[pdx] The Interstate Bridges From See Level

2213.Take a walk with Cyclotram's atul666:

And read all about it here. A very close and needful look at a very historic structure.

It's easy to forget how important to the mid-20th Century Portland-Vancouver population a way to get across the river was.

Technorati Tags: Interstate Bridge, Portland, Vancouver, Interstate Bridges, I-5, Oregon, Washington

[pdx] The Powell's City Of Books Uncertainty Principle

2198.The Powell's City Of Books Uncertainty Principle states, quite simply, this: regardless of the actual presence of absence of a given volume in the Powell's inventory, the attempt to locate said book changes whether or not you'll actually see it on the shelf.

In particular, once failing to locate the desired volume in the appropriate section, consulting the Customer Lookup terminal collapses the book's wave function and makes it tougher to find once you get back to the corresponding shelf.

Actually, this is a POV on how awesome Powell's actually is, not a criticism.

Technorati Tags: Powell's Books, Powell's, City of Books, PDX funnay

[pdx] Hawthorne: Tales Of Typographic Boulevards

2188.Portland's Hawthorne Blvd, at about 7PM, on an overcast, famously-Oregon summer evening:

Looking west from SE 47th Avenue, just where I took the sign blade pictures in the previous missive. Yes, it is gloomy and kind of dark. After the hellish heat wave Oregon just endured, you won't find me complaining. Actually, too much clear, bright weather makes me edgy. But then, I was born here in Oregon.

A couple of examples of typography and architecture that contributes to the famous Hawthorne feel and atmosphere caught my eye.

JaCiva's Chocolatier was founded by a man named Jack and his wife, Iva, and it's pronounced that way. You may think you know Oregonized confectionary with Moonstruck, and it is good stuff, but for real local flavor, JaCiva's in the place. The logotype on the sign is completely designed here (I'd be surprised to find that was an actual typeface) and it uses the idea of soft graceful curves and swashes to impart a sense of luxury.

The type in the old Portland IMPACT community service center logo is Koch's famous Neuland, a font that gives the impression of hand-hewn craft. The simplicity of it, combined with the whimsy of the figures and the flat brown tone, deliver a message of humility and approachable help. The reader board's message of E HAVEMOVE RN EWA DD RESS . BURNSID delivers a message that is perhaps in code.

Portland IMPACT have in fact removed to a different address on E. Burnside and have updated their look and name. They are now Impact Northwest:

… the colorization fo the logo is inspired and fun, at least against a light background – the type's a little uninspired though – in my opinion.

Part of the charm of Hawthorne, as I alluded, is the architecture, and along the 4700 block, on the south side, are some charming old commercial fronts that I hope aren't replaced by condos any time soon:

The signage on the places are as eclectic as the variety of people you'll meet on Hawthorne. Hawthorne Vintage, there on the right, has a hand-done sign that is just fun with its funky type and bouncing color balls. Timbuktunes World Music has a mashup with type inspired by Art Deco, purple and green colors, going for tradition and non-tradition all in one fell swoop – and somehow, despite having two colors that you don't think would work together, they do. The CPA office on the far left – the type and presentation is staid and boring, but you don't want to be entertained by your CPA. You want them to be dependable, expected, and expert.

I know the type is hard to see in the photo. Go down there maybe and enjoy the atmosphere in person, yes? Maybe I'll be getting better photographs later on.

Finally, just a mysterious two-storefront building immediately west of that:

Isn't that wonderfully anonymous? The paint, put on for the sake of argument; the architectural touches, which suggest Art Deco; if you get up close, the transom-level windows have this wonderful frosted rippled glass which you used to find everywhere. Nothing special about this, but everything wonderful. This little building really captured my imagination.

All of the above can be found on upper Hawthorne Blvd between SE 47th and 48th Avenues.

Gloomy late afternoons in Portland, Oregon. Definitely nothing like them anywhere else.

Technorati Tags: Typography, Hawthorne Blvd, Portland Landscapes, Portland Street Scenes, Sign Design, Street Typography

[pdx] Una acte gratuite

2185.The exploit in guerilla gardening ending, not with a bang, but a sense of resignation by the employee sent to remove the garden.

As David Loftus details here, he was on the scene at 8 AM on Monday, and by 8:15 AM, the garden was gone, removed by an employee of City Center Parking/Downtown Development Group that comported themselves with something resembling a sense of honor.

The plot was apparently planted by some college sociology class that was trying to make a point in some way somehow. How they were going to do that by planting a boulevard-strip garden and stepping back to let whatever happen, happen kind of escapes me, but remember, I'm a prole. Sometimes I just don't "get" these sorts of things.

