Bill Fritts has the right kind of mind for pushing the boundaries of sustainable furniture building.

Start with his background: He began as a sculptor, then swapped art studio for architecture studio as an undergraduate and graduate student, and then architecture studio for an architectural firm and Herman Miller. As he worked, he earned a master’s degree in business administration through the Oregon Executive MBA program, which is targeted at full-time professionals.  

“I thought, ‘Hey, there’s an opportunity here to present excellent design to the high level of corporations and corporate projects,” Fritts says.

He started Intelligent Design, which he calls a “furniture dealership with deep design roots,” right after the Sept. 11 attacks. It was worst possible time to start a business, people told him, because everything had changed. But for Fritts, that was the point. “The world’s not going to be the same; I need to take this opportunity,” he told himself. 

Add in his connections: Intelligent Design outfitted the Seattle Public Library, the Disney retail headquarters in Pasadena, and the Wieden + Kennedy building – all spaces with cool, functional, cubicle-transcending stuff.

 “It’s not your average conservative interior,” he says. “These are all organizations looking for inspiring interiors, collaborative interiors.”

Then apply his style: Much of Intelligent Design’s work was custom furniture. And, Fritts said, as he looked, he realized it was all solid wood, solid metal, all the way through. A basic kit of parts – a sustainable solution. 

And out of a beginning like that, Solidcore, Fritts’ latest line of office furnishings, was born.

SIMPLE BY DESIGN

Principles for a different way of making furniture: Simple designs with a small number of parts. Materials that are re-growable, or post-consumer products being reused. Natural finishes. Designs that can be built with electric power only, and with 100 percent green power only.  Zero waste manufacturing. Shipping with blankets and cardboard, rather than Styrofoam and plastic, protecting the product. Transportation fueled by electricity and biodiesel, and offset with carbon credits. Giving 5 percent of profits to environmental organizations. A 100 – yes, 100 – year warranty.

A LEAP OF FAITH

Big ideas. And ones that have had a big business impact in the year since their inception by no other effort than word-of-mouth. Nike and Disney are clients. Solidcore benches and furniture will populate Jacks Point, a 5,000-unit resort village in New Zealand. And Fritts has just started consulting on an eco-resort project outside of Sapporo, Japan. 

“All it tells me is not only do we have a good business model, but now is the time that people are responsive to this,” he says.

He’s planning to go even bigger, with a huge presence at the NeoCon interior design trade fair in Chicago in June and a high-impact Web site rollout.

 “It’s really taking off,” he says, “and I don’t get a lot of sleep.”

Potential lies in Portland, too. In annex space at Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects, beneath the pencils and plans of day-to-day architecture, are 16 Solidcore work stations. Their presence is an audition, as the future ZGF tower rises at Southwest 12th Avenue and Washington Street. 

“We’re intentionally competing for the entire new building,” Fritts says.

What works in Portland also works around the world. But making furniture in Portland and shipping it to Boston or New Zealand or Tokyo slaps the principles aside. The solution, and the principle with the most potential, is working with local mill shops and materials to bring Solidcore designs to life locally. 

“Rather than shipping product, we’re shipping intelligence,” Fritts says. “We don’t own the fabrication, we own the intelligence and put this all together. It’s almost like a consulting gig.” 

For decentralized manufacturing to work, everything – designs included – has to be simple. So simple, Fritts says, that the people who will decide whether or not to open their pockets and invest in the sustainable future of company furnishings worry about knock-offs.

But Bill Fritts doesn’t. 

“If we get copied, that’s great,” he says. “It means other people are responding to eco-green, sustainable principles in product design. As long as we keep moving forward as the leader, and the go-to for information.”

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City Council on Wednesday upheld the Portland Design Commission’s approval of a 33-story tower at Southwest Morrison Street and Park Avenue, saying the well-designed building was okayed in a legal, public process.

Neighbor George Trinkaus’ appeal questioned the approval of Park Avenue West, a mixed-use retail, office and condominium tower planned by developer Tom Moyer. Among his chief concerns, according to appeal documents, were a “bogus” transfer of floor-area-ratio from the adjacent Park Block 5, lack of public process, insufficient investigation of traffic impacts and destruction of the view corridor.

The design team, TVA Architects principal Robert Thompson said on Thursday, had multiple meetings with the design commission and neighborhood association.

“Our process, from day one, has been completely transparent,” he said.

The project and its mix of uses, supporters said during Wednesday’s hearing, will create a vibrant downtown area day and night.

“This building has it all,” downtown activist Lili Mandel said. “Jane Jacobs must be cheering for this building for having so many eyes on the street at all times.”

Applauding a 24-hour city, Trinkaus said, assumes that citizens want that.

“Who’s deciding this destiny for us?” he said.

