this morning that the Columbia River Crossing project includes plans for three park-and-ride garages, costing up to $178 million (plus the cost of property acquisition) and holding 2,890 cars.

Concerns have been raised about the cost and aesthetics of the garages, and downtown Vancouver, Wash., seems to hope that they might include some other features to spur redevelopment, such as housing or office space.

So the garages are a big cost – but I don’t think they can be cut out. The argument, which is what the CRC group is making as well, is that without these garages, the light rail planned across the bridge really won’t make much sense.

As a CRC spokeswoman Katy Belokonny said: “For that line to be really utilized, there have to be places that are built to give people … a place to park. Otherwise, it would only be effective for those who are within walking distance, and there aren’t that many people.”

What do you think? According to our recent online poll, 91ĘÓƵ readers support the building of the CRC. Do you support these garages as well?

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I recently took a tour of Bud Clark Commons – a center for the homeless – with a group of architects and contractors through American Institute of Architects Portland. Our guide was project manager Dave Otte with Holst Architecture.

The questions that came up over and over from Otte’s peers were about the materials. “Why do you have a flat wall here, where someone could draw on it?” “Why did you line the halls with Douglas fir?”

One attendee told me that he wished he had “such faith in human nature.”

I caught up with Otte a few days later to see if these were reactions he had expected. They were.

“Many people in the general public will have a guttural reaction to giving needy people beautiful things,” Otte said.

The Bud Clark Commons is a three-part building: there is an open-to-the public day resource center on the first two floors, a 90-bed men’s shelter on the next floor and 130 apartments for the most medically vulnerable homeless population of Portland on the upper floors.

Otte and his team consciously selected “beautiful” materials instead of lowest-common-denominator durable ones, he said.

“We were charged with providing a beautiful building and a dignified space,” he said.

In the public resource center, the Holst team used design and materials to address concerns about sight lines for safety and to prevent drug dealing. But on the floors where people would live and occupants would be a “known quantity,” Otte said the team looked more for beauty and dignity in materials.

He told the AIA tour group that, in its research, the project design team found that people in shelters tended to respect and take care of their own spaces. They took that idea one step further.

“People don’t want to damage something that’s beautiful,” he said. “It’s part of the collective consciousness.”

“Of course there will always be instances (of graffiti or vandalism). But if we always design to the lowest common denominator, we’ll end up with concrete bunkers and no beauty,” he said.

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Small businesses looking to pick up more work through the Oregon Department of Transportation may find some tips at an upcoming free workshop being offered from 9 a.m. to noon on Friday.

John Downing, ODOT‘s small business program manager, will lead a session on potential work available for small firms across the state, while procurement staff from the agency will discuss the details of specific contracting programs for small businesses in Oregon.

An update on a disparity study the transportation department conducted also is scheduled.

The workshop will take place at ODOT’s office at 123 N.W. Flanders St. in Portland. There is no cost to attend, but reservations are requested. Send an email to michelle.vanschaick@odot.state.or.us to reserve a seat. For more information about the planned program, call 503-986-4355 or got to .

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Maybe you don’t want to spend your Friday night networking, but in this case you might want to make an exception.

The Coalition for a Livable Future is holding its fifth annual “Laugh for Livability” event Friday night at the Melody Ballroom in Southeast Portland. Organizers describe the event as “Prairie Home Companion meets the Daily Show with Jon Stewart.” It will feature comedy, music and a whole lot of schmoozing. And a little boozing.

The CLF brings people and organizations together to promote healthy and sustainable communities. It aims to shape the big decisions affecting Portland’s future. The event is the CLF’s signature fundraiser. Admission is $75.

Among those performing will be Live Wire! Radio’s Courtenay Hameister, Portland Music Awards winner Keegan Smith, Mayor Sam Adams and Beam Development founder Brad Malsin. The Adams and Malsin are returning for another “session.”

So get in your networking and your two-drink minimum (probably), and laugh it up for a good cause.

Laugh for Livability is Friday, June 10 at 6 p.m., Melody Ballroom, 615 S.E. Alder St., Portland. Tickets are $75. For more info and to buy tickets, visit .

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I had some fun recently with the revelation that .

When I called around to ask some local architects what they thought about the Portland Public Service Building (its official name), every conversation began with a laugh, a sigh, and a pause – it’s a distinctive building, and those tend to be the “love-it-or-hate-it” kind.

Historians and architects agree that the building has significance as an early, prime example of postmodern architecture. And though, as Jeff Myhre of Myhre Group told me, “many people don’t like postmodern architecture,” its distinctive place in the history of the form makes it notable.

The Portland building was completed in 1982. Its design, by Michael Graves, won a contest.

Nowadays, Graves has offices in New York and New Jersey for architecture, interior design, planning, graphic design, branding and product design. Since he designed the Portland Building, Grave’s name has been on the designs for hotels, embassies and .

I asked Graves how he felt about the nomination and got a response from his office via e-mail.

