Portland: South Waterfront
Nov. 2nd, 2011 09:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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flaneursIt's November now, I know, but for the September challenge existence suggested either end of the OHSU tram, and I did want to take zir suggestion. I've rambled around the upper end of the tram, but the downhill end of the tram is a newish development project that I've never been to. Newish and unmissable: glass and steel high-rise towers, located completely apart from the downtown skyscrapers. It sits just south of the Ross Island Bridge (the bridge I most often use), and whenever I cross the bridge I tend to regard South Waterfront with a mix horror and curiosity: it's just so... high-rise and glass and... there. But hey, at least go look, eh? And in the process, I'd also make good on kake's second suggestion for me, which was to explore the the southern end of the streetcar route.
According to Wikipedia: "The South Waterfront is a high-rise district under construction on former brownfield industrial land... It is one of the largest urban redevelopment projects in the United States." Apparently it is also going to be much bigger than it is now; only two blocks of that skyline has been built so far.
So. I had a three-hour break from work late yesterday afternoon, and I work only a half-dozen stops up the streetcar line from South Waterfront, so we hopped on the streetcar to go down and have a looksee.
Or that was the plan. Because of construction in and around South Waterfront, the southern end of the streetcar route was closed. There was a shuttle bus providing service instead, but figuring out where to catch the shuttle was problematic. At one point, we were standing at the 5th and Market streetcar stop, looking at a sign that told us that this stop was closed and to please catch the shuttle bus at 5th and Market. (@#&$! We're at 5th and Market!)
But we eventually did find the shuttle bus, and got off at the downhill tram stop.
I'll just apologize for the quality of the photos right now: it was already late afternoon when we started, with the sun low in the sky and rapidly dropping behind the West Hills. Lots of glare, lots of deep shadows, and to make it worse, we were on the shadowed side of the valley. And it only got worse as the afternoon went on.
The tram stop has a book return. I approve.
It's all very... new. And shiny. And... tall. It doesn't look all that jarring in this shot, but there is nothing on the skyline around these towers except forested hills, a wooded island, and a construction zone. And then, boom, you have these glass towers rising straight up from mown lawns. It's... odd.
Eco-roofs and rooftop gardens and baby landscaping:
Near the tram stop there's a rather unimpressive park, with a marker for the first cabin site in Portland. Huh, I've never heard of the Daughters of 1812.
There was also a big engraved granite slab nearby with the story of William Johnson, but it was engraved in tiny italics and threatened to be full of the kind of rubbish that annoys me, so after puzzling over it for a while, I gave up.grrlpup got farther than I did, but didn't come away with much, either. (Oh! William Johnson is the Johnson of Johnson Creek. And apparently he was the High Sheriff for a while.)
Obligatory Tram Shot. I'm such a tourist.
Now, a lot of the South Waterfront was trying very hard to be cute little brickwork shops with very lovely landscaping and water-features-doubling-as-stormwater-sloughs, but I didn't take photos of any of that, of course. Instead, I opted to take bad photos of bridges and cranes and overhead cables. Ross Island Bridge in the middle ground; through it, you can see the Marquam (I-5) Bridge.
Paper birch, perhaps? Althoughgrrlpup says the bark isn't white enough.
The glass does have its moments:
If you push through toward the river, there's a little promenade overlooking the western channel of the Willamette as it goes past Ross Island. Hey, it's a crew team!
There was an impromptu jogging path continuing south along the riverbank from the end of the promenade, so we poked along that for a while. Here, you can see the Willamette Sailing Club's dinghy fleet out on the water a good piece south of us.
Heron sunning itself, Ross Island in the background.
We turned back when we reached this rivulet. Crossable, but I was in my work clothes, and not done with my workday yet.
When we turned back, boom, glass towers. This is one of the shorter towers.
There was a community garden just south of the southernmost tower. Peppers and tomatoes were still going, I was surprised to see. I also surprised at how homogenous the plots were: I'm used to a lot more plot-to-plot quirkiness in community gardens. I couldn't decide if they were so homogenous because they were brand new, or if there was heavy social policing going on.
We continued up to the north end of the promenade, which puts you right on the edge of the brownfield remediation. Near bridge is the Ross Island; the far, double-decker bridge is the Marquam (I-5) Bridge. The red smokestack near where the Marquam reaches the eastern bank marks the science museum, which is the southern edge of the neighborhood I had been wandering around the day before.
Ross Island Gravel, seen beyond the Ross Island Bridge.
