Marble Reliefs by Frederic Littman may Finally Reappear after years in Storage

Back in 2017 when the Belluschi Bank was demolished (and Belluschi Crater left, since there were no immediate plans for redevelopment), the wrecking team did salvage the reliefs of Frederic Littman and save them for future reinstallation.

Hop Harvest on the now-demolished Belluschi Bank,
relief by Frederic Littman (2013)

The reliefs formerly along Liberty Street (2013)

After languishing in storage for several years, there is new talk they might reappear!

On Wednesday the 14th the Public Art Commission meets, and in last month's minutes was discussion of them:

Kathy De Rosa from Deacon Development discussed the preservation and potential relocation of eight marble reliefs created by Frederick Littman. These reliefs represent different Oregon industries and were originally part of a bank building that was demolished in 2016. Deacon Development is in the design phase for new projects on High Street and Liberty Street in downtown Salem and is considering how to incorporate these reliefs into the new buildings. The reliefs, each measuring 6x5 feet and six inches thick, were carved by Frederick Littman, an influential artist and instructor at both the Portland Art Museum and Portland State University. Deacon Development has not yet closed on the property but will own the reliefs once the purchase is finalized. Commissioners expressed interest in the reliefs being integrated into Salem’s public spaces, noting their historical and artistic significance. Suggestions included incorporating them into the design of the new buildings or finding prominent public locations where they could be displayed together. There was a consensus on the importance of keeping the reliefs in Salem to preserve local history and culture. Kathy De Rosa will follow up with the city's archaeologist and the Public Arts Commission regarding potential locations and plans for the reliefs. [OE link added]

The developer at that time had not closed on the crater and former bank site, and the conversation is very preliminary and tentative. But at least it is starting!

In the packet for this month is also a memo proposing a well at the northeast corner of the intersection of Patterson and Second in West Salem for a sculpture installation.

This seems to exemplify the approach of ornamenting a slack and empty sidwalk space rather than boosting an already lively space. We should put art where we know people will see it, not where we hope people might see it!

About both, the reliefs and the sculpture well, there will certainly be more to say as plans mature.

The Public Art Commission meets on Tuesday the 14th at 3:30pm.

Redeveloping Belluschi Pond at CANDO; MAPS Cans Drive-Thru

The downtown neighborhood association, CANDO, meets on Tuesday and they'll be getting an update on the proposal to redevelop the crater and seasonal pond on the corner of Liberty and Chemeketa, the former site of Pietro Belluschi's First National Bank.

And a new bank is poised to go in just down the street from the new Police Station.

From back in March, but they finally drained it

In April they said "a ways off," but it's looking closer now

On the CANDO agenda, the project is described as "mixed use" only, and may or may not have all 154 apartments mentioned back in April. It will also be interesting to learn whether the old City Hall site is included.

It will be great to see the corner redeveloped. (Update: Nope, the project's been cancelled.)

Marion Car Park has a Fancier Pedigree than we Thought

Well, we might think that we have an accurate count of buildings associated with Pietro Belluschi, but that would apparently be wrong. Hiding in plain sight is a minor building with ties to him.

Marion Car Park from inside the Conference Center
Guess what?! It's a Belluschi!

It looks like the Marion Car Park, which will be demolished, was designed by Belluschi's firm. A brief note from November 1950 says it will be "of modernistic lines...[and] designed by Pietro Belluschi, Portland architect."

November 14th 1950

Origin of the Boise Mill, Cherries Slow to Blossom, Ducks at Belluschi Pond - Updated

Today marks the 100th anniversary of the first announcement for what become the Boise mill.

Near the beginning, early or mid-1920s
Looking southwest from Sculpture Garden corner
(Salem Library Historic Photos)

March 11th, 1919

I don't know how interesting this might be, and maybe we'll follow it a little over the next couple of years.

Poopy Orts: Middens at the Police Station, the Belluschi Crater, Rain Garden Slalom on 12th

The debate on the SRC is heavy and heated, and maybe something trashy and low would be welcome.

Here are notes on some poopy things around Salem.

Did you make it by either the Mill or the Library for the temporary exhibits on the archeology digs at the new Police Station site?

