ANY DAY NOW, two 100-plus-year-old downtown Portland buildings could see demolition crews show up to tear them down, thanks to a loophole in city code.
There’s the 109-year-old Hotel Albion, which sits on the corner of SW 3rd and Salmon and houses the Lotus Café. The bar’s long been a popular hangout for city staff—so much so that Mayor Charlie Hales recalls sketching street plans for the burgeoning South Waterfront on a napkin at the Lotus during his stint as transportation commissioner.
- Kathleen Marie
On the same block sits the 123-year-old Ancient Order of United Workmen Temple, a majestic but crumbling brick and stone building embellished with columns and carved medallions. It was designed by Justus Krumbein, a prominent Portland architect who also designed the second state capitol in Salem.
The buildings are a bit neglected, but rich with Portland history. If the property owners have their say, though, that history will disappear via wrecking ball to make way for two shiny new glass and steel buildings.
One local nonprofit, aided by a Portland attorney who also serves on Portland’s Historic Landmarks Commission, is working to halt that process. Restore Oregon is hoping to close a code provision it says makes it too easy to remove old buildings, like the Albion and Workmen Temple, from the city’s Historic Resource Inventory.
Oregon statute requires that before a building designated as historic can be demolished, the owner must wait 120 days while the public is notified and allowed to offer alternatives to demolition. If a building is first removed from the city’s Historic Resource Inventory, though, the 120-day demolition delay no longer applies and the owner can tear it down at will. (The owner of the two buildings is identified in county records as a Eugene man named Allen Cohen, who told the Mercury he’s in the process of selling the properties. He wouldn’t say to whom.)
The loophole the buildings’ owners are trying to jump through to avoid delay was created in 2002, when Portland adopted a bit of code that allows owners to remove their building from the city’s list of historic properties merely by submitting a written request to the Portland Bureau of Development Services, which must make a prompt decision on the matter. If the bureau agrees, the once-historic building can be turned to rubble.
“This provision allows owners of Historic Resource Inventory properties to be removed on the same day their owners request removal,” says Brandon Spencer-Hartle, senior field programs manager at Restore Oregon. “On November 5, two properties that you can see from the front door of city hall were removed from the Historic Resource Inventory list with the expectation they’ll be demolished.”
Spencer-Hartle is talking about Hotel Albion and the Workmen Temple, which he’s been working hard to save.
- The mixed use development at 930 SW 3rd Ave, which originally proposed to incorporate the Ancient Order of United Workmen Temple
- NextPortland
Restore Oregon has asked the city to remove the problematic bit of code—an idea which city commissioners seem to be considering—but says that removal probably couldn’t be applied retroactively to properties already slated for demolition.
Still, Hotel Albion and the Workmen Temple may avoid the wrecking ball.
On November 4, the firm Ankrom Moisan Architects submitted a request for design advice to the city for the property where Hotel Albion and the Workmen Temple stand. The request included plans to replace the old buildings with a hotel and an office building. The development would wrap around another property on the block—the Auditorium Building—which is protected by the federal National Register of Historic Places and isn’t included in the plans. Ankrom Moisan didn’t respond to requests for comment about its plans.
The preservationists at Restore Oregon have tapped Carrie Richter, a Portland land use attorney, to appeal the city’s decision to remove the buildings’ historic designation and save them from demolition.
“City staff knew the intent was to demolish the buildings,” Richter testified about the proposed demolition at a November 18 city council hearing. “That is a real problem that necessitates amending the code and being more rigorous when these applications come in.”
Richter argues the buildings should’ve gotten the 120-day waiting period before being scotched from the city’s historic buildings list. The day after her council testimony, she made that argument in appeals filed with the city and with the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals.
If Richter’s appeals win favor, it could give activists like Restore Oregon leverage for saving the Albion, the Workmen Temple, and hundreds of other old buildings they believe are at risk of demolition at their owners’ whim, in a city that’s been shedding old buildings lately.
“We are in the midst of a demolition epidemic… [that’s] chewing away at the character of many older Portland neighborhoods,” says Restore Oregon Executive Director Peggy Moretti. “This is now spreading to downtown. The Lotus Café building and Workmen Temple could come down without one bit of public comment or conversation…. What a loss this would be to the historic fabric of our city.”
Every structure has a history. The structures being built now will have a history. This process never stops. Stuff changes and that is good. The old days are not coming back. The new days will be better anyway. People need to stop tying themselves to the past. It’s over. Sure, some things should be preserved, but those things are few.
Most people who want to stay in a “Boutique Hotel” aren’t coming to visit Portland to see generic modern design. I guess these developers hope everyone else maintains the culture of Portland while they demolish away.
