A Mayoral Candidate's Walking Tour Of Portland

Randy Gragg and Mayoral Candidate Jules Bailey in southeast Portland.
*Greg Bond / OPB*

This week our resident architecture critic, Randy Gragg, joined mayoral candidates Jules Bailey and Ted Wheeler on walkabout. Gragg took the candidates through their paces, pushing them to get specific about the architecture and design issues facing our city.

Wheeler, Oregon's state Treasurer and a former Multnomah County chair, elected to stroll through Montavilla, one of Southeast Portland’s increasingly rare beasts: a desirable yet still affordable neighborhood.

Bailey, former state representative and county commissioner, chose to revisit the neighborhood he grew up in: Sunnyside, the home of popular SE strips Belmont and Hawthorne.

Check out video highlights, below, and don't forget to scroll on for our Portland architecture taste test: a slideshow capturing the candidates' takes on individual buildings, including an ultramodern house recently plopped into the middle of the historic Alberta neighborhood that has caught a lot of flak.

Finally, scroll all the way to the bottom of the page to listen to Gragg, Bailey, and Wheeler's appearance at the Bright Lights conversation series at Jimmy Mak's, where they dug even deeper into urban design and architecture.

Editors note: Videographer, Greg Bond, OPB

Wheeler’s secret weapon for saving the historic structures of Montavilla from destructive development: SE 82nd Ave.

Wheeler: “I just don’t fundamentally believe that anybody should be be beholden to what is already in the past … I believe the community has a stake in the future. We’re all collectively part of it.”

How can Portland house its growing workforce? Bailey proposes changing building codes to allow for more high-density housing.

To bring down the costs of development, Bailey says, we need to reduce the amount of red tape required to build.

If the blue and yellow multi-use building currently housing Belmont Records goes down, what will replace it? Bailey wants to make sure that developers respect the special character of this inner southeast corridor.

A Portland Architecture Taste Test: Yea, Nay, Or Meh?

The candidates weigh in on the buildings that are defining and redefining Portland architecture.

Location: SE Division Street, Hacker.
Ted Wheeler: Oh, my wife would love that. I'm not much of a modernist. I like the balconies, I like the fact that there's a lot of activity, so Salt and Straw, down, I love. The rest is meh for me, but you can see the activity at the street level, you can see there's people walking and biking. It looks like it's well integrated into the neighborhood.
Jules Bailey: I like this building a lot. I think it’s interesting. I think where it’s at works. I think it’s got some neat lines to it and has been an asset to the neighborhood. — Location: SE Division Street, Hacker. Ted Wheeler: Oh, my wife would love that. I'm not much of a modernist. I like the balconies, I like the fact that there's a lot of activity, so Salt and Straw, down, I love. The rest is meh for me, but you can see the activity at the street level, you can see there's people walking and biking. It looks like it's well integrated into the neighborhood. Jules Bailey: I like this building a lot. I think it’s interesting. I think where it’s at works. I think it’s got some neat lines to it and has been an asset to the neighborhood.
*Randy Gragg*

Location: SE 17th and Tacoma, Myrhe Group.
Ted Wheeler: Yea, because they actually hired an architect, and they tried to preserve the historic character of the neighborhood. It's kind of reflective of the kind of window treatment you'd see on some of the historic buildings in the neighborhood, so that's pretty good.
Jules Bailey: Not my favorite, but again it has more a neighborhood feel. Maybe it works in the neighborhood it’s in, but not my taste. — Location: SE 17th and Tacoma, Myrhe Group. Ted Wheeler: Yea, because they actually hired an architect, and they tried to preserve the historic character of the neighborhood. It's kind of reflective of the kind of window treatment you'd see on some of the historic buildings in the neighborhood, so that's pretty good. Jules Bailey: Not my favorite, but again it has more a neighborhood feel. Maybe it works in the neighborhood it’s in, but not my taste.
*Randy Gragg*

