Tag: Portland

Walking to work, I sometimes walk in the same direction as the art students. I could not get over this guy’s outfit which was a one-piece with puffy sleeves and pantaloon-type leggings. He also had some sort of matching large handkerchief attached to his getup. There was a guy walking near me and he was staring so much he almost walked into a lamppost. This is the kind of outfit that Sinefeld-type episodes get written about.

Having received my master’s degree from Portland State University, I spent a lot of time in the School of Education building. For unknown reasons, the School of Education shares a building with the School of Business on the PSU campus. I always felt that the building accurately mirrored society’s view of both education and business.

The school of business has a lovely tan brick exterior and windows. Inside, it has multimedia rooms, nice carpeting and has clearly been remodeled recently. It is light and airy and quite pleasant to be in.

The school of Education has a strange metal facade and very high clerestory windows that let light into the computer lab, but few other places. The classrooms are cramped and dark and have few windows and the interior probably hasn’t been renovated since the building was built. It is an ugly, depressing building. The fact that just on the other side of the building is light and air and beauty makes it that much more depressing.

I’ve been in a lot of schools in a lot of different states and I can tell you that they have all (save the private schools) look much like this school of education. When I was studying at PSU we used to say that they built the building that way on purpose, so we could start getting used to depressing surroundings. When people say that schools should be run “like a business” I think of the differences between the school of business and the school of education and chuckle.

The beautiful Portland Park Blocks are split into two sections: the North Park Blocks and the South Park Blocks. The South Park Blocks start at PSU and run North past a number of churches, the PCPA, and the Schnitz where they run smack in to the Arlington Club. From there, there is a run of blocks of normal commercial development before the park picks up again just North of Burnside. Some people dream of demolishing all of those buildings and connecting the park blocks, which will most likely not happen in my lifetime. The park blocks don’t really connect anyway, as the North Park Blocks are one block East of the South Park Blocks.

At any rate, awhile ago there was an open block that was being used as a parking lot and the powers that be got together and suddenly (actually it took a long time and was delayed for seemingly ever) there is a park where there once was a parking lot. So I bring you my review of Simon and Helen Director Park.

It looks better than a parking lot. But I think the scale is weird. The Southwest corner has a large awning type thing that is very very high and I think it makes the rest of the park look small. It looks like it is looming over the tiny people, ready to stomp on them. Interestingly, the picture of the artists rendering in the link above cuts off this structure almost entirely.

I do like the granite color they have chosen. However, I’m still distracted by the large sheet of glass, ready to cause mayhem above me. Aside from the height of the roof, the supporting beams seem too thin and thus out of scale.

Unlike Pioneer Courthouse Square, which really is Portland’s Living Room, there also seem to be few places to sit. I think this makes the chances of the park becoming a cold, windswept plaza even more likely.

Here’s the Teacher’s Fountain in recognition of teachers “selfless and untiring efforts to inspire the hearts and minds of their students.” Right now it looks like a granite ball. Yay. A ball. But perhaps that water in the artists rendering has something to do with it.

Here is a closer look at the out of proportion glass cover, with actual human people so you can get a sense of scale. The building on the left will be a restaurant of some sort.

In conclusion, I’m not immediately charmed by Director Park. We shall see if my view changes over time.

I’ve always liked the look of red leaves against the bright green grass. In Portland, most people don’t water their lawns during the summer and they become yellow and brown. With the return of the autumn rains, they green back up, just in time for autumn colored leaves to fall on them.

So, you have to work with me here. Nearly halfway down the picture is a piano.  And a tiny bit below the edge of the piano is a white blotch.  And that white blotch!  It’s Noam Chomsky’s hair!  Which is attached to the rest of Noam Chomsky, whom I heard speak!  I volunteered at First Unitarian where they were having some sort of social justice conference.  My job was to take tickets at the door, which was sort of easy, sort of hard.  The people in charge were expecting trouble, which wasn’t there at all. People were very chilled out.  Except the organizers.  One of them ended up screaming at me, which wasn’t so cool.  I hope she remembers that moment with shame for years. I was just a volunteer, for chrissake, trying to do my job as best I could under the circumstances.  At any rate, after I took all the tickets, I climbed up into the balcony and heard Noam speak.  Great fun!