The version at the Library was a little underwhelming, perhaps because it was still early in the assessment process. I was hoping for a little more narrative sweep and analysis, but it was mostly lots of things. Things with tags. A little bric-a-brac-y.

The outhouse and midden at the new Police Station

They found plenty of evidence for Kalapuya life, a hitherto unknown well, and lots of glass and ceramic, much of it apparently from one or more outhouses. It was nice to see the middens represent! Hopefully they'll present a more formal report later on. (Previously see: "Traces of Old Hotel at New Police Station Site? Archeology Day Offers Glimpse of Older Salem!")

Belluschi's YWCA of 1954 gets some Love

It's nice to see the old YWCA building get some love in the paper today! It is one of the remaining buildings designed by Pietro Belluschi, and to my eye, the finest of those remaining.

Roberts House (circa 1870) before demolition in 1952
(Salem Library Historic Photos)

One new thing was a little more background on what the YWCA replaced:

The Salem YWCA moved to the Roberts House on the site in 1939. The house was built in the 1870s, and possibly earlier. The Capital Journal reported the building might have preceded statehood, with construction as early as 1858. It possibly was built as a church parsonage.

Eclipse and a Delightful Fullness in Downtown

The energy downtown was great!

Did you make it downtown for any part of the eclipse? The energy was terrific, with lots of sidewalk life!

On the lunch hour sidewalk seating at the restaurants was busy, but not uncomfortably crowded, and it was so great to see and feel the activity downtown.

At least in the informal aggregate assessment of the total bump in business done by the paper, it sounds like Friday and Saturday were mostly a bust, however; Sunday was better, and the post-eclipse crowd on Monday the best.

It's hard to say off-hand how it compares to other events, though, like an especially good First Wednesday, On Your Feet Friday, or the Hoopla. This would be nice context also to have. In absolute terms, it sounds like a disappointment and really undershot projections.

Monday was best

In any case, walking around downtown after the eclipse was wonderful, and the sidewalk life, with many tourists and residents, jazzed with vibrant energy. It was stimulating.

But it is possible that with all our attention directed towards the sun, we missed out partially on the full social dimension of the event.

Belluschi Legacy in Danger: YWCA Building Deserves Attention

Just a periodic reminder that our stock of buildings designed by Oregon's leading modernist architect, Pietro Belluschi, and probably Oregon's greatest and most important architect period, is very seriously dwindling.

Front page today: Beginning the Demolition on
First National Bank (1947)

Medical Office on Center Street (1948)

Breitenbush Hall at the State Hospital (1950)
Entry in the HLC "This Place Matters" Contest

Here's the list of buildings recently standing and their status:

Mid-Century Modern at the Historic Landmarks Commission next Thursday

Maybe you need something to distract you from the sabre-rattling of the moment.* It looks like DOCOMOMO, Documenting and Conserving the Modern Movement, might be giving a presentation to the Historic Landmarks Commission next week, on Thursday the 20th.

The agenda item's a little vague, and maybe it's just a topic for discussion and not a formal presentation - "Docomomo Oregon & Association of Preservation Technical Workshop." No matter. It's a timely topic.

Post's Carnegie Library (1912), Belluschi's YWCA (1952),
and Belluschi/Doyle Pacific Telephone and Telegraph (1930)

Buildings are generally eligible for the National Register of Historic Places after 50 years. Right now that's 1967, believe it or not.

But for most of us, Historic Preservation's main context has been for buildings from before World War II, especially those from the 19th century. That's a legacy from the previous generation's pioneering work.

It's time to think about mid-century modern - even as autoist as it often is!

Third Try's the Charm: Demolishing the Belluschi Bank

Pietro Belluschi's 1946-8 First National Bank:
Demolition permit issued September 1st

It looks this time it's gonna happen. (Or perhaps it's already started? I haven't been by lately, but I haven't seen anything on social media either.)

On September 1st, the City issued a demolition permit for the First National Bank building at 280 Liberty St NE designed by Pietro Belluschi.

It and the building next door (260 Liberty) sold for $1,775,000 and the sale looks like it closed on August 31st.

