Picnic at John Yeon’s Shire with Randy Gragg of Portland Monthly and Robert Melnick of University of Oregon

Posted on July 20, 2012 by Sabina Samiee

On July 15, 2012 Randy Gragg, editor-in-chief of Portland Monthly magazine and Robert Melnick, director of the Yeon Center, co-hosted Picnic at The Shire. The Shire is a 75 acre property designed by and formerly owned by John Yeon, one of the Northwest’s most celebrated designers. Completed in 1989, it is in a style reminiscent of an 18^th century English landscape garden.

Picnic at The Shire was a benefit to raise funds for the Yeon Center at the University of Oregon. The Yeon Center owns The Shire in addition to Yeon’s Portland-located Watzek House, and Cottrell House. After Yeon died in 1994, The Shire was donated in 1995 by the John Yeon Trust, the Watzek House the same year by Richard Louis Brown, and the Cottrell House in 2008 from the Cottrell family. The University of Oregon took full responsibility for the Watzek House in 2010. Yeon Center director, Robert Melnick notes,

“The Yeon Center provides a great opportunity for students and the general public to understand not only John Yeon’s extraordinary work, but the importance of regionalism is design. John’s work – whether in architecture, landscape design, environmental activism, and furniture making – was inextricably tied to the Pacific Northwest. He understood the essential integration of those efforts.”

Melnick goes on to illuminate the responsibilities and role of the Yeon Center,

“The properties under the responsibility of the Yeon Center provide us with a unique opportunity to practice the best preservation efforts, and to teach those to our students. At times, this includes long-range preservation and conservation planning, while at other times it requires immediate responses to pressing problems that any homeowner or property owner might have, such as minor leaks, or plumbing or heating issues. Our goal is to complete these projects using the very best and very latest preservation principles and practices, thereby ensuring protection of the properties for generations to come. It is truly an honor to be able to care for such remarkable and important places.”

Tours of The Shire were held throughout the mid-July weekend. Together with the tours, Picnic at The Shire was a collaboration between Randy Gragg’s Portland Monthly magazine and University of Oregon School of Architecture and Allied Arts. In a generous gesture of support and collaboration, Portland Monthly and Randy Gragg are donating all proceeds from the weekend to the Yeon Center.

Frances Bronet, Dean of the University of Oregon School of Architecture and Allied Arts responded to this collaboration observing,

The Yeon Center can be seen as a leader connecting those extraordinary visceral experiences specific to the Pacific Northwest, and epitomized by Yeon’s work…connecting elements of the built and transforming environment. Taking on both Robert Melnick’s and Randy Gragg’s charge to both steward the intersection of landscape and building, as well as inspire a seamlessness of beauty and ecological care.

When asked to comment on the collaboration, Melnick expressed gratitude to Gragg and the Portland Monthly connection.

“Portland Monthly, and especially it’s editor-in-chief Randy Gragg, have been great supporters of the Yeon Center’s efforts to expand the knowledge and appreciation of John Yeon’s pioneering effort, both at the Watzek House and The Shire.” Melnick continued, “Randy has been especially generous with his ideas and initiatives.”

What follows is the story of the event, a glimpse into what was a truly amazing evening. 18^th century poet, William Mason wrote several works about the wonder of the English landscape garden and was influential in advancing the idea of the picturesque in a landscape. His sonnet below begins our discussion of Yeon’s Shire, as it sets the stage for our foray into a landscape design philosophy that is both “liberal though limited, restrained though free.”

John Yeon's Shire, Columbia River Gorge, view from southwest facing amphitheater feature.

Smooth, simple path! Whose undulating line,
With sidelong tuffs of flowery fragrance crowned,
“Plain, in its neatness,” spans my garden ground;
What, through two acres they brief course confine,
Yet sun and shade, and hill and dale are thine,
And use with beauty here more surely found,
Than where, to spread the picturesque around,
Cart ruts and quarry holes their charms combine!
Here, as thou leads’t my step through lawn or grove,
Liberal though limited, restrained though free,
Fearless of dew, or dirt, or dust, I rove
And own those comforts all derived from thee!
Take then, smooth path, this tribute of my love,
Thou emblem of pure legal liberty!

– A sonnet by William Mason, from The Oxford Book of Garden Verse, reprinted in Perspectives on Garden Histories

The July 15th mid-summer afternoon spread out upon John Yeon’s Shire with a myriad of weather possibilities. Glorious Gorge sunshine was tempered by billowly, smoke-gray clouds reaching into shades of navy, while a soft breeze blew that anyone with Gorge-savvy knows could switch to gale force in minutes. Roughly a half hour drive eastward on Highway 14 out of Washougal, Washington, The Shire is carefully tucked away behind a screen of thick forest and a lone, single bar metal gate. This modest entry draws you down a path-like driveway that winds its way brushing by lush bracken, below cathedral canopies of tree foliage, and along surprise reveals of capricious meadows, streams and ponds. Anticipation for what awaits builds. This suspense yields to curiosity as the driveway, with a Gorge-like windy rush, gives way to an expansive lay of grass, an elevated horizontal berm. In almost art historical text-book form, and in a brilliantly planned moment of design genius, a ground line is formed by the top of this berm catching Multnomah Falls, a small perpendicular vision far away across the Columbia. Walking to the top of this knoll and captivated by the view, remembrances of English poet William Mason’s “one ample theatre of sylvan grace” (English Garden: A Poem in Four Books, Book 1, line 548, 1786) comes to mind, an essential feature of the 18th century English landscape garden. Into this autochthonous scene (a term used to describe indigenous aspects of the 18th century English landscape garden), The Shire is a landscape garden furnished with countless features of a natural landscape only one of which is this first introduction to the theater. The “amphitheater” [from Gragg's Portland Monthly article, The Long View] is an en plein air setting, a strappingly thick arc of land inviting the river to smoothly swirl in and approach visitors. This is your first indication that The Shire will unfold like a painting, gloriously saturated with Arcadian charm, a place where reality and the ideal seamlessly blend.

A ground line is formed by the top of this berm catching Multnomah Falls, a small perpendicular vision far away across the Columbia.

This afternoon, The Shire looked nothing short of basking in promise—freshly primped and trimmed. I arrived expecting greatness, and was greeted by Randy Gragg, co-host of the Picnic; I was also welcomed by a bustling staff from the Art of Catering who were fully mobilizing to create the fabulous evening meal. Bouquets of fresh flowers, bottles of uncorked wine, and the epicurean smells of what lay ahead made it clear no stone had been left unturned, this was definitely about to be an extraordinary event.

Gragg wandered off to, as he put it, “get reacquainted” with nearby recently mowed walks and I got the distinct feeling he was in a nostalgic mood eager to enjoy a landscape that to him was like an old, dear friend. Somewhat pleased at being left alone, I turned my attention to the swelling knoll of green laid out before me.

Under the afternoon’s tenuous skies, presided over by Washington’s craggy south-facing basalt-striated precipice and Oregon’s north-facing Gorge cliffs down which cascade the misty Multnomah Falls, a bashful Bridal Veil Falls and delicate wispy of a falls with a name I do not know, sits The Shire. As a landscape, The Shire appears quiet, calm and self-assured. Its prominent features available to explore via politely trimmed paths and a kind consideration to all blooming plants. Equal prominence is given to the lace cap baby blue hydrangea as is to the wild sprawling hot pink sweet peas. Every growing thing has space to express an individual beauty. The prevalent sense was that Yeon had an appreciation for nature’s habit of embracing variety, excess, and a lovely sense of balanced disorder.

Equal prominence is given to the hydrangea as to the wild sweet pea.

The curving composure of The Shire’s most prominent feature, that gorgeous arcing riverbank lies almost as if in wait, comfortably content to be rediscovered, to be appreciated for its languishing splendor. This was four o’clock in the afternoon. Within the next hour and as the sun played with the idea of appearing and disappearing, about 70 guests, would arrive to converge on this pristine riverbank and experience The Shire, many discovering this place for the first time.

The gorgeous curve, a strappingly thick arc of the amphitheater.

There is an important heritage to The Shire site that helped propel guests to attend the exclusive event. Gragg describes it as “the heritage of everyone who enjoys the Gorge.” Taking his cue from the women of the Portland Garden Club who originally gathered for the first Yeon picnics at The Shire in the 1980s (organized to garner support for the Columbia River Gorge environment), Gragg conceived the idea of the Picnic event and initiated the attendance of seven of those original PGC women who had been part of that first “Committee to Save The Columbia River Gorge.” Gragg comments, “it’s imperative to bring these kinds of histories to life….in a phrase, [Picnic at The Shire] was a celebration of elders.” It had been these women supporters who two decades ago would come to play a key role in ensuring the Gorge would thrive. Gragg describes this group of conservation activists as, “the proto-version of Friends of the Columbia River Gorge.” This afternoon, Mary Bishop, Susan Bodin, Nancy Frisch, Betsy Smith, Marie Hall, Dottie Schoonmaker and Pat Wall were the esteemed seven. Their participation substantially enriched the evening’s conversation.

