How architecture could help save Portland’s downtown

By Rolando Hernandez (OPB)
Oct. 4, 2024 6 a.m. Updated: Oct. 4, 2024 1:43 p.m.

Broadcast: Friday, Oct. 4

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As buildings like the Keller Auditorium and iconic Portland sights such as the Burnside Bridge are approaching a remodel, could a fresh new look save Portland’s downtown? As argued in The New York Times, cities across the country and the world are finding hope in new architecture. Tim Eddy is the founding principal architect and president of Henneberry Eddy. He joins us to share his thoughts on the role architecture plays in downtown revitalization.

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Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.

Dave Miller: From the Gert Boyle studio at OPB, this is Think Out Loud. I’m Dave Miller. An architecture critic in the New York Times, wrote recently that in cities around the world, architects are trying to coax downtowns back to life. Could that happen in Portland? Could a new Keller Auditorium, a new Burnside Bridge, or other changes to the built environment change the trajectory of Portland’s downtown? Tim Eddy joins us to answer these questions and more. He is the founding principal architect and president of Hennebury Eddy. Welcome to Think Out Loud.

Tim Eddy: Thanks, Dave. Pleasure to be here.

Miller: How would you describe the state of Portland’s central city right now?

Eddy: Well, I’d say it’s changing. I spend a lot of time downtown. Our offices are downtown. We’ve been there for 30 years, and it’s really changing. The patterns have shifted from a lot of daytime office use. There’s more evening use or more evening people on the street and so forth. We’re seeing some, I think, improvements in downtown retail, things popping up. Generally, I think it’s optimistic. There are a lot of things going on though.

Miller: Back in March, the Oregonian reported that Portland’s central city had the highest office vacancy rate of the 50 largest downtown office markets in the country. There have been other surveys that have shown that we weren’t the highest vacancy rate, but not doing great when you compare us to others. What do you see as the reasons for that? And I mean, we’re a couple of years into what is supposed to be the pandemic recovery. What do you see as the various reasons?

Eddy: I think there’s a tendency for people to have carried that work from home thing beyond the pandemic. They found out it was convenient. They found out it worked for them. Some companies have decided it works well for them, and that’s just really reduced demand quite a lot. Now, over time, will that demand pick up? I guess I’m fairly confident that it will. Will it ever be the way it was? Probably not. It’s going to be something different.

Miller: Do you think that there’s a role that architecture or design can play in bringing, in luring, workers back?

Eddy: Well, absolutely. I really think civic and cultural buildings, for example, and urban spaces have historically been the focal places in our downtowns, and that really hasn’t changed. What’s changed is that the commercial market has dropped off for commercial offices. So that means fewer people during the daytime. But these civic buildings, cultural buildings and their draw, they’re in prominent locations. They’re typically close to the core of our downtowns and the geographic center. And you know, their architecture reflects the state of architecture and art and design at the time they were built. And they’re gathering places, they’re places that draw people and draw communities together. I think that’s a big part of what will be a turnaround actually.

Miller: What do you see as successful examples of welcoming civic architecture in Portland? Designs that make people want to be in those places?

Eddy: Well, I’ll say, from an architectural standpoint ‒ it’s a historic building ‒ but the Central Library. For example, when it was closed for renovation, I think that was a challenge for the community. And now that it’s reopened, it’s coming back in popularity. It serves different functions than the library might have 20 years ago though. It’s serving a broader population and in different ways.

Miller: People sometimes say Pioneer Courthouse Square in answer to my question as a kind of Portland’s living room. That turned 40 years old this year. The library is older. Are there more recent examples of successful efforts to bring people to the center of the city?

Eddy: Well, I think Pioneer Courthouse Square is a great example. At 40 years old, it’s a very young building or it’s a very young place. But it’s interesting that Pioneer Courthouse Square is really reinforced by the history of the city that stands around it. You’ve got the Pioneer Courthouse, you know, it’s an amazing landmark. You’ve got the Jackson Tower and the other historic buildings, and the commercial activity generated by Nordstrom. So, Pioneer Courthouse Square is really our geographic center ‒ the city’s living room.

In terms of new spaces in downtown Portland that are drawing a lot of activity, it’s funny, I’m going to point to another old space and that’s Powell’s Books on the corner. That’s actually another really, really strong node. And it’s interesting to see both. Our offices kind of sits geographically between them and we see the activity there. I think that coming up in about a year, the Rothko Pavilion at the Portland Art Museum will be one of those spaces. I think it’ll be transformational for downtown.

Miller: It’s worth saying this is something that your firm is heavily involved in.

Eddy: Yes

Miller: What do you think that’s going to mean? What do you hope it will mean for the city?

Eddy: Well, it’s really flipping the paradigm of an urban museum around. Urban museums and campus buildings historically have been kind of bunkers. They’ve been fortress-like buildings. This is a very transparent, very open building. It creates a new entry for the museum and connects the two existing historic facilities the museum has a really positive way, and it also connects to the community. And I think that it basically reaches out visually into the community and is going to bring people in. It’s a very crystal and modern building. And I think it’s gonna be a big change.

Miller: I want to go back to the Powell’s example because it’s an interesting and helpful reminder because that’s a business, right? It is a gathering space and it’s a place that anybody can walk in and browse and read and sit there for a while. But it’s not a library and it’s not a public park. What role do you think retail spaces like that can play in a city center?

