[pdx_photos] Downtown Portland at Sunset

3011.

Posted because I found them in my photo 'stash. I love downtown Portland as the sun goes down. Always has been thus; pretty, shimmery, glimmery, ephemeral. Never more than recently.

All copyright me. Don't steal 'em, okay? If you want a copy, contact me for terms.

[pdx] Rich, Cold Sunrise, 12/12/13

2980.
Nothing much to say here except, my gosh, the rich color!

Taken this morning near Portland International Airport. The colors are much hotter than the weather and just as memorable.

Made In Oregon: It's The Battle Of The Brands

1997.It's kind of the down-side of popularity. Everyone wants you; soon enough, everyone thinks they own you.

I am, of course, talking about Beau Breedlove.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, Sorry. The iconic Made In Oregon sign, sorry about that. My bad.

That I called it iconic says something right there. A lot of people look on it and, since it's in public view, a lot of people have feelings about it. It's certainly unique as a sign, and there's been some sign in that area designed as a landmark since the early 20th Century, when the Apostolic Faith Church used a building in that area as a meeting hall.

In short, it's part of the warp and woof of the way Portland looks and feels (if you'll excuse the Apple-esque termage). It may be as simple as a great assemply of steel, supports, glass, and electroluminescent gas, but it matters to people; people care. We all notice when a tube goes dark. We all look every year for the placing of the red bulb, the transformation of a simple abstract leaping dear into Rudolph The Red Nosed Rubicon, which has become as painfully Portland as meeting under the Meier & Frank clock or listening to the Cinnamon Bear on KEX used to be.

Enter the University of Oregon. The old Norcrest China building, once capital of the Naito Empire and home to the flagship Made In Oregon store, has been nicely reborn into something that stops just short of actually being the U of O Portland campus – store, offices, classrooms. And, with the building goes the sign. It's a package deal.

In that view, it's entirely reasonable that the U of O get to remake the sign with whatever message it wishes. It's part of the brand, and what a brand that is! We should all be so luck as to be gifted with that store of good will.

If it was just a sign, then that would have been the end of it.

Since the leaving of the Made In Oregon store, and belieing the pure corporate history of the sign itself (from White Satin sugar to White Stag sportswear to Made In Oregon), the three-word legend has gone from business name to generic tag. I myself was fortunate enough to have actually been made in Oregon. A lot of people I know who came here wish they could say the same. Oregon and all her intangibles are still desirable and seductive, even in our highly cynical age.

It's not just a sign.

Think more of When Worlds Collide.

The crack-up is so far kind of messy. Dread Lord Frohnmayer refuses to talk or deal in any way shape or form, reputedly (and I do mean reputedly; we've got PR coming out the gazonga on this) so intractable on this as to put off Randy Leonard. This, my friends, is no small feat.

Commissioner Leonard, for his part, is doing something typically Leonardesque. Don't want to discuss changing the sign to something less UO-specific? Fine. David Frohnmayer is finding out that when you go balls-to-the-wall with Randy Leonard, he's only too happy to oblige. The ace-in-the-hole; eminent domain.

If Buckaroo Banzai doesn't want to give up the Overthruster, then we'll just have to take it from him! In the, ah ... national interest, of course.

By this time next week, the sign and roof which supports it will be city owned and leased, respectively, most likely. UO Prez Frohnmayer, for his part, had threatened to let the sign go dark if he wasn't given his way. The City of Portland has the trump card here, or may well–as near as makes no difference.

Both sides understand the power of Branding.

Ironically, the illustrative photo (nicked from Commissioner Leonard's blog) juxtaposes the MIO sign with another icon, the Old Town rooftop watertank on the same building, which also resembles the logo of the adjacent Pearl District's business association ((pictured right) proving also that distintive architecture easily becomes a branding unto itself).

U of O would like nothing more than its brand on an icon, stamped in brilliant lights on the skyline of the state's principal city (because who ever heard of Portland State University?)

The City of Portland (as personified by Commissioner Leonard) would like something more universal,as befits the scope of the state's largest city (which includes both Duck fans and Beaver fans) such as the simple word "Oregon".

Both sides cannot see eye-to-eye.

Let the Battle of the Brands commence.

And so it goes.

Technorati Tags: Made In Oregon Sign, University Of Oregon, David Frohnmayer, Randy Leonard

New Style Street Blades Sighted At SE 92nd And Ellis

1984.At last! The first example of the new-look City of Portland street blades has been sighted off SE Division Street–just outside of downtown Lents, at SE 92nd and Ellis.

Coming in from the north on SE 92nd Avenue–our destination being the Oriental Food Value market on SE Insley just east of SE 82nd, and at that time of the day, coming in the "back" way rather than down 82nd is just the smarter thing to do–the SE Ellis Street blade presented itself with a visual shout, which is probably why they settled on this design:

Notable here is the way the new street blade for Ellis was perched atop an old street blade for SE 92nd Avenue (note that it's the extruded blade, and not a sheet, as the new design is).

