Daisy Kingdom could bloom again
Planned galleries may turn historic building into a new art destination
By JOSEPH GALLIVAN Issue date: Fri, Apr 28, 2006
The Tribune
It’s only 395 paces across the park from the old Daisy Kingdom store at Northwest Davis Street and Eighth Avenue to PDX Contemporary Art at Northwest Ninth and Flanders. But if PDX is the new hub for fine art on Ninth, Daisy Kingdom is the new frontier. While the North Park Blocks may form a psychological barrier between the Pearl and Old Town, real estate developer Jim Winkler is gambling that the distance won’t be too much for art lovers.
Starting next January, the building that formerly housed the fabric store Daisy Kingdom and the adjoining Lombard Automobile Buildings will be the new home for several art galleries: the Contemporary Crafts Museum and Gallery, a new gallery by Charles A. Hartman (formerly of San Francisco), Blue Sky Gallery, Froelick Gallery and a second location for Augen Gallery. Winkler also sees an opportunity for a food venue.
“It’s a step forward in the maturation of the galleries and the creation of an art district,” Winkler says. “You can see most of the good galleries in Portland within a few blocks. My hope is that when someone checks in at the Heathman Hotel, the Lucia or the Custom House (when it’s reopened), first they’ll go see the Portland Art Museum, then they’ll ask the concierge, ‘Where can I see good local art?’ ”
He hopes the area will become a mini version of Chelsea in New York, or be like Bergamot Station, a former trolley station in Santa Monica, Calif.
The Daisy Kingdom side of the building is in better shape than the side that faces Broadway, but both need a lot of work. Winkler says renovating the building, which was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in January, is not the obvious thing to do. He could have made more money knocking it down and building a 350-foot-high condo. But he says his plan will “accelerate the redevelopment of Old Town by tying into what’s going on at Everett Station Lofts, Butters Gallery and the stuff David Gold is trying to do with the Goldsmith block” (i.e., the Portland Art Center).
Next door, Chicago-based developer Keith Pochter hopes to turn the historic Custom House into a hotel by the summer of 2007.
“The Pearl’s pretty much done in terms of commitments,” Pochter says. “But I believe Old Town-Chinatown will be one of the most valuable districts in Portland, with the light-rail extension” planned along the bus mall to Union Station.
Winkler thinks that when gallerists own their space and don’t have to worry about rents going up, they can be more adventurous. “They can be more gutsy, more innovative, take on more artists, show young artists, or bring someone in at a higher price point than has been seen in Portland.”
The whole structure will be called the DeSoto Building, since it was home to one of the first car dealerships in Oregon. “Historically, it’s part of the transition from the buggy to the powered vehicle,” he says. It has an automotive elevator and a faded painted sign on the south wall advertising Plymouth and DeSoto, which by law must be preserved, not covered up or even repainted.
As with the Portland Center Stage’s renovation of the armory a few blocks west, the rehab is radical — starting with asbestos and lead paint removal, then a seismic upgrade, new glass, skylights and a new lobby. “A rational economic person would knock down this turkey!” Winkler says.
The firm LRS Architects is moving its operation to the third floor. This open space runs for a half-block. Winkler rates it one of the best in Portland.
There’s also a fourth-floor commercial condominium available. He’s considered moving his office there (from 210 S.W. Morrison St., another historic building he restored) but says he probably won’t. “I’m a peculiar person. I’ve had one wife, I keep cars for a long time, I have the same friends. …”
If you need proof that the soft-spoken, immaculately groomed Winkler is detail-oriented, consider his brick mansion he renovated on Southwest Park Place (it’s also on the National Register of Historic Places). In February, vandals threw eggs at the house and his vehicles. Winkler was soon up a ladder trying to clean it, an almost impossible task. Now he’s paying to have the brickwork detailed by experts, as well as having three of his cars repainted.
While he’s certainly in this venture for profit, he stresses what everyone knows about the arts in Portland: They haven’t made anyone rich. Winkler also has more than 100 pieces of art on his office walls and is a board member at the Portland Art Museum, so he’s put his money where his mouth is before. With this project, he ups the ante.
“Part of the strategy was to take advantage of making the building historic and passing through some of the rehabilitation tax credits to the galleries,” he says. “Normally I’d keep that — I wouldn’t give away one or two million dollars.”
But building material costs have been going up since Hurricane Katrina —at one point, he says, the price of plastic piping was going up 25 percent a week. Whether nonprofits and small private galleries still will be able to afford the place by the time it’s finished remains a worry. In March, parties such as Charles Hartman were still applying for funding.
Finally, Winkler has plans for a west-facing, 3,000-square-foot deck on the roof for events and parties, with an eye-level view of the treetops. “That’s one of my favorite views, where you feel you’re floating at tree height.” Even for this, Winkler has an ambitious analogy. He compares it not only to the South Park Blocks as seen from the Trustee Room at the Portland Art Museum, but to views of New York’s Central Park.
josephgallivan@portlandtribune.com