May 12, 2005
(Updated) Towards A New Fire Station 1
Public Presentations This Evening
Note: This post has been updated. Any and all updates appear at the end of the original post.
This evening at City Hall, the three teams vying for Portland Fire & Rescue's Station 1 & Administration Building Project will present their proposals to the public.
We didn't manage to track down a hard copy of the proposals yesterday while we were downtown, so all we have to go by until this evening are the displays of each proposal set up in one of the City Hall atria, and a small set of media reports on the designs.
- Fire Station One: In Good Hands (Portland Architecture)
- The New Fire Station 1, With A Museum And Learning Center, Could Be One Of Downtown's Most Exciting Buildings -- And The Public Gets To Help Choose (The Oregonian)
- Fire Station Design Competition Heats Up, As Do Emotions (Daily Journal of Commerce)
For those with copies of The Oregonian around, there are pictures of the design proposals on the front page of the Living section, which (as near as we can tell) is the most you're going to get unless you go to tonight's presentations. You'll notice that the Portland Fire & Rescue link with which we opened this post doesn't actually contain any content.
Preliminarily, we're heading into tonight presentations ranking the designs in this order: Thomas Hacker Architects, Allied Works, Hennebery Eddy Emmons -- with Hacker and Allied pretty close to tied.
Our early impressions are based on just a few things so far. Of all the designs, we find the upper floors of the Hennebery Eddy Emmons design to be a little monolthic and blocky. We have mixed feelings about the quarter-block residential tower in the Allied Works design, but are attracted to the expansive windows which open up onto Naito Parkway and Waterfront Park. As for Hacker, we're drawn to the intentional connections to the Japanese-American Historical Plaza across Naito, and to the fact that Hacker's firm did the Urban Center at PSU (which we positively adore).
Meanwhile, with things on track for the new Station 1, as far as we know the frontrunning proposal for the area around Ankeny Plaza (next to which is the current Station 1) continues to be the Portland Public Market.
Tonight's public presentations of all three designs will begin at 6:30 PM at Council Chambers at City Hall, located at 1221 SW 4th Avenue in downtown Portland.
May 12th, 2005 Update
They've now begun (slowly) populating that Portland Fire & Rescue page with information about the Station 1 project, but no sign yet of the three design proposals.
Comments (4)
Amanda on 12 May 2005
It's more than a little irritating to see the urgent focus on relocating the fire station downtown from one block to a nearby one, when residential neighborhoods further out are being told there's no money for relocations. Station construction needed to prevent people from burning to a crisp, with the current response time inadequate, are put on hold in the Mayor's proposal due to "budget constraints".
It's especially concerning when delay in providing neighborhood coverage includes not building new fire stations specifically paid for in voter-approved bond measures. Promises for bond measure money should be prioritized as highly as promises for urban renewal money.
torridjoe on 12 May 2005
Amanda, the relocation has been in the works for some time, and a hefty chunch of the money for relocation COMES from the GO bonds. It was lengthily delayed by a dispute between the Naito brothers over the preferred property.
As you note, however, part of the money is for urban renewal, which is a different pot. It's no secret that PDC, Council and Old Town businesses want to see the area renovated, and the key part of the job is getting the current station out of the prime frontage space, so that a permanent market space can be built.
Believe me, I share your frustration about budget crunches and the impact it has on the ability to provide optimal resources to the city. But I don't see the relocation as all that relevant. If anything, the Bureau has fought to keep public service squarely in mind during the process; multiple sites were abanonded because of the unsuitability with respect to response coverage.
Amanda on 12 May 2005
Thanks, Torridjoe, I agree with your post. I'm not suggesting "don't do the Station 1 relocation", I'm saying promises to one set of neighbors should be kept just as carefully as promises to another group. Especially when there's a designated pot of money, specifically approved for the purpose.
It's the same principle as closing Buckman Pool. The city shouldn't promise to do something, extract extra property taxes from voters with that promise, and then not do it. Delaying relocation of neighborhood fire stations is a very poor choice. Closing Buckman, especially before the Washington High pool is built, is another. Although what happens downtown doesn't necessarily take time, money, and energy away from making sure neighborhoods are provided what was promised, it's time for some attention to neighborhoods as well as downtown.
Doug on 12 May 2005
Amanda has a good point.
The designs, though, are worse than I thought they'd be.
Only Hacker's has even a hint of consideration of the neighborhood, and that's just materials.
Alllied Works' thin-edged boxes may make for exciting drawings, but the scale and the articulation are insulting to the neighborhood buildings. Even the parking garage next door is more sympathetically designed.
Hennebery Eddy Emmons' design looks like a 60's design for Brazilia, or perhaps the House of Tomorrow at Disneyland. Boring on Front Ave, with a wierd, threatening floating box on Davis St.
Hacker's design at least has a massing that relates to surrounding buildings, but then it breaks down toward the top and sort of dissolves into the sky. I don't think of that as a good thing, although I'm sure Hacker does.
What's wrong with buildings looking solid and forthright, and having reasonably spaced windows, instead of trying to be abstract sculpture?