A celebration of elders....and all guests.

Among others in attendance were Anthony Belluschi, son of Yeon contemporary, Pietro Belluschi, (another true Oregon luminary); Brian Ferriso, director of the Portland Art Museum; Zari Santner, former director of Portland Parks and Recreation; Tom Manley, president of Pacific Northwest College of Art; Kate Wagle, interim vice provost of UO Portland and director of the UO School of Architecture and Allied Arts in Portland; and landscape architects Doug Macy and Steve Koch; not to mention newcomers and outliers such as brand consultant Chris Riley and venture capitalist Steven McGeady. Everyone was particularly thrilled to see Lewis MacArthur, editor of Oregon’s Geographic Place Names.

Randy Gragg leads a tour of The Shire.

With the guests having arrived, we turned all attention to our guides, Randy Gragg and Hannah Bryant, current Yeon Center graduate teaching fellow. I was allocated to Gragg’s group and so we moved in the direction of the setting sun finding ourselves on a path that ended with a curving tree branch right at eye level and a surprising view directly behind of the river, a yellow floating bridge and a creek gurgling into the vast Columbia. We were introduced in that very moment to Yeon’s captivating penchant for ‘garden folly’….and as the group collectively became mesmerized by this clever manipulation of our view, Gragg began to enlighten us.

A surprising view of the river.

Gragg explained Yeon’s sensitive touch that brought to the landscape a sense of the “inverted picturesque” and a wistful “nostalgia.” Experimental in carefully and subtly diverting streams to create creekside walks that culminate in viewpoints, Yeon has given us a place to pause and notice the natural: places Gragg refers to as “the follies,” reminiscent of the term “folly” as it applies to a traditional English landscape garden, a feature within the landscape used primarily for decoration. At The Shire Yeon shaped the land with less-than-delicate tools, a bulldozer, a chainsaw, adding plantings along the way. But even with these machines of modernity and ruggedness, Yeon’s vision created a picturesque landscape and elevated natural, not architectural, features to the status of folly.

"An ode to the Gorge."

Each thoughtfully crafted peek of waterfall or framed vista of landscape, is an “ode to the Gorge,” continued Gragg. In other words, this is a garden where each view confides an aspect of enlightenment and wisdom. If we are to examine The Shire as Yeon intended, we need to look at this, suggests Gragg, as “a metaphor for how Yeon thought the Gorge should be treated.” Gragg gently prompted us to see in these crafted spaces, open to the sky, a testimony and appeal for the care and consideration Yeon so desperately longed to happen for all the Gorge. Yeon’s mission, Gragg pointed out, was to ask Portlanders, and beyond, to think about the landscape as a canvas that if painted upon needed to be done so with great consideration and thought for both what would be changed and what would remain untouched.

Gragg continued explaining Yeon’s theory: “if you are going to touch the land at all you need to design it.” Yeon’s great aspiration for his Shire was for this landscape and the Gorge to be a national park. But this dream proved quixotic as Gragg touched upon: the Washington side of the river would remain more about industry not environmental preservation.

As our little group walked, commented, and wondered aloud, Gragg talked, encouraging and responding to individual questions with the knowledge and expertise given to him by his connection to the designer and years spent lecturing and writing about Yeon. Gragg painted a vivid picture of Yeon, the consummate gentleman, intellectual, handsome, with piercing blue eyes, a striking figure. The vision was one of the slightly eccentric, English country squire-like, educated, creative, outspoken but reserved, appreciative of his surroundings, an arts and culture partisan able to appreciate the unusual as well as the commonplace; and to embrace both Western and Eastern cultures, (Yeon called the Columbia River Gorge “my Chinese landscape”).

"Yeon's design was very much about compression and release," said Gragg.

With a new understanding of the person that was Yeon, Gragg prompted us to move on to new discoveries in the landscape. Stopping at a small meadow, Gragg gestured to the flaxen colored grasses and turned to address Yeon’s design aesthetic. “See,” Gragg explained, “Yeon’s design was very much about compression and release.” First, we are suppressed by a Tolkien-like forest-winding walk heavy with trees overhead and dark with overhanging foliage, and restricted light; then we are liberated by a flowing meadow expansive in all directions. As a comprehensive work of art, The Shire shows a sense of liberty balanced by a sense of restraint; perhaps providing a moral stage as if to lecture on the story of preservation and conservation.

"The folly is the falls."

Gragg concluded his tour by leading the group into yet another meadow, this time we stood expectantly ready to admire the beauty of the simple, vegetation-surrounded, circular meadow. But, in customary Yeon form, we should have realized there would be so much more. Gragg said to us, “Now if you would all turn around,” he cast his gaze behind us. Turning to the south, we saw a well-trimmed, tall and precariously narrow key-hole parting of the trees revealing a perfect view of Multnomah Falls clear across the river—a long view to the Oregon side of things and an insightful opening up of the possibilities and relationship between both sides of the river. Showing us this snipet of perfection, the last piece of The Shire completed in 1989, Gragg quietly declared, with a nostalgic smile, “The folly is the falls.” And as numerous smartphone cameras were raised by their holders in silent capture of this last meaningful drama of The Shire, we were confronted with the realization that this precious resource is fragile, in constant need of well-planned maintenance and care if Yeon’s painterly vision is to be sustained. Indeed, it befalls upon us as guardians of our great Northwest environment to recognize Yeon’s contribution and keep it as he would have wished, as he was the ultimate caretaker with purely selfless visions for the Gorge. Yeon was instrumental in forming this priceless painting of his Columbia River hideaway, it is has been trusted to the Yeon Center to preserve and protect.

A long view to the Oregon side of things, a relationship between both sides of the river.

I discussed future of The Shire with a few of the original garden club women looking to discover their thoughts about the landscape. Some remembered it differently than it was today. Having picnicked in this landscape years ago and having a sense of the nostalgia for the place, the original group expressed great affection for the memory of Yeon’s touch on the landscape. Yeon’s own keen aesthetic sense guided the clipping, pruning, and cutting that cultivated this place and that might be lost forever without listening to those who have experienced this place in its prime. One woman commented with a bit of melancholy, that she recalled how Yeon used to mow the grass so as to produce a beautiful woven pattern in the cut lines. She hoped this would be remembered and done again; it was the little details that seemed to matter the most in the memories of The Shire’s early days.

Guests at Picnic at The Shire, July 15, 2012.

Our evening wound down while the river played catch-up with the sea, the sun played hide-and-seek with a heavenly cumulus, and a few drops of rain nourished The Shire’s flora and fauna. The privileged guests of the first Picnic at The Shire, 2012 sat down to dinner at white-clad tables, the clink of cutlery and dishes, and the warm tones of content conversation filling the balmy evening.

As guests enjoyed the beautiful meal, merely across the river, and barely audible on The Shire side, the hum of summer traffic on I-84 was an inescapable reminder of the fight Yeon had led to transform the highway department’s planned straight, rigid road to curve and flow with the contours of the river, being ever respectful to the existing river path. Due to Yeon’s efforts, the road that exists today is much more sensitive to the river’s countless years’ journey carving out a path of least resistance.

Part of Yeon’s vast creative genius lies in his acute awareness of what it takes to get us to stop and notice a simple framing of a scene that reveals information about a place. The Shire’s vistas of far-off waterfalls, panoramas of meadows, hobbit-like wanderings through lushly mysterious forest—these are all features shown to us in enchanting ways, the “follies” of Yeon’s landscape. When you visit The Shire these vistas of pure brilliance and escape are, like Gragg so aptly describes, a landscape of “compression and release” with focal points designed to inform. The Shire is where Yeon in his craft and artful ways, with great enlightenment but never missing the drama and the magnificence, and like William Mason’s garden sonnet, always “liberal though limited, restrained though free” shows us just how great this place is. The Shire is one of our region’s finest treasures, a garden, “the purest of human pleasures; ….the greatest refreshment to the spirits of man.” [William Mason, English Garden: A Poem. In Four Books, 1786].

