Remember the Blazer’s recently released really horrible “Water is Magic!” redesign idea for the Rose Quarter?
Another idea cropped up in the Sunday Oregonian. In a guest column, architect Doug Obletz (who as president of a Portland-based design firm, could have a stake in the redesign if his idea gets traction) says instead of tearing down the Memorial Coliseum for a baseball park, the city should build the ballpark on the site of Portland Public School’s “oversized and outdated” Blanchard Education Center just north of Broadway.
Since the public paid for the Coliseum, writes Obletz, they should get a say in what happens to the site. And besides, at 50 years old, the Coliseum could qualify to be a historic landmark. (sidenote: The fact that something 50 years old qualifies as “historic” on the West Coast is hilarious) “Don’t tear it down – do the Portland thing: re-use it. By saving the glass box and removing the seating bowl, we can create a huge, flexible space and fill it with new uses,” says Obletz. At his website, Obletz has a grand vision and renderings to boot: “Let’s ask if they are willing to convert the Coliseum to a public sports and recreation center with pools, gyms, indoor soccer and lacrosse fields, a velodrome and indoor track open to all, with scholarships and grant programs to make sure no one gets turned away.”
Do Portlanders really care about saving the Memorial Coliseum? Maybe if it still looked as awesome as it did during the era it was built? I dig the smooth, modern lines of the current structure way more than Obletz’s rendered remake.
Anyway, we shouldn’t be building any more stadiums in the Rose Quarter to begin with, it’s supposed to be planned for more retail and dense housing. A year-round indoor public sports facility could be a good use of the Memorial Coliseum though and an asset to the neighborhood. Though why scholarships and grants would be necessary isn’t really clear. There’s are free, public community centers in town…
“Anyway, we shouldn’t be building any more stadiums in the Rose Quarter to begin with, it’s supposed to be planned for more retail and dense housing.”
But you are assuming Portland A) still does comprehensive, neighborhood, or area planning and B) follows those approved plans.
The City of Portland no longer does planning. The city does development. That is, the city blindly follows whatever shiny object “opportunities” that come their way with the promise of jobs and economic development and growth without looking at the larger impact this has one the city as a whole, those neighborhoods and the short term and long term ramifications.
Portland is resting on its laurels as a well planned city and is doing what has stymied so many other places – putting ill hashed development proposals over weighing the qualitative and quantitative costs and risks.
Portland: Jumped the Shark.
2 things: It won’t be eligible for historic status until 2010, and 50 years is a national standard, not a “west coast” one.
my mom saw the beatles there.
Thank god someone has a decent idea for the Rose Quarter and has put some thought into it, instead of just creating another Live! thing, which would most likely end up Dead! (unless maybe we put a casino it in). Now will our political leaders have the cajones to make something like this happen? Whither Eric Sten?
Shouldn’t the baseball bleachers be facing the river?
If Obletz is concerned with maintaining the neighborhood’s historical character, then why has he designated the site of the Paramount apartments as commercial/retail space? Is a 90-year-old building, the only residential space in a formerly vibrant African American community, less historic than a 50 year old sports arena?
Why not leave PGE Park alone, and put the soccer field/arena/stadium there? Or am I missing something.
Which blazer had the really horrible “Water is Magic!” redesign idea? Is Raef acting up again?
> it’s supposed to be planned for more retail and dense housing.
Uhh, yeah. Because there’s such a shortage of retail and condos in the Broadway area. Just what we need – more empty condos.
“Shouldn’t the baseball bleachers be facing the river?”
According to the rules homeplate can’t be facing West. There’s that whole thing with the setting sun being in the batter’s eye thing.
“Why not leave PGE Park alone, and put the soccer field/arena/stadium there? Or am I missing something.”
Because a brand new soccer stadium would cost between $120 and $160 million. Modifying PGE Park AND building a AAA baseball park costs $85 million. Should I even get into the fact that PGE is WAY too big for a AAA baseball club and perfect size for a MLS team or do you not care?
Actually, Obletz is not an architect and his firm, Shiels Obletz Johnsen, Inc., is not a design firm. They are project managers, and involved in many of Portland’s better urban infrastructure and development projects.