City commissioners said that the approval process followed the letter of the law and city code.

And the tower, they said, will make downtown Portland a better place.

“This modern design will be a welcome addition to the city’s skyline,” Commissioner Sam Adams said.

Demolition on the block is slated to begin at the end of March, with construction beginning immediately after.

“It’s roaring ahead,” Thompson said.

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The parts showed up in heavy-duty plastic boxes in a jumble: about $10,000 worth of basic electronic and mechanical building blocks. And out of the technological flotsam and jetsam, 16 Gresham High School students built a robot.

Fueled by money from NASA, M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust and Platt Electric Supply, the Gresham team will in late February make its first appearance in the FIRST Robotics Competition, a national program that pits student-built robots against each other in a weekend-long event.   

The team formed in the fall to take on the first step: Writing grant proposals for competition funding. Participation is expensive, with entry fees alone running $6,000. Funding secured, the team met one or two times a week until December.   

They didn’t get really serious, though, until the six-week timeframe for designing and building the robot rolled around in January. 

“For about a month, we were just jotting down ideas,” freshman Rylan Reese says.

With their boxes of parts and the elements they’ve added themselves, they get down to work five times a week within the scientific chaos of advisor Steve Scannell’s physics classroom.

And their robot’s almost ready. This week, the team will pack its creation into the big wood shipping box that’s waiting outside Scannell’s classroom door. 

The team – Go4bots, as they’re officially known – will be reunited with their creation at Memorial Coliseum on Feb. 28, when the Oregon regional event kicks off. The event itself is a series of short games, with teams putting robots through their paces in ways that involve precise – and speedy – handling of a big rubber exercise ball.

“It’s kind of like learning how to swim,” says Scannell, who advises the team along with auto teacher Mike Ruff. “You can sit there in the classroom learning how to swim, but the moment you’re thrown in the water, you don’t remember anything.”

Team members say they’re ready. And they’ve all got their roles to play.

“The little computer in there? I make it do stuff,” says official team programmer James Lao, a Gresham senior who plans to study computer science when he heads to college in the fall.  

Like any game, somebody’s got to win. But the emphasis placed on “gracious professionalism” means that teams step forward to help each other out. For the first-timers from Gresham, the seasoned pros at schools like the Center for Advanced Learning, Catlin Gabel School and Westview High School offered welcome advice. 

“This is not a competition in the sense that you’re trying to beat your opponent,” Scannell says. “You’re better if your opponent is better.”

The team’s gotten help from the outside engineering world as well. Gary Smith of Autodesk stepped up to help out with initial design, and William Pentz of SMC Corp. offered knowledge of pneumatics.

The contest – a “sport of the mind,” according to official literature – is a popular one. Fifty-five teams are registered for the Feb.28-March 1 Oregon regional, including competitors from California, British Columbia, Idaho and Hawaii.

Team members are James Lao, Jarrod Foster, Nathan Johnson, Michael Pitonzo, Matt McGregor, Luke Zhou, George Palmiter, Nicole Larson, Gabriel Partridge, Rocio Zavala, Joanna Zavala, Luke Casteel, Rylan Reese, James Fredrick and Steve Page.

Check out the team’s efforts on youtube.com by searching for Go4bots.

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Tickets for the quick-to-sell-out Street of Eames modern home tour are up for grabs tomorrow at 9 a.m.

The tour, now in its third year, lets lovers of modern architecture get inside the city's finest examples. On display for the April 5 tour are homes by , i, and, among others.

The $35 tickets are only available online on the tour .

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As development surges in Old Town, city commissions are taking a look at how modern buildings fit within Portland’s only National Historic Landmark district – and whether or not taller may be better for some sites currently limited to 75 feet.

The 2006 Ankeny/Burnside Development Framework set up the work that lies ahead in the downtown district, including updating design guidelines that haven’t been reworked since 1987 and considering higher height limits on several sites. Six sites at the edges of the district were recommended for height limits between 100 feet and 130 feet. 

And that’s a change, members of the Portland Historic Landmarks Commission said Monday, that they wouldn’t support.   

“Certain sites, maybe it’s ok,” said Commissioner Brian Emerick. “For the most part, I think the scale of the district is its defining feature.”

As it stands, project consultants told commissioners, about 72 percent of buildings in the district are 75 feet or less. Two buildings – equal to 4 percent of all buildings in the district – are taller than 75 feet. Unbuilt property accounts for 24 percent of the district. 

Allowing higher buildings on certain sites, consultants said, could spark developer interest in those blank parking lots.

“The increase in height on those sites … appears to make the sites economically viable without subsidy,” project consultant Rick Michaelson said.

But, Commission Chairman Art DeMuro said, there’s already healthy development happening in the district, such as the new Mercy Corps headquarters and renovation of the White Stag Block.

“Why are we all running scared?” he said. “Oh my gosh, how are we going to get development activated?”

While several Portland commissions have a role to play in the process, they’re all charged with different tasks. The Design Commission’s role in the project is strictly advisory. The Planning Commission will helm decisions on code changes; the Historic Landmarks Commission will approve new design guidelines. All changes will ultimately go before City Council. 

The breakdown means the height recommendation falls under the umbrella of the Planning Commission, which, in the past, has voiced support for more height, planner Karl Lisle said. 

The fact that the planning commission will steer height decisions in a historic district baffles Historic Landmarks Commissioner Peter Meijer.  

“That’s like us making decisions out of the purview of the planning commission,” he said. “It’s ridiculous.”

The Portland Design Commission joined in the conversation last week, with discussion of under-development guidelines for new construction. Discussion centered on ideas of “background” and “foreground” buildings, with commissioners leaning toward encouraging “quieter” architecture. A rich range of responses, Commissioner Tim Eddy said, is possible within the background scope.   

“Those buildings can be far more interesting and intellectual than the ‘look at me’ buildings,” he said.

But the distinction between foreground and background, commissioners said, isn’t something that necessarily translates to guidelines.

“When it works well, you can’t tell which one is which,” Commissioner Gwen Millius said. “And it doesn’t matter because they’re playing off each other.”

“It should be both. It should be neither. It should be great architecture,” Eddy said.

Guidelines can, Millius said, encourage quality and permanence of new buildings. Commissioners also pushed for thoughtful, carefully built buildings that respond to the existing fabric of the neighborhood. 

Height’s a part of that picture, too. The cap in the district may be 75 feet, but there’s a gap between what the limits are and what gets approval to build, commissioners said.

“Right now, I think you’d be hard-pressed to put a 75-foot building up in that district,” Commissioner Jeff Stuhr said.

And that, Commissioner Andrew Jansky said, may blur the vision of high-quality construction.

“When was the last time we saw a really short building that had really high-quality materials?” he said.

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In-the-works zoning changes could bulk up building along the North Interstate Avenue light rail corridor. The shifts could mean bigger projects, more people – and different design responses for the largely single-family area. 

The Interstate Avenue project is taking a look at changing zoning as a way to encourage development that fits with ideas of transit-oriented, higher density projects. Changes are expected to be before City Council by early summer.  

The Portland Design Commission last week saw early designs for one of the first efforts at upping density. The site, a six-parcel plot on North Montana Avenue, is proposed as the home of three buildings and 153 residential units. Building height steps up along the site, with a four-story building planned at the south end of the property, a five-story building at the midpoint and eight stories at the north end. 

“The idea is to give as much respect as you can to the existing infrastructure and housing,” said Myhre Group Architects’ Joshua Stein.

Adding density in neighborhoods other than the Pearl and South Waterfront Districts, commissioners said, is important. With the changes ahead for North Interstate, they said, designers may consider reacting to what’s coming rather than what’s there.

“I wouldn’t let those two little houses drive this whole block,” Commissioner Jeff Stuhr said in asking the design team to consider going tall with all three of the buildings. 

The design, the Myhre Group project team said, relies on distinctions like different rooflines and massing to avoid creation of three identical buildings.

“We battled a lot trying to make this feel like it wasn’t all built at once, but still had some cohesive hold,” Myhre Group’s Brian Laramee said.

The commission had previously approved a five-story building on part of the site, during a hearing spurred by the neighborhood association’s appeal of staff approval for the project.

The neighborhood, the design team said, is on board with the current three-building proposal.
Expansion of the proposal to three buildings on six parcels, commissioners said, is a boon.

“We all knew something better could happen,” Commissioner Andrew Jansky said. “And it looks like it will.”

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Holah Design + Architecture is renovating an existing one-story vacant building on Northeast Dekum Street into a two-story commercial space that will house a coffee shop, bike shop and Pilates studio.

The project, at 728 N.E. Dekum St. in the Triangle District of the Woodlawn neighborhood, will create three new commercial spaces on the ground floor. The second floor will be home to Believe Movement Studio, a Pilates studio operated by building owner Laura Demeri. The building was designed according to the guidelines of the neighborhood, an historic area that is currently undergoing revitalization.

Green features include a future eco-roof and an onsite bioswale. A neighborhood kiosk, meant to encourage community awareness and involvement, has been designed for installation in front of the building.

The project is scheduled to finish in June 2008.  The project engineer is United Engineering, Inc.

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Congressman Earl Blumenauer has been named an honorary member of the American Institute of Architects.