I was somewhat disappointed that there was no new 92nd Avenue blade until The Wife™ pointed across the intersection, on the Lents Little League field side of the street:

The visual difference is obvious. These blades are so easy to spot and find, which is proved every time we find a new one like this.

Here's the money shot:

It's interesting to see a new named-street blade that doesn't say "SE Division St", for now we have some idea of how the rest of the city will look once these blades are the standard.

And here's a shot of the new-look cross including the 92nd Avenue blade:

And the documentation continues. If anyone who passes this way by these humble blog missives and lives in Portland (obvious point, yes) sees these new-look blades anywhere else in town, won't you clue me in? I'd like to get some idea of how far these are going.

Technorati Tags: Street Blade Gallery, PDX Street Blades, street blades, street blade design, sign design, Portland Street Blades

How Do You Get A Rewrite For Street Blades?

1978.On a street-blade safari today, and I got some good ones, but none as interesting as the ones at NE 148th and SE Stark and SE 148th and NE Glisan.

Didn't I get that wrong just there? Yep. So did whoever put up the street blades.

Also, I've been remiss. In my excitement over the apparently-revised look of the standard Portland street blade, I've left out mentioning there's apparently an entire new look for the major intersections, as well. Let's look:

The difference is of a class. Instead of having one type size handle the directional and the specific and smaller one for the generic on the Street blade and one type size for all type on the Avenue blade, we have one size for the directional and generic and a larger one for the specific on all blades.

This has the distinctive characteristic, via the design concept of hierarchy, to make the specifics (the street/avenue names themselves) come up front and center. While the supporting information is now smaller, it's uniformly so, but not so very small; moreover, these signs are about 20 per cent larger than the old design, so everything is large.

Also, due to what has to be some error (or perhaps a rift in the fabric of space that happened that I missed), Northeast Glisan Street at the corner of Glendoveer Golf Course is crossed, improbably, by Southeast 148th Avenue.

Going down to 148th and Stark, in the shadow of the 7-Eleven store, we have the same anomaly:

Also:

Isn't that second one kind of artistic, what with the lining-up with the overhead wires 'n' stuff. And can you believe that iStockphoto turned me the hell down!?!?! Yes, seriously! It's unjust.

The mistake at the southwest corner of 148th and Stark was repeated over on the southeast corner as well. Just looking at the signs is kind of mind-bending.

Can the city sign shop get rewrite on this? Or, put another way ... can we fix this in "post"?

Technorati Tags: Street Blade Gallery, Portland Street Blades, SE Stark Street, Street Sign errors, street blades

These Things Tend To Work Out, With The Right Spirit

1959.Just recieved a note from the Hall Of Records folks, and it was so excellent that I can't help but share it:

We're so sorry about the photo. Obviously our graphic designer didn't do due diligence on the image used. Lesson learned for next time. But thank you for being so cool about it.  You're right, we are small fish just starting out. In the essence of turning every negative into a positive, we'd love to buy you a beer and maybe even use you to do some graphic design for us some day.

I've always thought that where we can we must be excellent to each other.

May fortune smile on thier enterprise, and good instant karma all around. It sounds pretty cool.

And if you can, go to their party and have a beer and a slice for me, will you? I'll be drudging away somewhere dreary, but I'll feel a little better about things if you do this for me.

Technorati Tags: Samuel John Klein, Hall of Records, flyers, photographs, copyright issues, bonhomie

Hey! How'd My Photo Get On That Cool Poster!

1958.Check out this poster I found via Dave:

Now, look at the piccy I took back in March of '05:

I'm flattered, to say the least. I adore that type. The funky vibe is represented. I fully approve of the poster and my photo's use in it.

Just one thing, though. I check my sitemeter logs regularly; this must be one of the most hit parts of the blog, this picture. It's probably been round the world once or twice. One of the risks you take with putting your creative work on the web is that people tend to help themselves to it.

And I understand that. Hell, a couple of posties ago, I ripped off a photo from the PMerc. But it was satire, and they were credited.

But this photo is particularly dear to me. It was taken by me, foolishly, with my camera in one hand and the steering wheel of my '72 VW in the other, at speed, hurtling over the Marquam Bridge on cold spring morning after one of my evenings at work. I'm in love with my cityscape, and I'm in love with tthis photo of it.

So, if you want to use it, that's cool. But don't assume that I have put it in the public domain; I have not. Write me and ask. You might be surprised. I could very well just say yes, and if you're a little fish just starting out like the Hall Of Records is, the only price I might ask is that you credit me for it.

Thanks. And hey, since I'm too poor to go and work nights and weekends anyway, go on over to the Hall Of Records party for me. Have a brew and a slice in my name. I'll catch the spirit.

(Update: Checked the metadata for the photo. I actually took it in 2004 on Sept 16th, at about 11 AM.)

Technorati Tags: Portland, Portland Photos, My Photos in the Wild, Copyright Issues, Portland From Marquam Bridge by Samuel John Klein, Samuel John Klein

Bridges and Signs

1937.Seen about lately:

Don't know why ...

