Like Brian over at Portland Architecture, I attended the 40th anniversary Blazers preseason game at Memorial Coliseum a few nights ago as much to appreciate the building as to root for my team. As the sky darkened before the start of the game, what really struck me was how elegant the building looked with the lights on and the curtains up. It is a classic minimalist piece of architecture that inspires reflection and invites milling around. How many times have you wanted to wander all around the Rose Garden arena and its environs to check out the different angles, perspectives, and vantage points? Never? I didn't think so. With the corporate-feeling Rose Garden, the emphasis is on getting in and getting out. With the MC, there's a whole lot of glass between in and out, and when you're inside the arena you can't help but appreciate the translucence of the curtain wall that rises above the seats on all sides. It feels like a true civic space.





Watching the game, I felt torn about how much the Coliseum should be altered during any future renovation. Now that it has historic landmark status, the bar has been raised in terms of the need for thoughtful approaches to any major changes. It is without a doubt the coolest sports arena I have ever been inside, and for that reason I hesitate advocating for the removal of the arena bowl. At the same time, I also found myself thinking about something Brad Cloepfil said once about how he felt that Portland needed more parks with less programming, the kind of places that invite civic imagination and activities not pre-sanctioned by design. It would be interesting to see how MC could be de-programmed, in a sense, or at least turned into more of a multi-programmed facility. Perhaps some combination of indoor square (Pioneer Square's rain-free sibling), public market, contemporary arts space, or the like -- a place of connections that celebrates our civic commons. Emphasize the views of downtown. Connect the west side of the building to the river with a vast plaza over Interstate Avenue that stair-steps down to the river and connects to the MAX station. Throw in some housing. Art studios a la the Torpedo Art Factory in Virginia. A sculpture garden. A ferry terminal.





If the city really is going to run with a "Jumptown" theme for a re-imagined Rose Quarter (recognizing that the Rose Quarter itself represents the wholesale gutting in the last century of one of Portland's oldest and coolest neighborhoods), then the re-imagined Memorial Coliseum should be the centerpiece, a sort of town square for a new neighborhood that incorporates plenty of housing and retail along Broadway (a clear nod to that demolished richer past), and also emphasizes underground parking as much as possible. There is simply no way to restore a sense of neighborhood integrity and urban fabric with the amount of above-ground parking that currently exists there. It's time to pony up some serious money, Portland.



In closing, I still feel taken aback by Mayor Adams' failed push for a hasty demolition of MC beginning this January. While the rabid support shown for that foolish idea by the increasingly irrelevant Oregonian editorial board didn't surprise me (after all, they've also been hollering in vain for the biggest, most-mega CRC possible) it was kind of an inexplicable move for a guy who has billed himself as a design-conscious politician. One that I am still struggling to understand.

This oddly compelling work of art is mounted high up on a telephone pole in southeast. Exactly the type of thing that makes the average day much more enjoyable for me. I'm not sure what "quadrant" is a reference to, other than the five (yes, five) sections of the city that we refer to as "quadrants". And it's not particularly accomplished or anything as a painting. But it made me stop and spend a few engaged minutes looking up at an otherwise nondescript pole.



Remember last winter when someone was posting those cryptic paintings on telephone poles downtown? (I posted a picture of one of them here weeks before a photo popped up in the In Portland section of the O.) And some city government knuckle-dragger actually managed to track the artist -er, criminal- down and charge them? *update: found the story*

Funny how one arm of the city is gushing over Richard Florida and his "creative class" pop sociology, while the other arm is crushing one person's attempt to add some whimsy and out-of-the-box dialogue to the urban environment. Actually, not funny.