An Architectural Guidebook to Portland

by King, Bart

• ISBN13: 9780879059910
• ISBN10: 0879059915
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-04-01
• Publisher: Gibbs Smith

Summary

A graceful combination of eccentric and traditional architecture.Portland, Oregon, is a city widely known for its civic planning, preservation of historic buildings, attractiveness, and inviting atmosphere.Within the five-mile downtown district can be found skyscrapers, nineteenth-century cast-iron-front buildings, a riverfront park, old brick warehouses and breweries still in operation, a train station with a 150-foot clock tower, five bridges, and a rich assortment of museums, government buildings, and shops.

Table of Contents

Introduction	v
Downtown---Courthouse Square and Environs	1	(58)
Downtown---Park Blocks	59	(36)
Downtown---Government Square, South Auditorium District, Portland State University	95	(30)
Yamhill Historic District	125	(34)
Old Town/Chinatown	159	(18)
Pearl District	177	(10)
Northwest	187	(18)
Southwest	205	(28)
Northeast/North	233	(34)
Southeast	267	(30)
Bibliography	297	(5)
Index	302

Excerpts

IntroductionThe nature of a city's architecture may not entirely dictate its nature, but it goes a long way toward defining it. The righ balance of glass or wood or metal gives a structure tangible character; the height, shape, color, and essential physical nature of a building influences (or even determines) the experience that a person on the sidewalk has. This is not to overstate the case; as Ada Louise Huxtable wrote, nobody "believes that the architect can solve the ills of society." But the architect does create the environment of a city, and the architect's work shapes the interactions and experiences of those who come in contact with it.