... There's no sun up in the sky ...

... stormy weather ...

Those heavy clouds just above the buildings are poetically beautiful. Also, it looks like they are going to eat them.

At the west end of the Hawthorne Bridge there's a sign at SW 1st and Main that just seems to quinessentially PDX:

I mean, they pretty much skate everywhere, yes, but the sign is pretty cool anyway.

The nice thing about this time of year is that a few days later, the weather will change:

The Greatest Volcano Evar taken though the front window of that little Subway just north of SE Division on 122nd Avenue. On the left, a Les Schwab Tire Center, on the right, the shabby Shell station on the corner.

Despite the crush of sprawl obscuring the landscape, this doesn't make me feel as forlorn as it ought to. Strange, that. Maybe it's the juxtaposition playing cosmic tricks with my perspective; maybe it's because "Out 122nd Way" is another way of saying "home" to me.

I'm a human; I can't help it. Cities comfort me. Especiallly Portland. Strange, but there it is.

Technorati Tags: Mount Hood, Portland Oregon, Downtown Portland, SE 122nd Avenue, SE Division STreet, Portland Pictures

The New Look Of Portland Street Blades Comes To 57th And Division

1932.We can now be more sure we've detected a trend.

Back on 28 December, in posting #1888, we shared a happy discovery we found at the corner of SE 117th Ave and Division Street, in our humble neighborhood. It looked like this:

(go to this posting to see the other images, and the design discussion on it) We were quite excited about it at the time ... the design of Portland's street blades is something we think has been a long time in coming. The breakthrough was in the large, clear format which still had that "Portland" look to it, and most importantly, includes the crossing street block number as an integral part of the design, which is a boon to people trying to find an address.

Well, coming east on SE Division Street a few days ago, we spotted another example of this sign in the Franklin High School area, specifically, SE 57th and Division:

That building in the background there is Atkinson Elementary School. But is this not nifty? Here's a view of the Division Street blade:

The "2400" block index on the sign isn't an error by the way. Between SE 42nd Avenue and SE 82nd Avenue, Division Street jogs a half-block to the north to become the 24th street south of Burnside, therefore the 2400 block. The 2500 block is defined by a little street called SE Windsor Court, which exists in a few fragments one block south of Division in that area. Everywhere else, it's 2500.

The numbered avenue blade also fowards the design we saw on SE 117th Avenue:

As you can see on the right there is one of the MetroFi WiFi antennas. Kind of a set here: the street blade is your tax dollars at work, the WiFi antenna is your tax dollars at rest. Oh, were do I find the wit for these things?

But it's not just the north side of the street that gets the new blades. It's on the south side too:

It's nice and visible even at the kinda-crappy resolution of my awesome plastic fantastic.

For those of me who obsess about these things, this is a big signal. One new set of street blades at a street corner out near 122nd and Division could just be a test. Three new sets ... including a completely-signed intersection on both sides of the street ... indicate that this may indeed be the new design for Portland's street blades.

It's intriguing that they've so far done two intersections that so happen to be on Division Street.

And this design is a good one, as I've said before. I don't know who came up with this look, but, seriously, you've hit it out of the park, yo.

Technorati Tags: Sign Design, Street Blade gallery, street blades, Portland Street Blades, SE Division Street, SE 57th Avenue

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Photos From Portland's Left Bank

1911.Scenes from a very long walk down the Eastbank Esplanade on a winter evening. There's some good stuff here ... I think it would be definitely worth inclusion in a calendar.

The only problem was, I didn't bring my tripod, and the camera, the ViviCam 3705 a/k/a the Plastic Fantastic, isn't all that sophisticated (it was when we got it, but the world has moved on). However, a little jiggle produces a very romantic blur:

And of course the streaks of light from moving cars and such are an artistic bonus.

There are some times that a jiggling camera produce these wonderful emotionally-moving alternate worlds:

Notice the dotted line of the flashing bike-light there? Like I said, a bonus.

The sun kept going down, and the night-time beauty just kept coming out:

Aren't the reflections on the river rather romantic?

And now, the Steel Bridge again:

And the Burnside Bridge:

And the Morrison, with the beautiful indigo lights courtesty the Willamette Light Brigade (I have their 2009 calendar in the studio this year):

And one with a focus on the downtown skyline, too:

I wonder what I could do with a much newer camera. My friends have such cameras. One word: covet.

But I'm pretty happy with what I'm doing here. Just want a better camera!

Technorati Tags: PDX, portland photos, portland bridge, downtown portland

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A Trip On The Tram ... A Long View for the New Year

1891. I must be cautious lest I read too much into passing events, but we celebrated today with a ride on the Portland Tram.

It's supposed to be costing taxpayers a bundle. At least, the ride is nice, as is the view.

Here's a video I made with the might plastic fantastic Vivitar VivCam 3705, as recieved and posted by YouTube: