It was completed in 1982 and is considered a masterpiece of a movement in architecture that is best forgotten…

The building does have this virtue: Its substance and appearance are one. Meaning, Graves’ building is at once a bad idea and badly built…

Michael Graves’ seminal postmodern work the Portland Public Services Building is under threat of demolition, following news that the 32-year-old building needs more than $95 million worth of repairs.

Blame for the building’s many structural problems is often placed on the tight budget with which it was made. But my feeling is that the idea and not the budget is the source of the rot.

7 replies on “Good News for Portland”

  1. When I was in Budapest, there were a lot of tourists in town to see their remaining buildings from the ‘Brutalist’ architectural style.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brutalist_arc…

    I’ve always thought the Portland building was ugly, but if it really is seen as a prime example of post-modernism, there are probably people who will value that in 20 or 50 years.

    I guess I say the same thing about cars – at least take some design risk. Don’t just churn out another bland lump! So I guess I can get behind the Portland building, too.

  2. But who wanted to work/live in those brutalist buildings? Expensive to keep old buildings around just to look at them. In this case, the expense has conveniently been tallied: $95 million.

  5. Turn the Portland Building into the new Justice Center (the windows are perfect for cells) and turn the Justice Center into a extention of the downtown Marriott.

  7. Everything was made poorly in the eighties. But, you know, in ten more years it’ll be hip again. Paint it and slap some fake glasses on it, good as new.

Comments are closed.