Location: NE Sandy Blvd, Next to the Hollywood Theater, Myrhe Group.
Ted Wheeler: No. That's a no, because it's next to the Hollywood Theater, and this gets to our earlier point. You can't just steamroll what's already there and what's already a unique asset to the community. And to me it just looks completely different than the existing character of the neighborhood.
Jules Bailey: The problem with this building is it obscures this beautiful landmark of the Hollywood Theater. It makes it harder to see it and hides it as you drive up Sandy. — Location: NE Sandy Blvd, Next to the Hollywood Theater, Myrhe Group. Ted Wheeler: No. That's a no, because it's next to the Hollywood Theater, and this gets to our earlier point. You can't just steamroll what's already there and what's already a unique asset to the community. And to me it just looks completely different than the existing character of the neighborhood. Jules Bailey: The problem with this building is it obscures this beautiful landmark of the Hollywood Theater. It makes it harder to see it and hides it as you drive up Sandy.
*Randy Gragg*

Location: Alberta Neighborhood, Waechter Architecture.
Ted Wheeler: Well that, that's really cool. Is that your house?
Jules Bailey: You know, I have a hard time with these very modern structures set right in the neighborhood. I like it as a standalone structure… might live there myself if I could afford it… I wonder how those neighbors feel about a big black wall next to their window. — Location: Alberta Neighborhood, Waechter Architecture. Ted Wheeler: Well that, that's really cool. Is that your house? Jules Bailey: You know, I have a hard time with these very modern structures set right in the neighborhood. I like it as a standalone structure… might live there myself if I could afford it… I wonder how those neighbors feel about a big black wall next to their window.
*Randy Gragg*

Location: NE 20th and Everett, Morton Building Design.
Ted Wheeler: They made an effort to keep the street front the same level as other buildings and other structures in the neighborhood, so I appreciate that fact. It's tall, it stands, but at least it looks like the architect made an effort to have the front match the rest of the street, so I give him credit for that.
Jules Bailey: Well, I don’t think the photo helps that it was taken on a dark, rainy day. Seems a little disjointed. I’d give that a meh. — Location: NE 20th and Everett, Morton Building Design. Ted Wheeler: They made an effort to keep the street front the same level as other buildings and other structures in the neighborhood, so I appreciate that fact. It's tall, it stands, but at least it looks like the architect made an effort to have the front match the rest of the street, so I give him credit for that. Jules Bailey: Well, I don’t think the photo helps that it was taken on a dark, rainy day. Seems a little disjointed. I’d give that a meh.
*Randy Gragg*

Location: North Williams and Fremont, Holst Architecture.
Ted Wheeler: Super cool. Architecturally it's interesting. I have to think about whether I'd want to live there. It's actually offices? Well that makes more sense. I think it's really interesting.
Jules Bailey: Again, context on Williams is challenging because there’s so much change. I’d want to be careful about a building [that's] so different, but as a standalone I like the architecture. — Location: North Williams and Fremont, Holst Architecture. Ted Wheeler: Super cool. Architecturally it's interesting. I have to think about whether I'd want to live there. It's actually offices? Well that makes more sense. I think it's really interesting. Jules Bailey: Again, context on Williams is challenging because there’s so much change. I’d want to be careful about a building [that's] so different, but as a standalone I like the architecture.
*Randy Gragg*

Location: Block 17 Apartments, NW 11th and Overton, BOORA (281 units—Randy notes almost the same as the last one).
Ted Wheeler: I know that we have architects in this town that, if they weren't hemmed in by a lot of the rules and requirements, and we gave them the opportunity to create something unique, they wouldn't come up with this.
Jules Bailey: Interesting that there’s some height variation. I like the smaller one. — Location: Block 17 Apartments, NW 11th and Overton, BOORA (281 units—Randy notes almost the same as the last one). Ted Wheeler: I know that we have architects in this town that, if they weren't hemmed in by a lot of the rules and requirements, and we gave them the opportunity to create something unique, they wouldn't come up with this. Jules Bailey: Interesting that there’s some height variation. I like the smaller one.
*Randy Gragg*

Bright Lights: Portland's Mayoral Candidates Talk Urban Design

Mayoral candidates Jules Bailey and Ted Wheeler talked about architecture, urban planning, and design with Randy Gragg at the Bright Lights conversation series at Jimmy Mak's earlier this year.

culture

A Mayoral Candidate's Walking Tour Of Portland

A Portland Architecture Taste Test: Yea, Nay, Or Meh?

Bright Lights: Portland's Mayoral Candidates Talk Urban Design

OPB’s First Look newsletter