the July 2nd design meeting we were introduced to a new architect with a serious reputation and a preliminary but exciting new inwardly canted tower design with decks that protrude for better pedestrian/cycle lanes, a rather extraneous proposal for a waterfall, the misguided idea that Portlanders identify with salmon as a color as much as the actual fish, potentially tacky attempts to soften the inherently angular cable stay design, talk of observation decks, more tower designs and numerous innovative strategies to improve the bicycle and pedestrian lanes.  a sketch for V style towers, which now seems out of favor.... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on July 06, 2009 at 9:30 | Comments (0) PermalinkMonday 06.22.09 Bridging some gaps in the discussion  Architect Donald MacDondald's "Refined" Cable Stay design, up for review today Once again, discussion of the Willamette river transit bridge has heated up in anticipation of today's meeting for the final choice of bridge type. In my opinion it isn't bridge type that matters... it is the detailing of whatever design chosen that will determine how usable, environmentally sensitive, pride inducing, and ultimately successful the design will be. To bring everyone up to speed... PORT pretty much started the civic discussion over this bridge with our totally unofficial design competition, later we broke the images of the rather nice hybrid design that now seems out of favor with the committees. Frankly, I like pure cable stayed designs, they have generally cleaner lines and can span longer distances which can make for a smaller environmentally footprint... but the details have to be good and the discussion around them needs to be relevant to produce sensitive designs. The stakes for this project are huge. In many ways Trimet and Portland's alt-city reputation as a green, civically progressive oasis in America is on the line. It's understandable but should Trimet really try to come in way under budget on what will likely be their most visible project ever?... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 22, 2009 at 11:00 | Comments (0) PermalinkThursday 03.12.09 Bridging design issues  New cable stay/suspension combo bridge proposal I've been wrestling with this new cable stay suspension bridge hybrid across the Willamette River for several weeks now and the designs went public last week. Im not exactly excited about this design but it's an intriguing alternative to the two pure cable stayed designs, both of which seem generic. Still, the effectiveness of the design varies depending on the view.  detail of hybrid bridge In profile from the middle of the riverr it looks very european and elegant, except that's not how most would experience the bridge....(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on March 12, 2009 at 9:23 | Comments (0) PermalinkSaturday 10.11.08 Willamette Bridge Design Reactions 
a prelimenary wave frame bridge design for the Willamette I'm certain PORT readers remember how we were dissatisfied with ZGF's preliminary design for the Willamette River pedestrian and light rail bridge and created our own design contest...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on October 11, 2008 at 22:35 | Comments (2) PermalinkFriday 03.21.08 Thinking about The Living Room at MoCC 
Ornamental Modern at MoCC January 2008 This weekend marks the last for the Museum of Contemporary Craft's The Living Room, which ends March 23rd. With a novel cutaway layout, the show has had 3 different iterations, Mid-Century Modern, Ornamental Modern and the current Eco-Modern. My favorite is the current Eco-Modern, which sports a great 1970's weaving by Mike Walsh and an excellent Peter Voulkos or 2. Lately with Dwell, Ikea, Design Within Reach and the mass appeal of Target's ad campaigns, modern design has enjoyed a pretty amazing resurgence. One of my favorite baristas refers to Dwell as yuppie porn but I think curator Namita Wiggers is going beyond the "simplify your hectic life" dream that seems to be fueling the interest. Instead, she looks at the links between craft and modernist furnishings and how the modernist aesthetic was mostly a "truth in materials and production" movement. She also mixes the new with vintage. Here are two of my favorite living rooms: ...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on March 21, 2008 at 11:15 | Comments (0) PermalinkTuesday 02.12.08 PORT's Bridge Design Contest: Awards  Sean Casey's elegant design Sure the cost for a new light rail and pedestrian bridge is high, this should be expected as transit projects are never cheap but if Portland gets a new bridge over the Willamette it should embody the green and design ideals that Portland holds so dear...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 12, 2008 at 12:07 | Comments (0) PermalinkWednesday 12.26.07 2 New condos for the Pearl District: it's design review time  The Casey Ive been waiting for a slow week to discuss these two new condos in the Pearl District. Neither is a product of of the design deficient, "let's put brick on a 10+ story building to warm it up," school of thought. First is The Casey, which is the first residential condo to sport a LEED platinum rating so it's very green conscious... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on December 26, 2007 at 15:09 | Comments (4) Permalink |
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Site Design: Jennifer Armbrust | • | Site Development: Philippe Blanc & Katherine Bovee | |