David took a few pictures and handled it with utmost aplomb.

Why do it, even though the removeal of the garden was essentially a fait accompli? Well, as David says at the end of his article:

To paraphrase Tertullian's line about faith, I acted because it was futile.

In a world full of powerful interests hoping to make us all into consumers and spectators, it's essential to act and speak.

Otherwise, you're not learning and growing; you're just opening your mouth for someone else's spoons.

Capisce, my friends? This is kind of what it could mean to be an actual human.

Your next responses to your own reality are left as an exercise for the reader.

Technorati Tags: David Loftus, guerilla gardening

[pdx] Views Of The West End

2161.SW 13th Avenue, Stark Street, and West Burnside come together at this big plenum which used to anchor the west end of the gay club district. With PDXEagle up on N Lombard now, Club Portland gone, and the Pink Triangle becoming more metrosexual by the day, it's comforting to know that, for now anyway, the district still looks like a slice of old downtown Portland, the downtown Portland that I fell in sloppy love with when I first visited as a teenager out of Salem:

View it embiggened at Posterous here.

Another view I particularly enjoy is looking down West Burnside. Now, my camera does a pretty fine job, my Plastic Fantastic, the ViviCam 3705, but it's views like this that make me wish I could afford a nifty camera with telephoto, because street views like this are so much fun to play with:

View this one embiggened at Posterous.

It's just quintessentially downtown Portland. And I've always loved downtown Portland.

Technorati Tags: SW Stark Street, West Burnside Street, West End, Portland, Portland Street Scenes, Pink Triangle, Portland Photos

The Horizon and The City: "Bluffing" Portland

2152.Another thing we did on a day simply pointing the car in whatever direction and taking whatever picture we felt was there are, as everyone knows, great places to get long-view skyline photos of Portland.

Visual Portland is a treat. If you could eat the view, it would taste like your favorite food and would never get you fat and never give you heart disease. And we have great viewpoints that we can take our leisure at. Here's a few we found, and if you want to view them embiggened, then click on the words "Posterous Link" that should appear beneath each photo. If you want to see my whole Posterous stream, it's at http://zehnkatzen.posterous.com.

One great place is the University of Portland. The very cheerful campus, located in north Portland, is located at the lip of a cliff called Waud's Bluff. It affords a commanding view of the working harbor of Portland, Swan Island, and the Swan Island lagoon:

View Bigly at Posterous

If you move just a schoshe to the west, you have a handy-dandy, neato-mosquito ready-made visual frame made out of foliage:

View Bigly at Posterous

In the first, you get a great view of the harbor and Swan Island. In the second, you get a layered effect; nature, Island, and bustling city in the distance.

I've got to say also at this point that the UP is a very welcoming host. Me and The Wife™ wandered onto campus with a camera and just started pointing and shooting, and as soon as Campus Security realized we were just takin' landscape snaps, they let us be. Thank you, UP security. You rock.

At the other end of town there's a bluff which I don't know the name of, which overlooks two very special Portland places. One is the wetland known as Oaks Bottom, which is an urban wildlife paradise, and the other is the Oaks Amusement Park, one of the last of that old-fashioned breed, 104 years old and just as popular as ever, with a legendary roller rink.

At the lip of the bluff overlooking the bottom, there's a shortish street called SE Sellwood Blvd. Narrow, pleasant, and lined with homes that are so very modest and charming you just know they cost more than $500,000 each, even in this economy.

Well, you do get quite a view for your coin, especially at sunset:

View Bigly at Posterous

If you let the land dominate, rather than the sky, you get this view:

View Bigly at Posterous

These two shots demonstrate a certain thing that I always had a feel about but didn't really realize solidly until I saw it. It's true in the University of Portland shots but it really jumps out to you in the Oak Bottom pair. The upper shot, containing just the sky and the skyline, is very warm, very dreamy – almost ephemeral. The new buildings in the Portland skyline almost make it a truly-futuristic thing. But when I let the land dominate, it changed the color balance entirely, making it very cool and less Brigadoon like.

On the UP photos, including the nature in the foreground softened up and gave the view a boundary. But with the Sellwood/Oaks Bottom photos, it goes between dream and reality.

Such is the magic of composition. No matter what camera you got, you can choose for effect.

And Portland makes a very cool model. I frigg'n love my hometown.

Technorati Tags: PDX, PDX landscapes, portland landscapes, rose city views, Portland Viewpoints