Taking the quips and conversation overheard from the original seven supporters, the Shire, might even be said to have offered similar enchanting sights and smells on the July 15 Picnic that it had each day, of each season since 1989—just enough to evoke the nostalgic conversations of the garden club ladies, and, indeed, that of our tour guide as well. Yeon was an impeccable expert on this tutelage of the natural, and sensitivity to the environment. So beautifully does he guide us to awareness, compassionately revealing that sometimes nature has to be sculpted, crafted, or framed in such a way as to be put on display. The Shire is a sanctuary of crescent river banks, flourishing meadows, meandering footpaths and charming reminders of how to appreciate the magnificence of nature. Into this landscape, Yeon’s legacy seems carried on the winds of the Gorge, with the potential to be either fleeting or strong and steady. We can wonder how it used to be those 20+ years ago when Yeon invited his first, and perhaps most influential guest, Nancy Russell to the evening picnic that launched a wave of conservation effort [read about Yeon's connection to Nancy Russell and his Columbia Gorge preservation efforts in The Long View]. Does the river smell the same wet, sweet earthen? Did the ospreys glide overhead on river drafts? Did similar soft breezes explore the Gorge’s craggy cliffs and the same robust green of freshly cut grass infuse the air? The same grasses growing that once supported the Persian rugs laid down to comfort Yeon and his picnic guests? Were the liberating spaces in the trimmed trees as wide, as long, or perhaps even more revealing? What can we do to ensure this places thrives yet remains true to Yeon’s vision? With the existence of the Yeon Center, we have the ability to recreate, or as Gragg encourages, to revive the Yeon aesthetic and keep it pristine. I asked Gragg to comment on the need to plan, preserve and protect The Shire and the existence of the Yeon Center as a vehicle to make that happen. Gragg said,

“The Yeon Center is very much a work in progress. Robert Melnick did a great job of landing the properties, figuring out how the university could be stewards, and getting the Watzek House listed as a National Historic Landmark. Programming is the obvious next step. I think there are two questions: how does it enrich the university community and AAA’s pedagogy? But also how can it inspire the region? Every fiber of John Yeon’s will was devoted to designing and advocating for Oregon’s beauty and sustainability—two words that, to him, were synonymous. That seems like a mighty fine mission statement for some organization because, right now, none exists. Maybe its the Yeon Center.”

The meadow beneath Washington's craggy south-facing basalt precipice.

The University of Oregon’s Yeon Center has in Professor Melnick and Randy Gragg invaluable resources and champions of all things Yeon. As Dean Frances Bronet commented, the Yeon Center “[takes] on both Robert Melnick’s and Randy Gragg’s charge to both steward the intersection of landscape and building, as well as inspire a seamlessness of beauty and ecological care.” Through the Yeon Center, both Melnick and Gragg have made a significant difference in educating the public and academically oriented university students about Yeon’s legacy and have successfully worked to keep this highly creative design genius in an Oregon, and, indeed national spotlight.

During his years as an art and architectural critic and, now as Portland Monthly editor-in-chief, Gragg has magnanimously devoted great quantities of ink to championing Yeon as an icon of the Northwest designed environment. In seeking to open our eyes to Yeon’s design philosophy and aesthetic, Gragg effectively has helped to preserve and promote key Yeon spaces and places consistently reminding his audience that Yeon has had an incredible positive impact on our region that can continue if we are educated of Yeon’s work and legacy. Gragg met Yeon in 1992, visiting both The Shire and the Watzek house with Yeon as his tour guide and confidante. The respect and admiration Gragg feels for Yeon and the understanding he has for Yeon’s design aesthetic is nothing short of impressive and translates well in Gragg’s lectures, writings and, indeed, heartfelt remembrances of Yeon, both in general fact and anecdotal detail. Perhaps a meeting of mutual admiration, the Yeon and Gragg camaraderie established in those early visits, seems destined to help preserve Yeon’s fundamental greatness and lasting heritage. In Gragg, Yeon would connect with an empathetic and attentive listener and gain the attention of someone passionately devoted to sustaining and understanding Yeon’s significant contributions to the Northwest region. Gragg comments about his initial 1992 meeting with Yeon and his involvement with the Yeon Center,

“I became fascinated with [Yeon’s] work and story—and increasingly over the years with his lesser-known early work in planning and his life-long behind-the-scenes advocacy for landscape design and historic preservation. I’ve written and lectured about him numerous times over the years. I served on advisory board to the Yeon centers at UO for two years.”

Well-connected and well-informed, Randy Gragg is in a springboard position to advocate, promote, and educate, not to mention connect and network for topics he feels are of relevance to this region. With his commanding post at Portland Monthly, and with the significant distribution of the magazine to an enthusiastic and receptive audience, Gragg found he could truly make a difference in providing information about our history, our icons, our places, and our community. Appreciating this opportunity and with a willing publisher, Gragg realized an occasion to offer to partner with the University of Oregon to help benefit the Yeon Center and bring his passion for Yeon advocacy to a broader audience. It would be a collaboration that would educate his PM readers about something truly special in their environment, something of great relevance to Gragg, himself, and help solidify the well-deserved place of Yeon in Northwest history and culture, not to mention financially benefit the Yeon Center, all Picnic proceeds going to the center. The UO Portland Monthly collaboration has helped to increase knowledge and awareness of Yeon’s work and reached out to embrace an hospitable, and new, perhaps younger audience. It was by no means a coincidence that the Picnic event arrived shortly after Portland Monthly released an issue focused on the Columbia Gorge featuring an article written by Gragg on John Yeon and specifically addressing The Shire, (see The Long View).

As Gragg explains,

“When we have opportunities, I like to extend [Portland Monthly’s] content into the world by inviting people to experience the places we write about. What better match to a cover-feature on the Columbia Gorge and the role the Shire played in its preservation than tours and a dinner at the Shire!”

I asked Robert Melnick to offer a comment on the Yeon Center as a closing to this post looking both to the future and to the past, and in the words of Randy Gragg, across the river to the long view:

“The dinner on July 15 was just one example of the work of the Yeon Center. The Center has a primary responsibility to protect and preserve the Watzek House, The Shire and the Cottrell House, but also to educate others about these remarkable designs. We do this first at the University of Oregon, for students studying architecture, landscape architecture, interior architecture, product design, art, and historic preservation, through tours, lectures and publications. We also open the Watzek House and The Shire to public tours, through which interested professionals and the general public can fully understand and appreciate this work.

[The author expresses many sincere thanks to Randy Gragg for his insightful tour of The Shire and his comments for this post, and to Robert Melnick; as well as to Portland Monthly staff and the UO AAA for her seat at the Picnic at The Shire table.]

UO Architecture Students Make Models for Oregon Historical Society’s Exhibit “Architecture and Legacy of Pietro Belluschi”

Posted on July 5, 2012 by Sabina Samiee

At the Oregon Historical Society's exhibit, the Architecture and Legacy of Pietro Belluschi, Anthony Belluschi stands in front of a model of his father's Belluschi House, Portland, Oregon.

A Summer to Celebrate Jewels in Oregon’s Crown

On May 17^th, 2012 the Oregon Historical Society’s History Museum opened the exhibit, The Architecture and Legacy of Pietro Belluschi, a collection showcasing the work and life of Oregon architect, Pietro Belluschi, FAIA. Belluschi is known as one of the most important architects to have lived and worked in Oregon, his designs and aesthetic influencing the emergence and development of Pacific Northwest Regionalism. The exhibit brings to OHS an overview of Belluschi’s architectural contributions and tells a story through the display of personal mementos, an actual wood “room within the room” constructed in the museum gallery, and eight architectural models of Belluschi buildings in Oregon. One of the most crucial components of the exhibit is the models. As Oregon Historical Society Director of Museum Services Marsha Matthews explains,

Any exhibit is enhanced by 3-dimensional objects. In the case of architectural exhibits it is extremely useful as it renders a 2-dimensional plan or photograph into a “real” building. It is difficult for many to see the building in their mind’s eye when they look at a plan. Seeing a model can inspire a visitor to go see the real building, become interested in learning more about Pietro Belluschi or Northwest Style architecture.

The exhibit is a careful and thoughtful collection designed, curated, and collaborated on by Belluschi family members. Pietro Belluschi’s son, architect Anthony Belluschi, FAIA, and his wife, Martha Belluschi worked together to present an exhibit that would “showcase [Pietro’s] architecture, life and legacy,” commented Anthony Belluschi. He continued, “My father would be very proud of what we have done to honor his legacy….I have often said that I think he left me all of his archives because he would want us to do something like this on his behalf.” Pietro Belluschi was an architect for over 60 years and practiced in 25 states and a number of countries overseas. He is lauded as one of the foremost definers of and contributors to Northwest Regionalism in the 1930s and 1940s. He was a respected design consultant and was also involved in educating, lecturing, and writing in the field of architecture spanning the years from 1950-1990. He not only worked in and operated his own 25-person firm in Portland (1950) but progressed to hold the appointment of Dean of Architecture and Planning at MIT. In a 1963 essay written by Pietro Belluschi, the architect commented on his design philosophy and his preference for “those simple qualities that are the basis or at the basis of all enduring architecture”— architecture he commented that “imparts a serene quality, a simplicity that avoids dullness, and an architecture that requires humility on the part of the architect.” [Oral history interview with Pietro Belluschi, 1983 Aug. 22-Sept. 4, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.]

