“Plans for a sleek-looking Apple Computer store in a Northwest Portland historic district received an icy reception on Monday from the city’s Historic Landmarks Commission, whose chairman criticized it as ‘franchise architecture.’ A two-hour hearing over the proposed two-story glass and limestone box at 423 N.W. 23rd Ave. ended without a formal vote when the building’s architect asked to come back at a July 10 meeting,” Fred Leeson reports for The Oregonian. “It wasn’t immediately clear whether Jeff Stuhr, a Portland architect, plans to present revised plans or whether Apple will drop the project. The company does not comment on its retail store plans.”
“Since an advisory meeting with the commission last August, Stuhr added more windows to the design and changed the exterior skin from stainless steel to limestone. Two commission members appeared to reject the whole scheme, while others on the six-member panel suggested more windows and awnings.Apple has opened approximately 130 retail stores around the world in recent years, almost all reflecting modernistic boxy designs with illuminated white Apple signs fitting flush to the exteriors,” Leeson reports. “The proposed Northwest Portland store sits in the Alphabet Historic District of Northwest Portland. It would replace a 1960s-era building that is not considered historic.”
“If Apple decides to press on with the same or a similar modernistic design, a rejection by the landmarks commission could be appealed to the City Council,” Leeson reports.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan” for the heads up.]
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Related article:
Five foot tall Apple logo sign could be issue for Apple Retail Store in Portland, Oregon – April 13, 2006
Shut up and let them build the damn building. end of story.
Maybe Portland really doesn’t need the Apple Store at that location.
Just say no to the ugly glass cubes. LOL
“Just say no to the ugly glass cubes. LOL”
That was funny to you? You gotta have better one liners than that…
Nothing in the world has poorer taste than a government committee.
Instead, they are letting the new Dell retail outlet move in…it has a grey facade and a grey interior that better matches the historic surroundings.
Build the store somewhere else where new business is welcome
Slow news day?
This happens all the time in every community. Nothing new. How this is news befuddles me.
BTW, these archetectural decisions are important in order to maintain the look and feel of communities. To build what ever, where ever would result in chaos. (Try playing SimCity without a plan.)
Portland already has enough Apple stores. Three in total: One in downtown and two in Tigard (suburb). Seems like a lot of stores for such a small town. The two in Tigard are only about 5 miles apart. I bet one of them closes down.
Seattle, which is massive compared to Portland only has 4 total.
“It feels just stuck there,” said Melissa Darby, a commission member, of the proposed design. “It doesn’t feel like it should be there.”
“It’s a corporate design, sleek and attractive,” said another commissioner, Art DeMuro. “But it has to fit in the setting. It just doesn’t fit.”
These must be Windows users who think everything should be beige and dull, like their computers.
Apple runs into this kind of local control freakness frequently. The only power these people have is to say no. Besides, Portland is controlled by real estate developers and contractors who like to manipulate things to their financial advantage with the help of their reps in government. The publicly financed OHSU tram has gone from $14 M to $55 M since it was approved, with the Oregonian acting in a PR capacity. Legalized corruption.
“These must be Windows users who think everything should be beige and dull, like their computers.”
This has nothing to do with boring, but rather preserving an area classified as historic. What Apple should do is respect the status of the neighborhood and do what they did in SoHo, NYC or Regent Street, London: respect the wishes of the neighborhood and blend in (with a touch of Apple flair, of course). Either that, or they have to find an area that doesn’t have such a strict building code.
Please note: blending in at SoHo and Regent Street doesn’t appear to have hurt Apple’s foot traffic in either store, has it?
“Besides, Portland is controlled by real estate developers and contractors who like to manipulate things to their financial advantage with the help of their reps in government.”
I wonder when the rese of the world will discover this?
Ohhhhh
I’m usually in the camp of the HDLC. Living here in New Orleans, you’d be surprised at the mess modern buildings can make of a neighborhood. Regardless of what anyone says or wants, there ARE ways to make new buildings look old, so they fit in better. I never have understood why that’s a problem for builders in Historic Districts, like New Orleans.
I’m sure Apple wants it sleek and new, but that usually doesn’t go well with old and elegant.
Sorry, but without seeing any of the plans, I’d still side with the HDLC.
People would do better to remember the past than try to preserve it. Particularly those people in government.
Apple just needs to tear up the blueprints and replace them with a design that looks more like the surrounding buildings. I know they’d prefer to stand out, but these communities don’t want buildings that draw more attention than their neighbors.
