[Drmyeyes]

Does this architect that aparrently rates a guest appearance in the Oregonian, do any location related research at all?

I was completely amazed that amongst the list of pre-bauhaus buildings in downtown Portland that he cited as examples of richly expressive architecture of great value to the city's character, the Ambassador Condominiums were mentioned but not the nearby, similar but more modest in style Rosefriend Apartment Building.

In doing so, he failed to take advantage of a choice opportunity to highlight the impending loss of a currently standing Portland example of just the kind of architectural expression he rightly praises as being absent from much contemporary Portland architecture. In fact, he didn't take the point far enough. Had he done so, he might have made the point that practitioners of contemporary architecture, by investing greater imagination and creativity in their work, could rise to a level of ideals and expression established by their forbears in classic and romance architecture withought aping the exact styles of those periods.

As one with a relatively higher profile opportunity than the average person to make his voice heard, the fact that he failed to do either of these things explains in part why so much of new architecture is so vacuous.