In the fall of 2011, OHS had approached the Belluschis and advised them of a plan to exhibit Pietro Belluschi’s work in the spring of 2012. To begin the process of putting together the exhibit, Anthony Belluschi embarked upon a search to find any existing suitable models of his father’s architecture that could be included in the show. Pietro Belluschi’s son realized that the success of an exhibit of his father’s work would reside, in large part, in the display of accurate and beautifully rendered models. According to Anthony Belluschi, he approached the Portland AIA (an exhibit of Belluschi’s work had been displayed here in 1993) for previously exhibited models but found little he felt was appropriate, except two models that were in need of repair. A subsequent request to the architecture department at Portland State University also yielded nothing suitable. Anthony next ventured down to the UO campus in Eugene to see if the Pietro Belluschi collection would have anything appropriate to include. He even inquired with a former colleague of his father’s, Joachim Grube. All to no avail. It seemed as if there were very limited existing, exhibit-quality models of Pietro Belluschi’s architecture.

Upon hearing of the need for models, the head of the UO AAA Department of Architecture, Christine Theodoropoulos quickly stepped forward, and generously offered to create a special course to make models that would have the specific intent of display in the Oregon Historical Society History Museum exhibit. Anthony Belluschi, a part-time resident of Portland, requested that, if at all possible, the models be built at the University of Oregon in Portland at the White Stag Block; keeping a Portland connection seemed logical as Belluschi planned on taking an integral role in production of the models and participating in the class itself. The University contacted Dave Collins, a professional model-maker and owner of Architectural Prototypes. Collins was available to work with the students and, consequently, became the instructor who would lead this venture. The new course emerged early in 2012 and offered to students in Portland a chance to work with the designs of a Northwest architectural icon.

Thus also began the collaborative approach to the exhibit that would involve the partnership between students in the University of Oregon Department of Architecture program in Portland and the Oregon Historical Society under the guidance of the Belluschis and Dave Collins. Matthews comments on the collaboration:

All exhibits are a collaborative effort. Tony Belluschi facilitated the collaboration between OHS, himself, and the university to offer the model-making course. The OHS library provided plans from which the students were able to develop the plans for the models, Tony provided insight and inspiration regarding Pietro Belluschi’s designs, Dave Collins needs to be commended for teaching the course and providing his model-making expertise to the students – this joining of resources and talent is a good example of the kind of collaborative effort that it takes to create exhibits.

The beginning of the course introduced Pacific Northwest Regionalism to the students with Anthony Belluschi, himself, providing lectures about his father’s life and work, and conducting tours of the Sutor House and the Belluschi House to the students. Belluschi fondly recalls the excitement he felt translated from the students, most, but not all, of them newly exposed to his father’s architecture: “I felt that the students were quite impressed with mid-century architecture and they found it very enlightening to discover Pietro’s work. I noted that, with their building of the models for the OHS exhibit, they would all then become part of the Belluschi legacy.”

Student Scott Kosmecki offered his opinion on working with Anthony Belluschi,

It has been a great pleasure to work with Anthony. His ability to coalesce the parts of the exhibition into an orchestrated and unified whole was wonderful to be a part of. He directed the work on the models at many of the Saturday morning meetings and really brought a sense of purposefulness to the exhibit. Because of his personal involvement, the projects felt as if they were important work and more than just a modeling class.

The process to get to a complete exhibit with exceptional models that would accurately inform and educate a public audience many of whom might not yet be aware of Pietro Belluschi nor of architectural terms like mid-century modern, Pacific Northwest Regionalism, or International Style became the goal of both the students, their instructor Dave Collins, Anthony and Martha Belluschi and the Oregon Historical Society. The exhibit certainly illustrates and provides an introduction to Pietro Belluschi’s simple elegance in design and his ability to integrate art, science, and culture in his buildings. As a representation of Belluschi’s built legacy, the models in the exhibit beautifully exemplify Belluschi’s design intelligence both visibly and tangibly on a diminutive scale bringing the realities of the buildings indoors and to an approachable scale. Details such as the presentation of the models is well-thoughtout adding to the overall experience of the exhibit and aiding in the chronological explanation of Pietro Belluschi’s legacy. One very intriguing placement is of the Equitable Building. Anthony and Martha Belluschi carefully situated the model of the Equitable Building in front of a large west-facing, light-filled window within clear site of the Portland Art Museum building, (another of Pietro Belluschi’s designs). It is perhaps intentional how the model of the Equitable Building, with all that glass (and at the time of its actual 1948 completion, quite innovative), captures the essence of the architect’s own words referring to the original building as bouncing, reflecting and reacting to changes in the light and sky outside:

… the first thing that came on the Equitable Building with all that glass, new use of glass, we found how the sky was reflecting. The clouds moving through the sky– you could see it, and the building looked like it was moving, because the clouds were moving….It’s very exciting….[Oral history interview with Pietro Belluschi, 1983 Aug. 22-Sept. 4, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.]

In the 1983 oral history interview with Pietro Belluschi referenced above, he had observed aspects of his philosophy on style, aspects that the students who were involved in the model making experienced themselves while working on the models:

I still believe that style comes from understanding all the elements of a problem: space, access, view, sun, scale, intimacy, even love. And if you are a poet or an artist, then architecture will have real style in an authentic not artificial way. Not try to introduce a gable or other features because they are fashionable and have no bearing with the experience of living. To be an architect, you have to study, study, and live with a problem, suffer with it, and lay awake at night. If you’re aesthetically oriented, aesthetics will come out, not by preconceived things or something you have seen or by copying some kind of feature which may have caught your eye. [Oral history interview with Pietro Belluschi, 1983 Aug. 22-Sept. 4, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.]

The Belluschis visualized the exhibit as an opportunity to introduce and celebrate Pietro Belluschi’s contribution to Northwest Regionalism and Modernism to both young emerging designers, such as students studying architecture, as well as to the larger, metropolitan audience of museum visitors. Citing that “since [Pietro Belluschi] died over 18 years ago, many [young students of architecture] had never heard of him,” Belluschi sought to provide an exhibit that displayed “information about [Pietro’s] career and his numerous buildings in Oregon and around the country, particularly in his early career.” Anthony relates “there is a better appreciation of who he was and what he did, especially locally, because of this exhibit. [Martha] and I chose the title carefully to give the public a new awareness of Pietro.” To accomplish this, the models of the buildings that were of significant importance to explain the life and work of Belluschi had to be included. It became the opportunity of the group of University of Oregon students to make these models that would epitomize Pietro Belluschi’s most significant works.

The course was an incredible learning experience in model making. We were given free-rein over how we were going to construct our models, which allowed us to experiment with different materials, joints, and adhesives. With every mistake [model-making partner Alice Peterson] and I made we were able to better understand how everything would fit together and where we messed up. We were taught many different techniques that would have never crossed my mind before. I am extremely proud of our work and the work of everyone else in the course.” –Kate Fehrenbacher, a student in the studio commented on her experience.

The six models that were ultimately created by University of Oregon in Portland Department of Architecture students under the guidance of UO adjunct instructor, Dave Collins and Anthony and Martha Belluschi are currently on display at OHS. The models of Pietro Belluschi’s buildings crafted by the UO students are: Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco by Brett Santhuff and Scott Kosmecki; the First Presbyterian Church, Jacob Spence and Liz Manser; the Sutor House, Alice Peterson and Kate Fehrenbacher; the Belluschi House, Dan Scofield; the Zion Lutheran Church, Alex Jackson and Sitabha (Mimi) Songsermsawas; and the Equitable Building, Ryan Tyni and Greg Swift. Photos of the models may be viewed on the University of Oregon: School of Architecture and Allied Arts Facebook page.

The models will all remain part of the OHS permanent collection. The success of the students’ work to showcase Pietro Belluschi’s design genius is evident as the students were meticulous and observantly aware of the architect’s design philosophy. Matthews speaks to the models’ exceptional craft and creativity:

These models are extremely well-done – they are sited in a landscape approximating the terrain and plantings, they provide clean lines without the coloration of building materials so that the design is what is the most apparent allowing a better understanding of Northwest Style. The models are beautiful and the skill with which they were made enhances the rendering of the architectural design of the buildings themselves. A visitor can imagine that they’ve seen the building by looking at the models because of the skill with which they were made. They are all very impressive works of art.

After the exhibit closes in September at the Oregon Historical Society, Belluschi and his wife are optimistic that all or part of the collection, including the models, will travel to other locations. Belluschi has made contact with the University of Oregon Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Syracuse University Department of Architecture, MIT Department of Architecture and Planning and the University of Bologna, Italy. All institutions have expressed a keen interest in hosting the exhibit. Belluschi will remain involved with coordinating the exhibit and the move of the models on behalf of Oregon Historical Society. Taking the exhibit for display internationally will provide “an opportunity to educate [on a global scale] about the significance of Pacific Northwest Regional Modernism,” says Belluschi.