So they didn't waste any time on the demolition permit!

Proposed Mitigation Plan for State Hospital Demolition at Historic Landmarks Commission

The Historic Landmarks Commission meets tonight, Thursday the 19th, and there's some awards, the new storefront for the Gray Block, as well as a discussion of the North Campus of the State Hospital.

A Digression

But first, a very pleasant historical digression!

1899 Bicycle Tax Register, Yamhill County (detail)
via State Archives

A couple of days ago, State Archives posted a picture of one of the pages in the Bicycle Tax register of Yamhill County from 1899.

This, Oregon's first Bicycle Bill, was supposed to fund a system of dedicated sidepaths along County roads.

It was a bust.

Marion County surveyed 10 routes, started construction on a few of them, but abandoned things quickly after payment, compliance, and collection all were problems. As with projects today, initial construction wasn't the hard part, but subsequent maintenance a great problem. The dirt and gravel paths deteriorated quickly.

City Council, December 14th - Fairview and the State Hospital

Most of the good bits on Council's agenda for Monday are discussed in other posts or elsewhere, so we'll start with links. At the top is more on the way we approach redevelopment at former State institutional sites.

Le Breton Hall in 2011

You already know about the new plan to demolish Le Breton Hall at Fairview.

Also very interesting is something SCV turned up. The Salem Housing Advisory Committee recommends "12 acres of affordable housing at the North Campus site [of the State Hospital] on Center Street," or approximately a quarter of the acreage that might be redeveloped:

Affordable housing fits the North Campus redevelopment vision. The North Campus is within several established neighborhoods and within biking/walking/transit proximity to concentrated employment at Government and medical facilities.

From the beginning of talk about the prospect of redevelopment it has seemed like this proximity has always been one of the most important features.

It's 10 minutes by bike to the Capitol!

It is good to see some convergence! - for advocates of better transportation, advocates of better land use, advocates for better neighborhoods, advocates for affordable housing all to see this parcel as critical and useful. (Now if the health advocates will weigh in!)

And although not all the buildings are involved, historic preservation is also represented. The most disappointing omission from the current preservation plan, but also one with great difficulties, is the Pietro Belluschi design of Breitenbush Hall. A long and very thin strip, it has a form and site disposition perfect for institutional use, but more difficult for other market-based uses. It hogs up a lot of the land and spacing, and makes it more difficult to deploy other new buildings around it.

Half of Belluschi's Breitenbush Hall - A shallow strip, super wide
and a good distance from the sidewalk across a lawn

So it's probably going be demolished. SCV has details on a tour of Breitenbush Hall at the State Hospital.

High and Chemeketa, a Belluschi Mystery, the Royal Court Apartments: Building Bits

With the recent news that Exit Real World would be closing, the corner of High and Chemeketa has been top of mind.

It seems like that northeast corner should be a great spot. It's right by the transit mall.

But of course the transit mall doesn't fill the block.

Am I crazy or would this giant slab of nothing at Courthouse Square make a perfect spot for food trucks?? #sjnow pic.twitter.com/FWA89Z5Q5N
— Zach Urness (@ZachsORoutdoors) July 2, 2014

Yeah, that giant slab of nothing.

On the northwest corner is a crazy building with all these arches in an arcade.

The style seems totally gratuitous, literally apropos of nothing.

But it turns out it's apropos of something very significant.

What about that Belluschi Bank, Part II - A New Try at Demolition

Things aren't looking good for the Salem buildings of Pietro Belluschi.

October's demolition of a Belluschi clinic

In October of last year one was suddenly demolished without any formal notification process.

Talk about the North Campus of the State Hospital has suggested that there's a much stronger appetite to protect Edgar Lazarus' "Dome Building" than Belluschi's Breitenbush Hall or any of the other buildings.

News that Gannett is looking to sell the Statesman-Journal building and relocate the paper's offices puts that building's future in question.

Pietro Belluschi's 1946-8 First National Bank:
Approved for demolition in 2008, it's up for a permit again

And of course there's the First National Bank downtown, which has survived at least one attempt at demolition.

Nearly half of Belluschi's Salem body of work is in question right now.