“It’s a great honor to be nominated,” he said. “I think that The Portland Building is important not only to the city but also to architecture in general given it was the first built example of a building that tried to break loose from the strictures of commercial modernism.”

And how does Graves feel about the design 30 years later?

“The building has been able to hold its own quite wonderfully.  I think this is due to the fact that we mostly used materials that weather quite well in time and are suitable to the Portland climate.  I think the building actually looks better as it grows older,” he said.

For users of the building, the historic and design value is a little lost.

“It’s a terrible building from a user’s point of view,” said Clive Knights, head of the department of architecture at Portland State University. “It represents a significant era and change of thinking (in architecture), but whether that means it should be saved and preserved or looked after – I don’t know. I’m on the fence.”

It’s a young building for the National Register – usually buildings have to hit 50 before they are considered “historic.” Kristen Minor, Preservation Planner with Peter Meijer Architects, compiled the register nomination. She said that she and Meijer aren’t concerned so much that the building might be torn down or destroyed if it wasn’t historically recognized – they just wanted it to get some credit.

“It gets a lot of negative press,” Minor said. “One way to turn that around is to look at it in a way that acknowledges its importance.”

The Oregon State Advisory Committee on Historic Preservation will hear the nomination and review public testimony . Because the building is younger than 50 years old, the committee will have to determine whether it has “exceptional significance,” said Ian Johnson, a historian at the state historic preservation office. This will involve examining the building’s historic position as well as the significance of Graves as an architect, an interesting proposition especially since he is still alive and practicing.

The advisory committee’s recommendation will be passed on to the national register “keeper” at the National Parks Service who makes the final call. If the building gets on the register, Minor hopes that knowing the building is nationally recognized might make people more likely to respect the distinctive building.

“Whether or not they like it, they might appreciate it more,” Minor said.

Photo by via Flickr

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I had some fun recently with the revelation that .

When I called around to ask some local architects what they thought about the Portland Public Service Building (its official name), every conversation began with a laugh, a sigh, and a pause – it’s a distinctive building, and those tend to be the “love-it-or-hate-it” kind.

Historians and architects agree that the building has significance as an early, prime example of postmodern architecture. And though, as Jeff Myhre of Myhre Group told me, “many people don’t like postmodern architecture,” its distinctive place in the history of the form makes it notable.

The Portland building was completed in 1982. Its design, by Michael Graves, won a contest.

Nowadays, Graves has offices in New York and New Jersey for architecture, interior design, planning, graphic design, branding and product design. Since he designed the Portland Building, Grave’s name has been on the designs for hotels, embassies and .

I asked Graves how he felt about the nomination and got a response from his office via e-mail.

“It’s a great honor to be nominated,” he said. “I think that The Portland Building is important not only to the city but also to architecture in general given it was the first built example of a building that tried to break loose from the strictures of commercial modernism.”

And how does Graves feel about the design 30 years later?

“The building has been able to hold its own quite wonderfully.  I think this is due to the fact that we mostly used materials that weather quite well in time and are suitable to the Portland climate.  I think the building actually looks better as it grows older,” he said.

For users of the building, the historic and design value is a little lost.

“It’s a terrible building from a user’s point of view,” said Clive Knights, head of the department of architecture at Portland State University. “It represents a significant era and change of thinking (in architecture), but whether that means it should be saved and preserved or looked after – I don’t know. I’m on the fence.”

It’s a young building for the National Register – usually buildings have to hit 50 before they are considered “historic.” Kristen Minor, Preservation Planner with Peter Meijer Architects, compiled the register nomination. She said that she and Meijer aren’t concerned so much that the building might be torn down or destroyed if it wasn’t historically recognized – they just wanted it to get some credit.

“It gets a lot of negative press,” Minor said. “One way to turn that around is to look at it in a way that acknowledges its importance.”

The Oregon State Advisory Committee on Historic Preservation will hear the nomination and review public testimony . Because the building is younger than 50 years old, the committee will have to determine whether it has “exceptional significance,” said Ian Johnson, a historian at the state historic preservation office. This will involve examining the building’s historic position as well as the significance of Graves as an architect, an interesting proposition especially since he is still alive and practicing.

The advisory committee’s recommendation will be passed on to the national register “keeper” at the National Parks Service who makes the final call. If the building gets on the register, Minor hopes that knowing the building is nationally recognized might make people more likely to respect the distinctive building.

“Whether or not they like it, they might appreciate it more,” Minor said.

Photo by via Flickr

The post The Portland Building, not old or loved, could soon be historic appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Linking a tenant to a space is sure to get a commercial broker a commission, but in the case of Cliff Finnell, a broker with the Portland offices of Kidder Mathews, it also netted him a classic car.

With seven of 19 spaces vacant at the Tanasbourne Business Park, and leasing activity moving at a snail’s pace late last summer, owner John Rees decided to get creative with leasing his spaces. He put up his red 1966 Mustang Convertible as a potential prize for brokers who leased out his spaces.