The importance of the models to this exhibit cannot be underestimated. Early in its inception when OHS asked to discuss the exhibit with the Belluschis, the question arose as to how the exhibit should begin. It was at the suggestion of Anthony Belluschi, himself an architect for over 40 years, that the need for architectural models was imperative. The models once made, quickly became the “jewels” of the exhibit literally making, as Belluschi says, “the exhibit complete….[the students’] hard work and dedication creating the highest quality models.” The models effectively contribute to the “exhibit [as] a beautiful, serene space” says Marsha Matthews. ”The ‘room-within-a-room’ along with the models provide insights into Pietro Belluschi’s architectural genius that could not be as easily conveyed otherwise.” It is the models, however, Matthews points to as ”evok[ing] an emotional response to the use of space and the space that buildings occupy….;” Matthews continues, and in a most complimentary comment sums up her thoughts, “[and] that to me is the purpose of architecture.”

The presentation of this University of Oregon, Oregon Historical Society and Belluschi family collaboration and the celebration of Pietro Belluschi’s architecture comes at a time when there is a renewed interest in and revival of mid-century architecture. It is perhaps fitting that this is also the summer we are celebrating another Northwest great, John Yeon. And while the models that the students created for the Belluschi exhibit are, undoubtedly, as Anthony Belluschi says, “jewels,” the work of both Pietro Belluschi and John Yeon embellishes the Northwest as indisputable “jewels in the crown” of our built environment.

Much has been written on both Belluschi and Yeon by scholars, critics, and those simply enamored with regionally-inspired architecture. Helping to awaken a more public awareness of regionally significant design was the recent attention given to the Aubrey Watzek House. In 2011, John Yeon’s Aubrey Watzek House (1937, Portland, Oregon) was approved for historic landmark status thus becoming Oregon’s 17^th site and only the seventh building to receive this national honor. Credited with the design of several other Portland-located and architecturally important buildings, Yeon had also been the visionary behind his glorious Columbia Gorge property, The Shire, a unique picturesque designed landscape.

This summer you have a chance to immerse yourself in the life and legacy of Pietro Belluschi and to enjoy and learn about his contribution to architecture and design by visiting the OHS exhibit. The season is also an opportunity to experience more of the Northwest’s exquisite built and designed environment, perhaps at its splendiferous best during mid-summer, by taking a tour or joining an exclusive dinner experience at The Shire. Come rain or shine, The Shire picnic promises to be enlightening with two key leaders, experts in landscape design and the study and critique of Northwest architecture: Robert Melnick (Director of the John Yeon Center) and Randy Gragg (editor-in-chief of Portland Monthly and longstanding champion of Yeon’s place in Northwest history). Melnick and Gragg will welcome you to the en plein air garden folly and natural grandeur of The Shire’s mid-summer glory. The Shire events are a collaboration between the UO John Yeon Preserve for Landscape Studies and Portland Monthly magazine, both joining forces to help promote the vitality of the John Yeon Center at the University of Oregon.

Whether you chose to wander the cool and shaded exhibit at the Oregon Historical Society or relish the shimmering summer sunlight at The Shire, the options to appreciate and educate one’s self in the ways of designing for Northwest environment and to discover the genius of two of our region’s iconic masters of design and fundamental pioneers in sustainability rest at our doorstep. The sun is high, the days are long, proving an ideal time to languish in the greatness that is the legacy of Pietro Belluschi and John Yeon. We hope you join us in celebrating our collaborations this summer.

[The author wishes to thank both Anthony and Martha Belluschi for their time and comments for this article as well as Marsha Matthews of Oregon Historical Society for taking the time to so generously comment on the exhibit and this collaboration.]

Author’s Note: There exists another University of Oregon School of Architecture and Allied Arts connection to Pietro Belluschi, the The Pietro Belluschi Distinguished Visiting Professorship in Architectural Design. This is a Distinguished Visiting Professorship created at the University of Oregon School of Architecture and Allied Arts in 1993 as a perpetually endowed fund to foster and promote education in architectural design. The endowment supports a short-term appointment for a prominent architect to teach and lecture. You may read about the two most recent recipients of this position on our blog, Johnpaul Jones, FAIA and Edward Ford.

Thomas “Gunny” Harboe Keynote Speaker at 2012 McMath Symposium

Posted on June 14, 2012 by Sabina Samiee

The Rookery | Image Harboe Architects, PC

Chicago architect and award-winning preservationist, Thomas “Gunny” Harboe, FAIA , was the inaugural keynote speaker for the George McMath Symposium on May 30, 2012 at the University of Oregon in Portland at the White Stag Block. The lecture was held in conjunction with the presentation of the George McMath Historic Preservation Award. This year’s 2012 award was presented to Portland architect, Hal Ayotte.

Harboe works with the firm of Harboe Architects in Chicago. Harboe’s lecture, “Restoring Chicago’s Icons: A Public/Private Partnership,” focused on describing Harboe’s fascination with the past, respect and passion for historic objects, and his work with some of Chicago’s most historically and architecturally relevant restoration projects. For over 20 years Harboe has played key roles in working to restore iconic structures of the Chicago cityscape, including the Rookery, the Mies van der Rohe apartments on Lake Shore Drive, and the Reliance and Marquette buildings. “Preserving our collective cultural heritage is important to society,” commented Harboe, “we need to give it a life that will extend it beyond us.”

With a lifelong interest in conservation and preservation, Harboe credits his childhood experience of living in a New Jersey Revolutionary War-era home as fostering an early affection for history and objects. It was in this historically relevant family residence that the young Harboe discovered an interest in found objects and gained an appreciation for antiques. Harboe soon turned to an education steeped in historical study, spending a year in Denmark at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen; and later earning a bachelor’s degree in history from Brown University and a master’s degree in historic preservation from Columbia. His hands-on and practical skills were cultivated further with his work as a carpenter eventually leading to a job on the team that would restore the Frank Lloyd Wright Room at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Harboe has credited that MoMa experience as being “where the epiphany happened. I realized that the key decisions about what got done had already been made by somebody else: the architect.” Hence, he turned his focus to pursue a master’s in architecture from MIT.

The Rookery | Image http://therookerybuilding.com/

Harboe, equipped with load-bearing quantities of academic, visionary and practical experience was soon working with the Preservation Group at McClier, the architects who would be commissioned by the Baldwin Development Company to restore The Rookery. Considered the jewel in the crown of Chicago’s architectural and commercial built environment, The Rookery is a 1888 Burnham & Root building that included a lobby by FLW. As luck would have it, Harboe was the intern-architect-in-training at the firm, and he amusingly recalls “I was the guy who knew something about preservation.” The rest, as they say, is history. And so, began Harboe’s presentation to the UO audience.

Harboe initially presented his work with the Rookery, completed in 1992. Revealing intriguing details such as how each window had to be removed, all original sashes put back in place, and having to cope with 4000 corners of fenestration where water had ample opportunity to leak in (and it had), Harboe walked us through the trials and tribulations of careful, accurate and painstakingly detailed historic restoration and preservation. Removing approximately 20 layers of black paint from the oriel staircase (removed and cleaned by crushed walnut shells under pressure), and having to rely on a creative interpretation of replicating single piece teardrop elements as two pieces glued together, the architect-preservationist confided aspects of the process to reconstruct the original LaSalle Street and Adams Street lobbies to the original [circa 1910] appearance. Harboe spoke of the importance of finding sources to help recreate or restore elements to an historically appropriate form. This might include the use of historic photographs, finding a small but original fragment of wall or flooring, or simply cleaning a surface down to a semblance of its historic original. Graciously offering credit to the workers and craftspeople who joined him on the project, Harboe firmly advocated for the importance of hiring “the right people for the job,” saying “craftsman make a difference.”

The Reliance Building | Image Harboe Architects, PC

Harboe’s preservation, restoration and rehabilitation of The Rookery was praised by both the architectural and historical preservation professional fields as well as the city of Chicago. Having completed this very successful project, Harboe moved on to his involvement with the Reliance Building, also by Burnham and Company (1891) and completed by Charles Atwood (DH Burnham and Company, 1896). The Reliance Building is one of the most important early skyscrapers in America. At this point, Harboe paused to address the importance of the Federal Tax Credit to his historic preservation work. Harboe explained the effectiveness of the Federal Historic Preservation Tax incentive program as contributing to positive and cost effective public/private revitalization programs and, hence, directly influencing his projects.

