The Holly Theatre, Medford

Several months ago I reported on the announced transformation of Medford’s Holly Theatre into a fully restored performing arts center to be operated by the JPR Foundation, the same folks that run the successful Cascade Theatre in Redding, California.  I see this not only as a great opportunity for a long neglected building, the Frank Clark-designed Holly Theatre, but as a wonderful opportunity for downtown Medford.  A revitalized Holly Theatre will, in tandem with the existing Craterian Theatre, essentially double Medford’s night-time draw, support the growing number of high-quality eateries in downtown and, written broadly, give people another good reason to be in downtown Medford after the end of the business day.

While the media has been quiet, except for the occasional doubting Thomas who still fear that Medford can’t support two theatres (nonsense), the JPR Foundation has not.  Most of the Holly’s interior has been cleaned up, as the previous owner removed things that had been stored there, creating an even more impressive space.  The Holly is, well, HUGE, with a single seating rake that once held more than 1200 seats.  The deep stage is largely empty, the leaking roof of the fly has now been repaired and the lighting is on, so you can appreciate the amazing interior.  JPR has been working on finalizing the application for a MURA Facade Improvement Grant, and expects to start work on recreating the huge 33-foot tall neon sign and the projecting marquee by late Fall.  Planning is underway for the major restoration effort, including new systems, improved building services, and, of course, an entirely accurate restoration and rehabilitation that will return the building to full function.  There are, of course, LOTS of decisions yet to be made, and lots of surprises yet to come, but the Holly is clearly on the road back.  Medford is very very lucky.

Sparta Building-Prismatic Glass, Transoms and Cornice

Oh mysteries of the internet!  For reasons unexplained, one of the most popular pages on this blog has been the one about replicating the prismatic glass at the Sparta Building, in downtown Medford, that was posted 18-December-2010.  I followed up with an in-process in June and now, that the windows are in (and having no shame) I thought I’d post a few pictures of how those transoms look installed.  The Sparta project is moving ahead; most of the exterior glazing is in and the tile bulkheads are ready for grouting.  

I’ve also put a photo in showing the replicated sheet metal cornice (stored on the roof for the moment) that will soon be mounted on the south elevation, replacing the one that a previous owner foolishly removed and destroyed.

 

Irish Bend Covered Bridge- Historic once again

In 1979 the Oregon SHPO approved a thematic study, a multiple property submittal, to list 46 of Oregon’s then 56 covered bridges on the National Register.  That document brought not only new appreciation for these quaint structures, but eventually access to funding through the Federal government and the Oregon Department of Transportation.  One of those 46 structures, the Irish Bend Covered Bridge, located outside Monroe, Oregon, was already in trouble.  The bridge, built in 1954 from 1920s plans, had been bypassed by a new road and the portion of the Willamette Slough that it traversed in this rural, agricultural, area had been shunted through a culvert.  Hardly romantic, but certainly functional and easy-to-maintain.

Benton County, which could no longer maintain the bridge with road funds, tried to find a good use for the span as interest in covered bridges grew.  They offered it to the City of Albany, which considered moving it to Bryant Park, and then to Multnomah County, who as Oregon’s most populous county felt disadvantaged by their lack of a covered bridge.  Neither offer came to fruition.  After what the Covered Bridge Society of Oregon termed “14 years of uncertainty,” the Irish Bend Covered Bridge was disassembled and the pieces were stored at the Benton County Fairgrounds.  Oregon’s State Advisory Committee on Historic Preservation did what such committees do when a resource is dismantled with no assurance it’ll be saved; they removed the bridge from the National Register in May 1989.

They may have acted precipitously.  Spurred by the situation, the Covered Bridge Society approached Benton County’s Board of Commissioners with the idea of rebuilding the bridge as part of the Campus Way bike path at OSU.  The location was perfect, crossing Oak Creek, out on the western end of the campus near the agricultural college’s barns.  It’s about as rural a location in the middle of college campus that you can imagine.  The County said “sure,” and offered to pony up a third of the funding (and the bridge) if the community could raise the remainder.  OSU agreed to the idea, funding and volunteer hours, much of it from off-duty Benton County Public Works employees and OSU staff, brought the bridge back to life, rebuilding the trusses, and replicating the damaged pieces carefully and accurately.  The rebuilt Irish Bend Covered Bridge was rededicated on November 13, 1989.

While the story has a happy ending, the bridge hasn’t been formally considered “historic” since May 1989.  As part of a project to better protect the bridge and do some minor work on it, Benton County is now going ahead and submitting a new nomination to again list the Irish Bend Covered Bridge on the National Register.  Oregon, today, has only 50 remaining covered bridges.  It will be good to see one more recognized by the National Register.

The Green Bridge of Sheridan

Sheridan is an incorporated town located between McMinnville and Willamina, on the South Yamhill River, in Yamhill County.  Platted in 1866, a major feature of the community from the start has been the bridge, connecting the business district on the south bank of the river, with the county road, what is now the Willamina-Sheridan Highway, on the north.  If you wanted to get across the river, you went to Sheridan, to the end of Bridge Street, and did.

The wooden bridge (there may have been more than one, Sheridan has a long and sad history of fire and flood) was replaced by a steel thru truss in 1910.  We know this from photos that show the bridge before the big fire of 1913, and from a short notice in the Oregonian about several Sheridan merchants that were upset about being assessed for the cost of the approach spans.  That first steel bridge was reportedly salvaged from its original location, across the Willamette River, in Portland.  Moving steel bridges around was an early form of municipal recycling.