Readers have shared that earlier this month, developers filed for an extension of the 2008 demolition permit for the First National Bank Building.

Office Building by Pietro Belluschi Demolished Today? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!

A commenter reports that the mid-century modern medical clinic at 13th and Center designed by Pietro Belluschi was demolished today.

Medical Clinic Designed by Pietro Belluschi at 13th and Center

Anyone else gone by the site and can give additional confirmation on this?

Another reader pointed out by email that a broker's website lists it for sale as "land."  So demolition looks all too possible.

The Coldwell Banker listing is for "land" and not a building

While the building is "minor" Belluschi, about him the Oregon Encyclopedia says:

Pietro Belluschi of Portland was an internationally known architect and a key innovator in the development of an elegant modernism, especially in residences suited to the materials and climate of the Pacific Northwest. His work won him widespread admiration and resulted in his appointment as dean of the School of Architecture and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology....During the second half of the twentieth century, Belluschi was a major architectural visionary in Oregon and the United States. He was admired for his use of fine craftsmanship and careful detailing, his response to regional conditions, and his preference for classical clarity of form.

He was a big deal. Preservation of the building might not have been possible, but that its demolition would occasion no debate and happen in silence in Salem would be a travesty. 

If true, where's the Historic Landmarks Commission when you need them?!  How is it possible to get a demolition permit without raising flags?  WTF!  Geez.

Here is the best list I have of Salem buildings he designed (#7 now gone, and #6 looks to follow in the State Hospital redevelopment):

1. Willamette University Library/ Smullin Hall, 900 State St., 1938
2. Willamette University Science Building, 1941
3. Willamette University Baxter Complex, 1943
4. Willamette University Doney Hall, 1948

5. Oregon Statesman Printing Plant, 280 Church St. NE, 1944
6. Oregon State Hospital, Breitenbush Hall, 2600 Center St. NE, 1945-50
7. Clinic for Clark Campbell and Wulf, 1280 Center St. NE, 1948
8. First National Bank of Portland, 280 Liberty St. NE, 1947
9. YWCA Building, 768 State St., 1946-52
10. Marion County Courthouse, 100 High St. NE, 1950

Drink a toast tonight, friends. Raise your glass to Pietro Belluschi.

Mid-Century Modern in Salem: Four Buildings Better than the Bank

In Jeffrey Tumlin's talk last month, one of the very last things he mentioned was the role of beauty. He didn't give it much air time, and he admitted that it was a problematic topic due to differences in taste among individuals and beauty's resistance to being quantified and measured.

That Belluschi Bank:  Not Lovely.
A cold, sterile, box, and unfriendly at the sidewalk

An elusive quality, beauty doesn't work its way into policy and planning very easily.

Step 9 in Jeff Speck's Walkable City

The notion's in the air, happily enough.  Though Jeff Speck doesn't use the word, his criterion of the "interesting" walk suggests he'd agree beauty is an important ingredient.  Something "friendly and unique" is often going to be something attractive, even beautiful. His Step 7 on shaping spaces and step 8 on street trees, also point to the aesthetic dimension of walking and perception.  So even if he doesn't mention beauty outright, beauty is lurking in the background of several of his points.

Back in February, in a comment on a note about the Belluschi Bank, Jim threw down a challenge,"What building have we built in Salem since 1940 that is as good as this one?"

Salem doesn't have a lot of mid-century architecture, and in addition to needing to think about the virtues of simply reusing existing building stock, we are also now at the point asking how much of it we should be preserving as historically or architecturally significant.  It is, unfortunately, also an era that has produced some terribly ugly things, and the general style cues don't very often say "beauty." More often they say instead things like "order" or "function," or "exposed," and it might take effort to see something interesting or even beautiful.

With the Saul Zaik home tour in Portland, the Gordon House tea getting press for Mother's Day, mid-century has been in the air lately - since Jim threw down a good question, here's the start of an answer!

Wait! Marquis meet Breitenbush: Why isn't the Care Facility talking OSH North Campus?

So there are doubtless a whole lotta complicating details - cost, schedule, asbestos abatement, etc., etc., etc....