The Reliance Building (renamed and converted to the Hotel Burnham in 1999) has been termed “proto-modern” by architectural historians. Its expansive and elegant fenestration and strip-like sections of white glazed terra cotta are distinctive and highly relevant to its design. Like all of Harboe’s projects he addressed during his lecture, the building is listed both as a National Historic Landmark and a City of Chicago Landmark. Harboe noted the remarkable steel curtain wall that is made up of an internal steel two story-high column and provides all structural support for the building. He also spoke of the importance of being creative and flexible when needing to find substitute materials. For instance, the windows in this building were beyond repair, they were replaced. The original cornice that had been removed in 1948 was reconstructed in cast aluminum. Even with these alterations, Harboe stayed persistently true to the original patterns. Harboe further emphasized his use of historic photographs, drawings and remaining fragments in the detective-like job to authentically replicate a structure. Harboe also brought up another important issue in his historic preservation projects, that of the importance of place and infusing a place with renewed vitality. The primary focus of this historic preservation project, he commented was to “give life to [the street] and that [was] the intention of the project, to revitalize.”

Sullivan Center | Image Harboe Architects, PC

Harboe’s work on the Sullivan Center (built 1898-1904) involved all exterior restoration, Federal Tax Credit Program consulting, and City of Chicago façade examinations. A building best known for the elaborate cast iron storefronts and a curved rotunda, the project truly relied on the Tax Credit incentive; Harboe briefly discussed how his focus had to fixedly remain “not doing anything that would jeopardize the Tax Credit.” In order to create the necessary elements for this building, Harboe turned to a sculptor to recreate the details characteristic of the original designer, Louis Sullivan. Working with a craftsperson familiar with the techniques available to create ornamental work was of great importance. With exceptional workers, Harboe maintained his team was able to place remarkable attention to exact detail and towards the investigation of existing parts to restore this building. Speaking of the reconstruction of the ribbon windows, the matching of the colors for the glass elements, and the color matching for the terra cotta (working from found fragments buried deep within the walls), Harboe stressed the challenging aspects of his work. Turning to an amusing anecdote of good fortune on-site, Harboe recounted the team finding a large fragment of paint that had been trapped under a canopy. The fragment would consequently be used to attain a correct color match and be the most formative piece leading to an accurate hue. Using and having a knowledge of forensic investigative-like techniques is very helpful in the restoration field, commented Harboe, noting that he relies on such investigative strategies for each project.

Much of the cast iron work for the Sullivan Center was done off-site. Harboe recalled how this turned the project into a gargantuan job with disassembly of parts that “in many cases were held in place by the friction of the corrosion.” Harboe added that this campaign of difficult structural situations made each stage arduous especially with the added logistical difficulty of having to remove each piece to an off-site location.

Chicago Board of Trade | Image Harboe Architects PC

Harboe’s work on the Chicago Board of Trade Building (1929, Holabird and Root), one of the finest Art Deco style buildings in Chicago, began in 2004 with renovation efforts to restore the Art Deco aesthetic of the lobbies, improve elevator operations for 24 elevators, and modernize building systems. The building was of particular importance to Chicago as it is viewed as a symbol of the city. Harboe began this project by cleaning the exterior limestone surface of the structure simply with water. He advocated for using “environmentally friendly substances whenever possible.” Important features of this project included the interior lobbies with six varieties of marble, nickel silver metal trim and ornamental plaster as well as a luminous ceiling featuring a panel of light. All of the lobbies were illuminated by stylized fixtures using nickel silver frames and glass, the challenge here was to recreate missing fixtures, and nickel silver features. On this project, Harboe related finding some original treated elements that became key pieces to the restoration. Harboe’s keen attention to detail and his willingness to really look, explore, observe and delve into the hidden pockets of a structure and find minute details of ornamentation, color, and materials has lead to many of his discoveries that end up being the pieces that put the puzzle of historic restoration together. The necessity of being able to look and investigate, research and uncover is one of the most important aspects to any restoration project and cannot be underestimated.

Commenting on his experience with all these projects, Harboe again emphasized the importance of the workers who help realize the projects. “The tradesman make the difference,” he asserted. Concluding his lecture with this advice, Harboe took questions from the audience.

University of Oregon Collaborates with Tokyo’s Meiji University | Architecture Studios Focus on Regeneration and Redevelopment

Posted on April 12, 2012 by Sabina Samiee

By Sabina Samiee

In the fall of 2010, Professor Hajo Neis of the Department of Architecture in Portland began a sabbatical stay in Tokyo. Neis initiated a collaborative relationship with Toyko’s Meiji University and faculty member, Professor Masami Kobayashi from Meiji University’s Department of Architecture in the School of Science and Technology. Kobayashi was Neis’ coordinating professor for his visit. The exchange proved to be a fruitful one with both professors discussing forms of possible collaboration that would incorporate student and faculty cooperation, as well as design, research and creative professional projects that would involve a close collaborative relationship between UO Department of Architecture program in Portland and Meiji University. After his visit to Tokyo, Professor Neis invited Professor Kobayashi to come to Portland and deliver a lecture to Oregon audiences on the urban development of Tokyo from the Edo-Period.

Only a few weeks before his planned visit to Portland, Japan experienced the devastating March 2011 Tohoku Region earthquake. The disaster was threefold—earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear fallout. Despite these challenges, Kobayashi, travelled to Portland and instead of giving one lecture on urban development, incorporated a second lecture explaining the massive destruction of the earthquake. Hajo Neis, recalls this lecture as “one of the most memorable lectures [he has] ever heard.” Kobayashi had visited the disaster area and wanted to bring a complete report to his Portland audience. While he was speaking, despite tears streaming down his cheeks, Kobayashi described the devastation, the people, and the catastrophe with an emotionally restrained calm. The audience remained completely silent captivated by Kobayashi’s detailed account of Japan’s situation.

It was Kobayashi’s lecture on the earthquake ravaged landscape of Tohoku that prompted Neis to begin his thesis studio, Regenerative Design. Regenerative Design gave architecture students an opportunity to work to craft rebuilding concepts for both the Tohoku disaster area in Japan and other disaster areas in the world.

Now, a year later, Kobayashi has returned to Portland to give a third lecture on the “Reconstruction Efforts for Japan’s Earthquake Disaster.” He delivered “Reconstruction Efforts” on March 9, 2012 at Mercy Corps world headquarters in Portland. His visit also coincided with his review and critique of the UO architecture students’ work in Neis’ Regenerative Design studio. As Neis comments, due to Kobayashi’s recent experience with the Tohoku earthquake recovery efforts, he served as “an invaluable and knowledgeable critic” of the students’ work. As part of the on-going collaboration with Meiji University, Professor Neis will incorporate Meiji University’s continued involvement with the Regenerative Design studio.

An added component of Professor Kobayashi’s visit to Portland, has been his recent collaboration with the potential redevelopment of Old Town | Chinatown. In the summer of 2011, Kobayashi had visited Portland and met with Anne Naito-Campbell, a business and community development consultant and lifetime resident of Portland. Naito-Campbell (daughter of real estate mogul Bill Naito) who has family connections to Japan had been interested in the addition of a Japan-gate to the Old Town region.

Collaboration: Hajo Neis, Masami Kobayashi, and Anne Naito-Campbell.

Historically, the background of Old Town | Chinatown is also the history of Portland’s Japantown. In the 1890s, hundreds of young Japanese immigrants arrived in Oregon to work on railroads, lumber mills, farms and fish canneries. Portland’s region by the Willamette River north of West Burnside Street became known as Japantown or Nihonmachi. By 1940, there was a thriving Japanese cultural area in this location all within a 6-8 block area. By 1942, Japantown had disappeared completely when all persons of Japanese ancestry were removed from the West Coast and placed into concentration camps due to World War II anti-Japan sentiment.

Anne Naito-Campbell’s interest in reviving Japantown and the region’s sense of Asian heritage stems from her family’s connection to Portland and Japan. With family background originating from a Japanese ancestry; Naito-Campbell’s father held the dream of bringing a Japan-gate to the area. Her father had been actively involved in bringing the existing China Gate to Portland in the 1980s, and helped plant the 100 Japanese Cherry Trees planted on the Waterfront, in addition to being involved in building the Japanese American Historical Plaza in north Waterfront Park.

Neis who had invited Naito-Campbell to attend Kobayashi’s original Portland lectures on urban development and the post-earthquake redevelopment, had subsequently encouraged Naito-Campbell to be involved in the Meiji-UO liaison by integrating her with an international joint comprehensive development study of Old Town | Chinatown. Neis continued to foster this collaboration by introducing Naito-Campbell to UO Department of Architecture Professor Howard Davis. Professor Davis was working with both Neis and Kobayashi by teaching one of the three graduate design studios focusing on ideas for redevelopment for Old Town | Chinatown and Japan’s earthquake rebuilding.