We decided to head back because I was under the impression that the entire South Waterfront area was only a few blocks long and wide and that we'd seen most all of what there was to see. However, it looks like if we'd headed uphill a bit, toward I-5, we could have gone substantially farther south. Oh, well.
Going by the tram stop again from the other side, we ran across the OHSU bike corrals. So! Many! Bikes! There's another corral like this to my right, and a smaller one behind me.(grrlpup says that OHSU always kicks everyone else's ass during the city's commuter chalenge.)
As you can see, the light was really starting to degrade by now. Sorry. :-/
We couldn't figure out how to get back on the streetcar shuttle and Portland State wasn't all that far away, nor (now that we'd seen the route) that complicated to find our way back to. So we walked.
We came across this sign explaining the brownfield cleanup. Current view is the top; future view is the middle. Asgrrlpup noted, the future will have more sunlight.
Going by Zidell Marine (they build barges), I spotted this bronzed propellor in the front parking lot and was amused by its similarity to the pansies below it. In taking this shot, I freaked the security guard the hell out. They were touchy about cameras; having myelf worked at a manufacturing firm that was battling industrial espionage attempts, I sympathize. However. Bronzed propellor being used as a sculpture, in the front parking lot, obviously meant to be admired by the public and visitors, visible from the street. You're not gonna convince me that my taking this shot is going to risk the financial security of the company and all its employees. But he finally did let me take the shot (which I'm not sure was really worth the fuss, aesthetically, but after all that trouble I'm posting it anyway), and then he and I spent a while chatting about tides and how landlocked Portland feels, while the last of the light went. I think he was having a lonely afternoon, there in his guard shack.
The half-mile along Moody Avenue was through a full-tilt construction zone. Not the most pleasant walk, really, but moderately okay.
But there were a few you've-got-to-be-kidding-me sidewalk closures, like this one. The sign at the far left says "Sidewalk Closed; Cross Here," and directs one to cross a parking strip littered with construction materials and then jaywalk four lanes of uncontrolled traffic. Also, no curb cut-outs. Going back to the beginning of the block and crossing there isn't an option, either, as the opposide sidewalk is also obstructed by construction a bit earlier in the block.
But we made it back safely, so there. :-P
While the South Waterfront is most definitely not my scene, it was fun to poke around a litte bit and see what there was to be seen, some of which was quite lovely. And it was a beautiful afternoon to be by the river.
existence suggested either end of the OHSU tram, and I did want to take zir suggestion. I've rambled around the upper end of the tram, but the downhill end of the tram is a newish development project that I've never been to. Newish and unmissable: glass and steel high-rise towers, located completely apart from the downtown skyscrapers. It sits just south of the Ross Island Bridge (the bridge I most often use), and whenever I cross the bridge I tend to regard South Waterfront with a mix horror and curiosity: it's just so... high-rise and glass and... there. But hey, at least go look, eh? And in the process, I'd also make good on kake's second suggestion for me, which was to explore the the southern end of the streetcar route.According to Wikipedia: "The South Waterfront is a high-rise district under construction on former brownfield industrial land... It is one of the largest urban redevelopment projects in the United States." Apparently it is also going to be much bigger than it is now; only two blocks of that skyline has been built so far.
So. I had a three-hour break from work late yesterday afternoon, and I work only a half-dozen stops up the streetcar line from South Waterfront, so we hopped on the streetcar to go down and have a looksee.
Or that was the plan. Because of construction in and around South Waterfront, the southern end of the streetcar route was closed. There was a shuttle bus providing service instead, but figuring out where to catch the shuttle was problematic. At one point, we were standing at the 5th and Market streetcar stop, looking at a sign that told us that this stop was closed and to please catch the shuttle bus at 5th and Market. (@#&$! We're at 5th and Market!)
But we eventually did find the shuttle bus, and got off at the downhill tram stop.
I'll just apologize for the quality of the photos right now: it was already late afternoon when we started, with the sun low in the sky and rapidly dropping behind the West Hills. Lots of glare, lots of deep shadows, and to make it worse, we were on the shadowed side of the valley. And it only got worse as the afternoon went on.
The tram stop has a book return. I approve.
It's all very... new. And shiny. And... tall. It doesn't look all that jarring in this shot, but there is nothing on the skyline around these towers except forested hills, a wooded island, and a construction zone. And then, boom, you have these glass towers rising straight up from mown lawns. It's... odd.
Eco-roofs and rooftop gardens and baby landscaping:
Near the tram stop there's a rather unimpressive park, with a marker for the first cabin site in Portland. Huh, I've never heard of the Daughters of 1812.