Eddy: Well, interestingly with Powell’s, the architecture is absolutely unremarkable. But I think they play a really big part. You know, it’s a landmark. It draws people there and businesses cluster around it just like an anchor store in a shopping mall, for example. Everybody wants to be right next to the door. Well, people want to be close to that. And so it creates a vibrant daytime activity core.

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Miller: You started though by saying that, interestingly, the architecture is unremarkable. So what role can architecture play here? If the central question is activating space, making any downtown a place where people want to be, what can architecture do and what does it not even need to do?

Eddy: Well, the biggest thing that it can do, I think, is welcome people in. And from the perspective of interesting, contemporary architecture that stretches the imagination is that it can inspire. It can inspire people to go there, to be part of it, and to experience it. And I’ll use an example that’s not in Portland and it’s part of its architecture, but you take Millennium Park in Chicago, for example. It’s a don’t miss if you’re visiting Chicago, right? I mean, you’re gonna go see The Bean, you’re going to go see Frank Gerhy’s pavilion.

Miller: And this is all something that went in within the last 20 years. I think it was about 20 years or so that The Bean and the Gehry world were put there.

Eddy: Yeah, absolutely. That’s an example that I think is extremely successful in downtown. And at its core, it’s really an open space. It’s not really a building, but it’s got these pieces in it that draw people.

Miller: Is there a part of Portland’s central city, on either side of the river, a space that you look at and say, I wish I could work on that site? Because Millennium Park, your example, was it had been a park before but it was greatly changed? The Highline in Manhattan comes to mind for me as something that was repurposed and has become an international destination in a city that already had plenty of places people want to go to, but it was a kind of overnight success.

Eddy: Yeah.

Miller: Is there a part of Portland that you look at now as a sandbox you wish you could change?

Eddy: Well, I think that what we’re talking about here are open spaces and public open spaces. And I think if you look at the development around OMSI ‒ which is, there’s fantastic opportunity there ‒ it’s going to be more about the open spaces to a degree and how the structures, buildings relate to one another and how they create space that people want to be in and want to participate in.

And interestingly, that’s really a tenant of downtown Portland. I spent a couple terms on the design commission a few years ago and the mission of the design commission is really about those public spaces. It’s about making the pedestrian realm a healthy place, a safe place, and an active, engaging place so that when commercial buildings are built, the first 20 feet is the most important. It’s got retail. There’s a dialogue between what’s happening inside the building and what’s happening outside it. Reducing blank walls, simple things like that help to create and make downtown Portland what it is. It’s one of the greatest cities in the world in terms of the bones and the way it’s put together.

Miller: What makes you say that?

Eddy: Well, it is so manageable. It has been so curated over the years in terms of how all these public spaces fit together. We talked about Pioneer Courthouse Square. You think about Jamison Square, you think about Director Park, think about Waterfront Park and you think about how all these pieces fit together. And as we go forward, I think there will be more and stronger linkages within Portland between these places. I think the cultural community, things like the Keller Auditorium and if PSU goes forward with an auditorium, that these things fit into a cultural context in downtown and they have linkages between them as well which makes them and downtown the cultural center of the region.

Miller: If you were the decision maker as opposed to Portland City Council for the future of the Keller, what would you focus on most in terms of the future of that auditorium wherever it’s going to be? And I guess at this point, it’s down to to stay where it is or move a little bit north.

Eddy: Well, full disclosure, we’ve been involved in that project for the past couple of years and so I’m of the attitude that yes and… I think it’s very important that the Keller Auditorium be rehabilitated and re-crafted into something that works much better than it currently does. And that’s both from a functional standpoint ‒ it’s tired ‒ but from the standpoint of its relationship to the urban environment, relationship to the Keller Fountain, its relationship to the street, really, on Clay and Market to create a better environment in that whole area. But it’s in the right spot. Location is everything.

Miller: Speaking of location, if you were solely thinking about civic life and urban vitality, would you trade two lots full of food carts that people go to at lunch primarily at lunch for a New Ritz Carlton? Is that, in your mind, a good trade for civic life?

Eddy: Well, I think it’s an evolution. So my office is right across the street from that block. And what I’m seeing now is welcome news that it appears that the food vendors on the ground floor of that building facing to the street ‒ Park Avenue, basically ‒ the tenant improvements are starting to get done. It looks like that may open. I think that’ll be a big plus. I think the food carts have a big place in Portland from what was on that block to what we’ve got now, in terms of the food cart pods that are more sophisticated, they’ve got more infrastructure and they’re really better places for people to be, I think it makes sense. I think it’s just a natural evolution. Things get taken away and replaced.

Miller: And some things die…

Eddy: Yes. That’s right.

Miller: …and other things are new creatures that come along.

I’m just curious, when you’re thinking about civic life here ‒ the human experience of a city and making it richer and more exciting ‒ how much are you thinking about visitors or tourists and luring them, as opposed to people who live here and work here?

Eddy: Oh, it’s so important that the citizens of Portland are engaged and can appreciate downtown and use it. That’s the principal importance. I mean, tourists and visitors are great and they leverage it up, but it’s a place for the citizens.

Miller: Thank you very much, Tim Eddy. I appreciate your time.

Eddy: Thank you.

Miller: Tim Eddy is founding principal architect and president of Hennebury Eddy Architects. He joined us to talk about the connections between a city’s architecture and its civic life.

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