When Kobayashi returned to visit to Portland in the summer of 2011, he was well established in dialogue with Naito-Campbell for the design of a Japan gate for Old Town. As a direct result, Kobayashi started a design studio with his third year Meiji students in the fall of 2011 to design and prototype projects from a purely Japanese perspective. These nine Meiji University students travelled to Portland in March 2012 to present their projects to Old Town | Chinatown and UO. Neis describes the Meiji students’ proposals as showing “fresh ideas and new pedestrian life for the area.” Professor Howard Davis commented on the Meiji student work saying “I was particularly impressed with the design work that [Kobayashi’s] students had done for the area. It was very imaginative, and the discussion about it raised lots of issues that we’ll consider in the fall, when we do more design work.”

Meiji University students' model.

In a display of cross-community collaboration, Kobayashi’s visit and the work of Neis and Davis with their UO studio courses, ultimately contributed to the bringing together of community leaders for the Old Town | Chinatown region. This weaving together of the culturally significant tapestry that is Old Town has culminated in a more open communication between developers, historians and residents of the Old Town area. At Mercy Corps world headquarters in Portland, on March 9, as a part of Kobayashi’s Portland visit along with the nine Meiji University students he brought with him, community stakeholders (key developers, architects, city officials), joined Professor Davis and Kobayashi to participate in a panel discussion addressing how the Old Town neighborhood has changed over the last ten years and how the area can continue to positively evolve while embracing its cultural heritage. Organized by Naito-Campbell with support from Mercy Corps, the panel addressed how redevelopment of the area is crucial while retaining the intention to not eclipse the diverse cultural past. Panelists also discussed the somewhat difficult reputation of the area, and the development restrictions due to the area’s historic status.

Panel at Mercy Corps organized by Anne Naito-Campbell.

Students in Neis’ and Davis’ studio courses will continue to study and explore in-depth possibilities for the community carefully noting use, condition, height, history, street-level activity of each proposed building. Davis’ students publically presented their concepts in a final review session at the White Stag Block on March 21.

Future collaboration plans between Neis, Davis, and Kobayashi will develop into the fall of 2012. The intention to begin three design studios (two at UO in Portland, one at Meiji University in Tokyo) for Old Town based on Professor Davis’ research and seminar will continue. The professors also hope to initiate a small advisory group based on the panel group discussion and to move forward with the ideas and dialogue presented there. The architecture students in these studio programs, both in Portland and at Tokyo’s Meiji University will carry on in the collaboration by further analyzing several Old Town development possibilities, including pressing forward with the plans for a Japan gate. As Davis commented during the panel discussion “[these] will be hypothetical projects, but looking at them could help move the conversation….forward….”

This community and cultural collaboration was enhanced by the participation of Anne Naito-Campbell. As professor Davis says, this “ collaboration between two UO studios and one of Professor Kobayashi’s graduate studios at Meiji University. ….is a great opportunity, and we’re very fortunate to have [Kobayashi’s] support and the support of Anne Naito-Campbell and other people in the community and city.”

Following his return to Japan in March 2012, I contacted Professor Kobayashi and asked if he could respond to his experience here in Portland. Reproduced, here, in full is his reply:

Thoughts on Academic Collaboration and the Real Field we have to tackle on.

By Masami Kobayashi

The world is coming smaller and smaller with the progress of communication media such as Internet and Twitters.
Furthermore, we need to think beyond our boundary about the environmental issues such as global warming and Disaster issues such as earthquake and Tsunami, and hence to share our ideas to solve these issues.In that sense, our visit to the School of Architecture and Allied Arts, University of Oregon in Portland, bringing our 3rd year young students of Meiji University looked very effective and our students seemed to have learned a lot from the faculties and the students of UO during our short stay. Though the timing was not so good before the deadlines in UO, the both students seemed to feel something important from each other’s works.Our project dealt with the revitalization vision of the old historic district surrounding the UO Portland campus building, and our students proposed a rough urban design schemes and architectural proposals based on their urban studies. In the public symposium at Mercy Corps on March 9th, the local stakeholders, city officials, academic people, and people from historic institutions sat together as the panelist, and discussed on the coming future of the district. I felt something important has just started for the district, and the design works by both of the students, which were displayed on the surrounding walls of the symposium, looked helpful to evoke and activate the debate of the symposium.We teachers always have to think how to balance the education of our students between the traditional theoretical studies and the practical experiences which is connected to the real society, and we also need to think how the universities can support the local community to enhance its own culture which empowers its local identity. Thus, our experimental visit to UO and Mercy Corps might be a kind of catalysis to let the students to think that balance and let the local people be conscious about the future of the district. I thank to all of the related people for giving us such fantastic experiences.

[The author of this post extends her sincere appreciation to Hajo Neis, Masami Kobayashi, Howard Davis, and Anne Naito-Campbell for their input and cooperation on this article, thank you. -SS]

Old Town | Chinatown Cultural Center, Portland: A Fusion of Cultures

Posted on February 28, 2011 by Sabina Samiee

Image from Dan Nowell's proposed Old Town | Chinatown Cultural Center

Work by Meagan Dickemann | Alex Jackson | Dan Nowell | Jodi Hanson

University of Oregon | Portland Programs

School of Architecture and Allied Arts | Department of Architecture

Portland Urban Architecture Program: Arch 683 | Fall 2010

Professors Gerry Gast and Suenn Ho

[Note: Student projects from this studio will be on exhibit in Old Town | Chinatown on April 8, 2011 (5pm-7pm) and April 9 and 10, 2011 (1pm-4pm), 117 NW Second Avenue, Portland. The public is invited to this free event; sponsors include The Bill Naito Company and MulvannyG2 Architecture.]

The Old Town | Chinatown studio examined issues of “collective space and social space” as detailed in Herman Hertzberger’sSpace and the Architect, a series of essays on architecture which explore “in between space” and the city. Offered in the fall of 2010, Professors Gast and Ho led an introduction studio for students in the Portland Option II Graduate Architecture Program. The studio combined aspects of architecture, urban design and the design of public spaces as all integral ingredients of what defines “urban architecture.” The studio addressed building tectonics as supportive and reinforcing to design concepts. True to the University of Oregon’s Graduate Program ideals, this course emphasized a comprehensive design process: the essential combination of theory, history, design skills, human factors, sustainability and tectonics (structure, construction and environmental systems) in design studio work.

Sources of inspiration from student Dan Nowell's project.

The project was designed to concentrate on the conception of a Cultural Center in the Old Town | Chinatown neighborhood of Portland, Oregon. This area just off of Northwest 4th and Burnside in the Waterfront Blocks Redevelopment Area (Portland Development Commission), a part of the Portland River District, and centrally located to downtown Portland, is “one of the city’s most socially diverse neighborhoods– a reviving community representing people of many ethnicities and walks of life.” Culturally and historically, the area has a colorful past embracing Chinese, Japanese, Jewish and Greek communities. Overall, the studio project was purposed to be a “‘catalyst’ to advance Old Town | Chinatown’s revitalization efforts.” The proposed Cultural Center is to be “accessible and open to both community residents and visitors from throughout Portland” and would accentuate the “diverse nature of the present community and its multicultural history.”

Given the Chinatown context and the importance of diversity, students also studied the writing of Richard Sennett, historian and sociologist. Sourcing Sennett’s works, The Conscience of the Eye, The Fall of Public Man and The Uses of Disorder, the goal was to observe and magnify diversity, obscurity and underlying pressures of metropolitan existence. By relying on Sennet’s perspective, students were encouraged to develop a city-vision where all people regardless of ethnicity or socio-economic background would have ample opportunity to interact and come into contact with one another in a designed environment. The primary objective would be to compel all individuals to experience their differences and semblances. This perception compelled students to create spaces where the humanity of this city would learn to co-exist and cooperate thereby fostering a “healthy tension” within the metropolis and, in turn, promoting a “healthy city”.

The studio further advocated for environmentally healthy design placing a high priority on sustainable design practices to “[conserve] energy resources, [reduce] carbon emissions, and [promote] the use of non-toxic and recyclable building materials.”

Dan Nowell's "Sustainability Checklist."

Below is an excerpt from the course syllabus that further illuminates the intent of the studio:

The Old Town – Chinatown Cultural Center is envisioned as a new public “catalyst” to advance regeneration of the Old Town-Chinatown neighborhood. Although Old Town – Chinatown has made solid progress on its revitalization during the past five years, the district remains a struggling corner of Downtown Portland. While Portland’s central Downtown and Pearl District have witnessed remarkable recent regeneration, Old Town – Chinatown has not kept pace with the rest of the city center in attracting new investment, activities, residents and visitors.

Although public and private investment in the River District (the combined Pearl District and Old Town – Chinatown) has totaled well over $ 1 billion in the last 15 years, the district has a need for more public places, especially indoor public places that can be used in all seasons, in all weather, and at all times, day and night.