But Sheridan prospered, despite the floods (there was a bad one in 1921) and the fires (another in 1922, destroyed most of the commercial district) and soon traffic outgrew the salvaged steel span that was probably 20 years old before it made it ever made it to Sheridan.  In 1939 the Mountain States Construction Company, of Eugene, put the finishing touches on Sheridan’s last bridge, a 131’ long Parker-design thru truss designed by the Oregon State Highway Department and funded in part by the New Deal’s Public Works Administration.  The Sheridan Bridge still stands, almost entirely intact, eight decades later.  Painted by OSHD as they painted most of their steel spans during that era, it’s affectionately known as the Green Bridge.

Sheridan has received funding to rehab the bridge, to improve its structural capacity for seismic, to repaint to protect the steel from the elements, and to keep it as the iconic landmark in downtown for a long time.  It’s a great project...and a fun one to document too.

It's Always the Windows

It’s always the windows, or so it seems.  There is no denying that the design and quality of windows play a huge role in the appearance of a building exterior.  They are both functional (who abhors natural light?) and character-defining.  Take any building, of any style, and fill the windows with wall and you will almost certainly destroy its character.  Sure, it’ll also be more energy efficient (windows, for all their positive attributes simply aren’t.  Period), but that’s another rant.

I have been writing about the re-creation of the long lost transom panels from the 1910-11 Sparta Building in Medford but there is another project, at the opposite end of I-5, that is looking to return a building full of windows to their original, historic, 1945 glory, of a much different, if still important, type.  Famed Portland architect Richard Sundeleaf designed the streamlined building at 300 NW 14^th for the General Electric Supply Corporation Building with 15-light industrial steel sash windows creating two complex bands of natural light along all three exterior elevations (the building has a party wall to the north).  In 1980 Sundeleaf, perhaps against his own better judgement, oversaw the remodel (remuddle?) of the building that infilled the entire bottom band with CMU and replaced the operable windows panels on the upper floor with fixed glass panels.  Tinted ones.  Sorry, Mr. Sundeleaf, but WHAT were you thinking?

Cut to 2011...new owners are in the planning process to entirely remove the existing ugly and replace it with custom manufactured, 15-light, steel sash, industrial windows on both the upper and lower floors.  Two strong, visually dense, bands of windows in place of the current 'single-story on a pedestal look"  will re-establish the character of the exterior.

Windows.  It’s always the windows.  In this case returning them to their original appearance and design will be a positive change for the corner, for the client, and for the history of the building.  I'd like to think, Mr. Sundeleaf would be pleased.

Picturesque River View

I’ve been thinking about cemeteries, River View Cemetery in Portland in particular.  The idea that would become River View, located in SE, off Macadam, at the west end of the Sellwood Bridge, starts in 1879 when Henry Corbett, W. S. Ladd and Henry Failing, among others, decided that the Lone Fir Cemetery, in what was still East Portland, wasn’t an acceptable burying spot for the up-and-coming of Portland.  They purchased 300+acres of wooded hillside and then went to Cleveland to hire Edward Otto Schwagerl, a skilled landscape architect who had designed several “rural” cemeteries, to transform the spot into a cemetery worthy of Portland.  “Rural” cemeteries, sometimes call pastoral cemeteries, were all the rage in the late Victorian era.  Nobody took death as seriously as the Victorians.

Schwagerl did a fine job and his plan over the years has been augmented by the work of a host of Portland architects, including Warren William, Ellis Lawrence, A. E. Doyle, and Pietro Belluschi.  Walking around River View is something like walking around Portland, with familiar names such as Terwilliger, Benson, Hoyt, Ladd and others all entombed here.  Harvey Scott, the longtime editor of the Oregonian is buried here, as is Henry Pittock, his boss.  Scott’s sister, Abigail Scott Duniway, who so fought for Women’s Suffrage in Oregon is here, near her brother who so opposed that concept.  The graves of many of Oregon’s governors, and Portland’s mayors, among other political leaders are here, as is Henry Weinhard and Virgil Earp, of OK Corral fame.

On behalf of Multnomah County I have been researching the history of River View, and will be preparing material that ultimately will provide for an interpretive site that helps explain the Cemetery’s important history.  In the meantime, it’s a beautiful place to visit, just as Schwagerl and his influential clients intended more than a 130 years ago.

Sparta Building Update- Glazing

The exterior of the Sparta Building, in downtown Medford, is coming along nicely, with all of the windows framed in and glass starting to be installed as well.  Brown coat stucco is going up on the re-exposed masonry columns, which will cure about three weeks before the finish coat is applied. Soon the black ceramic tile will go into the bulkhead area, below the window sills, and the exterior will start looking like a finish building, rather than a construction site.  

In the meantime Andrew Tillinghast, of Neoglassic Studio, is busily cutting 5.75” x 5.75" panes of reeded glass and setting them into huge panels that will be installed as the transom band.  I have had this sort of work done before, and been pleased with the results, but have never had it done for a building that was so close to home.  In the past my Medford clients have always balked at the design, or the price, or the complication, in at least one case with unfortunate results.  I am thinking that when folks who trouble envisioning lead glass panels may "get it" when they see “prismatic” glass on the Sparta.  At least here’s hoping.