At right, prototypes for the Amawn village -:--- Alexander's Agate Street Student Housing near the University of Oregon campus. Built on budget, for about $40;ooo per · unit, these twenty apartments will stand easily for over a century. Maintenance costs will also be v_ery low: the high-oil cedar siding requ)res no paint, and the masonry base, extra roofflashing, and rot-resistant stairway design will retard the effects ofOregon's heavy rains. The units are massively insulated, both for energy efficiency and to prevent noise from traveling between neighboring wallS. Each ofthe 20 units is different in plan, rnany radically, making it impossible for residents to feel like just a number. One ofthe most importantfeatures is the usefulness ofthe outdoor space. All ledges are seats. There are beautiful garden paths between the buildings. The front porches are deep enough to put furniture on, so one can sit outside during a rain. The deep green roofing, rich and coloiful cedar siding, spirited roof caps and imaginatively arrangedfencing makes the immediate outdoors particu- · larly inviting for the community. The central courtyard adds to the sense ofsecurity, and the pleasant gates and fences protect children from the street without being oppressive or obtrusive. The dormers, multi-level porches and window-seats draw attention to the outside from. the inside, and soften the border between the two. All this is quite a bargain at $40~000 per dwelling. But when the University administration set out to sabotage the project, they misled the press and.others regarding the costs and the configuration of the apartments. One of the twenty units has two small bedrooms, peifect for a couple and baby, or perhaps a couple needing an extra study- but since it was on the groundfloor officials showed this unit first to visitors, implying that the entire complex had small bedrooms. Although Alexander did shave offbits ofsquare footage in order to save '!Loney, careful layout makes almost all of the apartments feel strikingly comfortable. buildings could set new standards for beautiful, sensitive, and practical living spaces. Contracts were signed and'research begun. But the University was still reluctant, leading to strange decisions and stranger delays. Eventually, a user group.for the housing began to meet. But a silent bomb was thrown into the works. The University decided to tear down hundreds of units of existing low-rent housii;ig, known as The Amazon, to create a clear site for the new buildings. The Amazon units are rather old and rickety World War II temporary housing, so at the time this decision must have made a certain sense. But it wasn't particularly sensitive to the low-income students already living there. Many found the new housing's projected rent increase to be unaffordable. Eventually, some of these very residents were moved into Ale_xander' s user group. This inserted unresolved political issues into a discussion of design, among people with no political power. How could such a team function? It . didn't. This could be predicted by anyone who had digested RAIN Summer 1994 Volume XIV, Number 4 Page 19
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