Should Ione Plaza be a protected historic building?

[MarkDaMan]

Design panel: Ione’s X marks the spot
Daily Journal of Commerce
by Alison Ryan
04/23/2007


Downtown Portland’s Ione Plaza Apartments are among the city’s few non-box-shaped structures. And members of the Portland Design Commission are pushing architects to consider the 15-story, cross-shaped building as a property with potential for historic designation.

Leeb Architects’ plans for updating the 1951 apartment tower, presented to the Design Commission on Thursday, called for sheathing existing balconies – made of corrugated concrete on three sides and open chain link on the fourth – with metal panels. But modernizing the balconies, commission members said, would change the face of an architecturally important building with historic designation possibilities.

Portland has few examples of international style architecture, commissioner Jeff Stuhr said, and few attempts at variety. And the existing concrete-and-link balconies, he said, use detailing similar to that used in Le Corbusier’s multi-family housing projects.

“These types of buildings are just as important to preserve,” he said.

The building sits on a full block, between Southwest Mill and Montgomery streets and Southwest 10th and Park avenues.

“It has a really important role in this city,” commission vice-chairman Michael McCulloch said. “It originally recognized the importance of the park blocks when others didn’t.”

The Portland State University-adjacent building, a popular choice for student renters, has seen wear in its 50-year lifetime. But ownership changes have meant new potential. In 2002, PSU lost a bid to buy the building; Idaho’s Aqua Investors Fund III LP picked up the property instead. Developer Jim Leguizamon in 2006 paid $35 million for the complex. In February, ColRich Multifamily Investments and Apollo Real Estate Advisors secured $45.5 million to refinance Ione Plaza and buy Park Plaza, a nearby 149-unit apartment building. The funding included capital improvement money.

Architect Charles Kidwell of Leeb Architects said the team was willing to pull back plans for the balconies and explore other possibilities.

“The real thrust of what we want to do is the work at the ground level,” he said.

Most of the improvements proposed Thursday focused on the plaza areas created by the building’s X-shaped footprint. The owners, Kidwell said, are dedicated to creating series of usable, pedestrian-oriented spaces.

“They saw the opportunity to really improve the connections,” he said.

While commissioners balked at balconies, the design team’s plan to reenergize the plazas drew support.

Lowering an existing brick wall, adding lush landscaping and benches, and putting a flowing water feature at the center of the Park Blocks-facing plaza will, Kidwell said, improve the space for both building residents and users of the Park Blocks. Three other building plazas are slated for similar improvements in landscape design, paving and accessibility.

“It’s going to make a difference in the pedestrian feel of that area,” commissioner Andrew Jansky said.

Neighborhood residents testified to the improvement’s benefit as well.

“The changes can only improve the ambiance of the whole area around that 50-year-old building,” neighbor Irwin Mandel said.

The commission did not vote on the project, asking for more detail on plaza elements and connectivity. The design team is expected to return May 3 to re-present.

McCulloch stressed the importance of preserving the building, likening the apartments to a wacky and oddly dressed but much-loved aunt.

“It’s an important function of architecture,” he said, “to take care of our maiden aunts.”

http://www.djc-or.com/viewStory.cfm?...29319&userID=1

[puerco]

I say, yes. It's a time piece and shouldn't be messed with.

[65MAX]

Isn't Mid-Century "in" right now?
If it's representative of that period, then it should be preserved. Remember all the 50-year old buildings that were torn down in the 1960's? Those turn-of-the-20th-Century buildings were considered "ugly" then. Wish we had some of those back now, don't we?

[MarkDaMan]

Can anyone elaborate on the balcony thing? I think those balconies at that place are not only slummy looking, but look somewhat unsafe too.

Personally, I'm all for saving the place as a historic building, but I don't see why that would prevent renovations of the exterior. Look at the Meier and Frank block, although the vast majority of the building will be restored, the interior, and several exterior additions, will resemble nothing of the past building (metal and glass awnings, hotel entry, interior hotel). Why wouldn't the Ione be able to be placed on the register, but still upgrade certain features?

[mcbaby]

this seems a bit ridiculous. i've had friends who lived in that clap trap and it's about as historically significant as a rite aid. people should be more concerned about all the long term elderly and fixed income renters who were displaced when it went condo 4 years ago than bickering because the owner now wants to make it look better. there are a lot more historically significant structures that will be lost to the wrecking ball just blocks away that are far more beautiful than this building. it's probably one of the ugliest buildings on the park blocks.

[MarkDaMan]

I found a pic of the balconies...don't see how they are significant to the overall building.

[pdxstreetcar]

This seems a little absurd to me, I think there are a lot more worthy buildings of designation than this one from this time period.

Why didnt the design board have any issues when the art museum butchered up the masonic temple?

[vjoe]

Those balconies are uselessly tiny. I went out there 2-3 times max over the one year that we lived there. It feels really oppressive with the two walls.
Ione went condo? I thought they are still apartment.