I remember when I was a kid, McDonalds wanted to put a restaurant in a nearby town of Aurora, OH. Aurora said okay, but no ugly red-and-yellow building and no golden arches. (Tall signs were forbidden on the street.) McDonalds built an attractive wood-faced store with a tasteful 5-foot-high wooden sign in front.
Just gotta go with the flow.
It’s a tiresome story, these less than two century usanian villages thinking they’ve actually got a history….
I live in Portland, OR – grew up here.
Portland is among the least business-friendly cities in the country.
Look at these people “It doesn’t look right, put more glass on the building, bla, bla, bla.”
It’s a 1960’s building and that is historic? Please, it was a lame wedding shop, with nothing great about it at all.
Bottom Line: City counsil members, planners, they all live in their fantasy world and screw things up for the rest of us. They are liberal morons who are “above the fray” as it were. Animal Farm alive and well in 2006!
This would bring how much business to that district? A ton more that’s what, but again, they could care less on this high pirches.
New construction in historic districts is a tough issue to address well and most local boards do a poor job. On one hand you’ve got folks that want every new building to look just like a truly historic buiding next door. But that only mocks what is actually historic. Then you’ve got the “I should be able to build anything anywhere” folks that don’t get how something new can really disturb a fine balance.
The trick is new construction that represents the current time in materials and techniques but that does so in a respectful way. In a commercial district this may mean more glass area to seem more open like adjacent commercial buildings. It may mean having a bit more detailing and to actually have some depth. Historic buildings typically have both detail and recesses that create interesting shadow lines whereas new buidings, including Apple’s handsome facade, is harshly flat and lacking in detail.
I think if Apple’s architects really worked hard they could come up with a stunning modern box that also had depth and created pleasing shadows.
You’ve got to love The Communist Republic of Oregon.
Can you even pump your own gasoline there yet? Used to be a state requirement that gas stations had attendents to pump your gas.
Oregon is very unfriendly to businesses (and non-residents).
Gay Portland?
apple Just promise to make the front facade black leather and chrome studs with a pink boa around the door and Portland people will gayly accept the store.
And make sure there is a back door entry….
Bruce, you’re a fucking biggot. Idiot.
Living here in the People’s Republic of Portland is comical. What we’re talking about here is a district locally known as “The Pearl”. I doubt there’s a building there that’s 100 years old. But the cities we’re trying to emulate have historic districts, so by God we’re going to have one too. We even hired our city planner away from Berkeley, CA, just so we could be sure we’re doing things correctly.
After years in San Francisco, it’s comical to listen to the locals here expound on their “world-class” city. They think it’s on a par with San Francisco or Paris, when what we’re really talking about is Fresno with crummy weather.
Put the new store in Clackamas Town Center in SE Portland, where the new growth is. Forget The Pearl. It’s just a collection of 60’s buildings inhabited by stuck in the 60’s, ponytailed, malcontents.
Portland can kiss my donkey!
I live in a town also in the Pacific Northwest, and we are in man similar battles. Lets face it – buildings built at the turn of the century and up to the 30’s had character. Anything afer WWII was in the Jetson age of fast, cheap, convienient, modern – Many of the building of the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s don’t stand the test of time, In fact they are the ones being torn down because the are simply ugly and not practical to restore.
Apple should “Think Different” about architecture as they do everything else. They have shown that they can do that, look at the London Store. The New York Store, OK that fits there. C’mon be creative, Apple. Don’t fall into the Brick and mortar retail mode. Like Lowes, Walmart, Barnes and Noble.
While these designs may work in Southern California, or a mall in ‘anytown’ USA, They don’t work in the Pacific Northwest… They are simply out of place. Do what you like on the inside, But blend into the environment on the outside. No flat roofs! It rains to much up here!
ummmm: “Bruce, you’re a fucking biggot. Idiot.”
ummmm, I love it when you talk dirty to me. Meet at the “Whips and Chains Bar and Bath” club okay? Bring your iProd like you had last night.
Your name is enough to prove your inclination.
Zeke, the proposed location is west of I-405, not really in the Pearl, more like the “gay area,” but your “Fresno with crummy weather” is classic!
West of I-405? Good grief! That’s more like “falling down” than “historic”! Reminds me of downtown Oakland…to borrow from Gertrude Stein, there’s no “THERE” there.