PSU Magazine Spring 2001

F our more freeways roaring through Portland's eastside? A 15-story tower plunked atop Old City Hall? A Museum of Natural His– tory? Opera House? Portland's history seethes with architectural dreams that never tasted mortar and brick. Some clearly are opportunities lost-others clearly bul– lets dodged. Unbuilt projects-and the commo– tion surround ing controversial projects that do get built-fascinate Rudy Bar– ton, chair of the Architecture Depart– ment and formerly an architect with Portland's BOOR/A. "I've always been intrigued with the notion of the unbuilt project," muses Barton, who practiced with one of Portland's premier architecture firms, 6 PSU MAGAZINE SPRING 2001 Broome, Oringdulph, O'Toole, Rudolf, Boles & Associates, the firm responsi– ble for such civic masterpieces as the Portland Center for the Performing Arts. As the debate over Portland's "missing" Park Blocks begins to blip on the public's radar screen, Barton wonders whether past lessons will be remembered to inform the debate about Portland's future. In architectural schoo ls, the unbuilt project is standard educational grist. Students investigate a set of criteria for which they propose solutions. Fif– teen students might develop 15 ways to address the cond itions, and a debate on the merits of each ensues. Students learn and the paper project is a success. Real world success, however, is measured in glass and stee l. But when blueprints go head-to-head with financing, public tastes, and politics, even the best ideas can end up on the helf. As a practicing architect in Port– land for 30 years, Barton knows the scenario all too well. "Every architect's office in town," he says, "has a drawer full of unbuilt projects." k ong those that seem today to be missed opportunities, one of the earliest examples, in Bar– ton's mind, is the 1905 Lewis and C lark Centennial Exposition. Tremendous civic effort went into the event, aimed at showcasing the city and bringing the world to the Willamette River's shores. Fabulous temporary buildings and I' . t '