There was also a big engraved granite slab nearby with the story of William Johnson, but it was engraved in tiny italics and threatened to be full of the kind of rubbish that annoys me, so after puzzling over it for a while, I gave up.
grrlpup got farther than I did, but didn't come away with much, either. (Oh! William Johnson is the Johnson of Johnson Creek. And apparently he was the High Sheriff for a while.)Obligatory Tram Shot. I'm such a tourist.
Now, a lot of the South Waterfront was trying very hard to be cute little brickwork shops with very lovely landscaping and water-features-doubling-as-stormwater-sloughs, but I didn't take photos of any of that, of course. Instead, I opted to take bad photos of bridges and cranes and overhead cables. Ross Island Bridge in the middle ground; through it, you can see the Marquam (I-5) Bridge.
Paper birch, perhaps? Although
grrlpup says the bark isn't white enough.The glass does have its moments:
If you push through toward the river, there's a little promenade overlooking the western channel of the Willamette as it goes past Ross Island. Hey, it's a crew team!
There was an impromptu jogging path continuing south along the riverbank from the end of the promenade, so we poked along that for a while. Here, you can see the Willamette Sailing Club's dinghy fleet out on the water a good piece south of us.
Heron sunning itself, Ross Island in the background.
We turned back when we reached this rivulet. Crossable, but I was in my work clothes, and not done with my workday yet.
When we turned back, boom, glass towers. This is one of the shorter towers.
There was a community garden just south of the southernmost tower. Peppers and tomatoes were still going, I was surprised to see. I also surprised at how homogenous the plots were: I'm used to a lot more plot-to-plot quirkiness in community gardens. I couldn't decide if they were so homogenous because they were brand new, or if there was heavy social policing going on.
We continued up to the north end of the promenade, which puts you right on the edge of the brownfield remediation. Near bridge is the Ross Island; the far, double-decker bridge is the Marquam (I-5) Bridge. The red smokestack near where the Marquam reaches the eastern bank marks the science museum, which is the southern edge of the neighborhood I had been wandering around the day before.
Ross Island Gravel, seen beyond the Ross Island Bridge.
We decided to head back because I was under the impression that the entire South Waterfront area was only a few blocks long and wide and that we'd seen most all of what there was to see. However, it looks like if we'd headed uphill a bit, toward I-5, we could have gone substantially farther south. Oh, well.
Going by the tram stop again from the other side, we ran across the OHSU bike corrals. So! Many! Bikes! There's another corral like this to my right, and a smaller one behind me.(
grrlpup says that OHSU always kicks everyone else's ass during the city's commuter chalenge.)As you can see, the light was really starting to degrade by now. Sorry. :-/
We couldn't figure out how to get back on the streetcar shuttle and Portland State wasn't all that far away, nor (now that we'd seen the route) that complicated to find our way back to. So we walked.
We came across this sign explaining the brownfield cleanup. Current view is the top; future view is the middle. As
grrlpup noted, the future will have more sunlight.Going by Zidell Marine (they build barges), I spotted this bronzed propellor in the front parking lot and was amused by its similarity to the pansies below it. In taking this shot, I freaked the security guard the hell out. They were touchy about cameras; having myelf worked at a manufacturing firm that was battling industrial espionage attempts, I sympathize. However. Bronzed propellor being used as a sculpture, in the front parking lot, obviously meant to be admired by the public and visitors, visible from the street. You're not gonna convince me that my taking this shot is going to risk the financial security of the company and all its employees. But he finally did let me take the shot (which I'm not sure was really worth the fuss, aesthetically, but after all that trouble I'm posting it anyway), and then he and I spent a while chatting about tides and how landlocked Portland feels, while the last of the light went. I think he was having a lonely afternoon, there in his guard shack.
The half-mile along Moody Avenue was through a full-tilt construction zone. Not the most pleasant walk, really, but moderately okay.
But there were a few you've-got-to-be-kidding-me sidewalk closures, like this one. The sign at the far left says "Sidewalk Closed; Cross Here," and directs one to cross a parking strip littered with construction materials and then jaywalk four lanes of uncontrolled traffic. Also, no curb cut-outs. Going back to the beginning of the block and crossing there isn't an option, either, as the opposide sidewalk is also obstructed by construction a bit earlier in the block.
But we made it back safely, so there. :-P
While the South Waterfront is most definitely not my scene, it was fun to poke around a litte bit and see what there was to be seen, some of which was quite lovely. And it was a beautiful afternoon to be by the river.
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Date: 2011-11-03 03:11 pm (UTC)