91视频

The exterior of the 鈥�Fair-Haired Dumbbell鈥� project proposed at the Burnside Bridgehead just won’t work if it’s left a solid color, said planner Jeff Mitchem of the city of Portland Bureau of Development Services.

The artist-designed painted exterior mural of birds, flowers and butterflies proposed for the 67,500-square-foot development at 11 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. raised concerns at a Portland Design Commission meeting last month, and commissioners requested to see drawings of the building without the artwork.

That rendering was presented at an Aug. 6 second design review for the project. The general sense among the commission members, according to Mitchen, was that without the exterior pattern, the project doesn’t work.

鈥淭his project is unlike any other in the history of the city,鈥� Mitchem said. 鈥淚t touches on the boundary between art and architecture. Left blank, it will look like blank finishes, but would not be able to stand alone as a significant contribution to the architecture of the city.鈥�

Mitchem said the Design Commission has asked the Regional Arts and Culture Council to assess the artwork design that covers the building and provide feedback, Mitchem said.

鈥淚t will be very interesting as to what extent RACC is willing and able to reach toward that design,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t’s unprecedented.鈥�

The Design Commission during the Aug. 6 meeting did seem satisfied with several other changes it requested at a previous hearing for the project, Mitchem said. Those changes included moving elevators to a central lobby location and addressing details on the design of public spaces.

Overall, he said, the commission seemed satisfied with the design, but were concerned about the application process and durability of the exterior art, which latest plans have extending onto the roof as well.

The two-building project is proposed for a rounded lot bounded by Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and East Burnside and Northeast Couch streets. Plans call for a 2,000-square-foot central courtyard with a sculptural stormwater planter between the structures, ground-floor retail space. Suspended pedestrian bridges will connect floors of the buildings.

Troy Ainsworth, principal at FFA Architecture and Interiors Inc., the project architect for the Dumbbell, said the project has undergone significant revisions since the concept was initially created last year by Kevin Cavenaugh of Guerrilla Development.