But why aren't we at least talking about Marquis Companies reusing the existing health care facilities the State wants to sell off as surplus at the State Hospital?

The people on right are walking along Front Street!

The first thing that comes to mind is the Belluschi building, Breitenbush Hall. Visually it half-rhymed with the proposed building by CB|Two. Why not reuse a building by a modernist icon already configured for hospital services?

Half of Belluschi's Breitenbush Hall - A shallow strip, super wide

And if that building required too much modification, there are at least three other similar buildings on the north campus that are not as architecturally distinguished and could totally be gutted and reconfigured in adaptive reuse!

McKenzie Hall (pictured), Yaquina, Santiam, and Eola
are low-priority for preservation

There should be more discussion of this!  Maybe it's a non-starter, but it would be good to learn more about the reasons why.  And if there's something to the idea, let's see more consideration of it.

More Belluschi Bits - And what about Hallie Ford?

Breitenbush Hall at the State Hospital is impossible to photograph.

It's organized as a thin, shallow strip along a long, long axis: All width and no depth. Presumably there's one long axial corridor with rooms on either side.

Half of Belluschi's Breitenbush Hall - A shallow strip, super wide

It's also set back pretty far from the sidewalk and with lots of trees to hide it from casual view - and to make shadows for a picture!

As people think about redeveloping the north campus parcel, the building has some challenges for retail and might be better suited for education or small office space or some other commercial use. Maybe you could create studio/1br apartments.  It's an interesting challenge for a distinctively shaped building - though one whose architectural detailing isn't perhaps the most compelling.

A Belluschi Bell?  Other Mysteries!

Just where is the Belluschi Bell Building?  In her book on Belluschi, Meredith Clausen says that Belluschi designed several buildings for the phone company around the state, including one in Salem.  But she does not specifically discuss a particular one in Salem.  Several news articles also reference a telephone company building in Salem he designed.

December 5th, 1976

Brainstorming the North State Hospital Campus

On Sunday the Statesman's going to have a piece on the north half of the State Hospital Campus.

Now that the new State Hospital facility is mostly finished, the parcel and buildings north of Center Street are surplus and the State is apparently looking to off-load them.

The last time we went through this we got Sustainable Fairview and the hospital's plan for a parking lot at the Blind School.

What should Salemites want from this 47 acres and likely development?

So far anyway, Fairview looks nothing like this

Six Institutional Buildings (Including the 1910-12 Dome Building)
and lots of greenspace at the State Hospital

At least some of the buildings have a distinguished history and ought strongly to be considered for creative reuse.

Dome Building last fall

While the Dome Building has an unfortunate recent history associated with its use for the Department of Corrections, previously it was used as the receiving ward and had been designed by Edgar Lazarus. Unless it turns out to be in worse shape than the Kirkbride building of Wilbur Boothby, it is certainly worth saving. Breitenbush Hall is by Pietro Belluschi. The other buildings may be of significantly less interest, and some are so depressing or dull they should probably just be demolished.  (Brick is an easy guide:  the buildings worth saving are probably faced or constructed in brick.)

So What about that Belluschi Bank?

Over on the note about sidewalks and the Social Security Administration office, Jim proposes that the old First National Bank building designed by Pietro Belluschi might have been perfect.

And on the note about the McGilchrist building, Walker proposes a fee on vacant buildings as a way to incentivize improvements, leases, and ultimately occupancy.

What great questions! So what about that bank building? Here's a vacant building that shouldn't be vacant.

Doesn't it look like it belongs on the Capitol Mall? All marbled up and formal.

The lack of ground floor windows is a problem.  It's got that dark marble band instead of windows. The building really does turn its back, more than a little frostily, to the sidewalk.  It's not inviting and it's not connected to the wider life of the City as it passes on the street.

The building clearly anticipates most visits by car - through the drive-in in back and through the rear entry off the parking lot.  It's a mid-century autoist construct.

The light inside could be a problem, too.  There are four 3x3 clerestory windows on the north side.  That's it.  It may be a little dark inside.  Everything about the building makes me want to poke holes and to open it up.

Except for the reliefs!