[puerco]

When I was a kid growing up in Irvington in the '60's I remember a couple of beautiful old Victorians on NE 15th being torn down and replaced with cheap ugly apartment buildings. I remember thinking at the time what a shame it was to tear down such big elaborate interesting homes. I guess most adults at the time didn't appreciate them and it was Portland's loss. Thankfully the preservationists started up around the same time and they succeeded in stopping the destruction of the few remaining Victorians in town.
It seems now that today's adults don't appreciate mid 20th Century buildings. Besides the Ione Plaza, Portland Towers, Park Plaza and King Tower are all examples of post wwII architecture. The apartment buildings of the '60's - Panorama (735 St Clair), the Fontaine, Portland Center (Harrison condos), Holladay Park Plaza have a decidedly different style. Even if they're not the most beautiful buildings in Portland they represent a certain era and should be preserved. I also think Lloyd Center never should've been renovated.

[MarkDaMan]

^The Harrison is being substantially upgraded but it hasn't lost the 60's era look. I don't understand why the design review board would give a shit about the balconies if the building as a whole is being preserved, and upgraded to make it hold more value.

oh, and I think they are still apartments, at least according to their website.
http://www.ioneplaza.com/index.php

[Drmyeyes]

I don't want the consideration made by the design review board to go un appreciated, but I find it kind of hard to dredge up much regard for Ione Plaza.

I've always thought it has made a kind of big, obnoxious presence on the Park Blocks and to its architectural neighbors. I can appreciate comments board members made about the corrugated texture of the concrete on the balconies. I like that texture, but overall, as an example of the international style, the Ione doesn't seem to be very good. It's just kind of bland. I've only really ever been aware of the plazas on the park side and on the southern side street, so I couldn't venture an opinion about how all of them together contribute to this building's integrity.

I tend to agree with the board in terms of how to approach this building, assuming it's going to continue being here. Unless the restyling idea is very good, messing with the building's original styling concept is likely to wind up looking very lame. Removing the wall and improving the landscape does seem like good thinking.

In general, this is an occasion when it would be nice if you could just easily take such a building down and start fresh, maybe even with a much better conceived and styled example of the international style. With a large building like this, and the number of people that depend on it for housing, that's a difficult thing to do.

[65MAX]

I see nothing wrong with upgrading a building that has some historical value as long as the overall style remains consistant. You can add energy-efficient windows and fixtures and fresh streetscapes in a way that doesn't diminish the original "look" of the building. If done right, it could even strengthen its International Style bona fides and make the building a more enjoyable place for its inhabitants.

[tworivers]

65, you just took the words right out of my mouth. Agree.

[zilfondel]

Answer to original question: No.

Should it ever become a parking lot? No.

[alexjon]

Le Corbusier's ideological art... has historical merits?

Fix the balconies, stop being so fussy.

[urbanlife]

I don't mind the building, I think the exterior should be historic. The interior is horrible, but the apartments themselves are nice. I crashed in one after a night of drinking when I first moved here.

From what I know, the building is still apartments.

[twofiftyfive]

The irony is too much. The reason the historic preservation movement exists is because after WWII so many beautiful buildings were destroyed and replaced with crap like Ione Plaza. Now we're supposed to believe that ugly mid-century modern eyesores are worthy of preservation because, as puerco says, they "represent a certain era". The parking lot that Pioneer Courthouse Square used to be represented a certain era, too.

[MarkDaMan]

how many X shaped building in Portland where there before this one? It might have a place in history being a first of its kind, leading to King Towers, Portland Towers and such, which are all non spectacular, but changed urban living in Portland. I hate to just throw away a building especially if it did serve a purpose in P-town history.

[65MAX]

Originally Posted by twofiftyfive

The irony is too much. The reason the historic preservation movement exists is because after WWII so many beautiful buildings were destroyed and replaced with crap like Ione Plaza. Now we're supposed to believe that ugly mid-century modern eyesores are worthy of preservation because, as puerco says, they "represent a certain era". The parking lot that Pioneer Courthouse Square used to be represented a certain era, too.

Not all mid-century modern buildings that replaced older turn-of-the-century buildings are eyesores. The Commonwealth Building was the first of its kind in the world, beating the Seagrams Bldg in NY by a year. Aesthetically, I personally don't like the Commonwealth Bldg, but don't even think about tearing it down....

[puerco]

Originally Posted by twofiftyfive

The irony is too much. The reason the historic preservation movement exists is because after WWII so many beautiful buildings were destroyed and replaced with crap like Ione Plaza. Now we're supposed to believe that ugly mid-century modern eyesores are worthy of preservation because, as puerco says, they "represent a certain era". The parking lot that Pioneer Courthouse Square used to be represented a certain era, too.

I don't quite understand what you're saying. Because the magnificent Portland Hotel was torn down and replaced with Meier & Frank's parking lot they should do the same with the Ione Plaza?