Rees gave a raffle ticket to every broker who completed a lease at the business park with the ultimate prize being the Mustang. Over the eight months since making the announcement, the building netted four new leases and Finnell was selected in the drawing.

“Given the current leasing market, you have to do something to get the broker’s attention, to stand out,” Rees said. “Brokers tend to go where something is happening and this proved to be a creative way to give the property some attention.”

Mike Thomas, senior vice president with the Portland offices of Colliers International, and Howard Larson, a broker with Colliers, both helped get the word out about the event by holding a broker open house, as well as sending select brokers miniature models of the ’66 convertible Mustang.

“From time to time you’ll see these sorts of out-of-the-box promotions, but they don’t always work as well as this one did,” Thomas said.

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“Rather than being an environmental issue, the policy is a classic case of anti-competitive and discriminatory behavior by a utility with a conflict of interest,” said Rob Gramlich, senior vice president of public policy at the American Wind Energy Association.

Ouch.

Wind energy industry folks have been sniping at the Bonneville Power Administration for weeks over the BPA’s creation, and practice of a policy to shut down wind farms because of an “oversupply” of energy.

Because there’s so much rain and water melting off of snow pack, or the official term “unusually high seasonal river flows,” BPA’s dams are producing too much power for the grid to handle–unless it asks wind producers to shut off their turbines and let the water do all the producing, BPA says.

In “good water years” in the past, prolific hydroelectric production has meant shutting down other sources of energy–nuclear plants and so on—but it hasn’t been a big problem because those energy sources can shut down their apparatus without losing money. The problem with doing this to wind producers is that those plants make money from production tax credits—which they only get when the turbines are running. AWEA says the policy could cost wind producers tens of millions of dollars.

So the wind industry is not happy with BPA—probably the understatement of the year. Here’s another choice quote in response to BPA’s policy, which was released in a document called an “Environmental Redispatch.”

“BPA really ought to call this the ‘Anti-Environmental Redispatch,’ since it makes no sense environmentally and flies in the face of the agency’s obligation under the Northwest Power Act to promote renewable electricity in the region,” commented AWEA CEO Denise Bode in a statement last week. “Yet the agency chose to ignore its statutory duties and Obama administration policies, and instead to illegally promote its own narrow economic interest over meeting its contractual obligations with private renewable energy companies.”

BPA has asked wind producers to stop producing for a period every day since May 19, sometimes multiple times a day (you can see BPA’s updates ). BPA says there’s no other option; they say pouring water over dams instead of sending it through turbines would harm salmon. The wind industry wants BPA to find another solution and is prolifically quoting a salmon protection organization that says BPA’s concern about danger to salmon is misplaced.

There’s no real resolution in sight for this conflict: both sides claim to have the greener answer, and while wind has recruited some big names like and Sen. Jeff Merkley to its side, BPA ultimately holds the switch.

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Not only does the Portland Development Commission want to give the building community development resources and building incentives, but the organization also wants to give its former employees to the community.

PDC Executive Director Patrick Quinton today sent out an email to business leaders with the relevant experience and contact information of 17 employees that the PDC laid off on May 16. The document was also accompanied by a heartfelt note asking those reading to help these individuals find a job.

Here is an excerpt from the letter:

Like the many organizations which have been forced by the recession to make difficult decisions to reduce their workforce, we took this step with sadness because PDC lost many talented individuals and the human consequences of such actions are always painful.   All of these individuals contributed significantly to PDC’s mission during their time here and each of them comes highly recommended.

I am appealing to you, as someone with relationships in the community, for any assistance you may be able to provide to these individuals.  Being familiar with PDC and its work, you are familiar with the level of talent in this organization.  If you or individuals within your organization have the opportunity to help these employees gain introductions within your own or some other organization with which you have an established relationship, I would be most grateful.  PDC wants to do as much as possible to make their career transitions smooth and productive.

It caught me off guard when I first received the email, but I must admit, it’s a pretty unique move by Quinton, especially considering the job creation and economic development image the PDC is pushing. I just wonder if it’s going to lead to any jobs.

Read the whole letter here (PDF).

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I don’t know if it’s the nice weather or longer days, but construction firms and organizations have been in the spirit of giving over the last few weeks.

It started with the , the charitable wing of the Vancouver-based , which raised more than $100,000 last weekend as part on its annual Dozer Day event. In addition to teaching the nearly 25,000 people in attendance about heavy machinery, all the money will go toward local charities supporting causes centered on children.

And now the global construction firm is matching dollar-for-dollar donations through Groupon that will go toward , an organization dedicated to providing long-term support to low-income youth.

Skanska will , up to $3,000, over the next two days. The funds will help buy tools and safety equipment for kids involved in YouthBuilders’ green residential construction program, which teaches young adults between the ages of 17 and 24 about green building techniques. Through the program, participants build up to four affordable, energy-efficient homes a year that are then sold to low-income families.

The organization is great, and donating during these next few days will give you more bang for your buck with the donation match from Skanska. So go learn about the program and about Skanska, and if you’re compelled to do so, make a donation.

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