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I have a book "Portland a Pictorial History" (Donning, 1980) that shows the Civic before the renovation in 1968. The pre-renovated Civic makes the Schnitzer look modern. |
From Portland Spaces Burnside Blog:
http://www.portlandspaces.net/blog/t...m-be-destroyed Should Memorial Coliseum Be Destroyed? By Mike Thelin Fans called it the Glass Palace, and for a short time in the mid-1990s, it was the smallest arena in the NBA. For locals, it was a venue for which it was nearly impossible to obtain tickets to Trailblazer games. For visiting players in basketball’s most recent golden age, guys named Larry Bird, Julius Irving, Magic Johnson and Moses Malone found an unfriendly environment among 12,888 of the loudest, fiercest fans in professional sports. It was the victory site of Portland’s first and only NBA championship in 1977, and it was the first place I and thousands of native Oregon kids attended a big league sporting event. Since the more spacious Rose Garden Arena was completed and became home to the Blazers in 1995, the Memorial Coliseum hasn’t lived up to its potential. City bureaus have proposed a variety of redevelopment schemes, most notably a clumsy and ill-fated solution called the Memorial Athletic and Recreation Complex. So far, nothing has gelled. Now, the Memorial Coliseum hosts events like political rallies, concerts and a few home games of Portland’s junior-league hockey team, the Portland Winterhawks. Meantime, Portland the city has gone about reinvesting in its urban neighborhoods. As the creeping northward expansion of the Pearl District has surpassed Lovejoy Street on the Willamette’s western shore, developers and a few city leaders are quietly casting a keen eye on the Eastside landing of the Broadway Bridge, the area surrounding Memorial Coliseum. If Portland’s less successful attempts in urban redevelopment will guide the city’s future progress, one important detail holds true: you need to build a community before you build amenities. This begs the question: Should the Glass Palace be saved, or razed for the sake of neighborhood building? Having two arenas that collectively choke nearly 10 solid acres of prime waterfront land is detrimental to the larger livability of Portland. With the Glass Palace itself occupying what could be five gridded city blocks, there’s no room to build a neighborhood. And as long as no one lives in Rose Quarter, the area will be absent of the restaurants, cafes, retail and street energy that collectively create livable neighborhoods. On the upside, the building itself is one of the finest examples of minimalist modern architecture in the city. Designed by the same firm (That’d be Skidmore, Owings & Merrill) responsible for the Sears Tower, Burj Dubai, and New York’s Freedom Tower, the Memorial Coliseum is worth saving. At the same time, the Arena chokes pedestrian traffic, occupying a huge section of land that comprises Portland’s largest urban dead zone. If it’s not game night, the Rose Quarter is about as happening as Downtown Deluth on a Tuesday. Last week, the Trailblazer management announced it had chosen AEG Facilities to manage the Rose Quarter. As reported by the Oregonian’s Brent Hunsberger, the choice likely signals a push to sell naming rights to the Rose Quarter and spur development in the district. If AEG’s retail theme park LA Live is going to be used as inspiration, as has been suggestion, Portland be scared. Still, the city, which owns the coliseum, should at least consider razing it in favor a mixed-use neighborhood that would enliven the Rose Quarter and better link close-in Northeast Portland to the Pearl District and Old Town, both five minute walks across the Steel and Broadway bridges, respectively. The economic life of sports facilities is measured in years whereas well-planned neighborhoods endure centuries. If the Memorial Coliseum is going to stay, what should it be, and how should it be incorporated into surrounding development and the waterfront? I haven’t heard an acceptable scenario yet. |
That's very interesting PDX City-State, thanks for posting it here!
Good to know others are thinking along the same lines as us. Clearly something needs to be done with the MC for the long term good of the Rose Quarter and the Eastside. And again I say, I would be really sad to see the gorgeous mid-century modern design of the MC get bulldozed into history. So if it is going to stay, someone needs to get very, very creative with its future use so that it can remain while the area as a whole is opened up, gentrified, and populated with actual humans on the 360 days out of the year when the circus isn't in town. |
I don't think there is a shortage of available land to put in new housing, nor do I think it really matters if there are pockets of the city that aren't as lively as the Pearl District. Yes, it would be a cool section of town if it were more lively, but lets focus our housing/neighbhrohood vibrancy on Goose Holow, Downtown, Northwest, and SOWA...places where there is plenty of room for improvement, and plenty of developable land. The Rose Quarter district will be great someday, but we don't need to focus on it just yet. I'd rather fill in some of these surface parking lots downtown than tear down the MC in favor of housing!
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Same here.....Dowtown has available lots, also. Seattle is developing many of its condo towers in the CBD, for example.
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You guys are right. There are lots of lots, but we continue to ignore the river. We need a stronger connection to the water.
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Absolutely, I agree with both pdx's...⇡
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Blazers team with California partner to remake 36-acre Rose Quarter
Tuesday, March 3, 2009, 3:12pm PST | Modified: Tuesday, March 3, 2009, 3:25pm
Portland Business Journal - by Wendy Culverwell Business Journal staff writer The Portland Trail Blazers launched a campaign Tuesday to build public support for a plan to remake the 36-acre Rose Quarter as an entertainment-themed district alive with activity 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The Blazers organization is teaming with The Cordish Co., a privately-held California developer that has created similar districts in Kansas and Baltimore and currently is developing more in Philadelphia and Los Angeles. Trail Blazers President Larry Miller said the organization began re-evaluating the Rose Quarter about 18 months ago after concluding it hadn’t lived up to its original vision. Restaurants and entertainment venues that opened there closed for lack of business when the signature venues, the Rose Garden and Memorial Coliseum, were dark. The two facilities host about 300 events each year, translating to activity on the campus about 250 days out of the year. Miller said the team wants to work with the city of Portland to create a uniquely local entertainment district, with sustainability driving re-development plans. “It would be the first green entertainment center in the country,” he said. Miller said Nike Inc. is interested in constructing an interactive museum at the site to tell its company story. J.E. Isaac, the Blazers’ senior vice president for business affairs, said the Rose Quarter has about 10 undeveloped acres as well as four acres on the Willamette River that it purchased in 1992. The site once held a hotel, long since demolished and now ready for re-development. Accessing the river is key, said Port Telles, development director for The Cordish Co., a fourth-generation family owned development business with headquarters in West Sacramento, Calif. “Our motto is: ‘Water is magic,’” he said. The re-development plan currently does not include taking over the busy grain terminal that separates the Rose Quarter from the Willamette to the north of the Steel Bridge. The owners have said they don’t want to sell, Miller said. The re-development team emphasizes that talks are preliminary and the public will have plenty of time to scrutinize any changes made at the Rose Quarter. Generally, the redevelopment would add entertainment venues, office space, residences, restaurants and night clubs. Memorial Coliseum, the under-used arena owned by the city, will be studied for possible demolition and redevelopment. Any major change would be careful to respect the military veterans for whom the facility was named. Any project would involve financial support from the city, most likely through the Portland Development Commission, which invests in public projects by issuing bonds repaid with taxes collected within local areas. Funds would be provided by The Cordish Co, which self-finances its projects, Telles said. The Rose Quarter is part of the Oregon Convention Center Urban Renewal Area and the original Rose Quarter development was financed through similar public-partner arrangements. Miller and Isaac said the Rose Quarter re-development project will suit another PDC effort to bolster the Oregon Convention Center by constructing a 600-room “headquarters hotel” to the north and east of the Rose Quarter. Isaac said the Blazers are long-standing supporters of the headquarters hotel effort. Transforming the Rose Quarter into an all-hours destination will be good for its neighbor. “Our project would bring new conventions to the convention center,” he said. In addition to the Trail Blazers and The Cordish Co., the project team includes the Trail Blazers’ owner, Vulcan Inc., and AEG, the subsidiary of the Anschutz Co. that manages entertainment venues. It may play a role in developing a portion of the Rose Quarter project. wculverwell@bizjournals.com | 503-219-3415 http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/...2/daily31.html |
CORDISH???
http://www.kansascityfrontpage.com/0...-SPEEDWAYn.jpg Oh noooooooooooooooooooooooooo! http://images.google.com/url?source=...8h_NU6KzBan8ww |
I will say that I think a cheesy stylized entertainment district would be successful in town. I can't think of a successful city in America that does not have one. Plus a concentrated nightlife scene to compete with Old Town can't be a bad thing. They don't even know what the word competition means.
Basically this day was inevitable IMO so why not have the best damn cheesy entertainment district possible :) 1) residences 2) offices 3) cheesy entertainment helping support the downtown tax base as opposed to competing with it can't be the worst thing either as opposed to what exists there currently. Opposing this won't make it not happen. I hope we (Portland) can just ride their A$$ & make them really work on a fitting design to complement this city. |
and they better include a new home for the Beavers so our minor league baseball team can stay near downtown.
Veteran's Memorial Park does have a nice ring to it. |
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So where is this four acre site? I'm trying to reconcile the two statements above - they own a site on the river but their plans do not include developing the grain elevators since they don't own the site. Maybe I just haven't had my coffee yet. Are they two separate pieces of land? Is the four acres on the north side of the grain silos? |
^ i understood that they're talking about the red lion site just north of the grain terminal.
it might be cheesy, but if they actually do create an area that's vibrant and is put to use more than the current rose quarter, it probably meets the goals of most people here. |
This proposal looks like it has the possibility to create a synergy among other projects- the headquarters hotel, eastside streetcar and development, and the smart tower... these three plus the party center could lead to more convention center business. The improved convention-oriented attractions could help as/if Portland becomes a player in the green economy.
Other benefits may include more transit oriented development in North Portland, increased light rail ridership from Vancouver on the tentative Columbia River Crossing, increased interest for companies that might want to move here, a relationship with the redevelopment of the main post office property across the river, maybe a casino, more incentive for people to live downtown instead of sprawling outward, etc. These kinds of projects can sometimes flop though. The one in Rochester, NY failed miserably. |
I'm torn on Memorial Coliseum going away. On one hand, keeping it for the Winterhawks, concerts, and keeping a Portland landmark, of sorts, has to be considered. But if it's taking up an area that could be a very thriving part of our city, then I have to say maybe it's time has come.
The question: Is there enough land in that area to build UP and OUT for this grand vision, with the MC still in the equation? Knowing that the grain terminal is staying for eons, (Portland is the largest exporter of wheat in the U.S.) would that limit what can be developed close to the river? At any rate, I'm glad that Portland is thinking forward, and realizes the potential of this area, that the Rose Quarter can wake up from it's deep sleep. |
I think at some point the grain elevator will go. The property value will simply be too high, and someone will buy it at it's proper value.
I LOVE the idea of a real entertainment district, designed as such. The MC has outlived itself... it's time it was replaced. |
i thought i read recently that the grain elevator was acquired by someone new. i know that the family that owned it for years had no intention of selling it and, when the city made inquiries, named a price no one in their right mind would agree to. but this owner - if i'm remembering correctly - was saying that as long as they could work out a deal to build a new one closer to the actual harbor, would be willing. maybe i was reading about the elevator by the broadway bridge tho.
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The are a French family (Dreyfus) who are near as rich as Paul Allen...the price probably would have to be right and/or a new location closer to the Columbia.
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