The brick buildings have tons of character. They are also going to turn to dust when the big earthquake hits, taking lots of lives with them. New buildings in their place that are built to withstand earthquakes are not all bad.
Development and building reuse have the potential to be friends. Look at Washington High School, it has found an entire new life thanks to Venerable Properties. In Oregon there is pride in thoughtful management of our natural resources, this should extend to our built environment. Restore Oregon is doing good work, Portland is lucky to have them!
It’s not about being tied to the past, it’s about our story. The story of how Portland came to be, where it’s been, and where it’s going. I don’t know how long you have lived here but if you have no sense of how impactful this is to our foundation, it can’t have been long. I don’t like Portland, I think it’s dirty and riddled with mismanagement, but it’s been my home on and off most of my life. If people want to come here, Awesome, but leave our city the way it is and stop destroying our story. Thank. You.
Destroying these two buildings is a shame and regrettable. I am offended that the leaders of our city have so little regard for the history of this city. It’s development at all costs. At this rate, our city will have nothing left of it’s past.
Boy, they can’t tear this city down fast enough can they?
For some perspective, these buildings have existed for less than 1% of the time that Native Americans have inhabited the area. If you really want historic preservation, you would demand that all the buildings be torn down and all the trees be replanted.
On the flipside, think of all the Californians/transplants that will never get to go to the Lotus. That feels kind of good, doesn’t it?
Both are cool old buildings, but I walk by the Ancient Order of United Workmen Temple everyday and dear lord, that building is coming crashing down if the big one ever hits… It’d be nice if we could sort of use the existing exteriors of these buildings and somehow incorporate them into the new designs–or just fix them up and retrofit them for the future. There has already been a lot of older buildings lost over the last 50 years in the southern end of downtown in the name of urban renewal, there should be some concern about what still remains.
Sad to see Portland erase it’s fine name as a more progressive city but these are times are greatly diminished expectations… But this is the Era of the Quarterly Earnings Report, and a time when having an imagination is seen as a major liability.
Hey lazaar, your problem isn’t that California exists. Your problem is that you hillbillies HAVE NO RENT CONTROL and your LANDLORDS CAN EVICT WITHOUT CAUSE. This was ALWAYS going to happen. If it hadn’t happened now, it would have happened five years from now, or six or two or ten. If it hadn’t been Californians, it would have been Washingtonians or Koreans or Armenians or some shit. Unless maybe you’d got some, I don’t know, rent control or something crazy like that. I mean, what the hell is wrong with you people? LA has rent control, and LA is basically Thunderdome. Also, get some seismic retrofit on those historic brick buildings like, now, or you’re gonna wish they’d torn them down. Hey, I know, let’s forget about it and argue about fluoridated water some more while we silently hate somebody’s UCLA bumper sticker. That’ll show ’em! Sheesh.
Hey torkfool, have you heard about the hookworm problem we have here in Portland? Nobody wants to talk about it!
Even if these building should not be preserved, this is a terrible way to to decide it.
Probably to be replaced by another tasteless all glass building.
It will be a sad moment when we lose the Lotus. It is truly a Portland institution. On the other hand it is also a structural menace when “The Big One” finally hits. Let something new and structurally sound grow a new history. Portland is not, and never will be, the same city that it used to be, and that is a good thing.
You have to realize how much asbestos is in and under that hotel.. I won’t be within 5 miles of when they take it down, that toxic dust will go airborne.. hell no
There are plenty of crumbling brick buildings in Portland even when you tear these death traps down. Look at The Three Kings at Stark and 6th. It’s been empty for over a decade. Historic status sometimes means you end up with a useless building contributing nothing to the community.
There’s something about historical buildings which I love. I’m stil saddened by the tearing down of the old PGE coke building off highway 30. What Portland needs is a comprehensive evaluation of all buildings a hundred years and older. We then need to decide which buildings can actually be reinforced to withstand an earthquake or other devastating damage. Certain buildings literally cannot be protected due to the type of the foundation. The tearing down of historical buildings that can be reinforced structurally for a reasonable amount of money will eat away at the soul of Portland for the years to come. There are so many parking lots and newer ‘shorter’ buildings that we can develop before looking to eat the heart of Portland to fill our coffers.
All these concerns about “The Big One” seem to ignore the fact that the original plan was to incorporate and shore up the brick structures (particularly that of the Temple). No one is really arguing that we just leave them there to rot, just that we press developers to stick the plan they sold in the first place. I would love to see the block developed — I’d just like to see it done with a nod to the architectural history.
Ugh, seriously? Maybe pick a more noble battle (so as to preserve credibility for when something is actually worth preserving).
Methinks jonesrich is right…. Unless George Washington slept there, it should be on the table, open for development.