Remarkably, the only major new indoor public place in this large district is the Armory Theater. North of Burnside and east of Interstate 405 (the approximate boundaries of the River District), there are no public libraries, community centers, recreation centers, major museums or cultural centers. This poverty of “cultural infrastructure” has resulted in a somewhat monolithic district of affluent housing, high-end retail/commercial and expensive restaurants/entertainment uses in the western part of the River District – the Pearl District. In contrast with the upscale Pearl, a separate district of primarily low income housing and social services characterizes much of Old Town – Chinatown. This west-east gradient has produced separated social, economic and racial enclaves. The reasons for these planning shortcomings are numerous and complex, but the reality of the separated urban landscape is undeniable.

Recent development projects, including the University of Oregon and Mercy Corps, have introduced major new attractions in Old Town – Chinatown. However, these are only partially public venues. A recent positive trend has been the opening of many new small businesses such as Floyd’s, several restaurants, and a healthy nightlife scene..

Despite the River District’s segregated social pattern, there is an opportunity to create a more integrated and diverse neighborhood (socially, economically, physically) within the remaining undeveloped areas of Old Town / Chinatown. One of the most opportune ways to accomplish this goal is to develop new public places open to all residents and used by all, places where people of diverse origins, social and status “rub shoulders”, see and meet persons unlike themselves, and participate in common activities and events. A cultural center with a strong participatory program can further this goal.

Students were asked to create approximately 22,000 square feet that would incorporate an entry, a public event space, a multi-purpose or performance space, an exhibit or art gallery, a childcare center, a library area, a research and media lab, space for community education classrooms, a cooking studio, dance and drama performance studio, numerous small-scale work or meeting spaces, an administration office and a cafe. Designs were to consider realistic zoning frameworks and development standards.

Meagan Dickemann's elevation and exterior view.

Adopting the requirements and suggestions for ancillary spaces such as a commercial bookstore, offices and space for the Northwest China Council offices, most students also made allowances for highly desirable site spaces like courtyards, rooftop terraces or other socially and physically pleasant outdoor spaces.

Dickemann's concept for rooftop terrace space allows for scenic enjoyment of surroundings.

Commenting on her vision for the Cultural Center, a plan that incorporates the extensive use of glass to connect the building users to their outdoor environment, Dickemann says:

“I greatly enjoyed working on a site in downtown Portland. I feel like this studio was a great introduction to …..the city since our site was just down the street and most of us were new to Portland. I feel that [the instructors] really pushed us to keep designing until we had developed a concept that was worth exploring and evolving. The studio also pushed us to design outside of our building’s footprint and examine the greater contextual influences and also the community for which we were designing. I think one of the programs’ strengths is the focus on the urban environment and examining the greater picture when designing. The things we design and build can have a great influence and great consequences that extend far beyond simple property lines.”

Dan Nowell's Architectural Ribbon Concept models.

Architecture graduate student Dan Nowell’s project embraced the idea of Old Town | Chinatown as an extremely culturally diverse region. ”The essence of this area,” he writes, “requires the support of every combined influence brought upon it by various different peoples over the course of time to adequately portray its story.” Nowell’s proposal for the Cultural Center “conveys this need for all peoples to join together in support of their community.” He continues, “Every nationality is expressed through an architectonic ribbon with the language of the given nationality prominently enscribed upon it. These ribbons flow from the sidewalk bordering Burnside and climb up and over the site to create a framework for the programatic spaces of the center.”

Ribbons are structural suppport, as well as housing mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems.

Nowell's ribbon system detail.

In a thoughtful and planful interpretation of the ribbon concept, Nowell comments that “one ribbon alone would not be able to support the cultural center in this manner, it requires a consolidated effort by all of the ribbons to achieve this end, just as Old Town | Chinatown requires the input of several different peoples to adequately portray its history.” With a decidedly abstract and artful approach to his innovative plan, Nowell says that the original application of the series of ribbons across both the “project site and surrounding context was born out of a concern for the automotive dominated presence of Burnside Street…..the ribbons, running perpendicular to traffic flow on Burnside, were meant to abstractly represent a visual slowing of the traffic and guiding of the eye into Chinatown…”

Student Alex Jackson writes that the process of designing a Cultural Center presented a challenge to “create a building and an urban environment which embraces a diverse population—a place where people of all cultures, ages, and resources will want to go to meet, learn, play and work.” Jackson provides more detail to his approach when he acknowledges his goal was to “create a design which [would] be a resource to the neighborhood [as well as] a magnet for attracting visitors from the whole of Portland to the Old Town | Chinatown area. He envisions a building designed for “the greater sense of community and [that will] invite new families, businesses, and individuals into the community.” Ultimately, Jackson planned for the creation of “a stoop for the entire neighborhood and, in fact, all of Portland.”

Alex Jackson's models incorporate his "Stoop" concept.

Viewing the “stoop” as a traditional area for “brief, incidental social encounters…..a place to sit and relax, greet neighbors, enjoy the fresh air, and see what is going on in the neighborhood,” Jackson moved forward with his plan to create a Cultural Center that feels accessible as a neighborhood hub of social interaction coupled with concepts of a marketplace and playground. As his models illustrate, plentiful areas for human presence are creatively interwoven with spaces that contribute to innovative and business-minded communities, or as Jackson says, “a giant urban stoop.”

As seen in Jackson’s models and drawings, his concept of the stoop is gestural in providing public space for the humanitarian aspect of the community to congregate adjacent and within the built environment of the Cultural Center. Jackson sees this stoop aspect as ” a very social space and very public” as well as pleasantly “informal so people can take or have a sense of ownership.”

Mindful of sustainable design, Jackson’s proposal incorporates such elements as bamboo rainscreens and interior partitions, maximal daylighting, abundant southern exposure, natural light diffusion, water collection systems, natural ventilation, and accessible alternative transportation.

Jackson's exterior elevation.

Visible in the elevation above, the rainscreen of darkened bamboo panels gently shelters the side of the building providing diffused light as well as having great cultural relevance embracing the Asian culturally-grounding aspect of the neighborhood. The presence of the bamboo screen is also visible and tactile in the interior elevation seen below:

Jackson's interior cross-section elevation.

Jackson relies heavily on the cultural connotations of the bamboo screens using this feature for both its sustainable advantages as well as its nod to the symbolism of the region. His concept relates a fusion of both environmental considerations and historical and cultural reflections.

Student Jodi Hanson also chose to adopt both the historical and the cultural considerations into her project to enhance her design aesthetic. Visualizing the Cultural Center as a “vertical timeline that is anchored to its place….[and tells] the story of the neighborhood,” Hanson utilized an unfolding concept effectively layering idea remants of people, events, and culture. Anchoring her structure with a gradual upwardly diminishing terra cotta brick screen, her proposal steps skyward with block-like progression into the cityscape silhouettte solidly achieving a shift in focus from the heaviness of the terra cotta lower floors to a floating sensibility with the addition of glass top floors. Hanson refers to this effect as “growing from the ground to the sky, the experience through diverse vertical space informs the passage through time and a shift in focus from inward to outward.”

Jodi Hanson's Vertical Timeline-inspired structure in situ.

Hanson sees her “disparate layers [as being] imperfect and, at times, unstable, creating drama with which the current community interacts.” Prior to creating her model and plan, Hanson engaged in an extensive study of the areas history. From this historical perspective, she developed a timeline of events definitive to the region and this helped shape her vision for the Cultural Center: it had to have “a lot of cultural history,” she said, “and this history had to evolve into other things…into this vertical timeline.” Hanson saw the history of the neighborhood as “being so much a part of the area” as to be a major influence in forming her urban plan; she also perceived of the “Chinese Lion gate” as one of the definitive features of this geography.

Hanson's anchoring to surrounding rooflines and materials.

Using the rooflines from the surrounding existing buildings to define the planes of her structure’s first and third floors, Hanson related the new Center to the neighborhood context and the built history of the streets. The terra cotta cladding she employed as her primary exterior material relates to the predominant use of warm reddish brick tones on the surrounding historical buildings drawing a connection both historically and physically to what already exists and what existed historically.

Hanson's models for Old Town | Chinatown Cultural Center.

Turning her attention to sustainability issues, Hanson incorporated elements into her proposal such as green roofs as outdoor space, and the use of natural light with a mostly transparent north side of the building as well as plentiful use of light boxes, operable windows to aid in ventilation, and access to roof spaces for additional ventilation sources. Overall, considerations in Hanson’s design and plan draw upon the historical past of the area, a diverse past she lauds as her inspiration to create a built environment at this location that “has a focus on more of a wholistic urban plan” and still retains a sense of closeness to the waterfront and the urban nature of the site. By linking the sustainable aspect, the connection to the historical context, and the acknowledgement of fused yet distinct cultural influences, Hanson sought to draw upon the past and use this to inform and interact with the present, using the existing surroundings to infuse her project with “the energy that this [idea] produces.”

Post | sabina. Thank you to the students, Alex, Dan, Jodi and Meagan for speaking with me about their projects and to their instructor, Professor Gast for providing information on the course.

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