From the :

He is committed to promoting livable communities at the federal, state, and local levels and has proven himself a champion for many of the values that the AIA espouses, including protection of the natural environment. Since he served as a state representative and Portland’s commissioner of public works, he has demonstrated this commitment: He has been a tireless defender of his state’s natural treasures, including Mount Hood.

Blumenauer also got a nod from the local architecture community last year as he was named the Architecture Foundation of Oregon's .

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Since 1973, Oregon’s special assessment program has enticed historic property owners with a pretty simple trade-off: An owner invests in rehabilitation of a property and opens its doors to the public once a year. In return the state freezes the assessed value of the property for 15 years.

“The intent,” said Roger Roper of the State Historic Preservation Office, “is to provide an incentive to do better with the preservation than you otherwise might.”

But intent hasn’t always translated to reality, as wealthy homeowners have tapped the program as a way to slim their taxes.  

With the Oregon Task Force on Historic Property, which is set to meet for the first time next week, the state is starting a look at how the special assessment program does – and doesn’t – work. Before the program sunsets in 2010, state legislators have a big decision to make:

Should they rework the program to make it better or let it end?

The task force was created as part of Senate Bill 416, which caps property participation at 15 years with the possibility of one additional 15-year period. The bill also lets local governments exclude certain districts from the program based on property values.

The task force – which includes representatives from groups like the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Oregon Historic Property Owners Association, the Oregon Department of Revenue as well as state Sen.Vicki Walker (D-Eugene) and state Rep. Brian Clem (D-Salem) – has a lengthy list to tackle. Its review, required to be completed by October, will take a comprehensive look at all elements of the existing program, from costs to administrative rules to how it works with other preservation programs and its economic impact on local communities.

The passing of time itself has created issues with the program. One downside is that when properties in areas where home values have increased dramatically – like Hood River – end their participation, owners are hit with much higher tax bills than they would have been if they’d never entered the program. 

“They are penalized financially for that,” Roper said.

Changes in how historic buildings are used create other questions. Condominium reuse, for example, raises questions about how multiple owners can enter the program.

The task force will look at what other states have done as well. The main tactic being used outside Oregon, Roper said, is a tax credit tied to the amount property owners actually invest in preserving their properties.

“It gets past that problem of getting the benefit without doing anything,” he said.

The group’s first meeting is next Wednesday from 1 to 3 p.m. at the State Library, 250 Winter St. N.E., in Salem.

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Trucks and people. North Portland’s St. Johns neighborhood is busy with both, and an underway transportation improvement project is designed to make city streets a place where the two can coexist safely. 

The current effort plays off a couple of already adopted plans: The 2001 St. Johns Truck Strategy, which aimed to reduce affects of freight on neighborhood livability, and the 2004 St. Johns/Lombard Plan, which includes pedestrian safety recommendations.

Now, with $2.2 million from the Metropolitan Transportation Improvement Program, the City of Portland and a citizens advisory committee are focused on two big goals.  

“The whole concept of this project is trying to deal with pedestrian safety and freight movement,” Gary Boehm, president of the St. Johns Boosters and advisory committee member, said.

The truck-vs-people issue has been at play in the neighborhood, which sees heavy truck traffic as the Highway 30 oversize route, since the 1960s.

“It’s somewhat inevitable,” said Brenda Hanke, an advisory committee member and St. Johns Neighborhood Association representative. “It’s just a function of where we live.”

Tuesday night, people streamed into the St. Johns Community Center to see what the advisory committee came up with. The open house – attended by truck drivers and neighbors alike – was the public’s first glimpse of what the group’s been working on since summer 2007.
On the pedestrian side, efforts centered on recommendations for where new crossings should go and what kind of improvements – like curb extensions and stormwater management strategies – would make the them work best.

“We just want to give them something that makes them happy and comfortable,” PDOT’s Kathy Mulder said.

The biggest buzz, though, came from the planned installation of a signal at the tricky North Ivanhoe and Richmond streets intersection. Hard to cross and heavily trafficked, the spot – which sees Highway 30 bypass traffic – been plaguing pedestrians for years. 

“Once that fell in line,” State Rep. Tina Kotek (D-Portland) said, “it diffused a lot of tension with the rest of the plan.”

On the freight side, recommendations include streamlining a series of traffic lights through the neighborhood’s town center, which will make more continuous truck movement possible, as well as increasing the truck turn radii at key intersections. That also includes a recommendation for a “dual corner” radii, which sends car traffic around a tighter turn, but delineates a raised area that trucks can mount if they need to. 

And the dual corner, neighborhood resident Tom Guinan said, is something he wants to make sure is safe for pedestrians before he supports.

“I have to err on the side of caution and say,’No way in hell,’” he said.

The process will continue with refinement design concept, and move into design engineering in mid-2008. Construction is slated for 2009.

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